January 9, 2026
OTTAWA – A B’nai Brith Canada study has generated empirical evidence that Canada’s Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has produced systemically unbalanced coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
“The results indicate a consistent directional pattern across CBC’s coverage,” B’nai Brith Canada revealed in a white paper Monday. “More than half of all sampled items met the study’s threshold for a pro-Palestinian orientation, while fewer than seven per cent met the same threshold in a pro-Israel direction. Balanced or neutral items accounted for just under forty per cent of the sample.”
The study is based on an in-depth analysis of hundreds of English-language CBC reports on the Israel-Hamas conflict from Oct. 1, 2024, to April 30, 2025, providing a six-month snapshot of the broadcaster’s coverage. It is a follow-up to a previous B’nai Brith Canada study, using similar methods, that addressed coverage from Oct. 7, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2023.
B’nai Brith Canada researchers fed these news items into a Large Language Model (LLM), which they trained to deliver bias scores according to industry-leading benchmarks established in academic disciplines such as communications studies and political science. LLM-assisted conclusions were then manually verified by B’nai Brith Canada’s research team.
As CBC is a public corporation, its reporting is subject to Canada’s Broadcasting Act, which mandates that it strive to be as balanced and impartial as possible.
“The point of this investigation is not to undermine the CBC’s factual credibility or suggest it is wilfully distorting its coverage,” said Richard Robertson, Director of Research and Advocacy for B’nai Brith Canada. “We are releasing this research because Canadians value the CBC and deserve balanced, fair coverage of geopolitical issues.”
B’nai Brith Canada has brought similar concerns to the CBC in the past. At the time, the broadcaster refused to meet with our organization.
“The CBC must be prepared to take constructive criticism if it wishes to regain the confidence and trust of all Canadians,” said Simon Wolle, Chief Executive Officer for B’nai Brith Canada. “Our study is important because the CBC’s journalism shapes public opinion. When its reporting is unbalanced, it can be taken out of context or manipulated to serve certain political ends.”
B’nai Brith Canada is calling on the CBC to agree to a meeting to discuss these findings and develop a strategy to ensure its reporting aligns with its mandate and serves Canada’s public interest.
“Our efforts to hold the CBC accountable do not end here,” Wolle said. “We would like to cooperate with the CBC, moving forward, to produce balanced, unbiased reporting.”