In the latest episode of Fake News Friday, Andrew Lawton and co-host Harrison Faulkner discuss the Globe and Mail's take on the proposed changes to Canada's Public Service Pension Plan (CPP) by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
00:00:50.920I am Andrew Lawton, helping you navigate through the blizzard of lies that dominates the fodder that we so lovingly curate for you on Fake News Friday.
00:00:59.820Joined, as always, the man who rises above fake news at every opportunity, except when he's, like, mucking around in it just to find the good stuff for you, Harrison Faulkner.
00:01:09.480Harrison, another week passes us by. How was this one for you?
00:01:13.300It was good. It was good. We had a big announcement on Monday that the mandates were dropping for the mask and a Rive can and vaccines for entry.
00:01:21.640But nonetheless, Andrew, even though we got some good news, of course, the usual menu of fake news was served right up to us this week, and there's quite a lot to get into.
00:01:30.820There is, but I will, I think you prompted this in me, I will wish everyone tomorrow, if you're watching this the day it's released, Friday, tomorrow, Saturday, October 1st,
00:01:40.740Happy Vaccine Mandate Freedom Day from the federal government.
00:01:45.400It's a gift that is much too belated from Justin Trudeau, but nonetheless, one that will celebrate it.
00:01:50.700So I think the old thanks for coming to the party at all, even if you came after we're already packing it up and everyone's left.
00:01:56.400But in any case, let's talk about this one. So the Globe and Mail, I should preface this by saying, has been one of the few legacy media outlets that has been unafraid of really going after the liberals on some key stories,
00:02:10.880especially when it comes to Justin Trudeau's ethics abuses.
00:02:13.900So I don't do what Gerald Butts and Justin Trudeau do, which is say that the Globe is actually fake news.
00:02:20.200That being said, every now and then, even the most well-meaning media outlet will sometimes succumb to that impulse to start spewing liberal talking points.
00:02:30.300And in this particular case, they've run a column by Rob Carrick saying that the Conservatives are all wrong when they say that CPP, Canada Pension Plan Premiums, are not a tax.
00:02:41.640They're running literal liberal talking points on this because this is what the liberals say.
00:02:46.440When Pierre Polyev talks about increases to CPP, which the liberals are putting forward, that's more money that employees have to have taken out of their paycheck.
00:02:56.700It's more money that employers have to pay out of their bottom line to have an employee.
00:03:02.700So for all intents and purposes, that is a tax to Canadians.
00:03:06.280It's a tax to Canadian businesses. It's a tax to Canadian employees.
00:03:10.520And Pierre Polyev points that out, and the Globe and Mail just, bam, taking the liberal position there.
00:03:16.940No, exactly. And really, what should we expect, Andrew?
00:03:19.480We've seen, as you said, the Globe and Mail is not that bad.
00:03:21.500We've seen many other legacy media outlets do Justin Trudeau's bidding for him and his government.
00:03:27.280And they always try and nitpick out exactly where Polyev goes wrong.
00:03:31.960And it's all about, it's always language, right?
00:03:35.660You can call it a premium or you can call it a tax.
00:03:37.780But as you said, at the end of the day, Andrew, it's just money coming out of your pocket to pay into a system, which you eventually get money out of.
00:03:44.300No one is questioning the definition of the pension plan and what that is all about.
00:03:48.740But again, like you said, when you're paying money into a system and that goes up, that is, for all intents and purposes, a tax.
00:06:23.940However, things turn out, there's a degree of comfort in knowing that the CPP will be there.
00:06:27.400In fact, enhancements being made to the CPP will produce higher levels of retirement income than previous generations had.
00:06:32.300You know, he's talking about trying to promote the CPP when actually, when he's trying to criticize Pierre Polyev for saying that it's a tax.
00:06:41.660It's like you've been instructed, hey, promote this and try and challenge the opposition leader.
00:06:46.900It's another example, Andrew, of the legacy media opposing the opposition leader rather than holding the government to account.
00:06:54.040Yeah, the semantics have always been annoying in politics and in media.
00:06:58.220Like, I remember when Aaron O'Toole announced that the Conservatives were going to put forward a carbon tax.
00:07:03.180He had said, oh, no, no, no, it's not a carbon tax.
00:07:30.040Let's talk about the big media freakout this week, though, firing on all cylinders.
00:07:34.940And that was the election of Georgia Maloney in Italy as the prime minister designate.
00:07:42.540Now, this is a broad coalition that we have here.
00:07:46.240The legacy media have not at all been too keen on this.
00:07:51.280And neither has, I should say, Justin Trudeau or Melanie Jolie or the foreign policy apparatus of Canada, none of whom have given the obligatory congratulatory message that they gave to Mario Draghi, that they gave to Emmanuel Macron, that they gave to Anthony Albanese.
00:08:07.640But there's been a particularly bizarre mainstream media take that's like trying to weave this into a weird global and Canadian context.
00:08:18.340I was having trouble following this one, Harrison.
00:08:22.760So what they're trying to do here and what we've seen from a couple of other legacy media sources this week is to try and take the election of Georgia Maloney and what we're seeing in Iran, for example, with the protests, the protests against the mandatory hijab there.
00:08:36.380They're trying to basically say that because of this, because of the election of the first female prime minister in Italy, women's rights are under attack in Italy.
00:08:46.120Try and follow that logic along with us because we're having some trouble ourselves.
00:08:50.600But supposedly, Andrew, women's rights are under attack across the world and they're kind of using the protests in Iran and the election of Georgia Maloney to say, well, look, this is what's going on.
00:09:00.300We've got women protesting for their rights in Iran when in Italy, a bunch of Italians just voted in some patriarchal first female prime minister.
00:09:09.780Again, it's very difficult to follow along with the logic here, but we're trying our best.
00:09:14.000And then on top of that, Andrew, what they're trying to do, what we've seen from a lot of legacy media sources is to say, actually, the protests in Iran are, you know, you can almost compare the struggles that the women are facing in Iran to what is going on in Quebec with Bill C-21.
00:09:28.520So, again, we've got this one article from the Toronto Star where this columnist is trying to mix all three together.
00:09:35.700She's trying to basically say that the election of Georgia Maloney spells, you know, danger for women's rights in Italy, again, which is hilarious.
00:09:43.240And then, you know, the protests in Iran for women's freedom can be equated somehow to the protests in Quebec against Bill C-21, which is about basically saying if you work in the public service, you can't have religious attire on.
00:09:56.600I'm not going to defend Bill C-21. I don't personally agree with it.
00:09:59.160But, again, the idea that we can compare the two together is ridiculous.
00:10:02.700And then, of course, to add on top of that, this idea, Andrew, that Georgia Maloney's election upholds the patriarchy in Italy, in Europe.
00:10:10.460Try and, you know, help me out with this one, Andrew.
00:10:12.540Yeah, I mean, let's first off just explain that away.
00:10:15.980What they don't like is that she's pro-life and pro-family.
00:10:18.580They don't like that she supports families that have a traditional structure, which, again, I'm a libertarian.
00:10:25.180I don't support restricting gay marriage, but they don't like that she's pro-life, that she doesn't like abortion.
00:10:30.520They like that she is taking that Viktor Orban position of believing that strong families build strong societies, which I don't think is a controversial thing.
00:10:39.160But it's interesting how we hear all of the time this hand-wringing about how we need more representation and more women in politics.
00:10:44.960And then you get a woman who's elected to a very prominent position in Italy, the head of that country's government, a G7 nation.
00:10:52.940And all of a sudden, well, she's not the right kind of woman.
00:10:55.640And this column in the Toronto Star makes this point that Maloney is an example of how representation in circles of power is meaningless
00:11:03.600if the representative does not also challenge the existing hierarchy and bias.
00:11:08.680The difference with Iran is it doesn't care to make its patriarchy palatable.
00:11:13.740So the implication is that Iran and Italy are both patriarchies.
00:11:18.500And Italy, though, is so particularly progressive because Italy has a woman as the patriarch.