CBC Pulls Neil Herland Off Air After Yom Kippur Protest Video.

By Joseph Marshall

CBC has reportedly pulled veteran journalist Neil Herland off the air and launched disciplinary proceedings against him after he posted video of protesters outside a Yom Kippur service in Toronto. According to columnist Warren Kinsella, Herland, an award winning CBC journalist with nearly three decades at the public broadcaster, was removed from his broadcasting duties and attended a disciplinary meeting Thursday afternoon with his lawyer. CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson declined to discuss the case, saying the corporation does not comment on internal meetings or human resources matters.

Herland was attending Yom Kippur services conducted by The Song Shul at Toronto’s Meridian Arts Centre when he encountered approximately 20 pro Palestinian demonstrators outside the building. The congregation does not have its own permanent synagogue and was using the centre for its High Holiday services. Herland recorded the demonstration and later posted the video to his personal X account, writing, “I’m a journalist. And I happen to be Jewish. On Yom Kippur I went to a synagogue service in Toronto and was met by protesters trying to taunt and intimidate me from entering the building.”

The video showed protesters waving Palestinian flags and shouting at people entering the building. One yelled “Zionist alert,” while another repeatedly shouted “You’re going to hell” through a bullhorn. Herland also wrote about his father, an Austrian Jew who survived the Holocaust in Romania before coming to Canada as a refugee, and said he had obtained an Austrian passport because he feared Canada could eventually become unsafe for him as a Jew.

The post spread quickly and drew the attention of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, which launched a campaign urging supporters to file complaints against Herland with CBC’s Values and Ethics Commissioner. CJPME accused him of falsely portraying the demonstration as a protest outside a synagogue, arguing that the Meridian Arts Centre is a public performing arts venue and that former Israeli ambassador Mark Regev was appearing there as a guest speaker.

The problem with that argument is that while the Meridian Arts Centre is obviously not a synagogue building, The Song Shul was holding its Yom Kippur services there. Its published schedule lists the religious services taking place throughout the day, including Yizkor, Mincha, Ne’ila and the final blowing of the shofar. Regev was a guest speaker during the program, but his presence did not turn the entire event into a political rally. Herland was attending Yom Kippur services, exactly as he said he was.

CBC has not said whether the CJPME complaint prompted its action against Herland and has not publicly identified what specific rule it believes he may have violated. That silence becomes more interesting when compared with CBC’s previous position on journalists discussing their own experiences.

Following the 2021 murder of four members of the Afzaal family in London, Ontario, CBC journalist Ginella Massa spoke on air about her personal experiences as a Muslim Canadian. A complaint was later filed arguing that she had crossed the line into personal opinion, but CBC defended the broadcast and Ombudsman Jack Nagler ultimately ruled that its journalistic standards had not been violated. He found that a journalist’s lived experience could add important context to reporting and did not automatically create a conflict of interest.

That does not give CBC journalists unlimited licence to say whatever they want. CBC’s own standards require impartiality and place restrictions on employees using personal social media accounts to comment on controversial issues. But if CBC believes Herland crossed that line, it has so far declined to explain where.

Herland was not covering a demonstration on assignment when he inserted himself into the story. He was going to Yom Kippur services when he encountered protesters outside the building, recorded what was happening and described his own experience afterward. Within days, according to Kinsella, he was pulled from the air and facing disciplinary proceedings.

CBC may eventually provide an explanation for why. At the moment, it has not.