On Wednesday afternoon, at 12:22 in the afternoon, the Toronto Sun published Warren Kinsella’s column breaking the news about CBC telling their journalists not to call 9/11 a terrorist attack.
It quickly became our most read piece online. People began sharing it and commenting on it, whether at our site or on social media.
It was picked up around the world with Forbes, New York Post, the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, Jerusalem Post, the Economic Times and Times Now both in India, an many more media outlets picked up on it.
Not a lot of Canadian coverage outside of Postmedia - owners of the Toronto Sun and National Post - until CBC changed, but more on that later.
As news spread, so did the outrage.
Maureen Basnicki lost her husband Ken, then just 48 years-old, in the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
We seem to forget that 24 Canadians died in those attacks.
We had leading scholars on terrorism and anti-semitism denounce CBC’s policy. In Washington, where Republican feelings towards Canada aren’t the best at the most, things got worse as Kash Patel the Director of the FBI and several prominent people surrounding the Trump administration voiced anger at the policy.
“I never thought Warren Kinsella would cause an international incident 😅” was the text I got from a friend.
Kinsella did create an international incident simply by reporting the truth on CBC’s policy. He didn’t create the policy, it’s not a new policy, but they restated it badly and at the worst possible time - two weeks before the 25th anniversary of 9/11 and as tensions between Canada and the United States are high.
Watch the video above, if you haven’t already so you can see me break down how this all happened, as I answer our critics and as I explain the deeper problem.
Below you can find links to follow-up columns from myself, Warren Kinsella and Lorne Gunter.
LILLEY: CBC’s 9/11 retreat doesn’t fix its terrorism problem
KINSELLA: CBC’s 9/11 climbdown acknowledges historical reality
GUNTER: CBC flip-flop on calling 9/11 ‘terrorism’ exercise in disinformation
