A fairly large detail to leave out, don’t you think?
In a recent column, Globe & Mail writer John Ibbitson criticizes CPC leadership race frontrunner Pierre Poilievre on vaccine mandates.
Ibbitson brings up polio, talking about the growing number of polio cases in some parts of the world:
“Officials blame low levels of vaccination against polio in some communities for the outbreak.”
“This is the price we pay for the growing vaccine hesitancy in Western societies. Long-banished diseases return. Once-dormant viruses spread. People become paralyzed. People may die.”
Ibbitson then tries to tie Poilievre to this:
“Pierre Poilievre, who is likely to become leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, opposes vaccine mandates, going so far as to introduce a private-member’s bill that would prohibit them at the federal level. He has yet to explain how he can reconcile that position with the public harm such a policy could cause.”
Amazingly, Ibbitson links to the Private Member’s bill, but then fails to accurately describe it.
Ibbitson is talking as if Poilievre’s legislation is a blanket opposition to all vaccine mandates of any kind. However, the legislation clearly states it is focused on covid-19 federal vaccine mandates.
This is the summary of the legislation:
“This enactment amends the Financial Administration Act to provide that the Treasury Board may not require as a condition of employment in the federal public administration that a person receive a vaccine against COVID-19. It also amends the Canada Labour Code to provide that regulations may not be made that require, as a term or condition of employment in or in connection with the operation of a federal work, undertaking or business, that a person receive a vaccine against COVID-19.
In addition, the enactment amends the Aeronautics Act, the Railway Safety Act and the Canada Shipping Act, 2001 to provide that no regulation, order or other instrument made under any of those Acts to prevent the introduction or spread of COVID-19 may prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting a person from boarding an aircraft, a train or a vessel solely on the ground that they have not received a vaccine against that disease.”
The full text of the legislation makes it clear over and over again that it is focused specifically on covid-19.
Yet, the Globe & Mail isn’t letting that get in the way of their narrative.
They are attempting to tie Poilievre to the idea of polio spreading, in the hopes that will damage his appeal in the country.
It would have taken just a few minutes to look at the legislation he proposed and see that the Globe & Mail narrative is wrong.
This is why trust in the establishment press is collapsing, and why more and more Canadians see the importance of Independent media to fight the bias and disinformation we see all around us.
Spencer Fernando
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