When Stephen Harper’s government wants a happy clap-clap Canadian moment on Sun News, it goes the Full North Korean.

Yes, six of the “new Canadians” attending a “reaffirmation” ceremony for Citizenship Week in the Sun studios last fall turn out not to have been recently minted citizens after all. As The Canadian Press’ Jennifer Ditchburn has reported, they were actually federal bureaucrats told to smile and wave the damn flag like they meant it.

The thing looked like a school play with grown-ups. Sad frightened grown-ups.

According to CP, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney’s office had asked Sun News to do a soft news segment, at the network’s studio, on new citizens taking the oath. It does sound as though the Tories and Sun News are joined at the hip. I have never worked anywhere in journalism where the government phoned and asked you to do anything. Oh yeah, when an 8-year-old designs a Christmas stamp, we’ll be there.

But journalists and government never get together and fake stuff. That would be a firing offence, presumably on both sides. How times have changed.

As it happens, a day later the CBC ran an hour-long actual citizenship ceremony for 75 new Canadians. When the CBC does Canada, it goes the Full Canuck. They had a studio audience, a bagpiper full of pep, Mounties, bigwigs and, one hopes, boxes of Kleenex in every chair. I’ve been to our citizenship ceremonies, most recently for a dear American friend, and people weep like faucets.

So is it possible that Sun News got wind of the CBC’s excellent heartwarming adventure and tried to do it on the cheap with an in-house oath “reaffirmation” — is that a thing? — and called the immigration minister for help? Since Quebecor won’t comment on the debacle that ensued, we don’t know. But it does sound as though Sun and the feds chat frequently.

According to CP, Immigration started calling around for new Canadians to reaffirm, but they were all too busy working. Immigration didn’t have the manpower to hunt them down. So they found eight adults — six of them civil servants — and two small children (unemployed). Two of the government workers were given T-shirts with slogans that I can’t definitively make out but are possibly: “Canada greatest country in the world. All other countries are run by little girls. Canada number one exporter of potassium. Other countries have inferior potassium.”

Okay, I stole that from Borat’s version of the Kazakhstan national anthem. Or not. I’ve sent the photos from the Sun Twitter feed to the crime lab. We’ll soon see.

Sun is blaming an ex-staffer. Kenney’s office, following standard Tory procedure, is blaming an official. “[She] is actually a really hard-working person . . . she just scrambled last second and got caught.” Gosh. Goshingtons.

But truly, the Sun playlet was a disaster, a schlockfest, a disgrace and a shame. Here’s why.

Quebecor and Sun News frequently attack the CBC for being a “state broadcaster” that should have its budget cut to the bone if not abolished. Fair-minded Heritage Minister James Moore politely corrects them, saying that the CBC is arm’s length.

But it turns out that there is a state broadcaster. It is in fact Sun News, owned by Quebecor whose government grants are repeatedly listed by CBC executives astonished by Quebecor’s shamelessness. And the Tories and Sun News got together and the result was a fake news event.

They just made the Canadian truth landscape a little more junky and vile. Your tired Canadian coming home from work doesn’t have time to assess the journalistic value of what he’s being spoon-fed. He now trusts all journalists a little less. Maybe all news is faked. Maybe Ottawa churns the stuff out.

I’m pleased that the citizenship court judge, Aris Babikian, was a stickler for the correct terms and that Sun host Alex Pierson said she and her co-host were “shocked” to hear that the segment was faked. But the fact is, these 10 stooges weren’t all “new” Canadians.

They were tools used by slavish obedient pseudo-journalists. “Let’s do it. We can fake the Oath,” one Sun Media staffer’s email reads. His or her name has been redacted from CP’s documents obtained from freedom of information requests.

This charade mocked our democracy, journalism and basic rules of fair play and truthfulness in politics. The CBC is probably about to get hammered by the Tories in the budget. Why? Because Tories think journalists are supposed to be like Sun News, putting their hand up, waving it wildly and saying “Pick me! I’ll do it!”

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The CBC, on the other hand, doesn’t do requests. No true journalists do.

hmallick@thestar.ca