On April 2, 1982, Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands, encountering little opposition — hardly surprising since the islands had around a dozen policemen, all unarmed, and no soldiers.
The following day, Argentina invaded South Georgia, inhabited by a few marine biologists.
The invasion was completely unexpected. At the time, the islands were poor, depending on a single industry — sheep — numbering about 500,000. (Fifty times as many sheep grazed Argentina’s Patagonia.)
For decades, Argentina has claimed the Falklands and South Georgia, and it still does, despite the fact no Argentines have ever lived there. In a 1986 referendum, three votes were cast for joining Argentina, with 88 per cent of 1,033 eligible voters responding.
A second was held in 2013. Once again, only three out of 1,516 people (the same three?) favoured declaring independence from Britain.
Clearly, “Kelpers” (Falklanders) are satisfied with their British status. (Personal note: Some 40 years ago, while at the University of Southampton, I taught a student from the Falklands. She intended to return and work in its fishery department.)
I remember that, days after the invasion, the secretary of state for defence, John Nott, and Foreign Secretary Lord Peter Alexander Carrington tendered their resignations to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Although the invasion was clearly not their fault, both felt they should have anticipated an invasion.
I mention this because it was the last time I recall a senior politician unreservedly admitting fault and resigning. By contrast, today’s politicians twist themselves into knots to point the finger of blame at others.
About 70 years ago, Advertising Standards Canada, a grouping of advertisers, created a “truth in advertising” scheme to stop companies making false claims for their products. In 1996, Canada’s Competition Act was amended (under Jean Chrétien) to include provisions forbidding misleading advertising.
These penalize companies making false claims for their products. We no longer see creams offering to make bald heads hairy, sunscreen that doesn’t protect your child, or optimistic vehicle fuel consumption figures.
But what should we do about people spouting lies?
People have been spinning tall tales “forever.” Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tales and Aesop’s fables are classic examples. Their titles proclaim fanciful content. But, the earliest known tale, Gilgamesh, was written in Akkadian, a Semitic language (in cuneiform script) 3,700 years ago.
Social media allows people to publish whatever they wish. Some material is misleading; some is actually evil. Social media allows individuals, corporations, politicians and even foreign governments to “amplify” these using “bots” (robotic actors, tweeting and re-tweeting thousands of times), giving the impression of consensus where none exists.
What makes this possible is anonymity. It is difficult — I say, even impossible — to chase down the origin of a particular statement, nor can one confidently state it has been amplified by bots.
Unfortunately, that makes it hard to justify deletion or even labelling it false. It is virtually impossible to prosecute an author (or amplifier) of a false and harmful post.
That, of course, allows them to continue spewing venom endlessly.
Recently, Meta announced it would stop fact checking Facebook, Threads and Instagram posts in the interests of “free speech.”
Of course, “free speech” should never be a licence to tell lies. (In Canada, we have "freedom of expression" in the Charter.)
It's bad enough that members of the public do this fearlessly. At issue are politicians enthusiastically adopting this practice. The recent success of president-elect Donald Trump stands as testimony to the incredible power of lies when spoken to a sympathetic crowd.
Unfortunately, he is not alone. Russia’s Vladimir Putin, Georgia’s Mikheil Kavelashvili and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán are examples on the political right. On the left, Cuba’s Miguel Díaz-Canel (successors to the Castros) and Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro show how it’s done.
Even Canada is having a populist moment with Pierre Poilievre (wrongly) claiming the “carbon tax” has caused Canada’s fuel and food prices to rise and that Canada is “broken,” despite our consistently high ranking in lists of the world’s “best countries.”
Sadly, he has discovered that if you repeat a statement often enough, people begin to believe it's true.
Misinformation like this has weakened democracies everywhere. Proponents of Brexit promised Britain would become stronger and wealthier if it cut ties with Europe. Several years later, there is no doubt Brexit has damaged Britain’s economy.
For a few weeks, Trump complained how the United States “subsidizes” Canada by $100 million per year. He doesn’t understand the difference between “subsidy” and “trade deficit.”
In fact, we send them goods (Ski-Doos, electricity, toilet paper, aluminum metal, petroleum, car parts, etc.) and they pay with other goods (Boeing airliners, machinery, cars, fruit, winter vegetables, etc.).
They also supply financial services (banking, insurance, stock market listings, etc.). These are called “invisibles.” Invisibles also include spending by Canadian snowbirds wintering in places like Florida and Arizona. I am unsure how we stand regarding balancing these complex cross-border interactions.
True to form, Trump roughly doubled the trade deficit. We send about $50 million more in actual goods to the U.S. than we buy. But, that excludes invisibles.
Second, Trump complains that the U.S. spends too much to defend Canada. The U.S.’s “defence of Canada” dates back to the threat from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). That subsided for many years, resurfacing recently with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
The real motive was always to defend the U.S., not Canada. Early warning systems (the “DEW Line,” distant early warning radar) were installed across the Arctic to track any Soviet incursion across the North Pole. The intent was to bring down Russian bombers well before they reached U.S. territory.
Of course, the (possibly radioactive) debris would fall on us. Now outdated, the DEW Line was replaced with modern equipment, but cleanup of the contaminated sites was left to Canada.
Our media have commented on the disparity between the few people entering the U.S. illegally from Canada compared to the large number crossing from Mexico. The volume of illegal drugs entering the U.S. from Mexico is also vastly larger than the flow via Canada.
Nevertheless, Trump intends to levy 25 per cent import tariffs on both countries.
Trump’s recent (delusional) claim suggests Canadians would be glad to become the 51st state. Several polls have shown that to be false. A Newsweek poll found just 13 per cent of us wished to be American.
We should credit Trump with starting a new industry — fact checking. During the 2015 U.S. election campaign, the Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale began checking Trump’s electioneering. This was so laden with falsehoods, Trump was labelled the “King of Whoppers.”
At one point, Dale claimed to be working 18-hour days fact checking Trump’s speeches.
False talk has also entered Canada. One of our political leaders frequently states “Canada is broken,” despite ample evidence this is not true. What was far worse is he has continued to make that claim for days after Trump threatened Canada with economic war — just when all of us should be forging a united front against the threat.
“Don’t you lie to me; you will be punished double for lying.” I expect most of us recall similar angry statements from exasperated parents. I also expect most of us needed to only hear these once or twice.
When did we stop teaching our children to tell the truth?
Why do we exempt politicians from our “truth in advertising” regulations?
Barrie resident Peter Bursztyn is a self-proclaimed “recovering scientist” who has a passion for all things based in science and the environment. The now-retired former university academic has taught and carried out research at universities in Africa, Britain and Canada, and is a former NDP candidate locally. As a member of the community advisory board for BarrieToday, an affiliate of BradfordToday and InnisfilToday, he also writes a semi-regular column.