On August 20, CTV News Montreal aired a segment entitled: “Protest groups disrupt Montreal pride parade,” in which the network covered an anti-Israel disruption of the Fierte Montreal pride parade which took place on August 18.

Watch the full segment below:

Without any context or discussion of the reality on the ground of the Israel-Hamas war, CTV interviewed anti-Israel radicals who immediately launched into predictable charges of a non-existent “genocide” taking place in Gaza, with no push back by CTV News’ reporter. Indeed, the entire report was a one-sided glorification of anti-Israel, anti-Western, misinformed idealogues.

Their first guest, Samya Lamrini, the president of Helem Montreal, an LGBTQ+ group with a mandate of addressing homophobia and anti-LGBTQ bigotry in the Arab world, shared that her group wanted Fierte Montreal to take “not only a clear position against genocide, but also to denounce TD Bank,” one of the event’s main sponsors. Despite Fierte Montreal’s refusal to meet these demands, Helem Montreal decided to “march in the parade anyway.”

CTV’s journalist then uncritically explained that Helem Montreal “wanted to make sure no Israeli flags would fly during the parade.” Lamrini asked: “How can we feel safe when these flags are being held during a parade where we are supposed to feel safe?” This question could of course be asked of the Palestinian flags being waved or the Keffiyehs being worn by anti-Israel protestors. The keffiyeh is said to be the symbol of Palestinian ‘resistance,’ the reality of which has resulted in the violent deaths of thousands of Jews, and the desire for many more under the call for ‘global intifada.’

Predictably, CTV News did not speak to anyone offering an alternative point of view, or any Jewish members of the LGBTQ+ community who would undoubtedly feel visibly targeted and discriminated against by such antics. If only one country, one group, one people is not allowed to show pride in who they are and where they come from, how can that be fostering an atmosphere of ‘safety’? This question was never asked during the broadcast.

The reporter went on to relate that during a moment of silence for those who died of HIV/AIDS, the anti-Israel group conducted a die-in on the street to draw attention to the Israel-Hamas war, causing a disruption that lasted more than an hour. This disgusting and tasteless co-opting of a memorial to those who lost their lives to a disease that, especially in its early days, dramatically disproportionately affected the gay community is an outrageous action on behalf of those who claim to be allies to the cause of LGBTQ+ liberation. Even Lamrini herself acknowledged that there were ‘tensions’ caused by their anti-Israel activism, but again, CTV News did not bother to showcase anyone actually opposed.

Instead, the report cut to an interview with another anti-Israel demonstrator, who claimed that they are there to condemn and denounce “colonialist, Zionist, capitalist co-optation movements.” The absurdity of promoting the erasure of three thousand years of Jewish history, and promoting the Palestinian cause while at the same time trying to pretend that one is ‘anti-colonialist’ is apparently lost on CTV News entirely.

Ultimately, the report gave voice not just to anti-Israel extremists who level the predictable, if demonstrably false, charges of genocide and colonialism against the Jewish State. But in this instance, they went even further. The only ‘Jewish’ voice they offered in this report is that of a representative from Independent Jewish Voices (IJV), an anti-Israel advocacy group that has defended Hamas violence against Israelis and is highly unrepresentative of the Jewish community.

By offering a platform to a fringe, (and indeed one could argue anti-Jewish) Jewish group as the only Jewish perspective in the segment, CTV News is promoting, intentionally or not, the idea that these are the views of the larger Jewish community as a whole. By deliberately silencing any representative voice of Canadian Jewry, CTV News is actively shaping an incorrect and, ultimately, dangerous narrative.