It was a rare instance of a CBC radio host having a flash of self-awareness, only for it to be gone as quickly as it appeared.

In the March 28 episode of the CBC radio program Daybreak South, host Chris Walker interviewed Noor Youssef, a graduate student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) who is engaging in a hunger strike, demanded that the university administration divest from Israel. It was just the latest in a long string of anti-Israel guests from Walker on his program.

Listen to the full segment below:

During the interview, Walker told his guest that “When we do these interviews… we get complaints, we’re speaking with you from a certain perspective, we’re not representing the other perspective,” before chuckling derisively.

While Walker may find his program’s decision to selectively interview anti-Israel activists with kid gloves, all while ensuring that no pro-Israel voices are interviewed, humourous, it is no laughing matter, but a serious violation of journalistic standards and represents overwhelming imbalance and overt bias. He then asked his guest “how do you respond” to those questions, a nonsensical query since he is the host of a publicly-funded program, not her.

If Walker had a momentary flash of self-awareness – though it was quickly snuffed out – Youssef had none of it, saying that the anti-Israel movement has “gone on for so long without having their perspectives heard at all, or platformed at all.”

It is unclear what Youssef is referring to, given that anti-Israel activists like herself are not only given widespread media coverage, but it is overwhelmingly uncritical and frequently fawning, even when those same activists spread messages that explicitly glorify Hamas terrorism.

She added that: “the Zionist lobbies are very, very strong, and capable of getting their perspectives across,” though not strong enough, it seems, to get those perspectives anywhere on Daybreak South, which like many CBC radio programs, effectively shuts out “Zionist” voices, and ensures that they are nowhere to be seen.

Youssef, much like her many predecessors, took the time to accuse Israel of “genocide” with predictable silence from Walker, who made no effort to challenge any of the radical allegations from her. Walker could have reminded listeners that Israel has not been found guilty of genocide by any world court, that Jerusalem strenuously denies those allegations, that experts in urban warfare have argued that Israel has taken extraordinary steps to protect civilians in war, and so on. But Walker, either because he was unwilling or unable, failed to do so.

During the interview, where Youssef admitted that the 2024 anti-Israel encampments had “led to absolutely nothing,” falsely stated that the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism meant that “any criticism of Israel or Zionism would constitute antisemitism.” This is egregiously false, clear to anyone who actually read the definition, which it seems that Youssef has not.

To this patently false statement, Walker once again said nothing, giving his guest an unfettered opportunity to spread her anti-Israel disinformation. Instead, the interview ended with Walker gratefully thanking his guest, saying “it’s been really great to meet you.”

There is no inherent problem with Daybreak South interviewing radical anti-Israel activists. The problem is giving them a monopoly on a contentious topic, failing to hold them to account for their often extremist views & spreading disinformation, and censoring out pro-Israel voices from the discussion.