Jewish advocates say Google’s pick to share $100 million shows bias

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After Google picked an organization to help decide how $100 million in funds will be distributed among Canadian news outlets, the organization’s independent board director recently expressed regret over sharing apparently antisemitic posts online in a statement to the National Post.

“I acknowledge that some of the content I reshared on social media adds to the pain of Jewish communities and I apologize for that unreservedly,” said Sadia Zaman. She was appointed independent board director of the Canadian Journalism Collective (CJC) earlier in June to distribute $100 million annually to Canadian journalism organizations.

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“I am unequivocally opposed to antisemitism and all violence against Jewish people. Immediately upon learning about these concerns, I reached out to leaders in the Jewish community to listen and will continue to do so. I have devoted my career to anti-racism work, and I will continue to speak out against racism, discrimination and violence in all its forms,” Zaman said in a statement on July 3.

Zaman currently serves as the CEO of the Inspirit Foundation, a Canadian non-profit organization working to promote inclusion and pluralism through media and arts. Previously, Zaman served as the managing director of the Royal Ontario Museum, a director at CBC News, and executive director of Women in Film and Television-Toronto.

Following National Post’s request for comment, the Inspirit Foundation issued an apology.

“The social media content reshared by CEO Sadia Zaman is inappropriate. For that, we unreservedly apologize to the Jewish community and others who were hurt by these actions,” James Chan and Deborah Irvine, Co-Chairs of the Inspirit Foundation said in an emailed statement to National Post on July 4. “Ms. Zaman has also expressed regret and apologized. Inspirit is unequivocally opposed to antisemitism and all violence against Jewish people. Ms. Zaman is in the process of contacting members of the Jewish community directly to express her regret for these social media posts.”

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A brief look at Sadia Zaman’s alleged anti-Israel reshares

Zaman’s X account was recently set to private, prior to which she allegedly retweeted several posts about the Israel-Gaza war that promoted misinformation, as per a report by Honest Canada Reporting.

Here’s a look at some of the tweets Zaman reshared this year:

Zaman retweeted a post by @Timesofgaza, a news organization providing daily updates from Gaza, on January 16, showing an image that reads, “Don’t let anyone tell you it started on October 7th 2023,” appearing to rationalize Hamas’ terrorist attacks on that day, notes Honest Canada Reporting.

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Zaman retweeted a post by @Jonathon_K_Cook, a British journalist XX, on January 16, which criticized media reporting of Hamas’ rapes which took place on October 7, disparaging testimonials, saying news coverage “recycles a supposed eyewitness account” from that day, according to Honest Report Canada.

Another tweet Zaman shared, posted by @kennardmatt, an English author and journalist, on January 30, which, according to Honest Reporting Canada, compares Israel to Nazi Germany. The tweet sharing claims that more children were dying daily in Gaza than at Auschwitz.

Zaman reshared claims first reported by Al-Jazeera, a news organization funded by the Qatari government, that IDF soldiers raped women during a raid from March 18 to April 1 on Al-Shifa Hospital, a central hospital in the Gaza Strip, which U.S. and Israeli military intelligence said Hamas used to run its military operations.

Zaman shared a tweet by @muhammadshehad2, a Gazan writer, on X, posted on Apr. 1, reasserting the claims. Former Al-Jazeera director Yasser Abu Hilalah wrote on X March 24 that Hamas had confirmed this was false.

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Zaman reshared a tweet by Breach Media, made on May 16, disparaging the CBC’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war. The Breach story shares a CBC producer’s account of how the CBC organization allegedly ‘whitewashed’ Israel’s horrors in Gaza. Breach Media is a client of Indiegraf and is represented by Dru Jay on the CJC’s steering committee.

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The CJC is closely connected to the private Indiegraf platform, which has six clients among the CJC’s 12 directors. The CJC was chosen over rival bidder, the Online News Media Collective (ONMC), which represents 95 per cent of news outlets in Canada, including an industry group to which Postmedia belongs. The ONMC has raised conflict-of-interest concerns with the CRTC that the collective could prioritize its own interests rather than the industry at large.

Lack of balance, warn Jewish advocates in Canada

“The Jewish community in Canada is deeply concerned about the objectivity and balanced perspectives of some members of the newly formed Canadian Journalism Collective Steering Committee,” CIJA president and CEO Shimon Koffler Fogel told National Post on June 27.

Fogel further said the CIJA is concerned that Zaman’s behaviour shows a lack of balance by the committee and could potentially affect the Collective’s distribution of funds.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will evaluate the CJC’s proposal to determine whether Google will receive an exemption from the Online News Act. The commission is asking for public comments on whether it should grant Google an exemption order.

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“[CIJA] will be applying to provide testimony at the upcoming CRTC hearings and bringing its concerns to the government regarding the profiles of the CJC steering committee,” Fogel said.

Fogel said CIJA aims to raise concerns about members who “have been associated with particularly aggressive anti-Israel sentiments” and a “lack of balance in the perspectives represented on the committee, as well as an almost incestuous relationship between many of the groups represented.”

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