It would be difficult for any American to fully absorb the media culture in Canada and none of us are going to pretend to fully understand the degree to which Right-Wing media impacts Canadians and whether it is almost as bad as it is here in the U.S. What we do know is that Justin Trudeau is the leader of the Liberal Party and thus Canada cannot be said to be a majority conservative country and at least has some sense. We know it seems impossible to be worse than it is here.

We also know that there is a parliamentary election coming and the four candidates had a debate last night. Canada allowed call-in questions and one came from a Right-Wing news organization that has been banned from participating in national press conferences.

It sounds to us like the Canadian version of the White House Correspondents Association controls access to their federal press conferences, just as they do here, and the Canadian government also formally banned the organization.

The caller asked Trudeau why his government supported the ban. We pick up Yahoo News for more:

…The prime minister essentially called out the organization—which recently won a federal court case granting them access to the leaders’ debates—for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines and other issues. NDP leader Jagmeet Singh, meanwhile, straight up refused to answer their questions altogether…

… the statement comes as the discourse around the COVID-19 vaccine and how to convince those reluctant to take it heats up. Anti-vaccine protests have been cropping up across the country, including a bunch recently held in front of healthcare facilities in centres across British Columbia, and one at one of Trudeau’s campaign rally stops where protesters threw gravel at the prime minister and his team.

And here are Trudeau’s own words:

The reality is, organizations—organizations like yours—that continue to spread misinformation and disinformation on the science around vaccines … is part of why we’re seeing such unfortunate anger and lack of understanding of basic science,” he said. “Frankly your—I won’t call it a media organization—your group of individuals need to take accountability for some of the polarization that we’re seeing in this country.”

“I salute all extraordinary hard-working journalists who put science and facts at the heart of what they do and ask me tough questions every day, but make sure that they are educating and informing Canadians from a broad range of perspectives—which is the last thing that you guys do.”

Justin Trudeau nails the distinction between journalism and misinformation in this clip. Impressive stuff. https://t.co/SiY9ttoNDT

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 10, 2021

During a national debate? With the entirety of the country watching? Now that is how it is done. We hope American politicians follow Trudeau (and Nancy Pelosi, who says similar things) and shoot straight every time.

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