The Trudeau government has released the list of organizations that will sit on a special advisory panel to spend 600 million dollars that has been earmarked to bailout media.

The organizations are: News Media Canada, the Association de la presse francophone, the Quebec Community Newspaper Association, the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada, the Canadian Association of Journalists, the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, Unifor and the Fédération nationale des communications.

Andrew Coyne pointed out in a prophetic November 2018 article in the National Post, This bailout will “irrevocably politicize the press.”

So to break it down, there are eight organizations in total on the advisory panel. Two are unions and six are industry insider groups. Four are Francophone. There is zero representation of independent media. How, exactly is this an “independent” panel if there is no independent representation?

This is actually worse than anyone could have imagined. An "independent body" staffed entirely by unions and industry lobbyists. What a disaster. https://t.co/TcxnD8zhhc — Andrew Potter (@jandrewpotter) May 22, 2019

Some organizations on the panel, like Unifor, shamelessly display their partisanship on social media for all Canadians to see.

I'm sure there will be no political bias on Trudeau's advisory panel for that 600 million dollar media bailout, right @UniforTheUnion? #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/RldWwUQo7o — Yaakov Pollak (@Yanky_Pollak) May 22, 2019

As we’ve said before, the Trudeau government is in no position to declare which newspapers and websites are considered “reliable.” The fact that the entire panel is made of media insiders and unions confirms that this assertion was correct.

In fact, this special advisory panel is an insult to indepedent journalists and all Canadians.