With no explanation, and in the face of an organized political lobbying campaign, the episode has disappeared from CBC’s website. There is no public record of CBC prohibiting the use of the words in the song title. This unambiguous censorship cannot be tolerated and fits a disturbing pattern of prominent Indigenous and racialized figures in Canadian arts being targeted for expressions of Palestinian solidarity.

One organization that is directing the campaign against Martineau is Honest Reporting Canada which sent an inflammatory email to its 60,000 subscribers libeling Martineau and Handsome Tiger by claiming that, though the song itself is “not explicitly political in nature,” the title is an endorsement of the “genocide of the people of Israel” because it supposedly “calls for Israel’s destruction.” This is patently false. As a recent report by the University of Toronto’s Hearing Palestine institute scholars show, “the history and present use of the slogan is rooted in Palestinian expressions for liberation, freedom, and equality and in the struggle to challenge the on-going context of colonization and military occupation.” A public broadcaster should be well aware that a single phrase can have many meanings, and a staunchly pro-Israel lobby organization is not an acceptable authority on Palestinian slogans and meanings.

Songs that are written in a revolutionary spirit often cause discomfort. But discomfort is not hate, nor is it harmful. Harm is what happens to us as a society when censorship carries the day.

We call on you to reverse what appears to have been a hasty and panicked decision, to put the censored episode of Reclaimed back up on your channels, and publicly defend Martineau and his programming against these slanderous attacks.

SPONSORS:

JEWISH FACULTY NETWORK

CANADIAN FOREIGN POLICY INSTITUTE