Thread by @PoMo_Cowboy

1\ Do y'all remember when organizing and promoting these specific panels was literally my job? Funny enough, in the same job I lobbied Mendicino to curtail the powers of federal spies during the C-51/C-59 hearings, when he was on that committee. vice.com/en/article/ezp…

2\ One of our major concerns with C-51 was spying on journalists, and spies pretending to be journalists. That never got addressed. Nevermind issues like fed source relationships with journos (ie. advance scoops/leaks in exchange for secrecy/support etc.)

3\ Two journos on this panel are involved with the niche dramas of the Canadian Anti Hate Network. Its ED was a little -too- interested in my C-51 work in 2017. More on that another day. Here we have a closed loop between feds, corporate journalists and #CAHN, tying it together.

4\ The ask is for a "whole of society approach" to address the convoy. That's BIG bucks. (Sorry peasants, the story is paywalled!) My pet theory is the game of thrones style drama is about who gets merits, funding, contracts and, yes, natsec appointments. hilltimes.com/story/2022/11/…

5\ We're talking nasty, brutal competition in an ecosystem involving chaos actors, entryists, foreign AND fed intel assets. Nevermind the death of Twitter. Between this, MAGA, Q, the public health crisis and allegations of election interference, the media are not keeping up.

6\ Having run these panels at CJFE, we would have been VERY nervous putting the guy whose agencies spy on journalists (which really, truly happens) on stage WITH journalists to talk about their problems. And yes, journos used to know better! He IS the feds! Clear conflict!

7\ In 2015 CBC tried to spike CJFE's C-51/anti-spying campaign as "too political" When I got fired from the org in 2018, it was actually a reverberation of that disagreement. I made sure to put that on the record back then. canadaland.com/whats-going-on…

8\ There used to be journalists (many left wing and anti-fascist) concerned about civil liberties and the creep of the state and policing into media spaces. This panel looks like less creep, more leap. But "whole of society" really just means the "top" leading the "bottom".

9\ The subject of this event is "Journalists and Online Hate." I assume none of these journalists are prepared to ask Marco whether the feds have ever sent harassment or hate to journalists themselves. Which they have. They've done it. They still do it.

10\ There is NO LAW that stops them from sending hate in bulk, from fake accounts, on behalf of those they target. Per C-59 if they're 'disrupting a threat to national security' feds are legally allowed to send "fuck you cunt" to a female journalist, from "PatriotMan123".

11\ None of this is to say the far right don't harass journalists, or that it's not a concern. The far right make it easy to astroturf, because it's something they authentically do. If the state could send bulk hate plausibly on behalf of Indigenous land defenders they would too.

12\ We need a "poison pen" law. We MUST take the power to send online hate and harassment, away from the state. Ban the "dark arts", one of the most oft used political methods. Fed/Govt "sock puppets", (including 3rd party PR agency) MUST be subject to ATI laws, and auditable.

13\ Skepticism and critiques of power evaporated in this country during the pandemic. Being critical of power became uncool. This kind of journalistic forum, which, formerly, would have been a place the state had to SURVEIL is now the frontline of its public relations efforts.

14\ I have deep concern about Trump era antifascism intersecting with state/corporate media power. I might have sold out myself to have a nice fun life because I'm not allowed to do journalism anymore, but you can't get a clearance with my kind of student debt. 🤦Classist morons.

15\ In the Harper years, skepticism abounded. Even though the govt is a "friendly face" now, we STILL need watchdogs, not lap dogs. The media should sit opposite them, not with them and it makes me fear a future which doesn't have a place for loyal critics and straight shooters.