The ficticious "Committee" is composed of the officers of Cre-Comm Inc., and includes 2 commercial radio executives, and RRC representatives Larry Partap and College legal beagle Robert Buisson, who replaced the memory-challenged RRC vice-president Cathy Rushton after the Annual General Meeting in December.
In a Facebook note to the 420 members of the Red River College Kills Free speech on 92.9 Kick FM group, which was formed after the "Executive Committee" canceled The Great Canadian Talk Show without notice in November, 'Spirited Kenny' posted :
"This morning I asked for Whistleblower Protection when I filed a formal 8 point complaint about the officers of Cre Comm Inc with the rest of the Board.
In my investigation about the "Executive Committee" handling a manufactured complaint from Premier Selinger to Red River College about my show, I was lied to by the College lawyer Rob Buisson who breached my privacy rights, and my volunteer rights to information about Kick-FM were deliberately breached by Chairman David Wiebe.
Wiebe evaded my questions about "Executive Committee" actions after I discovered it has no legal power under the Bylaws or granted by the Board. I challenged him to prove otherwise and he insulted me. The station is being illegally controlled."
The Kenny Show was targeted in a fabricated complaint by Premier Greg Selinger's office to RRC president Stephanie Forsyth in December as reported here:http://tgcts.blogspot.com/2011/01/exclusive-premier-selinger-cries-to.html
The bogus complaint to Forsyth and immediate actions by her representatives on the Board was a mirror image of the tactics used to swiftly silence The Great Canadian Talk Show, after Marty Gold had extensively detailed how the Winnipeg Free Press failed to report on eyewitness complaints of an admission by Ross Eadie of receiving illegal civic election financing from the NDP in the fall.
Despite repeated requests for cabinet press secretary Jay Branch to correct the falsified quote in his complaint about Kenny that was not found in the transcript and apologize for distorting the content of the broadcast that got under Selinger's skin, Branch has not even acknowledged his victim's concerns.
The cover-up carried over to RRC, which relies on government support for their expansion plans.
After Buisson refused to explain why he gave 2 different versions of how the NDP complaint had been intercepted and discussed by the "Executive Committee" rather then sent directly to station manager Rick Baverstock as required under the official complaint process, Kenny pressed Chairman David Wiebe for documentation that would prove the "Executive Committee " was ever created by a Board motion in the first place and for what purpose.
In the very first test of the Feb. 22 volunteer policy, Wiebe arrogantly refused to provide any information and broke the station rules - again.
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In a second online posting last night, Kenny, himself an RRC graduate, provided his analysis of the implications of the "Executive Committee" having illegally acted without the approval of the full Board, which includes 3 RRC student representatives.
" When one of the "partners" of Red River College like The Winnipeg Free Press or sugar daddy Greg Selinger couldn't take the heat from Kick-FM hosts, they cried to RRC president Stephanie Forsyth with falsified complaints.
Unlike former president Jeff Zabudsky who knew right from wrong, Forsyth "suggested" things to her employees on the Kick FM Board who then try to censor Kick-FM -- even when it breaks the CRTC rules -- to make the establishment she caters to happy.
I believe that this is how the myth of the "Executive Committee' was invented, to allow Forsyth to hide behind it, and protect the NDP and Free Press from being exposed as wanting to silence their critics at all costs.
Why did we never hear about the "Executive Committee" when Zabudsky was College president?"
Kenny went on to address the reason why radio executives would be so willing to go along with the scam - the power it gave them to limit the success of Kick-FM community programming without it costing them a dime:
"Censoring the talk shows on Kick FM is a conflict of interest for the commercial radio station board members who do not represent the general community at all, but represent Sports1290, CJOB, QX104 and rural Christian radio.
If they make campus programming and future radio talent less interesting and engaging to the audience, it is less attractive to potential sponsors and preserves their own advertising monopoly. But they don't care, because the radio stations don't pay a dime towards Kick-FM's operations, and they have encouraged the debt to the College grow to over $275,000 of OUR money with the community or volunteers having no say on the Board in breach of the CRTC rules. This smells like a racket."
A longtime talk-radio fan, Kenny had come into the Kick-FM fold in 2007 as a producer and eventual co-host of The Great Canadian Talk Show, and scored success as a broadcaster with his breaking news about the 511 national emergency alert system rollout being stalled at risk of human life, and coverage of how unelected Premier Selinger's carrying the Olympic Torch at the invitation of the Aspers broke the rules.
He was scheduled to appear on TGCTS on the day it was axed and has told members of the Facebook support groups that based on his investigation, the cancelation is now more suspicious than ever.
"Everyone knew something was fishy on November 8th and now we all know why it did not make any sense. The cancellation of The Great Canadian Talk Show was illegal. The "Executive Committee" wanted to do the same to me for the NDP government until I caught them.
Marty has published internal emails proving that students, alumni, sponsors, listeners and the media like the National Post were lied to by the likes of Dean of Business Graham Thomson who called his role "fun in a twisted kind of way".
TGCTS was for 4 years an important part of the communities right to information and hold the mainstream media, city hall and the legislature accountable. It held politicians to account in an unparalleled fashion and broke dozens of important stories the mainstream media could not understand. It was silenced by those who have no respect for the public.
The appeal process was fixed and totally controlled by the College lawyer, who did not allow the rest of the Board to see the evidence and discover for themselves, that the cancellation was illegal and a breach of the contract with Marty Gold."
In his email to the Cre Comm Board, which is available via thekennyshow@live.ca, Kenny asked the 6 remaining Directors (that is, non-officers), to hold a hearing into his detailed complaints against Wiebe, Buisson, Partap, Thomson, and vice-chair Chris Stevens,and asked for Whistleblower Protection.
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When the hearing is held, Kenny may want to present to those non-officer Directors a copy of the following letter.
They could be very surprised by it.
It was sent to Marty Gold on photocopied Kick-FM letterhead dated December 16, signed with a suspiciously unreadable signature, and stated his appeal for reinstatement had been rejected.
- The letter with the unreadable signature was supposedly approved by unidentified "members of the Board."
- The Bylaws require all questions put to the Board of Directors, such as the presentations at the AGM, be decided by a vote of ALL Directors.
- According to the official minutes and confirmed by board members, no vote on the presentations was taken before the letter was sent
Who signed the letter is a mystery.
The Board was told by David Wiebe on December 9th Buisson was "handling the appeals" even though he was not a Board member and they had not voted to let him act for the Board. On Dec.14 Rushton left the Board and was replaced by the College lawyer Buisson . Two days later the letter was sent.
Based on Kenny's finding, there are important questions the remaining non-implicated Directors must investigate about way the appeals process was manipulated.
Remember, the Executive Committee held only 4 out of 10 votes.
If compensation was agreed to, the College would have to pay. If reinstatement was agreed to, heads could have rolled on the NDC.
Who signed the letter and under which authority?
Gold had argued that the cancellation by the actions of the "Executive Committee" alone was not legal and Kenny backs it up with evidence from the Board chairman himself.
Even Robert Buisson, wearing his College lawyer hat, cautioned Thomson in an email on Nov. 9th:
"if there is something in the by-laws that could be interpreted as having not been complied with this week, it could add fuel to the "Bring Back Marty Gold" Fire."
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In concluding his statement to the online community of Kick-FM listeners, Kenny pointed to the Whistleblower aspect of his blowing the lid off the "Executive Committee" scam - the taxpayers of Manitoba underwrite Red River College, whose executives then funnel money to the station as a bottomless pit with no regard for the community as stakeholders. He told supporters to demand the College take responsibility.
"We as taxpayers fund the College and the Code of Ethics has been violated by many top officials. They must all be held accountable for what they have done to our community and to the volunteers of Kick FM and the reputation of our college and radio station. Liars have no place in campus radio or as College employees and the cover-up by College officials must stop.
Email your protest of this situation to RRC Board of Governors Chairperson Sheryl Feller at bfeller@mymts.net
Insist on a proper and transparent investigation and that she respond to your inquiry with details of how it will proceed."
Coming up- in retrospect, internal documents from 2 Board members indisputably confirm the "Executive Committee" scam as described by Kenny; and Kick-FM listens react to Kenny blowing the whistle on his alma mate.
