Was Sun columnist paid off for pro-Trudeau opinion piece?

By Arthur Weinreb —— Bio and Archives December 11, 2018

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It’s no secret Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has come under heavy criticism lately. His popularity began to tank when he went on his disastrous trip to India and, with his constant wardrobe changes, showed the entire world what a fool he is. Will he and the Liberals win the next election scheduled to be held in October of next year? Lorne Gunter, writing an opinion piece in the Sun newspaper, thinks he will.

According to Gunter, Trudeau will be re-elected but will end up with a minority government. The columnist opines the government could be defeated because of “their juvenile mismanagement of Canada’s economy.” However Gunter notes there are enough voters who “still fall for Trudeau’s charm and self-righteous political correctness.” (Toronto Sun, Dec. 5) While not everyone will agree with Gunter’s reasoning, his analysis is not far off the mark. Leftists love governments that will provide for their every need. These people are totally oblivious to how the economy works and simply want the free stuff they feel they deserve. To these folks, Justin still has the right last name and nice hair. There is a good chance the next federal government will be a minority one, led by Trudeau. Gunter’s prediction may very well come to pass. Had this article been written prior to last month, it would be what it purports to be; Gunter’s reasoned opinion on what the results of the 2019 federal election will be. But after what happened in November, whether Gunter actually believes what he wrote is called into question. Does he actually think Trudeau will win a minority government next year or did he write what the journalists’ union and the Liberals wanted him to write. The union, Unifor, represents 13,000 journalists in Canada. In November, Unifor declared war on Andrew Scheer and the Conservative Party of Canada, vowing to be their “worst nightmare.” Jerry Dias, the president of the union, even went so far as to call his union, and all the journalists it represents “the resistance.” (The Post Millennial, Nov. 17) If that wasn’t bad enough, shortly after the union informed its members, including the 13,000 journalists, they were at war with Andrew Scheer the Trudeau government made an announcement. During a fiscal update, the government announced they were giving almost $600,000 to the media in the form of tax credits and incentives (one wonders what they will be incentivized to do). According to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, the money is being spent to help support journalism in Canada. (The Province, Dec. 2)

There is no doubt print and other media are suffering from a loss of advertising revenue. But if anyone thinks the Liberal government will bail out unfriendly media they have not been paying attention for the last three years. Paying off media outlets, following the journalist’s union declaring war on Andrew Scheer marks the end of any semblance of an independent mainstream media in Canada. The union’s objectives and the government’s payoffs to the media will have no effect on far left media outlets such as the CBC and the Toronto Star that love the Liberals and see everyone who disagrees with them as alt right Nazis. They will merely be paid off for what they have always been doing. But for more right wing or objective mainstream media outlets such as the Sun chain, their credibility is now shot. Gunter’s column is illustrative of what is happening. Did Gunter actually believe what he wrote or did he criticize Scheer and show Trudeau in a positive light to please his union bosses or hope federal funds flow to the Sun? We don’t know and probably never will. Columnist Andrew Lawton wrote journalists who cover politics should disclose whether they are members of Unifor and what, if any, positions they hold in the union. It has been a long standing practise that journalists disclose facts that may call their objectivity into question. But for Gunter and his colleagues this is unlikely to happen. (Andrew Lawton, Nov. 30) Gunter of course is not alone; his column is merely an example of how the media has been ordered by its union to criticize the Conservatives and the possibility of a payoff from a pleased Liberal government. All credibility, or whatever remained in the mainstream media has been lost. No longer can pieces like Gunter’s be read with the view he is merely expressing his own opinion. Objective journalism in Canada’s mainstream media is effectively dead.