New York Post - Once democracy, Canada is now authoritarian

{Thirty-five publishers secretly attended a confidential 2020 teleconference with the Canada Revenue Agency and Department of Finance to discuss terms of a $595 million media bailout}






Thirty-five publishers attended a confidential 2020 teleconference with the Canada Revenue Agency and Department of Finance to discuss terms of a $595 million media bailout, Access To Information records show. Publishers submitted questions in advance. None reported it.



“What is the expected wait time to receive payment?” asked one publisher. “When do you expect the first applications to be approved?” asked another.



The confidential July 20, 2020 “call with stakeholders” is detailed in 622 censored pages of documents released yesterday. The Department of Finance withheld the records for more than two years.



“Canada Revenue Agency is holding calls with stakeholders on Monday and Tuesday next week about journalism tax measures,” wrote staff. “They received some questions in advance and asked if we could provide input.”



Questions included, “When can we expect confirmation?” “What are you doing for smaller publications and those who publish for specific targeted audiences?” “How can freelance journalists who work for different news media companies benefit?”



Records show “35 individuals” joined the teleconference. All names were censored. The Department of Finance and Revenue Agency yesterday would not name them.



Parliament in 2019 passed Bill C-97 Budget Implementation Act that approved $595 million in subsidies for publishers deemed by the Minister of Revenue to be QCJOs, “qualified Canadian journalism organizations.” Subsidies included 25 percent payroll rebates and 15 percent subscription tax credits.



No publisher acknowledged lobbying for aid. Lobbyist Registry records do not mention the July 20, 2020 teleconference.



Blacklock’s in 2019 uncovered Access To Information records indicating cabinet only agreed to subsidies after a trade group News Media Canada hired lobbyist Isabel Metcalfe. The former Liberal candidate for Parliament was a campaign organizer for then-Environment Minister Catherine McKenna.


Metcalfe held 79 separate meetings with senior officials including staff at the Prime Minister’s Office. No publisher who paid Metcalfe reported the fact.



Metcalfe in a January 11, 2019 email to the Department of Canadian Heritage “attached some background materials” for terms of the bailout that later appeared in Bill C-97. Terms included criteria for applicants and disqualification of start-up media from receiving taxpayers’ aid.



Lobbyist Registry records show Metcalfe met then-Minister Mélanie Joly and her successor Minister Pablo Rodriguez among 12 separate sessions with department staff. Metcalfe also lobbied 13 deputy and assistant deputy ministers.



Cabinet prior to the lobbying blitz had rejected direct cash subsidies to publishers as pointless. “Our approach will not be to bail out industry models that are no longer viable,” Minister Joly said in 2017. “Rather we will focus our efforts in supporting innovation, experimentation and transition to digital.”

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Political aides knew to be false a cabinet claim the Freedom Convoy received suspicious foreign donations, internal records show. Rumours spread by the Prime Minister and others went uncorrected because the issue was “a hot potato,” wrote one press secretary.

“This question has been a bit of a hot potato,” wrote Adrienne Vaupshas, press secretary to the Minister of Finance. Other political aides expressed unease following an enquiry from the Wall Street Journal questioning cabinet claims.

Paul Vieira, Journal correspondent on Parliament Hill, on February 21 sought clarification after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed the convoy “received disturbing amounts of foreign funding to destabilize Canada’s democracy.”

“Can the Prime Minister’s Office provide evidence to corroborate this claim?” asked Vieira. “How much are ‘disturbing amounts’? How much money are we talking about?”

The claim was false. Financial accounts showed most money raised by protesters was donated by Canadians, and none was associated with extremist or criminal groups.

Political aides circulated the Wall Street Journal questions and concluded they should not comment. “I don’t think we’d have anything to say on this,” wrote Alexander Cohen, communications director to the Minister of Public Safety.

“To be honest we’ve tried to avoid questions about the foreign funding angle because we don’t have hard information on it and most of it is actually legal (despite being objectionable, etcetera),” wrote Cohen.

Cabinet members repeated the claim of suspicious foreign funding. “There have been alarm bells going off about the rate at which the leaders have been able to raise significant funds much of which has been raised from abroad,” Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino said February 16.

Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair on February 16 also mistakenly claimed the protest was “a largely foreign funded, targeted and coordinated attack which was clearly criminally intended to harm Canada.”

The Public Order Emergency Commission determined of $24,529,000 raised by the Freedom Convoy through crowdfunding sites a total 59 percent was contributed by Canadians. Juan Benitez, president of GoFundMe, testified March 3 at the Commons public safety committee the largest single donation was $30,000 from an unidentified Canadian.

GoFundMe found no evidence of suspicious donations, said Benitez. “We commenced a review,” he said.

“Did you ever identify there was anyone on a terrorist watch list in the United States or Canada or anywhere in the world who donated through GoFundMe? Any sort of organized crime elements?” asked Conservative MP Dane Lloyd (Sturgeon River-Parkland, Alta.). “We do extensive screening,” replied President Benitez.

“So you didn’t identify any problematic people donating to the convoy and if you had identified those people you would have stopped it, is that correct?” asked MP Lloyd. “That’s correct,” replied Benitez.