Showing posts with label wrestling. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wrestling. Show all posts

Monday, October 3, 2011

Air Canada pullout over safety exposes Downtown Biz, politicians living in denial

The dirty tricks pile up as Election Day draws near, CBC flunks math, and reporting the gritty reality of downtown crime and disorder started a Twitter assault by the Downtown Biz on the Winnipeg Sun this weekend.

Listen to the podcast for details about
- the fliers attacking Liberal candidate Joe Chan,
- the excellent blog post by L.L. about the dangers of living and working downtown, after the pollyannas and the politicians complained that Air Canada pulled their crews from staying at Portage and Smith,
- the Tweets back and forth smacking down Stefano Grande (and what broadcaster and former downtown resident Andrea Slobodian wrote),
- opinions of a listener about the Biz' CEO Sleepover PR stunt
- and another listener had some observations about the election campaigns and health care bureaucracies.

The Free Press coyly refusing to give credit to our podcast
for the Selinger/Heatbag records picture and story, alcoholism wreaking havoc on our city coming up in court last week, Gordo making excuses for teen killers, the passing of a Winnipegger whose name is well known in the sports scene even if he is not anymore, and my weekend on the road with the legendary Honky Tonk Man in Beausejour and La Broquerie for Western Wrestling Tours, round out the show.

Special thanks are in order for our Marquee Sponsor for October, Osborne House. We'll have lots to say about their service to the community and how you can help, all month long.

Here's the link:
http://tgctspod.podbean.com/2011/10/03/monday-oct-311-air-canada-pullout-over-safety-exposes-downtown-bizpoliticians-living-in-denial/


Tomorrow:
Maybe Elections Manitoba can be fooled but we aren't - exclusive details
behind a campaign dirty trick;

PLUS! see for yourself the Downtown Biz PR stunt and how pampered the CEO's were, while pretending to the public they would, in any way, be able to better understand the challenges of a homeless person after sleeping outdoors at 201 Portage. You will not want to miss it.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Thirty years later, the story of my first match

Today is the 30th anniversary of my first professional wrestling bout. The following article was originally published online in 2001 when I lived in Los Angeles. Since that time I have had many other excellent adventures involving the wrestling industry, including producing events in LA and Vancouver such as the book launch for One Ring Circus; reviving the Canada Day Rough House Rasslin' shows in Winnipeg; and producing the Kerry Brown memorial event last fall.

Let it be said, I love what is now my hobby, but for most of my adult life was my passion.


In the last 9 years I have also met and/or worked with and/or interviewed stars such as Dan 'The Beast' Severn, AJ Styles, Bryan Danielson, Kenny Omega, Steve Corino, Samoa Joe, Nick Bockwinkel, Dutch Savage, Jim Brunzell and Canada's Greatest Athlete, Gene Kiniski. I was also lucky enough to appear on CBC TV's Dragons Den in October 2007 and set a record audience of 670,000 with Dirty Money Shaun Myall and Notorious T.I.D. pitching our Power Pro Wresting TV series.

I consider myself very lucky to have had these opportunities and adventures. My deep
Publish Post
est thanks to all my brothers and sisters in the wrestling industry. And may God bless the memory of Adam Firestorm Dykes, whom I miss every single day.
*********************

My First Match
by Marty Goldstein on 2001-06-13

June 18th is the anniversary of my first match. Boy, 21 years flies by when you have spent it on ice roads, fighting corrupt commissions, bailing your buddies out of jams, and generally tilting at windmills.

My life had been tossed upside down after my father died 2 months after I graduated high school. I ducked out of going to university for a year, and then further enraged my poor mother by going to little U. of Winnipeg, a liberal arts haven for the directionless, instead of the U. of Manitoba, which had both a law and medical faculty.

Worse yet, I got into a bad car wreck (my first of 10 broken beaks) with the Catholic girl I ended up marrying , and so by May of 1980 I was broke, engaged, estranged from my family and looking for work as a sportscaster. Enter Walter Shefchyk.

The Outlaw Promoter

I was introduced to Walter by Vince De Luca. Vince was my mom's hairstylist, and if you think that's funny, he wasn't the only Italian hairstylist/pro wrestler in Winnipeg. But his old friend, Tony Condello, had pretty much given up on running his West Four Wrestling Alliance (WFWA) against Verne Gagne's monolith AWA. Vince, who as a young competitor had worked with stars such as Bobo Brazil, was now a mainstay of New Brand Wrestling, which was getting a show on local cable and needed a host.

Now, in those days, there was no such thing as "competition", it was "opposition", and to an American like Verne, a local bunch that drew maybe 400 on a good day was a big threat. Verne had carefully cultivated the image of pro wrestling in his likeness, and was a master at inviting small regional stars to his TV and then having them not just squashed but stretched beyond recognition. Ask Joe Palardi.

That way, a poster headlining say Bobby Jones and his son Larry would be viewed by the average fan as a low-level knock off. After all, how good could a show be if the main event had an Arena opening match loser and his son was best known for lying about being a 76 Canadian Olympian who was beaten so badly in a TV match by Billy Robinson that Rodger Kent was screaming for the ref to stop the bout.

Walter, who had started in 1977 for Al Tomko when Al did tours of rural Manitoba out of his BC All Star wrestling base, had split from Condello, and with Chris Pepper had built a following by doing 3 things. One, the bouts were long (35 minutes) and competitive. Two, he promoted them as shoot/amateur bouts, (he didn't pay the boys, therefore it was not professional wrestling, it was 'pro-style' wrestling), a subtle and clever difference ensuring the very corrupt Manitoba Boxing and Wrestling Commission could not easily intervene, despite Gagne's whining. Thirdly, his guys were hard workers who were not readily identified as jobbers for Verne's TV.

"Uncle Vince" was one of his stars, although he was not really that skilled or a tough guy. He got Walter to call me and based on my stint on college radio, I was invited to a meeting one night at New Brand's home base, the Chalmers Rec Centre. Walter was getting a 5 week tryout on cable and needed the show to stick, as in that era cable was very basic, there was only 12 broadcast channels, and only 3 local.

I Was Easily Led

For myself, I needed to use this to get a real media job. No one was getting rich working at this level. I was reasonably athletic and certainly knowledgable about pro wrestling for that era of sports fan, and Walter really wanted me to wrestle (for the record, he never discussed a training fee at all). However,my ambition was to become a broadcaster, not the next Salvatore Martino (then a big star for Tomko's TV, later more famous as Salvatore Bellomo) as Walter suggested.

However, he suggested hatching a storyline thru the 5 weeks that would include a confrontation and lead to a wrestler vs. announcer match. I sold the editor of the Winnipeg Tribune Donna Harvey for a first person on my entree into this weird world and immediately launched into a program with the promoter and top heel, who was 6'4", light on his feet and rather strong. I was 5'6" and maybe 155 lbs. My family was not amused.

I watched episode 5, "the angle" with my grandparents, and thankfully my Baba and Zaida, mild fans at best, didn't think it was awful. I hit the ring when the ref went down, took a bump from a crazed Soulman John Shaw, did a hot, ok, lukewarm interview, daring the frontman promoter to sign a match, and read in the local promo story that I was in for a "bloody holocaust". My family was again not amused.

The crew, which included my career long friend Caveman Broda, Scotty Lightfoot, the aforementioned Jones family, and Ladies' Choice favorite Maritime jobber, Chris "The Warlord" Pepper, were rather bemused by this idea, which was unusual in those days of kayfabe and closed shop. But we were the outlaws, thumbing our noses at convention and authority and trying to get a break.

Getting Stretched in Front of Friends and Strangers

After a bit of rudimentary training, I took a night off from rehearsals for Rainbow Stage's production of Guys and Dolls (my cross-over into a carny form of entertainment was viewed rather dimly by the arts crowd in Winnipeg back then, but the owner Jack Shapira thought it was a great opportunity) and made my in-ring debut on June 19, 1980.

Everyone, like Don Greene and Bill Murdoch and Larry Anson, snuck up from the dressing room to watch. Walter laid out a simple match. I was to duck under twice, hook up finally, get backed into the corner, duck a slap, hook up, back Walter to the corner and slap him. That part worked fine. Then he took over. From his perspective, that worked fine too. However, I soon found out that 10 Lars Anderson Brainbuster suplexes and being slammed on the floor so hard I peed blood for a week was not so fine. The crowd loved it. I understood then that Walter wanted to ensure my story did not include the word "fake". No problem.

I was winded and beat on, but still following the call. At the 10 minute mark I got in a babyface comeback- OK, 3 weak punches- and whipped Walt to the corner. To my shock, the top turnbuckle came flying off. This was certainly not in the plan and I had actually never seen that happen before. I charged the corner but stopped and as I stared at the buckle on the canvas, Walter rolled past me and nailed a hardway nutshot. This guaranteed my hitting the deck, and he went home as planned, clamping on the Figure Four leg lock. I grabbed the ropes, sold like my life depended on it, which I was sure it did, and he was DQ'd. Pepper helped me out of the ring and told me I did great.


Now That My Future was Pre-ruined...

My childhood wrestling fan friends who were there, like Hartley Zelcer, whose family owned the Polo Park Inn that the AWA stayed at in Winnipeg, told my soon-to-be wife she should be proud of me. She was not, prefering the theatrical stage to the ring for my future, and my involvement in the wrestling industry definately helped grease the skids of the marriage.

I would also add that the Trib folded on Black Wednesday, August 27, 1980, 2 days after my wedding, 3 days before my story was to run.


So for the record, I won my first match. It took awhile, June 29,1988, to have my second match, which also involves Walter and a kid who came up to me at an AWA taping in 1983 and recognized me as the voice of New Brand Wrestling, (by then on CKY-TV).The kid grew up to be Chi Chi Cruz.

So thanks you, Walter, I guess ... seriously, thanks. I've traveled places I never would have seen thanks to being involved in the business, and not all were godforsaken Indian reserves or dirty Mexican waystations. I'm in LA for now, and it all started 21 years ago.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Jets saga, WRHA secrecy, battle against Sherbrook bike lanes, Holiday Blog reading

A hodge-podge of thoughts and comments:

Isn't It Fun watching the mainstream media play catch-up...

For weeks on the Great Canadian Talk Show, Scott Taylor and I have been talking about the three groups or individuals involved in the alleged purchase of the Phoenix Coyotes: Chicago’s Jerry Reinsdorf (who is too smart to buy that dog and leave it in Phoenix), the under-financed dreamers from Ice Edge Holdings (who were looking for a bargain-basement price and nothing else) and the Mark Chipman-David Thomson duo (who really have become the apple of the NHL’s eye).

Now one of the local mainstream outlets determined that yes, indeed, Chipman was the third buyer on the scene.

Wow! Nice scoop, FP. Glad the Globe found a "document" for you. What ever happened to real reporting and the old adage, "get it first and get it right."

At the Great Canadian Talk Show we always seem to get it first and once again, we get it right.

Nice to see the local broadsheet caught up to the 'lesser media'.

*****************

On the other hand, the broadsheet hit paydirt with a Freedom of Information request that forced the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority to fork over the internal documentation about almost 900 "critical care" incidents in 2007 and 2008.

The WRHA tried every trick imaginable once they realized that Fortress Postl was not immune from FIPPA legislation. They tried

- the 30 day delay

- charging a fee in lieu of ruling that releasing the information was a public interest issue.

- stalled for 3 weeks after the $225 fee was paid

- attempted to claim there were problems with processing the request (whatever could THAT mean?) and offered to refund the fee, and refused to explain what was the problem until the Ombudsman was called

- claimed the "information contained in the privileged data application does not contain a complete account of the facts of what actually occurred with respect to the critical incident." (does this mean the WRHA was compiling incomplete accounts?)

- Ten Weeks AFTER "the Ombudsman found that the WRHA did not comply with the requirements for responding under FIPPA.", snottily replied they would do it -- just this once.

The reasons for the desperate attempt to sidestep the application was made obvious by the great work of reporter Jen Skerritt on the file.

She forced the WRHA to admit they had NOT REVIEWED the data and take steps to correct errors or systemic flaws that led to preventable deaths, such as 27 emergency room patients died because of delays in ER treatment, misdiagnosis of a brain bleed (shades of Gail Glesby), and bed shortages in ICU. Another 94 died due to equipment failure, diagnosis and medication errors and post-surgical complications.

The Free Press has asked for the 2009 data and was told that for the one year, the WRHA would charge $16, 905.

How could it only cost $225 for two years worth of data, but now it's almost $17,000 for a single year?

Well now... the blatant disregard for the rights of the applicant, the delays, the stalling, the ignoring requests for clarification, the demand for exorbitant fees, and the willfull violation of the Act?

THAT is the legacy of former Chief Executive Officer and, by coincidence, former Chief Privacy Officer ! -- Dr. Brian Postl.

The same man that is guiding the instruction of the doctors (and doctors who become administrators) of tomorrow at the University of Manitoba.

The same man who told CJOB that Skerritt's reporting into the Brown Envelope program was 'laughable'.

So funny, in fact, that the Provincial Auditor decided to investigate based on her story even though Postl claimed he had called the Auditor asking for a review of the policy - (Now THAT'S comical).

It appears this decision about whether to release information under FIPPA was based on paranoia that the region would be unfairly criticized, and the stability of their political benefactors (ie Health Minister Theresa Oswald who called Postl "courageous" in defence of his Brown Envelope scandal behavior) would suffer as a result.

Perhaps if the Act had teeth-- like criminal charges for obstructing access to public interest documents and reports like, say, how many people were DYING perhaps unnecessarily in hospitals on Postl's watch - the bureaucracies of this province such as the WRHA would show some respect for the people's right to know, instead of contempt.
***************

Here is the Sherbrook Street bike lane update we broadcast this week:

From: Belinda Squance, Ellice Cafe
Subject: Update
To: "'Marty"
Date: Tuesday, May 18, 2010, 3:46 PM

Sigh.

I met with Harvey Smith and Kevin Nixon yesterday. I am slightly more frustrated than before the meeting.

One piece of information I did get out of Kevin was the purpose of this proposed route. Apparently the AT route is being planned for Sherbrook for the sake of HSC staff. The hope is to get them out of cars and on to bikes.

I told him I have not met a single cyclist who supports this plan. The ‘true’ cyclists say bike lanes make cycling more dangerous. Most say they are either fine with Sherbrook as it is or they won’t start riding on Sherbrook if the bike lane is put in place.

Kevin also said he has photos over the course of two weeks showing that not all parking is taken up on the east side of Sherbrook. I said the west side is full by 7 am when I walk to work.

He suggested maybe putting in meters and having two hour paid parking to ease that problem.

When I went around to businesses in the area yesterday they are ALL against this plan. I also have some regular customers who own apartments/rooming houses on Sherbrook between Ellice and Sargent.

One only heard about this plan when I told him yesterday.

I have phoned and left a message with Glen Laubenstein as well. I have yet to hear back from his office about when we can meet.

Harvey is going to try and get us on the agenda to speak at a Public Works meeting May 25. This is our first avenue (according to Kevin) to put a halt to this part of the project.

He said he can not change any of the plan and Sherbrook has to go ahead with the rest of the whole AT plan.

We suggested they use Langside instead as it has controlled crossings at Portage and Ellice already. The City would just have to put in a cross walk at Sargent. He seemed unmoveable on the whole issue. He did not believe removing parking would have any negative impact on the area. He didn’t come into the meeting with a bike helmet. I am guessing he drove. I could be wrong but he does not seem like the guy to be heading this project.

I will keep you posted.

Thanks!
A very tired,

Belinda

******************
* Last week we held another Live Remote from CDI College at 280 Main Street and we were joined by Barrett Fraser of 360Winnipeg.ca for his Tuesday "New Media Perspectives" commentary. The staff and students are always so welcoming when we visit and we are proud to be sponsored by CDI.

With Graduation coming up on June 5th at Know United Church, we'll have Campus Director Tahl East on the show again that week to tell us about the preparations for the ceremony -- which will include an address to the gathering by Mayor Sam Katz.


* This past Thursday night we watched the end of the wrestling career of Priceless Chad Tatum of Brandon, who gave it his all in a challenge to the PCW champion, the World's Own Kenny Omega at Highway to Hell. The crowd at Dylan's on Pembina thrilled at the battle with the international star until a series of german suplexes rendered Tatum hors de combat.

Tatum was part of a crop of rural athletes, including his former partner Rawskillz and the master of the midriff clamp Mike Angels, who broke into the game in 1999 and drove the long miles from Western Manitoba to prove themselves ring-worthy. They were the next generation of beyond-the-perimeter warriors, sweating and straining to learn and hone their craft as had Chi Chi Cruz and Eddie Watts in the 1980's.

Outside of the ring, Chad is a soft-spoken and good-natured man who has a wonderful career in teaching, a beautiful girlfriend and a baby on the way. Best of luck to Chad as he follows Average Joe Dixon into the roll call of past PCW competitors.


* Blogs to read this long weekend include:

1) All about the state of Downtown and the Exchange District with special emphasis on parking issues and some illuminating pictures, http://progressivewinnipeg.blogspot.com/2010/05/may-two-four-weekender-special.html

2) More about downtown with the emphasis on the Downtown Biz' failed spin about their safety poll, and the failure of Portage Place with some neat video : http://slurpeesandmurder.blogspot.com/2010/05/portage-place-coming-alive-but-not.html

3) Why, contrary to what Judge Ray Wyant says, the media is not the cause of public dissatisfaction with the court system, it's his fellow gavel-bangers:
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2010/05/case-to-elect-judges-exhibit.html


4) And of course, Rick the Boss' favorite photographic archive by the fabulous Bryan Scott
http://www.winnipeglovehate.com/

*****************
VICTORIA DAY MONDAY REPLAY: THE RETURN OF JOHN COLLISON from April 12th
TGCTS is back with live broadcasts Tuesday, May 25 at 4 PM!

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Will Ombudsman investigate Hydro CEO for breach of Whistleblower Act

New Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger was the man behind the vaunted Public Interest Disclosure (aka whistleblower) Act, which the NDP brought in after repeated firings and harassment of people like Pat Jacobsen (Workers Compensation Board), Tom Ulrich (Teachers Retirement Fund), and Jium Small (Hydra House) who flagged wrongdoing, was uncovered in provincial audits and media reports.

Selinger was also the Minister of Finance when Manitoba Hydro fired a consultant, who was ordered not to put anything more in writing after she alerted officials that the Utility had blown $1 Billion, and was facing potential catastrophic consequences as a result of faulty market forecasts and revenue projections.

Now Selinger has a new headache - today, CBC News trapped Hydro CEO Bob Brennan into the most blatant violation of the whistleblowers' right to remain anonymous.

Brennan had claimed she refused to explain the basis for her dire predictions.
In turn, she produced to CBC an email offering to tell him directly,
" line by line all the errors in the financial projections so you can see for yourself and with your own eyes what is being done incorrectly”.

A panicked Brennan spun the story -- right into himself.

CBC reported "He said Thursday that each time the whistleblower contacted Hydro to discuss the alleged mismanagement, more money was requested as payment for discussing the claims."

* By even mentioning that she had discussed compensation with him, he breached her personal information. Worse for Selinger, last week Brennan confirmed she had been fired.

* That means that her asking for payment to discuss her report was not an act of extortion or greed, as Brennan wants you to believe. She had already been fired. Of course she would ask to be paid for her work.

* Brennan wanted the benefit of her research without paying her for it.

* Last week, Brennan identified the risk management consultant as a female. Today, he backtracked and called the whistleblower "an individual". Too late.
That was another example where her promised anonymity was thrown under the bus.

* He also had complained about her $500,000 contract -- another breach of her right to privacy.

Let's face it- the number of female risk management consultants who work in the Utility field is by definition, a small crowd. Reduce that to the number of female consultants retained by Manitoba Hydro. Certainly, anyone who has worked within their office in the last 5 years could figure out who had been fired.

Isn't this exactly what the legislation was intended to prevent? And here we have Brennan deliberately going out of his way, to tell everyone within the business, who it is (a female), why he fired her (which is in itself a separate breach of the Privacy Act), how much she was paid, and that she wanted another contract or compensation arrangement.

All of that is, at the very least, a breach of the Privacy Act -- and on the surface, appears to totally undermine the goals Selinger himself claimed he had when introducing whistleblower protection.

"All supervisors, designated officers and employees, including disclosing employees, are responsible for maintaining confidentiality."

Now the question is, what sanctions will be taken against Brennan and the Hydro Board, and will the Ombudsman step in and enforce the protections and penalties of the Public Interest Disclosure Act?

******
Our special series that started Monday, explained the issues behind the Hydro scandal - the whistleblower firing and smear job; what is risk management; preparing for Black Swan Events such as the emergence of LNG as a fuel source; and the matters of third-party oversight and best practices principles under a Board of Directors who are largely unqualified to assess a potential $20 Billion dollar Hydro debt.

They are available through our audio archive, at
http://www.archive.org/details/TheGreatCanadianTalkShow-MondayOctober192009

http://www.archive.org/details/TheGreatCanadianTalkShow-TuesdayOctober202009

http://www.archive.org/details/TheGreatCanadianTalkShow-WednesdayOctober212009

http://www.archive.org/details/TheGreatCanadianTalkShow-WednesdayOctober222009

**********
More about Hydro on Friday's show, which will also feature Today in History with Professor Levinski, Jon Waldman of Slam! Sports- win a copy of
his new book ! ( make sure to plan to come to the November 5th book launch -- http://www.mcnallyrobinson.com/event-9081/Jon-Waldman-&-Greg-Oliver---Book-Launch )- and of course, commentary from our usual Friday co-pilot Spirited Kenny.

Our guests this week have included
Liberal MLA Kevin Lamoureux, chiropracter "Dr. Dave" Newsham, and MMA fighter Jason Geiger and his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach Curtis Brigham. Thanks to them for helping keep our audience informed and entertained.

Next week we have already scheduled interviews with Mal (not Hal) Anderson of the
Exchange District Biz on Monday, about the unilateral Parking Authority plan to eliminate the 2 hours free Saturday parking program; retired hockey star Theo Fleury on Tuesday in a joint broadcast with the Illegal Curve radio show; and Sean Crawford of MYS (also on Tuesday). Plus as usual, Frank the Italian Barber and Brad Harrison analyze NFL Football on Monday.

Don't forget to listen to our 5 episode Sunday night replay block, kicking off at 7PM with the Oct. 16th 2-hour appearance of Winnipeg Free Press political reporter Dan Lett.

************ ********

If you are an old-school wrestling fan, please consider helping us support the family of Kerry Brown, who passed away last month.

We are producing a tribute event at the beautiful Skyview Ballroom at the Marlborough Hotel at 331 Smith Street, on Tuesday night November 10th.

Some of Canada's finest professional wrestlers, such as Chi Chi Cruz, Brian Jewel, EZ Ryder, Outlaw Adam Knight, Showtime Robbie Royce, and Gene Swan will gather to show their respect for the former Stampede Wrestling and Quebec champion, and a great silent auction, cash bar, and special surprises are also in store.

The event website, with comments from Chris Jericho and Lance Storm, video of Kerry in action, and links to personal stories from SLAM! Wrestling about Kerry, is found at
http://www.kerrybrowntribute.com/

Tickets are only $15.00, group rates are available. Feel free to email
martygoldlive@gmail.com for more information.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Manitoba flunks national wait time test for MRI's, closes in on knee replacement target

A quick overview of
The Canadian Institute for Health Information "Wait times tables, a comparison by Province, 2009",

Wait times as reported by Canadian provinces for the period April-December 2008 -- note that trends are based on 3 year averages where suitably measured data is available

* Page 3- Summary Table 1
Overall benchmark performances in the 7 categories based on 182 day/26 week target
- Manitoba fails to reach benchmark of 75% in knee replacements within 26 weeks; this refers to Page 7/table 5, where the exact figure is 71%.

* Page 4 Summary Table 3
Provincial wait time trends for the 7 procedures that have benchmark targets
- Manitoba is the only province where wait time for MRI's increased
- Manitoba and Ontario do not track coronary artery bypass surgery recovery times
( Note: the data for Manitoba cataract waits is blank - not shaded, no arrow. It is blank. So who knows what it means?)

* Page 6 Table 4
Wait times for hip replacements (in Manitoba definition fo the procedure includes smoothing)
- 80% of Manitoba are seen by benchmark of 182 days/26 weeks, above the national median, and trending down

* Page 7/Table 5
Knee replacement
- Manitoba achieved only 71% of benchmark target of 75% within 182 days/26 weeks

* Page 9/Table 7
Coronary bypass wait time
- Manitoba is at 96% of benchmark, but the
only provinces doing worse are BC, NB and NL

* Page 20/Table A6
Provincial MRI wait time trends (for Manitoba, defined as 'estimated maximum wait times")
Dec 06 56 days
Dec 07 42 days
Dec 08 91 days
- Manitobans' wait time for MRI's has more than doubled in the past year.
(Note this area seems a bit of a mess nationally except for Alberta and NS , with some provinces not reporting at all, and others having huge waits of over 100 days because of different definitions of "wait", and other factors.)
*****************
Today at 4 PM,
- Our analysis and your calls about the wait time report, and the nursing shortage;
- Spirited Kenny will have some new insight into the 511 system and about a weather event that precipitated his investigation which sparked action by bureaucrats and politicians to act on the file;
- more about CBC's As It Happens broadcast this past Tuesday (Yom Hashoa/Holocaust Memorial Day) that glorified the virtue of Nazi Germany's obsession with breeding extinct cattle; and
- At 5.20 PM, Jon Waldman of Slam!Sports updates us on the Stanley Cup playoffs and answers the question, why does San Jose even bother trying to win the Conference and get into the playoffs if they're going to play so lousy?
Next Monday at 4 PM, Mayor Sam Katz appears for the first hour.
and ... Hail Aurtarlia !
(On a personal note, today is the 15th anniversary of the inaugural Rough House Rasslin' theatresport production, a venture that eventually led to the freeing of 'performance wrestling' in Manitoba from the oversight of the white-out wielding, incompetent, and corrupt Boxing Commission of that long-ago era. Always produced in association with the Osborne Village Inn, most notably as part of the Canada Day Festival in the Village, RHR also originated the NIMBY campaign against dangerous backyard wrestling with the support of the Manitoba Safety Council.
The events have always been a source of deep pride for those involved. On behalf of myself and Chi Chi Cruz, our deepest thanks to the many fans of the shows for your support over the years, and for your support of Canadian professional wrestling.)