Around this town - October 2012

 The Big Man Bob Cox has put figurative pen to paper in a recent blog post on the Free Press web site. He doesn't write half bad (aside from the one sentence per paragraph thing -- did somebody draw a period on the enter key of his key board?) Maybe he can pick up some of the slack from the laid off journalists and put out some concert reviews and web content.

Half a million Winnipeggers read newspapers

Half a million people read newspapers regularly in Winnipeg.Two out of every three Winnipeggers read the Winnipeg Free Press at least once a week.
...
The real numbers, complete with full-colour graphs, are in a survey made public this week by the National Audience Databank better known as NADbank. When you consider all newspapers, four out of five Canadians read a newspaper at least once a week either in print or online. In Winnipeg, 78 per cent read a printed paper weekly, making us the most prolific newspaper readers in the country.

"Dang .. if only we had known that before we laid off all those people. Oh well ... what's done is done..."

So what's up? Is the Free Press okay or not? Go to the quarterly report and scroll down to page 5 and look at the revenues. Add up 2010 and 2011. Revenues actually increased year over year! But .. look at the first two quarters of 2012 -- not so rosy. What's changed? The Metro. That's my bet. The humble little free daily paper has put a big bite in the Free Press ad revenue.

So what does this have to do with the"alt weekly" Uptown magazine getting axed and replaced by an existing paper insert? That, I'm not entirely sure. However, say goodbye to local content and hello to CD reviews from the Associated Press and entertainment pieces yanked from Slate.com.

******

Prior to the last provincial election I followed most of the major candidates on Twitter and regretted it immediately. If it wasn't required for my lucrative career as a blogger I would have instantly unfollowed them.

"Great day of campaigning in St.Boniface. #GoJetsGo"
"I'm in the front row of the Ukrainian pavilion at Folklorama! Mmmmm perogies!"
"I'm at the fall supper in Glenboro. Boy are the perogies ever good!"

Oh God, shoot me before I read any more of this drivel.

Remarkably I neglected to unfollow them after the election, probably because most of them stopped tweeting. However I need to give a shout out to Hugh McFadyen who, now that he's no longer a politician, re-emerged in the Twitterverse in August with a photo of Ron Swanson as his avatar and some actual substance in his tweets..

He's since ditched the Swanson picture, but might be worth a follow if you don't already.

Here's the thing though: why not actually share your thoughts on social media when you're a politician??  Yes, there is some risk, but I would argue that the bigger risk is leaving voters detached and bored. Put it out there. Give people a reason to relate to you or at least see that you're human!

Just watch the swearing...

******

We have a few returning Winnipeg-related blogs and/or bloggers.

David Jacks has revived what used to be the Banana Peel as the new Jacks of Diamonds. He's only a couple posts into the new project so we'll keep on eye on this one and see how it goes.

Arthur Mira (@H0PP on the twitter) has returned with the WpgNewsReview, minimalist in design but not in length of post. If I have a word of advice for Arthur it's to cut those posts down a wee bit. Trust me. A picture or two helps also.

Shaun Wheeler has recently returned from a three month self-imposed exile from the internet and produced a five-part blog super-post for blog action day (start with part 1 here). This seems to me a little like trying to bench press 200 lbs after not going to the gym all summer, but good on him for doing it.

I just couldn't get into blog action day this year. Theme: "The Power of We." What the hell? "We"??? We WHAT? Great, ya, we can get more stuff done if we work together, but I need more of a framework in my subject matter. Something with a little less holistic nebulosity. Something like: Blog Action Day: how to make a good omelette.
 ******

Finally, there is a new upstart Winnipeg internet forum out there: the uniquely name Winnipeg Forums.com. With only 8 total members they have a ways to go, but everybody has to start somewhere, right? Winnipeg Zoom is doing well as it approaches it's 1 year anniversary (and the Sandbox ... well ... it's still out there too.)

******

Ah heck, one last thing: Binders Full Of Women.

Oh Mitt ...

Free Press & unions

There are many things to say about the layoffs at the Winnipeg Free Press yesterday. I recommend you read Melissa Martin's personal thoughts on the matter (stay tuned for more from her) as well as Adam Wazny's. Also read John Dobbin. I have a few things to say of my own.

I understand the realities of the business, at least from a high level. It's no secret that the newspaper industry is struggling both to retain it's traditional readership, as well as in finding ways to capture revenue from the growing on-line readership. This challenge is illustrated in a now-ironic tweet last week from John White:

John White of course being one of those let go yesterday.

If the future of the industry is on-line, then the Free Press shot itself in the foot yesterday when it got rid of John as well as Lindsey Wiebe, their social media guru, and a web developer. They also let go of some of their younger and more promising journalists and writers including the aforementioned Melissa, a talented writer whose expressive writing sometimes seemed more appropriate for a glossy magazine than a black and white paper.


Why would the Free Press choose these people of all people? Well, they didn't. That's the short answer. They chose to lay off people from certain job classifications, but at that point the victims were defined by the union agreement that stipulates that the least senior must go first. I would say that seniority is an out-dated concept, but that implies that there was a time when it made sense. I'm not sure there was.

I give Aldo Santin, local president of the jouranlists' union (Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada), cudos for spending half an hour on Winnipeg Internet Pundits today to talk about the layoffs. He was questioned on the aspect of seniority, and he was adamant in his support of it. It's so ingrained in the union psyche that it's simply not up for debate. It should be.

Seniority provides a simple and unequivocal method of choosing winners and losers in a union environment. Some may perceive this as fairness because it's black and white. There is no personal judgement involved. It values longevity above all else.

This is terribly misguided, especially for a business that is in transition, but really for any business. Seniority is a poor proxy for quality of work. Years of service do not necessarily correspond to talent. Fair is not laying off those who are newest, but retaining those who add most to the organization, and have the greatest potential to lead the organization into the future.

From the business' point of view, the Free Press in this case, their potential for future success has been harmed as a result of this policy. This could have been an opportunity for renewal, in a way. They could have shed some high-paid old-timers, and retained the lower paid (presumably .. I don't know their salaries) staff with the fresh approaches to journalism. This cycle is good for a business. Instead the Freep got older and more stale, and has a higher average labour cost than before.

I'm not clear on why journalists and associated media workers need to be unionized to begin with. Santin spoke about how the union protects the workers, but tell that to the workers who got laid off yesterday. Unions don't prevent people from losing their jobs; they just ensure that job loses are not based on merit. They also add a burden to companies that need to be flexible in order to survive in an environment of dropping revenues.

I don't want to speak for the employees of the Free Press -- perhaps some or most of them appreciate being in the CEP -- but I feel it's damaging to the business; and I personally, as a reader of the Free Press, am not pleased with what transpired yesterday.

The quiz master

My responses to Bart Kives' Sunday quiz:

What is Giveaway Weekend?
  > Encouragement for hoarders

What is the official mission statement for the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service?
  > Get the fuck out of our way.

What is the preferred alignment for the completion of the Southwest Transitway?
  > Trick question. It will never be completed.

What will Winnipeg Jets fans do if the 2012-13 National Hockey League season is delayed by a lockout?
  > Hate Gary Bettman even more, if that's possible

Which of the following productions would you be most likely to see next year at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival?
  > Apocalypse Now: The Joe Mack Story

Which baseball team will the Winnipeg Goldeyes face in the final series of the American Association playoffs?
  > Wichita Wingnuts. Go Goldeyes!

How far will the University of Winnipeg's downtown campus eventually spread?
  > It is a warm spring day in the year 2086, as Lloyd Axworthy looks down upon his sprawling empire from the top floor of the CanadInns tower. Suspended in a glass tube filled with protein jell, Axworthy has grown tired. "Success," he thinks to himself, "is not as fulfilling as it used to be." Though the Axworthy Institute of Higher Learning, formerly the University of Winnipeg, now fills 80% of the space inside the perimeter Highway, his heart is empty. In actuality, is heart was removed many years earlier and replaced with a neutrino pump, but his *soul* is empty. There is a hole that cannot be filled with shiny new buildings. "Perhaps ..." he thinks .... "perhaps it's time to stop."

What can the Winnipeg Parking Authority do with the empty, shuttered and structurally sketchy Civic Centre Parkade?
  > Swap it with Shindico for a 1/2 acre parcel of land off Wilkes Ave.

*****

Just to give you an idea of the kind of lucrative prizes at stake in Bart's quizes, I won this puppy for a previous entry:

Yes ... that is the old City of Winnipeg logo. Pretty awesome, huh?

Barking dogs and squawking suburbanites

Sometimes I think maybe I'm just crazy. A story on CTV today, presented in a matter of fact manner by Caroline Barghout, makes absolutely no sense to me.

In the story, residents of an apartment block are complaining about barking bogs. The lady says she can't get any sleep. What makes this special is that the dogs are police dogs in a police compound, so apparently it's news worthy, because unlike dogs owned by individuals, police dogs aren't supposed to bark in public.

What makes this especially stupid is that the police dogs have been there for years, whereas the apartment building is so new that it's still under construction. So somebody moves into an apartment on the edge of an industrial park of the outskirts of the city one week ago, and they complain about barking dogs that were there long before they moved in? Somehow this makes sense to other people. I can't imagine the outcry when some industry tries to expand in the industrial park and makes some noise or smell or something.

What makes this especially especially stupid is that a new indoor compound is planned for the dogs and it is scheduled to begin construction this summer, therefore these residents of this apartment block built on cheap land on the edge of an industrial park will only have to endure this hardship with the barking dogs for maybe half a year. Yet that's not good enough. Something needs to be done now! After all, the problem is so acute that the people in the brand new apartments built on cheap land on the edge of an industrial park have to close their windows in the evening!!

City Councillor Russ Wyatt agrees, saying "those apartments will go to the dogs if they don't find a new location for the K9 unit." Wow, Russ. That pun was so fucking brilliant. I have no idea how your mind is able to produce such a spectacularly clever play on words. Clearly your intellect is so far superior to mine that your veiwpoint on this issue must be the correct one.

The police meanwhile are working on an interim solution until the new facility is ready. If they spend even a cent on this interim measure, it's a grievous waste of taxpayer money in my mind. I'm beginning to not trust my mind, however.

Is this lady crazy or am I?

If somebody came to me with this story -- "hey there's this lady who moved into an apartment in an industrial park one week ago and has to close her windows because of barking dogs" -- I, as an unpaid blogger who writes about fruit, windows, and how to draw a parrot, would have told them to screw off. It's not worth my time. I'm busy writing a post about how my corn chips break when I try to scoop salsa with them.

Yet this became a feature story on CTV news because a producer thought it was of such importance that it required an on-location report, and now I'm writing about it because I'm in a personal crisis situation. I've realized that my perspective on issues is completely distorted, and that my mind is therefore not functioning properly. I am frantically googling my symptoms to see if there are medications that can help. If anybody else out there has experienced symptoms like mine, please let me know! I'm looking for a support group -- anything -- that will help me cope with this mental disability I have suddenly discovered. Thank you.

Waterfront hotel experiencing development hostility

What a glorious day it was yesterday. I stood outside as the sweet warm breeze ruffled my hair, and airplane vapor trails hung in the blue sky like scattered chopsticks. Yet here I was thinking about Gordon Sinclair. Damn you, Sinclair.

You see, I happened across Sinc's latest editorial atrocity while reading the Saturday Free Press this morning. But to give you a little background: a few years ago Gordon Sinclair was a key player in the effort to stop a residential development (something that everybody agrees is critical to the vitality of downtown Winnipeg) at the corner of Assiniboine and Fort St. in order to build an interpretive centre for Upper Fort Garry. He led the deceptive PR campaign with repeated "save the fort" columns in the Free Press, giving people the impression that a critical piece of our history would be destroyed, when in fact the only thing that would be destroyed was a deteriorating surface-level parking lot. Ultimately this PR campaign and a little backroom arm-twisting was successful in pushing out the developer in favour of a park that has yet to begin construction and has already ballooned in cost to $22 million, over twice the original estimate.

So it was with this as a mental backdrop that I read Sinclair's piece today, where he explains that an empty parking lot on Waterfront Drive is actually an irreplacable part of our history because somebody "contends" that Selkirk settlers once planted wheat there, and it was also a gathering place for people during the great strike. He goes on to accuse recent residential development (no, not that again) of "putting the boots to" this historic area, and finishes his ridiculous column in typically sappy fashion:

Now, apparently, a former premier of our province, and our mayor and city council are going to finish the job.

Play the pipes loudly, today boys.

And bang the drums slowly.

Fortunately, the "Friends of History" that are the would-be heros of Gordon's column do not have the clout of the Friends of Upper Fort Garry, so their campaign is much less likely to be successful. However, I happen to know somebody closely involved with the development, and it is not a sure thing at this point. In my conversation with him we didn't get into details about what the sticking points were, but it is conceivable that a coordinated opposition to the project could derail it.

There are great journalists and there are not so good journalists. Not everybody is gifted enough to be one of those great journalists, but at a minimum they should strive to at least be truthful and not do damage to the city in which they live.

****

I had a couple of replies on Twitter that suggested that our water front area should be preserved on principle, not because of some trumped up historical concern. I understand that viewpoint. I admire other cities that had the foresight to preserve their river front as green space. So why would I advocate a riverfront development in the middle of a relatively unbroken stretch of undeveloped shoreline greenspace? Well, first of all, I'm not advocating for the Sunstone development, but against idiotic newspaper columns. However I would also make the following points:

1. If this area deserved to be reclaimed as green space, the city should have acted long ago. The time to decide that an area should be a park is not at the 11th hour after a RFPs have been solicited, proposals submitted, and designs approved by a city hall committee. The Upper Fort Garry debacle was damaging, not just because a critical development had been stopped, but because it was stopped at the last minute after the developer had gone through all the hoops, had a contractual agreement to build and made additional compromises to appease opponents. Continual behaviour like this will drive developers away.
2. There is already a building on-site: the old brick Harbourmaster Building. We can either tear it down, leave it sitting vacant and deteriorating, or re-purpose it as part of a new development. Which option do you think is best?
3. The Sunstone development will link the greenspace on either side: "The plan also calls for pedestrian walkways to link up with existing riverfront pathways" -fp-
4. The development of the east Exchange is tenuous. Additional development is required to reach that critical mass that will turn it into a thriving community. A hotel and restaurant will help.

I can't think of a snazzy way to wrap up this blog post, so I'll leave you with a video of Wild Rumpus' Rock the Joint featuring Beardyman:

Winnipeg radio: FM station correlation

Have you ever experienced one of those times when it seemed like every radio station was playing Aerosmith?

Winnipeg FM radio is very predictable and lacking in diversity. If it seems like you're hearing the same stuff over and over again, it's because you are. I would estimate that we get exposed to 5-10% of the popular music spectrum, but there is a whole world of awesome music out there that we're missing. When was the last time you heard The Cribs on Winnipeg radio? Of Montreal? (seriously, have you heard a better bass line than that?) Gigi d'Agostino? Black Flag? Neko Case? The Rakes? Texas? Winnipeg's own Grand Analog?

Curve 94 showed some promise when it first came online, playing some things that you didn't heard elsewhere like Metric and MGMT. However Curve is now gone, opting instead for a sorry mix of classic light rock retreads. I don't for a second believe that 94's ratings went up after this change. The rating system is seriously flawed. Every comment I've heard about 94 echos my own sentiment: 94 is dead to me now.

But alas, there was hope on the FM horizon! A new station was coming! Evanov Radio Group bought that last remaining FM slot in town -- 106.1 FM. It was one last chance for something new. Something different. Would the heavy metal/hardcore hole be filled? Maybe it will be worldbeat? Would we finally get some interesting alternative radio here?

Nope ... the new format was released this month, and instead of breaking new ground and drawing in a new audience, the risk-adverse cowards at Evanov decided to fight over the exact same radio real estate that Hot 103 occupies with Energy 106. It's a lower risk approach, I suppose, but it's a loss for the Winnipeg radio audience because it brings no new choice in music.

(click to enlarge..)

The graphic above is based on a sample of the playlists only. In reality, there is probably much more overlap than I show here.

Now, to make matters worse, 99.1 Groove FM has decided that it can't make a go of it as a Jazz station and wants to change it's format to (buckle your seat belts...) "a variety of today’s pop and rock hits, mixed with songs from the 80’s and 90’s". (a tip of the hat to Kevin McDougald for noticing that.) If that goes through there will be still less choice on the radio dial, and one more station fighting for the exact same radio turf as all the others.

.. and one more station playing Aerosmith.

Free Press: Comments not allowed!

Now I know that commenters can be idiots some times, but four of the top 5 breaking stories on the Free Press web site at the moment of this writing are not accepting comments:


The Free Press recently changed its comment system. I really like the new comment features, but the moderation of the comments (if I recall John White's tweet correctly) has been farmed out to a third party. Since that happening, the web site seems to be pulling the trigger quicker on closing down the comments. I have to wonder if the comments are really that bad, or if the hired mods are just being "proactive" (ie. lazy).

I have noticed as well that some times a disproportionate number of comments (in stories that do allow comments) have been censored. Perhaps, instead of all that exhausting work of banning users and censoring comments, they decided it would be easier if they just disallowed comments on anything remotely contentious.

The Free Press has the right to accept comments or not, but one has to question the purpose of accepting comments if anything contentious or crime related is automatically off limits. Are we interested in people's views of law enforcement? Do we care what people think of the 2-for-1 credit for time served, or the fact that it's being taken away? Are people concerned about arson, bus safety and sentencing? Or is the only thing we want people's opinions on is whether Ashton Kutcher is a suitable replacement for Charlie Sheen on Two and a Half Men?

Revolution fatigue? *UPDATED*

Remember Egypt? Remember the protests? Remember the 'round the clock news coverage? Anderson Cooper looking as handsome as ever, even when he was getting pelted in the head?

I think all the North American news cycle can handle is one revolution a year. Maybe a decade. There are other revolutions going on, and one became extra deadly today:

At least 88 people are reported to have been killed in Syria in the bloodiest day since the uprising began, as security forces use live ammunition and tear gas to quell anti-government protests across the country

The AlJazeera story also contains a video with footage from several cities of protests getting fired upon, included blurred-out footage of a kid with his head blown apart. It's not hard to find videos posted by individuals on YouTube too, like this one:

We have an excuse for not paying attention here in Canada. The NHL playoffs are on. Oh, also that election thing.

They probably have good excuses for not paying attention south of the border too. Let's just see what the headline story is on CNN.com. "Lindsay Lohan jailed for violating probation". See there you go. It's not like Syria being ignored completely. On CNN's NewsPulse meter, it's right up there, only 9 spots back of "Snooki's diet plan".

I'm not quite sure what I'm trying to accomplish with this post, except maybe to remind you that there's still stuff going on out there. Stuff that's at least as dramatic as the events in Egypt. Maybe it's also a criticism of the media, and the lack of coverage relative to the Egypt revolution.

But is it really a problem? The media shows us the stuff we want to see, because if they show us stuff we don't care about they'll lose viewers, advertisers and money. If we want to see Lindsay Lohan's ass getting carted off to jail, so be it. It's not the media that's the problem ... it's our priorities. Actually, it's the America's priorities. Our priorities here in Canada are just fine. Hey look, Selanne just got an assist laying on his back!

*** UPDATE ***

Jesus. Apparently Syrian forces are now killing people at funerals of people they killed. This isn't looking promising.

The Quiz Master

The Anybody Want A Peanut fashion department, especially Carlos and Jean-Louis, would like to thank Bartley Kives for the fabulous new chapeau:


This vibrant blue head gear is made with state of the art materials, and sports the City of Winnipeg crest on the front. If Jean-Louis would give the damned thing back to me I could wear it around town and proudly declare that "I am part of Team Winnipeg".

The hat was the grand prize for Bart's March 6 'Sharpen your pencils' quiz. The quantity or quality of the responses must have left a little to be desired if this could pass as the winning entry:

WHO EXACTLY IS "LADY ARAGON?"
A: a little bit of Gaga marketing genius

WHY SHOULD WINNIPEGGERS PAY ATTENTION TO THE CITY OF GLENDALE?
A: because watching Glendale try to keep a doomed franchise reminds us that it is possible to have worse leadership than our current mayor and council.

WHAT WERE SASKATCHEWAN RESIDENTS SHOCKED TO HEAR FROM OTTAWA LAST WEEK?
A: They were shocked, as we all were, to hear that the Conservatives are targeting South Asians. A political party trying to win over the minority vote in Toronto? Unheard of!!

WHY ARE PEOPLE STILL PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT CHARLIE SHEEN HAS TO SAY?
A: Because at some point he might accidentally explain the meaning of life.

WHO ARE DAVID ASPER AND PHIL SHEEGL?
A: Known as the Phil-Ass Duo, they are an intrepid super-hero crime fighting tandem (if good planning and management can be considered a crime.)


This may spell the end of Bart's quizes, but I hope not because rumour has it he has a plasticine Benjamin Netanyahu on his desk. That would be so cool to win.

(This is not the first time that we've added a hat to our wardrobe.)

FASD and reading polls

It must be a slow news day.

Mia Rabson, staring at her empty in box this morning, was forced to manufacture a story that only half of Manitobans know what causes FASD. This willful misinterpretation of a poll should never have been published, or perhaps should have been written as "Between 97% and 100% of Manitobans know what causes FASD" ... but that wouldn't really be news-worthy.

The poll asked: In your opinion, how much alcohol, if any, would you consider a "safe" amount for a woman to drink at one time while pregnant?
none: 88%
1 drink: 6%
2 drinks: 1%
don't know/unsure: 3%

So it appears that at least 97% of Manitobans realize that drinking alcohol at some level is unsafe. The remaining 3% may also know this, but may not be sure what the "safe" level is. This is understandable, as scientists don't know either. You may question that 1 or 2 drinks is safe, but there have been a number of studies including a well publicized British study late last year that determined that moderate drinking actually appears to be safe:

Children whose mothers have one or two drinks per week during pregnancy are not at any greater risk for developing behavioral or cognitive problems than children whose mothers abstained completely. -link-

... not that I would recommend drinking anything.

The reason Mia says that half of Manitobans are stupid neanderthals who live under a rock, is because of this question:

"The only way to get FASD is by drinking during pregnancy"
Strongly agree: 46%

Like I wrote in the Freep comments: "

"It sounds like a trick question. Maybe you can get the same condition by drinking gasoline or smoking salvia or hanging upside down for 8 hours a day while pregnant. Who knows?"

Or, like a different reader more coherently writes:

"People who know FASD is caused by alcohol consumption during pregnancy may answer "neutral" or something south of that answer because they don't know if there's possibly another way to get FASD. Drinking heavily just before pregnancy, perhaps? Drinking while breast feeding? Although I believe they are not ways to get FASD, a reasonable non-medical person might think it's possible, and not want to answer definitively that alcohol during pregnancy is the ONLY way to get it."

The survey itself is flawed and probably not worth reporting on. Mia's mangling of the results compounds the flaws to such a degree that the reader is left less informed than if they had never seen the article in the first place.

Come on, Mia. I know you can do better than this.

Who killed TGCTS?

I thought it might be Colonel Mustard in the library with the candlestick, or maybe Rosanne Wowchuck driving her car while talking on a cell phone, but I was wrong on both counts. I went to the Save the Marty Fundraiser last night, where Marty Gold laid it all out with a seemingly endless string of emails in a powerpoint presentation.

Marty is a systematic guy. Obviously very passionate about what he does, but also very deliberate and organized. He might make a good Process Architect, if he's looking for a career change. I am not going to go into any detail because my memory isn't that good -- probably as a result of not eating fish as a kid as documented in my last post. If you want more details go to Graham's blog. Here is my point form summary:

• Free Press reporter Melissa Martin covered a mayoral debate for Mynarski Ward, wherein the eventual winner, Ross Eadie, declared that he was receiving support from the provincial NDP. Melissa neglected to mention this tid bit in her report.
  
• Marty Gold took her and the paper to task for not picking up on this statement, which if true would violate our civic election laws.
• Melissa got very upset by the criticism and complained to Free Press editor Margo Goodhand
• Margo called new RRC chief Stephanie Forsyth explaining that one of her reporters had been personally attacked and defamed.
• Stephanie, apparently without doing any research into the validity of these claims, "suggested" to certain execs at RRC that Marty's show be terminated.
• Marty's show was terminated

You might wonder: did Ross Eadie really say that he was receiving support from the NDP? Well, that's what some people heard, and there are complaints to that effect currently sitting with the city elections official. There were also a couple of witnesses from the New Winnipeg forum, at least one of whom I have met personally so I know they are a real person.

You might also wonder: why would Captain Stephanie so willingly comply with the complaint by the Free Press? The answer to that depends on how well you can read between the lines, how good your imagination is, and/or how tightly your tinfoil hat is screwed on. Potential answers include:

1. Steph is a media whore and did it as a quid pro quo for getting her picture in the paper three times the following week.

2. Steph is lazy and decided that cancelling the show at the threat of a lawsuit was easier than investigating if there was any merit to the complaint.

3. Given that Freep co-owner Bob Silver is closely tied to the governing NDP party, whom Marty has beat up on his show, and that RRC is partly funded by the gov't, there may have been veiled threats made about reductions to funding for RRC if they did not comply.

4. Stephanie and Margo are secret lesbian lovers, and are planning to adopt orphans from Botswana, leave their current partners, and start a new family on Cape Breton Island after Margo arranges a departure from the Freep with a generous severance package, which would be put at jeopardy if she could not contain the damage to the paper's reputation that was being done by Marty Gold.

Of those, I think the last one is obviously the most plausible, but to shield myself from lawsuits I want to make it clear that I have no evidence about any of those.

Coucillor Harvey Smith (a.k.a Father Time) was there, and promised to look into the Ross Eadie issue by following up with the elections dude, although if he remembers to put on his pants every day I think that's all we can reasonably expect at this point.

As an aside, those of us who attended got free copies of Retropeg, a coffee table book with old B&W photos of Winnipeg. Harvey, who was sitting directly behind me, made a comment as we were leaving about how nice the book was, and I came this close to asking him if there were any pictures of him in there. Although I later realized that the pictures were all from the 70s when Harvey was already getting up there in years, so perhaps it wouldn't have been as funny as I imagined it would be.

I guess if there is one message that I would like to pass along to the Free Press, it is this: it is not too late to cover the Ross Eadie thing, even if it turns out to be a non-thing. The original article that covered that debate was very brief and touched on a lot of things so perhaps you can be excused for not getting into the details. However, a sitting councillor being investigated for potential election finance violations, or the failure of the elections official to conduct the investigation, is a fairly significant story. Especially if it implicates the provincial governing party. Better to get on top of it now, even if it turns out to be that he simply mispoke and everything is cool, because if it eventually does come out that he was breaking the rules then it could be embarassing for the Free Press that they knew about it all along and failed to report on it.

Bucket full of something ... and it's not water.

Saturday's Free Press included another one of their impressive multi-page exposés. This one was about the appalling conditions in the Island Lake First Nations communities, centering around a lack of clean water. It contained compelling stories about hardship, and heart-breaking pictures of children living in squalid conditions -- all the sorts of things that the obscure journalism organizations look for when they give out awards. However it also contained a bunch of exaggerations and misleading information.

I wasn't planning on writing about this at all, but by chance I happened to meet up with an acquaintance this weekend who works up at Island Lake. It was this acquaintance who told me that the story was exaggerated. For example, we read about these families who have no choice but to haul water by hand in "a used oil or chemical bucket." Not likely, says my acquaintance. Nobody hauls water by hand, they haul it with their Ford F150s. You don't have to take my friend's word for it though. 40 seconds into the video on the Free Press website two ladies put on a show for the camera by hauling water up the hill with their Chevy Silverado in the background:

I don't want to minimize the importance of clean water, but the continual references to third world refugee camps are unreasonable. They refer to the "dirty lake water" as though it were a muddy slough in the savanna. Remember, this is the same land that is so "pristine" that the government is spending over $1 billion to route Bipole III around it. So pure and untouched is this land that it demands the protection of UNESCO heritage status.* A family in Buduburam Africa would kill for this kind of access to water.

I also don't deny that there are serious health issues at Island Lake and Red Sucker Lake. We have seen the reports of TB and H1N1 outbreaks, and the rampant diabetes. But is this really all just an inevitable result of not having running water? People have lived for centuries without running water, and it wasn't that long ago that it was common to have large families crammed into a small house here in the prairies, but yet somehow the floors got swept and hands got washed.

At one point as the author, Helen Fallding, was interviewing a resident, a very young child showed up drinking a can of Dr. Pepper. Helen, applying no critical thinking whatsoever, paints this and the diabetes that is sure to follow as an inevitable result of not having running water. Now I'm not a botanist, but I am pretty sure that the toddler didn't pick this can of pop off a tree in the back yard. That pop was purchased at a store. The same store that sells bottled water, juice, and any number of other beverages. Red Sucker Lake, Wasagamack, St.Theresa Point and Garden Hill all have Northern Stores. Northern Stores, in case you have never been in one, have a grocery section not unlike a Food Fare. Perhaps not as well stocked in these cases, but you can be damn sure that they sell bottled water. If your toddler is drinking Dr. Pepper, is it because of parental neglect, not necessity.

You can't help but wonder what else is due to neglect. One has to tread carefully when talking about these sorts of things, but it is hard to avoid the subject when you hear the same things from almost everybody who spends time on a northern reserve.

Another picture in the paper showed a guy, Gordie Rae, carrying water up his driveway with a presumably broken late 90s Dodge Stratus parked on one side and a late 90s Dodge Caravan or Plymouth Voyager on the other, the later with a missing wheel. What the hell happened? My car is late 90s and I'm planning on driving it for another 10 years. (It's not a Dodge, mind you).


Yet another picture shows Soloman McPherson dumping sewage in a sprawling garbage pile next to his house, with a circa 2004 Chevy Tracker in the background. Would it be possible, maybe, to use that vehicle to take your garbage to the dump? Garden Hill does have one. They all do. St. Theresa Point not only has a land fill, but a full time garbage truck that services all residences. Third world indeed.

Now suppose somebody doesn't have a vehicle to haul water -- which is unusual according to my friend -- but suppose. What about the neighbours? I attended a United Way event recently where the speaker was a very well spoken lady of aboriginal descent. She talked about how sharing everything you had was part of their culture, and about how it was necessary to survive in the past. Whatever happened to that? "Oh your Dodge broke down? Tough shit buddy." Is that the attitude now? When did selfishness become part of the culture? Perhaps around the same time that the chief and council started making six figure salaries? I don't know if that's the case, or if the author is only implying that it's everyman for himself. I don't know what to believe in this story.

What about the location of the houses? I have always wondered about that. The story points out that "No running water means that homes are built without bathtubs." In other words, homes are being not being built where the water is, but off in the bushes somewhere. Sometimes kilometers away. After the home is built they expect the government to pay tens of thousands of dollars to pipe water through the granite outcroppings and forest to these far flung residences. Who decides where these houses go? My understanding, and correct me if I'm wrong, is that the individuals do not own any land. It is all reserve land, and is controlled by the band council. I'm making an assumption here, but could they perhaps do a better job of planning their community in such a way that access to water would be maximized?

If the names of these reserves sound familiar, it might be because of an event last year during the H1N1 outbreak when the government sent dozens of body bags to the Island Lakes First Nations. The chiefs were outraged. So much so that one of them flew himself and a small entourage down to Winnipeg to express their outrage in front of the TV cameras. (You may also remember would-be mayor Judy Wasylycia-Leis getting on board calling it "the ultimate expression of incompetence.") Of course as it turned out the reserves' own health care workers ordered the body bags, and in fact they were sent fewer than they asked for. Yet the cost of that one trip alone could have bought everybody in the community a clean pail to haul their water in ... assuming it were needed. But these are the kind of grandstanding buffoons that we're dealing with here. Judy was right about incompetence, but she was talking about the wrong people.

So here we are: people surrounded by pristine ... oh sorry: "dirty" for the purposes of article ... freshwater lakes, with grocery stores stocked with various beverages including water, yet nobody can wash their hands or clean their floors, and kids have to drink pop. That's how it is, apparently. Helen and her crew sought out the most appalling houses and woeful people of the 10 thousand or so that live in the four communities, exaggerated their hardships, and portrayed this as the victimization of a hard working people by a negligent government. I have no doubt that they will win awards for outstanding journalism for this masterpiece, but perhaps the Giller Prize would be more appropriate.

*These communities are not actually in the proposed UNESCO zone. They are to the north-east of it.

A weird thing happened reading the paper today

Reading a Francis Russell column usually results in me slamming my face against the computer keyboard multiple times in exasperated frustration that such biased ideological drivel could ever be published in a newspaper. This time was different though.

My finger hesitated over the mouse button for a second as I debated whether I dare open what would surely be another vitriolic rant about PM Harper's neo-con tactics; however much to my surprise she didn't use the term "neo-con" once, nor did she compare Harper to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Satan, or a baby-eating gorgon. That could be because she spends most of the space quoting Frank Graves from Ekos Research, but nevertheless it is a refreshing change of pace from what I am used to.

Much more worryingly, I actually agree with much of what she (or rather Frank) has to say. In fact, much of it echos what I wrote about back here . I don't doubt for a minute that Harper could have a majority if he wasn't such a nimrod. Every time he builds political capital he promptly squanders it by doing something stupid and divisive. That's his MO, and it's why he is doomed to be a minority PM until the Liberals find somebody with an ounce of Charisma (bonjour, Justin) and boot him out of office.

I have seen a similar analysis in Maclean's magazine as well, but the fact that I agree with Francis Russell about something is scary as hell. I don't know if she is coming around or if I'm turning into a bat-shit crazy lefty, but something is wrong in the universe. Wait a minute ... didn't that exact same cat walk by here a moment ago? What happened to my window ... It's a brick wall now!! ACK!

***

Oh, one other thing before the agents get me: One of you guys at the Free Press should let Francis know that Stephen Harper is speaking in Winnipeg tomorrow evening at Canad Inn Polo Park, and it's completely free! You have to register ASAP though. Sorry for the short notice.

I won't be there. If anything, I'll go catch the Sam and Judy debacle at the Hydro building tomorrow.

Local film hits Cannes, Al Jazeera hits Winnipeg

Produced by Winnipegger Merit Jensen Carr's Merit Motion Pictures, the film Tu Tu Much follows a group of girls as they try out for the Royal Winnipeg Ballet School. It was shown for a few days in January at Silver City here in Winnipeg, and now is making it's rounds around the world. According to it's Facebook page, it will be at Cannes Market May 19th and 20th, followed by a number of viewings in New Zealand. You can read more about the movie here.

Tu Tu Much is not Merit's first film about the RWB. I saw 40 Years of One Night Stands at Cinematheque a couple of years ago. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would enjoy a ballet-related film.

****

You may notice an Al Jazeera news gadget on my right sidebar. I put that there recently because I like to check out AJ for an international perspective on the world events. Anyhow, I went to the AJ home page yesterday morning to see what was going on around the globe and found a video from here in Manitoba about the Truth and Reconciliation Commission:

Yay! We made the international news!

Friday night cruizin' with Colleen.

Did Colleen Simard really write this?

We followed them while I talked to the police, but could barely keep up. They were doing around 80 km/h at times heading down Maryland Street.

Let me get this straight: you were upset that these maroons "were driving dangerously and someone could get hurt", so you decided to get into a high-speed car chase with them while talking on your cell phone.

What did she hope to accomplish? "We decided to follow them to check it out, because if there's one thing I hate it's people who drink and drive." Yet it's been proven many times over that driving while talking on a cell phone is no safer than drinking and driving. I suspect that speeding down Maryland, enraged about egg-throwing yahoos, while talking on a cell phone is even more dangerous.

EDIT: as a commenter points out, it could be her friend that is driving. Colleen does not make this clear, using only the term "we" to describe their driving exploits. (If it was me doing the writing, I would have been sure to clarify that point ... if in fact I was the passenger.)

****

Somewhat related to my previous post, David Watson posts a transcript from our distinguished leaders in the Leg, including this bit:

(Selinger) The boreal forest is considered to be ... one of the best natural defences against global warming. The members opposite want to rip it up. They want to destroy the boreal forest.

"destroy" the forest? How does running a hydro line through a small edge of the 3 million square kilometre forest equate to destroying the forest? If Premier Selinger wants to defend against global warming, his concern should be the massive power losses from his preferred west-side route.

Chile earthquake coverage

A quick note: a friend of mine in Santiago is saying that much of the news coverage on CNN and elsewhere is over-dramatizing the effects of the earth quake. In particular, they often show damage and destruction from the hardest hit areas like Concepcion while talking about Santiago.

There was significant damage in Santiago, including loss of phone service and some damage that shut down the airport for a while, but the vast majority of people are fine, and have running water, electricity, etc...

Bipole disorder: the great debate?

When I found out that all three Manitoba leaders would get together and debate the building of the contentious Bipole III hydro transmission line, I thought: Great! Finally we can get everything out on the table, and see how the government's lame explanations hold up against a relentless pounding of facts and logic. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend. No problem, thought I ... I'll just read about it the next day or see what happened on the news.

So where is the news? There was nothing on CTV last night, nor on their web site, and the only thing on the Free Press is a mere stub of a story by Bruce Owen that you have to dig to find, and looks like it could have been written without even having witnessed the debate.*

Why is this story not important to the media?

Imagine if the government went to every household in the province and demanded $1000 from every man, woman, and child for a special one time tax -- let's call it an "expediency tax". So they collect all this money -- over $1billion dollars of it, and they pile it up in a field; then Premier Selinger climbs on top of the pile of our hard-earned money, drops his pants, and takes a crap on it. They they light it all on fire and bury the ashes in the Brady landfill. Don't you think that might garner some attention from the press? Don't you think people might be a wee bit upset about that?

THAT is the exact equivalent of what the province is doing here. Between the bipole III debacle, and the province's insistence that the City of Winnipeg wastes $400k to remove nitrogen from their waste water, which most scientists agree will do nothing, the province is blowing a cool Bil, to no economic or environmental gain.

Some people are outraged. People like myself who have taken the initiative to learn about what is going on, but the media needs to expose this redonculous waste of money so that everybody realizes that the Premier is crapping all over their hard-earned tax dollars; and they need to stay on top of it until the government is forced to explain the real reason why it is doing this, and hopefully reverse course. Instead the media is inexplicably fluffing this issue.

Anyhow ... that's my rant for today. If you know of a report or twitter feed or something that describes what happened in that meeting, drop me a comment if you would. I will go through my usual blog list when I get a chance.

*update: I found a more descriptive article by Owen on page B2 of the dead-tree edition of the Free Press.

**** Friday video ****

Why don't they make six minute videos anymore?

Gerald Flood is senile

I don't intend to take on the roll of Media Police, but I have to point this out, since I've wrote about Gordon Bell before:

In a section of the Saturday Free Press ironically called Feed Your Intellect, Gerald Flood writes a heart-warming Gordon Sinclair-ish piece about an unsung hero in the fight to claim a parcel of land as green space for Gordon Bell high school. One problem: he's completely full of crap.

IT was a hot day in August 2008 that I first opened an e-mail from Eagles and Doves, the nom de Internet of Nancy Chippendale.

I like how this is starting: hot summer day, mysterious lady with a alias ... let me turn down the lights and pour myself a drink. Ok, I'm ready. Go on ....

She explained that the closing of a car dealership next to Gordon Bell had created an opportunity to convert the 2.5 acre car lot into a sports field, something Gordon Bell had never had and would never have if this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity slipped away.

The conversion of the lot to a field of play was so obviously a good idea that it seemed impossible that it would not happen. Except for one small snag -- Canada Post was eying the property to build a new depot. I told Nancy that it was a great idea but I could not run it until she determined the status of the property.

She came back crestfallen. Canada Post was not eyeing the property, it was buying it.

Dang ... they beat her to it. So sad that this nice lady's stroke of genius was undermined at the last second by an evil crown corporation.

Ya .. not so much, there Gerald. Checking back to the time line on my original blog on this subject, Canada Post purchased the land in November 2007, almost a year earlier. In fact, Canada Post started tearing down the Midway Chrysler dealership in July of 2008.

Not only that, but Pat Martin was already on the case in June of 2008. As pathetically late as Pat was to the game, this lady was even later. correction: Nancy was in fact on the case before Pat Martin, publishing this story in the paper Sept of 08, which prompted Pat to get involved. A misreading of dates on my part. My apologies. Gerald is trying to portray this lady as groundbreaking visionary, while deriding opponents as "blockheads" who "sniffed at the idea" of having a block of Portage Avenue encased in a giant fence while still being to small for a regulation field "and whatnot".

But you don't often come across the name of Nancy Chippendale who, having started the ball rolling, worked mostly under the radar "with a rogue group that played to win," tirelessly advocating in the certainty that if she could keep the media engaged it just might happen. She is now planning to return to school and become a PR professional and start a company "to help non-profits promote themselves."

No, Nancy Chippendale's name was not there on the day that the dream she dreamed came true.

But it is now.

I haven't felt this ill after reading the paper since Sinclair's "fight to save Upper Fort Garry".

Can Homeless Hero be left alone?

I took the liberty of making some adjustments to Gordon Sinclair's latest column:

I went looking for Faron Hall last week because someone close to the city's homeless community had emailed an alert I needed to fill more column space. Faron, according to the report, was on the verge of being homeless exploited by a shameless columnist again.

Do we really need to know all of the details of this poor person's struggles?

***

Speaking of the Free Press .. there is a priceless picture on the home page right now. Curtis should do one of his caption contests with this. I'll kick things off:

Selinger Poll

re. Free Press story Selinger the best to lead: poll

I find this odd. Do other newspapers commission their own polls and construct front page stories out of the results? I don't remember the Freep doing this during the last leadership race for the Conservatives, though granted, in this case the leader automatically becomes Premier, so it may deserve a little extra attention. However, it still seems like a case of the media creating the news rather than covering it.

Further, there appears to be some spinning going on with the piece. If one were to glance at the headline and first few sentences (as I often do) they might get the impression that Manitobans choose Selinger over all potential premiers including the leaders of the opposition parties. The subtitle, for instance, includes the statement: "Who NDP supporters, non-supporters are backing". Look, non-supporters are not backing Selinger. They are simply choosing the lesser of two evils.

Further, most people are not choosing anyone. As Wofrom (presumably this Wolfrom ?) points out in the comments of the story: From what I can see of the numbers, even among NDP supporters, Selinger comes second to "None of the above". This is hardly an overwhelming result for Selinger, and declaring him the "Peoples choice" seems premature, and smells a little bit like booster juice.

related:
- curtis
- cotton