Federal department gave money to magazine publishing pandemic misinformation

As the federal government was promising to tackle harmful false claims about the pandemic spreading online, it was giving thousands of dollars to a magazine spreading vaccine misinformation — including unsubstantiated claims that COVID-19 vaccines could cause cancer in children.

The Department of Canadian Heritage, which helps to oversee the government's response to a rising tide of false information online, confirmed it provided more than $17,000 to Common Ground magazine through a special program of the Canada Periodical Fund intended to help publications weather the pandemic.

The B.C. publication calls itself "Western Canada's biggest and best-loved monthly magazine dedicated to health, wellness, ecology and personal growth." It has published multiple stories about what it calls "forced coercive medical intervention of Canadians." 

"I think the reason this merits attention is the potential damage to the public good here," said Chris Dornan, a retired Carleton University journalism professor.

"Just because you find the view objectionable is not enough to say, 'Well, this publication should not receive the support of public funds,' because all sorts of people find all sorts of views objectionable. But you will not want the resources of the government and the money of Canadian taxpayers to go toward something that is damaging to the public."

Over the past year, Common Ground, which has been around since the 1980s, published an article that claimed COVID-19 measures have killed more people than the "purported pandemic."

It also ran an article suggesting children who receive the vaccine are at risk of developing cancer and becoming infertile later in life.

"The potential for late-onset effects, such as the development of autoimmune diseases, cancer, neurological disorders and infertility, is highly relevant for children and young people who have a lifetime ahead of them," says the article.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has said repeatedly there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause fertility problems in women or men. So far, no credible study has shown a causal relationship between the vaccines and cancer.

A Common Ground article alleging a link between the vaccines and cancer argued that the mRNA technology used to produce the most widespread COVID vaccines changes DNA forever.

The University of Oxford's Vaccine Knowledge Project, an independent academic research group, said that while mRNA technology produces a harmless version of a spike protein inside the body, this code cannot be incorporated into the body's DNA.

Another Common Ground article, entitled "Say No to Medical Apartheid," claims ivermectin — a drug used to rid livestock of parasites that is sometimes prescribed to humans — can reduce COVID mortality.

Health Canada says there is no evidence to suggest ivermectin prevents or treats COVID-19 and warns that consuming it could lead to "potential serious health dangers."

Common Ground also published a book review supporting the notion of the "great reset" — a conspiracy theory that claims a mysterious global elite is exploiting the pandemic to its benefit — and the musings of anti-vaxxer Robert Kennedy Jr., who claims health officials have "collaborated with mainstream and social media to shut down discussion on key public health and civil rights questions."