A Powerful Story of Grassroots Unity

Refusal to cover 2,000-strong protest 'unconscionable.'

Freedom Convoy truckers headed to Ottawa in January 2022 partly because earlier protests had been unsuccessful. Throughout 2021, numerous rallies took place in communities across Canada. Month after month, thousands of people marched through city streets with protest signs.

These folks tried their best to express their point of view - to peacefully communicate their deep reservations about how the authorities were responding to a virus. They were routinely ignored. Not only by government, but by much of the mainstream media. It was as if their concerns didn’t exist.

Last week, CBC whistleblower Marianne Klowak testified that, during the more than 30 years she worked for Canada’s public broadcaster, the smallest events could be considered newsworthy. “I had been sent, you know, to cover stories and do live hits from protests with 12 people present,” she told a National Citizens Inquiry hearing.

But in 2021 she was prevented from giving airtime to a far larger gathering:

I'd gotten a tip about a peaceful protest in Winnipeg about vaccine mandates…There was about 2,000 people out on the street. We didn't cover it…This was just unbelievable. I was stunned…we were going to ignore a group this large and not send a camera and find out what these people had to say.

I thought: not only is the size of the group newsworthy, it was the fact that it was both vaccinated and unvaccinated people walking together and they were united in their opposition to vaccine mandates.

I had gotten a call from someone on the protest line who says, ‘Where's the CBC? There's people here that are cutting up their vaccine passports as a show of solidarity against the mandates.’ And I thought, wow, this is a great story. This is great visuals. This is a powerful story of people at the grassroots uniting.

That particular protest had much in common with what would take place in Ottawa months later. Vaxxed and unvaxxed individuals standing shoulder-to-shoulder. In unity. In solidarity. Marianne says a decision was made “at the top level” of the CBC to deliberately ignore “the news that was unfolding on the ground.” In her words,

It wasn't worthy of covering because - in the CBC's eyes - these people were disseminating disinformation. How could we say that if we had never even spoken to any of them?

But the CBC’s offense was actually much worse. Ignoring a protest is one thing. Failing to show up and then publishing lies is something else. Marianne says the CBC actively misrepresented reality on that occasion:

We ran a few lines of copy that day saying “more than 250” people in Winnipeg held a protest against mandates. That was misleading, and it was a half truth. There was at least 2,000 people.

By saying "more than 250," we were trying to minimize, in fact, how large it was. And to me, we missed the story entirely, which was people uniting…

In Marianne’s words, how Canada’s public broadcaster behaved that day was “unconscionable.” But it was also a preview, a sneak peek. Of what would unfold in Ottawa months later.

next installment:

We Betrayed the Public, We Broke Their Trust: 'It was shameful and it was humiliating,' says CBC whistleblower.