Comment by mthoms | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mthoms | Hacker News Reader

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I'm not saying your overall point is incorrect but using "The Post Millennial" as a source is a very curious choice. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Post_Millennial -

>The Post Millennial is a conservative Canadian online news magazine started in 2017. It publishes national and local news and has a large amount of opinion content. It has been criticized for releasing misinformation and articles written by fake personas, for past employment of an editor with ties to white supremacist-platforming and pro-Kremlin media outlets, and for opaque funding and political connections.

>The Post Millennial has been described by Buzzfeed News as an advocacy organization for the Conservative Party operating through opaque personal connections and undeclared social media ties.

>In July 2020, The Daily Beast exposed an online network pushing United Arab Emirates propaganda against Qatar, Turkey and Iran, using op-eds placed in news outlets using fictitious authors. The Post Millennial published some of these articles. After being contacted by the Beast, it took the articles down without comment.

If you don't trust Wikipedia on this, just have a look the topics and opinion pieces run by this "news" organization. Hardly a reputable source by any stretch.

Duly noted but are you suggesting that this story is false? For your convenience, here are some others I just found:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-canadian-co...

> Given that much of what has been released on the WE contract has contradicted what the prime minister has told Canadians publicly, the opposition are well within their rights to probe it and other spending, including the sole-source $237-million contract for ventilators made by former Liberal MP Frank Baylis’s company Baylis Medical

https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/macdougall-trudeau-embrace...

https://alkhaleejtoday.co/international/5157524/Contract-to-...

https://www.kamloopsthisweek.com/news/companies-warn-tory-mo...

>are you suggesting that this story is false?

Did you read the first sentence of my comment? It starts with "I'm not saying your overall point is incorrect..."

Yes you said "I'm not saying your overall point is incorrect" and then questioned a source for a specific point. That created some ambiguity in my head. Perhaps you disagreed with that specific point? Perhaps you were calling into question that specific point because the source is bad? That's why I asked for clarification. No ill will.

Could be my interpretation. My apologies. No need to be snarky about it eh.

I chose that wording because the gist of your comment was correct (there is indeed corruption) but the devil is in the details. For instance, WE Charity is NOT a "for-profit" charity[0] as you claim. I could go on, but I have no desire to engage on specifics when the overall assertion is mostly true.

I only want the reader to be wary of claims (and the claimant) citing an obviously partisan source. A source that has been caught red-handed publishing disinformation provided by foreign state actors[1].

Although you sound well-intentioned, I'm just not interested in engaging when someone plays fast and loose with facts and sources. I'm just so incredibly tired of it.

[0] https://www.charityintelligence.ca/charity-details/82-we-cha... [1] https://www.thedailybeast.com/right-wing-media-outlets-duped...

> For instance, WE Charity is NOT a "for-profit" charity[0] as you claim. I could go on, but I have no desire to engage on specifics when the overall assertion is mostly true.

Actually your own cited source challenges this. You didn't dig far enough.[0,1] WE Charity transferred 7% of its revenue to Me to We, a for profit company that did the payouts to Trudeau's family. Charity Intelligence themselves found this very unusual. Unlike every other charity that they monitor, in fact. I guess it's okay for a not for profit to operate a for profit company to get around the rules then?

This isn't even a partisan thing, this is on WE Charity's wikipedia page.

[0]https://www.canadaland.com/we-charity-was-in-financial-troub... [1]https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-july-13-...

>Actually your own cited source challenges this.

No, my link does not challenge this. WE is a registered charity (as designated by CRA). It's public information, you can look it up.

I initially chose not to bring this up precisely because it detracts from the fact that there is likely corruption (as you point out). I only brought it up when pressed for why I endorsed the gist of the parents comments, but not the stated details.

You know, it is possible for someone to believe that corruption occurred but also believe that getting the surrounding facts correct is important. That's all I was advocating for.

You've totally misinterpreted this entire thread.

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