In November, 2024, the anti-Israel student union at Montreal’s Dawson College called for students there to join a province-wide boycott of classes on November 21 in a protest against the Jewish State. In response, the school’s administration quickly capitulated, closing campus for the day for all students.

The class strike, called a “student intifada” by one influential anti-Israel group in Montreal – in reference to a campaign of Palestinian terrorism against Israel – was part of a wider campaign on Montreal-area campuses where demonstrators engaged in violence and overt hate speech against Jews.

The Plant, a student newspaper at Dawson College, has also been a contributor to this hate on campus, having rationalized Hamas terrorism against Israel and spread what can only be called unrepentant anti-Israel disinformation.

In light of these incidents and other complaints, the Quebec government opened an investigation into the on-campus climate at two Montreal schools, Vanier College and Dawson College.

However, a February 14 article and accompanying video by CTV News reporter Matt Gilmour entitled: “Dawson College teachers say government probe into tensions on campus creating climate of fear,” made little to no mention of these very real problems, exclusively interviewing teachers opposed to the investigation and all but entirely ignoring what prompted it in the first place.

Click below to watch the full segment:

Both the article and video report quoted three teachers, all of whom expressed opposition to the investigation, with one, Antonia Fikkert, from the Dawson Teachers’ Union, quoted saying that it has “had a chilling effect on our teachers.”

Another interviewee, Yves de Repentigny, a union leader in Montreal, said that Higher Education Minister Pascale Déry’s past role in a Jewish advocacy organization “raises questions” about her impartial oversight.

While two individuals were interviewed expressing their criticisms of the investigation, one Jewish interviewee was shown. But his opinions, rather than offering any balance, was simply more of the same.

Dawson College humanities teacher Noah Brender, whom Gilmour pointed out was Jewish, complained that, due to the investigation, teachers are now “looking over their shoulders,” adding that “it really undermines the whole learning environment that we’re trying so hard to create in the classroom.”

Not one word was mentioned in either report about the nature of anti-Israel protests on campus, the student newspaper’s virulent anti-Israel messaging, or any other incidents over more than 16 months of the Hamas-Israel war, entirely erasing any concrete mention of them.

This false balance presented readers and viewers with a fundamentally misleading perspective as to what has been taking place on campuses since Hamas’ terrorist attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023.

CTV News’ February 14 article and video report by Matt Gilmour, while giving a voice to those opposing the Quebec government’s investigation into Vanier College and Dawson College, wholly erased any dissenting opinion, and completely ignored the very basis as to why the investigation is taking place at all.

Given the nonstop parade of anti-Israel activism on Canadian university campuses over the last 16 months, surely it would not have been difficult to cite even a single example. Yet these CTV News reports failed to do that.