A healthy community, let alone a successful democracy, relies on being able to communicate with each other.
If we can no longer talk to each other, our society will only become more divided. To have the healthy conversations, debates, and discussions that underpin our democratic society, we rely on using shared languages and concepts. We rely on ethics, integrity, and trust.
Misinformation and its cousins, malinformation and disinformation, have a corrosive effect on communication, making good-faith, genuine conversations difficult or often impossible. Fundamental, basic realities become disputed grounds driven by claims of “fake news” and casting doubt on those who may have a lifetime of expertise on a topic. Even issues as close to home as the housing crisis become a battleground of skepticism, mistrust, and misinformation. Eventually, the solutions that will actually help people are exhausted under the mounting weight of these distractions, and ultimately, we all lose in the end.
Misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation are making the task of local democracy increasingly fraught for Canadians and Calgarians.
The spaces we use to connect and communicate with each other are under increasing pressure. Our news media ecosystem continues to suffer cutbacks and is increasingly under foreign ownership.[1] Canadian news is not even shareable or consumable on some social media platforms,[2] and owners of social media platforms are torquing conversations to align with their political views[3] while simultaneously eliminating fact-checking features.[4] The use of bots, of generative AI pose great risks, as AI agents pose as human actors, and AI tools are used to generate deepfakes.[5] A 2024 poll found that 80 per cent of Canadians were concerned about potential misuse of AI to spread mis- and disinformation during elections.[6]
Moreover, the digital news environment favours click-bait engagement, rapid sharing, and emotional responses.[7] Content that seizes the attention of an audience is highlighted, elevated, and spread more easily, while content with features like accuracy, fact-checking or context has a diminished impact.
Trust in government is eroding. As the affordability risis continues[8] and income inequality grows,[9] Canadians are understandably cynical about the news they consume.[10]
Our response to these growing pressures and diminished expectations should not be to give up on the very idea of communicating with integrity. And we cannot allow our elected officials to be so lazy that they lean into the confusion as a means of shoring up power and their base.
Now that the governing United Conservative Party has now eliminated municipal codes of conduct,[11] citizens have lost the one tool they had beyond their vote to make sure their local elected officials are acting in good faith.
Calgarians need more tools to help them distinguish fact from fiction.
That’s why I am proposing having a third-party consultant develop a strategy that improves public media literacy, responds to mis/dis/mal-information, and provides an analysis of the current impact of mis/dis/mal-information in the City’s current decision-making.
No. That’s deeply silly. A third-party evaluation of the accuracy of public statements does not prevent anyone from expressing themselves or making any kind of speech. It just means it might be given some scrutiny. The fundamental premise of public or deliberative discourse is that others might respond to it, critique it, and potentially disagree with it.
You have the right to express yourself however you like, but if you start arguing that the moon is made of green cheese, someone might take issue with it, as is their right. This is no different.
My proposal has, as one would expect in an age of misinformation, attracted some opposition. My motion has activated some local George Orwell enthusiasts to make lazy “1984” analogies. While some local personalities have used this proposal as a prompt for fabulism, I encourage everyone to read the actual words written in black and white in the Notice of Motion.
The reality is, for democracy to work, we have to be able to talk to each other with shared facts, integrity, and a commitment to good faith communication. But in increasingly polarizing times, when people stop wanting to have discussions and treat everything like an existential crisis that needs to be won at all costs, fear and anger are increasingly becoming the emotional background of our democracy and our society. It is incumbent on our community to ground itself in some shared principles. We need to get back to basics.
Ethics. Integrity. Communication.
This motion is just a start on that journey.
[1] https://cjf-fjc.ca/canadian-media-guild-data-shows-10000-job-losses-past-five-years/ https://dominionreview.ca/postmedia-and-the-american-hedge-fund-takeover-of-canadas-newspapers/
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtxQvLTxATQ
[3] https://theconversation.com/tech-billionaire-elon-musks-social-media-posts-have-had-a-sudden-boost-since-july-new-research-reveals-242490
[4] https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly74mpy8klo
[5] https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ai-deepfake-election-canada-1.7084398
[6] https://www.cpac.ca/articles/potential-misuse-of-ai-during-an-election
[7] https://www.humanetech.com/youth/the-attention-economy
[8] https://www.taxfairness.ca/en/resources/reports/canadas-affordability-divide-how-1s-rise-left-millions-behind
[9] https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/250130/dq250130a-eng.htm
[10] https://abacusdata.ca/trust-and-disinformation-in-canada/
[11] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-government-moves-to-eliminate-municipal-codes-of-conduct-1.7505306
Last week, I voted against the Green Line proposal that envisions an elevated downtown alignment and saddles the City of Calgary with a greater share of costs and risks.
February is Black History Month. My remarks from the January 28, 2025 meeting of Calgary City Council.
The City has identified $1.3 billion in known costs and risks that were not included in the AECOM proposal.
