The question as to whether or not being a Syrian refugee is relevant to the crime and if it should be included in the reporting of the story is a bit of a catch 22. If media includes it, it can be looked at as inciting people, if they don't it could be construed as censorship. I personally think that honest journalism is about reporting what is known to be facts, and letting people decide for themselves what is relevant. Of course that begs the question...is there such thing as honest journalism any more.
As an example, in the CBC article linked above it states:
The man charged in the case was a Syrian refugee who arrived in Canada in January 2016, a fact that was reported Wednesday by numerous news outlets, including CBC News.
The story was quickly picked up by alt-right websites and anti-immigration groups. It was shared widely on social media.
This is garbage reporting in my view, the information given is incomplete or obscure. What sites have they defined as "alt-right" and what are the objective parameters that put them into this definition? Is this simply a subjective judgement by them? Who are these anti-immigration groups they allude to?
With this in mind, by what standard does the CBC have any credibility reporting on what is ethical journalism and what isn't?