Canadas state-funded broadcaster has been forced into an embarrassing retreat after an internal directive instructing journalists not to describe the September 11 attacks as terrorism sparked public outrage and a growing campaign to oust a senior newsroom executive.
The controversy erupted when an internal memo from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) was leaked, revealing that staff had been told, "Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks," as reported by The Post Millennial. The guidance, issued by CBC's senior director of journalistic standards and public trust, Basem Boshra, immediately raised questions about political correctness overriding plain truth in coverage of one of the most consequential attacks on Western civilization.
The memo instead framed the atrocities as hijackings that resulted in passenger jets crashing into the World Trade Center and other government buildings, language critics saw as a deliberate softening of Islamist terrorism. Facing intense backlash, the CBC issued a statement insisting it did not want to "minimize or obscure the horror of that day and who was behind it," while defending its broader policy, saying, "It is the practice of the CBC to exercise extreme caution before using the words terrorist and terrorism.'"
According to the broadcaster, the directive was meant as a procedural reminder rather than a political statement, claiming, "The memo was a reminder of the longstanding practice that favours the use of these terms with attribution in our reporting." Yet the plain wording of the leaked note, and the timing so many years after 9/11, fueled suspicions that the CBCs taxpayer-funded newsroom was more concerned with ideological sensitivities than with moral clarity.
After the leak, Boshra attempted damage control in a blog post, asserting there had been a "swirl of confusion" about the internal guidance. He argued the memo had been shared "without context," and maintained that the intention was merely to ensure that describing 9/11 as a terror attack would be done with proper attribution.
That explanation did little to calm critics, and the CBC ultimately reversed itself, conceding that attribution is "no longer required" to state the obviousthat 9/11 was an act of terrorism. "After reviewing our current language guidance, we have decided to adjust it to clarify that direct attribution is not required for describing the historic events of 9/11 as terrorism," Boshra wrote on the CBC editors blog, a climbdown that underscored how far the institution had drifted before public pressure forced a correction.
The backlash has now moved beyond language policy and toward accountability for those who tried to sanitize the record. A petition demanding Boshras removal from his post has already gathered more than 3,000 signatures, signaling deep frustration with what many see as an elite media culture that refuses to speak plainly about jihadist violence even a quarter-century into the war on terror.
"The September 11 attacks were acts of terrorism that claimed nearly 3,000 lives and left an indelible mark on global history. By choosing to minimize the gravity of these attacks in our media, we risk not only distorting historical facts but also diminishing the profound sacrifice and enduring pain of the victims and their families," the petition declares, directly challenging the CBCs judgment. It further insists that Canadian media carry the "responsibility of upholding integrity and framing events truthfully" and urges, "Please sign this petition to urge CBC News to take decisive action and remove Basem Boshra from his post at their organization," a demand that resonates strongly with those who believe that, under President Trumps renewed emphasis on national strength and Western values, institutions funded by the public must finally stop equivocating about terrorism and start telling the truth.
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