The Black Rod

The NDP-backed candidate for mayor, Judy Wasylycia-Leis, has broken election law by accepting donations from a union. Two days ago the Winnipeg firefighters union announced it was endorsing her for mayor. But yesterday that endorsement exploded in her face when another mayoral election candidate, Robert Falcon-Ouellette, started asking questions about the extent of the union's support. Union boss Alex Forrest sneered "It's a stupid complaint."  He then told the Winnipeg Free Press that the signs carried and t-shirts promoting Wasylycia-Leis by his members "were all invoiced to her campaign."      Reporter Aldo Santin got confirmation from the Wasylycia-Leis campaign that the items will be a reported campaign expense. That's what's known in police circles as "a confession." The city bylaw governing municipal elections, passed under orders by the provincial NDP government, states categorically: Prohibited contr...

The CMHR hasn't filed any financial reports for the past nine months. What are they hiding? The last advance from the federal government was turned over in December. They were supposed to be collecting IOU's from donors throughout the year to keep in the black.  Was there a problem with the collections? Is that why the museum is still not ready to open? They made a big stink about holding the opening ceremonies the day before the museum's announced opening date.  But when that date (Sept. 20) came around, they were nowhere near ready for visitors.  Only 4 of 11 galleries were open to ticket holders, 9000 of whom were allowed in for free because the museum couldn't charge admission to less than half the exhibits. Even then, the 4 open galleries were still unfinished.  Watching a CBC cameraman zoom in on a plywood board screwed to a wall, with the reporter asking a museum flak what was supposed to go there, was ...

Last Friday, following the official opening ceremonies at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, the Winnipeg Free Press, the propaganda arm of the museum, updated with video and slideshow many of the stories it had published in the run up to the opening. One of these was a column by "professional journalist" Dan Lett that appeared Aug. 1st.  http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/columnists/true-to-izzys-vision-275704621.html Something he wrote stuck in our craws back then and the update gives us an opportunity to remind Lett - he's entitled to his own opinion, but not to his own facts.  He wrote: "(The Holocaust) gallery, as promised, focuses not on the atrocity per se, but on how the Nazis used legal means to galvanize their genocidal policies. And how the Holocaust directly resulted in the United Nations Declaration on Human Rights , the first attempt to codify in international law the principle that no country can pass laws t...

Two words describe the CMHR:  Bait and Switch. Remember how it was pitched?   A translucent, other-worldly shimmering wonder.  Like this:       Five years and $351 million later, we got a giant ugly blue blob:       Iconic?  Only if you think the Kaiser's helmet is iconic...     Can we get our money back?

This story is awkward to tell. But it's necessary to tell it because the Board of Governors of Red River College has decided to hide from the public the real reason for the abrupt disappearance of Stephanie Forsyth, the college's president and CEO for the past four years. One minute she was here; the next, she was gone, with the college issuing only a short statement that the Board "and Ms. Stephanie Forsyth wish to announce that as of August 31, 2014 Ms. Forsyth will not be continuing in her role as President of Red River College for personal and family reasons." When pressed for more detail, Board chairman Richard Lennon elected to play word games. The Alice-in-Wonderland fairy tale woven by Lennon was captured best in the Winnipeg Free Press: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/silence-surrounds-presidents-exit-273890331.html "Lennon said the board did not ask Forsyth to go and he insisted it would be inaccurate to say she resi...

Stephanie Forsyth knew the jig was up when they started asking about her new marble floors counter tops and backsplash. ( h/t to someone who knows ) There's a saying in baseball.  No, it's not "There's no crying in baseball."  The saying is "Three strikes and YOU'RE OUT!" Strike One was discovering in March, 2013, that Red River College paid for $205 golf shoes, and the new tires for her car, and even her driver's licence -- which led to some repayment and a lot of red faces. (h/t CTF) Strike Two was the revelation in November, 2013, that the college covered the cost of rented tables and chairs for a party Forsyth held at her house for friends who were attending the wedding of somebody whose name is being kept secret by Red River. Forsyth paid back the cost, even though college officials said the expense was perfectly legitimate. (Once again, thanks to the Taxpayers Federation) But how to explain how marble, bought for the remodellin...

It's hard to say who should be more embarrassed by the latest mayoral election poll --- the pollsters, the press, or the funders?   The first crowd-sourced election poll in Canada turned out to be such a bust that the pollsters had to invent something new to give its funders to justify taking their money. Winnipeg's Probe Research Inc. issued a poll grading the support of the candidates for mayor, but with a 29 percent undecided response, the poll was less reliable than your daily horoscope. Ten percent undecided would be large.  Twenty percent would be huge.  But almost 30 percent is a joke, a bad joke that invalidates the alleged results. In a desperate move to keep some credibility, Probe Research invented a momentum index, claiming to measure which candidates are moving up in public opinion and which down.  When was the last time you heard of something like this?  Hint: NEVER. But they had to deliver something to the pri...