Pierre Poilievre SLAMS CTV over doctored interview clip

Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre condemned CTV News Tuesday and the “crony capitalists” who run the media outlet for producing a “dishonest and fraudulent” news report about him suggesting he was introducing a non-confidence motion against the Trudeau government only because of the Liberal Party’s dental care plan.

“I know that the media has worked hard to try and avoid me saying the words carbon tax,” the Official Opposition leader said as he introduced his non-confidence motion as an effort to “axe” Trudeau’s carbon tax.

“I know that the media has worked hard to try and avoid me saying the words carbon tax as we saw in the extremely dishonest and fraudulent report from Bell Media-controlled CTV, who is a company whose bonds have been downgraded to near junk status as its overpaid CEO empties the books to pay his wealthy friends an unacceptably and unrealistically high dividend,” Poilevere said.

“But the reason why he and his other cronies of that company are going after me is because he knows that I'm standing up for the people against the crony capitalists and insiders like him.”

CTV News apologized Monday night for apparently splicing together words from Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre to make it appear that he was introducing a non-confidence motion against the Trudeau government only because he opposes the Liberals' dental care plan.

Conservative Party press secretary Sabastian Skamski wrote Monday, “Today CTV News was caught splicing a clip of Pierre Poilievre to propagate the Liberals’ narrative. This is not only a total fabrication designed to deceive Canadians but also a major breach of journalistic ethics. CTV must apologize for their flagrant use of disinformation.” 

Skamski noted in a letter that CTV’s broadcast showed Poilievre as saying "That’s why we need to put forward a motion." He included the full transcript of what Poilievre had said to reporters, which showed that the full quote Poilievre had said was heavily cut down to what was aired.

During its nightly newscast CTV News issued the following apology: “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” the news anchor began.

“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. A misunderstanding during the editing process resulted in this misrepresentation. We unreservedly apologize to Mr. Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada. We regret this report went to air in the manner it did.”

The Conservatives will be raising that non-confidence motion Tuesday and a vote on the motion is scheduled for late afternoon Wednesday. Even though New Democratic Party (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh said he has “ripped up” his loose coalition agreement with Trudeau, the NDP and the Bloc Quebecois have said they will not support the motion and will vote to keep the Liberal government in power.

Trudeau is not even in the House today. He plans to return to Ottawa at some time Wednesday. He spoke to the United Nations General Assembly and was a guest on Late Night with Stephen Colbert while visiting New York City. The prime minister has said that losing byelections and trailing Poilievre’s Conservatives by 20 points won't affect his resolve to stay on as Liberal leader. “I’m not going anywhere,” he said.