Parliamentary press gallery breaks rules for Russia, BANS Rebel News

Start your free trial

Access exclusive members only RebelNews+ shows, event footage, and documentaries

Subscribe

Recipients of Justin Trudeau's media bailout violated the federal ban on Kremlin mouthpieces by giving Itar-Tass in-person access to politicians, briefings and documents in contravention of the Special Economic Measures Regulations.

Itar-Tass has been a Parliamentary Press Gallery member since 1942, though it has been labelled a “disinformation” agency by the federal government.

The Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) previously banned RT from Canadian airwaves in March, shortly after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

After internal discussions, and days of back-and-forth, the PPG finally moved the Chinese state broadcaster Xinhua, eight years after Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper booted Xinhua journalists off his official tour of the arctic. The removal of Xinhua was not related to the series of credible allegations of the media company acting as spies on behalf of CCP but was due instead to an administrative error on behalf of the Chinese embassy.

The PPG has repeatedly denied Rebel News membership in their cloistered, subsidized guild and uses Rebel News' lack of membership in the PPG to deny Rebel reporters access to PPG-controlled press conferences and announcements.