OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – A Canadian scientific panel that receives funding from the federal government seemed to assert in a new report last week that the standard journalistic practice of showing two sides to a story is to blame for a rise in media “misinformation.”
The Council of Canadian Academies noted in its report released January 26 titled Fault Lines Expert Panel on the Socioeconomic Impacts of Science and Health Misinformation that some “journalistic norms contribute to misinformation such as the tendency to present both sides of a debate as having equal weight.”
The Council’s report, which was sponsored by Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), claimed that the journalistic practice leads to an artificial “false balance of perspectives even in cases where the science is conclusive.”
“The effects of a false balance in media have been observed in public discourse on climate science, genetically modified organisms and nuclear power,” the report stated.
ISED had asked the Council of Canadian Academies “to examine the socioeconomic impacts of science and health misinformation and disinformation on the public and public policy in Canada.”
This time last year, Justin Trudeau and his media allies were at the forefront of falsely accusing Catholic institutions of having buried Indigenous children in mass graves at various residential schools across Canada.
There was and is no credible evidence to support these wild accusations, but many Canadians are still unaware of the facts.
SIGN to demand an apology from Justin Trudeau for promoting the "mass grave" smear
The anger generated by the media at home and abroad saw over twenty Canadian churches burned, and extensive damage done to many more, but the record has never been set straight in what amounts to a disinformation campaign.
Terry Glavin at the National Post recently wrote a masterful piece that may go down in history as the definitive “debunking” of the assertions about the mass graves that never were.
Glavin points out that “nothing new was added to the public record” concerning the history of residential schools in Canada.
“The legacy of the schools had already been exhaustively explored in the testimony of hundreds of elders and a series of inquiries, public hearings, criminal cases, settlements and federal investigations going back decades. Most important of these efforts were the widely publicized undertakings of the 2008-2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), and the content of its voluminous findings,” Glavin wrote.
“…[N]ot a single mass grave was discovered in Canada last year,” he added.
“The several sites of unmarked graves that captured international headlines were either already-known cemeteries, or they remain sites of speculation even now, unverified as genuine grave sites.”
“Not a single child” accounted for during the extensively researched commission “was located in any of these places,” Glavin underscored.
“In none of these places were any human remains unearthed.”
SIGN and SHARE the petition calling on Justin Trudeau to set the record straight.
Even Trudeau's kneeling at what was reported upon as a just-discovered residential school burial ground was a lie - it was actually a well-known Catholic cemetery, but the media didn't let these details get in the way of reinforcing their narrative.
Trudeau also called on Pope Francis to come to Canada and apologize for what had happened, as outlets like Reuters, the New York Times and scores more told the world that “nearly 1000 bodies” had been found in two mass graves.
Those online articles were quietly edited from "mass graves" to "unmarked graves", but we still have the Twitter posts from major outlets like Reuters to prove the staggering level of misinformation.
SIGN: Justin Trudeau must tell Canadians the truth - there were no mass graves
According to an extensive investigation by Professor Emeritus Jacques Rouillard from the Université de Montréal: “The ‘discovery’ was first reported last May 27 (2021) by Tk’emlúps te secwépemc First Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir after an anthropologist, Sarah Beaulieu, used ground-penetrating radar in a search for the remains of children alleged by some to be buried there.”
“Her preliminary report is actually based on depressions and abnormalities in the soil of an apple orchard near the school – not on exhumed remains.”
Professor Rouillard opined that the unverifiable narrative of what could have amounted to child-murder has led to the false assertion of genocide, an assertion without any supporting evidence.
“By never pointing out that it is only a matter of speculation or potentiality, and that no remains have yet been found, governments and the media are simply granting credence to what is really a thesis: the thesis of the ‘disappearance’ of children from residential schools,” Rouillard wrote.
“And all of this is based only on soil abnormalities that could easily be caused by root movements, as the anthropologist herself cautioned in the July 15 press conference.”
The vast majority of Canadians have been misled by the media and Mr. Trudeau, believing the most incredible smears imaginable, leading to scores of attacks on churches around the country.
It's time we heard the truth.
Please sign the petition today.
We are also cc'ing Canada's Catholic bishops on this petition - they must also demand the record be corrected, lest Canadians continue believing the mainstream media's disinformation.
For More Information:
How the world's media got it wrong on residential school graves - National Post
Trudeau lied about the bogus mass grave story - LifeSiteNews
Trudeau's narrative was a hoax - LifeSiteNews
**Photo: St. Jean Baptiste Church in Morinville burned to the ground on June 30, 2021**
The Council’s report claimed that unnamed media were “creating opposition” to certain governmental agendas and policies relating to “climate change.”
“Targeted misinformation campaigns have played a documented role in creating opposition to policies addressing climate change and the widespread and increasing human and economic damage it is causing,” the report read.
The report continued, stating, “Science and health misinformation becomes intertwined with ideology and identity it is also increasingly weaponized for political gain, feeding off and contributing to political polarization.”
“The proliferation of talk radio, cable news, online message boards and social media likely contributes to the post-truth era in which the validity and legitimacy of information and knowledge institutions in government, academia, science and health care are increasingly challenged.” the Council’s report offered.
The Council wrote that when people are presented with two sides of a story from experts, “people perceive lower levels of consensus even when commentaries are accompanied by data showing that more experts support one side over the other.”
Showing two sides to a story, the Council said, leads to “bad actors” who target and “manipulate media outlets by using journalistic norms and standards to amplify misinformation and extremist messaging.”
The last two years saw unprecedented COVID mandates placed on Canadian citizens, which led not only to lockdowns but jab mandates as well.
Most legacy media outlets ran with headlines in line with government messaging, which promoted lockdowns and mandates of all kinds as the way to stop the spread of the COVID virus.
Alternative Canadian media sites that do not receive any government funding such as Rebel News, True North, the Western Standard, and LifeSiteNews offered different perspectives on COVID lockdowns and mandates.
News reports from these outlets focused more on the human impact the dictates had on citizens who chose not to comply with the rules, and most notably those who chose not to get jabbed.
Trust in legacy media in Canada is also at an all-time low, according to a study conducted by Oxford University.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which is majority funded by the federal government, has had to multiple times issue corrections to stories.
While the Freedom Convoy was successful to a degree in getting governments to eventually back down on COVID mandates, the federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has gone on the attack to target legal internet content.
Since Trudeau became Prime Minister in 2015, his government has pushed forth many bills targeting legal content on the internet, which critics had blasted as an affront to freedom.
Late last year, the Trudeau government decided to fast-track Bill C-18, titled the “Online News Act,” rushing it through the House of Commons. The bill is now before the Senate.
According to Derek Fildebrandt, who is the publisher and CEO of the independent Western Standard, Bill C-18 is a direct attack on media that does not get government funding.
Another piece of legislation before the Senate, Bill C-11, also deals with internet censorship.
C-11, which like C-18 has faced immense criticism for its implications on freedom of speech, recently passed its second reading in the Senate.
Critics have long warned that Bill C-11 will stifle free speech online, and even Big Tech giants YouTube and Apple, who both have a history of censorship, have urged the Senate to stall the passing of the bill.