The Black Rod

Jenny Motkaluk landed a couple of haymakers on incumbent Brian Bowman the day she announced she was running for his job as mayor. No more rapid transit, she said, and even the unfinished line to south Winnipeg was on the chopping block if possible. Rapid transit was  Bowman's legacy project. And as for his pledge to open Portage and Main to pedestrians? History. Not gonna happen, declared Motkaluk. The battle lines appeared drawn.   Instead of spending hundreds of millions on Bowman's vanity transit plan, she believed in "putting more buses more frequently onto the roads that we already have so that we can serve Winnipeggers right now." She would be a meat-and-potatoes mayor.  Spend tax money on the priorities of the taxpayers and not the politicians. What a concept! Bowman was momentarily stunned. Interestingly he didn't rush to the defence of his vaunted rapid transit dream.  But he countered Motkaluk's Portage and Main stand---he would hold a referendum and

Brian Bowman is running scared. Six weeks away from an election for mayor of Winnipeg, a poll showed that eight out of ten voters were looking for someone other than the incumbent to fill the post. After four years in office, Bowman had the support of barely 22 percent of decided electors. But with the undecided measuring at 57 percent, the poll was meaningless. The polling company, Probe Research, should be ashamed to have even released such a perverted measure of opinion. Three weeks later, a (heavily manipulated) poll (more about that in a minute) showed that Bowman's support had grown to 34 percent, or roughly three voters in ten. This time the pollsters claimed they could peer deep into  the undecideds ( 39 percent of those polled) and detect that Bowman's support was actually 61 percent.  Given that his main opponent's support had barely climbed from 11 percent to 15 percent among decided voters, Bowman should have been taking a victory lap. But a poll with 39 percent

It was a year ago this month that Winnipeg Free Press publisher Bob Cox began his campaign for federal government subsidies to newspapers whose advertisers have abandoned them. Since then we've learned all about fake news---that's when reporters make up facts then write stories based on their invented truths. But what about fffake news---news the papers want to conceal from the public and do it by not publishing them? The Winnipeg Free Press is currently sitting on two doozies, both about lawsuits --- against the Winnipeg Free Press. In one, the newspaper is accused of stealing the research of a prominent Winnipeg scholar and cheating him out of royalties from a book t hey told him they would never publish, then did. To add insult, they submitted the book for journalism awards. In the other, the (former) editor of the Free Press used libel chill to silence a radio talkshow host whose critical reporting on the Winnipeg Free Press she didn't like. Her backroom cam

Here we go again. - Another convicted murderer to be lionized. - A dedicated Crown attorney to be demonized. - And a mainstream media mob to be titillized by a juicy miscarriage of justice. Alleged. 'I wuz framed,' says new saint Frank Ostrowski, blaming veteran Crown attorney George Dangerfield for the 23 years he spent in prison. This week Ostrowski asked the Manitoba Court of Appeal to vacate his 1987 conviction for the murder of an acquaintance. He wants the court to issue a declaration of innocence, (so that he can sue the province for millions?).   The province wants a simple declaration of a stay of proceedings which would eradicate the conviction and leave Ostrowski free (he's been out of prison on bail since 2009), but otherwise end the proceedings. After all, 23 years in the slam is almost the 25-year minimum before parole that the worst murderer would have to serve. The local news media have become the Greek chorus to the 69-year-old Ostrowski&#

Has the world gone crazy? A political party that elected an accused wife beater as its leader is roiled by anonymous accusations that a member who is no longer in the Legislature tickled women years ago? He not only tickled women, but threatened to tickle others.  And even asked one if she liked to be tickled.  What a beast! One ex-MLA--- one of the fearless, strong, independent NDP women---has come forward to say that she, whoever she is, was tickled, too.  And not once. Twice. TWICE, we say.  Within four, or maybe eight, or possibly even 17 years.  And nobody stopped this animal? An army of aggrieved females has declared they will put an end to tickling in politics.  Never again, they say. But where were they when a woman came forward last year to say that her former common-law husband, Wab Kinew, dragged her along the ground by her hair to show her how a real man treats his woman.  Another time, she said, Kinew threw her across the room of their home so vici