A video tweeted by incumbent Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland, who served as deputy prime minister in Justin Trudeau’s government, was given a warning label Sunday from Twitter, which marked it as “manipulated media.”
Freeland’s tweets, posted in both English and French, contain several edits and show Conservative leader Erin O’Toole answering a question about privatized health care during an online question-and-answer session in July 2020 during the Conservative leadership race.
The tweet shows O’Toole being asked if he would bring private, “for-profit” health care to Canada. He quickly responds: “yes.”
However, in the original recording of O’Toole’s remarks on heath care — which can be seen here at about the 12:30 mark — the Conservative leader also noted that universal access remains paramount.
The shortened clip used in Freeland’s tweet did not include O’Toole’s statement on ensuring universal access.
Trudeau retweeted the video and drew on it during a speech Sunday to attack O’Toole on the campaign trail in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.
Conservative Party lawyers have sent a letter to the commissioner of Canada Elections calling for an investigation into the matter to determine who was involved in making the video. The party is also requesting the commissioner ask the Liberals to take down the post.
On Sunday, the party accused the Liberals of spreading misinformation.
“It’s disappointing to see the Liberals resort to American-style divisive politics,” said Mathew Clancy, the Conservatives’ manager of media relations.
“While Justin Trudeau and the Liberals are focused on spreading misinformation, Erin O’Toole is focused on Canada’s Recovery Plan and securing the future.”
The Conservatives had their own Twitter misstep roughly a week ago. Twitter removed a video the party posted following a copyright infringement complaint and the Conservatives subsequently deleted the tweet.
The Conservatives had posted a video mocking Trudeau by placing his face on a character from the film Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Some sitting Conservative MPs called the tweet juvenile and a bad idea during a federal election.
Twitter’s manipulated media tag is seen on this tweet. “In order to determine if media have been significantly and deceptively altered or fabricated, we may use our own technology or receive reports through partnerships with third parties,” says Twitter’s website. (Twitter)
Twitter launched warning labels last year
On Sunday, Twitter Canada said it issued the warning labels on both English and French versions of Freeland’s tweet.
“The tweets in question have both been labelled in line with our global synthetic and manipulated policy,” Twitter Canada said in a statement to CBC.
It noted that labelled tweets have limited visibility in search functions, replies and on timelines and are not recommended algorithmically by Twitter.
Twitter launched the warning labels in early 2020, ahead of the U.S. presidential election as social media platforms braced for an onslaught of misinformation.
Twitter’s website says it puts labels on content which it believes are “significantly and deceptively altered or manipulated” including substantially edited in a way that alters the timing, sequencing, framing, adds subtitles, or if a real person is fabricated or simulated.
“We also consider whether the context in which media are shared could result in confusion or misunderstanding or suggests a deliberate intent to deceive people about the nature or origin of the content, for example by falsely claiming that it depicts reality,” according to Twitter’s website.
When asked about the Twitter warning label, the Liberals said the Twitter posts included a highlights video, which runs 35 seconds, and noted that another Freeland tweet contains a link to O’Toole’s full-length answer, which runs 2 minutes and 18 seconds.
Liberals disagree with Twitter warning
The party said it disagrees with Twitter’s decision to label it manipulated media.
“The highlights are an accurate reflection of Mr. O’Toole’s statement in its entirety,” wrote a Liberal party spokesperson in a statement to CBC News. “We disagree with the assessment and are seeking an explanation from Twitter.
“We’ll let Canadians judge for themselves what Mr. O’Toole meant by his comments.”
During Trudeau’s speech Sunday he accused O’Toole of taking the wrong approach during the pandemic and trying to hold back help.
“We just saw today that Erin O’Toole in the pandemic came out clearly in favour of a private, for-profit healthcare system for Canada,” Trudeau said. “Shame on you, in a pandemic, no less.”
The video Freeland posted shows Kate Harrison, vice chair of of Summa Strategies and director at Abacus Data, during a video conference asking Conservative leader Erin O’Toole if he would be “prepared to allow provinces to experiment with real healthcare reform, including the provision of private for-profit and non-profit health care options, inside of universal coverage?”
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Harrison also tweeted her disapproval of the video on Sunday saying it was edited out of context.
“There’s a video circulating online of Erin O’Toole responding to a question on healthcare,” wrote Harrison. “As the person who asked the question, I’m disappointed to see the video was manipulated to exclude important context.”
VANCOUVER – Contract negotiations resume today in Vancouver in a labour dispute that has paralyzed container cargo shipping at British Columbia’s ports since Monday.
The BC Maritime Employers Association and International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 514 are scheduled to meet for the next three days in mediated talks to try to break a deadlock in negotiations.
The union, which represents more than 700 longshore supervisors at ports, including Vancouver, Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, has been without a contract since March last year.
The latest talks come after employers locked out workers in response to what it said was “strike activity” by union members.
The start of the lockout was then followed by several days of no engagement between the two parties, prompting federal Labour Minister Steven MacKinnon to speak with leaders on both sides, asking them to restart talks.
MacKinnon had said that the talks were “progressing at an insufficient pace, indicating a concerning absence of urgency from the parties involved” — a sentiment echoed by several business groups across Canada.
In a joint letter, more than 100 organizations, including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Business Council of Canada and associations representing industries from automotive and fertilizer to retail and mining, urged the government to do whatever it takes to end the work stoppage.
“While we acknowledge efforts to continue with mediation, parties have not been able to come to a negotiated agreement,” the letter says. “So, the federal government must take decisive action, using every tool at its disposal to resolve this dispute and limit the damage caused by this disruption.
“We simply cannot afford to once again put Canadian businesses at risk, which in turn puts Canadian livelihoods at risk.”
In the meantime, the union says it has filed a complaint to the Canada Industrial Relations Board against the employers, alleging the association threatened to pull existing conditions out of the last contract in direct contact with its members.
“The BCMEA is trying to undermine the union by attempting to turn members against its democratically elected leadership and bargaining committee — despite the fact that the BCMEA knows full well we received a 96 per cent mandate to take job action if needed,” union president Frank Morena said in a statement.
The employers have responded by calling the complaint “another meritless claim,” adding the final offer to the union that includes a 19.2 per cent wage increase over a four-year term remains on the table.
“The final offer has been on the table for over a week and represents a fair and balanced proposal for employees, and if accepted would end this dispute,” the employers’ statement says. “The offer does not require any concessions from the union.”
The union says the offer does not address the key issue of staffing requirement at the terminals as the port introduces more automation to cargo loading and unloading, which could potentially require fewer workers to operate than older systems.
The Port of Vancouver is the largest in Canada and has seen a number of labour disruptions, including two instances involving the rail and grain storage sectors earlier this year.
A 13-day strike by another group of workers at the port last year resulted in the disruption of a significant amount of shipping and trade.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
The Royal Canadian Legion says a new partnership with e-commerce giant Amazon is helping boost its veterans’ fund, and will hopefully expand its donor base in the digital world.
Since the Oct. 25 launch of its Amazon.ca storefront, the legion says it has received nearly 10,000 orders for poppies.
Online shoppers can order lapel poppies on Amazon in exchange for donations or buy items such as “We Remember” lawn signs, Remembrance Day pins and other accessories, with all proceeds going to the legion’s Poppy Trust Fund for Canadian veterans and their families.
Nujma Bond, the legion’s national spokesperson, said the organization sees this move as keeping up with modern purchasing habits.
“As the world around us evolves we have been looking at different ways to distribute poppies and to make it easier for people to access them,” she said in an interview.
“This is definitely a way to reach a wider number of Canadians of all ages. And certainly younger Canadians are much more active on the web, on social media in general, so we’re also engaging in that way.”
Al Plume, a member of a legion branch in Trenton, Ont., said the online store can also help with outreach to veterans who are far from home.
“For veterans that are overseas and are away, (or) can’t get to a store they can order them online, it’s Amazon.” Plume said.
Plume spent 35 years in the military with the Royal Engineers, and retired eight years ago. He said making sure veterans are looked after is his passion.
“I’ve seen the struggles that our veterans have had with Veterans Affairs … and that’s why I got involved, with making sure that the people get to them and help the veterans with their paperwork.”
But the message about the Amazon storefront didn’t appear to reach all of the legion’s locations, with volunteers at Branch 179 on Vancouver’s Commercial Drive saying they hadn’t heard about the online push.
Holly Paddon, the branch’s poppy campaign co-ordinator and bartender, said the Amazon partnership never came up in meetings with other legion volunteers and officials.
“I work at the legion, I work with the Vancouver poppy office and I go to the meetings for the Vancouver poppy campaign — which includes all the legions in Vancouver — and not once has this been mentioned,” she said.
Paddon said the initiative is a great idea, but she would like to have known more about it.
The legion also sells a larger collection of items at poppystore.ca.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 9, 2024.
