The Coast is a Halifax-based digital news platform that presents itself as covering “fact-based and fearless journalism.” But as demonstrated in an October 31 article, the outlet is only too happy to let itself become nothing more than a free publicity agent for local anti-Israel groups.

The article entitled: “Al Zeitoun Weekend is happening this Saturday and Sunday…somewhere,” was written by Lauren Phillips, the taxpayer-funded ‘Local Journalism Initiative’ reporter  whose anti-Israel agenda has been exposed previously by HonestReporting Canada.

In the October 31 article, Phillips devoted more than 1,200 words to reporting on minor drama embroiling a local cadre of anti-Israel groups in Halifax, relating to them attempting to book rooms for their programming.

How this reporting falls under the rubric of “fearless journalism” is unclear, but Phillips soon demonstrated the exact opposite of independent reporting, echoing talking points made by anti-Israel campaigners without any respect for presenting factual accuracy.

Phillips wrote that an event is being organized by local anti-Israel groups “in solidarity with the Indigenous struggle against the genocide in Palestine.” While Phillips quoted promotional materials from the event, it is nevertheless incredibly irresponsible to parrot baseless and hateful rhetoric with absolutely no background offered at all.

If a local Ku Klux Klan branch were promoting an event about the “international Jewish conspiracy,” for example, would she also promote their event without context as well, given that accusations of “genocide” against Israel have about as much evidentiary proof as claims of a global Jewish conspiracy?

The entire thrust of the article breathlessly reported on the scheduling conflicts of local programming, and in one of the only places where context was provided to readers about the larger Hamas-Israel war, Phillips wrote that “according to Al Jazeera English, the latest death toll in Israel-Palestine stands at 43,824 Palestinians and 1,139 people killed in Israel since October 7, 2023,” before adding that “on Monday, Israel passed a law banning the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency, or UNWRA, from operating in Israel and occupied East Jerusalem. Writes the BBC, ‘almost all of Gaza’s population of more than two million people are dependent on aid and services from the agency.’”

Citing Al Jazeera, the ‘news’ (propaganda) arm of the Qatari regime, which funds Hamas and hosts its senior leaders, and which Israel says that 6 of its journalists are members of Palestinian terror groups, is hardly a reputable source to quote for casualty numbers from Gaza, which come exclusively from Hamas.

As for Phillips’ mention of UNRWA, the disgraced United Nations agency complicit in the October 7 massacres, she mentioned Israel’s banning of the group, all while utterly ignoring any mention whatsoever of why it was banned. She made no mention of the group’s use of school textbooks to incite violence against Israel, its staff members being members of Hamas, or a Hamas command centre being found directly underneath its headquarters in the Gaza Strip.

As a result, Phillips presented UNRWA as a seemingly unassailable aid agency, while Israel is portrayed as a vengeful actor banning the saintly group, ostensibly for no reason at all.

Lauren Phillips’ October 31 article in The Coast reads not as a news article, but as a press release for local anti-Israel campaigners – courtesy of the Canadian taxpayer.