Everybody can use a good laugh by the weekend, but Winnipeg Free Press National Reporter Paul Samyn had us rolling on the floor with his open letter to readers on Sunday. Samyn is a member of the Parliamentary Press Gallery which is openly at war with Prime Minister Stephen Harper. This week they decided to boycott a press conference on additional funding to Darfur by turning their backs on the P.M. and walking out en masse, Darfur be damned. The FP's boy in Ottawa has been a happy soldier in the battle yet he can't shake a nagging suspicion that people are laughing at him. Putting on his best folksy airs, he asked his hometown audience to, maybe, show a little appreciation. The War on Harper is a fight for the very soul of journalism, Samyn pleaded. "... Harper only wants to talk to use if we first put our names on a list he controls. We don't want to give him that control over us ." Fight. Paul. Fight. Fight the list. Fight the list, Paul. " Don't look...
The origin of the Usher of the Black Rod goes back to early fourteenth century England . Today, with no royal duties to perform, the Usher knocks on the doors of the House of Commons with the Black Rod at the start of Parliament to summon the members. The rod is a symbol for the authority of debate in the upper house. We of The Black Rod adopted the symbol to knock some sense and the right questions into the heads of Legislators, pundits, and other opinion makers.