A cruel attack, based on a lie

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/11/2023 (666 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

I’ve seen plenty of politicians act like jerks before, but it has been a long time since I’ve seen anything as cruel as what I witnessed on Thursday morning.

I was scrolling through my Twitter (now known as X) feed on Thursday morning when I noticed a live broadcast of a Pierre Poilievre press conference. The Conservative Party leader doesn’t do many pressers these days, so I decided to watch.

After a couple of softball questions from right-wing media (the first softy was asked by a reporter from Rebel News), a Canadian Press reporter named Paola Loriggio asked Poilievre about his comments following the incident that occurred around noon on Wednesday at the Niagara Falls Canada-U.S. border crossing.

At the beginning of question period in the House of Commons on Wednesday, the Tory leader asked the prime minister this question: “We’ve just heard media reports of a terrorist attack, an explosion, at the Niagara crossing of the Canada-U.S. border. At least two people are dead, one is injured. It is the principle responsibility of government to protect the people. Can the prime minister give us an update on what he knows and what action plan he will immediately implement to bring home security for our people?”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded that he had been briefed by various security agencies and would be receiving additional briefings. Notably, he did not characterize the incident as terrorism.

That was a prudent decision, as it was confirmed shortly thereafter that the incident was not terror-related. It is now being investigated as a traffic accident.

On Thursday, Loriggio asked Poilievre if it was responsible of him to characterize the incident as terrorism before officials had officially done so. The Tory leader immediately went on the attack, accusing the Canadian Press of irresponsible journalism and often failing to get its facts right — a new spin on the “fake news” accusation we hear so often from Donald Trump and his supporters.

Poilievre then went further, saying that “CTV reported that the Government of Canada was presuming that the incident was terrorist … And that’s what I said in my remarks … I said there are media reports.” He then asked Loriggio, “So do you think the CTV was irresponsible in putting up that tweet?”

(A video recording of the exchange between Loriggio and Poilievre can be found at youtu.be/i9hB0LJ-Dlo)

Poilievre clearly enjoyed his beatdown of Loriggio, but we know now his answer was a lie. A CTV News report published late Thursday that “CTV News reported, citing national security sources, that government officials were operating under the assumption that the incident at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, was terror-related. This breaking information was first reported on CTV News approximately 15 minutes after Poilievre rose in the House to ask Trudeau about ‘media reports about a terrorist attack.’”

Indeed, a CBC report from Thursday says that “it appears Poilievre asked his question in the House before CTV’s reporting was published. The timestamp on the article indicates that it was published at 2:39 p.m. ET on Wednesday. Subsequent tweets from the article’s author and CTV itself were published at 2:40 p.m. and 2:50 p.m. respectively. Poilievre asked his question at 2:25 p.m.”

In short, Poilievre asked Trudeau his question several minutes before the CTV News report was published. He could not have been relying on a report that, when he asked his question, did not yet exist.

By now, you might be asking why any of this matters. There are at least four reasons why it does:

First, many opinion polls suggest that Poilievre will be our next prime minister. This may sound old-fashioned, but Canadians are entitled to expect our current and future prime ministers to always tell the truth. In this case, it’s clear that Poilievre lied when there was no downside to simply being truthful — that we all suspected it was terrorism when the first reports came out. He didn’t have to lie, but he did anyway.

Second, the purpose of Poilievre’s question to Trudeau wasn’t to obtain information; it was to score political points by creating fear among Canadians, and to blame the Trudeau Liberals for failing to protect us from terrorists. The problem for Poilievre is that it wasn’t terrorism at all. His cynical fear-mongering is there for all to see, and it exposes him as opportunist he is.

Third, his lie isn’t an isolated incident. Since becoming Conservative leader, Poilievre has made a series of false statements and factual distortions, all to fuel his assertion that everything is broken in Canada and its Justin’s Trudeau’s fault. I have debunked many of those false claims in previous columns.

Finally, when confronted with his lie on Thursday, Poilievre lashed out a young female reporter in a casually arrogant and cruel way. I doubt he would have done so if he was facing a more experienced male journalist. Beyond that, I wonder how many other women he has treated that way.

On Thursday, former National Post columnist John Ivison posted a link to the video of Poilievre’s tirade on his X account and wrote “He could lose this thing yet if he keeps behaving like this.”

John’s right, but does anybody seriously expect Poilievre to change his conduct? This is who he is. It’s up to Canadians to decide if they want that kind of person to be our next prime minister.