ALERT. Part one
As Israel continues to hold back food to starving Palestinians trapped in Gaza, resulting in famine and death, as its prime minister tells the United Nations he will not yield to its peace resolutions, as Israeli forces order Palestinians to vacate their homes and mosques and schools and hospitals so it can bomb them into the stone age, a small Canadian charity is working overtime.
Honest Reporting Canada, as it calls itself, is busy targeting news organizations and journalists who report any of this is actually happening. As an officially registered charity, it is allowed to give income tax deductions to anyone who contributes to its $2 million a year budget.
Almost every day recently, its website has issued multiple “action alerts,” directing its 70,000 subscribers to bombard journalists and their organizations with emails accusing them of anti-Israel bias, antisemitism, blood libels and disinformation. It even provides them with accusatory email templates to which they can simply attach their names. There is evidence that these intimidation tactics have forced some news organizations to pull back on publishing news and opinion that HRC might object to. Indeed, I and other observers are hard-pressed to find news people who are even willing to attach their names to criticism of HRC.
Honest Reporting Canada describes itself as an “independent, grass-roots organization promoting fairness and accuracy in Canadian media coverage of Israel, the Middle East and matters affecting the Jewish community in Canada, and which works to challenge anti-Jewish rhetoric, particularly when antisemitism hides behind a mask of anti-Israel criticism.”
Fact check: Honest Reporting Canada is not independent. It is not grass-roots. It does not subscribe to journalism’s commonly accepted standards for fairness and accuracy. And, critics argue, it does not act as a charity; rather, it is usually a mouthpiece for whatever Israel says it is doing, namely: There is no famine in Gaza; Israel is not targeting civilians; there is no genocide; any criticism of the Israeli government is antisemitism.
All of which begs the question: Why is the government, and Canadian taxpayers, helping this group influence reporting of what a blue-ribbon United Nations independent investigation recently called a genocide?
Last year, a freedom of expression monitoring project sponsored by two of Canada’s leading journalism organizations—the Canadian Association of Journalists and the National NewsMedia Council—called out the menace of HRC. “The nature of these accusations against named journalists and the volume of complaints and harassment which often follow can create a chill on reporting,” said the Canada Press Freedom Project. “Media workers report that they contribute to a climate of fear and self-censorship, and can exacerbate worries about job precarity and editorial freedom.”
Now, two small human rights organizations are circulating a petition to ask Ottawa to review HRC’s charitable status. In 2023, it gave out more than $1 million in tax deductions to donors, mostly other pro-Israel charities. Rules for charities in Canada are seemingly strict: They must not engage in political activities; 80 percent of their budget must be spent on charitable activities that serve the public’s benefit like poverty relief, education, religion or health; and they must file a T3101 form annually with the Canada Revenue Agency.
Journalist and author Linda McQuaig, one of HRC’s frequent targets, is one of the few to speak out. “I did not realize that Honest Reporting was a charitable organization,” she said in an interview. “I’m puzzled by why Canadian authorities would consider attacking journalists to be a charitable activity worthy of a tax credit.”
Here’s where the story gets interesting.
The charity is registered as HR Canada Charitable Organization. It is directed by three well-heeled Toronto businessmen, Ken Rotman, Jonas Prince and Dan Greenglass, who control companies worth billions of dollars. Its donors, listed by name on the Canada Revenue Agency filings, include the powerhouse United Jewish Appeal of Greater Toronto and a who’s who of other Jewish charities, including The Azrieli Foundation and the Ronald S Roadburg Foundation, named after the late Vancouver real estate baron, which has donated $250,000 to HRC since 2022. The charitable foundations of former senator Linda Frum and former gold magnate Peter Munk are also supporters.
HRC has grown quickly since it registered as a charity in 2019. Its war chest in 2020 was just $186,650 ($117,743 from donations, and the rest from other charities). In 2023, the last year CRA processed T3101 forms, HRC issued tax receipts for $1,061,099, and $984,900 of that came from other registered charities.
Using that money to lobby news organizations has been disturbingly effective. HRC’s latest report on its successes includes a pledge to be a “pit bull” against what it claimed is “a well-organized attempt by anti-Israel groups to solidify their monopoly over news media coverage of the Middle East.” Its website highlights corrections its pressure caused in more than 80 Canadian news organizations, including CBC, CTV, The Globe and Mail, and smaller outlets coast to coast like Saltwire and the Victoria Times Colonist.
(Continued in ALERT. Part two: Is this legitimate criticism or harassment?)