Trudeau’s appointees are deciding which news sources are “legitimate”

<p>Marc Miller is a Mark Carney Liberal cabinet minister — and a holdover from Justin Trudeau’s government. In fact, most of Carney’s cabinet is. From Mélanie Joly to François-Philippe Champagne to Anita Anand, the same names keep reappearing. It's difficult to take seriously claims that this is a “new” government in any meaningful sense, or slogans like “Canada is back,” when the same people have been running the country for nearly a decade.</p>

<p>More outrageous still is the Liberals’ ongoing attempt to blame Stephen Harper for current failures — even though his government ended eleven years ago. That argument has long since passed from implausible into absurd.</p>

<p>One of the worst holdovers is Marc Miller. It is surprising he remains in cabinet at all, given that his chief qualification appears to have been his personal friendship with Justin Trudeau — including serving as a member of Trudeau’s wedding party. That relationship, rather than any demonstrated competence, explains his rise and longevity in power.</p>

<p>Today, Miller holds the title of Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture — a disturbing mandate in itself. A minister in charge of defining “identity” should concern anyone who believes such things emerge organically from history, culture, and shared experience, not government decree. The irony is that the same Liberal Party once described Canada as a “post-national” country — more a hotel than a homeland.</p>

<p>Miller previously served as Minister of Immigration, where he oversaw a period of reckless and historically unprecedented mass immigration that did profound damage to social trust, public services, and national cohesion. This is the same government that removed Sir John A. Macdonald from the ten-dollar bill, rewrote the national anthem, tore down statues, and casually accused Canada of committing genocide. It is difficult to take lectures on national identity seriously from officials who have spent years dismantling it.</p>

<p>Against that backdrop, Miller recently testified before a parliamentary committee and was questioned by Conservative MP Rachael Thomas about “social cohesion.” The question was straightforward and reasonable. In other countries, “social cohesion” has become a euphemism for enforced silence: in China, obedience; in the United Kingdom, avoiding discussion of politically inconvenient crimes for fear of being labelled Islamophobic. What, exactly, does it mean in Canada?</p>

<p>Miller’s answer did little to clarify matters. He warned of “intense disinformation” and claimed social cohesion is weakened when “falsities are propagated through media sources both legitimate and illegitimate.”</p>

<p>That raises an obvious question: who decides which media sources are “illegitimate”?</p>