Richard Sherman Challenges CBC-Radio Canada on Antisemitic Broadcast

Richard Sherman of Florida, has engaged constructively with CBC-Radio Canada on its handling of the situation in which a reporter, Elisa Serret, spoke antisemitic canards on a recent show in an interview with Christian Latreille.

Below we share the response from Luce Julien, Executive Director of Radio Canada and Sherman’s follow up message concerning the broader issue of misinformation that is regularly communicated on CBC-Radio Canada.      

Radio-Canada News Directorate has received your comment addressed to the Ombudsman regarding the remarks made by journalist Élisa Serret on the program Sur le terrain, broadcast on ICI RDI on September 15, 2025.

The ombudsman asked us to forward to you our response to the initial complaint : 

You condemned these remarks, calling them unacceptable, false, and antisemitic. We believe you are right.

Indeed, in response to a question from host Christian Latreille about the United States’ unwavering support for Israel, Ms. Serret conveyed erroneous and highly harmful prejudices against the Jewish community.

As a result, the News Directorate has relieved the journalist of her duties and issued an apology in this statement published on radio-canada.ca:

Clarification and Apology from Radio-Canada Regarding an Analysis Broadcast on ICI RDI

On September 15, 2025, on ICI RDI, an analysis by journalist Élisa P. Serret regarding U.S. policy in the Middle East led to stereotypical, antisemitic, false, and harmful allegations against Jewish communities.

These unacceptable comments violate Radio-Canada’s Journalistic Standards and Practices and in no way reflect the views of the public broadcaster. Consequently, the News Directorate has decided to relieve the journalist of her duties until further notice.

We recognize that these remarks have hurt many viewers. We are sincerely sorry and apologize to them and to the Jewish community. 

The News Directorate

We also deemed it necessary for a correction to be presented by the host of Sur le terrain the very next day. Mr. Latreille made the following clarification at 4 p.m. at the start of the program:

Yesterday, during our program, an analysis by my colleague, journalist Élisa Serret, regarding U.S. policy in the Middle East, provoked a strong reaction.

Élisa, in response to one of my questions, expressed remarks considered stereotypical, antisemitic, false, and harmful toward Jewish communities.

We recognize that these remarks offended many viewers, and we apologize. In the heat of the moment, I acknowledge that I should have intervened.

As a public broadcaster, Radio-Canada cannot allow statements that perpetuate prejudices against groups of citizens to be aired on our network. This goes against the fundamental principles of Radio-Canada’s Journalistic Standards and Practices (JSP), such as impartiality, accuracy, balance, fairness, and integrity.

We take this matter very seriously. The News Directorate has already met with several of its teams, and the internal process is ongoing.

We hope this response will meet your expectations.

Sincerely,

Luce Julien

Executive Director of Radio-Canada News and Current Affairs

Radio-Canada

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Response from Richard Sherman to Luce Julien, September 24, 2025

Dear Luce Julien, Executive Director of Radio Canada:

First I wish to commend the courageous position of Radio Canada in recognizing the evil that antisemitic broadcasting and the silence when confronted by antisemitic broadcasting represents to the Jewish people.

During the 1930s and early 1940s antisemitic broadcasting in Germany, Vichy France and many other parts of Europe demonstrated that such antisemitic broadcasting was first the precursor and then the companion of horrendous violence against the Jewish people.

At this point I wish to interject one piece of Jewish history that is constantly denied by antisemitic broadcasters, commentators and journalists throughout North America under the antisemitic calumny of "settler-colonialist".

About 1250 BCE the Jewish people established the indigenous homeland of Jewish people, Israel. First as a confederation of 12 Jewish tribes and subsequently as a sovereign Jewish kingdom.

Around 772 BCE the Kingdom of Israel was colonized first by the Assyrians/Persians and subsequently by the Greeks. During this time Jews continued to live in their indigenous homeland of Israel but without sovereignty.

In 332 BCE the Greeks colonized the Kingdom of Israel. Once again Jews resided there but without sovereignty.

However, in 167 BCE the Jewish people (the House of Hasmoneans) defeated the Greeks DECOLONIZING the Kingdom of Israel and returning the land to Jewish sovereignty. This decolonization is represented by the Festival of Hanukkah.

Unfortunately beginning in 63 BCE and continuing until 1948 seven different peoples colonized the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people, the Kingdom of Israel: the Romans, the Byzantines, the Muslims, the Crusaders, the Mamlucks, the Ottomans and the British. During these 2000 years despite being colonized Jews continued to live on their indigenous homeland.

Then in 1948 for the second time the Jewish people DECOLONIZED their indigenous homeland and returned it to Jewish sovereignty...and the Kingdom of Israel was restablished.

As historian Ben M. Freeman has written: " Never before has an indigenous people been colonized and exiled from their land and then able to reclaim their sovereignty 2000 years later." See: " The Jews. An Indigenous People." Ben M.Freeman. page 244. 2025.

As you can see, nowhere in this history of the Jewish people are they colonizing anyone.  They are being colonized over and over.

Claiming that the Jewish people are "settler colonialists" is   just one example of the antisemitic inversion of history that antisemitic reporters, commentators and broadcasters profusely use.

I must add here that NPR, your equivalent in the United States, takes the opposite view of Radio Canada concerning antisemitic broadcasting. Everyday they have reporters and commentators spewing the identical antisemitic garbage as Elisa Secret and have no problem with it. I know they ignore letters criticizing the antisemitism that has become endemic to NPR.

This latter point is why I know that the courage that you have displayed in attempting to eliminate the scourge of jew hatred from broadcasting is going to be tested.

There are forces in journalism/broadcasting today committed to infecting the industry with antisemitism. I am sure that you see that in the influx of antisemitic reporting in the Canadian private sector's newspapers and broadcasters.

Finally, I would be remiss if I did not warn you of the many "as a Jews" in journalism/broadcasting who feel their status as " as a Jews" allows them to promulgate antisemitism against the Jewish people of Israel. Unfortunately, Judaism has always produced antisemitic Jews such as Gertrude Stein and Hannah Arendt. Do not allow your courageous position in fighting antisemitism to be mollified by "as a Jews" who often internalize Jew hatred.

I began this letter commending Radio Canada for its courage. I will end it on a similar vein. Aristotle said: " Courage is the first of human qualities, because it is the only quality that guarantees all others". More recently Winston Churchill and Ernest Hemingway expressed similar thoughts.

Radio Canada's courage guarantees the truth about the Jewish people to be broadcast, and antisemitic fictional narratives about the Jewish people to be declared as nothing more than antisemitic fictional narratives about the Jewish people.

Thank you again Luce Julian and thank you Radio Canada for courageously joining this battle. You have more supporters than you realize.

Richard Sherman