B'nai Brith filed a formal complaint against CTV News regarding its coverage of a pro-Israel rally on Parliament Hill.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, announcer Omar Sachedina is accused of using unnecessarily inflammatory language to describe the peaceful protest.“In Ottawa,” said Sachedina “thousands of Jewish Canadians rallied on Parliament Hill in support of the war while inside Parliament, Palestinian Canadians made a plea for help.” The scripted remarks described a rally on December 4, attended by many families, MPs, and advocates holding Israeli flags.In a statement, B'nai Brith said it filed a formal complaint with the network. “CTV National News anchor Omar Sachedina misrepresented a peaceful Jewish solidarity demonstration in Ottawa as a ‘pro-war rally,’” it said.“He wrongly inferred Jews were gathering on Parliament Hill to encourage the war in Gaza,” wrote B’nai Brith. “In fact, the demonstration’s intent was to show support for the victims of Hamas’ terrorism and display unity against the rising tide of anti-Semitism in Canada.”CTV News is subject to ethics investigations by the Canada Broadcast Standards Council. The agency enforces a Radio Television Digital News Association Code of Journalistic Ethics that states television announcers must “be fair and balanced and avoid allowing their personal biases to influence their reporting.”CTV is also subject to a Canadian Association of Broadcasters Code of Ethics that states “news shall not be selected for the purposes of furthering or hindering either side of any controversial public issue.”In 2013, the Broadcast Standards Council criticized CTV News for inaccurately reporting that a Palestinian prisoner had starved himself to death in an Israeli prison.The Advocacy group Honest Reporting in 2016 cited CTV for referring to Israeli “refugees” in Canada, stating it was “highly unlikely an Israeli family would need to escape a fellow liberal democracy to come to Canada.” Both stories were corrected.CTV News is not the first to have viewer complaints as CBC News did after referring to Hamas gunman as “militants” not “terrorists.”Hamas, or Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiya, has been considered a terrorist organization since 2002 by the Canadian government.CBC Ombudsman Jack Nagler also faulted a radio news World Report that described Hamas’ October 7 killings, child kidnappings and sex crimes targeting Jews in Israel as a “surprise attack” with casualties on both sides as “Israeli airstrikes pounded the Gaza Strip.” The script appeared deliberately antiseptic “as though this had been a normal clash between two rival military forces,” wrote Nagler in a November 24 ruling.
