Amazing investigative reporting by Linda Diebel. A must read.
It is also long, long overdue. Those of us who work for animal protection/welfare – my firm has worked for years for the OSPCA, the Humane Society of Canada and the Humane Society of the United States, and against seal and whale hunting – detest Marineland and have been pressuring to get it shut down. We haven’t been successful.
Hopefully Linda’s reporting will finally do that. We shall see.
Told you so. From one of the best reporters in this country, David Akin:
Harper has never looked to Jesus for advice on the economy, politics, or defence issues. You can, however, get Harper to change his mind if you write an essay with lots of footnotes from peer-reviewed academic journals.”
Dear Toronto Police Service:
Warren here. Now that you have changed the law to protect the mayor of Toronto, I figured I’d drop you a line.
This story, you see, has pissed me (and plenty of others) right off. Rob Ford clearly broke the law. Everyone knows it. You should, too.
You guys aren’t allowed to pick and choose which laws apply to which people. It’s supposed to be, you know, one law for everyone. Remember that? Anyway, the next time you pull over someone for distracted or careless driving, me and my lawyer friends plan to make use of the heretofore-unknown Rob Ford Exemption. Worked for him, so it’ll work for us.
Oh, and here’s the law, which you apparently no longer enforce. Thanks for the head’s up.
Your pal,
Warren
Look at the bright side: at least when the world’s worst mayor was caught, this time, he didn’t lie. Like he’s done plenty of times in the past (here and here and here).
Toronto’s world class? World’s ass, more like.
Mayor Ford, reading while driving on a highway, going 70 kph.
No word on which comic book it was.
Are they already doing it? I’m gonna go to sleep. See you later. This stuff stings, man almighty.”
Hard words to read: the final statements of the hundreds of death row inmates executed over the years in my family’s former home, Texas.
I don’t know if it’ll change your views on the death penalty, pro or con, but you’ve got a stone for a heart if it doesn’t affect you in some way.
I told the 300 kids in attendance that big institutions speak in a language, and a manner, that normal people just don’t. I gave the kids an example: Lots and lots of people don’t actually know how many million are in a billion, I said.
“But governments and corporations and unions, and especially big media, keep talking about billions all the time,” I added.
“Which means they are literally talking to regular people in a language that they don’t really understand.”
It’s not just language, however. The entire culture has changed, too. But big institutions — and big media in particular — keep talking at citizens in a manner that is as old-fashioned as a rotary phone or a VCR.
For instance: Back at the dawn of time, when I had the privilege to work for then-opposition leader Jean Chretien, we selected subjects for the daily Question Period by (a) reading newspapers and (b) watching CBC and CTV news. We determined what was important by watching Peter Mansbridge, in effect. We based our approach in QP on what the journalists and columnists wrote in the morning papers.
So I asked the kids: ”When was the last time one of you watched Peter Mansbridge’s show? When was the last time you sat down on a leisurely Saturday, and read a newspaper?”
All of this wasn’t very scientific, of course, but neither is the big media, most days. Too often, big media make important decisions based upon anecdotes, hearsay and a tenuous understanding of marketing data.
