Juno News - January 30, 2019


Liberals don't want ＂misinformation＂ to influence election. But who defines it？


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

172.8066

Word Count

713

Sentence Count

34


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 With nine months to go until the federal election, Justin Trudeau's cabinet has finally unveiled
00:00:07.140 its plan to combat the possibility of foreign influence having a role in this year's election.
00:00:14.180 The announcement was made this week by Ralph Goodale, the Public Safety Minister, Karina
00:00:18.620 Gould, who runs the Democratic Institutions Department, and Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan.
00:00:23.860 A number of protocols and policies being put in place were announced, and most of them
00:00:29.580 were unobjectionable, in fact quite good and I would argue long overdue policies to implement
00:00:34.880 to safeguard Canadian elections.
00:00:37.780 For example, the government will be putting a task force together that is specifically
00:00:42.320 designated as the body responsible for investigating and preparing for these things.
00:00:47.320 Senior party leadership officials across the spectrum are going to get classified security
00:00:52.020 briefings about potential threats, foreign and domestic.
00:00:55.120 Social media companies, however, are also being told they have a role to play here, and
00:01:00.460 that is to put in a platform that reigns in misinformation.
00:01:05.340 And this is where I have a healthy dose of skepticism about what the federal government is trying
00:01:09.900 to do here.
00:01:10.980 Namely, who gets to define misinformation?
00:01:14.620 You see, Justin Trudeau's government has a long history of lambasting anything remotely
00:01:19.680 critical as being fake news.
00:01:21.840 Gerald Butz loves taking aim at coverage he doesn't like on Twitter as fake news.
00:01:26.740 Catherine McKenna calls it fake news whenever anyone disagrees with her on climate change.
00:01:32.040 In fact, she actually went after a column my colleague, Candace Malcolm, wrote, calling
00:01:36.500 it fake news for saying that the carbon tax was a tax.
00:01:41.380 And then we have Mark Gerritsen, a Liberal member of Parliament from Kingston, who was in
00:01:45.760 a Twitter exchange with David Aiken, a global news journalist.
00:01:48.820 And they were talking about the budget, and Mark Gerritsen called something fake news.
00:01:53.940 He later walked it back, but this is the go-to response now from the Liberals to just throw
00:01:59.540 away anything they don't like and dismiss it as misinformation or fake news.
00:02:04.240 Now, this isn't to say that a few throwaway comments on Twitter are indicative of something
00:02:09.280 more potentially subject to abuse.
00:02:11.740 But let's look at the M103 report.
00:02:14.420 The report that came about from the anti-Islamophobia motion had a significant chunk of it that was
00:02:19.840 devoted to what it called misinformation, and the need to ensure that no misinformation is
00:02:26.080 being spread about policy.
00:02:27.940 Well, the Liberals were calling pretty much anyone who criticized M103 out for fake news
00:02:34.120 when people like me were sounding the alarm about parts of it that were very concerning.
00:02:38.000 This was now dismissed in an official government report as being a misinformation campaign.
00:02:44.180 So if the Liberals are trying to make sure that the election is free from influence by
00:02:48.320 foreign actors, I think that's a good idea.
00:02:50.480 If they're putting pressure on social media companies to make sure no misinformation is
00:02:56.220 seeping in, I think they need to do a much better job of explaining what something would
00:03:00.580 have to do to be called misinformation, and more importantly, who gets to make that determination.
00:03:05.140 You see, there is a wide range of opinions, perspectives, and analyses that are going to be offered
00:03:10.800 in an election.
00:03:11.620 People are going to criticize different parties.
00:03:13.820 People are going to hopefully put some news reports out that go right down the middle.
00:03:17.520 But we can't have people that are loyal to a particular government deciding what's
00:03:21.860 misinformation and what's not.
00:03:23.460 And we can't be strong-arming social media companies in putting an editorial perspective
00:03:28.400 on their platforms more than they already do to favor one particular government.
00:03:33.020 And even though I think it's paramount that we protect our democracy, we can't do it in
00:03:38.020 a way that threatens free speech.
00:03:40.300 For True North, I'm Andrew Lutton.
00:03:42.700 Right up until the next election, we're going to be sounding the alarm about any misinformation
00:03:46.560 we see, any examples where the mainstream media is missing the mark on coverage.
00:03:52.040 We can't do this alone, though.
00:03:53.440 We need your help.
00:03:54.860 Lend us a supportive hand by joining the Andrew Lutton Heritage Club over at www.truenorthinitiative.com
00:04:02.060 For just a few dollars a month, you can keep your mind filled with what the mainstream
00:04:06.280 media doesn't want you to see.