Politicians create the fake news

Dear editor:

Much has been made recently about the federal government’s attempt to rid election campaigns of what is being called fake news.

However, if the Liberal government, indeed all political parties, were themselves honest, then they would have to charge themselves with promoting fake news.

It is a well-known fact that the Liberal government declared that they would run "modest" deficits of no more than $10 billion for up to three years and then they would "balance the budget.”

That was, it is now blatantly obvious, fake news.

A lie.

Indeed their opponents made such a claim during the election campaign.

The issue of fake news proffered by political parties was brought before the courts a few years back and the judge at the time acknowledged that political "promises" were often less than honest and that the public, from long-standing history of such promises, was not being hoodwinked by them (although one might question that assumption given that so many vote based upon said far-fetched “promises”).

Essentially the judge acknowledged that fake news is part and parcel of the political process and it is up to the public to carefully sift through the claims and counter-claims in order to ascertain for her or him-self where the truth might lie.

It would be wonderful if our political parties were required to themselves only make promises and claims that were 100 per cent accurate, and that if proven fake or reneged upon, then they would somehow immediately and consequentially be held accountable for them.

But, until that happens any attempt to curb free speech in the public square should be seen for what it is: censorship. Jim Church

Kelowna