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9/11 wasn’t a “terrorist attack,” according to the CBC

Warren Kinsella
Exigent Witness Fellow
Journalist
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Source
date
FORMAT

Toronto Sun

Aug 26, 2026
Article
topics
Media, Journalism & Public Trust
Extremism & Radicalization
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Context

In this Toronto Sun column, Warren Kinsella exposes an internal CBC memo instructing journalists not to call the September 11 attacks “terrorist attacks” without attribution. CBC initially defended the directive as longstanding policy, even as criticism spread across Canadian and U.S. media and drew responses from elected officials, the U.S. ambassador, and the FBI director. Only after the controversy escalated did CBC reverse course and allow 9/11 to be described directly as terrorism, turning Kinsella’s column into a national and international media story.

Key Insight

Kinsella’s central argument is that refusing to name an indisputable terrorist attack is not neutrality; it is a distortion of history. CBC’s initial defence and subsequent reversal reinforce his point: institutional language can remain insulated from common sense until public scrutiny forces those responsible to confront its consequences.

Implications For Canadians

For Canadians, the episode demonstrates why scrutiny of publicly funded media matters. Sanitizing terrorism can obscure extremist intent, insult victims, strain trust with security partners, and leave targeted communities feeling abandoned. CBC’s reversal shows that sustained public pressure can force powerful institutions to correct policies they were previously prepared to defend.

Related Topics

9/11 wasn’t a “terrorist attack,” according to the CBC

Warren Kinsella
Aug 26, 2026
Toronto Sun
Media, Journalism & Public Trust
Extremism & Radicalization
In this Toronto Sun column, Warren Kinsella criticizes an internal CBC memo instructing journalists not to describe the September 11 attacks as “terrorist attacks” without attribution. The guidance instead referred to hijackings that led to passenger-jet crashes.
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