OTTAWA, Ontario (LifeSiteNews) –– A senior official from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Department of Justice was mum regarding a negative social media post he made which compared the work of a media member critical of the mainstream to newspapers used to train a dog to urinate outdoors.
The comments made by Alexander Gay, who is a senior counsel for Attorney General Arif Virani’s office, came after the very same department said journalists should never be “subjected to intimidation or harassment for doing their critical work.”
Gay posted his comment on LinkedIn, in reaction to a Sun Media report concerning a case involving independent media outlet Blacklock’s Reporter versus the Attorney General. This case involves a May 31, 2024, ruling by a judge regarding password sharing, in which he ruled federal managers could share passwords. Blacklock’s terms of service state clearly that password sharing is not allowed.
The Sun Media column, released on August 31, by Lorne Gunter, was critical of governmental red tape and how it negatively affects Blacklock’s.
In response to Gunter’s column, Gay wrote, “The only thing bizarre is the journalist that wrote this article and made up some random facts.”
“My late father would call this yellow journalism which I believe had something to do with a newspaper that was only good enough to train a dog to pee outdoors,” he added.
As of press time, Virani’s office has not commented on Gay’s post, which seems to go against the Department of Justice Values And Ethics Code. This employee code requires “respectful communication.”
As noted by Blacklock’s Reporter, Gay’s claim that the term “yellow journalism” is a reference to animal urine is not accurate.
“Counsel Gay made up the claim that ‘yellow journalism’ referred to animal urine. Records show the phrase originated as a 19th century pejorative against the New York Journal. The now-defunct daily published a comic strip called The Yellow Kid, ‘the adventures of an engaging slum urchin,’ wrote William Swanberg, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the 1961 volume Citizen Hearst, a biography of Journal publisher William Randolph Hearst,” wrote Blacklock’s.
“Hearst sponsored ‘Yellow Kids’ fundraisers for orphans and an 1896 ‘Yellow Fellow’ cross-country bicycle race. Critics adopted ‘yellow journalism’ in criticizing Journal coverage of the 1898 Spanish-American War and dubbed Hearst the ‘yellow kid’ in his 1902 campaign for the U.S. Congress.”
When it comes to legacy media in Canada, Trudeau has pumped billions into propping up the mostly state-funded Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as well as large payouts for legacy media outlets ahead of the 2025 federal election. In total, the subsidies are expected to cost taxpayers $129 million over the next five years.
Despite the interplay of the state in media, Trudeau has claimed that Canadians must continue subsidizing the CBC and others to “protect our democracy.”
Last year, Bill C-18, also called the Online News Act, became law. As a result, Canadians were blocked from viewing and sharing news on Facebook and Instagram.