Controversial Cathy Rushton Departs Red River College

Cathy Rushton, the longtime Vice President for Finance and Administration of Red River College who has been under intense scrutiny after internal emails revealed her part in orchestrating the cancellation of The Great Canadian Talk Show on Kick-FM at the behest of College president Stephanie Forsyth, is apparently no longer employed by the campus.

Over the weekend, bloggers noticed a sharp upswing in internet searches for "Cathy Rushton" with some interesting adjectives added that indicated what could politely be described as a parting of the ways.

Then on Wednesday, TGCTS received the following email from Barb Judt of Osborne House:

Hi Marty:

When I called RRC today and asked to speak with Cathy Rushton, they advised me that she wasn’t in. When I asked when would she be back, I was told that she ‘would NOT be back at the College’.

Other sources confirm her departure, suggesting that Rushton officially hit the bricks last Friday, June 3, right after the spring convocation and before this weeks' golf tournament.

The timing would be exactly two weeks after the CRTC received an official document from Kick-FM admitting that its 4 member "Executive Committee" (which included Rushton and RRC administrator Larry Partap last November and claimed it had the authority to arbitrarily cancel TGCTS) did not have any legal powers whatsoever under the Bylaws or voted by the Board of Directors.

The document, on Red River College letterhead, was a response to an official complaint sent to CRTC chair Konrad Von Finckenstein by a concerned listener.

CRTC rules are very strict about requiring care and control of campus radio licences by a balanced Board of Directors at all times, yet the document indicated the "Executive Committee" (made up of the officers of the corporation) has been making decisions on short notice for years about the station without consulting the other directors, supposedly telling them after the fact what the foursome had done.

Manitoba Companies Office filings show Rushton was an officer of Cre Comm Inc, which holds the radio licence, from Day 1 until Dec 14, 2010.

The listener had meticulously collected and cross-referenced emails, official records, and media reports to raise extensive questions about whether CreComm Radio Inc was breaking CRTC rules and its own Bylaws in the way it handled financial and conflict of interest issues, conducted its corporate affairs, and structured the Board of Directors.

Rushton had been the college’s chief financial officer since 1995, and the vice-president of finance and administration since 2006. She has been mired in controversy for over half a year, after official records proved she had:

- circulated false claims to College and station officials that Mayor Sam Katz had complained about TGCTS to former President, Dr. Jeff Zabudsky, and refused to correct the records held by the College about Katz;

- ignored the official complaint policy of the station which she had received last August, that required the Canadian Broadcast Standards Council procedure be followed and complaints about Kick-FM programs be put in writing to the station manager;

- admitted censorship was the real reason behind axing the show,

- invented a false reference to the "Executive Committee" having held a meeting to make their "decision" to cancel the show

- mocked the Winnipeg Police Association as well as other listeners from the community who spoke out in support of Marty Gold, and

- misinformed the Board in December after it heard Gold's appeal for reinstatement saying that federal Treasury Board minister Vic Toews had complained about the show, when Toews had actually questioned Thomson and Forsyth about the rumours regarding the Winnipeg Free Press being behind the cancelation.

RELATED:
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2011/06/heads-roll-at-red-river-college-shhh.html
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Welcome to readers of my column in todays' Winnipeg Sun, about the unforeseen potential dangers of extending the hours the traditional Manitoba social can be open:

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2011/06/09/liquor-kiosk-plan-spells-trouble#disqus_thread

Want to hear us return to a regular audio format ?

email: martygoldlive@gmail.com for more information on how you can help make it happen.

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Our Five-Point Plan for the Vacant and Derelict Buildings Bylaw

It's no secret that Winnipeg has a lot of vacant and derelict buildings. It's no secret to the families living next to these places that they're common targets for arson and vandalism, when they're not already home to organized criminals.

And thanks to our grandstanding council members, it's no secret that Winnipeg's Vacant and Derelict Buildings Bylaw (no. 35/2004 if you want to look it up) is supposed to be one of the most cutting-edge property laws on the continent, designed specifically to get rid of vacant and derelict buildings.

But it can hardly be cutting-edge if the city doesn't have the guts to use it correctly, now can it?

I'm Young Josh, and I've spent the past three months looking into the Vacant and Derelict Buildings Bylaw; what it does, how well it works, and how the city uses it. You've heard me talking about the Bylaw with Marty on The Great Canadian Talk Show, and if you've tuned in over the last two weeks, you've heard me lay out a Five-Point Plan for city councilors and administration to get more use out of this "cutting-edge property law", and help make sure our city isn't home to more arson, more vandals, more criminals, and more danger.

I'll be laying out that Five-Point Plan below, but first, I'd like to comment on precisely how disheartening this has been.

I vote in civic elections with the expectation that people in the running will put some real effort into making Winnipeg a better place. After a little digging into one bylaw, I have officially been "given the run-around", as Marty puts it. I've spoken to three departments and over a dozen people, I've had one contact receive a memo specifically telling them not to answer my questions, I've had two requests for information outright ignored, and I've had PR themselves tell me they've sent information when I haven't received a thing. I did not vote for these people in order to have information hid from me when I, and TGCTS listeners, needed it.

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So: here, posted on the Internet for posterity, is our Five-Point Plan for the Vacant and Derelict Buildings Bylaw, as presented on The Great Canadian Talk Show.

5. Increase the penalties for not complying.

As it stands, the minimum penalty for a first offense is $500. It's $1,000 for the second offense, and $2,000 for a third. This is absolute pocket change for many property owners, and it would be no problem for them -- or for members of the criminal element -- to pay off the penalty and keep right on going. In order for the Bylaw to work, it has to deter property owners from letting their properties become derelict. If another zero is added to each penalty, making it $5,000, $10,000, and $20,000, we might have something that does what it's supposed to.

4. Expedite the process.

It takes three months for the city to identify a property as vacant or derelict and take title to it. Once the city has the title for a property, it takes another fifteen months -- that's 450 days -- for them to put it to use. This is ridiculous. Expedite the process by cutting down the periods for appeal, and this can easily be brought down to six months at the most.

3. Attract investors and developers.

There are 12 properties that the city can take title to right now, under the Bylaw, and start the 15-month process of doing something with it. If we had business investors and property developers interested in making use of these properties, that process would fly by quickly, and the crackhouses and fire-traps could start to vanish from our streets. The councilors need to use the bylaw to sensationalize property development, instead of sensationalizing themselves (more on that later), in order to do something with it.

2. Add more inspectors.

Right now, the city has two inspectors, each with their crews, working to enforce this Bylaw. Two.

Marty and I did the math for this on the show: each crew, if they inspected two houses every business day, could clear out 500 houses a year. Instead, the city takes care of 260 at the most, and we're left with a waiting list of 880 houses -- some of which have been there since 1999 -- clogging up Winnipeg streets.

1. Use the bylaw to get rid of vacant and derelict buildings, instead of using it to look like you're accomplishing something.

The 2007 amendment to this Bylaw had some major media coverage, mostly of councilors patting themselves on the back. Most of this amendment involves fixing spelling mistakes and adding minor penalties. Not exactly a major accomplishment.

But that's not all. One employee of the city told me, on the record, that the administration's actual goal with the Vacant and Derelict Buildings Bylaw is not to get rid of vacant and derelict buildings. Instead, they just want to make sure that these buildings are kept clean and up to standards. You'll never hear the city tell you a fact like that in a press release! This "goal" is what I'm referring to when I say the city doesn't have the guts to use the Bylaw correctly.

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That's our Five-Point Plan. I look forward to seeing some progress with the Vacant and Derelict Buildings Bylaw in 2008, and maybe seeing a few more houses drop off that waiting list. Send feedback to talk@kick.fm!

In the meantime, I've got a few other stories in the works with Marty for January, including one that could have me taking a walk down Magnus Avenue and seeing just what the community's doing to rescue their streets. Stay tuned!