After all, he was the first person associated with Kick-FM who found out that College president Stephanie Forsyth got a "complaint" from Winnipeg Free Press editor Margo Goodhand about Marty Gold and "she has her lawyer working on it".
But instead of advising executive assistant Deb Pokrant that the official College policy (as he well knew) was that anyone complaining to the College about the station it funds had to file their complaint, in writing, with station manager Rick Baverstock to prevent intimidation, Thomson had his own policy.
Please his new boss at all costs.
"I don't think the College has the technical ability to remove him from the air ... this could be done without too much trouble, either through a chat with Rick, or more formally, through a board directive", he told Pokrant on October 22.
Two weeks later, after contorting himself to find a way to exempt the Free Press radio show from the plan to ban all station volunteers -- designed to make sure Marty Gold was silenced -- Thomson emailed RRC vice-president Cathy Rushton, who represented Forsyth on the radio station Board.
Thomson suggested the College cover-up the role of Forsyth and the Free Press and "soft pedal on the censorship".
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinJ8rRJANzYiaFXRVayrAARqJ-FlIdkg1_-mP30jlVllvUfoMiHrmo4Gdc4eEkUhvjwWqWlfmwUUNIg_wQjgHPtz89abrk9dT0AlJN8Nm2QuQWyIYssHhwBz1sfpSioKRkl33YF_GMNfg/s1600/Rushton+ask+Forsyth+Ok+censorshop.jpg
The internal emails disproved the excuses he made to the National Post on November 17th, when he claimed a decision to cancel the show was made at a meeting on November 2nd by the "Executive Committee",
"Mr. Thomson said the vice-president was present at the Nov. 2 executive board meeting of Cre-Comm Radio Inc. — the non-profit corporation that manages the station — where four voting board members unanimously decided to cancel Mr. Gold’s show.
He said the cancellation was part of a far-reaching “reorganization” aimed at ensuring students get air-time, and said the decision “was not about censorship.”Also brought under scrutiny was his tall tale to the Jewish Post that the cancelation idea was from two commercial radio station executives: Cre-Comm chairman David Wiebe (soon to be retired as Vice-president of Elmer Hildebrand's Golden West Radio chain), and Vice-Chair Chris Stevens of SportsTalk CFRW, (who is now in business with the Free Press with their own drive-home talk show).
Those damaging emails, and the serious inconsistencies in his other public statements and emails to outraged supporters, have highlighted concerns with Winnipeggers about the censorship of the community and the conduct of the not-for-profit radio licence and it's mouthpiece, Graham Thomson.
In December, our senior producer "Captain Audio" had his own dealings with Graham Thomson. He had made a presentation on December 9th to the Annual General Meeting of Cre-Comm Inc about the sudden cancelation of TGCTS and resulting financial implications.
When asked, Thomson refused to answer basic questions about how his presentation was subsequently handled and by whom.
In the mind of our senior producer, a veteran newsman, this odd behavior brought into question the qualifications of Graham Thomson. But when he went to learn more, Captain Audio found a problem.
Unlike the Asper School of Business at the University of Manitoba, where biographical information is online about everyone from Executive in Residence Reg Alcock to Accounting and Finance associate professor Stephen Zhang, the RRC website doesn't even list what degree Thomson has, let alone a single detail of his background.
So the question was asked of Thomson's supervisor, Red River College vice-president Ken Webb, and the surprising answer was :
"The information you are requesting about Mr. Thomson is personal information and as such you will have to request it from Mr. Thomson himself. It would be up to him ."
Given his unwillingness to respond to the simplest of questions about how the Kick-FM Board made "decisions", it seemed ol' Graham had his hands full already.But once the task of separating all the other Graham Thomsons in the world from the Winnipeg version is accomplished, it turns out Mr. Thomson has provided his "personal information" to a number of organizations -- who have posted it online for all to see.
So the following "personal information" is no secret, unless you ask Red River College to provide it:
For starters, Thomson sits on the Advisory Board of a favorite target of TGCTS, the often subsidy-from your-Hydro-bills-dependent wind farm industry, which starts to fill in some of the gaps. "Global Wind Group Inc. (GWG) is a Winnipeg, Manitoba based Clean Technology Company"
http://www.globalwindgroup.com/about-us/advisory-board
He started 2 small businesses in the 1980’s and prior to that, held management positions in Personal and Corporate Trust at the Canada Trust Company ... Graham has held various roles at the college over a 23 year career, which started as an Entrepreneurship instructor.
Next we move to the Board of Directors webpage of Film Training Manitoba:
Graham Thomson is Dean of the School of Business and Applied Arts at Red River College. Prior to this he has had a long career in post-secondary education including as an RRC instructor, Business Administration Program Coordinator, Chair of Management and Marketing, and Chair of Creative Arts.
So Thomson preceded fellow Kick-FM Board member Larry Partap as honcho of the RRC Cre-Comm courses.
Before joining the faculty at RRC, Graham owned and operated two small businesses.
No information has been found about those businesses. But in the latter-day, Thomson's LinkedIn states he has been President of a respected Michigan-based film accounting business and school, John Gaskin Productions since 2007; the company handled duties for the Winnipeg-lensed 2004 Richard Gere/J-Lo romantic comedy Shall We Dance.
Graham currently sits on the boards of the Central Neighborhoods Development Corporation, Cre-Comm Radio Inc. (Kick FM), and FortuneCat Video Games Incubator (past-Chair).
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/game-incubator-switched-off-100327654.html
The Winnipeg Free Press reported it was folding after a much-ballyhoo'd launch in 2006.
"The studio relied on federal and provincial monies. The federal funding dried up about a year and a half ago and FitzGerald said the provincial funding was ending this year... The provincial government said in a statement Monday it provided a total of $662,954 in funding to the Fortune Cat Games Studio between 2005 and 2010."
A former client who was quoted in the story, then left a more detailed comment online about where he thought the project got derailed :
August 11, 2010 at 9:03 AM
I think in the interest of taxpayers, I should forward a summary of my experience at and after Fortunecat.
*My firm brought 10 times more funding to Manitoba from outside within 1 year after graduation from Fortune Cat than that we were given. We made jobs. Hurrah. Success, like all small business: sweat and tears.
* As an incubatee, 90% funding was held _until_ month 8 of 9 months. Our collective requests to use funding to hire developers for the first 8 months to complete the project were refused repeatedly and inexplicably.
* For 8 months, I and the other 2 intial incubatees focused on bringing in contracts for survival. These were successful, including a CNMA award-winning project.
* Meetings between us and the FC board beyond the first week were non-existent.
* After graduation (year 1, we're 4 years in now), several ways to make the program work were suggested, including mid 5-figure private investment from my firm. Nothing was adopted, again, inexplicably.
I wish FC were a better story, but like many, my take on it is that it was ultimately veiled in distrust and bad sensibilities.
The following is how I really feel:
Winnipeggers, we can do anything, but we need to be open to intelligent discourse.
Fortune Cat is not the sum of its parts, but of its weaknesses.
This is because of intellectual and philosophical arrogance. "Funding" is only part of it. I am part of an old school that believes in Debate. What you have here is the result of a closed discussion: Closure
**********
But what of Thomson's actual advanced studies, you ask?
He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (hons) from the University of Manitoba and an MBA from the Edinburgh Business School.
For MBA's, the top ranked schools are the likes of London, Harvard, and Stanford.
Edinburgh Business School managed to crack the top 90 - at # 89.
Slightly ahead of Montreal's McGill (# 95).
Thomson himself provided yet more of the so-called personal information in a testimonial for how helpful it was not to have to actually attend a class with real humans for the one year, online Masters degree...
http://www.ebsglobal.net/studying-globally/canada-testimonials
Graham Thomson
So armed with a one-year online Masters Degree from the 89th ranked business school, Graham Thomson is promoted as a bright light in the Red River College universe and a leader of advanced education and the community.
Coming soon: With all that "advanced edumaction", why was Graham Thomson left "feeling a bit stupid" in the days after the cancellation of TGCTS ?
Posted by: Khal