CBC Reverses Ban on Calling 9/11 Terrorism

Boshra said the change was made "to remove what has unfortunately (and unintentionally) become an impediment to clarity and public understanding," adding that as new acts of politically or ideologically motivated violence occur, CBC "will continue to follow the journalistically sound practice of attributing causes and motivations to officials and experts."

He also pushed back on the framing of the story, writing that CBC News "has never said what happened on Sept. 11, 2001, was not terrorism, as some commentators have stated in recent days," and that the broadcaster had reported the motives found by police, governments and an independent commission — "We've just made sure to do it with attribution."

Hoekstra said the FBI has been responsible or instrumental in disrupting terrorist and violent criminal organizations operating in Canada multiple times this year, and warned that "failure to recognize and confront radical and terrorist ideologies significantly endangers our efforts to establish and harmonize a shared national and economic security partnership."

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Friday that to "call 9/11 anything other than a terrorist attack is an appalling distortion of history. It dishonours the victims and their families, the survivors, and the first responders who suffered from the horrors of that day." Conservative culture critic Rachael Thomas called Sept. 11 a terrorist attack "plain and simple," said whoever issued the directive should be fired and said CBC leadership should apologize.

Canada's Culture Minister Marc Miller praised the reversal on social media, calling it a "welcome change to what was a piece of pedantic and foolish guidance that caused legitimate anger."

Before the reversal, Kelly told The Canadian Press that CBC uses "extreme caution" with the words terrorism and terrorist, and that the memo "was a reminder of the long-standing practice that favors the use of these terms with attribution in our reporting, a practice shared by many of the world's top journalistic organizations." She did not provide a copy of the memo when The Canadian Press asked for one.