Breaking stories about a police shooting, crime coverage, a new documentary and local entertainment events were front and centre this week on the show.
Monday - The robbery spree in the Health Sciences Centre area was at the top of the agenda with news of 2 incidents late Friday afternoon. Some of the blame was being placed on construction projects at HSC displacing parking spaces, forcing health care workers to navigate the dangerous streets beyond the help of security staff.
Councillor Mike Pagtakhan answered our interview request on very short notice and didn't duck a question. He said that clearly new procedures had to be developed to enhance the safety of the area, and that it was time to review the role of the "catch-and-release" justice system may be playing in the brazen actions of criminals on our downtown streets. Mike said he'd come into the studio with us in the new year to discuss how the situation played out over the holidays and to take calls from our listeners.
Meanwhile we also got an update from Richard Solomon about the safety of residents at 101 Marion to pass on (" I'd come on the air but I've had enough threats on my life"). The Manitoba Housing Authority had installed new deadbolts and lighting, hired round-the-clock security, and 3 arrests of troublemaking tenants had been made by police.
Conspicuosly absent from the solution process in St. Boniface was area Councilman Dan Vandal, who was supposed to call Solomon last Wednesday but had yet to speak to the residents of 101 Marion or meet with them, despite stumping for their votes only 6 weeks ago.
Tuesday: A lesson in bureaucracy for our listeners. It appears no one in Ottawa wants to address our questions about the legality of the province redirecting the $100 monthly Child Care Benefit from foster parents of kids under 6 and redistributing the money into a subsidy of all kids in care, regardless of age.
We called it a case of pure socialism, taking monies from a specific federal program and treating it as a federal transfer payment, with Manitoba bragging about increasing funding for foster care without once admitting 33% of the "new" funds was from the feds.
Of course all it will take is putting more direct pressure on the officials; after all, isn't that what got the residents of 101 Marion some protection from the hooligans victimizing their apartment block? Bureaucracy sloughs off the little guy as long as no one shines the light on it. The Great Canadian Talk Show will be that light for people being ignored by the pencil-pushers and political apologists, and we won't take no for an answer.
We spoke to Mary Dawson of the Winnipeg Children's Access Agency about the 'chair-ity' fundraiser, the auction of autographed sports jerseys redone into easy-chairs (Walter Gretzky was the guest speaker at the event). Mary's service fills an important role for families in crisis in the city and she deserves all the support possible to continue to provide a supervised meeting environment for children and their parents.
Lastly we broke a story that swept through the media, and introduced Winnipeg to Alex Perez of Duke University. The 23 year old filmmaker was coming to Canada for the first time to do a short about our world-leading love of Slurpees as recognized by 7-11 Food Stores. Many of our listeners emailed Alex volunteering to be interviewed on-camera about their affection for the sweet slushy treat and explain why they insist on drinking Slurpees even in the coldest Winnipeg winters.
Wednesday: CTV's crimewatch reporter Kelly Dehn gave our audience some background on the bumpy road traveled by RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, who had survived a number of controversies but couldn't outlast the outcry over his admission that maybe his contradictory statements about the Arar case didn't pass the sniff test. Kelly went over the details about the Sherbrook Street attack on James Lathlin by a a man facing trial for in a prior assault on Lathlin - did you know that intimidating a witness or journalist can get you 14 years in the hoosegow? Finally Kelly expressed surprise that as we predicted, HSC continued to be a destination for stick-up artists and admitted maybe we were onto something.
Later in the show I told the story of a girl who I met riding the bus, who told of what it was like to work downtown at a call centre and be accosted every day by derelicts, panhandlers and bums. She explained that teenage girls are seen as easy prey at bus stops and inside parkades, where the scum lurk on the upper levels knowing security doesn't patrol.
A caller from North Kildonan chimed in that she agrees with our characterization of the Spirited Energy branding campaign as PR propaganda. She won't come downtown for the same reasons identified by the girl on the bus, and told of being harassed by groups of 3 or 4 panhandlers this past summer when she came downtown with visitors from England. The caller added that crime in her suburban neighborhood is terrible, has had her car stolen, house broken into, and oh ya, her car was shot at while driving in St. James.
Thursday: The show opened with a quick interview with Pedro Aurelio of Grant Park High School, the choreographer of their $50,000 production of Ragtime debuting at the Pantage Playhouse Theatre. Pedro spoke highly of the ability of the kids in the cast and told of the visit to November rehearsals by Canadian impressario Garth Drabinsky.
Winnipeg Sun columnist Krista Boryskavich joined us for the final time before moving on to her new position with the City of Winnipeg. Krista picked apart the 28 page federal Liberal Party 'Pink Book', noting it had only 14 actual pages of policy details and was pretty thin on the, em, details, and who could take seriously an initiative supposedly for the benefit of working women in Canada, when it is championed by Belinda 'born to a fortune' Stronach?
Dennis Owens came into the studio to explain how the Frontier Centre for Public Policy saw energy and Hydro policy. The gist of it, is the Manitoba government should increase Hydro rates to increase conservation by consumers, build the hydro dams, get the feds to create a national east-west grid, and make suitable compensation arrangements with First Nations. Sell the excess power and voila- we go from being a have-not province to a have !
Of course there's the little matter of the taxpayer paying for all the construction, all the compensation, and forking out for higher power rates and the increased prices of goods and services. We agreed to disagree and will have Dennis on again in the new year.
Finally to wrap up a busy show, Spike-TV star and Garden City's own Johnny Devine plugged his appearance for PCW at the Lid Nightclub later that evening, and spoke about his career with TNA Impact! on Spike every Thursday night and his love of the traditions of old-school pro wrestling.
Friday: Driving back from the PCW card at the Lid coming north on Pembina Highway, we saw the police cars blocking off access to Jubilee Avenue. little did we know that only 2 hours before, a chaotic bust resulted in 3 officers and one suspect in a drug raid all being shot and hospitalized. We briefly touched on the details as we knew them and raised a number of questions about the evasive handling of the morning press conference by police Chief Jack Ewatski, and why the media didn't track down a single representative from federal Liberals to ask them why they had enacted criminal-coddling legislation when in office and had refused to support new measures brought forward by the Harper government.
Rochelle Squires of the Winnipeg Sun joined the show for the first time, to review the too-short Legislative session and the few pieces of legislation that had passed, such as the revived Whistleblower Act ( but private citizens who uncover wrongdoing are still sitting ducks for retribution by bureaucrats) and the revised Employee Standards Code, the highlight of which appears to be that employers will no longer be able to arbitrarily deduct so-called fines and costs such as alleged shortages and breakage from workers paycheques.
One bill breezed through all 3 readings on the last day, so-called 'date rape' amendments to the Liquor Control Act to allow for bar patrons to take their drinks into washrooms - which we saw as a precursor to future violent and bloody assaults outside of the view of club security (if not hepatitis outbreaks).
Hadn't any of the politicians known the good reasons why glass was not allowed off the seating or dancing areas? And was the need for this amendment based on any kind of real evidence, not just hearsay? Squires admitted she had never heard of a case here or once thought someone would try to spike her own drink at a club, but then again, she always finishes hers before going to the washroom. She told our listeners to keep an eye on the Sun in January for a special series she was working on, as we wished her well in the new year.
We went back to reviewing the matter of the police shootings and Chief Ewatski refusing to answer simple questions such as:
- what kind of weapon were the officers shot by ?
- had they checked the gun registry before entering the home ?
- were any female officers on the team executing the search warrant ?
Lo and behold, a caller who works in the corrections system gave us the answer before any other media outlet in Winnipeg had reported it: one of the officers had been wounded not by the suspect, but by another officer discharging their weapon. Another scoop for The Great Canadian Talk Show as we ended week 3.
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