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是「虛假信息」 還是「不同意見」
總體上加拿大人的性格不是輸不起的，但2021年聯邦大選後的情況仿佛是個例外。時隔一年坊間還充斥著關於個別選區投票結果的臆測——原本不至於如此。2022年1月6日，兩位麥吉爾大學的學者李紫楓(Sze-Fung Lee)和本傑明·馮元楨(Benjamin Fung)在《政策選擇》上撰文稱，卑詩省史提夫斯頓－列治文東選區(Steveston-Richmond East)的保守黨候選人趙錦榮（Kenny Chiu）是社交媒體上錯誤信息宣傳的受害者，在選舉之前趙提出了一項個人法案（C-282)但並未在國會獲得通過。 《環球郵報》刊登了這兩位學者的文章，但質疑了趙錦榮是因為社交媒體上的爭論而導致了選舉失敗的觀點。無論是《環球郵報》，還是李和馮，都沒能列舉出確鑿的證據，來證明北京當局影響了這個華裔人口約有50%的選區的選舉結果。但雙方都認為，用李和馮兩位學者的話說，「不管是誰負責散播假新聞，都有一個明確的動機，那就是重塑有利於北京利益的敘述。」 站在公眾的立場，我們需要探討：社交媒體上關於趙的個人法案的不同觀點與言論究竟是錯誤信息宣傳（意在誤導民眾），還是加拿大…
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Hollowed Halls: What ails the study of foreign policy?
Canadian Foreign Policy: Reflections on a Field in Transition Edited by Brian Bow and Andrea Lane UBC Press 312 pages, hardcover, softcover, and ebook The study of Canadian foreign policy is in disarray. That is pretty much the conclusion Brian Bow and Andrea Lane reach in Canadian Foreign Policy: Reflections on a Field in Transition, their edited volume on what they describe as an academic discipline — known by the initials CFP — that has “been crumbling for twenty year…
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Election disinformation claims and Kenny Chiu’s Richmond riding
Canadians are not generally sore losers, but the 2021 general election has produced a long tail of speculation about why certain ridings voted the way they did – but shouldn’t have. The latest is from two McGill academics in a recent Policy Options article, Misinformation and Chinese interference in Canada’s affairs. Sze-Fung Lee and Benjamin Fung claim that Kenny Chiu, a Conservative candidate in Steveston-Richmond East in B.C., was the target of a disinformation campaign via…
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