Juno News - CBC caught LYING in attempt to smear Sir John A. Macdonald defenders

00:00:00.000 well the cardi government may be close to cutting alberta's industrial carbon tax that according

00:00:09.860 to media reports the globe and mail says ottawa and alberta are close to a new deal on industrial

00:00:16.300 carbon pricing paper quotes unnamed sources saying the new deal could result in the fee

00:00:25.080 going up to $130 a ton by 2040, so that would roll back the Trudeau-era climate targets of $170

00:00:35.240 a ton by 2030. It could also conceivably set the stage for construction of another oil pipeline to

00:00:43.600 the BC coast. A lawyer representing Alberta independence in that movement says Daniel

00:00:50.060 Smith, premier of Alberta, is not listening to the oil industry, which is why investment has dried

00:00:56.940 up. Jeffrey Rath tells Juno News the industry has called for an end to all carbon pricing.

00:01:05.500 Meantime former premier Jason Kenney says it's time to drop the gloves with those pushing

00:01:12.080 Alberta independence. Let's listen. We've allowed the separatists to almost completely dominate

00:01:18.320 the debate and the process for the past year you know we are Canadians we're polite we don't like

00:01:23.480 having uncomfortable political arguments and what could be more emotional than tearing the

00:01:30.400 country apart so I think a lot of people have just been downplaying ignoring it and I'm sorry

00:01:36.820 I for one do not think that the people trying to destroy our country and wreck Alberta's economy

00:01:42.280 should be getting a pass on this well Kenny himself once dismissed downplayed the movement as

00:01:48.320 being run by a fringe group of angry people well despite losing his bid for a provincial

00:01:54.720 liberal nomination nate erskine smith says he's still planning to quit his federal seat

00:02:01.440 the carny government has currently a razor-thin majority in parliament but erskine smith told ctv

00:02:08.160 news he's quitting this summer you said every vote counts your party now has a majority are you going

00:02:13.840 and to resign your seat? Yes. Yes. I said what I said, and I'm going to stand by what I said. I'm

00:02:20.020 going to do what I said I was going to do. I've talked to the prime minister's office. I've been

00:02:24.960 in fairly regular touch. They asked me to stay on, so I stayed on. I mean, you can say I'm not

00:02:30.040 a team player, but I put myself through a lot, in some cases, quite a lot of criticism in order to

00:02:34.120 make sure we supported a really tough parliamentary minority. We're in an easier space now, and the

00:02:40.080 last conversation I had with the Prime Minister's office was, you know, I'll give a farewell speech

00:02:44.220 in June and I'll resign over the summer and they'll have enough time in an orderly way,

00:02:49.700 hopefully have a nomination, and I know their nomination will be well run. Erskine-Smith is

00:02:54.200 disputing the results of the Scarborough Southwest nominating meeting, claiming the vote was unfair.

00:03:01.200 Well, this week we learned about a secret meeting held in Ottawa attended by staff from the Prime

00:03:07.000 minister's office, a meeting to discuss a media blacklist. Blacklock's reporter learned of the

00:03:13.700 closed-door session, March the 10th, to talk about which reporters would not be allowed access to

00:03:20.160 government ministers. Our guest today is Rebel News reporter, actually not just a reporter,

00:03:25.600 she's editor-in-chief of Rebel News. She's also president of the Independent Press Gallery.

00:03:30.860 Welcome to the show, Sheila. Mark, thanks for having me on.

00:03:33.740 All right, so we know that there was a secret meeting held. This was back on March the 10th. It was reported by Blacklock's reporter, and they found that the meeting was attended by key members, for instance, of the prime minister's office, and up for discussion was blacklisting reporters and deciding who is going to be granted access to government ministers and who will not be.

00:03:58.360 This is the kind of stuff that you think of happening in, I don't know, under authoritarian regimes where they ban the kind of coverage that they don't like to see.

00:04:09.880 What do you make of this?

00:04:12.120 This wasn't just a meeting because what came of this meeting fell into practice.

00:04:17.460 So subsequent to this March 10th meeting that included Foreign Affairs, Treasury Board, the CRA and the Privy Council, we know that global affairs and immigration both then they went on to decline taking questions from independent journalists.

00:04:39.140 So this was not just a discussion. This was a strategy meeting, and we saw it play out in real time further down the road. But it's not just these federal government agencies that have a blacklist. This is a whole-of-government approach, and I'm including CBC in this, because we heard from Travis Donraj that there was a blacklist of people who could and could not appear on CBC panels.

00:05:06.400 And we would, of course, assume that that would include independent journalists or people outside of the media cabal in this country.

00:05:16.960 And so this just goes on and on and on, and this sort of reinforces the kind of questions we think the government is getting, but also the kind of people who would then go on to analyze the government responses on these CBC panels.

00:05:29.980 And you are right to say that this is the kind of thing that they do in authoritarian regimes in places around the world.

00:05:38.940 We were told that the QCJO, the Qualified Canadian Journalistic Organization status, was just about tax treatment, tax subsidies, whether or not your subscribers could write off their subscriptions as a tax credit.

00:05:56.900 but it's gone on to be the stamp of approval now. It's morphed into something larger than a lot of

00:06:04.800 people like us here at Rebel News were raising the alarm bells about, that this isn't just about

00:06:10.380 tax status. It will then become the official government approval stamp of whether or not

00:06:16.580 you're a journalist. And in a free country, the government doesn't get to decide who their

00:06:22.600 critics are and who gets to hold them to account. It is the media's job to hold the government to

00:06:28.380 account. But right now, the way the media landscape looks in this country, there's a two-tier media

00:06:34.900 system. One is government approved and one is government excluded. And at the end of the day,

00:06:42.840 the only people who really suffer are the Canadian public, who should have some people

00:06:49.840 holding the government to account. And if you are excluding your critics, then nobody is.

00:06:55.540 Yeah. And government approved often means government funded, doesn't it? Because at first

00:06:59.660 we see hundreds of millions of dollars fuddled into the kinds of organizations that the government

00:07:07.520 likes. You know, they want CBC covering them. They get billion four or whatever it is, billion five.

00:07:13.980 But it's not just them, certainly. It's all the, many of the newspapers, of course,

00:07:18.620 other broadcasters, legacy media that has just taken and accepted. I believe it's a $500 million

00:07:28.220 chunk of cash that has been available to the media, and that continues to climb. And when

00:07:35.860 others have tried to find out who is getting what, the government has been cagey. You know,

00:07:40.860 like how much money is the Toronto Star getting? We don't exactly know. We can guesstimate. But

00:07:46.720 They're just keeping these figures to themselves. So this is a way, really, as I see it, a way to

00:07:52.960 manipulate and to bring the media into what the government is doing, make them part of what the

00:07:59.440 government is doing, and essentially get rid of those who won't play ball like Rebel News.

00:08:06.140 Well, it's not just, as you rightly point out, CBC. And the number is closer to $600 million

00:08:14.020 dollars going to the rest of the media. It's the complete CBC-ification of the total media

00:08:19.800 landscape. And Mark Miller has recently testified that he's looking to expand that. So what should

00:08:28.340 be noted here is that whatever they claimed this government support for journalism would do,

00:08:36.300 it's not doing. They said journalism is a danger in this country. Well, for me, the only danger

00:08:41.380 that we have is from government policy. But they said, you know, the media is failing in this

00:08:46.800 country. And so on behalf of the people, we must prop them up so that they have access

00:08:51.160 to information. But since they started these outrageous programs, the number of journalists

00:08:58.340 in this country has declined. They've actually made it harder for journalists to do their jobs.

00:09:03.620 They shook down Metta. Metta refused to play along. And so that cut off access to a lot of

00:09:10.600 viewers and readers for independent journalists. I want to tell you the number here.

00:09:17.340 It's $30,000 plus additional tax credits in funding to every person in a government approved

00:09:28.880 newsroom in this country. That's the level of support these people are getting. And independent

00:09:34.800 journalists out there are just trying to do their jobs unobstructed by the government and they are

00:09:40.020 being cut off at the knees every step of the way. And it's playing out in real time in the support

00:09:46.980 and trust that people have in the media. So the more money the government gives the media,

00:09:53.760 the less the Canadian public trusts the media, and then therefore the less people consume the

00:10:00.480 mainstream media. They're turning on mass to independent journalists. Reporters Without

00:10:06.200 borders, measures, media freedom every single year. And for all the saber rattling that the

00:10:15.340 mainstream media did about big old mean Stephen Harper, Canada's fallen from eighth place in 2015

00:10:22.840 in media freedom to 21st in 2025. And I imagine it's going to be even lower when the numbers come

00:10:30.640 out in 2026. Everything they do to help the media is just things that the government is doing to

00:10:38.300 absorb the media into the government. Yeah, I mean, I've argued that their business model

00:10:44.940 has changed completely. I'm talking about these legacy media organizations. They went from holding

00:10:51.040 the government to account and, you know, providing real journalism for their viewers and listeners

00:10:57.260 and readers to sucking up the government and getting as much money as you can out of the

00:11:02.740 liberals. And of course, when you also have the leader of the opposition, Pierre Polyev,

00:11:07.820 talk about ending these media subsidies, $600 million to your point, ending and defunding the

00:11:15.080 CBC, then all of this comes into play. I mean, in the minds of reporters, you know, they don't want

00:11:21.280 to end up stocking shelves at Costco. It's probably good, honest work. And God bless those

00:11:27.280 who are doing it, but they want to hold on to those jobs. And so all of that is factored into

00:11:32.400 their coverage. I mean, to think that they're going to be covering stories in which they know

00:11:37.620 that one party is going to continue paying them off while the other one wants to defund them,

00:11:43.240 you know, the independence factor ends right there, doesn't it?

00:11:48.240 Yeah, you know, you start looking at some of the mainstream media coverage of the Liberals as a grant application, don't you? When you watch it, because it's so outrageous and so one sided. And you see how viciously they attack conservative politicians. And I'm not defending conservative politicians, they can take it. But that viciousness should be leveled at the government as well.

00:12:12.240 I mean, they're holding the opposition to account on behalf of the government when you watch these mainstream media reports, instead of holding the government to account on behalf of the people.

00:12:23.780 And then these subsidies flooding in are doing something else in the media landscape.

00:12:30.720 It's preventing innovation.

00:12:32.840 here at Rebel News over at Juno and some of the other upstart independent journalists who are

00:12:39.360 just doing their own thing on the street, bringing the news to the people. We're innovators. We've

00:12:46.180 figured out how to do things effectively and reach our audiences despite the media or the

00:12:52.660 government meddling on a small budget. We've, you know, you've figured out how to build a studio

00:12:57.700 for something less than, you know, $100 million. If you're the CBC, this is, you know, recycled

00:13:05.000 wood and an HD camera. You figure it out because you don't have the government support. And so

00:13:13.220 all these government subsidies are doing something else. They're preventing innovation and also

00:13:19.680 they're preventing a market correction. I think the mainstream media so rightly deserves right now.

00:13:27.700 Yeah, I mean, they want to prop up the legacy media because they've got the legacy media on their side.

00:13:34.700 I think that's what's going on here.

00:13:36.120 For sure.

00:13:36.540 They want to perpetuate the status quo.

00:13:38.720 And I certainly take your point that by doing that, and the CRTC certainly is involved in that, you know, you're preventing newcomers, the so-called alt media, independent media,

00:13:54.780 from essentially, you know, cleaning house and getting rid of the other guys, you know,

00:14:00.540 letting the market play out. In other words, let the people decide who wins and who loses.

00:14:05.380 And so what the government is doing is trying to hold back the tide, right? Saying by throwing

00:14:11.280 hundreds of millions of dollars at these failing media organizations, they're trying to hold back,

00:14:17.000 you know, the change. And by punishing you, they're trying to discredit you, I think. That's

00:14:22.740 what else is going on here, you know, because they're trying to prevent you from having access

00:14:28.460 to newsmakers, to decision makers, people spending the people's money. And so by doing all of this,

00:14:36.000 they're trying to perpetuate the status quo, you know, keep the legacy guys going. And none of

00:14:41.980 those people on that side of the equation want to stop this from happening at all, do they? I mean,

00:14:47.880 they're all in. They don't like you any more than the government does. Isn't that so? I mean,

00:14:52.600 You're not getting any support from CTV or Global or any of them.

00:14:57.960 You know, I imagine it feels a lot like being a candlestick maker at the dawn of the light bulb to work in the mainstream media right now.

00:15:06.660 But it is true that, I mean, we saw this play out in real time at the debates where Juneau news journalists, other independent journalists, us at Rebel News.

00:15:18.680 we were in the media room and we were subject to some of the most vile workplace harassment

00:15:24.700 I think most people would experience in their lifetime. If we worked in the mainstream media,

00:15:29.240 we'd have a cry room. We were being yelled at, screamed at. And then when we were the newsmakers

00:15:36.240 of the hour, really, we had CBC about 90 yards away telling complete lies about us and also

00:15:45.540 denying us the right of reply. You know, if you have somebody who's making news or who is the

00:15:51.080 apex of a news story 90 yards away, why wouldn't you go talk to them? And instead they talked about

00:15:57.080 us and then had to issue retractions on an obscure CBC page where they post their retractions that,

00:16:04.280 like everything at CBC, nobody reads anyway. But that's the protectionism that you see from the

00:16:10.620 media. If you're an independent journalist, like those of us here at Rebel News, and you want to

00:16:15.540 go to a press conference on Parliament Hill, you know what's going to happen? You're going to be

00:16:20.280 denied because a cabal of your competitors have gotten together to have a little witch trial for

00:16:25.860 you and decided that you can't join the Parliamentary Press Gallery. And if you are not

00:16:31.180 a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, whether it's a conservative politician holding

00:16:35.440 a press conference or a liberal politician holding a press conference, your competitors

00:16:39.780 can block you from attending to protect their exclusive access to the politicians. So not only

00:16:46.360 are they well-funded, but they have all the access and you're just supposed to take it.

00:16:51.180 And now we have the CBC situation involved in the shady Francis Whittowson sting operation.

00:16:58.580 I mean, how weird is that? It's just hard to fathom that they have money, you know,

00:17:07.880 taxpayers' money in order to indulge in this kind of behavior, there really needs to be a complaint

00:17:13.360 against the CBC. And those are placed with the CRTC, not with the Canadian Broadcast Standards

00:17:20.580 people. And we'll have to see if that happens. Thank you for being part of the show, Sheila.

00:17:26.260 Did you want to add any more to this? You know, if people want to learn more about the

00:17:31.500 Independent Press Gallery, that's, I'm the president there. And what we do is advocate

00:17:36.280 for the rights of independent journalists in this country. We also provide security for

00:17:41.720 independent journalists as work on the street is getting increasingly more dangerous because you

00:17:46.440 have the politicians demonizing you and blacklisting you, and that just mobilizes your

00:17:51.220 enemies on the street. They can go to independentpressgallery.ca. And if you are an independent

00:17:56.280 journalist and you need support, legal support, moral support, security support, it's only 10

00:18:02.480 mucks a month to join. Sheila Gunn-Reid, thank you so much for coming on the show. Appreciate it.

00:18:07.500 Thanks, Mark. If you enjoyed this show, consider supporting great independent journalism by

00:18:11.680 becoming a premier member of Juno News. Go to junonews.com backslash straight up.

00:18:17.560 You can find the link below. Helps us do what we do. Thank you so much. We'll see you next time.

Juno News - May 14, 2026

CBC caught LYING in attempt to smear Sir John A. Macdonald defenders

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