The Black Rod

The latest chapter of the Picket Pork Scandal is the most distrubing yet. A comment posted on the Internet at the PolicyFrog blog http://policyfrog.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/the-strike-is-over/#comment-1751 by someone who identified himself as Winnipeg Free Press reporter Bruce Owen, is raising serious concerns about the health risks to anyone who eats the controversial pork delivered to picketing FP strikers. The poster, who later provided an office phone number for anyone who wanted to call him, provided still another version of how government subsidized pork intended for the poor wound up in the freezers of highly paid Winnipeg Free Press employees. In the latest "eyewitness" account, an unidentified farmer drove up to the line with 1500 pounds of prime pork in the back of his truck. Winnipeg Harvest "didn't have the capacity" to take it, he allegedly said, so it was either the strikers or the dump. The pork was already thawing and "In the end some did sp

Striking employees of the Winnipeg Free Press are at the apex of a massive cover-up into how government-subsidized food was funnelled into their union strike headquarters instead of being distributed to needy clients of Manitoba food banks. David Northcott, executive co-ordinator for Winnipeg Harvest, confirmed Thursday to CJOB's morning show host Richard Cloutier that more than half a ton of minced pork received by the strikers' union was from a government program to provide food to the poor. Northcott said the delivery to the union headquarters was "unauthorized" and that the striking FP employees "did jump the queue" ahead of the disadvantaged and the disabled for whom the food was intended. In his interview he also made it clear that the strikers are peddling a false story on their strike website about how the food-for-the-poor came into their hands. The pork was not "surplus", as the strikers claimed at first, nor was it rejected by Winnipeg H

An emailer to CJOB host Richard Cloutier may have provided a valuable piece of the puzzle to the Picket Pork Scandal enveloping striking employees of the Winnipeg Free Press. As is well known, last Friday the strikers were celebrating the delivery to strike headquarters of half a ton of government-subsidized pork that was supposed to go to the Winnipeg Harvest food bank to be distributed to the poor and hungry. The striking FP employees have provided two versions of how the food wound up in their hands. They said initially that the pork was "surplus", i.e. unneeded by Winnipeg Harvest. After The Black Rod picked up on the story and revealed the pork came from a government-sponsored program to supply food banks, the strikers amended their story to say the unnamed donor tried to deliver it to Winnipeg Harvest first, but it was turned away because the Harvest freezers were full. Both accounts have been contradicted by David Northcott, executive co-ordinator of Winnipeg Harvest.

We now have four -- count 'em, four -- versions of how taxpayer subsidized food intended for the poor and hungry wound up in the hands of striking employees of the Winnipeg Free Press. The strikers' on their webpage www.freepressonstrike.com provide two accounts of how a half ton of pork was "donated" to them : There's the still-popular original version: "Winnipeg Harvest had a surplus and they asked me if I could get rid of it," said the volunteer, who didn't want to be named. "I heard it might be a long haul here so I came here," the man said. This was followed Monday by the revised version: "On Oct. 16, a truck came by the Free Press line last week after trying to deliver frozen pork to Winnipeg Harvest . The driver was told Harvest had no room in its freezers for the pork . The truck then came by the picket line and donated it to the strikers, saying Harvest couldn't handle the donation ." David Northcott, executive co-o

We don't know what's more shameful -- the fact that striking Winnipeg Free Press employees took food out of the mouths of poor people, or the fact that they're so arrogrant they boasted about it. Barely five days after walking off their extremely well-paid jobs, the strikers snickered about their coup on their strike website, www.freepressonstrike.com: Food bank volunteer donates pork to picketers Oct 17, 2008 A man who delivers donations for the Winnipeg Harvest food bank dropped off a half-ton truck full of frozen minced pork at Free Press striking workers Friday . The man drove up to the picket line around 11 a.m. with the surprising and generous donation: in total, 1,500 pounds of ground pork in one-pound packages. “Winnipeg Harvest had a surplus and they asked me if I could get rid of it,” said the food bank volunteer. “I heard it might be a long haul here so I came here,” the man said. The volunteer who didn’t want his name used. The province’s biggest food bank appea

Bwahahaha... Like you, we've spent the past few days reading election stories on the internet. We've appreciated the comic relief. Election coverage in Winnipeg was the worst in living memory. In place of examining issues or, at the least, trying to reflect the mood of the electorate in various ridings, the primary election news source, theWinnipeg Free Press, devoted its space to its own faux-polls, which were nothing more than internet surveys of a tiny sampling of readers of the newspaper. This is what passes as journalism today. The post-election analyis across the Web has at least been amusing. And, if you search hard enough, informative. With the Free Press on strike, we'll pick up the slack and give you highlights. The Conservatives won the most seats, but now they have to compromise. Say what? Yes, this was a popular theme of stories on the day-after. It's still minority, opponents warn Don't rule with same attitude, including using non-confidence motions, H

Last time we exposed how Roger Salhany glossed over the fact that the basic premise of his Taman Inquiry was demolished within days of hearing evidence. The Inquiry was intended to prove that, because of a cover-up (by police) and incompetence (by the special prosecutor), a Winnipeg police officer escaped prosecution and jail for killing someone while driving impaired. Instead, the paramedic who examined the policeman, Derek Zenk, at the scene of the accident, testified that based on his personal expertise in attending hundreds, if not thousands of drunk drivers, Zenk was NOT IMPAIRED . This, obviously, meant that if Zenk had been charged, as Salhany insists he should have been, Zenk would have been acquitted. And that the prosecutor, Marty Minuk, did the right thing in accepting a plea bargain to another serious charge. Salhany went so far as to invent his very own conspiracy theory for his final report, a theory which depended on one witness reversing her clear, previous observation

It’s an ugly thing to see a lynch mob rejoicing at its work. The cause for the morbid glee is the final report of the Taman Inquiry, one of the greatest travesties of the judicial process ever witnessed in Manitoba. In years to come historians will recoil at the transparent bias of Commissioner Roger Salhany whose disregard for truth in favour of mob sentiment is a blot on honest jurists everywhere. The Inquiry had one purpose---to show that a conspiracy of police from Winnipeg and East St. Paul thwarted justice by undermining the investigation of a drunk driver, a fellow police officer, who killed a woman when he rear-ended her car at a stop signal. The officer, Derek Zenk (the Inquiry stopped calling him Harvey-Zenk with no explanation) pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death and was sentenced to two years house arrest. But the mob, driven by the press, was convinced he got off easy because he was a policeman. They wanted blood, and so Salhany, like a modern day witch hunte

They say you can smell fear. If that's the case, then extra deodorant is on order for the campaign offices of Liberal Anita Neville -- to hide the distinct reek of desperation. Neville is running scared. Ever since Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff accused Israel of war crimes in 2006, Neville has been trying to shore up the Jewish vote in River Heights, one of her traditional staples of support. Then along came fellow Liberal candidate Lesley Hughes who had to be kicked off the Party roll because of her belief that Israel knew of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre in advance, warned Jewish businesses in New York, and let thousands of innocent people be slaughtered by failing to alert them. Back to square one. With only a week to go before voting day, Neville is going for broke. She's plastered the riding with attack-ad-style pamphlets declaring that only she can stop Stephen Harper in Winnipeg South Centre.. A vote for anyone but her is a vote fo