HonestReporting Canada is obsessed with The Link
Stop harassing 20-year-old journalists, you’re weird
The Israel lobby, HonestReporting Canada (HRC), has had an obsession with The Link Newspaper since 2007.
Instead of focusing on fighting the increase of antisemitism in Canada, it has decided to leech off of The Link’s journalists, harass them and slander them, acting utterly unprofessionally.
The Link regularly receives hundreds of spam emails from HRC supporters. The emails usually come in a chain of 100, with the same bland message following, denouncing The Link’s work.
Unfortunately, The Link’s editors have been forced to endure psychological harassment from HRC’s media analysts for years, with their supporters spamming our newspaper with images of dead babies and vile messages.
Over the summer of 2024, when I became The Link’s coordinating editor, I received so many of these emails in my inbox that our system administrator thought I was hacked. It was after I had reported on Concordia University considering the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism.
I have not let this get to me until now.
HRC has continued to attack us relentlessly, and I have had enough. Over the past two years, my name has been dragged through the mud several times due to my reporting on Palestine.
I cannot stand by silently and let these bullies get away with smearing not only my name but my coworkers’ and The Link’s names just for HRC to experience an ounce of joy in their lives.
Over the past two years, HRC has used every sad attempt in the books to delegitimize The Link, one of a few publications that report on Palestine through the advocacy lens. They have also used every Islamophobic, racist, hateful and problematic tactic to attack pro-Palestine supporters. It takes a reader with a basic skill of critical thinking to see through their awful attempts at keeping up the Zionist agenda.
These attempts are a direct attack on independent journalists who are not only trying to do their job but also ensuring marginalized voices have a space to turn to.
Despite numerous attempts to denounce and discredit our organization, The Link stands strong. We will not stop reporting on Palestine, as the mainstream media fails to advocate for Palestinians.
HRC’s faults go beyond just this.
In November 2024, HRC's assistant director, Robert Walker, was criminally charged with 17 counts of mischief for allegedly vandalizing several properties in a Toronto neighbourhood by spray-painting anti-Palestinian graffiti.
For an organization that pushes the media to be “neutral” or heavily biased towards Israel, HRC’s own staff cannot go a day without spewing their hatred towards Palestine, its people and its supporters.
Even worse, HRC’s Canadian Campus Media Fellowship offers $1,000 to students, including student journalists, to advocate for Israel by monitoring student media. And yet, The Link is biased?
Even in instances when The Link reports on the rise of antisemitism, HRC attacks the Jewish students who have been interviewed for not aligning with their hateful, anti-Palestinian racism.
In one of their articles, HRC posed a question to The Link team: “If journalism is meant to inform rather than instruct, how should a media outlet that has already decided the answer be perceived?”
The answer: Look in the mirror first, stop hiring students to encourage our harassment and allow diversity of opinion in the media.
HRC has sent a formal complaint to Concordia about The Link. To them, I say, good luck. As an independent organization, we will not succumb to the pressure of lobby groups. You are not the first and will not be the last to send hateful complaints to us.
Have fun writing them up, but please, stop being weird.
