Disinformation is a weapon of the ruling circles to maintain the status quo. The triumvirate of big government, big business and big labor uses it to keep the people, particularly the working class, in a state of ideological and political disorientation about the problems facing society and what is required to open the path for progress. It deliberately conveys a false idea about what is engendered in a particular situation. Disinformation is incorrectly considered synonymous to misinformation. It is similar to, but not the same as misinformation. To equate the two is to seriously underestimate the deliberate and calculated character of disinformation, which has an unbreakable attachment to keeping the working class from acquiring the consciousness it requires to open the path to social progress. The response of various trade union officials to the recent release of unemployment figures by Statistics Canada illustrates the difference between disinformation and misinformation. After the release of the figures, the trade unionists issued press statements to complain that the figures do not include workers who have stopped actively seeking employment. Unemployment is really higher than what the government claims, they said. Their main point, however, was to criticize the Liberal government for not doing enough to create jobs and failing to implement promised "job creation policies." By correcting "the facts" about the unemployment figures, the trade unionists are exposing a case of misinformation. But far from informing the people about the facts, and even further from informing their working class constituency about what needs to be done for the creation of a new society, which guarantees the right to a livelihood, they are promoting disinformation. Declaring that the problem of unemployment rests in a lack of "political will" on the part of the Liberals constitutes one of the key aspects of disinformation in Canada at this time. Shawgi Tell University at Buffalo Graduate School of Education [EMAIL PROTECTED]