Gil McGowan, President of the Alberta Federation of Labour, has spoken out against the CBC's coverage of the death of U.S. conservative activist Charlie Kirk, arguing that the public broadcaster failed to fully address the political context surrounding the killing.In a series of posts on social media, McGowan said CBC’s reporting downplayed the role of former U.S. President Donald Trump and the broader MAGA movement in contributing to what he described as a climate of political violence in the United States. He accused the network of creating a “false equivalence” by suggesting that both sides of the political spectrum bear equal responsibility for rising tensions.“They went out of their way to make it sound like both sides of the political spectrum were equally guilty and equally eager to cool tensions,” McGowan wrote. “This is a false characterization of the situation and amounts to journalistic negligence.”McGowan pointed specifically to remarks made by Trump in a recent national address, in which the former president attributed the murder to “the left” without providing evidence. He argued that omitting this from coverage presented an incomplete account of events.The labour leader also criticized the absence of discussion about Kirk’s own role in U.S. political polarization. He cited reporting in The Washington Post and other outlets, as well as commentary from journalist Stacey Patton, who has previously described herself as a target of Kirk’s online campaigns.McGowan contrasted CBC’s coverage with that of U.S. media, saying the Canadian broadcaster was “timid” and had not “actually reported the whole story.”
