The Liberal government wants to tackle the problem of misinformation, but that will not include regulating journalists’ reliance on sources, Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan said on Wednesday.
He indicated that the government would not budge on a political resolution approved at the federal Liberal Party convention on May 6. The resolution could venture into regulating journalistic practices, which O’Regan says is not on the cards.
“We would never allow this to become law,” O’Regan said. Not in my custody. »
The resolution speaks to the rise of misinformation, especially online, and the negative impact this has created on trust in government and the media.
The minister specifically calls for tackling the rise of misinformation through efforts including holding “online news services” accountable for what they post and banning the use of sources that cannot be traced.
Mr O’Regan recalled that although the policy does not directly address media sources, there could be ramifications for them and therefore for press freedom.
Regulations requiring that all sources of published material be traced could be interpreted as a restriction on the use of anonymous sources, for example.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also dismissed any notion that the resolution would be taken up by his government.
This will be official Liberal Party policy for the next eight years, but the government is not required to implement it and the party does not have to campaign on it.
Catherine Evans of Vancouver, member of the Liberal Party, sponsored the resolution.
She said at the convention that disinformation is a problem “essential to our democracy and which must be solved”.
She told reporters at the event that she didn’t intend to target them with the resolution, but rather the plethora of sites online that make wild claims with no notion of the origin of the virus. information.
The resolution was one of 24 approved at the convention. Some of them were fast-tracked to a final vote before the convention even started, but this one had to go through an initial debate and vote in a policy workshop with a small group of Liberals.
The final vote on May 6 could have involved all 4,000 Liberals registered at the convention, but fewer than 200 turned out. The vote took place by a show of hands.
The 24 resolutions passed were then ranked in order of importance by party members when they voted electronically for the new party chairman. Anti-misinformation policy is ranked tenth.
The shared cabinet
O’Regan’s concerns are shared by many cabinet members, including Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault. He said in French Wednesday that political conventions are meant to have vigorous debate, and sometimes members get it right. But in this case, he thinks the members got it wrong.
Toronto Liberal MP Julie Dzerowicz wrote on Twitter that she ranked it second in resolutions, behind only a guaranteed basic income.
In an interview on Wednesday, Mr.me Dzerowicz said she does not support anything that would interfere with press freedom or journalistic integrity, including regulating the sources used in online news.
She added that misinformation and misinformation are two of her biggest concerns, and something she also hears a lot about from her constituents.
“It’s something that worries me a lot,” she said.
Policy resolutions at a convention should not be viewed as if they would be absorbed and adopted by the government, she qualified. But this one raises concerns about a problem and opens the door to a conversation about how to fix it.
Mr O’Regan said he reflected on the fact that this policy was passed and immediately disavowed, unsure whether the people who voted for him fully understood the ramifications involved.
The Liberals have previously been accused of attempting to censor online sites through Bill C-11, which became law last month.
The new law aims to enforce Canadian content provisions imposed on traditional radio or television broadcasters on online sites like YouTube or Spotify when they air commercial content.
The Tories have called it a censorship bill that will allow the government to dictate what online sites can and cannot post.
But the Liberals say that is not what the new law does at all. Instead, the government says it’s making sure Canadian artists get their due on online streams in Canada.