(LifeSiteNews) — Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge’s department admitted that federally funded media outlets buy “social cohesion.”
According to information obtained October 7 by Blacklock’s Reporter, the Canadian Association of Journalists praised a program from Canada’s Heritage Department, run by the Liberal St-Onge, that offers 100% payroll rebates for mainstream journalists.
“The crisis in local journalism is a threat to social cohesion,” the report claimed, failing to explain what it meant by “social cohesion.”
The report praised the Local Journalism Initiative and the rebates for mainstream media up to $19.6 million annually, effectively making federally funded journalists government employees.
“The Local Journalism Initiative contributes to social cohesion by having journalists tell stories about and for communities,” the report continued. “Local journalism helps to preserve a sense of community identity and social cohesion.”
“Local journalism relays information that has an impact on the daily lives of readers and reports on the political and social situation,” it claimed.
“It strengthens the reader’s connection to a community, emphasizing their role as a citizen in a democracy,” the report continued. “With the ever-increasing influx of digital information, local journalism is of paramount importance in the life of a community.”
While the report failed to explain exactly what “social cohesion” means, media funded by the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government has become infamous for propping up the Liberals while tearing down any opposition to the party or its radical agendas.
In fact, in September, House leader Karina Gould directed mainstream media reporters to “scrutinize” Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who has repeatedly condemned government-funded media as being an arm of the Liberals.
Gould’s comments were in reference to Poilievre’s promise to defund the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) if elected prime minister. Poilievre is a longtime critic of government-funded media, especially the CBC.
Indeed, there have been multiple instances of the CBC pushing what appears to be ideological content, including the creation of pro-LGBT material for kids, tacitly endorsing the gender mutilation of children, promoting euthanasia, and even seeming to justify the burning of mostly Catholic churches throughout the country.
Despite this, beginning in 2019, Parliament changed the Income Tax Act to give yearly rebates of 25 percent for each news employee in cabinet-approved media outlets earning up to $55,000 a year to a maximum of $13,750.
The Canadian Heritage Department since admitted that the payouts are not even sufficient to keep legacy media outlets running and recommended that the rebates be doubled to a maximum of $29,750 annually.
Last November, Trudeau again announced increased payouts for legacy media outlets that coincide with the leadup to the 2025 election. The subsidies are expected to cost taxpayers $129 million over the next five years.
Similarly, Trudeau’s 2024 budget outlined $42 million in increased funding for the CBC in 2024-25.
The $42 million to the CBC is in addition to massive media payouts that already make up roughly 70 percent of its operating budget and total more than $1 billion annually.