Who We Are

Our Mission

About Us

HonestReporting Canada is an independent grass-roots organization promoting fairness and accuracy in Canadian media coverage of Israel , the Middle East and matters affecting Canada’s Jewish community, and which works to challenge anti-Jewish rhetoric, particularly when antisemitism hides behind a mask of anti-Israel criticism. With the assistance of our over 70,000 members from coast to coast, HRC monitors the media, recognizes excellence and exposes inaccuracy and bias in Canadian reporting on the region.

HonestReporting Canada is an independent grass-roots organization promoting fairness and accuracy in Canadian media coverage of Israel, the Middle East, and issues related to and affecting Canadian Jews. With the assistance of our over 70,000 members from coast to coast, HRC monitors the media, recognizes excellence and exposes inaccuracy and bias in Canadian reporting on the region. HRC members work together to examine the role journalists play in shaping the news, subjecting news reporting to rigorous and methodical investigation, and preventing distorted coverage. In short, we are in favour of honest reporting.

The impact of media inaccuracies on Israel and Canada’s Jewish community cannot be overstated. A false perception of what is happening in Israel or the Middle East has a direct and perceptible impact on Canadian Jews.

Historically, antisemitism, or Jew-hatred, was direct and unapologetic. But today, it has morphed into a cloaked anti-Jewish hatred where the State of Israel is a stand-in for Jews. While Israel is a valid target of criticism, when the world’s only Jewish State is compared to the Nazis, is called upon to be destroyed, and any supporters of it are threatened, the line goes far beyond criticism into Jew-hatred.

Noted human rights advocate Natan Sharansky identified three categories to delineate when legitimate criticism veers into Jew-hate. He called them the three D’s:

1: Demonization: When Israel itself is demonized as a Nazi, evil state, rather than its policies are being criticized.

2: Double standards: When Israel is held to a completely different standard than the rest of the world.

3: Delegitimization: When the very right of Israel – the Jewish State – to exist in its historic and ancestral homeland is denied.

When pundits, columnists and other commentators peddle in these rhetorical games, claiming they are simply “anti-Zionist,” they are denying the Jewish people the right to self-determination, and in turn, attacking the Jewish people directly.

HonestReporting Canada started more than 20 years ago as a result of an observation that falsehoods being reported by the news media about Israel often manifest as anti-Jewish sentiment, and often, turn into hate crimes against Canadian Jews.

Every period of increased tensions in the Middle East sees a correlated increase in anti-Jewish hate crimes, regardless of the fact that thousands of kilometres separate Canada from Israel.

Our Mission

The safety and security of Canadian Jews relies on the Canadian public having a fair and accurate understanding of what is transpiring in the Middle East, and that’s where HonestReporting Canada comes in.

To ensure Israel is represented fairly and accurately, HonestReporting Canada monitors the media, exposes cases of bias, promotes balance, and affects change through education and action.

When media bias occurs, our worldwide base of subscribers take action by contacting news agencies, drawing issues of bias to their attention, and requesting changes. Media outlets, correspondents, and editors are now held accountable for biased reporting and are becoming more aware of the need for factual, impartial and fair reporting. Our subscribers also make use of our Alerts to bolster their own knowledge and understanding of the often complex issues.

Particularly today, when anti-Jewish rhetoric in the media cleverly hides behind such masks as “anti-Zionism,” it is critically important to hold news media outlets accountable for what they say and write.

The work of HonestReporting Canada (HRC) yields results. Since 2003, HRC has prompted hundreds of apologies, retractions, and revisions from news outlets. These efforts are changing the face of the media and reporting of Israel and Jewish issues. As an organization dedicated to defending Israel and the Jewish community against prejudice and falsehoods in the media, we aim to provide educational tools and resources to anyone wishing to advocate for Israel and the Jewish community. Our materials provide people with information that is helpful when responding to the media, in their dealings on campus or in the workplace, and in any other sphere where having credible, considered background material is of value.

Following Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attack in Israel, a spike in anti-Jewish incidents soon took place, in both Canada and elsewhere.

In Canada alone, multiple Jewish schools have had their buildings shot at by assailants, Jewish students have been bullied and harassed in universities and high schools, which have also seen anti-Jewish rhetoric, union leaders have peddled in anti-Jewish imagery, anti-Israel protesters have converged on Jewish institutions such as an historically Jewish hospital, and more.

The main focus of our work is to monitor Canada’s mainstream media outlets and report on significant lapses in ensuring accuracy, context, fairness and objectivity. When Canadian news media outlets falsely portray Israel and demonize Jews, the above incidents become far more likely.

In essence, the news media has a duty and a responsibility to not allow itself to become a vehicle for inciting violence against Jews.

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The media plays a leading role in shaping world opinion. This opinion gradually manifests itself into public policy. When the media takes a biased position, this has a direct impact on how the general population sees Israel, and more directly, the Jewish community because of its close ties with Israel. The consequences of inaccurate and biased reporting are perhaps the most dangerous when reporting about Israel, the nation state of the Jewish people.

Whether by design or because they are being manipulated by anti-Israel propaganda, much of the world media delivers reports slanted against the State of Israel. The last remaining normalized hate in society is “anti-Zionism,” that is, the brazen attack on the Jewish State and its right to exist, along with the vast majority of the Jewish community, which is supportive of the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in their own homeland.

The enemies of Israel and the Jewish people today spend millions of dollars and employ hundreds of personnel to get “their side” of the story out. Photographs are doctored, fake news stories are staged, and Palestinian “fixers” are used as sources of information by overworked reporters trying to capture a complex story in a few sound bytes.

For the past 20 years, HonestReporting Canada has been in the forefront of efforts to fight the media’s institutional bias against Israel and the Jewish community, and to ensure fairness and accuracy. Every week, we send out news communiques, special reports, and viral videos pointing out inaccurate and biased reporting affecting Jews and the Jewish state. We give our subscribers the information and tools to contact the media about biased reporting. We have been responsible for countless retractions, revisions, and corrections when our readers point out that the media got the story wrong.

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