We still have a lot of work to do from Colbert's Comments
Update April 8 1;34PM Kate over at Small Dead Animals has a great visual example of what I'm talking about. Dispte the almost unanimous vote over at the National Post website we can't expect the media to keep the story alive long enough to help the ... [Read More]

Tracked on April 8, 2005 1:44 PM

The nation's broadcaster. from larry borsato
I had to check this out myself, but Angry in the Great White North says that the CBC gives higher placement to the weather in Saskatchewan than Canada's sponsorship scandal. So I looked at all of the major Canadian media... [Read More]

Tracked on April 8, 2005 2:05 PM

The news Canadians trust from Being American in T.O.
Apr. 8 - This past week has been strange. When much of the print and live news media was focused on the Pope's funeral, Canadian bloggers were weighing the risks of breaking a publication ban, and we had renewd appreciation... [Read More]

Tracked on April 8, 2005 5:02 PM

The Great Canadian Media Conspiracy from The Sudden Sage [beta]
The CBC hasn't ran stories today (April 8, 2005) any differently than anyone else. I checked and posted the proof. Take a look! [Read More]

Tracked on April 8, 2005 5:48 PM

Our Saddest Day from Mindless in Ottawa
Money, power, control; these are the currencies of the weak, the elixirs of the dammed. What we have lost, what has been taken, the very soul of the nation, how can that be rebuilt?... [Read More]

Tracked on April 8, 2005 6:05 PM

Everybody Knows - 4: Clip and Save! from 101-280
As I understand it, the partial lifting of the Brault testimony ban is sufficiently broad to cover everything sloshed around the internet so far. Just in case this is still news to any of my 3-digit traffic, here is the... [Read More]

Tracked on April 8, 2005 11:41 PM

Great post Kate! The message couldn't be any clearer. Scumbags! Scumbags! Scumbags! They're all on the take!

The only thing missing is the line at the end that asks "Any questions?"

Not fair, Kate. The front pages of websites change by the moment, as you very well know. The front page of a newspaper stays the same all day. The proper comparison would have been a cbc.ca screenshot from about 4:00 yesterday afternoon.

Go to globeandmail.com right now; what's the lead story? The pope's funeral.

Herb, this is a GIGANTIC story. That it slipped off the front page is absurd. It's the only thing people are talking about and yet it's not even in the top 3. Please. If they aren't deliberately playing it down, they're just incompetent! (I'll vote for the latter.) But since when have they cared about what their audience wants?

In this case, it's a good thing nobody watches the CBC ...

While I was at the Globe's site, by the way, I noticed that their "poll of the day" question was: should Brault's testimony lead to a non-confidence vote? You have to vote if you want to see what the results are, so I decided to vote "yes", on the basis that if the Bloc moves for no confidence, it will be interesting to see what the Conservatives do (though I think it makes perfect sense for them to duck a vote next week and wait a bit longer to see how this plays out -- or to wait for Gomery's final report, if it seems prudent).

Anyway, the result was pretty interesting; out of about 14,000 votes (a huge number for that feature) it was 53% yes, 47% no. Much closer than I expected.

Tim, of course it's a gigantic story! I agree! My point was that it's unfair to draw any sort of conclusion by comparing a newspaper front page with a constantly changing webpage -- or even an hourly newscast, for that matter. Radio news reports every hour or two, and their obligation is to give you the top story of that hour. Like it or not, the pope's funeral was the top story of midday today.

I will grant that you have a point if The National leads with the pope's funeral tonight.

(Oh, by the way, Tim, it didn't slip off the cbc.ca front page; look again at the screenshot Kate posted.)

It's not only the screenshot - which still is no excuse, as this is the largest scandal in Canadian history. The Pope has been dead for over a week, and that was their number one story. The third was on weather in Saskatchewan. Brault didn't fit in that lineup???

The radio coverage has been no better. Spin, downplay, minimize.

Just like their scanty, superficial UN oil-for-food scandal coverage. NOT ONE WORD on the Chretien -connected Canadians implicated at the investigation.

Where is the Fifth Estate? You'd think they'd be waiting outside the offices of PowerCorp with microphones in hand.

A very unfair characterization of the CBC. The CBC happens to have the best resources regarding the scandal which is clearly visible in your screen cap: InDepth.

Anyone interested in about 2 hours of Brault's video testimony can view it here courtesy of the CBC:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/groupaction/brault_testimony.html

"The Pope has been dead for over a week"...um, yes, but they buried him today in what I gather was a fairly big production.

Personally, I have no interest in that story at all, but Catholicism is the single biggest Christian denomination in Canada; I suspect that if the CBC buried his funeral halfway down their newscast, they'd be excoriated fiercely by the country's Catholics. (Note as well that the pope's funeral remains the top story right now at cnn.com, foxnews.com, nytimes.com and globeandmail.com.)

CBC: "This just in from the Vatican - the Pope is still dead".

Those looking for a link roundup to almost all of the media coverage are advised to scroll to the bottom of this post:

http://www.polspy.ca/items/2005/04/07/1100.php

The only stories I haven't been linking are the repeats from CP/AP/Reuters, etc.

And tell me - where do they rank the weather reports from Saskatchewan?

And why no comment yet on the contributions from CBC board members to the Bloc?

http://www.cbcwatch.ca/?q=node/view/15/62

"CBC directors - all but one are Chretien appointees and many have close ties to the federal Liberals - operate in virtual secrecy. Their meetings are secret and exempt from the federal Access to Information law through which the public and news media are able to get information about government spending."

Watch the CBC at:

CBC Watch

Read & gnash your molars, incisors, and spit out the Liberals .... corruption & more corruption,,,,&&@@@, &&&&&, XXXXXX....XXxxxx.

http://www.cbcwatch.ca/?q=node/view/15/62

The arrogance; the so-what-attitude; the what-are-you-going-to-do-about? face of the federal Liberals; the on-the-take attitude of some Canadians; modus operandi of the CBC Board secrecy, & more secrecy. It is there.

Third world dictatorship, banana republic, one-party state & etc.; there it is: Sea to sea. Proud are we? Not this Canadian. Ashamed.

Rise up; throw the Liberals & PM Martin out of office; or, live with it. (Who said: I hate those bastards?)

P.S. whatareyougoingtodoaboutit? comes from Boss Tweed (search)

nice work.

re;crerar
a ferret,wrong,not
gopher buddy gopher,not ferret

Herb's right. Website pages change hourly at times. Nice try, Kate, but you've wasted your time on a conspiracy theory.

You are attracting more than your share of cranky lefties,toots.You must be doing something right :)

Curious about what our non-blogging comrades might have had to say in their emails to the Communist Broadcasting Corporation, I wandered on over for a read. One email from a reader posted on the recent testimony on Adscam. One. Thank God for blogs.

The CBC is only interested in Catholicism when the Pope dies. At any other time it's "shaddap and keep your holy opinions to yourselves."

Kate, how did 3% manage to get donated to the people with the hidden agenda. Are those who contributed the 3% still on the Board or have they been purged.

Anonymous

I justed checked www.canada.com (1:46pm CST) for their top stories (sorry, no screen shot) and noted the following top 3 stories:

1. Popes funeral.
2. Adscam.
3. Ahenakew.

Further down: National Post - Canada's Watergate

Tonight on Global National: Can a minority government survive yesterday's explosive testimony at the Gomery Inquiry? Reporter Troy Reeb caught up to Paul Martin in Rome. The P.M.'s reaction on tonight's Global National.

Quick look at www.ctv.ca (1:51pm CST):

1. Pope
2. Adscam
3. Toronto Transit

Now www.canoe.ca (1:53pm CST)

1. Pope
2. Adscam
3. Masters Golf

Quick look at www.cbc.ca(1:54pm CST):

1. Toronto Transit
2. Pope
3. Spammer sentenced.

In fact, CBC has not one mention of Adscam on their front page. Is the CBC avoiding the story? Looks damn obvious to me.

Howie, I'm not a cranky lefty, I'm a cranky centrist. (I realize it's hard to tell the difference from the extreme right.)

Matt wrote, The CBC is only interested in Catholicism when the Pope dies. At any other time it's "shaddap and keep your holy opinions to yourselves."

And I write, yes exactly. The message in this elegantly simple post is that the CBC is using a very Christian occasion, which would otherwise would not be fron and centre in the Ceeb's mind, as cover for the Adscam story.

Oh yes, that and the subtle message of the 15% contributions to the separatists which I presume were made by people running Radio-Québec, errrr Canada.

OT ; has anybody been able to get on to the Shotgun . I've been unable to all day.

The 82-15-3 donation split is interesting, but does anyone know what the dollar values of those various percentages are? Eighty-two per cent of diddly squat is less than diddly, but if it's in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars then it's a different story.

Incidentally, speaking of the dreaded "liberal media", does anyone else find it hilarious that up here in Canada they're being blamed because they haven't done enough to expose a political kickback scandal, while down in the US, the right-wing bloggers are blaming them just as vociferously for going overboard in doing precisely that, in the Tom DeLay affair?

Funny, I always thought the thing about principles was that they had to be applied consistently.

To find out more about the research, go to http://www.stephentaylor.ca

That graphic is only one of several research projects done by bloggers before Elections Canada got wise and rendered the public search engine unusuable.

It happened right after reports of questionable contributions to the Liberal Party were revealed in the National Post.

Centrist? sure....

I'll postscript that - those National Post reports didn't credit the blogger Vitor Marciano of What It Takes To Win (he's on my sidebar), but he's the guy who got the ball rolling.

ok, just checked cbc.ca at 16:33 EDT Friday

here copied right from the front page (sans images):
------------------------------------------
Last Updated: 16:33 EDT Friday, Apr 08, 2005

Top Stories

Toronto transit workers to strike Monday
People in Toronto will face commuter chaos on Monday as the city's transit workers say they'll walk off the job then.
Huge crowd attends Pope's funeral
Spammer sentenced to 9 years
Mideast truce threatened by proposed rally at sacred site

----------------------------------------
nothing on the front page at all.

ok, in case you missed that, let me re-iterate, "nothing on the fron page at all"

Even if you click more news, you see only a tiny, tiny reference to it.

So the fact that a spammer got 9 nine years (yay!!) seems to be far more important. Oh and a Toronto transit strike (boo!!), which would be important to me if I did not work at home and used planes for work travel. It certainly isn't a big deal to people in say Belleville or Kingston, much less the rest of Canada.

Talk about a sense of perspective here.

If that doesn't say something, then I don't know. Frankly, I think Kate is right on the money with this.

Herb, I dislike that meme, but those pushing it would say there is no contradiction since the "US liberal media" attacks a conservative admin in the US and the "Canadian liberal media" refuses to attack a liberal admin.

I personally don't see the contradiction you are alluding to.

The best argument for selling off all crown corporations like the CBC, VIA, et cetera is that these institutions create habitat for corrupt liberals. Places for them to stuff their loyal cronies. They also tend to underperform compared to fully private corporations. Look what happened when CN was unloaded. It went from a liberal money wasting cesspool to a solid investment almost overnight. There's nothing like firing the bastards to get their attention.

Herb,
I guess your point is that your lieberal thieving lefty klepto's have stolen millions and brought shame to our nation, and you are trying to make up some relativistic story to downplay it, by using some obscure impossible connection

The short answer is no it's not hilarious,... the lieberal appologists desperate arguments are though.

Howie, what a thoughtful response. I'll be mulling it over for days.

Capt. Joe and richfisher: I take it from your responses that you aren't familiar with the DeLay affair. In a nutshell: prominent federal politician accepts lavish "gifts" and favours from companies and lobbyists doing business with the feds. A family member is paid half a mil by his PAC. And more.

Sound familiar?

And you guys wouldn't possibly approve of any of those things, right?

I don't have a problem with private broadcasters being biased as much as I don't want my tax money used to forward a certain ideology.
The CBC should be privatized and the sooner the better.

Why do we need the CBC? Huh?

Herb,

The point here is that the liberal media is not painting the adscam scandal as strongly as they should. That is the same issue with DeLay. As DeLay is a conservative (Republican) the media is latched on and will not give an inch.

The whole point of principle is exactly what is missing. The media and freedom of the press are given protection by means of the constitution and charter of rights, but what happens when the media presents a single perspective on most issues? The protection that they were afforded should no longer be considered valid. The freedom was intended (I would expect) to allow the media to report on anything that was not in the best interest of those they serve, namely the public at large. The CBC and MSM now serve only the liberal sides on the issues they cover, to the extent that lower profile methods are being employed such as bloggers who choose to pursue stories. While bloggers do not have to present both sides of a story at least I can go to one or the other side and read their perspectives. A blog does not present itself or deem itself as balanced as the "journalists" do.

The CBC is rarely on in my house, and without HNIC will probably not be for a while.

Under the Soviet Union TASS was the state mouthpiece of the government. We are not communist but I trust the CBC in much the same way as I had trusted what was released by Soviet State Television.

I'll add another observation that has so far been overlooked -- in case you didn't notice, the "hot weather in Saskatchewan" (read global warming is real) story is positioned directly beneath the spending figures for Kyoto. That is not accidental.

Herb, how can any American politician's behaviour possibly be relevent here? Do you not know what conutry you live in? If you seriously believe that any foreigner's conduct can justify the criminality of the Canadian Liberals, why don't you just cite Robert Mugabe as your precedent, and claim the right to do anything he does?

You've made it clear that, whatever self-serving lies you bleat out, you approve of this conduct by the Liberals. You want it to continue. Don't bother inviting us to deal with you, little man. You and your kind are damn well going to be dealt with.

There's no bias here. Posting yesterday's Adscam news as a recurring top headline isn't necessary. The CBC isn't posting anything differently than its competitors, from my survey at The Sudden Sage

"There's no bias here."

You might as well add that the entire Adscam is a 'vast right wing conspiracy'. Can anyone tell me what the hell Paul'Gay Marriage'Martin is doing at the Pope's funeral anyway? He never seemed to be too interested in his faith before, now suddenly he has to jet across to Rome to pay his respects. My theory is that he's hoping to swipe a couple of artifacts from the Vatican when nobody's looking.

Front Pages from across the Distressed Dominion
Calgary Sun
Edmonton Journal
Guelph Mercury
Hamilton Spectator
Kitchener
La Presse
Vancouver Sun
Winnipeg Sun

They are really on top of things in the Peg.

Great post Kate: As far as CBC exec donations to the Libranos, I find it even more disturbing that Canada's Desmarais family is heavily tied into the CBC. Cretien's daughter married a Desmarais son. All PMs except Kimble Campbel works for Desmarais. And, Desmarais is the front figure in the Oil-for-food fraud in France. Adscam is just one small cog in the Librano gears.

Check this out for more info on the Desmarais family:

http://www.westernstandard.ca/website/index.cfm?page=article&article_id=542

Correction on my last post: All PMs except Kimble Campbel "worked" for Desmarais.

I emailed the CBC to ask them why there is no mention on the headline section of their website. Awaiting answer.

BTW nice going Kate, Nealnews has linked to your story.

We've all read that Steyn article 100 times. I need more smoking gun material before rises in status above the 57 1/2 alleged Bush-Cheney-Halliburton plots.

Bias would be comparing yesterday's Globe and Mail NEWSPAPER headline to a radio and television outfit like the CBC. The Globe online, which is a melding of breaking news today, and yesterday's print news, dropped Adscam stuff lower down early on. The CBC still has it top of page, right side. Oops, the Globe and Mail just dropped it lower, it's off the bottom of my screen.... CBC now has more up on the first screen shot than the Globe.

No, this isn't CBC bias, this is your bias.

Mark: You obviously didn't read the Steyn article; or else you ignored it's most obvious point. The trail to Desmarais and the PMO over the last several decades is many many times more solid than anything that links Bush or Cheney to Halliburton. And, owning controlling shares in the major bank and oil company involved in the Oil-for-food scam is in its very least a more direct line to Sadaam than anything anyone can conjure up concering Cheney and Halliburton. Coincidence alone can not account for a fraction of where Paul Desmarais' name pops up. As far as Mark Steyn, I challenge you to find one example of where he has been wrong... except in his prediction that Bush would sweep the USA election.

As usual, the CBC is peddling the Liberal Party line: "Martin is squeaky clean; national unity is at stake; the Conservatives are barbarians who will bring down the country". Frankly, I believe the CBC has lost all credibility as a result of its palpable bias in favour of its cronies in government. The anti-Americanism, anti-western, anti-Israel stance is lamentable, as are the openly left-wing sentiments of most of its commentators and journalists.

The CBC should be converted to a clutch of regional non-profit educational stations. Its self-proclaimed "guardian of Canadian values" delusion is a piece of hypocrisy quite in keeping with its adopted role as apologist for the one-party state.

Speaking of Paul Martin and Jean Chretien, who claim to not have known about the scandalous theft and are desperately trying to paint themselves as innocent victims of collossal fraud. I'll use a metaphor here, ya can't stand with a gaden hose pouring water down a gopher hole and watch as the gophers pop up out of the ground several yards away and not know that the two actions are connected. In other words Paul Martin as finance minister and had to see that money was going to the sponsorship program and also huge amounts of money was coming in to the Liberal Party of Canada. He may not have known exactly whose hands it passed through to get from point "A" to point "F" but he was either in collusion of incompetent not to recognise that there were points "B,C,D,and E. I should add here that as the Head of a major shipping concern, he wouldn't stay in business if he was incompetent at financial matters. Jean Chretien,well he was Paul Martin's Fagan. The term "plausible deniability" throughout the liberal party i'm sure has been the catch phrase, and standard method of operations, "if I don't know specifics I sure as hell can bluff these stupid sheep into beleiving I didn't know generalities." I've heard it stated over and over today on the radio that we should boot the bastards out, while I agree with that on the surface, I also feel that we should try to get to the real bottom of this. The ad scam scandal was one vehicle for the laundry of money, how many others could there be, CBC?, indian affairs?, is the gun registry just dumb beurocratic bungling or is there something darker and deeper there that needs investigating? Personally I think we should freeze all the assets of the Liberal Party of Canada, and begin a forensic audit of all of their past budgets in all of the departments and if the scheming is found to as endemic as "I" suspect it is, fine the lot plus interest. That would be just, unrealistic but just. Imagine if you will, how much farther Canada would be ahead right now If we had not a government that potentially has been stealing us blind for the past 12 or more years. Which brings me to another point, what did Jean Chretien walk in on when the liberals took power from the conservatives, did they find the metaphorical hooker putting her fishnet stocking back on sitting on the side of the bed, and decide to put her back to work for their ends this time. We as Canadians need to raise the bar higher on our demands for accountability from our government, and generally pay a hell of a lot more attention to these things than our parents.

Fuzzylogic to save you the trouble of having Mark come back at you, I can tell you that Mark Steyn once said Osama was dead, shortly thereafter Osama proved he was alive with a video in which he spoke about things that had just occurred, and Steyn predicted the violence would stop in Iraq soon after the Americans took control. It didnt. But who could predict any of these things. But I would still give him over a ninety percent rating which isn't too bad in my books.

To those who would ask why Paul would open this closet full of skeleton if he did infact know what was in there, like any other mob boss who wants to go through the motions of legitamacy. He overestimated the loyalty that he thought he bought.

Gabriel, (Gaby), J. Chretien's elder brother, was named by Brault as receiving cheque $4,000. Cheque had Gaby's SIN on same, placed there by Brault.
Could be...
But, ya know, he's old, senile, in a home, but, den da proof is da proof , so prove it. He has dat oltimers ting.... memory gone.... da proof is... gomery gone too....

Boss Tweed: "So, what are you going to do about it?"

What is the official CPC position on the CBC? Are they going to privatize it, keep it the same or let it die slowly by small funding cuts every year?
I hope they privatize it or shut it down as is it less then useless.

Communist Party of Canada's position re CBC & etc.

We shall complete the revolution first; we shall re-name it as, The Truth, aka Pravda; We shall appoint E. Margolis/L. Axworthy co- chairmen; Small Dead Animals will not be allowed to link. Norm will be censor. Editor: Please send resume. /sarcasm off.

This whole sad tale underscores the need for a revision of the entire structure of the Canadian federal government if it is to be a truly representational democracy. There need to be constitutional reforms, which ensure a much higher degree of public scrutiny, accountability and checks and balances. Some suggestions: 1) Election dates should be fixed: 2) Election of the Prime Minister should be separated from election of MP's: 3) MP's and senators must be free to represent the majority view of their constituents without fear of retribution from their party if they represent views that do not follow the party line: 4) The senate should be re-constituted as an elected, representational body: 5) Cabinet member and federal bench nominees ought to have to be vetted before multi-party public hearings: 6) The executive and director nominees for any and all public corporate entities should also be required to be vetted by all-party committees in a public forum: 8) Closed-door sessions of the executive/directors/boards of any publicly funded entity should be illegal: 7) It should be law that there must be a clear and publicly available accounting audit trail for any and all expenditures of all tax revenue.

I agree with everything "rob" says, but will change my name to trash so he doesn't get accused of my bad grammer and spelling... ;)

CBC Trusted,Connected,Canadian.

Well its canadian, connected in the sense the mafia uses the word, but trusted - nah.

WTF Rob?!? are you some kind of Albertan heretic. watch out man those kind of sentiments will have the likes of Anne MacLellan bursting your eardrums with her shrill indignation. Common sense, well shit man that's just anathema to Ottawa in general. Go crawl back under the reform party labelled rock you just crawled out from under. I would just like to add that senators, although not elected for life should not be elected along party lines and should be elected for a longer term than MP's. I feel they should be the non-partizan house of sober second thought, and enforced as such. Include in this possibly a ban on political party membership to all senators, as well as a ban on things like donations and other tacit support. It wouldn't be perfect but then I haven't written this in stone either.

So is it the Parlimentary system itself that is preventing any form of accountability and did the charter add to all this abuse of the system. I suppose if there was any kind of challenge to all this, it'd be blackball city for that party by the east and the left wing media and justice system.

So based on the fact that there will never be any change in the existing system, and from what I read above, the only permanent way to resolve this is to split up the federation of Canada.

This sucks, no matter how far forward you go, your still in the same place.

Herb,

so the fact that all of the other news sites maintains the story of adscam far longer than CBC (our national broadcaster) means nothing to you. As for "searching for conspiracy theories" - that's a bit rich. Here we are in the midst of the greatest political conspiracy in our country's history and you mock Kate for "searching" for them.

A centrist you ain't. A barking moonbat you are.

You mindless drones. Go look at www.cbc.ca. If you jump right to the news page you miss the fact that the sponsorship scandal is right front and center on the main page. Take everything with a grain of salt.

Kate spelled it out quite well. Here we have Canada's most odious political scandal, one that's shaken our democratic process to its core, and we've caught much of the media in the middle of a yawn.

And with regards to the CBC donations, the media is supposed to act as a cheque on government, not write a cheque to it.

Herb,

Hobbes and ebt understand the essential difference. I suggest you re-read my post to understand it.

Daryl,

We do need a better system for senators than we have now. The senate as it operates within Canadian Federalism is a dead organ, a graveyard and retirement reward for loyal party hacks and friends of whatever party is in power. That just doesn't cut it for me. Fine, don't elect, but at least challenge why they should be there other than the reasons I mention they really do end up there

"you mindless drones!!!"

You forgot the exclamation marks so I added them.

Back to the Democratic Underground or Indy(Nazi)Media with you mister! THe power of Christ compels you, The power of Christ compels you,...

yuk, yuk..

There's another Adscam headline front and center now at CBC (8 p.m. EST), and on CBC's front page.

It'll last a few hours, or until morning, and then they'll replace it with whatever. And so on.

The CBC is a news service for Canadians. Lots of stuff deserves a head.

This isn't CBC bias, its your bias.

And the story just changed. It went from "Political parties gauging impact of sponsorship revelations" at http://cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/04/08/gomeryfallout050408.html
to "Inquiry told PMO involved in sponsorship contracts" at http://cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/04/08/gomeryt050408.html

and so it goes.

Really good timing Mark. Launch it on a Friday night when no ones going to read it. That's usually a political tactic for when you want an issue ignored.

Mark,

You've been going to every trackback link in an attempt to discredit the issue. That's fine, but your not going to convince anyone here that the CBC is the unbiased piece of crap propaganda machine that it really is.

We stand by Kate's assertions, and if your a raving moonbat or a CBC employee trying to justify your position, that's your problem.

Capt Joe wrote

"Fine, don't elect, but at least challenge why they should be there other than the reasons I mention they really do end up there

Posted by capt joe at April 8, 2005 08:45 PM"

I presume mainly because the bit got edited out of my post for some reason.

It went here “ rock you just crawled out from under. I would just like to add that senators,”

I have always, since I was old enough to understand the concepts, been in favour of a triple EEE senate. I just don’t hink we should clone the US system of gov when we can take bits and pieces from everywhere to make a system that really works well. Yes I do agree that as it is now, it is a plum position and exactly as you mention, which is why a triple E concept is a good one. We can debate the definition of effective, the length of term they are elected, and by what statistic equal should be judged, but we are still talking about a triple E senate.

Also I just reread my original post, and “Not elected on party lines” should be clarified, what I mean by that is that a senator should be neither conservative in his platform nor liberal or any other stripe of political orientation, he should simply be the senator representative of his constituency, county or whatever else we call the place and people he represents. A true direct representative to the long term goals of the people. Where a short term politician may be swayed by the immediate desire to be reelected before the long term effects of silly policy show up, a longer term senator would (well ok, lets be real here, should) look more at the longer term implications of policy.

I hope this clears up the confusion, I’m just wanted to make sure it ISN’T thought that I am actually AGAINST Rob’s commentary or, dread the thought, FOR Anne McLellan.

TTFN

Daryl.

What the hell? do pointy brackets not work Here?
An "end Sarcasm" statement was supposed to go between "rock you just crawled out from under" and "I would just like to add that senators,"

Bloody hell, I hope this has not caused too much confusion in the past here.

Daryl.

oh, and Mark, you ARE a moonbat. Nice try though

The CBC shouldn't post Friday's news on a Friday night?

This is Friday's news, not Thursday's.

They posted the revealed Adscam testimony as it happened thursday afternoon. Were they supposed to wait until Friday morning to keep to the slow pace of the newspapers, like the G&M? Are they then supposed to keep that head up there while other news goes by?

You all seem to be missing the point. We don't need the CBC. We don't need state-operated media. Period. If we don't need it, we should not have it. End of discussion.

"There need to be constitutional reforms, which ensure a much higher degree of public scrutiny, accountability and checks and balances."

No amount of scrutiny and accountability will fix this problem. There are lots of conservative and independent senators and dozens of non-Liberal MPs who are supposed to be attending committee hearings and asking questions. There are comptrollers and auditors in every single government department, and there are the entire mini-empires of the Auditor General and the Comptroller General. There are whole buildings full of knobs in the dept. of Finance who are paid to watch where the cheques go. There is a federal police force with a large white-collar crime unit. There is a free press, many of whom hate the Liberals. Yet hundreds of millions were stolen anyways, and billions more were wasted. Why? Because you, suckers that you are, trusted them with half of every dollar that you make, and sat there like fat, dumb, cud-chewing farm animals as they took your money and found ways to steal it and waste it.

And now you're wringing your hands trying to think of ways that you can keep your bloated, unresponsive, brain-dead government and all its useless, spoiled bureaucrats and welfare queens at the trough, yet "be more accountable".

Assuming that all attempts to reform the corruption machine will be unsuccessful - and I think that's a pretty safe bet - how long do you think we can go on like this?

OK, once more and pay attention:

The sworn testimony of Jean Brault at a public inquiry recounting extortion, corruption and possible organized time ties is not "just another Canadian story to interest Canadians."

It is not a lesser story than the Pope's funeral.

It is not a story one cycles through a dozen headlines during the day.

The publication ban on Brault's testimony - hours of it - was under 24 hours old, and the CBC was no longer headlining it on their website.

When a corporation is headed by a board that was appointed by the same Prime Minister who has now been directly tied to the largest corruption scandal in Canadian history, it is going to come under scrutiny for conflict of interest. This is one of those scrutinizing events.

The CBC top stories online keep changing. The sponsorship story is, once again, the lead on their page. nealenews.com, however, has bumped it for a story about Anna Nicole Smith cancelling a trip to Newfoundland. I guess Brian Neale is now just another Liberal toady too?

I guess the Newfs got their quota on the seal hunt.

Neale is a private news aggregator, not a tax--payer funded state media corporation that is obligated to perform its duty without political bias or interference.

Notwithstanding the fact that he is headlining 6 Gomery related items, plus an archive of others, he isn't funded by the taxpayer or bound by regulations that prohibit political activity.

The CBC is.

Imagine for a moment, if you can, that the CBC simply ceases to exist. What am I missing? How am I worse off?

To this outsider, looking in from Texas, much of what ails Canada should be attributed to the threat of Quebec's separation, hanging over its head.

Doing a bit of research, I have noted that the Supreme Court, in 1998, declared that:

"Neither the Quebec government nor legislature have a legal right under Canadian constitutional law or under international law to unilaterally secede from Canada. However, the court also emphasized that the rest of Canada would have a political obligation to negotiate Quebec's separation if a clear majority of that province's population voted in favour of it."

http://www.nelson.com/nelson/polisci/quebec.html

A political obligation to "negotiate," coupled, presumably, with Quebec's having a political right to enforce "negotiations." This is crazy - the creation of some sort of political purgatory where no one knows what the rules are, where the actual rules will be made up as the parties go along.

Nonetheless, by this ruling, Quebec has some semblance of a right to secede. This is much akin to where the US stood prior to the Civil War, when the right of secession had not been resolved and the South held the threat of secession over the head of the North, prompting Lincoln to say:

"A house divided against itself cannot stand." I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.

http://www.historyplace.com/lincoln/divided.htm

So long as Quebec holds its leverage, Canada cannot hope to have a true sense of national union. The thing is being held together with baling wire, as was the US prior to the Civil War.

Quebec's leverage inures to the benefit of the Liberal Party, as it enables the party to present itself as the broker of peace between the factions - the last bulwark between order and chaos. Adscam reveals the Liberals for what they are - bag men delivering the extortion payoff, while skimming their percentage off the top. Meanwhile, the BQer's use the scandal to increase their leverage, not for the sake of ultimately separating, but rather for the purpose of ultimately dominating the national scene. "Look here, Boy, do as we say or we will hold you up to ridicule. Henceforth, you must pay us off legally, not under the table. All of Quebec must be bought off, not just the advertising executives and the politicians."

Would it make sense for conservatives of the West to commence a separatist movement of their own, thereby playing the same game? No. This would enhance the status of the Liberals as the brokers of peace and tranquility.

The Conservative position should be to call the bluff of the BQer's. "If you wish to separate, then have another referendum. If separation is approved, then let us proceed with negotiation of the terms of separation." Quebec must be told that the rest of Canada will not pay blackmail in order to preserve a fictional union.

A trump card holds value only so long as it has not been played. Once played, it goes into the discard pile.

The sad point here is WILL we lean anything from this? When we do go to polls the East will decide
again to vote the liberal in. Just my thought.

The longer it takes bring the liberals down the more
time they will have to convince Ontatio that right
is the Evil force, against Canada and has a hidened
agena.

WELCOME HOME PAUL
DID YOU REALLY KISS THE GROUND??

Kate, my reply was just too long to just post here. I placed it posterity at http://section15.blogspot.com/2005/04/once-more-with-feeling.html

Why do we need the CBC anyway . There are private broadcasters out there that are already in place.
Change it into a PBS OR ACCESS type entity and I'll be happy.

I know I'd cry if the CBC was gone. I'd never know for sure what the next Liberal party line would be without it.

Just yesterday on Newsworld's Politics, the host (not Don Newman) was hyping a poll that said Liberal support hadn't budged. Only after Conservative prodding did they begrudgingly admit that the poll was taken before the Brault testimony leaked.

"The government is a huge parasite on the backs of the electorate."
Jeb Bush
Brightleaf, justsomegai and texan, good one,eh!

Bury the CBC and cut the size of guvment.Every time that the guvment comes in contact with our 51 % of every dollar earned they are and will always steal it.
Let me repeat that,...they will always find ways to steal it.
Our only defense is to limit the contact of schemeing elitists at ever being tempted, by minimalizing the flow, not by putting more of them to watch the increased flow of $$$.

The CBC has something like a 6% share of Canadian viewers, so perhaps some of the posters are right. It doesn't really matter what the CBC is showing, the question is why are we spending $1 billion a year keeping it afloat?

"Our pals at the CBC, who stand on guard for We, waited until 9:17 tonight to post today's bombshell that has testimony linking adscam directly to the PMO."

From Friday night, 9 a.m., the story CBC ran was: 'Inquiry told PMO involved in sponsorship contracts'

This new claim of bias would be interesting if compared to other news sites. Thing is, I was monitoring several then in coinjunction with this issue, (G&M online, CNews, CTV) and CBC was the first place I saw that news.

CBC was slower putting up an earlier Adscam-related head at 8 a.m.: 'Political parties gauging impact of sponsorship revelations', which I first saw a few hours earlier on G&M online.

Perhaps some other news sites carried the revelation sooner, but I didn't see it. Perhaps the sites I was monitoring buried the lead so I missed it, but I severely doubt it.

I was only ever monitoring the first screenful of each site, keeping with the accusation that Adscam had to be a major headline to not be considered bias.

I believe I mentioned Mark, that this wasn't the only example.

BTW - the whole Saskatchewan weather story was non-story - as I type this, it's snowing. Last night there was a winter storm watch for the south west. The fact is that there is no such thing as "untypical weather for April" on the prairies. Not only did CBC keep Brault testimony rotating through the headlines at a low frequency, they were placing using weather trivia to bolster their pro-Kyoto stance.

Only the CBC and the Lieberals and David Suzuki can save the world from the 2% of the pollution that Canada looses on the world every year. That's 2% of the total pollution around the globe. C'mon Canada, sign on to Kyoto, Lose a Ton of Money to China and India. You'll feel good. C'mon Canada, you're up for a challenge, aren't you? Pay Russia to pollute. You'll feel better.