A little-used federal debt mediation program benefiting a tiny fraction of farmers is costing taxpayers almost $11,000 per application, records show. Auditors questioned the value of the Farm Debt Mediation Service: “The cost of service delivery is increasing.”
Canadians rate media as less trustworthy than politicians or police, new Statistics Canada data showed yesterday. Lack of confidence in journalists’ integrity coincided with a $595 million bailout critics warned would fuel public skepticism.
Asked, “Using a scale of one to five where one means ‘no confidence at all’ and five means ‘a great deal of confidence,’ how much confidence do you have in the Canadian media?” less than a third of Canadians nationwide, 31 percent, expressed a “good or great deal of confidence in media.”
Canadians by comparison were more likely to trust Parliament (32 percent), the courts (46 percent), the school system (47 percent) and police (62 percent). Findings were drawn from Canadian Social Survey questionnaires.
The survey did not ask respondents to differentiate between one medium or another. Trust ratings in media overall were as low as 23 percent of Canadians aged 25 to 34 and only a quarter of Prairie residents.
Canadians with a “good or great deal of confidence” in reporters numbered as few as 24 percent in Alberta followed by Manitoba (25 percent), Saskatchewan (29 percent), Ontario and New Brunswick (30 percent), British Columbia and Nova Scotia (31 percent), Newfoundland and Labrador (33 percent), Québec (39 percent) and Prince Edward Island (42 percent).
Poor ratings coincided with Parliament’s 2019 amendments to the Income Tax Act that awarded $595 million in subsidies to cabinet-approved publishers. “As to independence of media and journalists, there are always concerns,” Pascale St-Onge, then-president of the Fédération Nationale des Communications of Montréal, testified at 2019 hearings of the Commons heritage committee.
“The media, the publishers, they are always beholden to the advertisers,” testified St-Onge. She is currently Minister of Canadian Heritage responsible for the bailout program.
Anthony Furey, then-Toronto Sun columnist, testified the bailout was harmful. “Canadians are wary of the idea that their government would somehow favour, influence or direct the media,” said Furey. “If the impression is left to linger that the government is forking over cash grants to their journalist buddies, trust in media will only plummet further.”
Media analysts testifying at 2022 Commons heritage committee hearings echoed the concerns. “Canadians are expressing unprecedented distrust towards the news and the reporters who deliver it,” said Jeanette Ageson, publisher of the Vancouver news site The Tyee. “Canadians need to know who is funding the news they receive and on what terms.”
“Trust in Canada’s media has never been lower,” testified Peter Menzies, former Calgary Herald editor in chief. Public mistrust was fueled by confidential subsidy terms with publishers, he said.
“The more government assistance news media gets, the more broken the relationship with readers becomes,” said Menzies. “The more that relationship is broken, the more subsidy will be required.”
By Staff 
First-ever federal internet controls will not apply to podcasts or other content uploaded by individual “social media creators,” cabinet said yesterday. Exemptions were spelled out in a legal notice by Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge: ‘The CRTC is directed not to impose regulatory requirements on podcasts.’
Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland faces questioning by MPs over dealings with a Beijing bank dubbed a Communist Party front. Freeland had promised to suspend work with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank five months ago: “Where is our money?”
The Department of Health has completed more than 20 internal audits and reports on pandemic mismanagement but will not release them, records show. Data “revealed critical weaknesses and gaps,” said a department memo: “We continue to take stock of the lessons learned.”
Cabinet will not disclose a confidential federal blacklist of Nazi fugitives. Departments declined to answer questions over release of the confidential list promised by cabinet seven weeks ago: “What could possibly be in it that still needs to be classified?”
Parliament should consider federalizing firefighting after a record year for property losses, the Commons defence committee was told. Army volunteers were insufficient, said Alberta’s deputy premier: “As much as we love our armed forces they have very basic training when it comes to firefighting.”
Cabinet will spend more than a million on its statutory review of legal marijuana, records show. A final report is due in 2024: “It is important.”
The passport office in a report to Parliament graded itself a solid B for customer satisfaction. The claim followed mayhem at passport offices that saw record lineups with police summoned to quell angry crowds: “They claim some sort of success despite the disaster we’ve seen.”
The Federal Court of Appeal has dismissed as irrelevant five legal challenges of now-expired vaccine mandates for air and rail passengers. Lead plaintiffs in the case included People’s Party leader Maxime Bernier and Brian Peckford, former premier of Newfoundland and Labrador: “Courts should refrain from expressing opinions on questions of law in a vacuum.”
The Canadian Bankers Association wants electronic access to confidential federal tax records to verify borrowers’ income, it says. The Association in a submission to the Senate banking committee claimed the measure would reduce costs: “The mortgage industry is begging for it.”
Canada’s last recognized source of exports for seal products is now marginal, the Senate fisheries committee was told. “It’s very hard to sell a product that tugs at the hearts of people,” said an executive with a Nunavut authority representing Inuit hunters: “These are highly emotional campaigns.”
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney privately complained his cabinet members were incompetent spokespeople and had to be instructed to “keep the message simple.” Newly-declassified records show cabinet drafted a 56-point memo on how to explain itself: “Communications remained the government’s greatest failure.”
A germ
found on Mars
would force a rethink of
history, science, even
the Bible.
At the flu shot clinic,
the nurse swabs my skin
with alcohol.
She wants to kill the germs.
By Shai Ben-Shalom
Blacklock’s Reporter pauses for Remembrance Day observances with gratitude to all who honoured our country. Thank you for your service — The Editor.
