Yet again the Canadian news media is acting as a spokesperson for pro-Palestinian activists, and giving their complaints sympathetic airtime.

In a December 21 report for CTV News, “Palestinian students stuck in Gaza,” reporter Kamil Karamali presented a one-sided report about a group of Gazans seeking to study in Canadian universities.

Click here to watch the segment:

He profiled one, Shima’a Arafa, who was accepted to the University of Alberta but has not been able to come to Canada because she cannot get fingerprints and photos required for a visa.

As Karamali told viewers dramatically, “that glimmer (of hope)…darkened.”

Under any other circumstances, this would not be a story. After all, such rules exist for a reason, namely to ensure the safety of Canadians. And if a prospective student cannot get the necessary materials together for a visa, then they will not be able to study in Canada.

But Karamali’s report did more than profile Gazans complaining that they cannot enter Canada. He then shared that “advocacy groups” are voicing their outrage, and are accusing Canadian officials of racism.

He interviewed Nadia Abu Zahra of the group Palestinian Students and Scholars at Risk, a radical anti-Israel activist group, as well as Sonya Fatah, who blamed “deep-seated cultural bias.” Fatah is an associate chair in the School of Journalism at Toronto Metropolitan University, which recently hosted a group of anti-Israel extremists for a panel discussion.

One Gazan, Abdullah Hassan, similarly said “we feel like there is some discrimination against Palestinians.”

But rather than present even an iota of evidence for these scandalous claims, it soon became clear that the only “discrimination” is that the Gazans should be exempted from these laws, according to their supporters.

As Karamali said, “advocates say they need to make some exceptions.”

No reason was given why Gazans alone should be treated as above the law, and not required to provide necessary information for a study visa.

In fact, some observers have noted that there are many reasons why there could be a rational basis for extra security screening for Gazans. Extremism and support for Hamas – a banned Canadian terrorist organization – remains high in Gaza, and Canadian officials have a duty to ensure that extremists cannot come to Canada.

However, nowhere in Karamali’s CTV News report did he tell viewers about the potential dangers of the importation of Gazans to Canada. Instead, his broadcast was an utterly one-sided piece that gave an exclusive voice to activists demanding that Gazans be given preferential treatment, and be exempted from the necessary security screenings that exist for all prospective foreign students.

This is not Karamali’s first time using his platform to promote pro-Palestinian talking points.

In December, 2024, he sympathetically profiled Ruba Akkila, a Gazan woman now in Canada as a refugee, making no mention of the extremism that was rife on her social media channel. A few months earlier, he produced a report where he featured four interviewees, every single one repeating anti-Israel talking points. Zero opposing voices were offered.

Kamil Karamali’s December 21 broadcast for CTV News was not journalism, but a pro-Palestinian puff piece which presented guests calling for Gazans to be given preferential treatment to come to Canada, even as widespread extremism in Gaza remains a potential threat to Canadians.