Meme Debunked - What Colour Is YOUR Kettle?

- jim Young

"You want the truth? You can't handle the truth!" - Colonel Nathan R. Jessep to Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee from the movie 'A Few Good Men'.

One of the biggest criticisms of mainstream media today is their failure to report the news without editorializing. If someone doesn’t like what the media is reporting - it’s fake. And if it’s not fake, it’s at least left leaning or right leaning. 

I’m not suggesting there isn’t some truth to this and some media are certainly much worse at it than others, but it’s become a cop-out to dismiss any news that doesn’t support the viewer’s preconceived bias.

Things aren’t always black and white though. Sometimes omission of a few details here and there can be just as misleading as an outright lie.

But there’s even more to it than that. It’s often critical to know some of the background details to get a true picture. So at least part of the onus to get the full story falls on the reader. With a world of information at our finger tips, this shouldn’t be difficult but it does take a little more effort than just clicking and sharing.

It never ceases to amaze me that so many of these same people that are so critical of mainstream media are so quick to just click and share anything that supports their bias without giving it a thought to the accuracy of what they are sharing.

Why wouldn’t you want to make sure you’re not guilty of what you are criticising the media of?

This meme for example, is not factually inaccurate but it is presented to sensationalise the story.

What is true is that the Liberal Government, under the Leadership of Justin Trudeau, did spend almost $275 million on Health Care for asylum seekers whose claims had been rejected. However these asylum seekers were still legally in Canada either awaiting appeal or deportation. 

Whether you agree with the Interim Federal Health Program (IFHP) or not, (more about that later), denying these refugees health care would be considered illegal, unconstitutional and probably immoral on a humanitarian level. 

In the meantime, to help reduce these rising costs, copays and cuts to this program are being introduced effective May 1, 2026. This was part of Budget 2025 which was the first federal budget tabled by Prime Minister Carney.

Now it would be easy for (and smug of) me to point out here that the Conservative Party under Pierre Poilievre voted against Budget 2025 including the cuts to the IFHP but that would be misleading on my part. The reason the Conservatives voted against making the cuts to the IFHP was because they felt the cuts didn’t go far enough. (More on that later too.)

Meanwhile health advocacy groups have felt the cuts have already gone too far. You can’t please everyone.

It is also true that the IFHP still continues (with the above noted changes) under the Mark Carney Liberal government just as it did under Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government.

Just as it did under the Stephen Harper Conservative Government and

The Paul Martin Liberal Government and

The Jean Chretien Liberal Government and

The Kim Campbell Conservative Government and

The Brian Mulroney Conservative Government and 

The John Turner Liberal Government and

The Pierre Trudeau Liberal Governments and

The Joe Clark Conservative Government and

The Lester B. Pearson Liberal Government and

The John Diefenbaker Conservative Government.

The Interim Federal Health Program had been established by an Order-in-Council on June 20th, 1957 just 10 days after Liberal Louis St. Laurent lost the election and one day before John Diefenbaker was sworn in as the new Prime Minister on June 21, 1957.

So while the program was technically created when Liberal Louis St. Laurent was still Prime Minister, Conservative John Diefenbaker inherited the program choosing to implement it and maintain it rather than cancelling the program which they could have done at the time.

Five Conservative governments since 1957 have had plenty of opportunity to make changes to the IFHP and in fact some did, or at least tried to.

The IFHP has undergone various changes over the years, not the least being major cuts made by Conservative Stephen Harper in 2012.

However these cuts were ruled as “cruel and unusual treatment” and “discriminatory” under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by the Federal Court of Canada and were fully restored under the Justin Trudeau Liberal Government in 2015.

Some critics of the reductions being introduced this May by the Mark Carney Liberal Government have speculated that even these could face similar challenges under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. What chance then would the more drastic changes that Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party want have?

Unlike the current U.S. administration, Canadian leaders continue to respect and uphold the laws of our country. That’s something we should be proud of, not criticizing. If you expect the Charter of Rights and Freedoms to protect your rights and freedoms, shouldn’t you also support it as it applies to others?

You may still be opposed to the IFHP in general and that’s your prerogative, but knowing the history seems to suggest it’s not simply a matter of the left wing vs the right wing as is implied in the meme. Nothing is black and white - not even your kettle. 

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