The Black Rod

Shoe...meet foot. Now, meet other foot. Reporters and columnists at the Winnipeg Free Press were all high and mighty during the Taman Inquiry. They looked down their noses and lectured Winnipeg and East St. Paul police officers about cover-ups, honesty, justice, yadda yadda yadda. Now listen to the deafening silence as they are caught up in a cover-up of their own. And don't confuse it with the deafening silence from the other reporters in town, who were part of the mob attacking the honesty of the police but who have turned a blind eye to the cover-up in their own ranks. It was revealed yesterday on a local radio talkshow that city health authorities have started trying to trace the source of three-quarters of a ton of minced pork that the Free Press employees union bragged about getting during the recent strike at the newspaper. Oh, would that be the same union that represents most of the other reporters in town as well? Health officials fear the meat might be contaminated and a

How does a hard-working lawyer from the Manitoba Prairies wind up neck-deep in a world of French secret agents, Al Qaeda terrorists, and Uzbek spies? Oh, and mix in wingnut conspiracy theorists and packs of journalists primed to make him Public Enemy No. 1. How? We wish we knew. The only thing certain is that its one of the most underreported stories in the country. Make that two countries--Canada and France. Seven weeks ago Winnipeg Free Press columnist Gordon Sinclair mentioned that Bruce MacFarlane, Manitoba's former deputy attorney general, was jetting off to France to be a special prosecutor "in a case against a journalist from Le Monde who allegedly broke a publication ban." Demonstrating that journalism at the Free Press is another word for gossip, that's all he wrote. Nobody called a news conference, so naturally, no other professed reporter in Winnipeg could figure out where to go with the tip, leaving us to fill in the void. We know the case involves Guillau

Rumpelstiltskin. Until Monday he was the only one we knew who could spin straw into gold. But then along came the Manitoba NDP, and, poof, there was another contender in the room. Of course, they couldn't do it alone. They had the full cooperation of the mainstream media which set a record of their own for being spoon-fed stories by the government. The NDP issued three news releases Monday which became the source of stories in every newspaper, radio and television newscast. If you simply read the headlines you would think that thanks to the NDP the province was going to see: * 131 new nurses * 343 new day-care spaces, and * Canada's biggest wind farm Not bad for a day's work. Except when you factor in the facts, and then you see that: * Zero new nurses have been hired * Zero new day-care spaces have been created, and * No new wind farm is being built Other than that, it was good news all around. So how did they manage to collect good press based on nothing? * Let's s

Stomach-turning. That's the adjective that best describes Saturday's Winnipeg Free Press. It started the moment we physically picked up the newspaper and something dropped out. It was an appeal from Siloam Mission for donations. "A plate of Christmas cheer for someone who is hungry in Winnipeg's inner city...$2.58" "We really need your help." This out of a newspaper whose employees were just bragging about how they snagged 1500 pounds of prime minced pork out of the mouths of the poor and hungry? That government subsidized pork was always intended for food banks just like Siloam Mission. Instead, striking Free Press employees greedily snatched it up the moment that someone they're still refusing to identify drove a pickup truck full of it to the picket line. But it only got worse. The next thing to see was a story about the Free Press annual Pennies From Heaven drive. They stole thousands of dollars of food from the poor, and now they want to raise p

Did they think we wouldn't notice something this momentous? This week two major Winnipeg news outlets oh-so-casually made reference to "the $300 million" Museum for Human Rights planned for the city. Except that the museum's official website still says (as of midnight Nov. 13, 2008) that the project will cost $265 million. What do they know that they're not telling? CBC.ca wrote: Human rights museum questioned on green building policy Last Updated: Wednesday, November 12, 2008 12:11 PM CT The Manitoba government appears to be ignoring its own green building policy as it funds the $300-million Canadian Museum for Human Rights . And the Winnipeg Free Press wrote: Rights Museum will be 'green;: spokeswoman Thursday, November 13, 2008 "...How environmentally friendly the new $300 million museum will be took centre stage yesterday after a media outlet reported the Doer government appeared to be ingnoring its own green building policy in the museum's des

It's been quite some time since The Black Rod's last look at the War in Afghanistan 2008. First interruption was the Derek Zenk show trial, where we were the only ones to stand up to the lynch mob and expose how the Commission was supressing facts and manipulating public opinion. Then there came the federal election, where we created a national stir by exposing the candidacy of a 9-11 Truther for the Liberal Party of Canada. And then the employees of the Winnipeg Free Press went on strike and we revealed how they helped themselves to more than half a ton of government-subsidized food that was intended to be given to the poor and which may have been stolen from a local food bank. We've certainly been busy this fall. But now its time to return to our weekly update of the mission in Afghanistan. ****************** Playing catch-up, we first noticed a series of stories about an expected winter offensive by both sides. As expected, the mainstream media couldn't be more wrong