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

Maureen Basnicki meets with Canadian artist John Coburn, who created pen and ink drawings in the aftermath of the tragedy, at his studio in Toronto ahead of the 25th anniversary of 9/11. Photo by Jon Blacker

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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.”

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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.

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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.

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“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.”

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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.

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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.

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“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.”

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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.

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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.”

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She added that when people say she lost her husband, she tends to correct them. “He was murdered,” she said.

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“When CBC tries to lessen the significance of a terrorist attack, it just muddies the waters. Call it for what it is factually, and acknowledge that (terrorism) is still a threat to our Canadian society.”

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Rachael Thomas, the Conservative shadow minister for Canadian identity and culture, said the CBC directive “diminishes the reality of what actually occurred” and called it “an insult” to victims and their families.

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“9/11 was a terrorist attack, plain and simple,” she said in a statement calling for the CBC to apologize. “Canadians deserve a public broadcaster that tells the truth: that terrorists attacked and murdered thousands of innocent people on 9/11 and they should have no difficulty saying so.”