Juno News - Who controls the press in Canada？

00:00:00.000 welcome to the fighter i'm your host chris sims and boy do we have a great interview for you

00:00:10.960 you might remember that the federal government is now paying journalists in mainstream media

00:00:19.560 yeah we're not even talking about the cbc no let's leave the state broadcaster at the sidelines just

00:00:25.900 for a few minutes, okay? No, a huge chunk of the mainstream media in Canada is now reliant upon

00:00:35.100 government funding. Folks, this is a direct and obvious conflict of interest because

00:00:42.160 journalists are supposed to, through journalism, hold the powerful to account. And in particular,

00:00:49.880 it's supposed to be a calling to hold powerful governments to account and uh you can't do that

00:00:58.120 if you're counting on that powerful government for your paycheck is a direct and obvious conflict of

00:01:04.900 interest but wait there's more it's not just the funding now we're dealing with things like

00:01:10.260 the government choosing who is and is not an approved journalist just the very idea of a

00:01:18.060 government-approved journalist should send shivers down your spine because a free press

00:01:24.360 is essential to a democracy. We need a free press as taxpayers, because we're at the Taxpayers

00:01:31.800 Federation. We need a free press in order to hold the government to account. And you can't do that

00:01:39.640 if that press is polluted with government money. They're counting on the government for money,

00:01:46.960 and now government is deciding who is and is not a journalist. Now we've got groups who are

00:01:53.600 deciding who can ask a politician a question or not, even via email, okay? We're getting to a

00:02:02.240 critical stage right now when it comes to free expression, a free press, and censorship in

00:02:08.180 Canada. In fact, this is so important that our sisters or cousins, whatever you want to call

00:02:15.400 them, the folks over at Rebel News. You've probably seen Sheila Gunn-Reed. She is the lead

00:02:21.180 editor of Rebel News. I've known her for many years. She also is actually the president of the

00:02:28.360 Independent Press Gallery. Why is this important? Because Sheila Gunn-Reed got on a plane and flew

00:02:37.720 to ottawa and was at the committee right in the lion's den on parliament hill speaking up for a

00:02:46.600 free press let's listen this is not a free press according to reporters without borders canada has

00:02:54.760 fallen from eighth place in 2015 to 21st in 2025. independent journalists are not asking for special

00:03:02.760 treatment we're asking for equal treatment end discrimination in media access ensure no journalist

00:03:10.360 is blocked from public institutions by their competitors and stop using public policy to

00:03:15.880 interfere with how independent media reach their audience a free press is not funded filtered and

00:03:23.080 approved by the government it is free to challenge it and right now that freedom is under pressure

00:03:29.720 and it's time to restore it. Wow. Okay, that was just a little taste of what Sheila said to the

00:03:36.120 committee. And it's so important. And I really got to get this across. This should be nonpartisan.

00:03:42.080 In fact, this shouldn't even be ideological. If you vote left or right, you should want to have

00:03:48.320 a free press in Canada. Because imagine if the other guy were in, say somebody who was, you know,

00:03:54.740 right-wing and conservative were in. Wouldn't you want your journalists who were speaking for you

00:03:59.900 and asking those hard W5 questions, wouldn't you want them to be independent from the government?

00:04:06.840 You better believe you would. This is why a free press is so important. So how did she wind up

00:04:13.240 going there? What kind of stuff was she saying? Why is a free press under attack in Canada and

00:04:18.960 how do we fix it? Let's find out. Joining me now is my good friend, the editor over at Rebel News

00:04:26.600 and also the president of the Independent Press Gallery. Yes, we have one of those in Canada.

00:04:33.460 Sheila Gunn-Reed. You are fresh off of the plane coming back from Mordor, also known as Ottawa.

00:04:40.000 I got to give it to you. You really put the boots to them. I've watched your opening statement

00:04:45.760 about five times over. Thank you for speaking up for average, everyday, hardworking Canadians

00:04:52.460 who watch independent media and who want a level playing field. So first, just set the stage for

00:04:58.900 me. So what were you doing in Ottawa? Like, how did you get into the building? Like, what was it

00:05:04.100 like being at committee? You know, it's weird. I never thought that I would ever be working in

00:05:11.300 and around Parliament Hill. And there's a reason for that. A cabal of our competitors known as

00:05:15.240 the Parliamentary Press Gallery, get together and have these little witch trials for independent

00:05:20.040 journalists if we apply to join. And they purposefully exclude us, which seems bizarre

00:05:26.500 that your taxpayer-funded competitors can get together and then vote to ensure that you do not

00:05:33.140 have access to the same politicians that they do. But that's what happens here. And they control

00:05:38.380 access to Parliament Hill. But I was invited by the Conservatives on the Heritage Committee

00:05:44.000 to serve as, I think, a counterbalance to the bailout media in this country.

00:05:51.660 And so during my committee appearance, I think there's four or five other journalists that were sitting there

00:05:57.400 and every single one of them was asking for more government money.

00:06:00.940 And I thought, you know what, Sheila, now's your chance to leave it all on the dance floor.

00:06:05.700 You're going to have to defend the rights of independent journalists and really what we want as independent journalists.

00:06:12.840 and as the president of the Independent Press Gallery, I try to speak for all of us in that

00:06:19.280 we don't want the money and we just want to be left alone. Just leave us alone to do our jobs

00:06:25.660 and hold the politicians to account on the normal people. So on behalf of the normal people. So

00:06:30.580 that's how I ended up at committee. I was invited by the conservatives. I didn't really tell anybody

00:06:35.480 what I was doing. I was worried that there would be a left-wing loony outcry once the news broke

00:06:43.400 that I was testifying. So I sort of kept it to myself. You know, a couple of people knew, you

00:06:48.760 knew, trusted people in my circle knew, but I was worried that the party might get wobbly, decide I

00:06:56.440 would be too much of a headache. And so I didn't tell anybody that I was going to be there until

00:07:01.320 I was there and it was basically all over but the crying. Yeah you went in there on like stealth

00:07:07.740 mode. All right I gotta point out obviously this is Juno and you're with Rebel. I love this so much

00:07:14.280 it's like a Marvel DC crossover happening right now in the comic book and you were truly a hero

00:07:20.640 for independent journalists. Thank you so much for speaking up for them. Break it down for us. Now

00:07:26.540 you gave your entire spiel, but talk me through some of the actual issues that you were trying

00:07:33.600 to address here. Let's start with the funding. A lot of people still may not realize that it's

00:07:39.980 not just the state broadcaster. It's not just the CBC. The big majority of the mainstream media

00:07:46.880 is on government dole now. They're funded by the government. As a longtime member of the

00:07:53.580 Parliamentary Press Gallery formally, I can't believe this. I still can't believe that huge

00:07:58.920 chunks of the mainstream media are on government payroll now. So why are you fighting government

00:08:04.880 funding of the media? Well, as I said in my opening statement, government funding of the media,

00:08:09.800 whether it's real or perceived, is political contamination in journalism. And to be clear,

00:08:18.180 and this is not my testimony, this is testimony from the Canadian Media Guild that was also

00:08:23.340 actually there. In excess of 90% of journalists in this country are on some sort of government

00:08:31.240 assistance. And I'll say 90. And, you know, that is either the $30,000 per person in the majority

00:08:44.560 of the newsrooms across this country. But also there's this little thing called the QCJO that

00:08:50.200 allows the newsrooms to be able to claim the salaries of up to, I think it's about $12,000

00:08:57.460 or $13,000 per employee as a tax write-off. And the QCJO is the government stamp of approval.

00:09:05.480 It's the Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization. And it's basically the government

00:09:12.720 giving you a license to commit journalism, which I explicitly reject, and then giving you all these

00:09:20.820 freebies on the other side. And what it does is it fosters an environment of journalists who,

00:09:27.840 whether it's intentional or otherwise, just will not, as aggressively as they should,

00:09:34.980 hold the government to account. Because how can you, if you rely on the government for your

00:09:41.620 existence and your employment. You won't bite the hand that feeds you. You just won't. That's just

00:09:47.760 human nature. Folks, this really needs to be hammered home because this isn't just a problem

00:09:53.620 for journalists, okay? This is a problem for you. This is a problem for all the viewers and all the

00:09:59.360 listeners and all your kids and grandkids, okay? Because journalists are supposed to speak truth

00:10:06.000 to power. Journalists are supposed to hold the powerful government to account. This has always

00:10:13.780 been the mantra of good journalists. Okay. It doesn't matter what kind of journalism school

00:10:18.060 you went to. You ask the hard W5 questions, who, what, where, when, why. Okay. You hold government

00:10:24.580 to account. You go through public documents. You hold them to account on spending and all their

00:10:29.460 behavior. If you are now counting on that same government for your paycheck, it's not going to

00:10:38.300 happen. Okay. That is a direct and obvious conflict of interest and why I was so glad, Sheila, to see

00:10:45.660 you at that committee and just slinging some arrows. How did it feel? I got to ask you because

00:10:51.820 a lot of people don't realize you're sitting in this big room. There's this like kind of four

00:10:55.860 tables all mixed together into like of a big square. You're looking at a chairperson and

00:11:00.720 there's like MPs from different parties, like kind of like looming in on you on either side, right?

00:11:06.200 Yeah. I mean, I suppose it can feel intimidating. I think normal people, sorry, honey, but

00:11:14.120 normal people would probably find it intimidating. Not that I'm calling you abnormal or anything,

00:11:18.660 but what do you feel like? Again, I think it can feel intimidating to some people. I wasn't

00:11:25.060 intimidated because I'm there, you know, and I wasn't even really there on behalf of myself.

00:11:31.900 And I'm, you know, you're sitting beside five people who are asking hat in hand for more money.

00:11:38.700 And you sort of feel crazy. It feels ridiculous. But, you know, I'm not scared of politicians. In 0.96

00:11:46.800 fact, I know they're scared of me, especially liberal politicians, which is why they won't

00:11:51.100 led us into their events, which is why they don't accredit us. They are frightened of me. And I kept

00:11:55.700 that in my head. And I'm also there speaking on behalf of the 50 some odd members of the

00:12:00.900 independent press gallery who are also unfairly treated, who will also never have a chance to

00:12:06.240 speak truth to power because the echelons of power keep them at bay. And I'm also cognizant

00:12:13.800 that I am there on behalf of the millions of Canadians who choose to consume independent

00:12:22.160 journalism because that's journalism that they feel that they can trust. And so, you know,

00:12:28.940 when you're in that room, sure, it's just little old me and a bunch of other people. And these

00:12:32.680 people apparently are powerful people. But, you know, you feel the support of everybody behind

00:12:37.700 And you also feel the importance that you're probably only going to get one shot at this, especially now that the Liberals have secured that majority one way or another.

00:12:50.040 And so the Conservatives are really going to lose the power that they have at these committees.

00:12:54.180 And so you won't see as many oppositional witnesses to government policy at any of the committees.

00:13:02.660 So I thought, you know what? Things are changing fast.

00:13:04.840 and uh this is my one shot so I took it to keep with the comic book reference to quote Rorschach

00:13:13.100 uh I'm not in here with you you're in here with me exactly and that's exactly what it looks like

00:13:20.020 good for you um I wanted to get into so there's the funding part but there's also the access part

00:13:26.180 and you keyed in on that and for people who you know didn't know or don't realize it

00:13:33.560 On Parliament Hill, okay, those buildings where you see them coming out of question period and

00:13:38.940 they've got like kind of the sandstone pillars behind them, limestone rather pillars behind them,

00:13:43.420 and they're talking to journalists. All of those journalists, in order to be standing there,

00:13:48.960 camera over the shoulder, microphone in hand, are either permanent or been given a temporary pass

00:13:54.700 to be members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. Full disclosure, I was a full-time member for

00:14:00.860 years and years and years okay i know the rooms i know the players all that stuff

00:14:05.420 basically what it is is it's a club that then controls access for journalists to the hill

00:14:13.120 okay that means that they get to pick and choose which journalists go into those buildings cover

00:14:21.760 the caucus meetings when they come out of them cover question period cover committee

00:14:25.880 When you can actually go in there. What's that? End press conference. Perfect example. So describe to me why the Parliamentary Press Gallery has an inordinate amount of power, especially now, and what they're doing with largely independent journalism.

00:14:43.100 Sure. So the parliamentary press gallery, but this is not specific to them. This is press galleries all across the country, including Alberta.

00:14:55.160 But Alberta has one unique way that even if this cabal of your competitors, as I like to call them, vote or just not even hold a vote, just see your application to join and then just say, gross, they don't take government money and throw it in the garbage.

00:15:13.100 In Alberta, we can be accredited through the Speaker's Office because the Speaker controls the building.

00:15:19.960 But the Parliamentary Press Gallery is, as I said, this taxpayer-funded, and they actually have taxpayer resources.

00:15:27.840 So not only are the journalists taxpayer-funded through their respective news agencies, but the Parliamentary Press Gallery does have some taxpayer-funded and taxpayer-supported resources.

00:15:39.860 I didn't actually know that.

00:15:41.000 Yes.

00:15:41.320 What?

00:15:41.740 Yes.

00:15:42.360 Oh.

00:15:42.580 They are, as they say, self-governing. So they can choose who gets to come on the Hill and who gets to have access. And it is a rarity if an independent journalist is allowed to join their exclusive little club, which is why when you are seeing independent journalists like Rebel News' Alexa Lavoie work, she's usually doing walk and talks, as they call them, on the street with politicians.

00:16:09.720 she has to catch them because we can't get onto the hill to ask those questions at press conferences.

00:16:17.480 We are, of course, allowed to attend conservative press conferences off the hill, but you'll never

00:16:23.160 see our questions on the official CPAC feed or Parle View feed. You just won't because we're not

00:16:29.640 there. And this has become particularly relevant. For example, Alexa Lavoie,

00:16:37.640 two weeks ago, she interviewed the presumed next leader of the Quebec government, the leader of the

00:16:47.080 PQ. That interview was being conducted at the legislature. Her interview was delayed for an hour

00:16:56.360 because the legislature press gallery there would not allow her there. Even though she was invited

00:17:01.320 by the leader of the pq um it was a lot of pushing back and the the pq sort of stepped in and flexed

00:17:10.440 their muscles and said excuse me no she's with us but that is that's just some of the um you know

00:17:17.880 the this cloistered activity that happens with the journalists there so they they get together

00:17:24.600 to purposefully push you out from being able to do journalism on the Hill.

00:17:31.420 So what Alexa was doing there, just to be clear, 0.97

00:17:33.520 that was at the National Assembly in Quebec City?

00:17:35.840 They were letting her in?

00:17:36.520 They weren't letting her in.

00:17:38.020 The press gallery there also controls access.

00:17:41.760 And as I said, this is everywhere across the country.

00:17:44.860 In Alberta, they also held a witch trial for me.

00:17:48.280 And Kian Bexte at the time, we applied to join the press gallery. 1.00

00:17:53.600 they had a witch trial in absentia, which I mean, the ladies in Salem at least got to turn up to

00:17:59.120 their own witch trial, told us that we weren't going to be allowed to join. And the speaker 1.00

00:18:04.240 stepped in and said, well, that's fine. We'll accredit them that way because the Alberta

00:18:08.080 government does have a strong commitment to engaging with journalists all across the political

00:18:12.320 spectrum as they try to be the government for all Albertans and just not the ones that voted for

00:18:17.600 them. Folks, again, this is so important, okay? If you are worried about censorship, if you don't

00:18:25.580 want your guns confiscated that you legally purchased as a licensed law-abiding firearms

00:18:30.300 owner, if you don't want carbon taxes on absolutely everything you eat and use just for the sin of

00:18:36.320 existing, if you don't want your great-great-great-grandchildren paying Prime Minister

00:18:40.900 Justin Trudeau's interest charges later in life, like all of these things really matter. I'll give

00:18:47.080 you a really recent example that just blew up while you were sitting there at the Heritage

00:18:51.800 Committee saying that independent journalists need access. So the last show I just did for Juno

00:18:58.080 involved speaking with Conservative leader Pierre Polyev. I asked him with the same tee-up I've

00:19:05.080 mentioned for the last, you know, year since Prime Minister Mark Carney was elected and started

00:19:09.820 doing terrible things at the budget. Basically, it went like this. Why is he running up such a

00:19:15.000 massive deficit. Why is Prime Minister Mark Carney planning on borrowing more money than

00:19:20.780 former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was borrowing? Remember when Chrystia Freeland wouldn't go past

00:19:25.620 the $60 billion guardrail? And I said, I said, who knew that the guy with the PhD in economics

00:19:32.340 was going to be worse with money than the drama teacher? Yep. And Pierre Polyev was absolutely

00:19:38.100 correct when he said, yeah, who knew? It takes a strange or bad form of education to run up a

00:19:46.040 massive deficit, to allow for inflation to run rampant through your country and put a carbon

00:19:51.660 tax on everything. And he stuck to numbers and even talked about gas taxes like he went all the

00:19:56.460 way through them. It was a laundry list of numbers. And numbers don't lie. We're in a critical

00:20:02.580 situation right now when it comes to the budget the interest charge we pay on our federal debt

00:20:09.200 if it were a ministry Sheila would be the third ministry in the list it's more than national

00:20:16.820 defense it's more than we send to the provinces for health care like we're at a critical stage

00:20:22.680 so he was right frankly what did the mainstream media pick up they got in a twist about Pierre

00:20:30.900 poliver you know saying he was badly educated oh didn't you know it's a bad university no it's not

00:20:35.640 oh i didn't think so it turned into this high school ridiculous drama instead of why are 0.83

00:20:41.680 taxpayers getting screwed so much by this government right he didn't pick that up i gotta

00:20:46.500 say i know i'm ranting no please back when i was on the hill including with a lot of mainstream

00:20:52.380 media outlets they would not have let the government get away with this crazy spending

00:20:57.300 for this long. They just wouldn't have. They wouldn't have. And I can't help but think that

00:21:02.300 things have changed because they're looking to daddy government to be part of their payroll.

00:21:08.360 Absolutely. They're part of the debt problem, aren't they? So I understand why they took it

00:21:12.960 personally. But, you know, to Polyev's very true point, there are a ton of overeducated,

00:21:18.220 stupid people out there. Absolutely. And just going back to the point about media access and 1.00

00:21:24.280 not being able to ask those questions i'll give you a really great example of this so there was

00:21:29.400 an uh i think it was in early 2025 there was one of the uh ongoing series of announcements on the

00:21:36.680 gun grab i'm glad you brought that up and looking to attend were our friends at caliber magazine

00:21:44.920 oh yes experts representing stakeholders people who actually know something about

00:21:50.520 the models of the firearms are looking too bad. And representing, you know, roughly 2.2, 2.4,

00:21:57.940 maybe 2.5 million law-abiding Canadian gun owners. And they were denied access to the Hill

00:22:03.520 by the PPG. Even a temporary pass? Yes. Why? You tell me. Okay. It was not like this. Like,

00:22:16.680 I know I sound like an old person talking about how kids kids music these days sucks

00:22:21.000 but it was not like this like 12 15 years ago like if you made a good argument and you were

00:22:27.600 from a reasonable publication meaning like it's actually printed people subscribe to you you're

00:22:32.440 just not some person randomly walking in off the street with an iPhone that's not what we're

00:22:36.520 talking about here folks yeah we're talking about people with an audience they publish regularly

00:22:40.960 okay they're on the internet etc etc etc but like it's caliber magazine correct yes

00:22:46.120 so that's very similar so the taxpayers federation we have our own magazine when i call people and

00:22:52.620 i'm doing just like really just journalismy things for the articles i'm calling as a journalist as

00:22:58.000 part of that magazine because we're into taxes these guys and gals are into guns that's right

00:23:04.620 they're into guns they're into firearms right um so to have them denied access even as a temporary

00:23:11.500 pass which means you go through all the security like you still have to go through all the security

00:23:16.840 checks and stuff again we're at such a critical stage Sheila and it changed so fast so it did

00:23:24.080 in 2015 um Rachel Notley was the premier in Alberta there was a press conference joint

00:23:32.260 press conference with her and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the Alberta legislature I had

00:23:37.700 worked at the Alberta legislature previously in the course of my job. I'd attended the budget and

00:23:43.620 and the speech from the throne. But then I wrote a book that was critical of Rachel Notley.

00:23:50.660 And I was headed into the legislature to attend this joint press conference the way I always did,

00:23:56.380 you know, said hi to the same old security guards I said hi to. And then all of a sudden,

00:24:01.100 a legislature sheriff directed by Rachel Notley's staff said get her out of here and they threw me

00:24:11.060 out of the legislature. Now that caused an inquiry into the behavior of the government at the time

00:24:18.660 and ultimately the inquiry said it's not the government's job to decide who or who isn't a

00:24:24.740 journalist in the province and they handed it off again to the legislature press gallery and as I

00:24:29.300 said, there's problems there, but at least it slapped the government's wrist on this. At the

00:24:35.060 time, the journalists in the province were divided about 60-40 in favor of, you know,

00:24:46.320 allowing me to be able to do my job. I think now it would be divided the other way about 90-10,

00:24:53.580 that I should not be allowed to do my job. So even at the time at 60-40, I mean,

00:24:58.500 A lot of the journalists in the mainstream media were like, you know, I don't really like her. I don't like what they do, but she's got a right to do it. That has completely inverted and gone the other way. They're basically saying, I don't like her. I don't like her opinions. I don't like the work they do. I don't like how they do it. I don't like that they don't like that I get government money, so she shouldn't be allowed to do her job.

00:25:21.540 and really press freedom, any freedom whatsoever should not be contingent on another person's

00:25:27.820 feelings about you. Either you have these rights or you don't. And someone's emotions do not factor

00:25:32.500 into it at all. That is such a good example. I had a recent one that was around that same time.

00:25:38.920 It was around 2015 or so. Maybe it was a bit early around 2013. And I did this a billion times,

00:25:44.320 right? So that's on both sides of the fence, so to speak, both as a journalist and producer or

00:25:49.160 whatnot. We were going into a conservative event in Ottawa. They were in government. I distinctly

00:25:55.620 remember this because I was reporting for Sun News Network and they had some, you know, kid at the

00:26:00.480 door, right? This wasn't physically on the Hill. It was some like reception-y thing that we had to

00:26:04.600 go in and cover. And I was walking in with, I won't name her, but I always got along really

00:26:09.160 great with her, this little teeny tiny reporter for the Hilltimes. Okay. And she was walking right

00:26:14.700 next to me and we were chatting like we usually do because we're professional and we're staying

00:26:18.780 polite and friendly. And the person at the door tried saying, keep in mind, this is government.

00:26:24.900 They're in government. This was not a private party. We're walking in. We were invited. Walking

00:26:29.300 in, the guy at the door tried to say, oh, no, just allowing Sun News. We're not allowing the Hill

00:26:34.300 Times. We were both accredited members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery. We were both like

00:26:39.340 longtime established journalists. Nobody was walking in as a Yahoo off the street. And I said,

00:26:44.040 uh no if you don't let her in you're not letting me in and now you're gonna have a big issue yeah

00:26:50.440 and they thought about it for a second and we both walked through the door and nobody caused

00:26:54.680 a disruption and we both committed journalism she won't went and read wrote her thing and i

00:27:00.200 went and wrote my thing and our audiences probably appreciated them in their own distinct ways

00:27:05.640 that's freedom of the press i wanted to to finish off with this part the this point that you made

00:27:11.480 towards the end of your speech. And I encourage everyone, go to Rebel News and watch the whole

00:27:17.120 thing. It is outstanding. You did a great job. Thank you. Towards the end of it, you described

00:27:23.040 how in a free press, the government doesn't control access, the government doesn't fund the

00:27:29.280 media. You said it so much better than I do, though. Can you sum up why we're in this critical

00:27:33.800 situation of not having a free press? And please mention the stat on press freedom.

00:27:39.620 That shocked me.

00:27:40.980 I did not know that.

00:27:42.360 It truly is upsetting.

00:27:44.000 You know, I'll call up my speech right now so I can quote verbatim.

00:27:47.540 It's so good, guys.

00:27:48.240 It really surprised me, actually, to see that amount of dropping in World Press Freedom ranking.

00:27:55.340 And then also, what's important, again, I have to stress, if you're watching this because you can't stand the Taxpayers Federation or Juno or Rebel and you're just watching it because you're getting the other side, quote unquote, of the story, hey, good for you.

00:28:08.880 It's good. It's good to watch the other side, so to speak. If you're on, you know, the side of

00:28:14.440 having smaller government and more freedom and lower taxes and all that jazz, reach out, please

00:28:20.480 reach out to your friends and family who probably vote differently than you, okay, who think that

00:28:26.920 what the federal government is doing is fine and they may watch the mainstream media only. They

00:28:31.720 may not even know about this problem. Please tell them about the situation we're faced with right

00:28:39.100 now with having a free press because I'm really worried about the future now because to your

00:28:44.920 point Sheila with this new majority government they are now going to be able to take control

00:28:51.400 of the committees and they've already indicated they want to go full steam ahead with online

00:28:56.460 censorship, also known as the Online Harms Act, I'm worried about the voice of independent media.

00:29:04.620 So just if you can sum up where we are when it comes to press freedom in Canada.

00:29:09.100 Absolutely. And I want to put this into context by saying this is after $600 million in subsidies

00:29:18.380 to the media to save the media from themselves, I guess. But according to Reporters Without

00:29:27.860 Borders, and this is after also, do you, I mean, I'm old enough to remember how the media attacked

00:29:34.520 Prime Minister Stephen Harper. They said he was unfriendly with the media. Now he did treat some

00:29:39.400 of them like the enemies they probably were. That is true. But in 2015, according to Reporters

00:29:47.200 Without Borders, Canada was eighth place in international press freedom. In 2025, we are now

00:29:56.040 21st. So all these measures that they said they've undertaken to protect the media, to make sure that

00:30:05.640 there's a diverse media landscape, it has done nothing but hinder press freedom. And we can draw

00:30:12.160 straight line to the um online news act there because thanks to the government's shakedown of

00:30:18.800 meta um the government told meta so facebook instagram that if you if a user of these platforms

00:30:28.800 shares a link then facebook slash meta has to pay the news outlet that's like asking the paper boy

00:30:36.800 to pay you for delivering you the newspaper that's not how it works and so all of a sudden a whole

00:30:42.400 bunch of people just stopped getting news online and you know for online and independent outlets

00:30:48.800 that was a cheap easy way for us to access our viewers we've been completely cut off from one

00:30:54.160 of the world's largest platforms and the end of my statement said a free press is not funded

00:31:02.480 filtered and approved by the government it is instead free to challenge it anything else

00:31:09.440 is government manipulation in the media and freedom is under attack freedom of the press

00:31:16.640 but also freedom of the people to consume the news they want in the way in which they want it

00:31:21.680 and and uh an ignorant population is easy easily malleable which i think is what any good

00:31:29.280 authoritarian ones. We're in trouble and we're not going to let this go, folks. Sheila, like you 0.94

00:31:36.860 said, I think you, I think you were on the last boat for a little while coming out of the committee

00:31:42.640 that way. So that was good timing. Now that they're going to be reformulating how the committees

00:31:48.040 work with this majority government, you're not going to see witness statements like that.

00:31:54.200 They're going to be really few and far between. But thank you for fighting the good fight. We

00:31:58.840 will continue to fight this. The next thing, like I mentioned, is that now the Kearney government

00:32:04.500 with its majority has said out loud with its face, it's going to run full steam ahead with the

00:32:10.480 online harms. Yes. That is an octopus of things. We'll take another half hour to talk about that

00:32:16.820 someday, but suffice to say it could wind up severely curtailing what you can see, hear and

00:32:23.720 say online and it'll go after independent media. Yes. Sheila Gunn-Reed, thank you so much for your

00:32:30.080 time. Thank you, Chris. Wow. Like I said, if you have not yet watched Sheila Gunn-Reed's five

00:32:38.720 minute testimony, she just goes straight at them right there in committee and speaks up for people

00:32:43.680 who support independent media, which I will point out, there are outlets who probably, you know,

00:32:50.480 have viewers and audiences that vote differently. Trust me, there's plenty of outlets out there

00:32:55.620 that don't take government money, but they're described, they would be described as more

00:32:59.720 left-wing. That's good. That's good. All we need is for journalists to become independent again,

00:33:08.020 a free from government funding, influence, approval, manipulation, and control. That's it.

00:33:14.840 I'll leave you with this.

00:33:18.080 The funding from government to journalism is such a conflict of interest.

00:33:23.720 It's such a contradiction in terms that even if it were, God rest his soul, the late Rex

00:33:31.160 Murphy delivering you the news and then handing it over to Don Cherry at the desk to give

00:33:37.600 you sports, our audience at the Taxpayers' Federation and on Juneau, you might enjoy

00:33:43.480 that more. But it shouldn't be funded by the government. It should be independently funded

00:33:49.500 by people who choose to support it. Because otherwise, it is a conflict of interest. You

00:33:55.680 cannot hold the powerful government to account if you're counting on the powerful government

00:34:02.220 for your paycheck. On that note, if you don't subscribe to Juno News yet, could you? Head on

00:34:09.140 over to Juno News, take it to a subscription, be sure to like this video, and most importantly,

00:34:15.260 share this show with people who need to know.

Juno News - April 20, 2026

Who controls the press in Canada？

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