Up to Speed with Faith Fundal, a CBC radio program based in Winnipeg, has regularly interviewed anti-Israel guests, offered nothing in the way of context or challenge to them, and failed to provide the same opportunity to those with a different worldview.
A selection of recent episodes have featured repeat detractor Nathan Derejko, a local professor, assailing Jerusalem, calling for Ottawa to investigate those who join the Israeli military, and a segment on a so-called “all-Palestinian rock band” where a band member spent time attacking the Jewish State.
No segments have discussed the plight of Israeli hostages, anti-Jewish hate crimes domestically, or any other related topic in recent months.
On June 4, the show broadcast an interview between CBC Associate Producer Cory Funk and Heba Al-Nashef, a former Winnipeg midwife living in Jordan who has previously worked inside Gaza and said she is attempting to re-enter the territory again.
Listen now to the full segment:
Al-Nashef told Funk what prompted her to travel to Gaza, saying “since October 2023, as I was scrolling through the terrible images from Gaza on social media,” she was convinced to go. Her casual erasure of Hamas’ invasion and subsequent massacres set the stage for the tone of the conversation going forward.
She called Israel’s counter-terrorism operations in Gaza a “genocide” and said Jerusalem is guilty of “atrocities,” scandalous claims that went unchallenged by Funk. Speaking for extended periods without any questions from her host, Al-Nashef claimed that a Palestinian woman she saw “witnessed the murder of her five children and husband,” an inflammatory and unsubstantiated allegation that she did not attempt to provide details for, nor did Funk seek to challenge.
Rather than holding her accountable for her egregious claims, Funk – when he asked a question at all – threw her softballs, such as “how do you process all that?”
Al-Nashef complained at length that Israel had not granted a permit for her to enter Gaza, saying that she was working with a Canadian group called Glia, and adding that “there’s no reason why I was denied,” and that it was done “arbitrarily.”
While Glia calls itself a “medical solidarity organization that empowers low-resource communities to build sustainable, locally-driven healthcare projects,” it is not difficult to be skeptical.
Listed first on its staff page is Tarek Loubani, a longtime anti-Israel activist and professor at Western University who claims he was shot in the leg by Israeli soldiers near Gaza in 2018 in circumstances that remain murky. Loubani has used previous appearances on CBC to groundlessly accuse Israel of executing medical staff.
Another senior staffer, Benjamin Thompson, is listed as a senior medical consultant. He works as a nephrologist at Mackenzie Richmond Hill Hospital. Thompson has spread the unfounded conspiracy theory on social media that Hamas never raped Israeli woman on October 7, 2023, tacitly defended Hamas terrorism with references to “Hamas resistance” and comparing it to Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion, and barely after the Hamas-launched war, signed an open letter which accused Israel of genocide while avoiding any mention of the hostages and which refused to condemn the terrorist group.
Following outrage about Thompson’s social media posts, he was suspended without pay from the hospital.
With these senior leaders at a supposedly humanitarian group, can there be any wonder why Israel might be suspicious to let them into Gaza? Unfortunately, Funk once again offered no challenge to his guest, nor did he mention any of the aforementioned details to his listeners.
The Canadian public is entitled to hear both sides of a story, not one side, repeatedly rehashed, with little attempt made to provide the full body of facts.
