On August 24, CBC News Ottawa aired a segment chronicling the controversy caused by Capital Pride’s recent “Statement in Solidarity with Palestine,” which demonized Israel and promoted the hateful and discriminatory BDS (Boycott Divestment Sanctions) campaign.

Watch the full segment below:

Unfortunately, the segment was a six-minute-long piece of hypocrisy where guest Emily Quaile, a representative for Community Solidarity Ottawa, repeatedly accused anyone who disagreed with her as being “undemocratic.” At no point during the segment did host Sarah Galashan challenge her guest on any of the radical statements made.

Galashan opened the broadcast by explaining that many groups and public figures, including Ottawa’s mayor, Mark Sutcliffe, have chosen to boycott Capital Pride because of the statement. Quaile responded by saying that she is “disappointed” but “not surprised” in the mayor and those who have chosen not to support Capital Pride in their call for boycott of Israel, arguing that this backlash is simply a position of “white, CIS” executives who are “not democratically elected,” and not the view of the “workers” of these institutions who, through their unions, allegedly support calls for Israeli boycott and divestment. Further, she laughingly derided Mayor Sutcliffe for being a “right wing politician,” and someone she “expected” all along to pull his support from Pride.

What Quaile apparently doesn’t know (although Galashan surely should) is that the Ontario Provincial Government enacted a piece of legislation in 2016 which stated that “a public body shall not enter into a contract with a person or entity that supports or participates in the BDS movement.” Conceivably, endorsing and participating in Capital Pride would now constitute this, given that Capital Pride has stated that adoption of BDS is their official position. Given that, it would indeed be inappropriate for Ottawa’s mayor to attend, and certainly unacceptable for the Ontario Government to provide any monetary support, going forward.

Further, one might wonder why a democratically elected ‘right wing’ mayor, ipso facto, is not representative of the views of the majority, but the elected heads of trades unions are? Why does Quaile only believe in democracy when the majority happens to agree with her? Galashan does not point out this glaring inconsistency, and Quaile breezed past it.

Galashan continued by asking about those in the Jewish community who might feel isolated or that feel like this statement creates division. Quaile replied that there are many “Queer Jewish people” who support the cause of “Palestinian liberation” and that “we are really clear that the threat to our community and the Jewish community is the same: far-right white nationalists.”

Leaving aside the fact that both Galashan and Quaile kepy referring to the Jewish community, not an Israeli or Zionist one (an interesting move, due to the claim that anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism), it apparently never occurred to CBC News Ottawa to simply ask the Jewish community how they felt. Instead, a non-Jew repeatedly told the Jewish people what the alleged ‘threats’ to their community are and should be, but also repeatedly spoke for the community on several occasions. Quaile, unironically, criticized those in the Jewish community who might feel uncomfortable supporting Capital Pride after this statement, saying that we combat division through “solidarity,” and “not through boycotting Capital Pride, and singling one identity out from another.”

To her credit, Galashan started to push back at this point, saying that those who would oppose the statement suggest that it doesn’t accomplish anything meaningful, and just creates further division at a time of already heightened tensions.

Quaile replied, saying several times that she’s “not sure” where the fear and division could be coming from,” given that the statement also condemns antisemitism. What neither she nor Galashan apparently thought of was to simply ask a member of the Jewish community. If one was genuinely curious why the community might feel as it does, wouldn’t the simplest way to answer that question be to ask a member of the community in question? What is CBC News Ottawa afraid will happen if they actually speak to a member of the Jewish community?