Former Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau will reportedly return to the international stage next week when he speaks at a summit in Switzerland.

According to the U.K.-based brand valuation consultancy Brand Finance, the 54-year-old former head of government will deliver the keynote address at its annual Global Soft Power Summit on Tuesday in Davos.

Trudeau’s scheduled 50-minute appearance includes a fireside discussion with David Haigh, Brand’s chairman and CEO.

The half-day event, which serves as the launch point for the firm’s 2026 “soft power” index, is happening alongside the

World Economic Forum’s (WEF) annual meeting

in the Swiss city, Jan. 19 to 21.

While Trudeau doesn’t appear on the WEF’s event calendar, current Prime Minister Mark Carney is scheduled to speak a few hours after his predecessor on Tuesday afternoon in the ski resort city.

The theme for this year’s summit is “Soft Power in a Hard Power World: Investing in Economic Resilience in an Era of Global Conflicts.”

National Post has contacted Brand for comment on Trudeau’s appearance.

“The Summit will convene senior leaders from government, and business, to explore the growing importance of soft power in a rapidly changing global landscape,” according to Brand.

The Global Soft Power Summit 2026 will convene in Davos on 20th January 2026, bringing together leaders from government, business, and civil society to explore the role of soft power in a rapidly changing world. The event will also be streamed live online.

We are honoured to… pic.twitter.com/dtsC7QM6yS

— Brand Finance (@BrandFinance) January 13, 2026

Coined by political scientist Joseph Nye Jr. in the 1980s, “soft power” is a country’s “ability to influence others without resorting to coercive pressure,” according to the

Council on Foreign Relations.

Conversely, “hard power,” is gauged through military and financial might.

Each year since 2019, Brand has released a ranking of 193 United Nations member countries’ “soft power” based on insights from more than 150,000 respondents in over 100 markets. The ranking is derived using global opinion surveys and objective data to gauge culture, education and science, diplomacy, governance, business and trade, values and trust.

As it has been since 2022, Canada was ranked seventh in the

2025 index

, but third in reputation. The U.S., by comparison, ranked first overall, but was 15th in reputation.

Brand also awards “metaphorical medals” to the top three performances in each sub-category, with Canada claiming two gold — one for generosity and another for tolerance and inclusivity. It was also awarded five silver and seven bronze.

“Canada’s soft power is built on inclusivity, safety, and human rights,” the index notes. “Its 14 medals focus on diplomacy, education, and sustainable development. Known for friendliness and tolerance, Canada attracts immigrants and global businesses seeking stability and ethical governance.”

Outside of the speech he gave when handing reins of the Liberal Party to Carney at the leadership convention in March, this will be just Trudeau’s third reported public speaking appearance since he left politics.

Last September, amid rumours about a fledgling courtship of U.S. pop star Katy Perry that have since turned out to be true, Trudeau delivered the keynote at the 26th World Knowledge Forum’s opening ceremonies in Seoul.

In front of an audience of global business and political leaders, Trudeau’s speech titled “Leadership and Resilience in a Time of Transition,” warned that international order is under threat by ongoing conflicts and geopolitical tensions, according to the

Asian News International

agency.

”To navigate the transition, resilience should be in the middle of it,” he said, as reported by the

Manila Bulletin.

“We need every single person to be part of the resilient communities, societies, and systems.”

About a month later, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs awarded him the 2025 Global Leader honours, where he also delivered an acceptance speech.

Trudeau is represented by the Speaker Booking Agency, which quotes his

in-person appearances starting at $100,000

.

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OTTAWA — U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to occupy Greenland will only make Canada’s sovereignty claims in the Arctic more vulnerable, defence analysts says.

Former chief of the defence staff retired Gen. Tom Lawson said the U.S. setting a precedent of taking Greenland for strategic hemispheric purposes should put the Canadian government on high alert.

“In fact, I think it would be fair to say that Denmark’s claim to sovereignty over Greenland is far stronger than Canada’s claim to sovereignty up to the North Pole for the entire archipelago,” said Lawson, who currently serves as chair of the Conference of Defence Associations Institute.

During a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister of Denmark Mette Frederiksen last week in Paris, Prime Minister Mark Carney said the future of Greenland will be determined “solely” by the people of Denmark and Greenland. Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand will also visit Nuuk, Greenland, in the coming weeks for the opening of Canada’s consulate in the region.

Lawson said recent investments by Carney’s government to bolster a military presence in the North, is an acknowledgement that Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic is under threat.

In addition to the increasing defence spending to five per cent of GDP by 2035, the federal government has recently announced $1 billion in funding over four years to improve civilian and military transportation infrastructure in the Arctic, a partnership with Australia to develop Arctic Over-the-Horizon Radar, and has made an initial investment to develop next-gen military satellite communications for Arctic operations.

Lawson said while these efforts are admirable, it may not be enough.

“Whether it’s enough to offset American desire to own territory in the north?” said Lawson. “I don’t know.”

Greenland, an autonomous territory which belongs to the Kingdom of Denmark, a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), is an island of strategic importance in the Atlantic Ocean.

Trump has stepped up his threats to occupy the island in recent weeks, noting that if the U.S. doesn’t take Greenland, Russia and China will.

“One way or another, we will have Greenland,” he told reporters on Sunday.

Amid rising tensions, the Danish and Greenlandic foreign ministers will meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday.

“If they were to acquire Greenland, it would be the first step in eventually acquiring control over all of northern North America,” said Whitney Lackenbauer, research chair of the study of the Canadian North at Trent University.

This is not the first time Trump has expressed the desire for the U.S. to own Greenland. In 2019, Trump publicly confirmed his administration’s interest to buy the island, likening it to a real estate deal.

Now Trump is using the rationale of U.S. security interests in the Western Hemisphere, what is now being dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine” a re-imagining of the Monroe Doctrine that dates back to the 19th century under former U.S. President James Monroe, which aimed to stop European Nations from intervening in newly independent states in the hemisphere.

“It’s such a bizarre distortion of the Monroe Doctrine, which was about not allowing non- North American powers to assert and control North America,” said Lackenbauer.

Frederiksen has vehemently opposed any encroachment by the U.S. over its sovereignty in Greenland.

The U.S. has a longstanding relationship in place with the Kingdom of Denmark and Greenland that goes back to 1951, which gives the U.S. an established military presence in the region.

Lackenbauer does not buy the rationale that Trump is threatening to occupy Greenland based solely for security purposes.

“It’s telling that the Trump White House has not come back with any specific asks,” he said. “And that, to me, points to the fact that this is smoke and mirrors and this is about America wanting to grow.”

Robert Huebert, director of the centre for military, security and strategic studies at the University of Calgary, said there are a few possibilities of how the U.S. could assert itself in the North.

“The first part that we’ve always been concerned with is that the Americans would say we’re not pulling our weight, and they would go to systems that don’t need Canadian territory,” he said.  “In other words, cut us out, so that NORAD either becomes hollow or doesn’t even become functioning.”

The second possibility is that the U.S. establishes over-the-horizon radar stations in the high Arctic Archipelago.

Recent events like the removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro from power and Trump’s threats against Colombia and Cuba demonstrate a more aggressive shift in U.S. foreign policy to protect its hemispheric interests.

“I think the EU and Canada, all of us are tiptoeing around Trump because we know he is very volatile,” said Andrea Charron, director of the Centre for Defence and Security Studies at the University of Manitoba.

“We are all economically very dependent on the U.S. and militarily dependent on the U.S.”

Charron said a potential rupture in NATO and Trump’s “Donroe Doctrine” runs the risk of creating “strong men” spheres of influence across the world.

“This then gives the nod to Russia to continue to control its sphere of influence and perhaps continue to try and annex Ukraine,” she said. “And China is going to take this as a licence to be able to dominate its area of the world.”

Ultimately, this raises the risk of potential global conflict.

“We’ve seen in history when you have this multi-polarity and these multiple spheres of influence, there’s the greatest likelihood of conflict because of this increased great power competition,” said Charron.

“And then accidents and incidents are more likely to be interpreted as nefarious, and everybody comes out swinging.”

National Post

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A 33-year-old Canadian man travelling in New Zealand, where he lived with a single mother and her four children, was sentenced for possessing child exploitation material last week and will be deported after serving his time.

Joshua Kuyten, whose place of origin in Canada is not immediately clear, who had pleaded guilty to pos­sess­ing objec­tion­able mater­ial not long after his initial arrest last March, was given a reduced sentence of 10 months of house arrest followed by a swift return to Canada, according to

Radio New Zealand

(RNZ) and

The Press in Christchurch

, where the offence occurred.

In an exclusive interview with the latter, Kuyten’s former partner, who first alerted police after finding content showing the sexual exploitation of minors on his laptop, explained that she’d met him on the Tinder dating app in 2024. He moved in with her and the children at the end of the year.

“He hon­estly seemed like an extremely trust­worthy, lovely, kind per­son,” said the woman, whose identity was withheld.

In March, sensing “something wasn’t right,” she searched his laptop and found a screen recording labelled “little girl” showing a child being sexually exploited

After being confronted, the woman said he vehemently denied intentionally finding the material and insisted he planned to contact the authorities himself.

After an argument a week later, she searched his device again and found a folder of files that had been deleted the day after their first confrontation.

After hiding the laptop and documenting what she’d found, she confronted Kuyten again, at which point she said he “finally broke down and admitted it,” after which she forced him out of her house and called the police.

“It’s hon­estly something I will never, ever get over. Unfor­tu­nately, those videos and images are burned into my memory,” she told The Press. “It’s not something I would wish on any­body.”

The woman said he never inappropriately touched any of her four children, but said he sometimes made them feel uncomfortable.

“It reframes every inter­ac­tion that had happened… it’s hor­ri­fy­ing,” she said.

Kuyten was promptly arrested and his seized devices were found to contain 2,680 images and 357 videos that were identified as objectionable — almost 600 of them involved children 13 or younger, RNZ reported from court.

Kuyten admitted to purchasing two packages of exploitation material, but denied having viewed all of the files individually.

“The cre­ation of these videos and images involves ser­i­ous harm to the chil­dren involved, and it only hap­pens because people like you choose to see it,” Judge Jane Mcmeeken told Kuyten in court last Friday, where his mother reportedly had trav­elled from Canada for his pro­ceed­ings.

“Your downloading of this abhorrent material encourages its production and fuels its demand. This type of offending must always be condemned as an evil that victimized some of the most vulnerable among us, she said.

National Post has contacted the court for more information on Kuyten and the prosecution’s case against him.

While the judge highlighted that the maximum penalty for pos­sess­ing objec­tion­able mater­ial is 10 years, she started with a sentence of three years and two months in prison before reducing it to “home detention” based on Kuyten’s individual circumstances. According to RNZ, eight months were removed due to his early guilty plea, two months for prior good character and four months for his undisclosed ongoing health issues. Another four months were knocked off for his potential for rehabilitation, which the court heard has already begun with the help of an expert psychologist.

Other conditions of his sentence include a mandatory treatment program, no unsupervised contact with minors under 16 and no use of the internet without approval or supervision.

National Post has contacted Global Affairs Canada for comment on Kuyten’s sentencing and to inquire about any restrictions he may face upon deportation to Canada.

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Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our daily newsletter, Posted, here.

Passengers can be at ease while travelling on Canadian carriers, some of the country’s major airlines say, after a new study claims many U.S. airlines are using “potentially unhealthy water” for coffee, tea and hand-washing.

Air Canada, Flair Airlines, and Air Transat told National Post that they adhere to water safety guidelines. (WestJet did not immediately respond to National Post’s request.)

For the

2026 Airline Water Study

, researchers tested water provided on flights between October 2022 and September 2025. They observed 10 major airlines and 11 regional airlines. The findings by Center for Food as Medicine & Longevity were released in late December.

“Airlines often respond to our findings by saying they comply with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines. But the public should understand that all of this data is self-reported by the airlines, and enforcement depends on their accurate reporting and follow-through,” Dr. Charles Platkin, the study’s author and the executive director of the Center for Food as Medicine & Longevity, told National Post.

“More importantly, compliance should be the floor, not the ceiling — and this study examines whether airlines are actually doing enough to protect passengers and treat them with care while onboard. What does care look like? It means passengers can drink a cup of coffee or tea without hesitation, wash their hands with confidence, and trust that clean, safe water is available throughout their flight.”

Researchers warned travellers to “never drink any water onboard that isn’t in a sealed bottle,” and to stay away from coffee or tea offered on flights. They also said that an alcohol-based sanitizer should be used instead of washing hands in an airplane bathroom.

“Airplane drinking water is stored in onboard tanks and distributed through plumbing to galleys and lavatories,” the study says. “These systems can face stagnation, temperature fluctuation, and maintenance complexity, all of which can contribute to microbial contamination risk or persistent hygiene challenges.”

Airlines were given a score out of five followed by a letter grade based on a variety of factors, including whether or not

coliform bacteria or

E. coli were found in the water, and the frequency of disinfecting and flushing an aircraft’s water tank. Coliform can be an indicator that “suggests potential fecal contamination or inadequate disinfection.” A grade of A or B indicated that “an airline has relatively safe, clean water,” according to researchers.

The highest scoring major airlines were Delta Air Lines and Frontier Airlines, which both received a Grade A.

Following close behind were Alaska Airlines and Allegiant Air, which both received Grade B. Trailing further behind were the major airlines that received a Grade C, which included Southwest Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and United Airlines.

But the lowest scoring major airlines, according to the study, were Spirit Airlines, JetBlue, and American Airlines. They all received a Grade D.

Regional airlines in the study struggled in comparison to the major airlines, with nearly all of them — except for GoJet Airline — needing to improve their water safety.

At the top of the list, GoJet received a Grade B. Meanwhile, Piedmont Airlines, Sun Country Airlines and Endeavor Air received C grades.

The Grade D group was the largest for the regional carriers, featuring SkyWest Airlines, Envoy Air, PSA Airlines, Air Wisconsin Airlines, Republic Airways and CommuteAir. The lowest grade received by any airline across the entire study was an F, given to Mesa Airlines.

Canadian airlines, meanwhile, reassured travellers of their water safety standards. Wes Cruickshank, who is the VP of Maintenance at Flair Airlines, said that Flair follows “rigorous standards for onboard water safety.”

“All potable water is sourced from approved airport facilities, routinely tested, and maintained through regular sanitation, with aircraft potable water systems. Additionally, Flair has a Potable Water Control Program,” he said. “Onboard coffee and tea are instant and prepared fresh using potable water, and bottled water is available for purchase onboard.”

A spokesperson for Air Transat said that the potable water on its aircrafts is safe and “regularly tested to meet strict standards, in full compliance with Canadian and provincial regulations.”

A spokesperson for Air Canada told National Post that Canadian airlines are governed by the Department of Health Act’s Potable Water on Board Trains, Vessels, Aircraft and Buses Regulations.”

“Our potable water management program, which exceeds the requirements governing the airline industry, is regularly audited by the Public Health Agency of Canada,” said the airline.

As of 2011, the Aircraft Drinking Water Rule came into effect in the United States, requiring airlines to test water tanks for coliform bacteria and possible E. coli, the study explains. There were a total of 35,674 sample locations tested for coliform across all of the airlines in the study. “Of these, 949 locations (2.66 per cent) tested positive for total coliform,” according to the study. E. coli was present at 50 locations.

Platkin said access to clean water isn’t a luxury, it’s a basic expectation. “And while getting someone safely from point A to point B is essential, how passengers are treated during that journey matters too,” he said. “Airlines should focus not only on meeting minimum requirements, but on doing better and showing greater care for the people they serve. Passengers deserve that.”

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A Turkish citizen who lost his refugee status in Canada after allegedly depositing counterfeit cheques at a Canadian bank and moving home for nine years has won another shot at regaining his status here as a protected person.

Musa Durmus was granted refugee protection in Canada in January 2001 “based on his fear of persecution due to his political activity and Kurdish identity,” according to a recent Federal Court ruling out of Toronto.

After over 12 years in Canada, Durmus returned to Turkey, where he bribed a judge to change his first name, remained for about nine years, married and had two children, said the decision.

Durmus “has a grade five-level education and limited knowledge of English,” it said.

He applied for permanent residence in Canada shortly after his refugee claim was granted “but his application remained in progress for many years and remained pending when he left Canada in January 2012.”

Durmus “alleged that shortly after arriving (back) in Turkey, he was arrested and beaten by government officials,” said the decision.

“Shortly after, Mr. Durmus paid a bribe to have his first name legally changed and then obtained a national identification card and a Turkish passport with this new name. For approximately the next nine years, Mr. Durmus lived in Turkey. He was employed there, got married, bought a home and had two children.”

Durmus “also alleged that he was politically active in Turkey during this time and that in 2016 was detained and beaten on account of his political activity.

In March 2021, Durmus left Turkey with his wife and children.

“They went to the United States via Mexico. Approximately two months later, in May 2021, Mr. Durmus entered Canada. Mr. Durmus’ wife and children later entered Canada and were permitted to file refugee claims. Their refugee claims were accepted on the basis of their association with Mr. Durmus,” said the decision.

In his wife and children’s case, the RPD found that “given the past detentions of the claimants’ husband/father and his heavy involvement in Canadian Kurdish community activities, that there is a serious possibility that the claimants would face harm if they were to return to Turkey due to their familial connection to him that would amount to persecution.”

Shortly after Durmus returned to Canada, Canada’s immigration minister at the time applied to the Refugee Protection Division (RPD) “for cessation of his convention refugee status.“

It found in September 2023 that Durmus had “voluntarily reavailed himself of the protection of Turkey,” which resulted in Durmus losing his protected person status in Canada.

The RPD did not make a finding on the circumstances that led to his departure from Canada, said the decision. “The RPD found that even if it accepted Mr. Durmus’ version of events, his return to Turkey was voluntary. The RPD weighed various factors, including Mr. Durmus’ lack of understanding of the immigration consequences of his return to Turkey and the security precautions he took, specifically his name change, but found that overall, given the length of time and the nature of Mr. Durmus’ activities in Turkey, his intention to reavail had been established. The RPD further found that Mr. Durmus received actual diplomatic protection.”

The circumstances surrounding his departure from Canada in January 2012 “are not clear and were not ultimately determined by the RPD,” Justice Lobat Sadrehashemi wrote in her Jan. 9 decision.

“The minister alleged that a few days prior to leaving Canada, Mr. Durmus deposited counterfeit cheques at a Canadian bank. Approximately ten months later, the York Regional Police issued a warrant for Mr. Durmus’ arrest.”

For his part, Durmus testified he returned to Turkey “because his father had a surgery the year prior, his own mental health difficulties relating to his repeated interviews with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the lengthy delay in processing his permanent resident application,” said the decision.

The “determinative issue” for the judge was the RPD’s treatment of his name change in Turkey.

“The RPD accepted that Mr. Durmus had changed his name and lived under a different name in Turkey for most of the nine years he was living there,” Sadrehashemi said.

“The RPD’s treatment of this key issue and how it impacted its analysis of his intention to reavail and whether he received ‘actual’ protection is not adequately explained. The decision is unreasonable because it does not allow us to ‘understand the decision maker’s reasoning on a critical point’ and leaves unanswered questions that are central to determining the application.”

The judge allowed Durmus’ application for judicial review.

“The RPD decision dated September 14, 2023 is quashed and the matter is sent back to be redetermined by a different decision-maker,” Sadrehashemi said.

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The Canadian federation for the sport of skeleton is defending a decision to withdraw athletes from an international event on Sunday, a move a former U.S. Olympic athlete and two-time world champion alleges torpedoed her chance of attending a sixth Games.

According to a statement from Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, four of the program’s “younger athletes” were removed from a North American Cup race in Lake Placid, N.Y., an event on the lower-tier developmental circuit’s calendar where competitors from any nation can earn points to qualify for the upcoming Milan Cortina Games in Italy.

BCS said the racers, “relatively new to the sport,” had already “experienced a particularly challenging week on the track,” and it was decided, in consultation with two International Bobsled and Skeleton Federation (ISBF) officials, that it was in the best interest of the athlete and the program to remove them from the third race of the week.

In interviews with the

London Times

and

DW

, five-time U.S. Olympian Katie Uhlaender alleges that Canadian coach Joe Cecchini, whom she identified as “a friend of 20 years,” revealed his plan to her in a courtesy phone call two days before. He allegedly said his goal was to “eliminate any possibilities” of another senior Canadian competitor missing the Olympics — identified by DW as two-time Canadian Olympian Jane Channell — by protecting the national team’s ISBF ranking.

“He did not have to do that. He did it because he could. And it wasn’t to protect his athletes; it was to manipulate the system,” said Uhlaender, who has never medalled at previous Olympics. “He waited until after everyone was registered and gave the illusion that the Canadians were going to be competing. He wanted to make sure that we could not get full points.”

National Post has contacted Uhlaender for comment.

Under

its rules

, qualification is calculated using points earned at sanctioned events, where the number of athletes who start a race directly determines how many points can be awarded. The qualification window closes next Sunday, drastically reducing a given athlete’s ability to earn required points.

As it happens, Uhlaender would win gold in Sunday’s race, but a field of 21 competitors left her short on points. The 41-year-old is

ranked

20th globally, but third among U.S. sliders, leaving her outside of the Olympic picture. (The top-ranked Canadian sliders are 21-year-old Hallie Clarke, who is 12th overall, and Channell, currently ranked 26th and clinging to an Olympic berth heading into this weekend’s final World Cup event before the Olympics.)

“I hadn’t let go of the dream yet,” Uhlaender told the Times. “I don’t get to have a shot now. It was over before I had a chance.”

Uhlaender also claims that Cecchini, who competed for Italy at the 2018 Games, said it wasn’t his responsibility to “uplift” the competition.

DW, meanwhile, obtained an email reported sent by Cecchini to Canadian team members that framed the decision as being “in the best interests of the national team,” aimed at understanding the qualification points scenarios and managing confirmed start numbers.

In emails to National Post, the ISBF said it would reserve comment while its integrity unit investigates the incident, while the U.S. federation said it will await that decision.

In its statement, BCS said it knows the athletes’ removal had an impact, but “it is well understood within the sport that development circuits do not carry fixed points.”

“The National Skeleton Program has always treated the development circuit as exactly that — a developmental environment — not a pathway for Olympic qualification.”

“BCS remains confident that its actions were appropriate, transparent, and aligned with both athlete welfare and the integrity of the sport.”

The federation said Uhlaender’s allegation that the young Canadians wanted to race and were scared to tell Cecchini “could not be further from the truth.”

According to the Times, U.S. head coach Andrew Blasser and three other national coaches sent the International Olympic Committee athletes’ commission a formal complaint warning of what they called potential “sport manipulation and unethical conduct.”

It alleges that the Canadian athletes had been registered and reported to the track that day only to be told they were being withdrawn. The coaches argued that the late exits appeared designed to push the field below the threshold for full participation points, thereby putting athletes from multiple countries at a disadvantage.

DW later identified the others as coaches for Denmark, Israel and Malta.

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Less than 40 per cent of CBC’s reporting on the Israel-Hamas conflict was “balanced or neutral,” finds a new study by a Jewish advocacy group.

B’nai Brith Canada also found that more than 50 per cent of CBC’s news articles and videos included in the study met its threshold for pro-Palestinian bias, while less than seven per cent met the threshold for pro-Israel bias. This was based on a sample of 299 items published between Oct. 1, 2024 to April 30, 2025.

The pieces reviewed included reporting on military operations, humanitarian conditions, diplomatic initiatives, hostage negotiations and Canadian domestic implications, such as protests or antisemitic-related incidents.

The purpose of the report is to evaluate “whether CBC’s English-language online coverage during that period met public-broadcaster expectations of balance and impartiality.”

“For generations, CBC has been a fixture in Canadian homes: trusted, valued, and woven into our national life. This is not about factual inaccuracies or intentional distortions. It’s about what Canadians deserve: a public broadcaster they can count on for neutral, impartial, and fair reporting,” the group wrote in a post on X about the study.

“It’s time for the CBC to regain that trust.”

B’nai Brith Canada said it was requesting a meeting to review the study’s findings with CBC.

An independent study from B’nai Brith Canada is putting hard numbers behind a growing national concern: systemic bias within CBC’s coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

The study analyzed hundreds of English‑language CBC reports over a six‑month period. The findings (from Oct… pic.twitter.com/m7GpSSV51U

— B’nai Brith Canada (@bnaibrithcanada) January 12, 2026

“We routinely get requests by special interest groups interested in meeting with us in order to influence our coverage of the news,” Chuck Thompson told National Post. He is CBC’s head of public affairs.

“We generally decline these requests in order to safeguard the independence of our journalism. However, we are open to criticism and will review this report closely as we do all public and private communication.”

While the CBC’s recurring patterns of framing, contextual omission, presentation, and sourcing are “consistent” with the dynamics of conflict reporting, the study says, such patterns should not be found in the context of Canadian public broadcasting.

That is at the heart of the issue, researchers explained, and “raises questions about institutional practices and standards.”

The CBC has faced

scrutiny about its coverage

of Israel-Hamas conflict from many in the Jewish community since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists murder 1,200 people and took 251 hostages, sparking a war in the Middle East.

In February,

an intervention was filed

over “continuing concerns about the CBC’s pattern of inaccurate, unfair, and unbalanced news coverage of Israel” after October 7 on behalf of Jewish advocacy group the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and HonestReporting Canada, a pro-Israel watchdog group.

In September, a

Radio-Canada journalist was placed on leave

for what CIJA referred to as “antisemitic” comments she made on air. In October, CBC’s president and CEO

Marie-Philippe Bouchard told the Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage

that she condemned the comments made by the journalist — but said the broadcaster didn’t “have to stop everything to do a full investigation” into antisemitism.

The study notes that the CBC has a unique role as a public broadcaster and has “a statutory obligation to provide balanced and impartial coverage of matters of public interest.”

“That responsibility is especially consequential in the context of protracted and highly contested international conflicts, where reporting choices can shape public understanding, influence domestic discourse, and affect social cohesion,” the study says.

Thompson said CBC News was made aware of the study earlier on Monday. It said it was not “involved or consulted prior to its release.”

“Since the Hamas-led attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, CBC News has published thousands of stories on the conflict in Gaza on all of our platforms; the sample examined by the B’nai Brith study includes only a portion of that coverage. We invite the public to review the breadth and depth of our work on this complex and polarizing story,” Thompson said, providing

a link to its coverage.

“As with all its journalism, CBC’s coverage of the conflict in Gaza is bound by our rigorous Journalistic Standards and Practices (JSP), the foundational principles of which are fairness, accuracy, balance, integrity and impartiality.”

Thompson said CBC News is “accountable to the independent CBC Ombud.” Since the start of the conflict, he said that the Ombud has conducted formal reviews of audience complaints of their reporting, but none have found its coverage “violated our journalistic standards of impartiality.”

The study does not intend to single out any journalists, B’nai Brith says, but is meant to indicate that there are “structural pressures that shape coverage in predictable ways,” such as “heavy reliance on international humanitarian organizations, foregrounding of humanitarian impact without equivalent causal context, asymmetrical emotional language, and selective omission of initiating actions are all practices that fall well within standard journalistic norms.”

Researchers also found that, on average, there was a negative tone toward Israel and the Jewish community.

“Fair and balanced reporting matters because the way this conflict is covered shapes how people understand it and how they respond,” writer and pro-Israel advocate

Aviva Klompas

told National Post.

“For Canadians, this matters because distorted reporting hardens views, deepens polarization, and undermines trust in media and public institutions. It also creates a climate in which Jews are blamed for events thousands of miles away, based on false or incomplete information.”

She added: “When coverage crosses from reporting into pushing a narrative, it puts real people at risk.”

The study recommends that CBC have periodic, internal structural reviews of conflict-related coverage. It says that its editorial standards should have clearer internal guidance regarding contextual completeness and sourcing practices, and that it should increase institutional awareness of how narrative framing and emotional emphasis accumulate across coverage as a whole.

Researchers acknowledged the study’s limitations, included its scope and timeline, and that it did not assess Radio-Canada, CBC’s French-language counterpart. The 299 items were coded across four independently defined dimensions of structural bias: framing, selection of contextual information, presentation and language, and sourcing. “Each dimension was coded using explicit thresholds and a binary scoring system,” the study says.

“These findings do not suggest factual inaccuracy, unethical conduct or deliberate advocacy by CBC journalists,” researchers said. “They point instead to recurring structural patterns that, in aggregate, produce a skewed interpretive environment.”

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