Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre launched a blistering attack on Global News and claimed the organization's reporters "set disingenuous traps" to attack their opponents..Poilievre's campaign referred to Global News reporter Rachel Gilmore, who recently wrote two articles criticizing Poilievre for marching alongside Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Veteran James Topp, who has spoken with figures tied to the far-right.."Canadians' trust in the news media has reached an all-time low. And when we look at your coverage of these issues, it's easy to understand why. Instead of just covering the news, unprofessional journalists like you try to set disingenuous traps to attack your opponents," the Poilievre campaign said in a press release on Thursday..The campaign said Poilievre supported Canadians' "rights to restore their freedoms," while simultaneously calling for those who engage in illegal behavior or express heinous views to be held accountable.."Since you insist on demonizing Canadians who dare speak out against the Trudeau government, we can only assume that Global News is content to be a Liberal mouthpiece," the statement continued. "Mr. Poilievre supported James Topp's singular cause of ending vaccine mandates, so people can take back control of their lives.".Topp recently completed a 4,300 km journey across Canada to protest against vaccine mandates. During Topp's final stretch of the march to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa on June 30, Poilievre marched alongside and spoke with Topp for approximately 20 minutes..Gilmore's main criticism of Topp was he recently joined a podcast of CAF veteran Jeremy Mackenzie, who said in January the Freedom Convoy protest could “bring down the government.” One of Mackenzie's co-hosts then said "we need to assemble gallows on f—ing Parliament.”.In February, Mackenzie was arrested for allegedly brandishing a firearm while in a Nova Scotia business. .While on Mackenzie's show, Topp indicated he was a regular listener.."One of the things that kind of kept me hanging on was seeing shows like yours. At least there were other dudes out there that kind of had the same idea that was like, 'all this stuff is messed up,'" Topp said..Topp never mentioned Mackenzie's comments about bringing down the government, or claimed he was attempting something similar with his march to the nation's capital..In her articles, Gilmore tied Poilievre back to Mackenzie's comments and asked several experts for their thoughts on the extremist elements of the Freedom Convoy.."By legitimating the far right movement, Pierre Poilievre and politicians of his ilk are helping to grow that number," reads a quote from an expert in Gilmore's article How close is too close for the far right? Why some experts are worried about Canada's MPs..In the article, Gilmore claimed Poilievre’s spokesperson Anthony Koch responded to her request for comment by calling her questions about Poilievre’s march alongside Topp “disingenuous traps” and “unprofessional.”.Koch said asking questions about who Poilievre met with is similar to “guilt by multiple degrees of separation." Koch added that Poilievre has been “repeatedly calling for individuals who engage in illegal behaviour or express heinous views to be held accountable for their actions.”."Poilievre's team sent this to me on Tuesday in response to my request for comment," Gilmore Tweeted on Thursday. "It read like a press release then. I guess it *was* a press release.".Gilmore said she had never had a politician publish "an entire press release to call me unprofessional for asking questions, but I guess there's a first time for everything.".Gilmore did not respond to the Western Standard's request for a comment.
