The Media Accountability Project  

On February 7, 2024, CJPME sent a letter to Toronto Star pushing the newspaper to add more context to accurately and completely describe the intentions of the organizers of the 401 overpass pro-Palestine protests.

CJPME suggested adding the following information and a reference to the “Eglinton-Lawrence & Don Valley 4 Palestine” press statement:

The reasons they chose this overpass: its proximity, high visibility, and sidewalks.

On February 7, 2024, following our letter, Toronto Star added the following sentence: They use the bridge for its high visibility and sidewalks, the protesters say.

This small change helps give a more accurate and complete picture of the 401 overpass Pro-Palestine protests and the organizers’ intentions.

The piece vividly and accurately describes the fatal effects of Israel’s military campaign on the children of Gaza. Paradkar also sheds light on the anti-Palestinian framing Israel uses to justify its genocidal campaign.

You fail to mention anti-Palestinian racism, which should have been pointed out since Palestinians are the main group concerned by free speech over the Israel-Hamas war. Simply writing “hate crimes targeting Arab communities” erases the separate Palestinian identity and is a form of anti-Palestinian racism.

"While I am glad that people are slowly waking up and not wanting to carry on a business-as-usual approach, I must say that I feel resentment that it took this long and an ICJ ruling just for us to be seen as credible interlocutors."

"I ask you to add mention of their statement and the reasons they chose this overpass: its proximity, high visibility, and sidewalks, which would be more complete and accurate. Good reporting on this issue would include this information and report on Pro-Palestine protests and intentions in a fair, complete, and accurate way."

"It is oddly well-timed knowing that, since October 7, Israel has killed 152 UNWRA employees and damaged 146 UNRWA installations and that ICJ ruled that genocide in Gaza is ‘plausible’ and that it must allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza."

"In the first part of your article you reproduce statements from almost exclusively Israeli sources without attempting to analyze or contextualize and make the connections with the second part, in which you list applicable excerpts from the Geneva Convention. You leave it to the reader to make these connections."

"Despite Mr Augustein’s plea for more allies to join the Netanyahu, Zionist-led, right-wing government of the State of Israel in its continued occupation and obliteration of Palestine, our common plea must be for breaking these cycles of abuse. As the famous Jewish American Albert Einstein said ‘peace cannot be achieved by force only by understanding’."

The opinion article highlights Israel’s responsibility and the US and Canada’s complicity in Israel’s actions against Gaza.

The opinion article gives a complete and fair picture of Israel’s destruction and attacks on Gaza and the West Bank’s education infrastructures, scholars, and health system. It mentions the 6 Palestinian universities and 350 schools and public libraries attacked or destroyed.