A small flurry of comments on local blogs has ramped up an attack on those in the alternative media who continue to ask questions about the identity of the mystery man who delivered government subsidized pork from Winnipeg Harvest to striking Free Press workers in October.
The delivery bypassed the hungry clients of Harvest who had been told none was left for them, and brought free food to employed and well-paid strikers who had been off the job for all of 4 days and had not even missed a paycheque yet.
Here is the basics to understanding why porkgate will not go away.
1) The government subsidized pork was always intended to go to the poor and the hungry.
2) The pork was given to Free Press strikers, who were neither poor nor hungry.
3) They greedily jumped the queue because they did not apply for help from Harvest or any other food bank.
4) Someone brought food directly to the picket line without the authorization of Winnipeg Harvest.
5) How can anyone say it wasn’t stolen when they don’t know
a) who delivered it
or
b) who approved the delivery.
6) When Harvest gave the pork to this mysterious person, did they say, here, take it home, give it to your friends, give it to anyone you see on the street? Or, were they told - this is for the poor and needy (ie clients of food banks and soup kitchens.)
7) The Free Press employees are engaged in a cover-up by not revealing who wrongfully diverted the food from the intended recipients to their picket line.
8)The cover-up protects David Northcott, who is ultimately responsible for making sure that government-financed food provided to Harvest got to the people it was intended for.
9) The Free Press employees profess to hold other people accountable for public expenditures and to know all about conflict of interest and transparency, but are willing to abandon all these principles when they are the beneficiaries of objectionable activities.
What is the motive for those who choose to ignore these facts and personally attack those who want to know how the poor got ripped off?
They obviously don’t want the public to know how food can be easily misdirected from Winnipeg Harvest, and/or don’t want the Free Press employees hypocrisy to be exposed and seek to quelch any discussion about how this hypocrisy seeps into their daily coverage of political and civic matters.
An element in our community continues to engage in diversionary tactics including name calling and insults, rather than focus on the serious ethical issues stemming from a newspaper union caught trying to spin a wrongful act as a sign of public support for their strike.
One of those individuals is a Free Press contributor who does not even try to dispute his own conflict of interest. Rather, Curtis Brown is now the unofficial apologist for the CEP Union 191, caring not a whit about the taxpayers who paid for the pork, the hungry who did without, or the damage caused to Harvest -- which has lost public support and confidence after Northcott was quoted as saying he was glad the union pickets got food -- which he was supposed to ensure went to the poor and needy.
Brown waddled into the debate about local bloggers and their relationship with the mainstream media, and added an aside to his original post:
d) For God's sake, let The Mystery of the Missing Pork go already, buddy. Can't you find another conspiracy tale to spin about the Freep? One involving Bob Silver, Theresa Oswald, Brian Postl, the Illuminati and the map which shows where the secret NDP treasure is buried?
I sent an email about this remark and another personal comment made about me by Brown, and got this response last night, which as you will see is reprinted with his permission:
If the pork truck driver comes forward under a pseudonym that protects his or her identity, would you be good enough for you? Or would you continue to beat this into the ground?
Best of luck with your little crusade.
cb
PS.. Feel free to share this with your audience. I know you will anyway.
Today at 4.30, I will go into more detail about the campaign by people like Brown who desperately wish the stench of Porkgate goes away, as well as his opinion of people like the Lt-Governor of Manitoba John Harvard, and the late Ron Able.
Also, we've uncovered a new detail about Porkgate from a Harvest source, and a blog follower has contributed a possible solution to the unspoken failure of David Northcott to prevent the now-exposed waste of donated food.
After 5 PM, more about a possible second round of layoffs at the Free Press, including which hard-working junior reporters may be sacrificed by the inaction of the union executive on any discussion of job sharing or wage rollbacks.
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A man who was instrumental in the careers of many local musicians as well as promoting the appearance of innumerable touring acts, died last Saturday after a lengthy illness. http://www.passagesmb.com/obituary_details.cfm?ObitID=147117
Rob "Hoss" Hoskin, who I met in the early 90's at the Zoo and who gave me a ton of great, brotherly advice about event promoting and producing, was a larger than life character who loved great music, good food, fine liquor, and bringing top bands to Winnipeg audiences. A native of Port Alberni, BC, his roots in this community go back to 1984 when he joined the Hungry I Agency, and more recently he was a driving force with Morris Entertainment.
This Facebook page has been created about his passing:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=694362203&ref=profile#/event.php?eid=68041944950&ref=nf
"There will be a service for him this coming Saturday at 3pm at Cropo on Main St. and then we will be going to party at Ozzy's (downstairs at the Zoo, 160 Osborne St. South) after.
Rob wouldn't want it anywhere else or done any other way!
Anyone and everyone that knew Rob is welcome to join.
We want this to be a happy time, a party, because he told me on his wedding day last week, that he doesn't want anyone to be sad!
Please invite anyone that may want to come to this. Anyone one that was a friend, aquaintance, colleague or if he ever booked your band over the years!!"
I will pay tribute to my dear friend today at 4 PM. Rest in peace, Hoss.
