Trudeau's China czar calls for more media handouts
The Foreign Interference Commissioner contradicted herself by advocating for a free press and media handouts.
The Foreign Interference Commission recommended more media handouts to counter foreign meddling, according to the final report.
Commissioner Mary-Josee Hogue, a Trudeau-appointee, made an urgent call for Canadians to “support” traditional media amid longstanding financial woes, reported True North.
The government “should pursue discussions with media organizations and the public around modernizing media funding,” she wrote, “while preserving media independence and neutrality.”
The Official Opposition maintains that future Conservative governments would cut off all media handouts. They must sink or swim on private revenues, said Tory leader Pierre Poilievre.https://t.co/nYZZz1W72a
— Rebel News Canada (@RebelNews_CA) August 16, 2024
She appeared to contradict herself in urging the federal government to support media outlets, while cherishing their independence from government and political parties.
Hogue agreed with Canadian Heritage that taxpayer-funded media is “trustworthy and of good quality.”
Only a third of Canadians rate news media trustworthy and balanced, reported Blacklock’s. The latest data follow Statistics Canada figures showing reporters are considered less reliable than politicians or lawyers.
“Fewer agree that … news programming offers a variety of perspectives (36 percent) and that they are satisfied with the quality of information and analysis offered by Canadian news media (37 percent),” said the Public Opinion Research Tracker.
“I share their concern about Canada’s professional media. Canada must have a press that is strong and free,” she said in the report.
EXPOSED: Parliamentary report indicates China is funding Canadian media to amplify disinformation
— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) June 7, 2024
Trudeau is funding the mainstream media to overlook his failures, corruption, and misdeeds, now, it seems, China is doing it too.
MORE by @SheilaGunnReid: https://t.co/SR1VjrIPTt
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation questioned how media could take handouts while remaining independent from government influence
“Taxpayers should not be forced to fund media corporations,” Federal Director Franco Terrazzano told True North. “The government must end all media bailouts and defund the CBC.”
He said Canadians should “voluntarily choose which media to support” and that media companies should compete in a free market without intrusion.
'We are entitled to expect more from the state broadcaster,' said Jennifer Dundas, a former CBC reporter. 'The CBC should serve all Canadians, not the adherents of favoured political ideologies.'
— Rebel News Canada (@RebelNews_CA) December 19, 2024
MORE: https://t.co/u7q6cG0m5V pic.twitter.com/KChYQ3rGnw
Network Ombudsman Jack Nagler called it “unwise” for Canadians to rely on the state broadcaster “if you want to be fully informed,” reads his final report.
“This is part of the problem that has been created in recent years as many of us have slipped into ‘news silos’ or ‘information bubbles,’” he writes. “We aren’t hearing enough information that conflicts with our pre-existing views.”
He gave the example of one-sided reporting by the broadcaster on the pandemic and vaccine mandates, reported Blacklock’s.
A former CBC reporter condemned her former employer as “warped beyond repair,” while others bashed the broadcaster for disseminating “misinformation” on the alleged abuse of vaccine mandates.
“We betrayed the public,” Marianne Klowak, a veteran reporter, told the National Citizen’s Inquiry. “We broke their trust. … We were, in fact, pushing propaganda.”
FULL DISCLOSURE: Rebel News does not take any money from Justin Trudeau.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) September 2, 2021
Or from Facebook or Google.
Or from Pfizer or Moderna.
If your favorite journalist can’t say the same thing, you’ve got a disinformation problem. pic.twitter.com/O3bjPi2gdQ
Hogue lauded their role in countering “misinformation” and “disinformation” as “reliable sources of information,” especially on social media.
To combat the use of deepfakes and AI, the commissioner recommended legislation that would force publishers and tech companies to disclose when they publish altered content.
She advocated for the federal government to also develop tools to verify if digital content has been altered.
“The government should explore existing technologies and consider assisting civil society organizations, such as media observatories and universities, to develop a publicly available tool to help citizens verify whether digital content is fabricated or altered,” said the final report.
A Canadian Heritage modernization panel — stacked with former CBC employees — urged a renewed emphasis on appealing to “everybody” with its updated mandate.
Its mandate hasn’t been changed since 1991, before the advent of the internet. “The only modernization plan the state broadcaster needs is three words long: defund the CBC,” said Terrazzano.
The Forum for Research and Policy in Communications (FRPC) conducted an analysis of the broadcaster’s annual reports from 1937 to 2019, uncovering significant difficulties tracking the broadcaster's funding and performance outcomes.
The annual reports provide “little objective information” about fulfillment of its mandate and “so little consistent historical financial information” that Parliament's support for its operations “cannot be easily assessed.”
The FRPC estimates the state broadcaster has cost taxpayers roughly $80 billion since 1937, when it launched.

Alex Dhaliwal
Calgary Based Journalist
Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.

COMMENTS
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Bernhard Jatzeck commented 2025-02-04 20:53:56 -0500I guess Trudeau’s inflation affects more than our groceries or rent. The price of propaganda’s going up as well.
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Bruce Atchison commented 2025-02-04 19:52:00 -0500Choice is thee most democratic way to run media outlets. When we have to pay for them, it robs of our freedom to get news and entertainment from any source we want. And government-run entities like the CBC won’t bite the governmental hand which feeds them. Let legacy media adapt or go dark. Allocate vacant frequency space to amateur radio operators.