Many of CBC’s radio programs often have their favourite “experts” when it comes to Israel. While a May 7 episode of Up To Speed with Faith Fundal was guest-hosted by Margaux Watt, Watt carried on the show’s tradition by hosting “international law expert” Nathan Derejko, who’s repeatedly used the show to platform outlandish accusations against Israel.

Listen to the full segment below:

Watt opened her interview by asking Derejko about an Israeli plan to “seize the Gaza Strip.” Using such a loaded term without clarifying its context, or presenting any rationale creates an impression of aggressive land theft rather than potential escalation against the Hamas terrorist regime currently occupying the Gaza Strip.

Derejko did admit that he wasn’t sure exactly what news reports meant by “seize.” Nevertheless, he took the opportunity to condemn Israel in advance for “an act of aggression under international criminal law.”

At no point did Derejko mention continued rocket fire from Gaza against Israeli civilian communities or recent Hamas attempts to rebuild its terror infrastructure. In Derejko’s portrayal, Israel is the only aggressor in the region.

Despite having admitted that he doesn’t know what Israel’s plans are, Derejko was quick to throw around loaded terms like “annexation,” “categorical breaches,” “acts of aggression,” and “war crimes.” At no point did he present any legal basis for these terms.

Watt, meanwhile, offered no challenge or context whatsoever to Derejko’s interpretations. She treated every statement he made as uncontested fact, despite the fact that many legal scholars would disagree. And at no point did she introduce any nuance given the complexity of the situation, with Israel currently fighting a war of self-defence against aggressive and entrenched enemies on all its borders.

Derejko went on to paint any humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza as solely Israel’s responsibility, with no discussion of Hamas’s role. He did not mention, for example, Hamas’ repeated attempts to hijack humanitarian aid deliveries since October 7. Nor did he mention Hamas’s use of civilian areas for military purposes, basing its headquarters in hospitals and schools, thus placing Gaza civilians in grave danger.

Not only did Watt not correct Derejko’s misinformation, she failed to point out the complexity of the situation or acknowledge that Egypt, too, has restricted access to Gaza.

At one point, Derejko seemed to restrain himself from making a genocide accusation, saying that Israel is “creating the conditions… to bring about the destruction of an entire people.”

He then condemned Canada’s “silence.” He accused Canada of a double standard when it came to international human rights law. Canada, he said, must demand “that Israel comply and that Hamas comply with international law.”

It’s interesting that Derejko chose this point to mention Hamas—as if trying to make his argument sound fair and balanced: everybody must comply equally with international law.

Yet he didn’t offer any insight into how on earth Canada could ever demand that Hamas—a genocidal terrorist organization whose members gleefully videotaped themselves raping and burning innocent civilians—could ever be brought into line with international law short of military force.

Throughout the interview, in the finest Up To Speed tradition, Watt framed almost all of her questions around assumptions of Israeli wrongdoing. For example, she began by asking, “if Israel does seize Gaza, what would international law say about that?” Later, she asked, “What about the legal rights of the people of Gaza?” She did not mention Israeli children’s rights, for example, to go to school without fear of Hamas paragliders invading their communities.

And with “questions” like, “So you’ll be looking for [Canada’s] silence to end soon, I take it?” Watt only reinforced Derejko’s statements, cuing him rather than providing even a semblance of journalistic neutrality.

Throughout the interview, Watt utterly failed to mention the safety of Israeli civilians, the danger of rocket fire or other attacks from Gaza, the dozens hostages—living and dead—still being tortured and starved in Hamas terror tunnels, and Israel’s transparent explanations of all of its military actions.

Watt’s total lack of curiosity and the absence of pushback suggests an unbalanced concern that completely excludes the Israeli population. Regardless of who’s hosting, Up to Speed’s repeated invitations to Derejko, the lowball interview questions, along with the show’s unwillingness to bring in any international legal experts who might hold a different opinion, all suggest a deep-seated pattern of bias that insults the intelligence of CBC listeners.