Unifor Fights Misinformation Through New Ad Campaign

Unifor’s Media Action Plan launched a series of ads (external link)  for the Fact Checked campaign (external link) , aimed at combating misinformation.

The launch was celebrated with members of the public, media and the J-school community in The Venn on Sept. 17.

In their Unifor campaign article (external link) , Michelle Shephard '96, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) co-president and Brent Jolly, the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) president, wrote, “We know it’s frustrating and overwhelming, and there’s a temptation to look away from the news, but we need the public as we work hard to sort the lies from the truth.”

The speakers at the event shared Shephard and Jolly’s urgency to stop people from spreading lies and to fact-check what they hear from a neighbour or online sources.

Angie Seth, president of the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) Canada (external link) , shared with the crowd the need to stand together and support journalists’ work done properly and with proper sources.

"We need to look forward and we need to see what that future of news gathering is going to look like for those journalists that are in school right now, hoping to be out in the field doing great stories and helping communities," Seth said. "If we don't combat misinformation, if we don't take it head-on, then this industry is going to crumble and we're not going to know what the truth is."

Dima Mironov ‘25 was surprised to see the level of collaboration involved in supporting the campaign, which extended not only to publications but also to associations like the CAJ, all focused on bringing journalism together.

“I didn’t think that kind of thing could happen in journalism,” he said.

Event attendees also heard from non-journalists, such as Sophie Nadeau, vice-president of the Canadian Medical Association (external link) .

Nadeau said, “We believe that journalism protects Canadian lives, helps protect their health...Our doctors are very concerned, and we need journalists to be able to protect the health of Canadians."

Nadeau added that the campaign was an “interesting way to cut through the noise.”

To make a bigger impact by spreading news and overpowering misinformation on social media, Mironov suggested that the industry needs to adapt to new platforms.

"There are new mediums; these (Instagram and Facebook) aren't the only two platforms that people spread news on,” he said. "I hate having to turn a VPN on to read my news whenever someone sends me a reel from outside of Canada, but that's the reality we live in."

The Unifor campaign hopes to remind Canadians that, whether they hear a fact on social media or in a conversation, they should fact-check before spreading possible misinformation further.

Campaign information and ads can be watched and shared through factcheckhere.ca (external link)