The Black Rod

You can tell in a second why the Idle No More movement isn't attracting any support (despite what the mainstream media is telling you.) The music sucks. Our condolences to the reporters who are forced to stick around listening to the ear-bleeding screeching over mind-numbing drumming that passes as the soundtrack to the mob scenes which alienate the public more with each passing day. We shall overcome our urge to puke when we hear it. An estimated 500 Idle supporters showed up at the Legislature Monday night to perform for the television cameras. That's the same number that showed up a month ago. No growth means nobody cares. The Idle crowd even dredged up Buffy St. Marie from somewhere to give their show some star appeal, except that the reaction to her presence was more "Is she still alive?" than "Wow." A smaller crowd the same day had a bigger impact up north. About 30 people threw up a blockade of what the Winnipeg...

Well, well, well....Progressive Conservative MLA Mavis Taillieu has picked up her pitchfork and torch and joined the mob trying to silence the editor of the Morris Mirror. Taillieu, who is usually invisible on every other issue under the sun, wants to be sure to be seen to be in the front ranks of those eager to stifle a journalist's right to fair comment on a controversial issue in the community. Free speech? Freedom of expression? Freedom of belief? What fool thinks that crap up ? Certainly not the caucus whip of the P.C. Party of Manitoba. She has pulled her political advertising from the newspaper because Mirror editor Reed Turcotte has refused to kowtow to the intimidation tactics of the Idle No More crowd. You know, the people who are loudly demanding their, er, constitutional rights. What did Turcotte do to stir up the mob? He offered his honest opinion on the extremists in their bunch, and printed the inconvenient truth of their "move...

  He wears feathers on his head and calls himself the Grand Chief. Meet Derek Nepinak who fancies himself as a playa on the national scene, what with the mainstream media fawning over him as he makes his, ahem, demands on the Prime Minister. Nepinak has been honing his schtick in Manitoba for over a year since being elected Big Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. You see, he had an idea. Indians have no money. You have money. So if he could get his hands on your money, that would solve the problem of Indians without money. See how simple it is? But how to extract more of your money? The answer lay in the word "extract", as in natural resources. Nepinak has been pushing the idea of something called resource revenue sharing. That's where mining companies, drilling companies, and others have to pay Indians whenever they invest millions of dollars of their own money to develop Canada's natural resources. Is it because of all...

  We splurged on some good seats. We got there early. We were excited. And in return we were given three hours and five minutes of exactly what we came for -- an enchanting evening of theatre with the premiere of an adaptation of one of the world's most famous novels, Gone With the Wind. We left MTC with goofy smiles on our faces. Yes, we were the ones with the goofy smiles Saturday night . We were thoroughly entertained. Make no mistake---this is a work in progress. But why review what isn't there when what is there is captivating on its own. The entire Gone With the Wind story is there -- from the glory days of the Old South to the horrors of the Civil War, including the burning of Atlanta, to the upheaval of the Reconstruction. And Scarlett, bewitching and cunning Scarlett O'Hara, destined to be one of the great Stage Noir temptresses. It's not story that makes theatre; it's the actors. Gone With the Wind begins and ends wi...