Canadians remain dangerously unaware of disinformation attacks, and the country needs an aggressive strategy to combat its corrosive effects.

That was the message from veteran broadcaster Kevin Newman to World Press Freedom Canada’s annual awards luncheon, held May 1 at Ottawa’s National Arts Centre. 

Newman had a lengthy career as a newscaster, including stints as chief anchor at Global National and co-anchor at ABC’s Good Morning America.

Concerned about the growing flood of mis- and disinformation polluting our media ecosystem, he joined a group of researchers, fact checkers, journalists and military veterans as co-founder of GetFact.ca. GetFact volunteers review video and online content to check and verify what is being posted about Canada and its people.

There have been plenty of studies on mis- and disinformation, pointing to its pervasiveness on social media and its harmful effects on democracy, Newman said in his keynote remarks to the luncheon.

A recent Leger poll released on May 5 confirms this. The survey from April 29 to May 1, found that nearly one-fifth of Canadians believe that false information or misinformation had a major impact on the April 28 federal election.

Newman said it is time to move forward from studying the problem to erect defences against it.

Canada is the only NATO nation without a real disinformation strategy, he noted, and this has left Canadians largely oblivious to the mis- and disinformation that confronts them every day.

“I’ve been on too many panels about misinformation. We need to start doing something about it,” he said.

Newman is urging the federal government to “be as transparent with Canadians about misinformation attacks as it is starting to be about cyber-attacks and was during the election campaign.” 

This transparency should extend to the news media, so that officials share with journalists when there is an increase in bot activity and why. He says the business executives need to know quickly when someone is trying to discredit their operations so they can respond.

Newman urged Canada to incorporate a military style approach and adopt an information war room “to recognize when unusual energy is being put around some of those conversations, elevating them and targeting Canadians.”

He said Canadians need tools to protect themselves from information warfare to build a “citizens’ resistance movement against misinformation.” These tools to fight back now include Get Fact, which now has 100 Canadians across the country working to assess whether there is factual basis for online posts. 

Newman urged World Press Freedom luncheon attendees to support these disinformation tools and support the call for the government to prioritize information warfare to protect Canadians.