CBC’s coverage of issues related to the Hamas-Israel war are exhaustive, as long as those issues fall under the framing of Israel as the villain, and Hamas – if it gets mentioned at all – as the unsavoury, but ultimately inconsequential “militant” group which is at best a side show in the CBC’s portrayal.

In the August 15 broadcast of Front Burner, a CBC radio program which has exhibited a nonstop fixation with platforming anti-Israel content in recent months, a segment entitled: “Israel accused of turning prisons into ‘torture camps’,” saw host Jayme Poisson interview Yuli Novak, executive director of B’Tselem, a controversial and hard-left Israeli organization criticized for demonizing Israel. The topic surrounded recent reports of alleged abuse of Palestinian security prisoners.

Listen to the full segment:

Just three days earlier, another staffer at B’Tselem, Shai Parnes, was a guest on the CBC Radio program, As It Happens, for a discussion on the exact same topic.

First, it must be acknowledged that while allegations of abuse, even against suspected terrorists, is a serious topic that merits news coverage, the only reason the allegations are public at all are a testament to Israel’s liberal democratic nature.

Following the actions of a whistleblower, an Israeli organization, and Israeli newspaper which alleged abuse against suspected terrorists, Israeli authorities arrested five Israeli soldiers suspected of abuse. Conversely, had an individual in Gaza blown the whistle on Hamas’ theft of aid or use of its own people as human shields (hardly necessary, given that both are well documented), there is little doubt that the whistleblower would be marked for death.

But no good deed goes unpunished, as it were, and Israel’s transparency, rather than being acknowledged by Poisson, was entirely overlooked, and instead simply used as a cudgel with which to attack Jerusalem.

During the interview, Novak described Israel’s prison system as a “tool of oppression” against Palestinians, and, going further than alleging incidents of abuse, claimed that there is “physical and mental abuse,” not of some prisoners, but of “basically all the Palestinian prisoners, all the time.”

Such a statement is nothing short of extraordinary, alleging that virtually every single Arab prisoner in Israel is subject to abuse, basically all the time. However, rather than challenging Novak on his wide-ranging accusations, Poisson simply let it go, moving on to ask her guest to detail specific allegations of abuse.

At one point, Poisson quoted the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in saying that it “categorically rejects allegations of systematic abuse,” and that “any abuse of detainees…is illegal and against IDF guidelines and is strictly prohibited,” before asking her guest to respond, to which he claimed that he was “ashamed” of the answer from the IDF, and saying the statement was “complete lies.”

Beyond a boilerplate response from the Israeli military, at no point was Novak challenged on his explosive allegations, nor was it ever made clear to listeners that the story only came about as a result of the nature of Israel’s liberal democracy. Instead, as always, anti-Israel stories are given exhaustive coverage by CBC, both in written articles and in broadcast reports.

The August 15 episode of CBC’s Front Burner is only the latest in a long string of such content on the program, including a guest whitewashing Hamas’ genocidal leader as a “moderate,” a journalist spouting anti-Israel disinformation, a guest falsely accusing Israel of “indiscriminate” attacks, sanitizing anti-Israel hate mobs, and more.