{"id":49198,"date":"2026-06-26T01:53:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T08:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=49198"},"modified":"2026-06-24T14:18:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T21:18:49","slug":"upstanders-first-live-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2026\/06\/26\/upstanders-first-live-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Upstanders\u2019 first live event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor-in-chief of the National Post Rob Roberts, left, in conversation with journalist Dave Gordon at Upstanders Canada\u2019s May 24 Media Bias event at Temple Sholom. (photo by Anna-Mae Wiesenthal)<\/i><\/p>\n

Media Bias: How Media has Mainstreamed Antisemitism and What to Do About It was the first live event held by Upstanders Canada. It featured a conversation between journalist Dave Gordon and National Post<\/i> editor-in-chief Rob Roberts, and took place in Vancouver on May 24 and in Ottawa May 26. Roberts was honoured with the inaugural Upstander of the Year Award.<\/p>\n

Upstanders Canada, founded by Pat Johnson, encourages Canadians, particularly non-Jewish Canadians, to take a stand against antisemitism and antizionism. He started the event hosted at Temple Sholom by highlighting that Canada, which, until recent years, had been viewed as a nation of decency, fairness and pluralism, is now an international hotspot of antisemitism.<\/p>\n

Janet Dirks, a retired CTV National News reporter who worked for a time in Jerusalem, wondered, in her introduction of the featured speakers, why most newsrooms in the country have been reluctant to delve into the barrage of antisemitic incidents in Canada.<\/p>\n

\u201cIs there fear of angering those who identify as antizionist, anti-Israel? Is there a dread of covering something that might be too controversial? The fear of getting too many emails criticizing the story treatment from both sides? Is there a narrative I\u2019m not understanding?\u201d asked Dirks, who is a member of the Upstanders board.<\/p>\n

Citing a May 9 Toronto Sun<\/i> editorial, she said, \u201cThe problem with appealing to our governments and, indeed, to civil society to combat the unprecedented rise of hatred against Canada\u2019s Jewish citizens is that they were the ones who enabled it. By failing to punish countless examples of Jew-hatred ever since Hamas\u2019s terrorist attack on Israel on Oct. 7, they have normalized antisemitism in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Media Bias event took place on the heels of a May 11 opinion essay by veteran New York Times<\/i> journalist Nicholas Kristof, which accused Israeli prison guards and others of sexually abusing Palestinians. The Netanyahu government has subsequently sued the newspaper for defamation.<\/p>\n

Roberts faulted the Times<\/i> for not researching the allegations and examining if they withstood scrutiny.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019d be my opinion that every human institution is going to have some problems, but you look at that report and you look at the nature of the allegations, and they just don\u2019t hold the ring of truth,\u201d he said. \u201cThe other thing I\u2019ll say is this, you don\u2019t have to publish everything that\u2019s submitted to you, even by the marquee columnists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gordon led the discussion towards the National Post<\/i> and what he called its decidedly pro-Zionist stance, distinguishing it from other papers in Canada, with the possible exception of the Toronto Sun<\/i>. Roberts said his newspaper has sought to be \u201cfair and balanced\u201d \u2013 not inherently pro-Israel.<\/p>\n

The editor spoke about the paper\u2019s decision to drop the Associated Press and the Canadian Press. The decision wasn\u2019t made based on the organizations\u2019 reports from the Middle East, said Roberts, but rather the Post<\/i>\u2019s preference to not run the same material as other papers. Nonetheless, he did not express a high opinion of the AP\u2019s reporting from the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know the story about the bomb that Israel dropped in the hospital \u2013 except they didn\u2019t. That was AP, and it took them several hours to fix it,\u201d Roberts said. The Post<\/i> did not post that AP story, he noted, saying, \u201c\u2026 we can\u2019t simply trust even this venerable old wire service to do the job properly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roberts maintained that the Post<\/i>\u2019s policies of fact-checking and fostering open debate have served the paper well at a time when other publications are struggling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe try to be very responsible,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fact that people are asking whether journalism is dead is really good for us because we\u2019re thriving at the moment,\u201d adding that the Post is currently hiring.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Pat Johnson, founder of Upstanders Canada, announces the launch of Ask a Jew, an initiative inspired by Selina Robinson, who accepted the honour at the Vancouver event. (photo by Anna-Mae Wiesenthal)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Following the conversation, Brandon Lu, an Allied Voices for Israel student ambassador at the University of British Columbia, spoke briefly on the importance of a free press and an informed, discerning public.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the program, Johnson announced the creation of a new initiative \u2013 inspired by Selina Robinson \u2013 called Ask a Jew. Modeled on the Human Library concept, Ask a Jew promotes dialogue between curious, open-minded people and Jewish individuals for one-on-one online conversations. The hope is that such conversations will help build understanding and human connection.<\/p>\n

Robinson, the author of Truth Be Told<\/i> \u2013 about her experiences with antisemitism, notably within the BC NDP government, in which she was a senior minister for years \u2013 has been donating revenues from book sales to Upstanders Canada and the Parents Circle-Families Forum, a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization that advocates for peace. Robinson joined the Upstanders event in Vancouver, presenting Johnson with another cheque in addition to revenues from the book donated previously.<\/p>\n

Iddo Moed, ambassador of the state of Israel to Canada, attended the Ottawa event and addressed the audience, emphasizing the importance of allyship.<\/p>\n

For more information about Upstanders Canada, visit upstanderscanada.com<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sam Margolis <\/b>has written for the <\/i>Globe and Mail, the <\/i>National Post, UPI and MSNBC.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor-in-chief of the National Post Rob Roberts, left, in conversation with journalist Dave Gordon at Upstanders Canada\u2019s May 24 Media Bias event at Temple Sholom. (photo by Anna-Mae Wiesenthal) Media Bias: How Media has Mainstreamed Antisemitism and What to Do About It was the first live event held by Upstanders Canada. It featured a conversation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":49200,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[801,9962,24918,6531,4683,24917,3359,24916,7008,22202],"class_list":["post-49198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-antisemitism","tag-dave-gordon","tag-janet-dirks","tag-journalism","tag-media-bias","tag-national-post","tag-pat-johnson","tag-rob-roberts","tag-selina-robinson","tag-upstanders-canada"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}