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Montreal, May 17, 2024 - The Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) is appalled at the revelations from a recent Breach article which provides a whistleblower view of the CBC’s coverage of Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people in Gaza. The whistleblower documented shocking systemic bias against Palestinian narratives at the CBC, revealing deep-seated anti-Palestinian racism (APR) within the national broadcaster. The article describes repeated instances when the CBC has consistently downplayed and/or misrepresented the severity of Israel's violence in Gaza, shaping a public narrative that largely ignores Palestinian suffering. This systemic APR inevitably perpetuates the status quo of power inequity between the occupier and the occupied.

"The continuous pattern of undermining Palestinian narratives at the CBC not only distorts the facts on the ground, but also contributes to the devaluation and dehumanization of Palestinian voices. It suggests that CBC management equates reporting on Palestinian realities with being anti-Israel." noted Jamila Ewais, a researcher for the ARPCF. According to the article, the CBC has engaged in practices that dilute the discussion around Israel’s military actions in Gaza, including the cancellation of interviews with Palestinian guests and a clear double standard in the scrutiny applied to statements from Palestinian versus Israeli spokespersons. This is symptomatic of a broader systemic issue at CBC where advocacy for Palestinian rights is frequently mischaracterized as antisemitism, thus maligning legitimate human rights discourse as hate speech.

Out of the 12 categories APR identified by the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association, in its 2022 report entitled, “Anti-Palestinian Racism: Naming, Framing and Manifestations” CBC has actively engaged in at least nine, including silencing, excluding, erasing, stereotyping, defaming, and dehumanizing Palestinian narratives. Additionally, by downplaying and misrepresenting the Palestinian experience, the CBC effectively erases the human rights of Palestinians, justifies violence against them, and presumes they are antisemitic. Ultimately, the whistleblower article demonstrates that CBC’s management creates an environment which fosters APR, through various editorial decisions, and spreading misinformation about the Palestinians. These include discussing Palestinian suffering without addressing its causes, spreading misinformation by hosting pro-Israeli guests without adequate fact-checking, and consistently questioning Palestinian accounts.

The Breach article further underscores how CBC’s internal culture actively discourages open discussion on Palestinian rights. Staff members striving to provide balanced coverage face significant resistance, and sometimes, professional repercussions, pointing to entrenched racism that impacts the broadcaster’s reporting standards. Moreover, CBC's reluctance to use the term "genocide" despite significant evidence, reflects a broader tendency to minimize Israeli accountability while portraying Palestinian resistance as inherently violent. This tendency also extends to de-brutalizing the murder of Palestinians in Gaza, further demonstrating CBC’s biased reporting and editorial stance. This is not unprecedented; CBC has previously overlooked engaging with reports from human rights organizations about the apartheid in Palestine and has failed to report on other human rights violations in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The ARPCF is urging CBC to conduct a thorough review of its editorial policies and practices concerning the question of Palestine. It is also crucial for CBC to acknowledge its biases and its role in ignoring Israeli crimes against Palestinians and masking settler colonialism in Palestine.

About the ARPCF – The mandate of the Anti-Racism Program of the CJPME Foundation (ARPCF) is to create public awareness about racism in Canada.  This mandate falls in line with the Foundation’s broader purpose of monitoring and combating manifestations of racism, xenophobia, and discrimination by increasing public awareness of such biases.

For more information, please contact Jamila Ewais, 514-389-8668
ARPCF, [email protected]  www.cjpmefoundation.org

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