Mark Carney’s government is keeping the taxpayer-funded lifeline flowing to legacy media outlets — this time under the guise of “protecting Canadian voices.” 

A fast cash pipeline to the press is the only one being built in Canada. 

The Department of Canadian Heritage announced it is extending the so-called Special Measures for Journalism program, a pandemic-era fund originally created as “temporary emergency relief.” It will now pour another $12 million into subsidizing sputtering newsrooms for the 2025–26 fiscal year.

Go Ad Free

The fund, launched in 2020, was supposed to end after COVID. But five years and over $100 million later, it’s still buying loyalty from hundreds of news outlets across the country; the same ones who routinely cheerlead for government policy while smearing dissenters as “disinformation.”

The latest announcement came from failed former Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, who was rebranded under Prime Minister Mark Carney as Minister of Canadian Identity.” Guilbeault claims the cash infusion is needed to ensure “unbiased” journalism, a line that would be comically ironic in its misinformation if it weren’t so expensive to the taxpayer.

“In a sea of disinformation,” said Guilbeault, “ensuring that Canadians have access to local, unbiased and timely information is critical.”

Pierre Poilievre shuts down a reporter from The Canadian Press over media bailouts.

"You're a tax-funded mouthpiece to the PMO," he says. "Are you going to let me answer the question or are you just going to heckle on behalf of Justin Trudeau?"https://t.co/vD78U4ZuZQ pic.twitter.com/E12QYuEJMR

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) February 12, 2024

Translation: journalists who parrot government talking points are “unbiased,” while those who question power are “disinformation.”

The funding extension, part of the Canada Periodical Fund, props up smaller magazines and community papers — many of which rely almost entirely on Ottawa’s subsidies to survive. In other words, the taxpayer is footing the bill for the government’s preferred storytellers, just in time for another election cycle.

Despite being billed as a one-time COVID relief measure, the Trudeau-Carney Liberals (and now their eco-activist culture enforcer, Guilbeault) have quietly turned this program into a permanent fixture of the media landscape and a financial leash disguised as “cultural sovereignty.”

When Rebel News and other independent outlets are denied accreditation or equal treatment under the tax code because they refuse to toe the government line, these “temporary” bailouts look a lot less like journalism support and more like media control.