News broke recently of an alleged hate crime carried out by a Montreal taxi driver who allegedly punched and choked a visibly Jewish man in a parking lot this past week.

See a video of the incident below:

After public outcry, the taxi driver was fired and his driving permit reportedly will be revoked.

Naturally, an incident of this kind will merit media coverage. Many HonestReporting Canada subscribers were alarmed to see how the Globe and Mail covered this incident. On August 3, Globe editors appropriated the following headline to a Canadian Press article featured in its Ottawa/Quebec edition:

There’s a big difference between being fired for an alleged antisemitic hate crime and perhaps even attempted murder (assault no less), and a simple fight (which does not indicate who the instigator and aggressor was) and that the attacker targeted the man because of his faith, allegedly.

The article itself is fine and the online headline is also proper as it says clearly “Montreal taxi driver fired after alleged anti-Semitic attack on man”, but the print version headline, to put it lightly, whitewashed the incident.

As a means of comparison, here’s how the National Post properly covered the incident in its print version on August 3:

Rest assured, HRC has brought our concerns to the attention of senior editors at the Globe and Mail and are hopeful that remedial action will be taken.