The Toronto Star’s campaign against one local Liberal is a clear attempt to mislead voters and impact on the provincial party’s leadership race

Re-posted from my Substack

OPEN LETTER SUBMITTED TO THE TORONTO STAR’S PUBLIC EDITOR

April 6, 2026:

Dear Public Editor —

I’m
writing to complain about the lack of professionalism / borderline
yellow journalism / clear and unfair bias being committed by your small
Queen’s Park bureau members against a possible candidate for the Ontario
Liberal leadership. As this could impact the results of the next
election and Ontario’s future, this is a huge deal that needs
addressing.

The most recent example of what appears to be their biased and fact-challenged campaign was published today (Monday April 6) by Martin Regg Cohn, who seems to have a personal vendetta he is working out against Nate Erskine-Smith (NES),
the Liberal MP for Beaches-East York and possible Ontario Liberal
leadership candidate / candidate for the OLP nomination in Scarborough
Southwest. In it, Regg Cohn reports NES has “lost his mind”, which is
utter nonsense and blatantly false, and beneath any serious commentator.

In it, the “opinion” columnist used this previous fake news article on March 28 by the Star by Rob Ferguson and Robert Benzie about Nate Erksine-Smith as a means to attack him further. Why is this article and headline a lie? Because
Nate Erskine-Smith is on record saying he supports his nomination
opponents staying in the local nomination race. Period. As made clear in this March 17 TVO article by a reporter who doesn’t write fake news like Ferguson and Benzie do.

Did
Rob Ferguson or Robert Benzie re-interview NES after the TVO piece and
ask him if he supports his opponents staying in the race or not? It
would appear they did not ask this question at all (or perhaps even
interview NES) and instead chose to spin NES’s public comments into a
fake news story about him calling for his opponents to support his
“juggernaut” and drop out.

“Juggernaut” is a
word NES never spoke it seems, but was just made up by the Toronto Star
reporters to create a very false impression, inflame the situation on
the ground and cause political trouble for NES. Why are Toronto Star
reporters writing fake news stories to try to influence an internal
party race???

Now Regg Cohn is taking the fake
news story and running with it. It’s like the Star reporters are in
cahoots to take down Nate Erskine-Smith! Are they getting kickbacks from Doug Ford or something, or maybe from Marit Stiles? And
lambasting NES with criticism, like questioning his comments on another
nomination candidate who’s lived in London, Ontario for decades until
buying another home in Scarborough Southwest last fall. Regg
Cohn says because he was personally born in Montreal but moved to
Toronto decades ago, that is the same thing as someone else buying a
house in Toronto a few months ago and claiming a longtime connection
here. What kind of nonsensical comparison is that? Regg Cohn is
reaching for reasons to continue his attack on NES!

This follows a
clear pattern by Regg Cohn in all of his recent coverage of NES I would
describe as petty, overly critical, ridiculous to any fair-minded
reader, like in this article.

The snarky, uncalled for, clearly biased language Regg Cohn always uses on
every occasion to describe Erskine-Smith, is truly unprofessional and
damaging to the Ontario body politic. Because it denies us fair coverage
of this
important political leadership race. Here’s another example, where Regg
Cohn decides NES is “sullenly silent”, another description Regg Cohn
pulled out of his own ass.

This
article misled readers with Regg Cohn’s odd description of NES that “he
lurked conspicuously outside the voting area on the weekend to waylay
delegates,” at the September OLP AGM.

Lurked? For those who witnessed it (had Regg Cohn bothered to speak to anyone besides his own biased mind) one would say NES was “present, smiling, shaking hands, talking to people.” Is that what Regg Cohn thinks is “lurking”?
Then we’re all guilty of “lurking” all the time. Also “lurking” at that
AGM outside the voting area was Bonnie Crombie herself, who was also
shaking hands and smiling with delegates as they went in to decide her fate. What a crime! Yet Regg Cohn ignored Crombie’s “lurking” but reported NES’s “lurking.” By what standard was Regg Cohn justified to say NES was “lurking” but Crombie was not? What is a reader to believe? His bias is clear and deeply wrong.

Using
this standard, one could say anything they wanted with descriptive
language that bares no resemblance to the truth and print it in the
Toronto Star, creating a false impression.

The public deserves
a modicum of truth when it comes to their political coverage. I am
simply sick and tired of this irresponsible behaviour and yellow
journalism from the Star.

To make matters worse, when I
dared to question the Star’s editorial slant and biases on the public
comments section of your site last night, pointing out these facts,
including the fact NES said he welcomes his opponents staying in the
local race, your editorial folks deleted all of my comments to silence
any criticism of their yellow journalism. Pathetic! I deserve an apology
for that clear attempt by the Star to silence justified criticism. I
was up late and added one more reasonable comment, and miraculously
it’s still there today. Perhaps your evening censor was off shift by
then – or perhaps my email last night has caused a re-think of the
Star’s practise of silencing / deleting any comments they don’t like.

Ontarians
need better coverage of provincial politics than this. One can
criticize anyone including NES. No one is perfect. I like NES, but I
also like other possible Liberal leadership candidates. I have no bias
against Qadira Jackson, one of those also running in Scarborough
Southwest for the OLP nomination – I even donated to her 2025 campaign. I
don’t know any of the other candidates running for the nomination. I
have no connection to NES’s nomination or leadership campaign.

I am just a concerned citizen simply calling the Star out on their clear bias and lack of professionalism for their coverage.

Doesn’t the Star need to print “news” articles or opinion pieces that have some semblance of truth?

If
I were a candidate running for office in our democracy and said that my
opponents should stay in the race with me if they choose, shouldn’t a
news article by the Toronto Star make that clear? Or is it okay for the
Star to print I said my opponents “must get out of the race and support
my powerful juggernaut” and leave out the fact I said “my opponents
should stay in the race”? And mislead voters?????

You tell me, please. The
Toronto Star’s campaign against one local Liberal is a clear attempt to
mislead voters and impact on a provincial party’s race.

If
your office doesn’t admonish or warn Mr. Regg Cohn about his yellow
journalism, and the rest of the tiny Queen’s Park team that they have an
obligation to report truth and actual facts, and not tweak articles
against Mr. Erskine-Smith or anyone else, then I will simply have to
doubt every word your paper prints on NES and all of your news coverage.

The Star needs to do much better than this!

Sincerely,

Matt Guerin