Will Liberal censorship plans fail, just like their attempt to prop up legacy media?

Government-sanctioned mainstream media bailouts have failed to re-establish a fruitful sector — but will Liberal government censorship plans fail too, or will these regulations ensure survival of state-backed media?

Will Liberal censorship plans fail, just like their attempt to prop up legacy media?
The Canadian Press / Nick Iwanyshyn
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Canadians do not want the government to tell them what is true or false, a federal focus group found.

“Users were confident they could spot misinformation online without the government’s help,” detailed an article by Blacklock’s Reporter.

The report titled, Study On Online Disinformation Advertising Creative Testing was conducted by the Communications Security Establishment (CES) after consultation with eight focus groups, which cost Canadian taxpayers $47,370.

It discovered that many Canadians were skeptical about government leading the charge on informing the public about what is true or false. Suggestions included providing Canadians with tips and tricks to identify misinformation, and doing so with political neutrality.

The report revealed that “most participants said they feel confident they can tell the difference between real and false information,” whereas “few would go online to a Government of Canada website for information.”

“Political self-interest disqualifies any government from acting as a truth monitor,” said Senator Leo Housakos. He refers to the intention of government as truth classifiers as a “slippery slope,” opening up the possibility that any party could censor political scrutiny or their ideological opponents.

That is exactly what is happening through continued media bailout efforts and sweeping internet content regulation by the Justin Trudeau Liberals.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently came to the aid of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) after Twitter accurately labeled the outlet as a government-funded news source.

As the Liberals move to legislate four separate censorship bills – each having a totalitarian domino effect on the other – Senator Housakos similarly condemns this information suppression.

Senator David Richards compared sweeping regulatory plans of the Liberals to Stalin’s Pravda or Hitler’s book burning, indicating that the plans are akin to an Orwellian dystopia.

And Canadian taxpayers are funding it all, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, through various incentives to the Canadian Heritages’ Digital Citizen Initiative.

Despite the federal government's best efforts to prop up the failing legacy media, the billions of dollars worth of bailouts and subsidies are not helping.

Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez has repeatedly said that Canada’s news sector is in “crisis.”

This is despite 2019 Parliament passing income tax amendments that were supposed to help subsidize federally-approved publishers.

As reported further by Blacklocks, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister of Heritage Thomas Ripley admitted that these incentives did not work.

“The labour tax credit that’s in place, notwithstanding those interventions, we continued to see a decline in news,” Ripley said. “We have seen a significant decline in journalism.”

Freedom of the press is the cornerstone of a functioning democracy.

Nevertheless the Trudeau Liberals move forward with Orwellian censorship plans in a double-speak attempt to uphold and strengthen democracy.

This leaves behind the bittersweet tragedy that their best efforts to prop up national news has failed.

Will the same go for their internet content regulation plans? Or do they need them to ensure survival of the state-backed media lapdogs?

Censorship Canada Liberal Party of Canada News Analysis
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