As Canadians struggle to sort out what's real and what's not in the ever evolving digital news world, the Ford government goes out of its way to limit the ability of journalists to do their jobs.

The media were barred when Ford Nation, formerly the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, met in Niagara Falls last weekend to debate policies and re-election strategy.

Festivities kicked off Friday with a security guard interrupting a live TV report by CBC's Mike Crawley outside the convention centre. Crawley, a respected Queen's Park veteran, politely kept reporting while the large security goon moved between him and cameraman Robert Krbavac, warning they were trespassing and police would be called if they didn't leave.

The nearly four-minute confrontation aired live on CBC News Network until someone from the party finally came out and told the guard to stand down. Nothing says open and transparent government like having security stomp in to block a live TV report and order journalists off the property, after barring them from being inside.

Premier Doug Ford's office insisted no one from the party ordered security to disrupt the live CBC broadcast, and issued an apology to Crawley. However, the security company declined to be thrown under the proverbial political bus and issued its own statement saying the guard was indeed acting on orders from the PC Party.

Whatever the truth, the PC ban on the media led directly to the guard's actions, although he, and presumably his colleagues, need training in how not to be a jerk.

Did the former journalists who serve as Ford's chief of staff and deputy chief not anticipate that banning reporters from a government conference would send a message to delegates and security to view the news media as the enemy, and to treat them as such?

The anti-media message was stressed by Kory Teneycke, Ford's 2018 and 2022 campaign manager, who warned PC loyalists they would be "ridiculed and misrepresented" by reporters. The online site PressProgress obtained video of Teneycke's speech, despite the media ban.

Candidate Ford had every right to buck tradition by declining to have a media bus for his 2018 campaign. But Premier Ford should never ban reporters from a government conference. Not all sessions would be open of course, but a total media ban was flat-out anti-democratic.

Working the halls, meeting the people parties love to call grass root members and seeing how they interact with elected representatives and unelected party brass, helps journalists better understand them, the parties and policies. It also empowers people who rarely, if ever, get access to regional and national media to express their ideas and opinions, especially ones that are being ignored or downplayed by the party powers that be. It's a very democratic thing.

When a government bans the media, they gather outside meetings to provide coverage as best they can, but that means any protests - and governments always attract protests - will get more than usual coverage because the reporters are locked outside with the protesters.

Journalists are like most Canadians. It takes a lot to get us outside in February to stand around in the cold, especially if there's a nice, warm filing room inside where we can work. Under those normal circumstances, protests become part of the story, but not the main story because it's all reporters are left to work with. How does that help the PCs? It doesn't.

The Ford government's spectacular screw-up of its redesign of Ontario's licence plates was a classic example of a self-inflicted wound. This was another. Two for two in 2020.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Keith Leslie is a veteran Ontario journalist covering politics.

Read more about: