A Liberal MP admitted on Twitter that while an initial legal assessment found that the controversial newspaper The Epoch Times broke no laws, the federal government continues to “look into” the publication.
“Looked into it & learned that decisions made by CP about whether to deliver or refuse delivery of neighborhood mail are subject to the Charter of Right and Freedoms,” tweeted Liebral MP Darren Fisher.
“Also learned that after an initial legal assessment of this material, it doesn’t seem to meet the required criteria for prohibiting distribution…” continued Fisher.
“However, given the serious nature of the complaints regarding the paper, Minister Anand asked her officials to look into this further.”
However, given the serious nature of the complaints regarding the paper, Minister Anand asked her officials to look into this further.
— Darren Fisher (@DarrenFisherNS) January 22, 2021
The Epoch Times is a publication founded by members of the Falun Gong movement in opposition to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
True North spoke to the newspaper’s Canadian publisher Cindy Gu and was told that The Epoch Times was not made aware of any legal assessment of its operations by the federal government.
“We’ve received an overwhelmingly positive response from those who received our sample paper. Some media have reported negatively about us, but none of those reports pointed out any factual problems in our reporting. No example of a sentence, a paragraph. They simply throw negative labels at us,” said Gu.
“If Canada Post were to block us, that would be the government censoring an independent media outlet. This would violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees freedom of the press. Canada Post has rightly stood by its mandate.”
According to Anand’s latest supplementary mandate letter, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directed the minister to foster a respectful relationship with journalists.
“Now more than ever, Canadians are relying on journalists and journalism for accurate and timely news, especially in the face of a concerning spread of misinformation,” claimed the mandate letter.
“I expect you to foster a professional and respectful relationship with journalists to ensure that Canadians have the information they need to keep themselves and their families safe.”
