David Clinton;

According to the National Post, Federal Justice Minister Sean Fraser recently rejected Alberta’s request for input into the selection of judges – including Supreme Court justices – explaining: “We need to rigorously adhere to the boundaries of the Constitution, including the need to protect the independence of the judiciary.”

Now it’s well known that the Province of Quebec already has significantly greater powers than Alberta is looking for. So it would seem obvious that the minister intentionally employed a false justification for his government’s policy.

Put plainly, seeing that upset me. But it also made me wonder how often our government uses disinformation when talking to us.

Well first of all, how often do they try to tell us stuff? An awful lot, it turns out. Through just 2025, Global Affairs Canada – for example – issued 411 information releases through their canada.ca page. Multiply that by the more than 100 departments and agencies that enjoy communicating in one way or another, and it’s clear that government produces a steady torrent of communications.

How many federal public sector workers are involved in the government’s messaging-industrial complex? Searching on the Government Electronic Directory Services (GEDS) page shows us that there are 1,660 individuals across government whose job descriptions include the word “communications”. Of those, 770 are Communications Advisors and 117 are Communications Assistants.

There are an additional 336 positions identified by terms like “engagement” (106), “marketing” (43), or “outreach” (58). That’s around 2,000 full-time positions that are officially advertised as messaging-related. But I’m sure there are countless more who are expected to devote only partial focus to communicating and others whose job titles aren’t caught by my simple search.

And that doesn’t include their paid shills in media.