Consul General of Israel Paul Hirschson said Radio-Canada employees declined to go to an event showing footage of the Hamas attacks against Israel. “A few days after sending the invitations, I received a mail from someone not invited from @RadioCanadaInfo,” tweeted Hirschson on Monday. “She thanked me for the invite, but she wrote no one could attend as Radio-Canada was busy that day.”.While Hirschson recognized Radio-Canada employees might be unable to attend, he said a person told him it held an executive meeting and determined no one would go the screening. This person said it wanted to remain neutral. Another person asked him why Radio-Canada had not participated. He said he “got the clear impression he too knew of Radio-Canada’s decision to avoid exposure to significant and relevant material on a subject they are giving extensive coverage to.”When he replied to Radio-Canada’s email, he suggested it choose an alternative day and time and would arrange a special screening for it. One week later, he sent a reminder email. Another week has passed, and no one has responded. He said he “can only conclude that the two people who made it clear to me that Radio-Canada objected to viewing the unreleased footage were correct and the Radio-Canada employee who politely told me they were busy at the time was just too embarrassed to be honest.”Since the rumour has spread, Hirschson said he has been contacted by a few Radio-Canada journalists asking if he could invite them to a future screening. “The offer remains — should Radio-Canada wish to see significant and relevant material on a subject they are giving extensive coverage to, I will arrange a screening for them,” he said. CBC executive George Achi directed the organization’s journalists in October to not refer to Hamas as terrorists and cautioned them to not say Israel ended its occupation of Gaza in 2005. READ MORE: CBC urges journalists to not call Hamas terrorists“That CBC prefers to sanitize and whitewash Palestinian terrorism into broad and utterly meaningless terms like ‘militants’ and ‘fighters’ is not surprising, but appalling to see, nonetheless,” said HonestReporting Canada. “As a result, CBC readers, listeners and viewers will continue to be misled as a result of this CBC directive.”Radio-Canada could not be reached for comment in time for publication.
