Juno News - The Liberals take aim at True North

00:00:00.000 You know, Justin Trudeau keeps talking about how much he cares about media freedom and freedom of

00:00:09.760 the press and free speech, but he doesn't even pretend to actually believe that in his actions.

00:00:15.240 You may recall last week I did a year-end interview with Conservative Party of Canada

00:00:19.500 leader Aaron O'Toole. These sorts of interviews are very commonplace. Party leaders sit down and

00:00:24.400 have frank but friendly conversations about what they've done in the past year and what they plan

00:00:29.480 to do in the year ahead. But oh no, the fact that I spoke to Aaron O'Toole this year, or more

00:00:34.340 importantly the fact that Aaron O'Toole spoke to me, became the fodder for a Liberal Party of Canada

00:00:39.780 fundraising email. The Liberals sent this out accusing Aaron O'Toole of far-right politics,

00:00:46.220 saying that his granting of an interview to the quote far-right true north really was just akin

00:00:52.440 to speaking to an anti-immigration right-wing think tank. Despite the fact that we're a news organization

00:00:58.540 in a media outlet that offers poignant commentary, break stories, and competes with the mainstream

00:01:03.400 media journalists that Justin Trudeau has given $600 million to. I don't expect the Liberals to

00:01:09.940 agree with us, but I expect the Liberals to acknowledge we have a right to exist. When they

00:01:15.100 take aim at Aaron O'Toole for daring to speak to us, what they're actually saying is that our audience

00:01:20.000 doesn't deserve to hear what politicians are doing. Our audience doesn't deserve to hear what's going on.

00:01:25.540 They're not just going after me, they're going after all of you who pay attention to and support

00:01:31.000 the work that we do. This isn't all that surprising from the Liberals who banned me from covering their

00:01:36.940 campaign in the last election, and from the Liberal government who is paying tens of thousands of

00:01:41.820 dollars to fight against my press freedom, True North's press freedom, Rebels' press freedom, and all

00:01:48.100 press freedom in federal court as a result of our Leaders Debates Commission case. These are the Liberals who

00:01:54.640 stand up there and shake hands and smile for pictures at a global conference for media freedom,

00:01:59.680 but when push comes to shove, actually don't respect alternative and independent forms of media,

00:02:05.120 which in many regards are the future of media. But there's an institutionalization of this that's

00:02:10.960 taking place. Take a look at a draft policy circulated among members of the Parliamentary Press

00:02:16.480 Gallery, which is basically the organization that serves as the gatekeeper to covering any events that

00:02:22.240 take place on Parliament Hill, especially with the Liberals, which have decided to outsource

00:02:27.360 all accreditation to the Parliamentary Press Gallery. This draft policy, written by members of the

00:02:33.360 mainstream media in Ottawa, says that accreditation is a privilege and not a right. They say, according to

00:02:39.840 the Hill Times, that if they allow people in by misusing the policy, allow people in that don't belong there,

00:02:45.760 it would erode the relationship between the institution of Parliament and the Parliamentary Press Gallery,

00:02:51.440 which means if they let those pesky independent journalists in, well, the whole thing is just going

00:02:55.840 to come crashing down like a house of cards. Now, there's no reason that they can't respond by going

00:03:01.280 after behavior. If someone acts out, if someone does something wrong, if someone actually breaks the

00:03:06.880 rules, then deal with it. But by preemptively saying that no one who's not like us deserves to cover

00:03:13.040 what's happening in government, they're actually allowing, the very people that are enjoying press

00:03:18.320 freedom in their day-to-day lives, are actually allowing press freedom to be curbed and curtailed

00:03:23.360 by a government that doesn't want its political opponents to speak to the media outlets that they

00:03:28.160 don't think are legitimate. Press freedom is always a pressing concern, especially now. For True North,

00:03:34.720 I'm Andrew Lutton.

Juno News - December 24, 2020