Canadian 9/11 widow ‘appalled’ by CBC policy against using term ‘terrorist attack’

A 9/11 widow is “appalled” and “angry” after the CBC told staff in a leaked memo to not refer to 9/11 as “terrorist attacks.”

Maureen Basnicki, of Collingwood, Ont., lost her husband, Ken Basnicki, who was trapped on the 106th floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center during the attack. Their children, Brennan and Erica, were 16 and 21 years old at the time.

Maureen Basnicki told National Post that she was “dismayed” when she saw reports of the leaked missive.

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“I had an interview with some very friendly, kind, sympathetic journalists just the day before, to be aired on September the 11th. So it was ironic that I had just interacted with some CBC employees,” she said.

“To know that this directive was sent, and at the management level, there’s not enough adjectives out there to describe my reaction. I was more than dismayed; I was angry.”

With the 25th anniversary of 9/11 on the horizon, CBC issued a memo reminding reporters and editors across its platforms of the policy on the language used to describe the event.

The missive from the broadcaster’s journalistic standards and practices office, a copy of which was obtained by National Post, includes a section of the “longstanding language guidance” on the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives — including at least 24 Canadians.

“Do not refer to the Sept. 11 attacks as terrorist attacks,” it reads. “The hijackings led to passenger jet crashes in Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania and Manhattan. The World Trade Center (WTC in second reference) was destroyed.”

The letter is signed BB, who is identified by Toronto Sun as Basem Boshra, senior director of journalistic standards and public trust at CBC News.

Bit irritated by suggestions by some that this isn't authentic. It's authentic. And, for anyone who has been paying attention (or read my book), they'd actually know this is quite consistent with past CBC approaches. pic.twitter.com/IcnLrTVHkJ

Basnicki, who is a former Air Canada flight attendant, said her husband was murdered in a terrorist attack. “That’s a factual statement,” she said. “And to have the likes of CBC, who is supposed to be our Canadian broadcasting company, to make such a statement just appalls me.”