.@CBC says it values journalists with lived experience because their connection to a community can “broaden and deepen” its journalism. Apparently, that principle becomes considerably more complicated when the lived experience is Jewish. According to @KinsellaWarren’s reporting, veteran CBC journalist Neil Herland (@NEWSneil) was pulled off-air and subjected to disciplinary proceedings after documenting what happened when he arrived for Yom Kippur services in Toronto. Herland wasn’t parachuting into somebody else’s story. He was living it. Protesters were blocking the entrance to the service. Congregants were being taunted. According to the report, people were called “baby killer,” one woman was called an “ugly Jewish bitch,” and another protester shouted, “The Jew smiles while he kills babies in Gaza.” Herland filmed what he saw and later described the fear increasingly felt by Jewish Canadians. CBC’s own Ombudsman has previously defended the value of journalists bringing their lived experience and community connections into their work, saying those perspectives can make journalism richer and more informed. So what exactly is the rule? When a Muslim journalist speaks from lived experience, CBC applauds the effort. When a Jewish journalist documents antisemitic intimidation happening to him on his way into synagogue, CBC reportedly investigates him and sanctions him. CBC/Radio-Canada suspended its journalist, Élisa Serret, for engaging in antisemitism by uttering antisemitic tropes on air. But CBC suspends its Jewish journalist Neil Herland for the crime of reporting on antisemitism. That is not a small inconsistency. It goes directly to the question of whose lived experience CBC considers legitimate. And at a moment when Jewish Canadians are being told repeatedly that their fear is real, that antisemitism is escalating, and that armed police are required outside synagogues, silencing a Jewish journalist for documenting that reality would send an extraordinary message. CBC should explain the standard. Because “lived experience” cannot be a journalistic virtue for some communities and a professional liability for Jews. shorturl.at/ARc9I