The state of Canadian journalism is terrible, a former CBC executive has testified at the Commons heritage committee. Legacy media are “memories of what they used to be” despite federal subsidies, MPs were told: “You need to give me money forever because nobody is buying my buggy whips.”
A winter recession will not be severe, Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem last night told the Senate banking committee. Macklem acknowledged his earlier forecasts were wrong: ““It’s not like we got everything right.”
Parliamentary Press Gallery president Guillaume St-Pierre is threatening to “terminate” Blacklock’s ten-year membership on complaints of disrespectful treatment of subsidized competitors. St-Pierre of the Journal de Montréal yesterday would not release a mediator’s report in the case.
“The Gallery will consider taking appropriate measures,” St-Pierre wrote in a formal letter of reprimand. Blacklock’s contravened “the quiet and civil environment that members expect,” he wrote.
“The executive may determine it is appropriate to remove privileges from a member at any time for due cause,” wrote St-Pierre. “Membership in the Gallery could also be suspended or terminated.”
The Gallery has no bylaws on quietness or civility. Its constitution also restricts the Gallery from directing how members cover news or adjudicating grievances between competitors.
Threats of expulsion follow a 2021 motion in which Blacklock’s sought full disclosure of subsidies paid to members including the Journal de Montréal. Records show the Gallery executive from last May 2 began compiling vexatious grievances including a complaint Blacklock’s managing editor Tom Korski listened to English-only audio feeds from the House of Commons.
“It is important to listen to the French,” Catherine Levesque of the National Post, a former Gallery president, told a May 2 executive meeting. The Gallery refused to release the text of the noise complaints or grant Korski a chance to respond.
On June 7 and 8 President St-Pierre and the National Post’s Levesque attended the National Press Building to personally monitor Korski’s work habits. On July 11 the Gallery hurriedly drafted a Code Of Conduct. The code written by the National Post’s Levesque, Althia Raj of the Toronto Star and Dylan Robertson of The Canadian Press stated members must “avoid loud conversations” in the newsroom.
Opposed Disclosure 18 To 1
The Gallery also compiled pages of frivolous complaints from Gallery director Emilie Bergeron of The Canadian Press, freelancer Hélène Buzzetti, a former Gallery president, and Michel Saba, a Canadian Press reporter.
Complaints included allegations Korski created a “toxic environment” in the National Press Building by using a speaker phone, leaving the “House of Commons feed running all day” when the House was in session, referring to freelancer Buzzetti as “that idiot,” speaking to a competitor “in a vaguely threatening tone,” tearing a piece of paper “in a theatrical gesture,” propping open a newsroom door and posting a tweet critical of Canadian Press committee coverage.
The Gallery refused to allow Korski to address the board. It also refused to canvass 19 other newsroom reporters and clerks assigned desks in the National Press Building on the “toxic environment” claim.
Journalists the Gallery refused to question included freelancer Gerhard Braune, Andrea Gunn of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, Adam Huras of Brunswick News, Kathryn May of Policy Options magazine, David McKie of the National Observer, freelancer James Munson, Tim Naumetz of iPolitics, Greg Quinn of Market News International, Cristin Schmitz of The Lawyers Daily, Antoine Trépanier of Le Droit, Pascal Vachon of TFO, Paul Vieira of the Wall Street Journal, Limin Zhou of New Tang Dynasty TV and Alex Binkley, dean of the Press Gallery, a member since 1975.
Threats of censure follow an April 7, 2021 Gallery meeting in which Blacklock’s sponsored a motion asking “that all Gallery members disclose all applications for grants, rebates or subsidies to any branch of the Government of Canada and that disclosures be published on a Press Gallery website.” The motion was defeated by a vote of 18 to 1.
Blacklock’s in 2020 also reported Canadian Press petitioned the Commons finance committee for 100 percent subsidies “to fully offset subscription fees paid by CP media clients,” and on August 25, 2021 reported Canadian Press launched a fact-checker service “that examines the accuracy of statements made by politicians” after pocketing $1.6 million in sole-sourced federal contracts.
By Staff 
Chinese Communist agents are targeting MPs, senators and political aides, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service yesterday told the House affairs committee. “We are very concerned about targeting,” testified Michelle Tessier, deputy director: “Did the Chinese Communist regime interfere in the last federal election?”
The Freedom Convoy was “calm, festive and family oriented” the day cabinet invoked emergency powers, according to an internal memo by Ontario Provincial Police. Protesters and their children were playing hockey, quoting the Bible and “wishing everyone a happy Valentine’s” at the moment cabinet claimed the streets were lawless, said the memo: “Speakers were again telling people to walk away from agitators and thanked the police.”
Most federal employees continue to work at home, Treasury Board President Mona Fortier said yesterday. The Canadian Chamber of Commerce petitioned cabinet to suspend the practice introduced in 2020 as a pandemic precaution: “Some public servants are back in the workplace at least two days a week.”
Immigration Minister Sean Fraser yesterday proposed to let nearly 1.5 million immigrants into Canada within three years despite fears of a recession. Cabinet’s latest immigration plan follows in-house research showing Canadians are skeptical of federal claims immigrants create jobs: “Go to a machine shop and see if they get talent on the shop floor to fill the orders.”
Media and political leaders falsely characterized the Freedom Convoy as an extremist movement, according to confidential emails between Ontario Provincial Police commanders. There was no evidence convoy members were anything but political protesters, said one commander: “It is not an ‘extremist’ movement.”
Cabinet and political aides schemed on ways to perpetuate media coverage depicting Freedom Convoy members as “crazies,” the Public Order Emergency Commission was told yesterday. A lawyer for the truckers read out text messages in which Liberal aides contemplated a media campaign to depict protesters as violent, adding: “We need something to back this up.”
Hate thought leads to hate crime, Senator David Arnot (Sask.), a former Saskatchewan human rights commissioner, said yesterday. Arnot’s remarks came amid testimony at the Senate human rights committee that claimed the Freedom Convoy was rooted in hatred of Muslims: “Hate thought, hate speech, begets hate crime. We know that.”
Federal regulators polled Canadians on support for potential postal service cuts and a 36 percent hike in stamp rates. A Department of Public Works report complained of “ongoing financial losses” at the post office: ‘Do you agree Canada Post should be allowed to deliver letters less frequently than five days a week?’
Auditors have found more improper contracting at Canadian missions aboard, this time involving embassies and consulates in Central and South America. Auditors in Mexico City expressed dismay over a mysterious $500 million bookkeeping entry later dismissed as a coding error: “No mission has a budget of that magnitude.”
