The Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), one of Canada’s most prolific glorifiers of Palestinian terrorism, was given uncritical coverage in a series of news reports covering 11 arrests at one of the group’s demonstrations.
PYM, which following the October 7, 2023 massacres in Israel by Palestinian terrorists, organized a public celebration of the event, and one of its leaders, Yara Shoufani, has been particularly vocal about her support for Hamas terrorism.
On Saturday, July 19, PYM organized an anti-Israel protest in downtown Toronto where 11 participants were arrested by police. That story attracted coverage by a number of outlets, including CityNews, CTV News, The Canadian Press (CP) and The Toronto Star.
However, in all these reports, PYM’s extremism was totally ignored, and in some cases, the group’s hateful rhetoric was even given an uncritical platform.
In an article and television broadcast the same day for CityNews entitled: “Police say 11 arrested during demonstration in Harbourfront neighbourhood,” reporter John Marchesan made no mention of PYM’s extremism nor of the history of violence and radicalism at such rallies, as CityNews has ignored previously. He quoted one source: a PYM spokesperson, Dalia Awwad, and told readers that one group, the Legal Support Committee, helps those arrested for “protesting for the liberation of Palestine in the GTA,” using terminology that would suit a PYM press release, not a news article.
The accompanying video report was no better, and featured an extended rant from anti-Israel activist Adham Diabas – who was one of those arrested – who spread the hateful lies of “genocide” and starvation in Gaza, with no challenge nor context provided to viewers. If a KKK activist made claims of racial superiority on camera, would their words be beamed to viewers with no challenge at all?
The following day, the Canadian Press (CP) published their coverage of the arrests in an article headlined: “Police arrest 11 people during pro-Palestinian protest in Toronto.” The article reported the arrests and noted that “the Toronto chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement accused police of ‘brutal violence’ against the protesters in a statement on social media.” While it may be valid to quote PYM in this context, it is also irresponsible to wholly ignore their history of extremism and glorification of Palestinian Islamic terrorism.
And on July 22, The Toronto Star reported on the story as well with its article labelled: “Police arrest 11 protesters in downtown Toronto.” The newspaper called PYM a “national activist group for Palestine,” choosing to omit its praise of terrorist violence, and even quoted the group accusing the police of “silencing” them, a comical allegation in light of widespread criticisms that law enforcement has embraced a largely permissive attitude towards hate rallies. By making no mention of PYM’s history of hate, Canada’s largest daily circulation newspaper did not tell Canadians the truth, but a carefully curated version of events which fundamentally misled them.
The same day, CTV News joined the fray with its own article by reporter Phil Tsekouras entitled: “Toronto police arrest 11 suspects after officers allegedly assaulted at downtown protest.” The article quoted Arash Ghiassi, a Toronto defence lawyer as claiming that “Toronto police’s response to pro-Palestine protests has always been heavy-handed and disproportionate,” a claim that flies in the face of all available evidence pointing to widespread police leniency with pro-terrorist demonstrations.
Like the other reports, CTV News mentioned PYM as the organizer of the demonstration, but failed to provide readers with any meaningful context about the group’s extremism and embrace of hateful radicalism.
PYM has become a mainstay at pro-Hamas rallies in Canada over the last 21 months, and thanks to widespread media coverage censoring out the truth about the group, they have gained undeserved credibility as a result.
