OTTAWA — Elon Musk’s "meddling" in politics and recent changes at Meta to eliminate fact-checking make Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s promise to defund the CBC even more consequential, said Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge.
She said the issue isn’t about left or right-wing politics, or "even if you like the CBC or not."
"It's about talking about killing one of the most important sources of information for Canadians at a time where we know that the information system is controlled by foreign billionaires," St-Onge said in an interview. "And to me, it's very preoccupying to see that (Poilievre) doesn't understand that."
A supporter of incoming U.S. president Donald Trump, Musk has become an increasingly controversial and political figure in recent years, particularly since buying Twitter and rebranding it as X. Musk also has waded into Canadian politics recently by attacking Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and praising Poilievre.
"What we've been witnessing in the past few weeks is a guy, a billionaire that owns a very influential platform, meddling in other countries' elections and politics, and he's doing it in Canada," St-Onge said.
"We know and all the experts know that with everything happening online on social media, we know that we cannot trust these platforms as sources of information."
Meta announced earlier this month that it’s replacing third-party fact-checking with "community notes" written by users, similar to the model used by Musk’s X.
The changes to content moderation on Facebook and Instagram that Meta announced were long sought by conservatives. The community notes model will launch in the U.S. before expanding to other countries. Experts have warned the changes could lead to more misinformation online.
"It’s extremely dangerous," St-Onge said when asked about moves by these platforms toward Trump-friendly policies or being openly right-wing. "Communication and information is the heart of democracy and of the election process."
The Liberal government has clashed with Meta over the company's decision to block news content on its platforms, in response to government legislation that would have forced Meta to compensate news outlets for displaying their content.
St-Onge’s comments come as the federal Liberals are in the midst of a leadership race to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and as opposition parties angle for an early election that could see Canadians casting ballots this spring.
Poilievre has pledged that if he’s elected to government, he’ll defund the English-language CBC service while preserving francophone news. In response to a request for comment on St-Onge’s criticisms, a spokesperson for Poilievre pointed to the Conservative leader’s recent comments on Musk.
Poilievre didn’t answer directly when asked if he accepts Musk’s endorsement, but said it would be "nice if we could convince Mr. Musk to open some of his factories here in Canada."
St-Onge accused Poilievre of "kissing up to Elon Musk."
"I’m worried that Poilievre is saying that he's for sale, and that he's willing to sell Canada to these tech geeks and willing to destroy our independent news ecosystem."
St-Onge, who has promised a renewed mandate for the public broadcaster, said Poilievre’s plan would mean defunding a "Canadian institution that hires a third of Canadian journalists" and comes "at a time when president Trump is talking about annexing Canada to the United States."
At a recent news conference, Trump threatened to use "economic force" to make Canada the 51st state. Musk has been tagged by Trump to co-lead a new "Department of Government Efficiency."
St-Onge said that, given Musk's position in the Trump administration, X is "not an independent source of information."
"It's extremely preoccupying because a lot of people think that they are getting informed with these platforms and with Facebook and [Meta CEO Mark] Zuckerberg, we've seen that they don't really care about that."
Instead, St-Onge said, these platforms care about the bottom line, "their billions" and "the power that their platform gives them."
NDP heritage critic Niki Ashton called Poilievre's "obsession" with defunding the public broadcaster dangerous. In a media statement, she said Poilievre would be a "doormat when it comes to the Trump administration."
Ashton also took aim at the Liberals, saying it's "peak Liberal to complain about the influence of foreign billionaire Elon Musk while they consider electing Mark Carney — who has spent his career catering to foreign billionaires."
--With files from the Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 14, 2025.
Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press
