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A leaked internal memo from Basem Boshra, senior director of journalistic standards and public trust at CBC News, has sparked outrage for instructing journalists to avoid describing the September 11 terrorist attacks as terrorism. The memo surfaced weeks ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 2001 attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people, including 26 Canadians.

On Friday's Rebel Roundup livestream, David Menzies and Drea Humphrey were joined by Ross McLean, a former Toronto police officer who now runs the McLean Chronicles, to discuss the outrageous CBC directive.

Ross argued that the memo's timing and the fact that it was leaked at all were unlikely to be coincidental. 

"This being put out just before the anniversary of September 11... I think was particularly provocative and meant to insult and cause trouble in the States," he said. "Particularly to inflame the trade situation."

Ross said the reluctance to use the word "terrorism" extends well beyond this one memo, pointing to several Canadian incidents he said were similarly downplayed by broadcasters and, in some cases, by government messaging. Among the examples he cited: the 2014 shooting on Parliament Hill, a vehicle-ramming attack on a soldier outside a Quebec military facility, and the 2018 Danforth shooting in Toronto. 

"I did a lot of media on one particular station about it," he said, referring to the Danforth shooting, "and I knew it was going to be my last time on their station because they were going to ask me if I thought it was mental health, or if it was... terrorism. And I told them, "It was terrorism. It wasn't mental health-" Cut! Go to commercial! Get Ross off the air. Don't have him saying things like that."

Ross also touched on cross-border security cooperation, saying that in his experience, tips from the FBI have been responsible for the vast majority of terrorism plots disrupted in Canada, including one case in which he said suspects were arrested in a hotel in Markham, Ont., before they were able to carry out a plan to hack people to death. He said he has concerns about whether current tensions between the two countries could affect that flow of information, adding that U.S. agencies "are not fools" and are well aware of security dynamics inside Canada.

These concerns may be well founded, given the public statement from FBI Director Kash Patel, posted to X. 

"Any agency in Canada that doesn't publicly reject this bastardization of history... will no longer have friend[s] in this FBI," wrote Patel. 

Any agency in Canada that doesn’t publicly reject this bastardization of history, and an insult to the souls lost during our largest terrorist attack in US history will no longer have friend in this FBI… Not to mention our heroes that responded in the aftermath 🇺🇸

WE WILL NEVER…

— FBI Director Kash Patel (@FBIDirectorKash) August 28, 2026

"Is this going to compromise our ability to get national security information?" Ross asked. "Are we being cut out of the loop?

Drea characterized the memo as "state-funded revisionism," comparing it to George Orwell's 1984 and noting the irony of a public broadcaster erasing a label it has applied to the same event for nearly 25 years. She questioned whether other historical attacks, such as the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, could eventually receive the same editorial treatment. 

"I think it says a lot to the actual state of the CBC, the state broadcasters, and what's happening, as they want to shape public opinion," she said.