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Trudeau claims Canada must subsidize CBC to ‘protect our democracy’

Published

1 year ago

6 minute read

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Trudeau failed to explain how the CBC could be an unbiased news source for Canadians when it is being funded by the Liberal party.

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claims that Canada must continue to subsidize mainstream media outlet CBC to “protect our democracy.”

During the January 31 question period in the House of Commons, Trudeau promised continued funding for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Canada’s public radio and television broadcaster, arguing that the state-funded outlet is necessary for Canada’s democracy.  

“At a time of misinformation and disinformation, and the transformation of our media and digital era, we need CBC/Radio Canada to be strong to protect our culture, to protect our democracy, and to tell our stories from one end of the country to another,” Trudeau said.  

“We’ll always be here to defend CBC/Radio Canada, and we are going to seek to make necessary investments … to fulfill their mandate to inform and to strengthen democracy here in Canada,” he continued.  

Trudeau’s statement was in response to a request from Quebec Member of Parliament Martin Champoux (BQ-Drummond) for increased government funding for the Quebec division of CBC, Radio Canada. 

Trudeau pointed out that the Liberal government is already massively subsidizing the mainstream media. 

Ironically, Trudeau celebrated Bill C-18, the Online News Act, a law which mandates that Big Tech companies pay to publish Canadian content on their platforms.    

“This is why we put forth [Bill] C-18 which will help our journalists at all levels to continue operating,” Trudeau stated. “We’ll be here to support a free and independent press. That is professional. We know there’s a lot of work to be done still.” 

However, thanks to his law, Canadians can no longer view or share news on Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, which blocked all access to news content in Canada rather than pay the fees outlined in the new legislation. Google, on the other hand,  agreed to pay Canadian legacy media $100 million. 

Additionally, Trudeau failed to explain how CBC could be an unbiased news source for Canadians when it is being funded by the Liberal party.  

Indeed, many Canadians have pointed out that the massive subsidies have made the CBC into a wing of the Liberal party.  

In April, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre labeled the CBC a “biased propaganda arm of the Liberal Party and frankly negatively affects all media.” 

“For example, Canadian Press is negatively affected by the fact that you have to report favourably on the CBC if you want to keep your number one, taxpayer-funded client happy,” he said. 

“We need a neutral and free media, not a propaganda arm for the Liberal Party… When I am prime minister, we are going to have a free press where every day Canadians decide what they think rather than having Liberal propaganda jammed down their throats.” 

Poilievre added that if he becomes prime minister he will cut “corporate welfare,” including money to the CBC.

Despite being nominally unaffiliated with either political party in Canada, CBC takes in about $1.24 billion in public funding every year. This is roughly 70 percent of its operating budget.  

That subsidies are the CBC’s largest single source of income has become a point of contention among taxpayers who see the propping up of the outlet as unnecessary.  

Furthermore, the CBC was set to receive increased funding thanks to the deal with Google that followed the passing of Trudeau’s Online News Act. 

The deal was finalized in early December. Under the new agreement, Google will pay legacy media outlets $100 million to publish links to their content on both the Google search engine and YouTube.  

As a result of the government handouts and the Google agreement, roughly half the salary of a CBC journalist earning $85,000 is estimated to be paid by the combined contributions of the Trudeau government and Google.  

Additionally, Trudeau recently announced increased payouts for legacy media outlets ahead of the 2025 election. The subsidies are expected to cost taxpayers $129 million over the next five years.  

However, even these massive payouts may be insufficient to keep the CBC relevant amid growing public distrust in mainstream media.  

According to a recent study by Canada’s Public Health Agency, less than a third of Canadians displayed “high trust” in the federal government, with “large media organizations” as well as celebrities getting even lower scores.  

Large mainstream media outlets and “journalists” working for them scored a “high trust” rating of only 18 percent. This was followed by only 12 percent of people saying they trusted “ordinary people,” with celebrities receiving only an eight percent “trust” rating.  

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Media

CBC retracts false claims about residential schools after accusing Rebel News of ‘misinformation’

Published on April 22, 2025

By

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

CBC has issued a correction after falsely accused Rebel News of spreading misinformation while itself promoting the false claim that remains of Indigenous children were found in unmarked graves at residential schools.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has issued a correction after blaming Rebel News of “misinformation” while spreading false information itself.

On April 17, CBC corrected a comment from chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton who accused Rebel News reporter Drea Humphrey of spreading “misinformation,” while repeating the false claim that bodies have been found in unmarked graves at Indigenous residential schools.

“Yes, there have been remains of Indigenous children found in various places across the country,” Barton falsely stated during a live broadcast following the French-language federal election leaders’ debate.

Her comment was in reference to New Democratic Leader (NDP) Jagmeet Singh refusing to answer a reporter’s question whether he would condemn the rash of church burnings and acts of vandalism across Canada.

“In this case you saw Mr. Singh, and this has been his position for some time, to refuse to answer questions,” Barton said during the live stream.

“Rebel News in particular traffics in misinformation, lack of facts, and as you heard in that question, which was woven with some truth and some things that weren’t true,” she claimed.

“Yes, there have been burnings of Christian, Catholic churches,” she admitted.

“Yes, there have been remains of Indigenous children found in various places around the country, which she misrepresented,” Barton falsely stated.

Despite mass excavations, there have still been no mass graves discovered at any residential schools across Canada, but politicians and media continue to promote the false narrative.

However, even in their correction statement, CBC failed to mention that, to date, no human remains have been discovered.

“As CBC News has reported on multiple occasions, what several Indigenous communities across Canada have discovered on the sites of some former residential schools are potential burial sites or unmarked graves,” the statement read.

However, CBC is now well known for pushing the false narrative that hundreds of children were buried and disregarded by Catholic priests and nuns who ran some of the schools. As a consequence of that false narrative, since 2021, over 100 churches have been burned or vandalized across Canada in seeming retribution.

Indeed, in addition to perpetuating the “mass graves” narrative, media and politicians have even threatened to punish those who oppose it. In October 2024, CBC ran a story which suggested that “residential school denialism” should be criminalized.

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2025 Federal Election

No Matter The Winner – My Canada Is Gone

Published on April 20, 2025

By

Trish Wood is Critical

Trish Wood

This clip of Andrew Coyne represents journalistic malpractice but represents what many of our “elites” are thinking. They hate ordinary Canadians and populism. They have no clue what many voters are actually upset about.

I was awake part of the night thinking about how awful this election campaign is. And not just because I am terrified that Mark Carney will win. No — it feels like we’ve crossed a threshold and there is no turning back. Ten years of Trudeau’s division, his utilizing of the culture and woke wars to make us hate each other. Ten years of Conservatives either firing back and keeping the war going or pretending to go along to maintain popularity with a propagandized population. This is the definition of a sick society. As I said, I will vote Conservative but I’m not going to exhale after I do it.

There are virtually no sincere appeals to reuniting the country after the COVID-19 debacle, Freedom Convoy, or any of the other politicized events that encircle our tribes. I’ve told you many stories about this reality.

Dinner parties have become almost impossible to navigate with important topics off-limits. What’s left? Movies, streaming series and sports. In between bursts of conversation there are heavy silences between people who love each other but reside in different conversational realities. This is the fault of pols and media. Full stop.

This clip of Andrew Coyne represents journalistic malpractice but represents what many of our “elites” are thinking. They hate ordinary Canadians and populism. They have no clue what many voters are actually upset about. Carney himself said he was returning to Canada to “end populism.”

I just want my country back. Let me tell you a story.

In 1989, I was dispatched to Kuujjuaq, a tiny, freezing and somewhat desolate town in Northern Quebec. Scientists had just published a shocking study showing that Inuit mothers were testing positive for PCBs in their breast milk. How could this be in such a remote, non-industrialized village?

The Inuit mothers had been chosen as a pristine control group to study against PCB presence in mothers residing in Southern Quebec, near industry. The findings were completely unexpected and I was sent to report on them by the great James Cullingham, my boss at As It Happens.

I arrived at the tiny airport with my recording gear and was welcomed by the locals who set me up at a lodge. We couldn’t have been more different but I was treated kindly as someone who’d come from the CBC to help publicize their plight.

How did they become contaminated, way up there? It turns out PCBs travel in the blubber of animals that swim through polluted waters. Seal fat, which was a mainstay of the local diet is riddled with PCB’s dumped into the St. Lawrence hundreds of miles away.

Here is where it gets interesting — a day I will never forget. The local chiefs were meeting to choose a brand new word in Inuktitut to describe what they were dealing with. It seems the concept of PCB contamination was so foreign, they had to add to their lexicon to even discuss it and I was invited to attend.

I felt like an intruder from the rapacious south witnessing a tragedy that we’d inflicted on these sturdy, welcoming people. But they were gracious and open as they struggled to find a solution.

I left feeling grateful to be Canadian; to work at CBC and to have experienced the lives of others who shared this once-great land. I am nostalgic for a Canada, full of good will, even in times of tragedy — that no longer exists.

Meanwhile — the Liberal campaign and its supporters are reduced to looking for MAGA “dog whistles” at Poilievre events while at the same time being outed for “finding” MAGA buttons at a Conservative gathering in Ottawa.

Two Liberal Party staffers attended last week’s Canada Strong and Free Networking (CSFN) Conference where they planted buttons that used Trump-style language and highlighted division within the Conservative Party.

The conference, often referred to by its former name, the Manning Conference, is an opportunity for conservative-leaning Canadians to talk about policy proposals and network. It was held at the Westin Hotel in downtown Ottawa.

We aren’t talking about Big Things or Inspiring Things. Or what we share as a people. We have been deceived. Pitted against each other and fleeced of our natural affinity for other Canadians, no matter how different. Canadian voters are victims of a home invasion robbery — perpetrated by legacy media and our gutless political class who play along for what some of them wrongly believe are high-minded reasons.

In the meantime, Mark Carney is clearly fixing to ban X and other websites that threaten his temple of deceit. For this reason alone, he must not win. But we are all losers regardless of the outcome.

This is perhaps the scariest clip of the campaign. They have failed at everything. The economy, COVID-19, retaining a semblance of democracy….but they have successfully brought us to the brink of collapse and separation. And their solution is to not fix it, but prevent us from talking about it.

Stay critical.

Thanks #truthovertribe

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