What really irks me about religion coverage in this country is the remarkable credulity with which it is regularly treated. Of course that’s not limited to religion, but it’s an important thing to understand when thinking about the sorry state of contemporary journalism. It’s easy to assume that conservative parties get free reign simply because the majority of newspapers are conservative in political orientation. That part is factually true, and there’s certainly something to it, especially where editorial endorsements are concerned. But a broader question is the extent to which the media is capable of engaging in serious critical inquiry (Read more…)
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As my commenters were happy to point out, my last post on Senator Mike Duffy and Conservative political strategy was hilariously mistimed, since Duffy resigned from the Conservative caucus mere hours later. I’ll cop to it: I was wrong, and superceded by events. There hasn’t been such a momentous blunder since Globe & Mail pundit John Ibbitson predicted that Bob Rae was “almost certain” to win the Liberal leadership campaign last year, only to have Rae confirm hours later that he wouldn’t be running in the campaign in the first place. In my defence, I don’t get paid to be (Read more…) In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock for the last few months, the National Post’s Matt Gurney has a useful summary of Mike Duffy’s corrupt antics in the Senate, up to and including the decision by the Prime Minister’s Office to bail out Duffy with $90,000 in cash from Harper’s chief of staff, Nigel Wright, which Duffy then used to pay back his $90,000 in ill-gotten gains bilked from the taxpayer via fraudulent expense claims. At the time, the PMO praised Duffy for “voluntarily” paying back the money. It now turns out there was nothing less than a (Read more…) I’m not terribly interested in speculating, at least for the moment, about why the pollsters would be devastatingly incorrect — again — about a provincial election campaign. My guess is that in this case it has something to do with young people not voting, but again, the answer will become clear over the next couple of weeks. Mainly because that’s what the media will be focusing on. Instead I have something else to get off my chest. I’m disappointed every time a far-right anti-government political party led by ignorant, unimaginative, corrupt, pro-global warming oligocrats wins an election. But to be (Read more…) Yesterday I published a fairly scathing review of CBC’s attempt at a fact-checking service .pxp0{position:absolute;clip:rect(432px,auto,auto,431px);} payday loans lenders online , which appeared to conclude that the right-wing BC Liberal Party (a former Social Credit gang which is now a close ally of Stephen Harper) was spreading untruths about the record of the opposition NDP when they were in power during the 1990s. Which was fine with me, except that CBC then bizarrely suggested that the Liberals “want [voters] to remember” what happened in the 1990s. Of course the very nature of false propaganda is that you want people to remember (Read more…) Well, at least we have it confirmed for us. The reason that Vic Toews is a Cabinet minister despite being convicted of election fraud, the reason that Peter Penashue is allowed to stand as a Conservative candidate despite being responsible for similar violations of the law, the reason Peter Van Loan is still House Leader despite committing similar violations of the law, the reason Gary Goodyear is still science minister despite violating the elections law, and the reason that Tony Clement was promoted in Cabinet despite a Sponsorship Scandal-sized diversion of border security funds into park-building in his cottage country . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Peter Penashue Plumbs New Depths in Conservative Corruption The Cyprus banking crisis is a useful teachable moment about banking and taxation — so I guess I’m not surprised that this opportunity is being entirely missed by the media, most of whom probably don’t know what’s actually going on, either. Both the left and the right are incensed at the Cypriot government’s proposed solution: a 6.7-9.9% tax on savings account balances will raise funds which will then be used to bail out the banks. That didn’t go over well. The result was that the government backed away and is now frantically considering other options. It needs to . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: The Cyprus Banking Crisis and How Banks Really Work It’s possible to trace, year over year, the increasing negligence and partisanship of the Canadian media by how they react to government budgets. Take this year’s budget, for instance. If a Liberal or NDP government anywhere in the country, let alone federally, tabled a budget that blew past its previous deficit projections by billions of dollars, I cannot imagine that the most exciting part of the new budget would be the new cut to tariffs on children’s sports equipment. Hardly. The media would be screaming about the evils of big government deficits. Which is why it’s worth poking a hole (Read more…) If I had a shred of real optimism left, I’d say the wheels are starting to fall off of the Harper bus. But I have no such shred left. Instead all I have is a sinking suspicion that yet another wave of pro-government editorials will soon sweep the free press, everyone will comment mindlessly on the latest poll from Nanos, and then it will be back to normal again. Which is why the recent surprise resignation of minister Peter Penashue should not be allowed to pass unmarked. To recap, Minister Penashue stands accused of vastly exceeding his election spending limit . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Conservative Lawlessness Reaches its Rubicon Regular readers of this blog will know that I maintain a sort of quixotic respect for our late lamented friend, the principle of ministerial responsibility. You’ll find it in the obituaries section of the Canada Gazette. It’s the principle which, until really very recently, obligated any senior politician in government to accept responsibility for the actions of their staffers. Under the principle of ministerial responsibility, ignorance of the action is not an excuse. As a member of the Cabinet, you get all of the credit — and in exchange, you also get all of the blame. Until the recent right-wing . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Right Wing Introduces New Concepts in Parliamentary Tradition: “The Buck Stops… Over There” I mean, I knew it could happen in theory. But it might actually happen in practice. Not the federal government, of course. A provincial one, though: the Social Credit-turned-Reform-turned-”Liberal” Party that currently holds a majority in British Columbia under one Christy Clark. Later Sunday she will be hauled onto the carpet in front of her own Cabinet, and the odds are better than even that she won’t leave the meeting as premier. If she does, the odds are even higher that the caucus will do her in some time during the week. It’s worth noting, before anyone in the professional . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Has a Canadian Government Actually Been Brought Down by Corruption? I’m not sure there’s a more delicious irony than the fact that the Conservative Senator now being publicly alleged to have defrauded the public of tens of thousands of dollars in wrongfully claimed living expenses, on the dubious grounds that his vacation cottage in PEI is his “primary residence” and the home he uses in Ottawa is merely his “secondary” home, is none other than former journalist Mike Duffy. This man is an even greater dunce than his colleague, Olympian skier turned climate change denialist Nancy Greene. A couple of years ago, Duffy demonstrated the full extent of his stupidity . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: New Conservative Excuse for Expenses Fraud: Law is Too Complex to Read In case you haven’t heard yet, the Conservatives have apparently decided to double down on their shadowy robocall schemes by putting out an allegedly bogus push-poll telling Saskatchewan residents that the new riding boundaries being drawn in that province are going to screw good Saskatchewan residents out of their democratic vote (as if). Naturally, a naked attempt at laying a pretext for gerrymandering isn’t enough: they have to engage in shady PR tactics to do it. This is not the first time the Conservatives were caught conducting shady push-polling. This time, the calls were sent out under what is, according . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: New Conservative Robocall Deception Laying Pretext for Gerrymandering? I don’t think there’s really any need for a detailed analysis of the following: the right-wing, free-market, anti-government “news” channel set up by Quebecor and some former Harper staffers is losing money and wants the government to mandate a special tax on cable consumers to guarantee it a revenue source. Apparently the free market isn’t so much fun after all, even for a free-market channel. Much easier just to have the government require everyone to pay for your service, right? The depressing thing is that I would place the odds of Sun News getting basic cable status at something better . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Anti-Welfare TV Network Asks for Government Bailout It’s disappointing, depressing even, that the anonymous editorial board of Pravda West — excuse me, the Globe & Mail — felt the need to leap to the defence of unethical Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. It’s an extraordinary editorial, even by the generally low standards of Pravda West editorializing. I should think that if a journalists were so morally compromised that he couldn’t muster even a half-hearted attack on a politician found guilty of violating the ethics code, he would at least subside into a sort of embarrassed silence. Not so, apparently. Pravda West will stand by the governing party, come what may! As you may have heard by now, finance minister Jim Flaherty has been caught lobbying the CRTC on behalf of a radio station in his riding that was applying for a new Toronto-area broadcast license. Although a relatively minor incident in and of itself, this was a direct . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Globe & Mail: Ethics, Shmethics As you may have heard by now, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is in a bit of trouble after attempting to intervene before the CRTC on behalf of a radio station based in his riding. Such interventions violate the rules laid down for ministerial activity under the Harper government. There is no particular ambiguity on this. Once again a Conservative Cabinet minister stands in open violation of the rules with no apparent consequences whatsoever. One wonders what the rules are there for, if they do not have to be followed. A particular irony in this case, though, is the parallel it . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Stephen Harper, Then And Now My posting rate has slowed over the past couple of months because of some work in, as they say, real life, which unfortunately takes precedence. I do hope to be back in the saddle properly soon, though. In the meantime, I thought a couple of lines from this country’s pathetic paper of record would serve as a fine example of what Canadians can expect from their media and their government in 2013. Here’s what the Globe’s non-plagiarizing star columnist had to say about Idle No More yesterday: Thus far, the Conservatives have gotten the big things right, by ignoring . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Sixth Estate Will Return After These Messages Some explanation is necessary, I feel, for my post of a couple of days ago, noting the media was displaying a striking degree of hypocrisy with respect to the apparently sorry state of the Attawapiskat First Nation’s finances, and using that as a way to discredit Theresa Spence’s hunger strike. People responded in the comments section here, and on Twitter, that while I might have some valid points to make (some didn’t even go that far), two wrongs don’t make a right: just because the Attawapiskat aren’t the only ones with a shady financial record doesn’t somehow make it okay. No it doesn’t, and Sixth Estate’s position on this matter has always been perfectly clear: leaders who abuse the public trust should be run out of town on a rail. I said as much with respect to the Attawapiskat situation too, for those who actually bothered to read the article. . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: If Theresa Spence was a White Politician, She Could Have Just Fired the Auditor Under the circumstances, it’s actually a little surprising that it took this long. Through a convenient leak to the state broadcaster, presumably from the government, evidence has surfaced that hunger strike chief Theresa Spence’s Attawapiskat First Nation does a terrible job of keeping their books. An internal audit which the government ordered last winter, during the reserve’s housing crisis, has been mysteriously released to the public just at a time when Spence was gaining widespread public attention through her hunger strike. Now, first of all, it’s not good to see any elected leader apparently responsible for very serious fiscal mismanagement. . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Is Theresa Spence’s Alleged Fiscal Mismanagement Serious Because She is an Indian, or Because She Is Not a Conservative Cabinet Minister? There are a number of disturbing implications to a new report from CBC, mainly because the individual involved is a Cabinet minister (Peter Penashue, Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs and MP for Labrador) and therefore a senior member of the government: Letters shedding light on the election spending and deal-wrangling by a cabinet minister’s top campaign official have been removed from a public Elections Canada file. The letters were in the file “in error” and have been removed, according to a spokesman for Elections Canada. The letters in question were reported on by CBC several months ago. At the time, . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Elections Canada Disappears Evidence of Election Law Violations As I predicted yesterday, the Harper government has seized upon the olive branch extended by the Assembly of First Nations earlier this week to hold a summit later this month as a way to extricate itself from the Theresa Spence hunger strike. Also as I predicted, Harper claims that the new meeting is based on the precedent of last year’s Crown-First Nations meeting, rather than in response to the hunger strike. Indeed, in his official announcement, he makes no reference to Spence at all: On January 24, 2012, I was pleased to participate in the historic Crown-First Nations Gathering… . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Spence Hunger Strike Victory? For those people hoping Theresa Spence will get out of this hunger strike alive, or simply too weary of all the coverage and wanting it to be over, today’s modest proposal by Assembly of First Nations head Shawn Atleo offers an apparent way out via an olive branch to Stephen Harper: attend a Crown-First Nations summit later this month on the first anniversary of a similar summit held last year. I say non-proposal because I’m really not sure a second summit will accomplish what a first one didn’t, except insofar as Atleo (1) wants to be seen as presenting a . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Atleo Proposal Offers Harper Way Out No substantive post today. I’m in the middle of writing up a series of posts on military procurement which should be fairly interesting (predicting what I think will be the next, bigger scandal after the F-35), and I think I’ve said all that needs to be said with respect to the racist nonsense that is increasingly being spouted in the media in reaction to Theresa Spence’s hunger strike. It’s a disastrous state of affairs. If Stephen Harper was going to meet with her, he would have done so over Christmas, while the hunger strike was still in its early stages . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Harper’s Base Confronts Theresa Spence I was disappointed, but not entirely surprised to read this weekend that the Globe & Mail has officially joined Postmedia’s Christie Blatchford in denouncing the ongoing hunger strike in Ottawa by Attawapiskat chief Theresa Spence as an act not just of protest but of violence against the lawful order of the country: Spence should not risk her health with a hunger strike, nor is coercion a reasonable or responsible tool to be used in making a request to meet with the Prime Minister. The idea that a hunger strike is “coercive” would be hilarious in itself, if a person’s life . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Theresa Spence, the Tibetan Monks, and Canada’s Hypocrisy There’s nothing like some Injuns getting uppity and demanding political rights, etc., to draw out the kooky, paranoid racism from their fellow Canadians, including those who write about politics for a living. To wit, I give you Postmedia’s version of General George Custer, Christie Blatchford: Already, there is much talk of smudging ceremonies, tobacco offerings, the inherent aboriginal love for and superior understanding of the land, and treaties that were expected to be in place “as long as the sun shines, the grass grows and the river flows”… It is tempting to see the action as one of intimidation, if not terrorism: She is, after all, holding the state hostage to vaguely articulated demands. Yes, you read it at Postmedia first: Attawapiskat chief Theresa Spence might be a terrorist! Hunger strikes are like hostage-taking! As I write these words, Attawapiskat chief Theresa Spence is starving to death in Ottawa. Her . . . → Read More: The Sixth Estate: Hunger Strikes are Terrorism and Other Racist Bullshit: A Brief Primer on Aboriginal Affairs in Canada |
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