() — Journalists and editors employed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) were warned in a “confidential memo” not to describe the deadly 9/11/2001 assaults on the United States, which killed 3,000 people, as “terrorist attacks.”
“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” stated CBC’s Egyptian-born senior director of journalistic standards and public trust, Basem Boshra. He did so in bold italicized letters “as if to emphasize the point,” noted Canadian author, attorney, and commentator Warren Kinsella. “To make clear it is a directive, not a suggestion.”
The warning comes as the United States prepares to observe the 25th anniversary of that tragic day, still a very raw, fresh, and traumatic memory for many.
Kinsella shared a copy of the unconscionable memo on X:
Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks. The hijackings led to passenger jetcrashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center (WTC in second reference) was destroyed.
The story is in @TheTorontoSun. https://t.co/y2Bw7XpNyh pic.twitter.com/9bG2hgkNcK
— Warren Kinsella (@kinsellawarren) August 27, 2026
“This is absolutely shameful,” declared Rachel Thomas, a Conservative Member of Parliament representing Lethbridge, Alberta, in a blistering X post. “The CBC is choosing to redefine terrorism in a way that downplays the atrocity of 9/11.”
“Refusing to call it an act of terrorism dishonours the victims, their families, the survivors, and the first responders who witnessed the horrors of that day,” said Thomas. “9/11 was an act of terrorism. Full stop.”
“Trying to sanitize or rewrite that history is deeply offensive and does a disservice to everyone who was affected by the attacks,” she added.
Kinsella recounted the events of “that terrible day”:
Four airplanes were hijacked by 19 terrorists. They piloted two of those planes into New York City’s World Trade Center, destroying both buildings and murdering 2,753 innocent people. Two dozen of them were Canadians.
A third plane hit the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. There, 125 people were slain — military and civilian. The 59 people on board the hijacked American Airlines flight were also killed.
A fourth plane, a United Airlines flight, slammed into a field in Pennsylvania after the hostages attempted to seize control from the four terrorists. Thirty-seven passengers and seven crew members were murdered.
“This direction from CBC management … is not fair and it is in no way accurate,” observed Kinsella. “It is rewriting the historical record. It is manipulating facts to fit an ideological perspective. It is cruel and despicable.”
“It is Orwellian,” he concluded.
