Street gangs not so dangerous that security cameras needed in North or West End, according to police proposal

Last week's attempted glorification of Indian Posse fugitive Danny Wolfe resulted in a hurried about-face by CBC-TV on Friday; evidentally the outcry of viewers about Wolfe's unchallenged claim that his crime sprees were rooted in his parents being 'victims of residential schools' embarassed CBC into balancing their initial report.

Common sense comments by inner-city viewers included insisting that when even actual residents of the schools had served in the armed forces and lived within the law, and raised hard-working honest children, intergenerational-victim Wolfe still bore personal responsibility for his own life and actions.

His own actions have included previous convictions for threatening witnesses and a violent home invasion; and Wolfe currently faces first degree murder and attempted murder charges in a Saskatchewan home invasion--which is why he went on the lam after a Regina prison break.

The history of the Indian Posse, the Wolfe Brothers, and the disturbing attitude that the police are the enemy and hiding a dangerous wanted escapee is an acceptable way of life within some Manitoba communities, are bad enough. As The Black Rod reported in summarizing that background:

But nobody is talking about an even more frightening aspect of that street-level support for criminals--- how it has infected the aboriginal population at large, spreading into the so-called native leadership, the media, and filtering through right up into the inner cabinet of Manitoba's NDP government.

Unless this poison is addressed quickly and decisively, it will continue to corrode the body politic and determine just how violent the coming clash of cultures is going to be.

Now, TGCTS has learned that the vaunted closed-circuit surveillance camera initiative being stage-managed by the Winnipeg Police Service is proposing to abandon the residents of the North and West End -- the most frequent victims of violent street gangs like the IP and Mad Cowz, the neighbourhoods swarmed by cops just last week in their capture of Danny Wolfe -- in favour of more politically fashionable neighborhoods and causes.

This news comes on the heels of yet another shooting on Magnus Avenue, where a 17 year old boy was nearly killed on the weekend.

According to the list we received from a listener in the know, Magnus Avenue, the site of 4 murders and numerous shootings and arsons in the recent past, is not considered a "hot spot" by city police.

But the Millenium Library, site of no known shootings or murders, is on the police list to get equipped with a camera.

On Monday we will report on the responses of organizations that were supposedly consulted in this process, and of elected officials whose crime-riddled residential streets might be shunned in favour of 9, almost exclusively downtown locations.

Then, on Tuesday at 5 PM, Mayor Sam Katz will join us at our on-site broadcast from CDI College. The question of whether he will endorse police turning their back on the people of the North End and Spence Neighbourhood to the IP and their ilk will be front and centre in our interview; along with questions about Bus Rapid Transit and Park and Ride, the U of Manitoba Blue Bomber Stadium proposal, and the provincial government blinking on expensive upgrades they have demanded to the civic wastewater treatment facilities.

How to listen to TGCTS on I-Tunes !!

So, I recently discovered how to listen to the show on my Mac. This pleased me to no end, because I live out on the edge of the city, where KICK-FM's signal isn't too strong. But you can't beat the coverage from the Internet!

Here's how to listen to TGCTS on your Mac:

1. The URL for the KICK FM live stream is http://66.187.79.58:80. Copy that text.

2. Open up iTunes. Go to Advanced, and click on Open Stream.

3. Paste that URL into the Open Stream window, and click OK. Bam! Marty's in your iTunes.

Cheers! Thanks for listening!
- Young Josh

PS - I'll be at CDI College with Marty for our on-site broadcast next Tuesday, don't miss our live interview at 5 PM with Mayor Sam Katz.

NDP endorses Cheez Whiz as affordable milk substitute for Northerners

Thanks to Councillor Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan), who visited in-studio yesterday for a very far-ranging discussion about, among other things, wastewater treatment plant costs, the Disraeli Freeway revitilization, the Winnipeg Police Advisory Board, and in particular his frank revelation that city bureaucrats have tried to use his inexperience to BS him. He'll be invited back regularly as he provides a fresh point of view and is not afraid to be held accountable.

We had a flood of emails and calls after the show, in response to our story about the outrageous comments in the Legislature of NDP MLA Flor Marcelino (Wellington) on Tuesday.

While making excuses for the NDP's refusal to support a Private Members bill of Liberal Kevin Lamoureux (Inkster) to establish a fixed price for fresh milk and make that staple affordable to Northern Manitoba, (keep in mind the price of beer is, by law, the same as in Winnipeg but milk runs up to $22 or more for a 4-litre), Marcelino stated that the people of the North were ingeniously using other products to ensure their children get calcium in their diets.

Specifically: Cheez Whiz.

Which, as our science specialist Spirited Kenny is going to tell us on Friday, is barely recognizable as a food.

Here's the excerpt from Hansard:
http://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/hansard/2nd-39th/vol_65a/h65a.html#sr

Marcelino: ... However, I noticed that if you can be creative and practical, there are other alternatives to milk if you just want calcium. I saw in Gods Lake Narrows this school where supplies are delivered. They have several boxes of Cheez Whiz which is also a derivative of milk product containing calcium. I saw lots of bread. I thought without even thinking about this bill that this is a good alternative for milk.

So these children and adults from remote communities who, with this product which could be stored for a long time, these people from the northern communities are not without calcium in their diet. They may not have the actual fresh, chilled milk in the morning, but they have Cheez Whiz and other milk-derivative products that could be stored.

We are still searching for proof that the calcium in the standard serving size (2 tablespoons or 33 grams) of Cheez Whiz is an effective preventative measure for cavities in 2 year olds, or that the benefits of Cheez Whiz outweigh the excessive saturated fat, sodium, and other dubious nutritional qualities of that unnatural processed concoction.

But on the other hand, the government keeps beer affordable ...

More to come today at 4 PM, along with Brian Smiley of MPI, federal election updates, and your calls.

Keep listening for federal election news and analysis

Day 1 of our coverage of the Federal Election featured:

- Breaking news about the exclusion of the Green Party from the upcoming leaders' debates and Elizabeth May's threat to seek an injunction;

- the Free Press revealing that Prime Minister Harper won't meet with their editorial board, while at the same time Stephane Dion won't return the calls of Corus Radio's Roy Green requesting an interview;

- that Dion didn't know what a 'car pool' was, and gave out the URL of the Green Shift company that the Liberal lawyers argued can't be confused with their use of the term;

- and with Jim Maloway entering the federal arena for the NDP, a name surfaced of a possible candidate in the upcoming provincial by-election to replace him -- Phil Walding, son of the former Speaker of the Legislature Jim Walding who took down the Pawley government in 1986.

Mainstream media can't cover it all. Space and time limitations, staffing shortages, direction from their bosses, all factor into what you will and won't hear, see, and read. By culling various media resources we will try to bring as much information about the Parties and their campaigns forward, so you voters can form your own best judgement about which candidates to support.

Today we look deeper into the red flags being tossed at Manitoba Hydro by the Public Utilities Board, more updates on the federal election, as well MPI's Brian Smiley joins us; tomorrow Councillor Jeff Browaty appears in-studio to cover the civic issues as he sees them; and in the meantime we'll see if we hear back from the Green Party about the question we asked of their "Group of 4".

Politics and media coverage to the forefront

With a federal election looming and the Manitoba Legislature about to resume, and following on the heels of the interview we did with provincial grit leader Jon Gerrard about the state of health care and Regional Health Authorities, politics and media will be front and centre on the show in the next couple of days.

Today at 4.10 Pm, the News Director of Global TV in Winnipeg Jon Lovlin will take time for a conversation about the style and content of news in Winnipeg; Jon is a good friend of the show as you can see:

Also, Professor Levinski will take a look at the life of respected Holocaust survivor Phillip Weiss, who passed away yesterday at age 83; and we'll have a special interview with Niverville race car driver David Richert, who is competing on the Volkswagen's Clean Diesel Jetta TDI Cup and will be throwing out the first pitch at Friday night's Goldeye's playoff game at 7 PM.

As well we'll be featuring the audio from the following Fox News clip where Megyn Kelly shredded Us Weekly for their blatant partisan attack on Republican V-P nominee Gov. Sarah Palin: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjQhiarIQaw

Tomorrow, local blogger Luc Lewandoski of Hacks and Wonks will look towards the federal election and the conflicts between MSM and bloggers in the way the campaign issues are covered and defined; Winnipeg Sun legislative reporter Paul Turenne will have a preview of next week's resumed sitting at the big house on Broadway; and Jon Waldman of Slam!Sports will report on the opening of the NFL season and other matters of sporting debate.

Don't forget we are now replayed every Monday to Thursday night at 11 PM on 92.9 Kick FM, and there are 21 hours of TGCTS on-air every week.

Invitation to appear on TGCTS directly delivered to Doer

The Mackintosh Watch is at Day 16 and there is no sign that the Family Services Minister will respond to our request for an interview to allow him to answer the questions stemming from the Gage Guimond death/Sagkeeng First Nation and Cree Nation Child and Family Service reviews.

Questions like:

What will he do to ensure whistleblowers can come forward and be protected from threats of physical harm?

Why did the province hand over millions to the Sagkeeng CFS authorities without ensuring more than a paltry $1000 was spent on criminal background checks and foster parent training?

What responsibility does he and his bureaucrats accept for their failure to protect children in care?

Gord Mackintosh is not alone. Many of his cabinet colleagues, including Health Minister Theresa Oswald, Healthy Living Minister Kerri Irvin-Ross, and their boss Premier Gary Doer, do not even bother with the courtesy of a call to tell us they won't be available to come on the show and let the listeners of Kick-FM hear what the government has to say about the important issues.

It's true, maybe they don't even know. After all in this day of hyper-control by political apparatchiks, we deal with Cabinet Communications staff. Maybe they don't pass the request along to our elected officials. Maybe, as senior producer Captain Audio has heard, the little campus radio signal is considered "lesser media" and has been frozen out by the NDP's spinners.

But one person has gotten a personal invitation, while attending Folklorama. Maybe one day if he can bear tearing himself away from his monthly free hour of answering the listeners on CJOB on Portage, Premier Gary Doer can find our modest little radio studio downtown.