The Black Rod

                                     The Huron Expositor, Nov. 20, 1885                                                 RIEL HANGED The execution of Louis David Riel took place at Regina on Monday morning last.  He met his fate bravely and never winced even to the last moment. Riel never slept after receiving intelligence that the execution would take place Monday morning, and thoughout the night was constant in his devotions.  At seven o'clock he had a light supper, and at five in the morning mass was celebrated, following two hours later by the administration of the last sacrament.  Riel towards the last almost entirely dropped his new religious idiosyncracies and decided to die a devout Catholic.               ...

The Sarnia Observer, April 1, 1870                         NEWS FROM RED RIVER The latest news of any importance from Red River, is the particulars of the shooting, by the usurper Riel, of a Canadian of the name Thomas Scot, for alleged faithlessness to the Provisional Government.  It appears Scott was one of the imprisoned Canadians, but had been released on condition that he would not take up arms against the insurgents, a promise to this effect having been extorted from him as the condition of his liberation. This was during the time  the Boulton-Schultz movement was in progress, and it seems Scott, in all probability having his temper excited by the conduct of Riel towards those who had been his fellow prisoners, and anxious to secure their liberation, and the downfall of this upstart French half-breed, joined the movement referred to, on ...

It's TIME TO PANIC! Manitoba Hydro didn't ask for a rate increase last month--- they begged, they pleaded, and ... they threatened dire consequences if they didn't get their way. And that was just for the best-case scenario. Which is disastrous. The reason for their desperation is in the supporting documents that were filed with their application which can be summed up in four words: Manitoba Hydro Horror Show. Here's how the crisis shapes up: * Manitoba Hydro won't be able to raise enough money to make its interest payments in eight of the next 13 years. * Manitoba Hydro won't earn enough money to cover the cost of replacing aging infrastructure in nine of the next ten years , never mind paying the billions required for new dams and transmission lines. * If the Province has to backstop Hydro, the utility will lose its credit rating and borrowing costs will go way up. * If Hydro loses its credit rating, it will tak...

I t's award season.  Step aside Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Oscars... ...we're going to honour the best performances deserving a Sammie, the city of Winnipeg award for scandal, shame, conspiracy, cover-up, audits and police investigations. The  nominations are in. For the best portrayal of disgraced Mayor Sam Katz in a civic scandal:  Know Nothing Mayor Brian Bowman. For the best portrayal of Sandy Shindleman in a civic scandal:  Mark Chipman, Bowman's biggest booster. For the best ensemble portrayal of Shindico in a civic scandal: True North Entertainment. For the best portrayal of disgraced CAO Phil Sheegl in a civic scandal: a tie between CentreVenture board chair Kurt Vossen and CentreVenture board member Richard Olfert. Honorable mention:  soon-to-be-fired CAO Deepak Joshi as himself. We've seen this movie before, haven't we? The mayor's friend gets a secret real-estate deal worth millions. Council...

We're so dizzy we're bumping into walls. Who wouldn't be after a day of scandal after scandal like we saw Wednesday. Where should we start?  Should we start with the latest land development scandal? Oh, you're bored with land development scandals.  All developers are crooks; all politicians are corrupt; nobody ever gets charged or fired or held accountable; and it's going to cost taxpayers millions, as usual.  Hey, were you peeking at our notes? But this one is different, kinda. Listen: The Winnipeg Convention Centre was looking pretty dowdy. It needed a makeover. And while they were at it, they could make it bigger, because conventions these days are really, really big and if you want to attract the best ones, you have to be big enough to host them. So they had a contest to see who could do the job at the best price and picked a company called Stuart Olson. But there was one teeny catch. Isn't there always? Convention goer...

Not only did new councillor and professed lawyer Marty Morantz demonstrate last week his total ignorance of the law governing council, but he doubled down to say he didn't care what the law was, he was going to bully city employees around and they had better like it.   If this is an indication of the calibre of appointees to 'Know Nothing' Brian Bowman's civic government, then Winnipeggers will soon be wishing for a return of Mayor Sam Katz and what was then known as the most dysfunctional council in memory. Bowman, whose knowledge of how city council functions is zero, decided to start his term in office by attacking the city auditor. Two days later, Morantz decided he would attack the police department and thereby demonstrate he's even more clued out over how the city runs than Bowman. What an accomplishment. Upon presentation of the Winnipeg Police Service Third Quarter Financial Report, Morantz lobbed questions at Deputy Police ...

New Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman already has a nickname at City Hall. Bozo Bowman. Ouch. Two thirds of the way into his first hundred days in office, his colleagues on council have decided he's a legend in his own mind. 'Know Nothing' Brian Bowman promised to do City Hall differently, to "hit the ground running", to "think big." So on Wednesday, what did he do?  Bowman decided to pick a fight and to do it 'old style', namely to follow the footsteps of former mayor Sam Katz step for step.  How's that for doing things differently? Bowman adopted Katz's sleazy tactic of "walking on" a motion to executive policy committee.  That's politico-speak for slipping a motion onto the agenda at the last minute and expecting your toadies to ram it through without debate.  So what happened?  What do you think?  Bowman's toadies on EPC rammed the motion through without debate. He "hit the gr...