In a segment aired on CBC’s The National on April 2, anchor Adrienne Arsenault updated viewers on recent developments in the Gaza Strip, painting a false picture of Israel as an indiscriminate aggressor.

Arsenault’s report began with the claim that Israel was “occupying more land” by “cutting a new corridor” through Gaza.

Clip below to watch the full clip:

The term “occupying” is a highly charged political and legal term that implies illegitimacy or aggression. Yet Arsenault stated the term as objective fact, with no attribution or explanation.

While Arsenault did include a clip of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu explaining the rationale for the security corridor—to apply pressure on Hamas to release Israel’s hostages—she did not comment on Israel’s security needs or the dire state of the hostages.

She then stated that the announcement came “after an Israeli attack that killed at least 15 people” in a United Nations-operated clinic. It has been proven over and over that Hamas casualty figures can’t be trusted; in many cases, they are widely manipulated. Yet Arsenault simply quoted these figures without any attribution or qualification, such as pointing out “according to the Gaza health ministry.”

Further, by directly connecting these two events—the security corridor and the air strike—Arsenault strongly implied a causal connection: a pattern of wanton destruction and indiscriminate killing by the Israeli military.

Mentioning that the attack took place in a clinic is similarly problematic—even if later reports indicated that the clinic had not been functioning for some time. Medical facilities and clinics are generally immune from military strikes according to international law.

However, Hamas terrorists often shelter within these facilities, hiding behind innocent civilians to carry on military activities. When that happens, even “neutral” facilities become legitimate military targets. That’s particularly true of facilities belonging to UNRWA, the disgraced United Nations agency with ties to Palestinian terrorism and whose staff took part in Hamas’ October 7 massacres of 1,200 innocents..

In fact, after the April 2 strike, the Israeli military confirmed that several known Hamas operatives had been eliminated, including one terrorist who participated in the October 7, 2023 terrorist rampage and another who had participated in the grim Hamas handover “ceremony” in which Israeli hostage Agam Berger was returned from captivity.

Israel’s goal in Gaza is not to “occupy land,” as Arsenault suggested in her report. Any territory Israel must control, it does for its own security.

Like the Canadian military, the Israeli military follows a strict ethical code, carefully planning military activities to minimize civilian casualties and transparently sharing information on successes and failures.

With Hamas’ longtime “human shield” strategy, any tragic loss of life must be placed squarely at the feet of the responsible party: Hamas.

As an example of slightly more responsible reporting on the same incident, a report on CBC’s website stated that the Israeli military had “struck a building previously used as a clinic that it believed was serving as a Hamas command and control centre to plan attacks.” This conveys the Israeli military justification as well as the fact that the clinic was not in fact operational.

For Arsenault to imply a connection between the security corridor and the airstrike, and then use both to paint a picture of unchecked Israeli aggression was irresponsible journalism. In a segment this short, CBC has a moral obligation to stick to the facts rather than editorializing and leading viewers to false and openly hostile conclusions.