TORONTO (November 29, 2017) - Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center (FSWC) is pleased with the action a University of Winnipeg-based radio station, CKUW, has taken since it aired an episode that promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories earlier this month.

The radio station has since issued an apology for welcoming and airing an interview with a guest who promoted antisemitic conspiracy theories, including claiming Israelis were involved in the 9/11 terror attacks and calling the US a “Zionist America.” The station suspended the show for six weeks, removing archived episodes of the show from the website, and in a statement acknowledged that the “programming in question was unacceptable.”

“While the interview should not have taken place to begin with, as any research into the guest would reveal the numerous antisemitic views she has expressed in the past, we commend the station for recognizing why this interview was so troubling,” said FSWC President and CEO Avi Benlolo. “Allowing any type of false message to be spread on campus should not be tolerated, and the hope here is that the station and its programming committee will put measures in place to ensure this type of incident will not be repeated.”

The host of the show, who reportedly did not dispute the claims made by the guest, resigned from the station’s board of directors last week. Whether or not the host will be allowed to return to air will be determined by the station, which stated it will be reviewing its monitoring policies to avoid such an incident in the future.

​FSWC has also reached out to the University of Toronto where the guest is listed as the contact person for a recognized campus alumni group, through which she has been providing lectures as far back as 2000 focused on various conspiracy theories she has promoted.

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Media Contact

Avital Borisovsky  
Communications Associate    
416.864.9735 x 29 
aborisovsky@fswc.ca

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Follow us on Twitter at @CanadianFSWC for latest news and organization updates.

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Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies (FSWC) is a top Jewish human rights foundation in Canada's organized Jewish community. It directly impacts over 100,000 people each year and 500,000+ peripherally. FSWC is committed to countering racism and antisemitism and to promoting the principles of tolerance, social justice and Canadian democratic values through advocacy and educational programs including workshops, Freedom Day, Spirit of Hope Benefit, Tools for Tolerance and the widely acclaimed Tour for Humanity. FSWC is affiliated with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization headquartered in Los Angeles which has won two Academy Awards, has built two Museums of Tolerance (with a third being built in Jerusalem) and is an NGO at the United Nations, UNESCO, OAS, OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament. Visit us at www.fswc.ca. 

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