Guardian in name only
By Clement Co-author of Canada Under Siege
Your recent editorial (P.E.I. under siege: How Islanders became divided by fear, June 21) concludes with the line: “As for me, I guess I’d rather be labelled as naive than paranoid or cruel.” But when serious investigative reporting reveals credible concerns — especially involving state influence operations or well-funded organizations with murky affiliations — naivety is not a harmless position. It’s a liability.
Worse still, your op-ed reads less like a reflection on complex global entanglements and more like a rhetorical sidestep — one that attempts to insulate the paper and its contributors from the moral weight of what’s been uncovered. Labelling oneself as “naive” implies innocence. But when journalists and editors ignore, dismiss, or deflect from rigorous reporting, the result isn’t innocent — it’s complicit.
The omission of key terms such as misleading, misinformed, or even truthful from your reflection is telling. There is no attempt to engage with the factual basis of the reporting, nor with the deeply concerning evidence regarding ties between Chinese-linked organizations like Bliss and Wisdom and their operations in places like Prince Edward Island. Instead, we’re offered a narrative in which moral comfort takes precedence over journalistic responsibility.
This editorial choice does not reflect guardianship. It reflects a discomfort with uncomfortable truths. And in that, it serves — whether intentionally or not — to obscure, rather than illuminate, the very forces the public relies on journalists to expose.
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A guardian does not apologize for vigilance. A guardian does not shrink from complexity. A guardian does not choose sentiment over substance.If this publication wishes to live up to its name, it must be willing to confront the hard realities of influence, power, and truth — not sentimentalize its reluctance to do so.
Garry W.G. Clement, Author,
President and CEO Clement Advisory Group,
CAMLO VersaBank,
Senior VP government and community partnerships