A sampling of recent LT-me's, as we call 'em ( as opposed to LTE's- letters to the editor). Send yours to talk@kick.fm
**********
Porkgate
Marty
I know you don't listen to early morning radio, which you told me when I called re: Bob Silver panhandling on CJOB for the United Way one day.
This morning on Hot 103, Ace Burpee had the Mayor on and asked him about Porkgate. Some interesting notes Sam mentioned:
1. Both the City AND Province have been looking into this.
2. Sam is so upset by this he had had a meeting specifically on this topic, with who not sure.
3. He said the main problem is that no one is talking about this and they cannot get any answers.
4. He honestly doesn't care about the who what where and when on how the pork got out, just that he doesn't want anyone to get sick.
5. No coverage since the MSM is not doing anything on this topic.
Now you may know all of this, some thigns might be news to you, just thought I would give you the update since you give me the updates everyday on the newest info on this topic.
Thought it was a curious thing for him to say the Province is looking into it. I thought Minister Wowchuk said this was dealt with?? Why are they looking into it, if it was dealt with?
Perhaps your next interview with the Mayor you can ask him about his meeting. If the Mayor cannot get answers on this, does that not seem strange?? Doesn't he have any leverage if he is that worked up about this? He seemed genuinely concerned on the radio this morning.
I understand that his main concern is finding the pork so no one gets sick, I guess that's the best approach in order to get to the bottom on where the pork is before someone gets sick. If you promise you don't care about the mis-deed, then perhaps someone will just come forward and not worry that they are going to get the blame.
I guess that's the Pork Amnesty approach.
Personally I'd rather see someone get fired. This could have been dealt with easily and without major incident, but it wasn't.
If not for someone providing Richard Cloutier with 3 packs of this pork, I would almost say this story was a complete fabrication made up by the union in order to get sympathy. Kind of a passing "boo hoo poor us but then some nice decent person came and dropped this off to save us all" story that GSJ would write in his standard column. They would get their raise as public commentary would be poor Freep staff and everyone would move on. Instead it totally backfired and now they don't know how to find a way to come clean on an incident that was made up in order to drum up public support.
It would explain why no one can get any answers, and why there are minimum 6 published stories on this that are all different in some way.
People talk, things always leak, especially when there are this many people involved. How many people were on the line that day when this pork showed up? How can none of them have a straight story on this? Is every member of the union that sick to believe there was nothing wrong with this? I can understand how there might be a brother/sisterhood in the media not to tell on their collegues, but this is ridiculous.
I can only assume The Sun won't let Brodbeck go to town on this due to some sort of you scratch, we scratch policy. He's got all the time in the world for every government or police story it seems whenever someone needs to be publicly shamed, but for this silence.
Anyways
love the show, keep it up.
**********
more Porkgate
Marty,
I was listening to the Sunday Night replays and noticed something about that reporter from the CBC French TV channel 'interviewing' James Cotton (it was more like interrogating, I thought).
She was trying to pigeon-hole Cotton about whether he was an "independent journalist or a blogger." She said, "There's a difference you know. You need to be aware of that."
First of all, Cotton is clearly an independent journalist whose medium is the blogosphere. But I was struck most by her arrogant, didactic tone and just how utterly condescending she was. She seemed to barely know what a blog was but she was quick to hammer Cotton on a 'difference' that exists in her mind solely to her ignorance.
I think her attitude is typical of mainstream media, especially publicly funded media. It's an elitist attitude that has ceased to be self-critical and has subsequently developed an unconscious insecurity.
Her badgering Cotton wasn't much different from Bruce Owen's outburst. The MSM, or at least the Free Press and CBC factions, have become so over-run by the Left group-think that it reacts bitterly to any opposition with the vigor of religious zealots towards any heterodoxy.
Keep up the good work,
M
************
WRHA and Anaesthetists
I was particularly glad to hear you pick up on the Anesthesia thing at the U of M / WRHA. I'm not sure who clued you into that, but it's all true and it certainly won't stop with one department. The involvement of the current dean of Medicine in issues that have always been outside the purview of the dean (such as recruiting, contracting with and providing privileges to clinicians) is unprecedented here, and is very dangerous. It's all about power and control, despite the rhetoric from the University and WRHA.
a doctor
***********
WRHA and consolidated after-hours surgeries
(from Free Press story) Earlier this week, Winnipeg health officials announced their plan to cancel emergency general surgery at three community hospitals after surgeons complained there are too many on-call positions for too few surgeons.
Dr. Brock Wright, vice-president and chief medical officer of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, confirmed after-hours emergency general surgery was stopped at Concordia Hospital on April 7, and all urgent cases are being sent to St. Boniface Hospital instead.
Wright said if things at Concordia go well the plan is to consolidate after-hours urgent surgery at four sites -- St. Boniface, Health Sciences Centre, Grace Hospital and Seven Oaks -- so surgeons have to work fewer after-hours on-call shifts.
There are 34 general surgeons in Winnipeg, but Wright said they would need to recruit eight more surgeons to properly fill the on-call shifts.
So according to that statement, they are already not doing after hours general surgery at the Vic?
I don't know about the general surgery call schedule, but as residents they perform somewhere between a 1 in 3 to a 1 in 5 call schedule.
The Residents' Association mandated a 1 in 4 call schedule years ago, but general surgery always argued that there would be a dilution of experience.
Even with the very acceptable 1 in 5 call schedule, you only need 6 surgeons per site (5 for call and one on holiday).
Therefore, four sites require a minimum of 24 surgeons, five sites = 30 surgeons, six sites = 36 surgeons
I think that you need to dig a little deeper.
dr. x
***********
fake 'disreali freeway public consultations'
marty,
here's a timeline and commentary on disraeli-gate (or mini stink bomb, how to lie in public... ):
1. tuesday, april 29,2008 norquay community centre-first public open house on the disraeli bridges rehabilitation project.- no mention at all about a separate bike /pedestrian bridge east of the disraeli project-final concept and traffic management plan to be released late 2008
2. per cbc.ca story monday september 22,2008 'city adds new bridge to disraeli freeway project'-'the new vision of the project would cost about $15 million more than previously anticipated , the report says.-one day later, tuesday september 23,2008 'the city's standing committee on infrastructure renewal and public works will hold a special meeting ... to discuss the plan.'
3. wednesday sept.24,2008 per free press, ' bridge repair nears impass'-public works committee ties 2-2 the previous day to go ahead with freeway plan-special meeting of epc , today, sept.24,2008, then same day off to city council-council approves of disraeli project, 11-4, and includes the extra bike/pedestrian bridge so what the hell, eh?
we 'outsider' winnipeggers first hear of this extra 15 to how many million dollar 'extra bridge' on tuesday sept.22,2008 and two days later on sept.24,2008 city council approves of the whole shebang.
i was wrong. this beats the hell out the 10 days it took to ram through the downtown arena scam.
mayor katz on your show this past thursday immediately responded that there 'was public consultation' on the second added bridge project.
in 48 hours this deal went from general first knowledge to being passed through council, so for sam to claim public input took place is just so much horse manure .
was sel burrows privy to this extra bridge? the artists? residents on rover?
his claim is bogus. he's been caught in a public lie and i don't care his spin to come: ( well we talked to the manitoba cycling association...)
public is public , not some select group in a secret location. what is this, a fucking banana republic? (not sure who said this first but it applies here)yeah, he's a different kind of politician. well, he's our new mayor who doesn't wear a tie and has a nice shiny star over his heart, such a sweetheart.
anyways mr. g., if you don't mind, sam deserves a heavily spiced grilling on this one.
don't lying politicians bother you as much as the general public of millions of people out here that are beyond fed up with this abuse of power and disdain of public concerns?
it's only 15 million dollars...public money mr. katz. an open house on the extra bridge proposal should have taken place, end of story. on his claim the extra bridge is really a cost saving measure.give us the new numbers then.
the main stream media didn't cite this 'conclusive' information, rather the opposite. where does sam get his numbers from?
that's about all for now. if you need more info or comment by me on this
listener in south Point Douglas
************
downtown crime
My boyfriend and I were both mugged while living by the University of Winnipeg for one god-awful year. You know what the Winnipeg Police's advice was to us? Don't live downtown...
Well, it was two separate instances (2004 or 2005). A girl tried to mug me as I was leaving the U of W campus – a security guard showed up after about 5 minutes of us scuffling. He then asked what was going on, blah blah blah and then asked if I wanted to press charges. I told him I didn’t know, as I didn’t even know what the hell just happened! So he let her go and told her not to come back to the campus.
When I went inside to collect myself, a different security guard asked me where the girl was – I told him what happened and that Security Guy A let her go. Well, he wasn’t too impressed with that; apparently she should have been detained for the cops, and they decide what to do. Like I’m going to know that.
I spoke to the head of campus security a few days later, and he said I should go to the police and give a description, etc, etc. I thought about it, but never bothered to. Really, what would happen to her? She looked to be only about 15-16 years old. Home arrest which she would promptly ignore? Maybe an umpteenth stint in juvie?
Instance number two was my boyfriend walking home at about 11:30 at night from his friends place on Donald, close to Portage (we lived beside the U of W on Young). He told me later that he thought two guys were following him, but a couple of blocks from our apartment, they disappeared. Well, they reappeared as he was opening the building door, hit him in the head with brass knuckles and a 2 x 4 and took his wallet (considering recent events, he’s lucky that a black eye and mild concussion were the worst of his injuries).
The two officers who responded were quite nice, and in defense of their comment, I don’t believe they were faulting us for living downtown. I think the police are just as fed up with the situation as the rest of us.
What’s the point of them arresting any of these assholes when there’s no repercussion, no jail time, no reason at all for them to be something other than human filth? Every working day for a downtown beat cop must feel like an exercise in futility. Police presence doesn’t solve the problem – it just pushes it to another area of the city.
Oh, and in response to the caller yesterday who talked about being able to physically defend yourself, my boyfriend has plenty of martial arts training and was involved in a number of fights in his home country (Sri Lanka) as a teenager (the police don’t really get involved there). That all counts for nothing when you’re jumped from behind. This isn’t the movies; a hard blow to the back of your head means you’re fucked (pardon my French), and you’re not getting back up
Okay, I better stop this rant before it turns into a novel.
J
***********
Cheez Whiz
Again Marty - well done your humour and straight talk of the facts never ceases to impress.
I was re listening to your talk with Councilor Browaty - and it was the mention of the NDP and there advestising of Cheeze Whiz as a milk subsitute - we joked (and it truly isn't something to be joked about) of it all weekend -
I look forward to todays show - as I'm sure with the events of today - there will be much to discuss.
I.
********
story of the year
Hello guys.
For the story of the year, I have to go with something from the Upper Fort Garry debacle.
You did a great job exposing the selfish hypocrisy of the so-called "friends", who plot the destruction of our downtown while sipping cognac in the Manitoba club lounge enjoying their unobstructed view of the red river.
Now, for my books, I want a first edition Don Quixote, and a hard cover copy of A Brief History of Time signed by the author. For my key chain, I want mini Rubik's Cube.
Thanks, and keep up the good work.
c.
**************
Today at 4.40 PM -- more about Porkgate you won't want to miss;
Tomorrow, a special Lesson In Journalism- what the Winnipeg Foundation report about Centennial Neighborhood didn't talk about and the media didn't ask.
Wednesday - how are those changes to emergency room protocols working anyways ?
