Over a hundred people rallied peacefully in front of the CBC Ottawa Production Centre on Tuesday afternoon to call for fair and balanced coverage of the violence between Israel and Palestine.
Protestors called for the CBC to update its official language guide according to the standards outlined by international law.
A statement from March 2020 by the International Commission of Jurists says Palestine is a state, reading in part “challenging Palestine statehood under international law and its sovereignty over the territory were without merit.”
According to the CBC Language Guide, reporters are not allowed to refer to Palestine as a sovereign country. Although the United Nations granted “non-member observer state” status to Palestine in 2012, the guide says “it remains premature to call Palestinian territories the country of Palestine.”
The protest was organized by CBC Palestine, a group that is unaffiliated with the CBC and formed by a collective of independent community organizers in partnership with multiple Palestinian organizations.
Among these organizations are the Palestinian Students Association at the University of Ottawa, the Palestinian Students Association at Carleton University and the Association of Palestinian Arab Canadians.
Organizers and attendees criticized the CBC’s current style guide and said it contributes to the erasure of Palestinian identity.
A press release from CBC Palestine also highlighted the CBC’s decision not to cover a Human Rights Watch report that characterized Israel’s conduct towards Palestinians as “apartheid.”
The event was organized after some CBC journalists who signed an open letter calling for fairer and balanced coverage of Israel and Palestine told VICE World News they were barred from covering the ongoing violence.
As protestors listened to speakers’ calls for accountability and journalistic integrity, a lineup of people stood in front of the building carrying signs that were distributed by organizers. Each sign had the names and faces of the 65 Palestinian children who were killed in the 11 days of violence that brought widespread destruction to the Gaza Strip, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and the Associated Press.
Sarah Wazzi-Moukahal, a grassroots Palestinian activist and one of the protest organizers, said she hoped the signs showed the CBC and those who witnessed the protest that dehumanization of Palestinian lives is a consequence of censorship.
“It’s critical that our national news agency, which is funded by Canadian tax dollars, is sticking to its mandate of providing honest, fair, and impartial coverage,” Wazzi-Moukahal said. “We see that in the case of Palestine, that’s not the case.”
“There is always exceptionalism when it comes to Palestine, and Palestinian suffering is either brushed under the rug or belittled and we’re tired of seeing these biases,” she said.
Concerns about the erasure of Palestinian voices and experiences were echoed by Leslee Balsam, a member of Independent Jewish Voices, who said the CBC has an influential voice that should be used responsibly.
“The CBC must be able to speak the word Palestine in their news,” Balsam said. “A lot of people ignore the fact that Palestine exists. A lot of people just close their eyes and their ears and believe that Israel does no wrong and that’s just not true.”
Joel Harden, the MPP for Ottawa Centre who spoke at the rally, said it is the responsibility of Canadian media outlets to put out “brave journalism.”
“I am a supporter of the CBC but it really seems that we have an asterisk to human rights,” Harden said. “If we can do anything today, it’s to support people in this building who are pressing their editors to make sure they can find the truth. There should be no double standard for Palestinian human rights.”
Harden said journalism plays an integral role in pursuing the truth, but added the CBC’s current policies undermine the public broadcaster’s opportunity to help Canadians understand Israeli and Palestinian relations.
“We can’t allow the military occupation to extend to the occupation of our discourse,” he said.
