Country needs CBC in the face of Elon Musk’s ‘interference’, says St-Onge

(Ottawa) Elon Musk’s growing “interference” in politics and recent changes to Meta to eliminate fact-checking make Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s promise to defund CBC-- even more important, a argues the Minister of Heritage, Pascale St-Onge.

She said the issue isn’t about left or right politics, or even “whether you like the CBC or not.”

“This is about talking about the removal of one of the most important sources of information for Canadians at a time when we know that the information system is controlled by foreign billionaires,” argued Mr.^me St-Onge in interview. “And for me, it’s very worrying to see that [Pierre Poilievre] don’t understand that. »

A supporter of new US President Donald Trump, Elon Musk has become an increasingly controversial political figure in recent years, particularly since he bought Twitter and renamed it XM Musk has also recently entered Canadian politics, attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and praising Pierre Poilievre.

“What we have witnessed in recent weeks is a man, a billionaire who has a very influential platform, interfering in the elections and politics of other countries, and he is doing it in Canada,” pointed M^me St-Onge.

“We know, and all the experts know, that with everything that is happening online on social media, we know that we cannot trust these platforms as sources of information. »

Meta announced earlier this month that it was replacing third-party fact-checking with user-written “community ratings,” similar to the model used by Elon Musk’s X.

The announced changes to content moderation on Facebook and Instagram were long awaited by conservatives. The Community Notes model will launch in the United States before expanding to other countries. Experts have warned that these changes could lead to more misinformation.

Asked about the movements of these platforms towards policies favorable to Donald Trump or towards an overtly right-wing orientation, Minister St-Onge replied that “it is extremely dangerous. Communication and information are at the heart of democracy and the electoral process.”

The Liberal government clashed with Meta over the company’s decision to block news content on its platforms, in response to a Liberal law that would have forced Meta to compensate news media for posting of their content.

M’s comments^me St-Onge come as the federal Liberals have launched a leadership race to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and opposition parties are aiming for a snap election that could see Canadians go to the polls this spring.

Pierre Poilevre promised that if elected to government, he would defund the CBC in English, while preserving French-language news. In response to a request for comment on the minister’s criticism, a spokesperson for Mr. Poilievre highlighted the Conservative leader’s recent comments about Elon Musk.

Mr. Poilievre did not respond directly when asked if he accepted approval from the owner of Canada.”

Pascale St-Onge accused the Conservative leader of “making advances toward Elon Musk.”

“I’m afraid Poilievre is saying he’s for sale, that he’s ready to sell out Canada to these tech geeks and that he’s ready to destroy our independent news ecosystem.”

The minister, who promised a renewed mandate for the public broadcaster, said Mr. Poilievre’s plan would mean withdrawing funding from a “Canadian institution that hires a third of Canadian journalists” and comes “at a time when the President Trump talks about annexing Canada to the United States.

At a recent press conference, Donald Trump threatened to use “economic force” to make Canada 51^e State. Elon Musk has been appointed by the Republican to co-lead a new “Department of Government Effectiveness”.

M^me St-Onge warned that with Mr. Musk being part of the Trump administration, X is “not an independent source of information.”

“It’s extremely worrying because a lot of people think they get their news from these platforms and from Facebook and [le PDG de Meta, Mark] Zuckerberg, we saw they don’t really care.”

Instead, argued M^me St-Onge, they care about financial results, “their billions” and the “power their platform gives them.”

With archives from the Associated Press