Justin Trudeau has responded after a Liberal campaign video was flagged by Twitter as "manipulated media," prompting the Conservative Party to call for an official investigation into the clip.
On August 22, the video was shared on Twitter by Canada's deputy PM and Liberal candidate Chrystia Freeland. It showed several edited clips of Conservative leader Erin O'Toole, responding to questions about privatized health care in 2020.
In the video, O'Toole is asked whether he would consider "the provision of private-for-profit and non-profit health care options inside of universal coverage."
The clip shows the party leader saying that he supports exploring "public-private synergies." However, the video shared by Freeland doesn't include O'Toole's later comment that universal access remains paramount.
"Last year, as COVID-19 raged, Erin O'Toole was asked if he would bring private, 'for-profit' healthcare to Canada. He responded unequivocally: yes," Freeland wrote.
The post was flagged by Twitter as "manipulated media'' shortly after it was posted. The social media site says the note aims to help users understand a post's authenticity and to provide additional context.
"In order for content to be labeled or removed under this policy, we must have reason to believe that media, or the context in which media are presented, are significantly and deceptively altered or manipulated," it says.
How did the Conservative Party respond?
The party's lawyers have sent a letter to the commissioner of Elections Canada, per CBC News. They are calling for a formal investigation into the clip to find out who made it and to get it pulled from social media.
How did Trudeau react?
On Monday, the Liberal leader defended Freeland's tweet but urged Canadians to watch the full version of the video online.
"What's really important here is that in the middle of a pandemic, Erin O'Toole came out unequivocally in support of private health care, in terms of for-profit health care," he told reporters.
"I encourage all Canadians to take a look to see what Erin O'Toole has to say about what he sees on the future of health care," the PM concluded.
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