Author: Alex Dhaliwal
Donald Trump’s Republican Party has booted CBC/Radio-Canada from its upcoming convention as outrage explodes over the broadcaster’s refusal to call 9/11 terrorism without attribution.
The Republican National Committee revoked press credentials for both CBC and Radio-Canada for its Sept. 9-10 gathering in Dallas, ahead of the U.S. midterm elections.
The move follows cross-border backlash over leaked CBC guidance instructing journalists not to independently describe the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks as terrorism.
“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” the memo read.
Instead, journalists were told to describe the hijackings and crashes without independently calling them terrorism.
Radio-Canada did not have the same editorial policy.
CBC eventually backed down Friday, announcing that reporters would no longer need to attribute the term “terrorism” when describing 9/11.
“After reviewing our current language guidance, we have decided to adjust it to clarify that direct attribution is not required for describing the historic events of 9/11 as terrorism,” said Basem Boshra, CBC’s senior director of journalistic standards and public trust.
But Republicans had already moved against CBC, revoking its credentials and calling its attendance an “insult” to 9/11 victims.
Nearly 3,000 people were killed by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001, including 24 Canadians.
Members of Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet also weighed in on the controversy.
Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree declared that Ottawa has “always recognized 9/11 as the deadliest terrorist attack in history” and “unequivocally” condemns terrorism.
Anandasangaree stressed that Canada has legally treated 9/11 as terrorism for nearly 25 years, describing it as a “deliberate, ideologically motivated terrorist attack on civilians.”
Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Marc Miller was more blunt after CBC reversed course.
Miller called the change “welcome” and blasted the previous policy as “pedantic and foolish guidance that caused legitimate anger.”
The backlash also crossed the border.
FBI Director Kash Patel threatened consequences for Canadian agencies that refused to reject CBC’s policy.
“Any agency in Canada that doesn’t publicly reject this bastardization of history … will no longer have [a] friend in this FBI,” Patel wrote.
“WE WILL NEVER FORGET 9-11.”
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre also unloaded on CBC, calling 9/11 the “deadliest terrorist attack in American history.”
“Nearly 3,000 innocent people were murdered that day, including 24 Canadians, in an act of monstrous evil,” Poilievre said.
He later branded describing 9/11 as anything other than a terrorist attack an “appalling distortion of history” and demanded CBC apologize and retract its directive.
CBC acknowledged its guidance caused “significant concern, anger and hurt,” but insisted it had never denied that 9/11 was terrorism.
“But to be clear, CBC News has never said what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, was not terrorism,” Boshra said.
CBC said it is reviewing the Republicans’ decision to revoke its credentials.
“It is a disappointing development; we hope it will be reconsidered,” CBC head of public affairs Chuck Thompson told the National Post.
The controversy echoes CBC’s Oct. 7 policy, which discouraged calling Hamas attackers terrorists. Its ombudsman later said describing the attack as terrorism would have been more accurate.
CBC’s reversal applies only to 9/11, with its broader attribution policy remaining in place for new acts of politically motivated violence.
CBC is an embarrassment and should have been defunded long ago
I don’t know what is going through the minds of Canadian liberals or the CBC and why they cannot/will not label the 9/11 as what it is a terrorist attack on the United States? I am a Canadian citizen and I am completely embarrassed by the liberal crime minister and CBC.