The importance of objective truth

If you were wondering just why Justin Trudeau has remained so popular, both at home and around the world, in spite of all the political headwinds he has faced at home in Canada, from Trump in the U.S., I suggest you watch this statement of principle on how necessary it is for democracy that we have a fact-based media capable of identifying objectively verifiable facts, and able to speak truth to power on behalf of the nation's citizens. As reported by CBC News:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a press freedom event in Paris Sunday that one of the bulwarks protecting democratic governments from being undermined is also an institution under stress — a free-thinking, robust media.

"If a democracy is to function you need an educated populace, and you need to have an informed populace, ready to make judicious decisions about who to grant power to and when to take it away," Trudeau said.

"When citizens cannot have rigorous analysis of the exercise of the power that is in their name and they have granted, the rest of the foundation of our democracies start to erode at the same time as cynicism arises."

[...]

"There have always been tensions between those who would speak truth to power and those who like having their power, thank you very much, and don't necessarily want to see it frittered away," he said. 

"But we are now in a phase where that capacity to speak truth to power, the very capacity for a citizen to engage with truth, is under attack. And not just by the powerful, but by those who would see our institutions themselves weakened."

[...]

"Attacks on the media are not just about getting your preferred political candidate elected," he said. "They're about increasing the level of cynicism that citizens have toward all authorities, toward all of the institutions that are there to protect us as citizens."

Citizens are feeling "very real anxiety," Trudeau said, because their jobs are transforming as globalization increases competition around the world. When that anxiety is exacerbated, it undermines trust in institutions and increases cynicism.

"One of the bulwarks against that, and one of the institutions that is most under stress right now, is a free-thinking, independent, rigorous, robust, respected media," the prime minister said.

[...]

"When people feel their institutions cannot protect them, they look for easy answers," Trudeau said, "in populism, in nationalism, in closing borders, in shutting down trade, in xenophobia."

The contrast with Donald Trump (who describes any media figures who date to criticize him as enemies of the people, and who revoked Jim Acosta's press pass for failure to follow the Trump administration's post-midterm PR script) and Vladmir Putin (who routinely jails and assassinates reporters in Russia who refuse to echo his propaganda) couldn't be more stark. This, people, is what it looks like to have principles, and to live by them, even when it might not be politically expedient to do so. This is why Trudeau's approval numbers are fundamentally unchanged since his election, in spite of a relentless obstructionism and often baseless, fact-free "criticism" from this political opponents, and the right-wing op/ed writers who are seemingly campaigning for a spot on the Fox News roster... from Canada.

Also noteworthy, is that Canada hasn't backed down from its criticism of Saudi Arabia, in spite of their recent diplomatic temper tantrum, making a point of mentioning the recent killing of Saudi dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the same press event, among other things. The full report from CBC News has more details about that, and is well worth reading; here's the video clip of the portion of Trudeau's speech which is quoted above:

It's good to know that there are some of our elected leaders who aren't running scared of objective truth, documented facts, or the necessity for democratically elected governments to be held accountable by those what elected them. I only wish it was happening more often.