Scott Crick, Town Councillor in Morris, MB; (Update – link changed to original blog post, to enable reader feedback.)
– A wingnut paper publisher does something stupid. The entire Town is accused of racism and makes the national news, even though this was one idiot’s opinion, and he himself had only been a resident for two years
– The community is accused of homophobia when a restaurant fails, even though this is the fourth restaurant to fail in four years in the same space. As part of the coverage, the WFP interviews local citizens, and publishes the opinions of an elderly senile gentleman, and someone who has lived on a Hutterite colony almost all of their life. Of course, the people who had no issue weren’t published. Oh yeah, let’s also quote George out of context.
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My word, be a journalist for a change. Interview those who are of a visible ethnic minority who live in Morris, and ask them about racism. Ask them how Morris compares to other places they’ve lived – I’m pretty sure I know the answer, as I’ve seen nothing in Morris to equal the racism and homophobia I saw growing up in Winnipeg. Maybe talk to a restauranteur, show them the seating capacity, give them the rent and utility bills, and ask them how they could make this space work. I’m pretty sure they couldn’t. Maybe throw on that the average plate prep time is 1hr, and limit their menu to specialty cuisine. I’m a professional finance person, and I can’t make the math work.
So, I think we’re pretty justified in having a siege mentality, 100% created by an sensationalist media. Equally unfortunate how far the journalistic standards of the WFP have fallen, where selling papers and getting web hits are more important than facts or the truth.
This isn’t a siege mentality. It’s fighting back against character assassination.
h/t Todd
I thought only Republicans were racists. You mean that Canadians can be racist too? Maybe we ought to show a few of these failures who blame their failures all on racism, what racism really is.
Journalism is dead. Its all just marketing now. Market the message, market the opinion, market the point of view, market the man. Journalists are parasites and scum. I would rather heave dibber with every partner in a law firm than spend a minute with a journalist.
having dinner is better than heaving dibber…. I think. Still don’t like journalists.
When I saw an article on CTV I shook my head. A Caribbean lady’s restaurant failed because of racism despite the fact she sells the best curried goat meat in Manitoba. Must be racism, can’t be the food.
Wait just a second. You mean curried goat couldn’t sell? Heck when I go to my non-racist grocery store in my non-racist neighborhood, there is a whole section of the store featuring curried goat.
Curried goat bread, curried goat flavored protein shake, and the kids favourite: curried goat snack bars. I can’t even get my kids to touch fruit roll ups now. Once you’ve had the goat snacks there’s no going back.
Actually – here it is.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Theas-Diner/460208960736476
Maybe a little marketing research would have gone a long way.
Having been raised in a rural community, this did not ring true to me. Smaller communities have to be more tolerant as there is no place to hide. Unlike major cities, you don’t have the option of avoiding people you don’t like as you meet them every day.
I expected nothing less from Gordon Sinclair.
What! No crosses were burnt on the front lawn? There’s gotta be burning crosses somewhere…
yes, un-biased journalism is ‘dead’ in the MSM. What passes for ‘news and information’ is an entertainment product edited to appeal to the demographic the advertisers wish to reach.
Morris has had a Chinese restaurant, owned by a Chinese family, for around 30 years. Why were they never run out of town? Probably because it’s in a good location and serves good food.
What?
This fully credentialed Presstitute, failed to include Hetty Frey?
Must be the spread of the Obamanation, if a poorly thought out business plan fails,with a minority front person, it must be racist.
I think I will stick with the Fordnation on crack.
The Freep is a rag of a newspaper, live here and never buy it and rarely read it, what content their is all crony Liberals.
As a CBC fellow told me once in Saskatoon after I complained that their TV report of a previous day convention item totally misrepresented the facts, “We report it the way we see it”. In other words facts be dammed.
Slagging a small town that does not generally support the NDP is part of the WFP agenda.
everything you read in the paper is true except for things you have first hand knowledge of. meaning , nothing is true.
I had a friend slagged by Macleans way back in 1978 by a reporter he knew none the less. when he phoned and complained , yes the old days of no internet. they said ” dont like it , sue us”
I have not trusted the press since. which is a long time.
Watched an article about this on Global National last night. Said to my wife,” this doesn’t sound true”.
I grew up in a small town ,and as Wayne says above, there’s no anonymity,everybody knows everything,and news travels fast. And, people learn to get along because they see each other every day.
I suspect this restaurant served food that the locals didn’t like very much. That’s why restaurants usually fail.The “journalist” should have looked into that fact of life.
Dennis,my brother lives in a small town, 650 population.The lone Chinese family operates a restaurant,does land rush business,because the food’s good.
I’ve found far more racism in big cities,and especially racism by ethnic minorities.
There used to be a pretty good blog out of Morris,Mb, called “Hinchey’s Store” but he closed down a couple of years back. Too bad,he’d have been on this like a terrier on a (journalist) rat.
yes. suspect that goat doesnt have big calling .
ate in a restaurant in Delia Alberta , chinese and western . food seemed fine for the crew and I , what turned us off was when the door opened and the cook used the same ladle on the laundry as the soup . I hate to say how many years ago and no I havent been back to check up on them . bet they are still there , just tried google maps and cant make the little guy go to the street
I know Morris MB very well … It is a textbook example of a rural community losing its basic economic resource … the farms and farmers who surround the area. Bad enough situation for the municipality … and jerks like Gordon Sinclair feel entitled to slag the town ad its people for the sake of publishing a few words in that fishwrap the freep.
Pathetic loser trading on his family name and its diminishing meaning for a lifetime of writing hack opinion articles. The toilet water is circling and the freep will be sucked down the hole along with the worthless Sinclair.
Happen to live fairly close to Morris..have done business there,have eaten there with clients.They are decent God-fearing Mennonites for the most part…now,when the cowboys come to town for Stampede,it livens the joint up!! I NEVER pay attention to anything Sinclair writes as it is mostly hogwash.
I’ve found far more racism in big cities,and especially racism by ethnic minorities.
I also live in a small town and what you say is true. Racism is rare where people live in mixed race neighborhoods and send all their kids to the same schools, play sports together and let their kids have friends in the mixed-racial community. Ghettos and isolation breed racism on all sides for both majorities and minorities. The only ghetto in town is first immigrants and that’s where most of the crime, violence, and racism is centered. All of the later immigrants live in mixed neighborhoods and we all get along and there is very little crime. The first immigrants who move out of the ghetto and join our neighborhoods are just like the rest of us.
What I can’t understand is why the cartoon was considered racist? It was funny which is something one expects a cartoon to be. It accurately reflected the level of technologic advancement of Native Indians at the time and, in fact, gave them credit for being more advanced than they were at the time.
What I’d like to see is a series of cartoons on Indian slavery and will throw out the punch line to one which can be used freely by someone who’s more artistically gifted then I am. Image of an Indian with a spear beind another Indian with a black face “I don’t care if Lincoln freed black slaves, once that charcoal washes off you’ll be an Indian slave again”
As far as racism in small towns, it’s less prevalent than in large cities where one can hide in the crowd. Living in a small population forces people to be better behaved and stupid behavior gets one ostracized not the color of ones skin.
We nick named the place “Heavy Luke’s” as the old guy shuffled when he walked. Still there 5 years ago. Being a retired phone co. road warrior, ate in many , umm, fine eateries. Many don’t deserve to be open.
If it is a small and apparently open-minded community, it will no doubt have a monopoly in West Indian cuisine and will do well providing people like it and the owners don’t torpedo their livelihood with bad and limited service, bad money-handling and poor quality which usually are the cases for restaurant failure.
Restaurants have a very high failure rate. While I don’t know anything about the owner or community, I strongly suspect this is a case of the owner looking for somebody to blame their poor business decisions on.
My son was eating some excellent Chinese food in a restaurant on the eastern side of Saskatchewan(no names)and a customer came in and ordered a cheeseburger. The owner said, “we’re cooking Chinese today, no time for anything else, if you don’t like it get the f–k out”
That’s food service with a belligerence even the ‘soup Nazi’ would appreciate.
Ur doing it wrong there, Scott. Unless Morris has become a hotbed of lynchings and fag bashing, racism and especially “homophobia” are thought crimes. Denying an accusation of racism, homophobia, etc. mainly gives validity to the premise of thought crimes.
An accusation of “racism” these days means nothing – it’s simply a rallying call from one neo-com to other neo-coms to defame a political target – nothing more, nothing less.
As for true racism/bigotry (you know, the type of state/culltue sponsored bigotry that causes genocides) you have to look off continent for that – most of it I see these days is tribalistic and Christians, Jews and other religions seem to be the victims of it.
Hey Don. I am on it – but as a Concillor with the Town of Morris. Check it out – we’ve been fighting back the lies and twisted half truths since January of this year…
I dropped the Blog simply because there was no time anymore, but that doesn’t mean I’m not still out there, looking for the truth! : )