CTV News misled Canadians to believe that the Conservatives were putting forward a non-confidence motion to stop the Trudeau government’s dental care plan.
The legacy media outlet issued a correction Monday after the Conservatives discovered its editors had spliced various clips from a scrum with Pierre Poilievre.
On Sunday, CTV News broadcasted a segment about the non-confidence motion, which featured a doctored clip of Poilievre supposedly saying the Conservatives wanted to trigger an election to stop the government’s dental care plan.
“Close to 650,000 Canadians have already received care. While the continuation of the plan appears safe for now, the events of the last week have raised new questions over the plan’s future,” CTV News anchor Christina Tenaglia said in the Sunday night broadcast prompting the clip.
“That’s why we need to put forward a motion,” the broadcast showed Poilievre saying.
However, Poilievre never said such a thing.
The clip was manipulated by cutting the first words from Poilievre’s statement, saying, “We need a carbon tax so Canadians can vote to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, and stop the crime with a common-sense Conservative government,” at the scrum and editing it together in the middle of him saying, “That’s why it’s time to put forward a motion for a carbon tax election.”
After a letter from Poilievre’s media relations director, Sebastian Skamski, CTV corrected its error.
“Last night, in a report on this broadcast, we presented a comment by the Official Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre that was taken out of context. It left viewers with the impression the Conservative non-confidence motion was to defeat the Liberals’ dental care program,” CTV said in a statement Monday. “In fact, the Conservatives have made it clear the motion is based on a long list of issues with the Liberal government, including the carbon tax.”
CTV news said the misrepresentation came from a “misunderstanding” during the editing process.
“We unreservedly apologize to Mr. Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada,” the statement said. “We regret this report went to air in the manner it did.”
However, many Conservatives on X aren’t buying the apology.
“CTV News, you spliced three parts of different sentences together to create a new one that Pierre never said,” Conservative MP Chris Warkentin said on X. “That’s not a misunderstanding during editing, that’s fabricating disinformation. Where is your apology for that?”
Conservative MPs also called out the incident as “interference” and accused CTV of willfully lying to Canadians or being bought and paid for by the Liberal government.
Bell Media, the parent company of CTV News, has received media bailouts worth hundreds of millions in tax subsidies from the Trudeau government. In February, Bell was granted $40 million in annual subsidies to save jobs and keep the media giant afloat, though the company fired over 4,800 workers.
CTV News did not respond to True North’s requests to comment.