Tory MP Requested Feds Identify All ‘Misinformation’ They Released Since 2016

Chris Warkentin waits to begin a session of the House of Commons Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics committee on Parliament hill in Ottawa, July 12, 2021. (Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press)

A Conservative MP has requested from the government a detailed rundown of instances where its departments and agencies provided “misinformation” since 2016.

“With regard to misinformation or wrong information released by the government, since 2016, broken down by department, agency, Crown corporation or other government entity, and by year: (a) how many times did the government put out misinformation or wrong information,” MP Chris Warkentin asked in a question requiring a return last October.

The MP, who serves as deputy party whip, asked for the details about each case and how the information was corrected.

The answer, containing 123 pages, was tabled on Dec. 14 by Liberal MP Kevin Lamoureux, the parliamentary secretary to the government House leader.

The response is lengthy, but it turned out to be light in substance.

Most entities replied with a cookie-cutter response, stating they are “responsible for providing timely, clear, objective, accurate, factual and non-partisan information” and that the information requested is not “systematically tracked.”

“The Health Portfolio concluded that producing and validating a comprehensive response to this question would require a manual collection of information that is not possible in the time allotted and could lead to the disclosure of incomplete and misleading information,” wrote back Health Canada.

CBC replied that it “maintains full journalistic and programming independence from government. The question refers specifically to ‘misinformation or wrong information released by the government.’”

“CBC/Radio-Canada as the public broadcaster does not release information for the government.”

Some organizations did identify instances where incorrect information had been shared with the public, but most cases appear to be related to clerical errors.

The Canadian Grain Commission identified it had posted the “Photo of incorrect type of moisture meter” on Facebook and Twitter in December 2020 and proceeded to delete the posts.

The Bank of Canada said data on charts related to its Monetary Policy Reports had been plotted incorrectly in two instances and the information was subsequently amended.

The Epoch Times reached out to Warkentin’s office to find out what spurred the request.

The Liberal government has frequently used the term “misinformation and disinformation” when criticizing the Conservative Party or to justify tightening control on information.

“Mr. Speaker, the price on pollution returns more money to average families across the country than it costs them,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in the House of Commons in late November. “Conservatives continue to spread misinformation and disinformation on that.”

The Trudeau government also funds projects and wishes to pass legislation to address the topic of “misinformation and disinformation.”