Carson Jerema: CBC’s coverage of Henry Nowak murder an assault on reality

Article content

The murder of British university student Henry Nowak is full of the expected tragedy and heartbreak, but also extreme injustice, rage, racial tensions, and what happens when an entire society goes mad on a particular brand of politics.

Article content

So naturally, CBC foreign correspondent Chris Brown skipped all that is interesting or relevant in the case, and instead presented his audience with coverage so outrageous that calling it propaganda would be an insult to Vladimir Putin. In an “analysis” article, titled How Britain’s far right hijacked the murder of Henry Nowak, he twisted the story by imagining a “far right” threat, rather than a story of reasonable concerns about how racial politics skewed the police response to the killing. (CBC news broadcasts of the story are only marginally better.)

Article content

Article content

Article content

In the final moments of 18-year-old Nowak’s life, British police in Hampshire arrested him and ignored his pleas for help that he’d been stabbed five times. Nowak’s murderer, Vickrum Digwa, and his family conspired to cover up the killing and instead of calling an ambulance, called police to falsely accuse Nowak of racially abusing them. Police initially believed the story full stop and, according to bodycam footage released this week, cuffed Nowak and dismissed his repeated cries that he’d been stabbed with, “I don’t think you have, mate.” In reality, it remains unclear what led to the confrontation, but it may have had something to do with Nowak shooting video after noticing Digwa, a Sikh, was carrying a large ceremonial knife.

Article content

Article content

The case is appalling. U.K. police have been instructed to treat people differently based solely on their race. National “anti-racism” guidelines specifically advise against “treating everyone ‘the same’ or being ‘colour blind’” in order to reach “equality of policing outcomes.” In the years since the summer of Black Lives Matter, British police, like police elsewhere, have been more frightened of being accused of racism than of making a mistake like, say, arresting a murder victim as he is dying.

Article content

Article content

As one police officer told Telegraph columnist Alison Pearson earlier this week, “Operationally, there are clear differences in scrutiny depending on ethnicity.”

Article content

Article content

And, according to a survey, one in seven officers from the Hampshire Police, which was responsible for Nowak’s treatment, said they felt “controlled and pressured” after taking mandatory diversity training.

Article content

The sentence doled out to Digwa, who was eventually arrested and tried for the murder, of life in prison with parole eligibility of 21 years, is being challenged as too lenient. Although evidence presented in court by a pathologist said there was nothing police could have done to save Nowak’s life, a national inquest has been scheduled to determine if police action or lack of action contributed to the death.

Article content

Reporters don’t need to take a political position, as the CBC’s Brown has done, to explain this story, but, alas, even the pretense of objectivity is beyond the “Public Broadcaster.”

Article content

Brown opted to centre his story around the protests that have erupted following the release of the bodycam footage. Rather than using that as a way into the describing the case, he used it as an excuse to dismiss the very concerns at play in how the police treated Nowak.