After the Debates

Most agree that Pierre Poilievre handled himself well against Mark Carney in both the French and the English debates.

(Sidebar: we have to have two debates because some people are special.) 

But what happened afterwards is what is stirring up debate:

Shortly after 8 p.m. ET on Thursday, before the English Leaders Debate in Montreal ended, word began to spread on X that the media scrum that was to immediately follow the debate was cancelled. The reason given to reporters by the Leaders’ Debate Commission’s Executive Director Michel Cormier: “We don’t feel that we can actually guarantee a proper environment for this activity.” This did not please members of the press. One could be heard shouting out: “Why? This is an infringement of the liberty of the press. This is your one job!”

While it’s not the commission’s job officially (it’s not mentioned in their mandate), post-leadership debate scrums — a gathering of journalists around a politician to ask questions and obtain quotes — are a standard practice. And it’s suggested under the media accreditation section of their site that they will occur, and a scrum did occur the night before, after the French leadership debate, as well as after both the English and French debates in 2019 and 2021.

If, as the commission points out, debates are important for reasons of public interest, then so, too, are scrums. They’re an opportunity for reporters to ask questions which may not have been asked, or sufficiently answered, during the debate. Hearing these answers can help Canadians decide how to vote. This scrum was especially important, given that it’s been particularly difficult this election campaign to get answers from Liberal Leader Mark Carney who’s paused his campaign a number of times, leading to both Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves François Blanchet to accuse him of hiding. You cannot hide during a scrum. ...

Global News’ Mercedes Stephenson tweeted that “a source with direct knowledge says the Debates Commission’s decision to cancel the scrums re ‘not being able to guarantee a proper environment’ was related to The Rebel… including Rebel staff trying to interrupt/get on the air during a CBC broadcast that was live earlier tonight.” No video evidence has been provided and the source of this claim has not been verified by National Post.

There’s a good chance the Leaders’ Debate Commission cancelled the scrums because after the French debate the night before they received backlash from traditional journalists and outlets for the decision to accredit several alternative media journalists and really had no way to suddenly disallow them from participating the second night during the English debate.

 

In short, members of the bribed press would have to rub shoulders with the alternative press, one that does not takes its cues or money from the Liberals and will, therefore, get in their grill about their obfuscations, lies, snobbery, and a near decade of corruption and greed.

That's why.