(This column originally appeared in the Toronto Sun)

Justice was served against a Canadian wannabe ISIS jihadist — but it took a U.S. court to do it.

A Mississauga man who says he was radicalized in a Canadian Islamic school was sentenced to 40 years in prison for his involvement in an ISIS plot to mass murder civilians in New York City.

Abdulrahman El Bahnasawy, who was born in Kuwait and raised partially in Canada, was on his way to carrying out his gruesome plot. He travelled to New York and had already shipped bomb-making material to a fellow ISIS operative, who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.

Bahnasawy was part of an ISIS cell that had a plan to detonate bombs in Times Square and on the New York City subway system, and to carry out mass shootings at concerts and restaurants throughout the city.

Their maniacal plan was thwarted; Bahnasawy was arrested and faced trial in the U.S.

Bahnasawy’s lawyer — the same lawyer who represented and befriended Omar Khadr — took a page from the Khadr playbook.

They tried to paint Bahnasawy as a victim — a mentally ill loner who suffered from a drug addiction. They also claimed that the FBI entrapped Bahnasawy through its undercover police work.

Despite these efforts, Bahnasawy was deemed mentally fit to stand trial and pleaded guilty to seven counts of terrorism. His lawyers asked that he receive a four-year sentence and counseling for drug addiction and mental health problems. Instead, he was given 40 years.

There’s no doubt that had Bahnasawy been arrested and charged in Canada, the outcome would have been very different. Just look at the B.C. Appeals Court decision this week to uphold an acquittal decision for a married couple who tried to carry out a jihadist terror attack in Canada in 2013.

Muslim converts John Nuttall and Amanda Korody built homemade bombs and planted them at a Canada Day celebration at the provincial legislature building in Victoria.

They were former heroin junkies who became Islamist fundamentalists. Thanks to a police sting operation, the bombs were recovered and the pair was arrested. Much like with Bahnasawy, the couple thought they were working with an al-Qaeda agent who turned out to be an undercover cop.

The couple faced a life sentence, and in 2015, they were convicted on terrorism charges by a jury. Later in 2015, however, the jury ruling was overturned by a judge who deemed that the RCMP had entrapped the couple during its undercover investigation.

This latest appeals court decision freed the couple, who are now out on bail.

In the U.S., hard-nosed policing is seen as a necessary step to gathering evidence against radical jihadists who are working towards plots to mass murder civilians. In Canada, increasingly, our bleeding heart judges believe this type of policing is unfair and grounds for acquittal.

In the U.S., a judge recognized that terrorists often have their own personal problems. Many of the deadliest terrorists and mass murderers have also suffered from mental health issues, drug addiction, and social isolation. That doesn’t make them any less guilty.

In Canada, too often, we fall for excuses that seek to justify radicalism and paint jihadists as victims. As a result, Canada has allowed convicted terrorists to walk free.

While the U.S. can be depended upon to combat terrorism and take the threat seriously, Canada is entrenching its reputation as a terrorist safe haven.

Candice Malcolm is the Founder of the True North. 

(This column originally appeared in the Toronto Sun)

Attacks against the media pose a threat to democracy, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“One of the institutions that is most under stress right now is a free-thinking, independent, rigorous, robust, respected media,” said Trudeau, during a Remembrance Day news conference in France.

He discussed the important role of a free press in informing citizens and ensuring a well-educated and well-informed populace, stating vaguely that this institution is under attack.

I don’t say this often, but on this matter, the prime minister is right. A rigorous and independent media is vital to a free society.

The only problem is that Canada’s media is far from “free-thinking, independent, rigorous, robust and respected.”

Most members of the mainstream media are part of an exclusive club of left-leaning urban elites who live in downtown Toronto, Ottawa or Montreal.

They have a narrow world view, and frankly, they don’t understand the values or concerns of most everyday Canadians.

Worse, there is ample evidence that the companies they work for are themselves not independent or free.

Take the recent political campaign launched by Unifor national president Jerry Dias.

“We will #StopScheerStupidity!,” Dias wrote on Twitter, mentioning Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer and unveiling Unifor’s new anti-Conservative political campaign.

Unions waging campaigns against Conservatives is nothing new. The previous Conservative government introduced a law that required financial transparency for unions; these unions worked hard to help elect the Trudeau Liberals, who scrapped this law after being election.

The problem with Unifor’s new campaign is that the union represents thousands of Canadian journalists, including many fine folks at the Sun.

According to its website, “Unifor is Canada’s largest media union, representing over 13,000 workers from coast to coast in printing, graphic arts, newspapers, film and broadcasting.”

I don’t blame journalists for joining a union. It’s a tough market out there and traditional media outlets are shedding jobs and slowly dying.

But how can journalists claim to be neutral and unbiased when their own union is openly waging a campaign against a major political party?

It’s an obvious conflict of interest and it undermines public trust in the independence of Unifor journalists.

It isn’t just private sector journalists who suffer from a lack of credibility. Canada’s state broadcaster is even more conflicted.

During the last federal election, funding to the CBC became a major issue.

The Conservative government cut the CBC’s budget by $115 million; the NDP pledged to reverse these cuts, while the Liberals pledged to not only reverse the cuts but to give $150 million in new funding.

Lo and behold, with $265 million on the line, the Trudeau Liberals received glowing coverage from the CBC which helped them win the election.

The problem with our media is far worse than a mere bias from the left-leaning journalists who cover the news.

Increasingly, media outlets themselves are corrupted by meddling political actors.

The Liberals are seeking to expand this influence even further, by offering a taxpayer-funded slush fund to dole out to more media outlets.

How can journalists remain independent when they’re the beneficiaries of government handouts? Can they really be trusted to scrutinize the politicians who fund them? Will they remain unbiased if other politicians threaten to end their funding?

Like Trudeau said, a free and independent press is crucial to a democracy. Unfortunately for Canadians, our media institutions are being corrupted and journalists are failing to provide the full story.

Candice Malcolm is the Founder of the True North Initiative. 

The evil of jihadist terrorism knows no bounds.

Last Sunday, a group of Palestinian gunmen approached a bus stop in Ofra near Jerusalem and began shooting Israeli Jews waiting for their bus. Seven innocent civilians were shot, including a 21-year-old Canadian man and his 19-year-old wife — who was eight months pregnant.

The terrorists deliberately shot a heavily pregnant woman straight through the stomach, before cowardly fleeing the scene.

The young mother was rushed to a nearby hospital in Jerusalem where the baby was delivered prematurely in an emergency C-section. Both mother and child remained in critical condition and on life support.

Doctors at the hospital worked for 72 hours to try to save the life of the baby — born a Canadian citizen — but to no avail. The baby died on Wednesday, December 12.

He was one of the youngest Canadians to ever fall victim to the horrors of jihadist terrorism. While Israelis and Canadians grieved over this wicked act of violence, some in the Palestinian community celebrated.

On Thursday, Israeli forces tried to arrest the five men who are believed to have carried out the attack. Four were arrested, and one was shot and killed after firing at Israeli officers and trying to evade arrest.

Within hours of his death, Hamas published and disseminated posters praising the dead terrorist and hailing him as a “heroic martyr.”

A verified Palestinian Twitter account that claims to be “the voice of Palestine to the World,” posted a photo of the terrorist with his own young daughter — as if to pretend these people care about children and babies.

The Arabic language post called the terrorist a “martyr” and celebrated the bullets he used against “the occupation.”

The killing of a child is the most reprehensible crime imaginable, and it takes a pretty sick interpretation to believe an unborn baby is representative of any country or its military.

Not only does this sad and disturbing story represent the deep depravity of Palestinian terrorists, it also demonstrates the vile anti-Jewish indoctrination that is widespread in the Palestinian areas of Israel.

The much-documented phenomenon of Palestinian indoctrination has ties to Canada and the Trudeau government’s decision to boost funding to a United Nations agency that has been infiltrated with Hamas operatives.

Earlier this year — after the U.S. announced it would pull funding from UNRWA, following in the footsteps of Canada’s former prime minister Stephen Harper who also pulled funding — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he would reinstate funding to the corrupt agency to the tune of $75 million in taxpayer funds.

UNWRA schools openly spread anti-Semitism and teach Palestinian children not only to hate Jews, but that killing Jews is a noble cause.

UNRWA has been caught aiding Hamas in its terror operations, by smuggling weapons in UN ambulances and using UN buildings as launching points for rockets and terror attacks.

As I reported in October, UNWRA has taken an even nastier turn as of late. Several UNWRA teachers were documented posting praise on social media to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis, and celebrating the death of six million Jews in the Holocaust.

Just last week, the UN had an opportunity to condemn Hamas for its ongoing violence against Israel. The deeply corrupt assembly of UN member states, however, voted against the motion.

The evils of Palestinian terrorism need to be strongly condemned, and unfortunately the global community is failing at this task. It’s time the Trudeau government stepped up — a good first step would be to cut funding to UNRWA.

Candice Malcolm is the Founder of the True North. 

Omar Khadr, the convicted killer, wants the freedom to travel to Saudi Arabia, and he wants to be able to freely and privately communicate with his terrorist-supporting family. He’s making the formal request to an Edmonton court this week.

Every time we give this guy an inch, he takes a mile.

First, the feds generously agreed to repatriate Khadr from Guantanamo Bay to a high-security prison in Canada.

Then, we allowed him to be released on bail and put in the custody of his activist lawyer.

And slowly, step by step, he has regained more and more freedoms in Canada.

As if watching Khadr be let free in Canada wasn’t bad enough, the Trudeau government secretly gave Khadr a $10.5 million cash payment along with an official apology on behalf of all Canadians in the summer of 2017.

The Trudeau government pretended it was a court-ordered payment. The truth, however, is that the court ruling said nothing about compensation or an apology.

Trudeau and company changed their tune, and said they paid Khadr to save taxpayers money; Khadr was suing the feds and it was cheaper to settle than to fight him in court.

Instead of putting up a fight and sending a strong message to any Canadian citizen who picks up arms to fight alongside a jihadist terror group, Canada caved and conceded to Khadr’s unreasonable demands.

After being released from prison, Khadr asked Canadians not to judge him for his storied past, but instead to look at the man he is today. But it’s impossible to divorce the two.

Canada has apologized to Khadr, but Khadr has never apologized for some of his egregious actions as a member of al Qaeda and the Taliban.

He’s never condemned his terrorist family nor has he clearly disavowed radical Islam and the jihadist ideology.

Khadr once admitted to his deadly crimes, including throwing the grenade that ended the life of 28-year-old U.S. army medic and father of two Christopher Speer and maimed soldier Layne Morris. In 2010, he apologized to the Speer family.

But, as Anthony Furey points out in a recent column, Khadr is now appealing his conviction and claiming his murder confession came under duress. In other words, he no longer accepts blame for the actions he once took responsibility and apologized for.

Khadr can try denying being the one who threw the grenade that killed Speer, but he can’t deny building and laying bombs — the type that killed 97 Canadians in Afghanistan.

There is video footage of Khadr laughing and joking while he built and planted deadly explosive devices in Afghanistan.

Some Canadians take an overly generous view about Khadr. They see him as a victim, brainwashed and manipulated by a zealous father and an evil family.

But far from disavowing his radical family, Khadr now admits he wants to spend more time with them — away from the watch of Canada’s security officials.

Our Prime Minister seems to share the sympathetic view of Khadr, which is perhaps why he unwisely agreed to the secret midnight payout. Trudeau didn’t want to bother fighting Khadr in court, so he paid Khadr to go away.

But Khadr isn’t going anywhere. He’s going to keep pushing the limits of our generosity.

Instead of sending a strong message about Canada’s seriousness in the fight against global jihad, Canada has allowed Khadr to become a role model for every aspiring terrorist out there.

Candice Malcolm is the Founder of the True North

What the new federal report on Terrorism in Canada reveals about our public safety, and about the government’s obsession with political correctness when talking about terrorism.

The Trudeau government has released the 2018 Public Report on the Terrorism Threat to Canada. This document is typically helpful in understanding the various threats and various brands of terrorism around the world.

The report highlights major terrorist groups like ISIS and al Qaeda, as well as other groups, like Khalistani extremists and Iranian-backed Shi’ite groups like Hezbollah. These groups are all known to use Canada as a fundraising base and manipulate Canadian banks to finance terrorist activities at home and abroad.

According to the report, the major threat we face today is from ISIS — both Canadian citizens who left to fight alongside the terrorist group and have since returned, as well as Canadians who have embraced ISIS’s radical ideology while remaining in Canada.

The report states there are “approximately 190” Canadians fighting with jihadi terrorist groups abroad and “about 60” who are back in Canada.

As has been pointed out several times by myself and my colleague Anthony Furey, the government uses the terms “approximately” and “about” because they are unsure about the exact number.

From time to time, the feds admit the number of jihadists returning to Canada has increased with the collapse of ISIS, but they stubbornly maintain that the number has stayed at “about 60” for the past several years.  

While the report is helpful overall, there’s ample evidence it has been perverted and politicized. As a result, this report is one part hard-nose policing, and one part politically correct white-washing.

For instance, it lists the various deadly terror attacks this year — including the Danforth shooting and the Yonge Street terrorist van attack — but then insists there were no terrorist attacks in Canada in 2018.

“In 2018, no terrorist attacks have been committed by terrorist groups or their followers in Canada.”

“Reflective of the fact there were no terrorist attacks in Canada in 2018.”

How can this be the case?

The report outlines the various recent lSIS-linked terror attacks in Canada, including: the woman who attacked customers and employees at a Canadian Tire in Toronto and has repeatedly stated she is part of ISIS, the Somali attacker in Edmonton who had an ISIS flag in his car, and the deadly Danforth shooting that ISIS claimed responsibility for and said was one of their greatest accomplishments of 2018.

The report lists each attack, but fails to acknowledge the known and reported links to ISIS. Any links to ISIS have been scrubbed out of the report.

For the Danforth shooter, the report flat out claims ISIS was lying by taking responsibility for the attack.

“While law enforcement officials confirmed that there was no terrorism nexus, Daesh falsely claimed responsibility for the attack soon after it occurred.”

The report uses the term “falsely” to discredit claims from ISIS, but doesn’t provide any evidence to back up that claim.

Following the July attack that killed two girls and injured a dozen more, Toronto law enforcement officials quickly ruled out an ISIS connection before they had done any kind of investigation.

After ISIS repeatedly claimed responsibility, police repeatedly denied the claim but failed to provide any counter evidence or reveal a different motive.

Meanwhile, news reports following the attack revealed that the shooter’s online history was being investigated. Reports from authorities confirmed that the shooter had visited pro-ISIS propaganda websites prior to his massacre.

We also know that the shooter travelled to Afghanistan, that his parents provided contradictory statements about his past, and that he was an experienced and talented gunman.

Even now, six months later, these facts have never been acknowledged or clarified by Toronto police or the feds.

If a more comprehensive report about the shooter’s background was completed by Toronto police, it was never released to the public. Instead, police and the feds simply state as fact that contrary to ample evidence, the shooter had no connection to ISIS.

This is odd, and disappointing.

The Western world is engaged in an ongoing battle against a global jihadist insurgency. While some on the Left and in the media try to downplay the threats we face from jihadist terrorism and deny the menace of radical Islam, this report spells out the exact dangers of terrorism in its various forms.

But at the same time, the 2018 report also rings of Orwellian rhetoric, makes numerous contradictory claims, and refuses to acknowledge obvious facts about ISIS in Canada.

Worse, it uses pernicious made-up concepts like “Islamophobia.”

When compiling these sorts of reports, Canada’s security officials should focus on the facts, be transparent with Canadians and leave the political rhetoric to the politicians.

Candice Malcolm is the Founder of the True North. 

(This column originally appeared in the Toronto Sun)

While elites in Central Canada fret over abstract issues like climate change and gender-based analyses, the problems facing many working Canadians are far more real.

A 26-year-old waitress in Northern Alberta reminded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau about the urgent and dire problems faced by so many in her province.

After Trudeau took a cheap shot at hard-working men in the construction industry, saying there are “social impacts (on women in rural areas) because they’re mostly male construction workers,” a Grand Prairie resident wrote a scathing rebuttal on Facebook that has been shared more than 55,000 times.

“Because of these men, I was able to go grocery shopping and get everything on my list. I was able to fill my tank at the gas station, not just $20 to get by… and (I knew) I wouldn’t have to worry about choosing between the water or electric bill. When these men leave, we have to cut staff. We have to tell someone they can’t help support their families, they have to tell their kids they can’t afford… hockey, soccer, etc.”

Instead of assuming that blue-collar men are sexual predators, Trudeau should try putting himself in their shoes.

When was the last time Trudeau had to worry about buying food for his family, heating his home or worrying about how to pay for his kids to play soccer?

That’s a trick question, of course, since Trudeau was born rich and famous.

Ironically, the last Trudeau man to pay his own way — Justin’s grandfather, Charlie Trudeau, who was a conservative — became rich by building an empire of gas stations in Montreal. Now his grandson is engineering the end of oil and gas production in Canada.

Trudeau may be too smug to recognize it, but there is a major crisis in Alberta. It isn’t just an oil crisis; it goes far deeper than joblessness and fleeing investments.

In Alberta, there is an existential crisis about the province’s future.

Veteran radio host Charles Adler, as always, has his finger on the pulse of this issue.

“Alberta has an 8.2% unemployment rate. Massively uncomfortable question: what do you think the rate would be in Alberta was a U.S. state?” he wrote in a series of Tweets.

South of the border, the economy is booming, pipelines are being built, energy prices are soaring and the country is enjoying the lowest unemployment rates in decades — 3.7%. In oil-rich North Dakota, the unemployment rate is 2.6%.

“How I could blame Albertans looking at 8.2% unemployment and billions of dollars of investment they aren’t getting if they ask questions like ‘What are our options? Is our powerful connection to Canada much more about our past than our future?’ As a Canadian patriot, I wish I didn’t have to ask.”

Adler is echoing the concerns I’ve been hearing for months from folks of every walk of life in Alberta.

Under Trudeau’s leadership, many Albertans don’t feel at home in Canada. They don’t feel like they have a voice; they feel that they don’t matter.

Perhaps that’s because Trudeau doesn’t recognize Alberta values as being Canadian.

“I always say, if at a certain point I believe that Canada was really the Canada of Stephen Harper…  maybe I would think about wanting to make Quebec a country,” said Trudeau in 2012.

Trudeau doesn’t respect Alberta, in fact, he’d be willing the break up the country if it ever resembled Alberta too much.

Increasingly, it seems that some in Alberta feel the same way.

Candice Malcolm is the Founder of the True North. 

(This column originally appeared in the Toronto Sun)

The Trudeau government and the mainstream media are not telling the truth about the UN Global Compact for Migration.

Both are casting opposition to the UN agreement as conspiratorial, far-right, and even racist, while leaving out important facts and details about the compact.

Trudeau’s top aide Gerald Butts — sometimes referred to as the co-prime minister, because apparently he does the behind-the-scenes heavy lifting — led the attacks this week.

Butts took issue with a Conservative Party ad on social media which read, “Justin Trudeau wants to give up Canadian sovereignty to an unelected international body. Say NO to the U.N. Global Compact for Migration.”

The ad quoted Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer saying, “Canadians and Canadians alone should make decisions on who comes into our country and under what circumstances. Not the UN.”

In response, Butts scolded the Conservatives and unleashed a deranged criticism. “This is a flat-out lie being spread by the far-right in Europe, the alt-right in North America, and now the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada.”

This story line appeared throughout the mainstream media.

Many journalists chose to leave out the fact that the UN compact is being met with heavy opposition throughout the Western world.

According to a Canadian Press news article, “almost all UN member states are poised to sign it, except the United States and Hungary.”

Other journalists have echoed this talking point, stating that only a small handful of countries — all run my right-wing populist governments — are opposed to the migration compact.

It is this claim that is flat out untrue.

In the U.S., both Republicans and Democrats, such as Hillary Clinton, oppose the deal. It was Clinton herself who helped popularize the term “alt-right” — referring to both internet pranksters and racist white nationalists who have been excommunicated from the conservative movement.

Mainstream conservative voices in Canada, including Maxime Bernier, Michelle Rempel and Danielle Smith all oppose signing the UN compact.

And as for “far-right” opposition in Europe? Austria, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and even neutral Switzerland have all backed out of the compact.

In Latvia, the country’s government held a debate and a vote on the issue, ultimately deciding not to sign the UN compact. That’s what a democracy is supposed to look like.

Outside of Europe, Australia, Israel and Japan have backed out of the deal, while New Zealand is engaged in a public debate and leaning towards not signing the compact.

In other words, a growing plurality of refugee-receiving countries have chosen to reject the UN Compact for Migration.

Why? Well, according to Australia’s public safety Minister Peter Dutton, Australia is not willing to “sign a deal that sacrifices anything in terms of border protection policies.”

“We’re not going to surrender our sovereignty — I’m not going to allow unelected bodies to dictate to us, to the Australian people.” Where’s Gerald Butts to call him a far-right racist? Unlike the citizens of most Western countries, Canadians have not been told the truth or been given a chance to debate the issue.

Instead of having an honest discussion about how the UN scheme will affect our immigration system and our democracy, Trudeau and his cadre of government-funded journalists have pushed lies and bullied Canadians.

The Trudeau government will ratify the UN compact on Tuesday in Morocco, signing away aspects of Canadian sovereignty without so much as an honest public debate.

Candice Malcolm is the Founder of the True North. 

(This column originally appeared in the Toronto Sun)

Conservative Party Leader Andrew Scheer has come out swinging against a new United Nations immigration treaty that the Trudeau government will sign next week.

“Canadians want their government, not foreign entities, to be in control of our immigration system, a system that is orderly, compassionate and fair,” said Scheer on Tuesday.

This is exactly right.

The UN Migration Compact is a highly controversial document, riddled with contradictions and radical claims. While many journalists accept Liberal talking points on the banality of this treaty, a close reading of the document exposes the many problems it contains.

The document promises it is “not legally binding” and merely a framework, but at the same time, it encourages countries to sign the agreement, join the UN’s efforts and implement its suggestions at home.

The entire point of the UN Compact on Migration is to form the foundation of new international norms that will, in time, become international law.

The compact promises that national sovereignty and the rule of law will be respected and maintained, but then carves out special rights and protections for migrants and insists that the “well-being of migrants”, including illegal immigrants, must come first.

But what about the existing citizens of a country?

What about our families, our communities, our culture and traditions? What about our rules, our laws, our safety and security? What about the costs, the impact on our schools, our hospitals, our roads and our tax dollars?

The UN treaty doesn’t so much as mention the impact of mass migration on the host country and its citizens — who are often ignored and removed from any discussion on migration.

The contradictions continue.

The treaty insists that governments must provide “access to objective, evidence-based, clear information about the benefits and challenges of migration.” That sounds good. Citizens should know about the harms and dangers associated with mass migration, as well as the potential advantages and benefits.

But wait, the sentence continues to say, “with a view to dispelling misleading narratives that generate negative perceptions of migrants.”

You can either commit to telling the truth and objectively studying the issue of immigration, or, you can commit to dispelling negative perceptions about migrants.

You cannot honestly say you’re doing both at the same time.

Finally, the most controversial section of this UN compact is Objective 17, which is to “eliminate all forms of discrimination and promote evidence-based public discourse to shape perceptions of migration.”

It pledges to “eliminate all forms of discrimination, including racism, xenophobia and intolerance against migrants” — without defining these words or acknowledging that in today’s heated public discourse, these terms have been weaponized and are used to discredit anyone who doesn’t subscribe to Liberal dogma on immigration and multiculturalism.

It instructs governments to implement laws and harsher penalties for crimes against migrants but says nothing about crimes committed by migrants.

And, most controversially, it calls on governments to intervene in the media, to promote positive stories about migrants and to cut off media outlets that tell the other side of the story.

While outlining these Orwellian guidelines for media censorship and government intervention in the free press, the compact throws in a line about “respecting freedom of expression” and “freedom for the media.” As if that’s any consolation for calls to punish journalists for reporting facts and telling the truth.

Canadians should join Andrew Scheer in rejecting this radical global scheme that undermines Canadian laws and traditions while pushing for mass migration and open borders.

Candice Malcolm is the Founder of the True North. 

With less than a year to go until the federal election, Canada’s largest labour union has declared war on the Conservatives. That a labour group would side with the Left isn’t noteworthy, except this one is also the biggest union in the country for journalists.

There are 12,000 journalists and other media workers in Unifor, which characterized itself as the “resistance” to Andrew Scheer just one week before Justin Trudeau’s government announced a $600 million media bailout to ‘save’ Canadian journalism.

Not only are these unionized reporters part of an organization devoted to a particular political outcome; their employers are also on the receiving end of a fat cheque from the Liberals.

In a press release thanking the government for the money, Unifor also credited the “campaigning” of its media members for the funding.

“Unifor media workers have been talking to Members of Parliament and it is refreshing to see that they got the message,” said Jake Moore, Unifor’s media chair.

Unifor is admitting that the same journalists supposedly investigating and reporting on MPs have also spent the last two years begging them for money.

How could any sane person not see a conflict here?

This all comes as the federal Liberals fret about the threat of ‘fake news’ swaying next year’s election. The bigger threat is the influence lawmakers have on the press that’s supposed to hold them accountable.

This isn’t an indictment of every journalist. I worked for a mainstream media company for several years and know of many stellar reporters and producers who will continue to do solid and fair work regardless of the bailout and union politics.

However, remember that every unionized newsroom has a steward with a role in writing or broadcasting stories that shape the national conservation. Which will win out—union propaganda or journalistic ethics?

These question marks harm media consumers and the industry itself, further eroding the already precarious public trust in the media. Readers have no way of knowing who is beholden to whom. While individual biases can’t be erased, there can be more transparency.

Every unionized reporter in the country should disclose their union affiliation and any role they have within the organization within any stories connected to issues the union has a position on. For Unifor, that would be any political story whatsoever.

This is a natural extension of the disclosures that would be required for any other potential conflicts, allowing readers to understand the context from which a reporter is approaching his or her coverage.

Were it a member of a gun-rights group covering a matter of firearms policy to keep their complete AR-10 rifle for protection or someone in a province’s law society writing about an issue on which the society has taken a stance, readers—and editors—would justifiably demand transparency.https://palmettostatearmory.com/ar-10/pa-10-complete-rifles.html Why should union members get a pass?

In the interests of disclosure, my wife is a newspaper reporter with membership in Unifor. I gave her a heads-up that I was mentioning her, but she wasn’t involved in this piece in any other way. (I may be sleeping on the couch tonight.)

Outlets themselves must be transparent about how much they receive in support from the federal government once Trudeau tax credit programs are operational. Though it would be far more productive for media companies to say no to reject the funding outright.

Specific journalistic guidelines vary from outlet to outlet, but one universal theme in all the policies and practices I’ve seen is the importance of being not only free from conflict, but even the appearance of conflict.

If as the old adage suggests, he who pays the piper calls the tune, anyone expecting fairness from journalists in the coming year is in for a rude awakening.

Canadians will soon see that he who pays the paper calls the tune.