Immediate release
MEDIA RELEASE
CRA asked to investigate HonestReporting Canada
TORONTO, Oct 11 2024 – Members of Just Peace Advocates and Writers Against the War on Gaza Toronto (WAWOG TO) have submitted a formal complaint to the Canadian Revenue Agency requesting an audit of HR Canada Charitable Organization (known as HonestReporting Canada or HRC) on the basis that its activities could be violating Canadian law.
HonestReporting Canada is a tax-subsidized pro-Israel, anti-Palestinian lobby group with a primary focus on media. Styling itself as “Israel’s sword and shield,” HRC weaponizes its 60,000+ subscribers to “control the narrative” in Canadian media, overwhelming newsrooms with complaints of coverage that is critical of Israel or supportive of Palestinian solidarity. HRC’s targeted harassment has cost at least two journalists their jobs, and recently placed a Sick Kids doctor on administrative leave.
“During my time [at CBC], a senior writer was called into management meetings to discuss her supposed biases after an HonestReporting campaign targeted her,” states an anonymous account published in The Breach. “Her contract was cut short.”
HRC promotes its own glossary of language that newsrooms and other institutions should use to refer to Palestine, and files complaints to news outlets that do not adhere to it. Much of the glossary contradicts the official terminology prescribed by most news outlets and Canada’s own foreign policy: internationally-recognized terms like “1967 border,” “settlements,” “West Bank,” and “occupied territories” are flagged as “problematic” and grounds for complaint.
HRC also spreads misinformation and racist incitement through Canadian legacy media. Petitions and articles written by HRC leadership deny reports of famine in Gaza, dispute official death tolls, spread false reports of “[an] unborn child ripped from the womb” and “tunnels under cribs”, stoke fear and hatred toward Gazan refugees, endorse and repeat Netanyahu’s notorious “children of darkness” remarks, argue that Gazans are deserving of or responsible for their own bombardment, and claim that murdered Palestinians under the age of 18 should not be called “children”.
In addition, HRC has platformed far right fascist groups, Israeli state representatives, people and institutions sending financial support to the Israeli military, settler groups, and hate groups.
In 2023, the charity provided more than $1 million in tax receipts. Just Peace Advocates and WAWOG TO contend that the use of public funds to promote an agenda that is counter to Canadian foreign policy as well as domestic and international law should not be acceptable.
The request for audit references recent CRA decisions to revoke the charitable status of JNF Canada and Ne’eman Canada, on the basis that Canadian charities should not be providing funds in support of activities which are against international law and/or Canadian foreign policy.
About Just Peace Advocates/Paix Juste
A Canadian-based independent human rights organization promoting Just Peace/Paix Juste through the rule of law and respect for human rights in Canada and around the world for the Palestinian people and those that stand in solidarity for the human rights of the Palestinian people. Just Peace Advocates also has a specific focus on the realization of the self-determination of the people of Kashmir.
About Writers Against the War On Gaza (WAWOG)
Writers Against the War on Gaza (WAWOG) is a coalition of media, cultural, and academic workers who are committed to the horizon of liberation for the Palestinian people, and who organize against Zionism and American empire from within the imperial core.
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For more information:
MEDIA CONTACT:
Michael DeForge
toronto@wawog.com
TIP LINE:
We have opened a secure, anonymous tip line for media workers who have been victims of harassment from HonestReporting Canada or similar media lobbies, or have information about the way these lobbies interact with newsrooms or editorial policy.
If you have something to share, write to wawogTO@proton.me from a secure personal email address (Proton is encrypted and free) on a non-work device, saying “hello” in the subject line
