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If we ever doubted the power of headlines, or of the Liberal Party of Canada’s ability to engineer favourable ones, let’s thank Global News for setting us straight. On July 10 the network ran an online story headlined “Andrew Scheer will ‘wait and see’ before taking stance on Liberal plan for conversion therapy ban​.” For no good reason, it’s serving them very well in trying to discredit the Conservative leader as an abortion-banning, Bible-thumping homophobe, and in making Prime Minister Justin Trudeau look good to progressives by comparison.

It was a perfectly executed set play of bottomless cynicism that far too many people fell for, and always fall for, and should stop falling for. Here’s how it worked:

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The day before Global ran its story, CBC reported it had “obtained” a letter the feds sent to the provinces in June asking them to ramp up efforts to outlaw preposterous and potentially dangerous so-called treatments designed to turn homosexual people into heterosexual people. “The provincial, territorial, municipal and federal governments all have roles to play to protect Canadians from the harms associated with this practice,” read the letter, signed by federal Justice Minister David Lametti among others. “The federal government is committed to doing everything within its jurisdiction to combat conversion therapy” — including, supposedly, amendments to the Criminal Code.