CBC grilled by the Tories on antisemitism within company and its reporting
The head of CBC and Radio-Canada says there’s no need to “stop everything to do a full investigation” into antisemitism within its reporting and within the organization.
Marie-Philippe Bouchard, the president and CEO of the public broadcaster, attended a Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage meeting in Ottawa on Monday. Bouchard officially took over the role in January.
She faced a wide range of questions from MPs at the meeting. Conservative MP Rachael Thomas asked about antisemitism in the CBC’s reporting, in particular since Oct. 7, 2023, when more than a thousand people were killed and hundreds taken hostage in Israel in a terror attack by Hamas.
“Statistics were often taken from Hamas itself, which is a terrorist entity , and used by the CBC as if it was from a government ministry itself,” said Thomas. Many articles by CBC include the death toll of Palestinians killed in the Israel-Hamas war as reported by Gaza’s Health Ministry, an agency run by Hamas . It does not distinguish between civilian and terrorist deaths.
A CBC article published as recently as Monday cited numbers from the Gaza ministry of Palestinians killed in a bombardment from Israel, which was prompted by a deadly attack on two Israeli soldiers over the weekend .
Thomas also mentioned that CBC reported on the bombing of a hospital in Gaza last October, laying the blame on Israel for the death and destruction . But it was later revealed the damage was caused by a Hamas rocket that misfired in a nearby parking lot.
“By that point you can imagine the hatred and the outrage that had already been targeted toward a vulnerable population that exists here in Canada already, of course the Jewish community,” said Thomas. “It’s been time after time after time…What are you doing to tackle this antisemitic rhetoric that exists in the CBC and its news reporting?”
Bouchard said there was a process in place for inaccurate reporting, which was upheld by the ombudsman. “This is how we get better. If there’s mistakes being made, then there is full transparency on that,” she said.
Thomas maintained that “it’s not getting better.” She brought up a more recent incident in mid-September, when a Radio-Canada journalist made antisemitic comments on-air .
“My understanding, and that of multiple analysts here in the United States, is that it is the Israelis, the Jews, that finance American politics a lot,” said Washington correspondent for Radio-Canada Elisa Serret. She made the comments while speaking on sur le terrain , a French-language show with a focus on politics.
“The big cities are run by Jews, Hollywood is run by Jews…” she said.
Bouchard called the comments “unacceptable, hurtful, and contrary to our journalist standards and practices.” She said she apologized to employees and news management apologized to viewers for the incident.
Today I pressed the CBC CEO on whether she’ll look into systemic antisemitism at the broadcaster.Her response? “We don’t need to.”Instead of tackling the issue head-on, she’s happy to leave it to others to handle complaints after the damage is done. No accountability. No… pic.twitter.com/UjyhxH653X
— Rachael Thomas (@RachaelThomasAB) October 20, 2025
But when pressed if she would look into the matter further, Bouchard reiterated CBC’s dedication to the journalistic process. Thomas noted Bouchard’s “unwillingness to do a reexamination” to confront antisemitism within the organization.
“What I’m saying journalism is a continuous process of questions, of revisiting, of challenging. This is how we live. This is what we do. So we don’t have to stop everything to do a full investigation,” said Bouchard.
Canadian Jewish advocacy group, the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, said it was disappointing that Bouchard would not “provide a clear commitment to Canadians.”
“At a time of rising hate, Canadians deserve accountability through an investigation into systemic racism and bias at the national public broadcaster,” the group said in a post on X .
Later in the conversation, Bouchard was pressed about the company’s hiring practices. Since 2015, Thomas said it was reported that 20 temporary foreign workers had been hired by the CBC in Ontario for “high-wage” positions. Bouchard said as far as she knows, there were no temporary foreign workers currently employed.
Some of the positions filled included computer programmers, computer network technicians, business management consulting, marketing researchers, announcers and broadcast technicians, said Thomas.
Thomas asked Bouchard if she would commit to not hiring any future temporary workers, given rising unemployment numbers.
“There might be incidents where, for very specific type of work, there’s a requirement. If there’s a process and it’s approved by the authority, I don’t exactly see what the issue is that you have with this process, but maybe I’m not familiar enough,” she said.
“ Unemployment rates in Canada are rising and the CBC is looking elsewhere to fill its talents rather than right here at home,” said Thomas.
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