Juno News - December 15, 2023


Is Elon Musk really spreading “misinformation” about Canada？

Topics
CBC journalism practices
Mentioned
Elon Musk Justin Trudeau Harrison Faulkner Angus Reid
Jordan Peterson offers to take over as Harvard president Smith calls Guilbeault ＂awful＂ and ＂dangerous＂

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

198.56

Word count

2,696

Sentence count

181

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

The Toronto Star recently published an article claiming that Elon Musk is spreading misinformation. Well, what did Elon Musk do? Well, he said that Canada doesn t protect freedom of speech. Now, at the same time, the CBC released a smear campaign against the same man, accusing him of hate speech and encouraging censorship on his platform X. Which one is it, Legacy Media? Does Canada support free speech or does Canada support censorship?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 The Toronto Star recently published an article claiming that Elon Musk is spreading misinformation.
00:00:05.660 What did Elon Musk do? Well, he said that Canada doesn't protect freedom of speech.
00:00:09.480 Now, at the same time, the CBC released a smear campaign against the same man, Elon Musk,
00:00:14.160 accusing him of hate speech and encouraging more censorship on his platform X.
00:00:19.480 So which one is it, Legacy Media? Does Canada support free speech?
00:00:23.080 Or does Canada support censorship because you can't have it both ways?
00:00:26.280 It's Fake News Friday. I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.
00:00:30.000 Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning into the podcast today.
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00:01:04.500 So I have been waiting all week to tell you about this op-ed.
00:01:06.940 I love Fake News Friday. It's my favorite show of the week because I want to talk to you about this op-ed that was published over in the Toronto Star earlier this week.
00:01:14.260 This is what the story looked like.
00:01:15.540 Elon Musk's misinformation about Canada, a dangerous sign.
00:01:19.680 Musk's remarks were a stark reminder that misinformation can come from the most unexpected sources, even those perceived as knowledgeable.
00:01:27.220 So why is the Toronto Star attacking Elon Musk? And what exactly did Musk say that was so dangerous?
00:01:31.820 Well, here is the clip in question.
00:01:33.520 It is from a summit with The New York Times when Elon Musk just sort of has a throwaway line where he talks about Canada.
00:01:38.920 He says two quick things about Canada. This is what that looked like.
00:01:41.980 And, you know, a lot of these, a lot of things that we take for granted here in the United States that don't even exist in Canada.
00:01:48.740 There's not enough constitutional rights to freedom of speech in Canada.
00:01:53.800 So, you know, and there's no Miranda rights in Canada. People like think like, you know, you have the right to remain silent. You don't actually in Canada.
00:02:02.360 Like I said, it's a throwaway line. He was clearly talking about something else.
00:02:05.640 He's talking about freedom of expression in the United States and protecting that.
00:02:09.120 And then he just sort of decides to compare it with Canada.
00:02:12.220 So if you're looking at it from a Canadian perspective, you have to know the context that he is talking about Canada in comparison to the United States.
00:02:19.260 The United States has the most robust constitutionally protected free speech.
00:02:22.920 They have a culture that really, really takes seriously their First Amendment, which is the right to freedom of expression.
00:02:28.520 And that is encoded in their law. It's something that the Supreme Court takes seriously.
00:02:32.760 So in comparison to the United States, Elon Musk is saying that Canada is not a country that protects free speech.
00:02:39.820 Now, as you could see in that clip, it was just two quick lines in an interview.
00:02:43.020 He doesn't really elaborate. He doesn't provide further explanation.
00:02:45.940 So all we really have are the two statements to work off of claim number one, that there's no constitutionally protected right to free speech in Canada.
00:02:52.220 And claim number two, that there are no Miranda rights in Canada, like the whole idea that you have the right to remain silent.
00:02:57.360 He says, no, you actually don't in Canada.
00:02:59.800 OK, so those two quick claims led to the writing and publishing of this entire article.
00:03:04.640 Let's go through that article to see how the author and how the Toronto Star justify the claims that what Elon Musk said is dangerous and misinformation.
00:03:12.420 So my colleague Harrison Faulkner went through this article or mentioned this article on a show ratio the other day.
00:03:18.120 Go check that out because he did a great job of just pointing out the absurdity of this article.
00:03:22.900 But basically the premise is this individual, I suppose, is from Afghanistan.
00:03:27.240 He's talking about how life under the Taliban was really scary and horrible and they came to Canada and they felt so relieved. 0.98
00:03:32.920 And now hearing this statement from Elon Musk left them feeling, quote, uneasy about the possibility of another collapse due to misinformation.
00:03:41.940 And so what does he have to say specifically about Musk's claims?
00:03:45.160 Well, he says, let's set the record straight.
00:03:46.940 Section two of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms unequivocally protects fundamental freedoms, including freedom of expression.
00:03:54.820 So, again, there's not really a lot of substance to this article other than that one claim that he just says that Canada unequivocally protects fundamental freedoms.
00:04:03.920 Well, is that true? Is that right?
00:04:05.220 Now, I don't want to get too deep into constitutional theory, but look, every country in the world has a written constitution.
00:04:11.280 Every country in the world can write things down in a constitution.
00:04:14.320 But that doesn't necessarily mean that those are embedded values.
00:04:17.000 Those are values that are upheld at every level of government, every level in society and by the court.
00:04:22.480 And so the main difference between the country like the United States, as I mentioned, is that they have this commitment, this cultural commitment, this government commitment to freedom of expression that is unlike any other country.
00:04:32.360 So, yes, sure, Canada does have a charter.
00:04:35.200 And right there it says that we have the right to freedom of expression.
00:04:38.800 But just because it's written down doesn't mean that it is an absolute right.
00:04:42.420 So I'm going to read from the Government of Canada's own guide to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
00:04:47.720 This is what the Government of Canada has to say about our rights and freedoms in the charter.
00:04:51.540 It says this,
00:04:52.820 However, the rights and freedoms in the charter are not absolute.
00:04:56.780 They can be limited to protect other rights or important national values.
00:05:00.900 For example, freedom of expression may be limited by laws against hate propaganda or child pornography.
00:05:06.860 Section 1 of the charter says the charter rights can be limited by law so long as those limits can be shown to be reasonable in a free and democratic society.
00:05:15.280 So this is just one example, but it shows that Canada's commitment is not to absolute fundamentalist freedom of speech.
00:05:22.200 We've seen that.
00:05:23.020 Every Canadian knows that.
00:05:24.100 We've seen example after example of the government abending freedom of speech.
00:05:28.400 I mean, just look at the Trudeau government's censorship regime.
00:05:30.620 Look at the way that they interfere in the free press.
00:05:33.340 They're obviously not committed to freedom of expression in a real way.
00:05:36.840 And I will continue to demonstrate that throughout this episode that Canada doesn't have the same fundamental commitment to freedom of speech.
00:05:43.880 Now, look to the Toronto Star.
00:05:44.880 If you're going to make a claim, if you're going to make the headline of your story saying that a public figure is spreading misinformation, you better be right.
00:05:53.620 You better have receipts and you better be able to defend yourself with facts.
00:05:57.140 The Toronto Star doesn't do that.
00:05:58.120 They just had that one line that says that Canada unequivocally respects freedom of speech.
00:06:03.680 They don't provide that context that Elon Musk was comparing Canada with the United States.
00:06:07.860 Remember, the United States is a country with the best constitutionally protected freedom of speech on planet Earth.
00:06:13.700 In fact, interestingly, and a little ironically, I will say, the United States is frequently criticized by the likes of the Toronto Star and others for being too militantly pro-speech.
00:06:25.160 Here's an example.
00:06:25.780 This is an article from the Toronto Star, it's about a decade old, but it is when then Prime Minister Stephen Harper repealed Section 13 of the Human Rights Act.
00:06:34.040 So those of you who remember, those of you who are paying attention to politics 10 years ago, know that this Section 13 was a real thorn in the side for free speech activists.
00:06:43.080 But what did it do?
00:06:44.060 It allowed basically the creation of these kangaroo courts, which were designed to punish people for things that they said that other people did not like.
00:06:52.340 It basically turned hate speech into a weapon that you could use in Canadian courts or sort of fake Canadian courts to punish people who said things that were offensive or said things that other people didn't like.
00:07:02.820 Stephen Harper repealing Section 13 was a huge victory for freedom loving Canadians, especially for people in my field, in the journalism and commentary field.
00:07:11.000 It was a huge victory. And so, of course, the Toronto Star at the time hated it.
00:07:16.000 So here in this article, the Toronto Star is telling us how much that they loathed Stephen Harper for repealing this section.
00:07:22.080 And the author calls those who support free speech members of the far right.
00:07:26.000 He calls them hateful. He calls them bigots and so on and so forth.
00:07:29.580 And so here I'll just read you a few examples from the story.
00:07:31.900 He's talking about the philosophy behind Section 13, why it was created and what it did for Canada.
00:07:36.940 He said, in Canada, there was to be freedom of speech, but also freedom from hate.
00:07:42.060 That was going to be the Canadian way.
00:07:44.060 So the Canadian way was going to be to balance freedom of speech with freedom from hate.
00:07:48.980 If you're balancing a person's right to freely express themselves, balancing that with another person's right not to be offended,
00:07:55.540 well, you can't really have both. Those two things don't really coexist.
00:07:59.180 And the emphasis in Canada is always on the latter, always on the person not wanting to be offended.
00:08:03.800 And therefore, the former, the freedom of speech, doesn't really exist in a meaningful way.
00:08:07.500 Continue to read here from the article.
00:08:09.200 It says, this was challenged by advocates of American-style free speech,
00:08:12.820 an unholy alliance of media that wanted as few restrictions on content as possible,
00:08:17.920 and anti-Semites and others who wanted to be free to spread their bigotry.
00:08:22.640 So did you get that?
00:08:23.840 American-style free speech is used as a pejorative by the likes of the Toronto Star.
00:08:28.900 And they claim that the only ones who are really calling for free speech are greedy journalists,
00:08:33.720 anti-Semites, and bigots.
00:08:35.380 Well, you can't have it both ways, Toronto Star.
00:08:37.860 You cannot claim that Canada has some absolute right to free speech and that it is constitutionally protected,
00:08:42.980 and then also say that hate speech is bad and that American-style free speech is something contemptible.
00:08:49.620 Those two things cannot exist at the same time.
00:08:51.780 But of course, the Toronto Star does want to have it both ways.
00:08:54.640 They want more restrictions on speech.
00:08:56.420 They believe that so-called hate speech should be illegal.
00:08:59.200 They believe in government control and government funding of the media, including their own newspaper.
00:09:03.700 And they believe that vague concepts like denialism should be illegal in Canada.
00:09:07.960 Here's a story that they wrote very recently about how Canada should consider legal options to fight residential school denialism.
00:09:14.500 In this article, they basically advocate for new laws, making it illegal to deny claims, official claims, about residential schools,
00:09:22.940 which, again, things that would never happen in the United States,
00:09:25.100 things that would never happen in a country that has a serious constitutionally protected free speech.
00:09:30.740 And that's the greater irony of this whole piece.
00:09:33.120 This very article which calls Elon Musk's speech misinformation.
00:09:36.580 It's part of a broader campaign designed to restrict and curb freedom of speech.
00:09:42.520 And speaking about that mindset and that broader campaign to curb freedom of speech,
00:09:45.920 a campaign where Justin Trudeau, by the way, is one of the leading figures.
00:09:49.640 Look at this article in the CBC.
00:09:51.460 It is also about Elon Musk, but this time it is criticizing him for the exact opposite thing that the Toronto Star is criticizing him for it.
00:09:59.500 So CBC calls this investigative journalism, but they're really just employing the exact same tactics that Media Matters employed recently against Elon Musk and X to try to get advertisers to flee X, to flee that platform.
00:10:11.160 So Media Matters, for those who aren't familiar, is a U.S. highly partisan, far-left organization whose job is simply to take conservatives out of context.
00:10:19.580 They clip conservatives or they find things that conservatives said.
00:10:22.960 They take it out of context and they use that to try to get advertisers to leave conservative platforms to stop advertising for conservatives.
00:10:29.880 That's literally all that they do.
00:10:31.040 Recently, they decided to take aim at Elon Musk, and Elon Musk, good for him, to his credit, he decided that he had had enough of their loathsome routine.
00:10:40.120 He called it an evil propaganda campaign, and he is suing them in what he calls a thermonuclear lawsuit.
00:10:45.840 This is what he had to say on the topic after Media Matters published a smear campaign against them.
00:10:49.740 He writes, the split second courts open on Monday.
00:10:52.540 X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and all those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company.
00:11:00.380 So what does the CBC go and do?
00:11:02.640 Well, the lazy state broadcaster, who, as we know, is really nothing more than a front for the Trudeau government.
00:11:08.320 They took the exact same hatchet job premise, the evil propaganda campaign, and they simply applied it to Canada.
00:11:14.860 So here's what that story looked like.
00:11:16.020 It says, CBC investigates.
00:11:18.120 Bell Media, Angus Reid, and other Canadian brands halt ads on X amid extremism concerns.
00:11:24.240 Advertisers increasingly reticent since Elon Musk took over a platform a year ago.
00:11:29.020 So the whole premise of the CBC article is that they refreshed ads over and over and over again until they saw an ad from one of those companies next to a post that they don't like, and then they screenshotted that and pressured those companies to stop advertising on the platform.
00:11:44.440 So it's not investigative journalism.
00:11:45.700 It's really just bullying mixed with activism, mixed with really deceitful, dishonest journalism practices.
00:11:51.700 It's pretty sleazy.
00:11:52.920 And it's all based on the premise that free speech is bad and employing cancel culture is good.
00:11:59.040 And as Elon Musk said, it's a fraudulent attack.
00:12:02.640 It isn't authentic.
00:12:03.680 It isn't real.
00:12:04.380 It isn't true.
00:12:05.360 I really wish that Elon Musk would notice this and deploy the same thermonuclear lawsuit against the CBC for more or less doing the exact same thing as Media Matters.
00:12:13.760 But there we have it.
00:12:14.760 We have two legacy media outlets, two of the leading pro-Trudeau leftist publications in Canada, saying at the same time that Elon Musk is guilty of misinformation for saying that Canada doesn't protect free speech,
00:12:26.740 but then also saying that Musk's platform doesn't do enough to crack down on free speech, saying that there is an unchecked rise in hateful content.
00:12:36.360 The CBC in this piece is proving Musk right and showing that the Toronto Star is flat out wrong.
00:12:41.760 Canada, under the Trudeau government, values censorship.
00:12:44.580 They do not value free speech.
00:12:46.040 The CBC is working very hard to shut down voices it disagrees with.
00:12:50.180 Well, in that same interview where Musk said that Canada doesn't really value free speech, he also had a message for advertisers, a message for those woke and dying companies like Disney who followed the censorship recommendations by Media Matters and pulled their ads off of X.
00:13:03.700 This is what Elon Musk had to say to them.
00:13:06.020 If somebody's going to try to blackmail me with advertising, blackmail me with money, go yourself.
00:13:14.540 But go yourself.
00:13:17.960 Is that clear?
00:13:21.280 I hope it is.
00:13:22.120 Seriously, Elon Musk should say the exact same thing to the CBC, to the Toronto Star and the Trudeau government and the entire fake news censorship regime in Canada.
00:13:30.860 Go F yourself.
00:13:31.980 It's Fake News Friday.
00:13:32.820 I'm Candace Malcolm and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.