The Black Rod

Two things sent chills down our backs this week. First, was the magnificent performance of Winnipeg's own Samantha Hill at the Tony Awards, a show which was watched by 7.2 million people.  She had the honour of singing the immortal showstopper 'Music of the Night' during a tribute to Andrew Lloyd Webber's 'The Phantom of the Opera', which, this January  became the longest-running show in Broadway history. This year Hill reached the top of the theatre mountain, taking the female lead of Christine Daee in the Broadway production, opposite Peter Joback as the Phantom. If you missed it, you can catch their performance at the Tony's here:   http://broadwayworld.com/article/VIDEO-PHANTOM-OF-THE-OPERA-Cast-Performs-at-Tony-Awards-20130610 At the other end of the scale, we read the full 30-page heart-stopping commentary by Graham Lane, former chairman of the Public Utilities Board, on Doer's Folly , the runaway tr

Woof.  The watchdog is still on the job. Is it June already?  You know what that means? It means our annual shaming of the scofflaw, or, as it's also known, how much is the Canadian Museum for Human Rights refusing to pay for its property taxes? The CMHR has failed to pay its city tax bill for three years running, despite CEO Stu Murray's panicked---and false--- claim when we first exposed their scofflaw status in 2010 that the museum fully intended to pay what was owed.  Since then they've made partial payments but still owe more than $300,000 in back taxes, and that's without the penalties that would accrue to anyone else who stiffed the City. Add to that this year's tax bill---$4.1 million.   Yes, you read that right. Four point one million dollars.   We're betting that since they refused to pay a tenth of that, they're going to claim poverty again. But the only poverty is in the souls of the elitists who can build a $365 million