Letter from Richard Sherman, Florida, to the CBC Ombudsman addressing CBC's reporting of Toronto's Palestinian flag raising, noting the flag represents ahistorical antisemitic messages

Dear Ombudsman,

On November 11 CBC Reports hosted by Tyler Cheese presented a one sided  " report"  ", Palestinian Flag Will Fly For 1st Time at City Hall" which is ahistorical and relied on a  documented anti semite to support a non existent " Palestinian" state.

The report fails to mention that " Palestine" is not a sovereign state with a permanent population, defined territory and a functioning government -- all requirements of a sovereign state according to the Montevideo Convention.

Further  it is unlikely that Tyler Cheese or anyone at City Hall in Toronto   knows as much about the Palestinian people as a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)

Zaheir Mohsen was a member of the Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization and a military commander of the PLO, and he declared "the Palestinian people" to be a propaganda invention.

In a 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper "Trouw", Mr.  Mohsen acknowledged that "the Palestinian people" were a propaganda invention:

"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we claim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan".

("The Palestinian Delusion", Robert Spencer, 2019, pp 95-96.)

As Mr. Spencer also makes clear:

"It is no accident that neither Mark Twain nor any of the series of English travelers who visited the area, nor anyone else who traveled through desolate Palestine over the centuries ever mentioned the "Palestinian" people..They spoke of encountering Muslim Arabs, as well as Jews, Christian Arabs, and others, but no one, among multitudes of people who wrote about Palestine, ever refers to any Palestinians. Nor do the many British white papers and other documents the British government produced during the Mandate period every mention the Palestinians. The opposing factions in those documents are the Jews and the Arabs.

"There is a very simple reason for this: there were no Palestinians." ( The Palestinian Delusion" pp 87-88).

Cheese brings in Bashar Al Shawwa as a guest who is on record as blaming the Jewish people of Israel for the murder, rape, beheadings, disembowelment, evisceration, cutting off breasts and slicing open vaginas of hundreds of Jewish women, girls, infants and Holocaust survivors on 10/7 -- a koranic horror perpetrated by 3800 Islamic sociopaths and 2200 Gazan civilian willing executioners. ("CBC Radio Host Amanda Pfeffer, Marking  Ceasefire in Gaza, Invites Two Guests Who Attack Israel including One, Bashar Shawwa, Who Blamed Israel for October 7", Honest Reporting Canada, 10/23/25).

See: "Screams Without Words': How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct 7", NY Times, 12/28/23);

Evidence Points to Systemic Use of Rape and Sexual Violence by Hamas in Oct 7 Attacks," Beth McKernan, The Guardian, 1/24/24; "U.N. Team Finds Grounds to Support Reports of Sexual Violence in Hamas Attacks", NY Times, 3/5/24)).

(See: "Screams Before Silence", Directed by Anat Stalinsky. Presented by Sheryl Sandberg.

Most importantly from the requirement of CBC journalistic standards Cheese and CBC Reports makes the ludicrous claim that notwithstanding the millions of dollars of resources of the CBC, CBC Reports was unable to locate a single Jewish source in the entire  City of Toronto to present an opposing point of view. Are you kidding?

Only an antisemitic journalist would wallow in such an antisemitic calumny.

How about the Consulate General of Israel in Toronto?

How about Bnai Brith in Toronto?

How about the Canadian Antisemitism Education Foundation( CAEF) in Toronto?

The list goes on and on.

The bottom line is that Tyler Cheese like so many CBC reporters is just another Joseph Goebbels wannabe whose " journalism" violates CBC standards.

Thank you.

Richard Sherman, Florida

See also:" CBC Report on Palestinian Flag- Raising at Toronto City Hall Fails to Interview a Single Opposing Guest, Or Even Give Voice to Their Objections", Honest Reporting Canada", 11/13/25.