On December 11, a Canadian radio station ended its relationship with Radio Maryja, a Polish radio program based in Poland, due to allegations that the program promulgates anti-Semitic content.
Matt Caine, vice president of CJMR 1320, a multicultural station that covers the Greater Toronto, sent a letter to the far-right Radio Maryja stating that Father Jacek Cydzik, who represents the station, failed to give an adequate response to B’nai Brith Canada’s allegations of anti-Semitism against the station.
“Fr. Cydzik failed to acknowledge or refute the specific examples that B’nai Brith Canada cited from credible institutions around the world, including Poland’s own National Radio and Television Broadcasting Council,” Caine wrote. “CJMR has been provided [with] multiple examples of anti-Semitic statements made by guests and commentators on Radio Maryja broadcasts and online publications. We have also had negative input about your program from the Anti-Defamation League and Jewish World Congress.”
He concluded that “despite our long business relationship we believe that we have clear and overwhelming reasons to immediately cancel our contract.”
B’nai Brith Canada CEO Michael Mostyn said in a statement, “With this latest important development involving CJMR 1320’s decision to cut its ties with Radio Maryja’s broadcasts, we’re seeing further results of B’nai Brith’s efforts to combat the scourge of antisemitism in all of its manifestations.”
“we’re seeing further results of B’nai Brith’s efforts to combat the scourge of antisemitism in all of its manifestations.”
— Michael mostyn, b’nai brith canada
In a December 14 press release, B’nai Brith Canada stated that the evidence they had sent to CJMR included “conspiracy theories about imagined efforts by Jews to control Poland and exploit the Holocaust for personal gain, referring to Jews as ‘greedy,’ and slandering Judaism as a religion of ‘trade,’ among other forms of antisemitism and prejudice against other minorities.”
Additionally, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton banned Radio Maryja founder, Father Tadeusz Rydzyk, in October at the urging of Thomas Lukazek, the former deputy premier of Alberta. The Canadian Jewish Record (CJR) reported, “In on-air comments in 2016, Rydzyk lambasted ‘synagogue-type behaviour’ among some of his followers, and in private conversations, leaked to a Polish magazine said that then-Polish president Lech Kazcynski was taking orders from Jews. His radio station has also promoted Holocaust denial, with a guest in 2000 claiming that gas chambers at Auschwitz didn’t exist.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), in 2016, Radio Maryja commentator Stanislaw Michalkiewicz accused the “Jewish lobby” of “demonstrating its racial solidarity with the Ukrainian oligarchs” and alleged that “mischievous Jews” were infiltrating left-wing political parties in Poland. The ADL also noted that in the same year, “Poland’s State Council of Radio and Television sanctioned Radio Maryja for a show which alleged that United States Senators were criticizing the Polish government because the Senators were Jewish.” Also that year, Poland’s right-wing ruling Law and Justice Party funneled $7.5 million in subsidies to the Radio Maryja, according to the ADL.
