Ten federal agencies last year paid a national broker almost $577,000 to distribute newspaper stories ghostwritten by government employees. The payments came as Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly lamented “fake news” in Canada. Joly’s office yesterday did not comment.
Records show agencies paid $576,623 in seventeen separate contracts to News Canada Inc., a Toronto-based broker that distributes “ready-to-use, timely lifestyle content that is free of charge and copyright”, according to a management statement. Unsigned stories were identified only as “News Canada” content. Blacklock’s found weeklies from Alberta to Québec that republished items without any advisory they were written by communications staff with government departments and agencies.
Including…
Debunking The Latest Health Fads And Myths, a News Canada item ghostwritten by the health department, said: “If you think cannabis can help relieve symptoms you are experiencing, talk to your doctor about cannabis for medical purposes”. A separate Health Canada story Teaching Your Kids To Make Healthy Choices advised readers to “start having conversations” about cannabis with children as young as 12. Neither story identified Health Canada as the author or co-sponsor of legislation to legalize marijuana.
Fusion GPS north.
We have the same divide America has. Leftism vs sanity. The battle is epic and the future hangs in the balance. If leftism wins you can thank the education system for generating a generation of idiots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBffY9RGrjo
The cost aside, this government was caught once again lying.
How many riots will this produce?
None. Canada was founded by those who lost the American Revolution.
Except for Acadie, New France, Saskatchewan …
Overfed people don’t rebel.
Awesomely sad but true.
I know.
What can save this country?
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ontario liberals gaffing the wheel, yet again…
Stressed students who need more time to finish it will get it — even if they don’t
have previously arranged approvals in place allowing them additional minutes. The
relaxed time rule will also apply to Grade 9 students writing the provincial math test.
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Will that inclusion provide stress break and cannabis sessions?
Propaganda for the PEOPLE, by the GOVERNMENT, paid-for by the PEOPLE.
Kate,
You should call them up and ask how much they are willing to pay to place a story or two in your corner of the internet? Even if they don’t, the correspondence would be interesting.
Are you unfamiliar with unme?
This is outrageous.
What, you need some government wanker to write a story supporting the party line? Your hip pocket journos can’t be trusted to get it right?
This is the most dim bulbed cabinet I have ever experienced and I go back a ways. There is not a star cabinet minister in the bunch. As the captain goes so goes the ship.
Very true. It’s as if the $Billions they pay the CBC isn’t enough.
The CBC is a Crown Corporation and already the government propaganda organ isn’t it?
I’ve got Future News: “Several short buses packed full of retards was seen leaving Ottawa on this wonderful Autumn day, 2019. Before leaving, one of the most special occupants was heard saying, ‘Umm er is this umm err bus going to um ahh the U.N safe place?'”
They want us poor via Energy Poverty, dumbed down with Canada’s version of Common Core and Blitzed…perfect drones for the brave new world under Uncle George’s eye…
1984..? Nah…
THX1138– if you’ve never watched this…make it a point to do so. Robert Duvall
If they want government departments writing news pieces that are informative, that is fine, but they need to acknowledge where the articles are from. That could have easily been done.
Nudge,nudge…
Propaganda is wonderful stuff, written for idiots, by idiots.
Best part of this scam, bureaucrats can ghost write these opinion pieces, then quote them as public discussion supporting government policy.
Our Presstitutes are too stupid to get the details right, naturally they will line up to applaud these fine citizens, helping the media out,
“Press / media releases” are standard fare, globally.
They are dumbed down to the point of being written in the third person; i.e. “Mr. Ecks said to day, that the roundup of dissidents had already started….” and so on.
In the “good old days”, they were printed hand-outs given to the hacks by the flacks for politicians, “celebrities”, businesses, sports bodies, etc.
The intent was simply to provide a “standard true view”, ready to key into the typesetting machine.
These days, it is all electronic, which saves the slugs at the “responsible LSM” from even having to transcribe the text, or even bother to read it; that’s a job, allegedly, for sub-editors, etc. “Chop and Drop” is SOP. Carefully selected digital images are a “bonus”.
What exactly is the problem here? The “Debunking The Latest Health Fads And Myths” piece is actually debunking the myth that “natural” products like medicinal cannabis are safe, or safer than other medicine. It points out that even medical marijuana use can have negative effects, and that one should talk to one’s doctor first if one thinks it might help. It’s all factual and/or common sense information. There’s no propaganda here.
“Neither story identified Health Canada as the author or co-sponsor of legislation to legalize marijuana.”
Health Canada is neither the author nor co-sponsor of Bill C-45. That would be Jody Wilson-Raybould, Minister of Justice/Attorney General of Canada
And where do you draw the line?
Deceit done “for the good of the people” is A OK?
No curiousity about the ethics of your “servants” who do not wish their own names,positions ,ect to be connected?
Please prove that “deceit” was the motive here.
Newscanada.com is a legitimate service that provides “canned” content for news publishers to easily fill their “lifestyle” sections — health, travel, real estate, etc. As much as you’d like for this to be about “fake news” and government propaganda, really, your problem is simply with NewsCanada’s business model.
When the government covers up what they authored, the legitimacy of the writing is toilet fodder. Besides, if you need the government to tell you not to sniff glue then maybe you should inhale deeply till everything stops.
Did you miss the PAID part of this?
If these were public service announcements, why hide the paper trail?
At best this is a waste of taxpayer dollars at worst, fraud.
Why isn’t this a huge scandal. They’re using our tax money to brainwash us! Wtf