Jewish Group Files Complaint Against CTV for Calling Ottawa Demonstration a ‘Pro-War Rally’

Thousands of people participated in a rally at Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Dec. 4, 2023 to support hostages taken by Hamas and the Jewish communities in Israel and Canada. (Jonathan Ren/The Epoch Times)

A non-profit Jewish group has filed a complaint against CTV News for “repeated problems” in the broadcaster’s coverage of the Israel–Hamas war.

B’nai Brith Canada is accusing CTV chief news anchor Omar Sachedina of misrepresenting a “peaceful Jewish solidarity” demonstration in Ottawa on Dec. 4 as a “pro-war rally” during the CTV broadcast.

Mr. Sachedina, as a preface to reporter Judy Trinh’s story about the event in Ottawa, said the gathering on Parliament Hill was to encourage the war in Gaza.

“In Ottawa, thousands of Jewish Canadians rallied on Parliament Hill in support of the war, while inside Parliament, Palestinian Canadians made a plea for help,” Mr. Sachedina said during the broadcast.

The rally, which was attended by numerous families, MPs, and advocates with Israeli flags, was actually an event to “show support for the victims of Hamas’ terrorism and display unity against the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Canada,” B’nai Brith Canada said, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The group also criticized CTV Toronto’s coverage of Hanukkah on Dec. 7, saying the coverage was “hijacked” when clips of fighting between the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Hamas terrorists appeared during the segment.

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Both B’nai Brith and other Jewish organizations have called the segment “an instance of anti-Semitism.”

CTV has apologized for the report, attributing the fighting clips to technical difficulties.

B’nai Brith Canada’s CEO Michael Mostyn said the two incidents convinced the group to file a formal complaint.

“Important questions remain to be answered,” he said in a press release. “We are hopeful that CTV will be open to our feedback and engage with us in a cooperative manner so that we can answer the concerns voiced by members of our community.”

The Epoch Times contacted CTV for comment, but didn’t immediately hear back.

Complaint Investigations

CTV News is subject to ethics investigations by the Canada Broadcast Standards Council (CBSC). The CBSC, according to its website, deals with public complaints about broadcaster programming in Canada.

Any complaints received are reviewed against a set of industry codes laid out in the Radio Television Digital News Association Code of Journalistic Ethics. The code states television announcers must “be fair and balanced and avoid allowing their personal biases to influence their reporting.”

CTV must also adhere to the Canadian Association of Broadcasters Code of Ethics, which states that “news shall not be selected for the purposes of furthering or hindering either side of any controversial public issue.”

Scrutiny of CTV comes after CBC received complaints from viewers for avoiding the use of the word “terrorist” to describe Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack, despite Canada’s designation of Hamas as a terrorist group since 2002.

Hamas started the war with Israel on Oct. 7 when terrorists crossed into the country, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking more than 200 hostages.

Although CBC Ombudsman Jack Nagler said the broadcaster had not breached its own journalistic standards by avoiding the use of the word “terrorist,” he noted that CBC’s choice to avoid the term made it “more difficult” to describe the nature of what occurred.

He did, however, describe a broadcast from CBC Radio program “World Report” on Oct. 8 as inadequate. Mr. Nagler called the language used “antiseptic, as though this had been a normal clash between two rival military forces.”