When the CBC dislikes a person or an opinion, our taxpayer-funded broadcaster calls it “controversial.” In CBC-speak, “controversial” means conservative, libertarian, religious, traditionalist, classical liberal, or otherwise not in line with woke ideology. For the CBC, there is nothing “controversial” about a man who “identifies” as a woman having an absolute right to enter women’s washrooms and other female spaces. Only those who seek to protect safe spaces for women are “controversial.”As millions mourn the murder of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the CBC describes his pro-life and pro-Israel opinions as “controversial.” According to CBC writer Verity Stevenson, Charlie Kirk promoted “some of the far-right's more extreme ideas.” In her story, Ms. Stevenson secures quotes from academics who describe Kirk’s “far-right” rhetoric as “harmful” and as “hate speech.” As can be expected of any good CBC employee, she reliably fails to quote academics (or anyone, for that matter) who have a different opinion..EDITORIAL: Celebrating Charlie Kirk’s assassination is not journalism.Our taxpayer-funded propagandist describes Charlie Kirk’s opposition to Covid lockdowns as a “conspiracy theory.” The CBC does this not in an opinion piece, but in what is supposed to be factual news reporting. For the CBC, accepting the government’s narrative on COVID-19, lockdowns, and vaccines is smart, good, right, moral, and scientific. The CBC dismisses as “conspiracy theorists” all citizens who question their all-wise and all-good government. And, of course, the CBC does not interview or quote these “conspiracy theorists.” Under the heading “conspiracy theories” in its article, the CBC actually takes Charlie Kirk to task for using the term “China virus” to describe a virus that came from China..Millions of Americans and Canadians are law-abiding, responsible firearms owners. They hate the criminal misuse of firearms as much as (and probably more than) their neighbours do. Believing that crooked politicians are the only people who have grounds to fear an armed citizenry, Americans understandably cherish their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. Yet the opinions of tens of millions of Americans and Canadians are “controversial” for the CBC, because the CBC fervently believes that forcing good, law-abiding citizens to register every gun they own will somehow reduce violent crime.The CBC’s description of Charlie Kirk as “far-right” is consistent with its long-standing practice of demonizing people who prefer freedom over various woke, socialist, and neo-Marxist ideologies: classical liberals, conservatives, libertarians, and those who adhere to traditional religious teachings. For the CBC, even the word “freedom” is a rallying cry for the “far-right.”.EDITORIAL: The assassination of Charlie Kirk: The Left’s war on dissent.The CBC uses “far-right” to describe neo-Nazis and other actual racists, and then also uses “far-right” to describe mainstream conservative opinions on topics like abortion, Israel, transgender ideology, owning guns, and a country’s right to secure its own borders. The left-right political spectrum (which I believe is deeply flawed, because there are more than just two ideas on politics) presupposes the existence of a large block of “centrist” Canadians in the middle, with smaller numbers of people on the “far-left” and “far-right,” and even smaller numbers on the left and right “extremes.” Does the CBC believe that half of Canada’s population is “far-right”?.As explained by Élie Cantin-Nantel, a search for the term “far-right” on the CBC’s website yields over 2,170 results, while a search for “far-left” produces just over 120. But since the CBC’s “far-right” includes millions of Canadian conservatives, libertarians, religious believers, and other non-woke folk, it makes sense that the CBC would refer to the “far-right” 18 times more often than it refers to the “far-left.” If the CBC can barely notice the “far-left,” this is likely because the CBC itself lives in a “far-left” corner of the universe. Outside of the CBC’s own echo chamber, everything is “right” or “far-right.”Our taxpayer-funded broadcaster uses the term “far-right” to smear Charlie Kirk, and millions of Canadian conservatives and libertarians, by putting them into the same category as white nationalists and other actual racists (as opposed to people falsely accused of “racism” for opposing things like racial quotas and woke ideology). Until the CBC (and other government-funded media) started using “far-right” to describe libertarians and conservatives, the “far-right” was a specific reference only to fascism and other racist movements that oppose Parliamentary democracy and civil liberties. Surely CBC writers like Verity Stevenson know that the label “far-right” is pejorative. Surely they have progressed beyond a kindergarten-level understanding of politics, and know the difference between fascists and classical liberals?.FLETCHER: Orange Shirt Day guilt industry running out of control.The CBC endears itself to its Liberal-NDP audience, always keeping them on high alert about the dangers of a large “far-right,” a growing movement that includes most or all of the Canadians who disagree with the NDP-Liberal-CBC narrative. The CBC’s strategy may secure loyalty from woke Canadians in the short run, but in the long run the CBC’s shallow smear campaign is undermining its credibility ever further.John Carpay, B.A., LL.B., is president of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (jccf.ca).
