The Sun Tower in Vancouver was at one time the tallest building in the British Empire - and the headquarters for BC's news reporting

The environmental issues which have emerged as important in the last decade in BC are the fish farms and private power and both issues have been largely ignored by the media. In days of yore, Fotheringham and Nichols in the papers, Jack Webster and Gary Bannerman on radio, and Cameron Bell and Keith Bradbury at BCTV would have been all over the government on both of these issues. Moreover – and here’s the critical point – the Campbell government would never have got away with rank and demonstrable deceit on these two issues had Canwest, TV and print, and talk radio not badly let the public down – badly. Read article at thecanadian.org: NDP leader James: the tiger’s bite?

Today Willcocks does an editorial comment on the situation at Fish Lake where Taseko mining plans to open a mine while destroying the lake and 90,000 fish with it. I do not agree with Willcocks’ conclusion but that’s not important. I do not expect anyone to agree with me but I simply ask for fair play, Willcocks provides this as he fairly states the issues.

Quite frankly, until yesterday I didn’t know that Willcocks was editor of the T-C. It doesn’t surprise me that he is writing in a way so unlike the Canwest modus operandi. I have always been an admirer of Paul both as a person and a writer.

One swallow doth not a summer make and one newspaper is not the whole chain. Canwest has a lot to atone for.

The Liberals under Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell have not only been given a free pass by the media, it’s been openly sycophantic. This has caused a great deal of harm to the democratic process.

Under our system of government where 40% gives a large majority the role of the Fourth Estate is crucial. It must hold governments and indeed the establishment’s feet to the fire. I don’t mean to pick on Vaughn Palmer of the Vancouver Sun but the contrast between how he treated the NDP government and his treatment of the current lot is striking. There are only two explanations – Palmer has become a convert to Reaganism or the paper won’t print stuff seriously critical of the government or its support base. I have no doubt it’s the latter. If a writer knows that there are subjects which are off limits he’s not going to write on that subject. If Palmer had covered any one of a number of Liberal policies as he covered the “Fast Ferry” issue under the NDP this government would be reeling.

The issue isn’t censorship by the media but self censorship by columnists and editorial writers

Randolph Churchill (father of) once said that “it’s the duty of the opposition to oppose”. In this day and age no matter how the opposition acts, it matters little if their positions and arguments are not reported.

It is said by the chattering classes that oppositions should not obstruct. Of course they should if they deem it necessary. It must always be remembered that the government, having a majority, can do as it pleases. What it won’t do is deal with any of the downsides of legislation and policy; they can only be learned if the opposition and media do their job of making the government honest. It’s only by thorough cross examining of the government with that cross examination being fairly reported that any semblance of good government can be achieved.

It must always be remembered that the government has a four year dictatorship and the only thing that keeps them relatively benign rather than malevolent is strong questions from the opposition and the media.

I hope against hope that Paul Willcocks signals a change in Canwest overall.

The government of BC’s handling of this issue has been disgraceful.

As soon as Gordon (Pinocchio) Campbell took office he began to deal with the moratorium the NDP had placed on the development of new fish farms. He started by returning all fines paid by fish farms for shoddy practices.

Then in full possession of the facts about Atlantic salmon escaping and crowding wild salmon off the spawning beds AND in full knowledge of the terrible impact of lice from fish farms on wild salmon smolts, he lifted the moratorium. For nine years Campbell and his ministers have maintained that fish farms were safe in the face of all the independent evidence to the contrary. The only fair description of the Campbell government is that they lied through their teeth.

In this prevaricating policy the Canwest media were in their camp. The fish farmers PR flack had steady access to their op-ed pages. First class writers on these two papers, writers who specialized in outdoors matters, wouldn’t touch the issue. Bad news about fish farms was buried in sidebar comments. Alexandra Morton, the hero from Echo Bay who started the research into the sea lice problem was ignored while turncoats like Patrick Moore had access to space.

We live in a country that gives Orders of Canada to the likes of Conrad Black, Alan Eagleson and Brian Mulroney and tries to put Alexandra Morton behind bars for “illegal testing”.

On June 17, Alex was honoured with an honourary Doctor of Science at Simon Fraser University. That to me, and I think Alex, was a higher compliment than the highly political Orders of Canada and Orders of BC would ever be.

I, along with many friends and compatriots watched Alex receive her honour and there wasn’t a dry eye amongst us.

Canada could do with fewer Mulroneys, Blacks and Eaglesons and with a hell of a lot more Dr. Alexandra Mortons.

It’s been suggested by an emailer that I hate Canwest!

Egad, a base canard as I shall demonstrate!

When I was a lad, I belonged to the Tillicum Club organized by The Province. You got a neat genuine fake silver totem pole to wear and a secret password, Klahowya, which was only to be used by Tillicums. I was a paper boy for them too. The Tillicum Club always put your name in the paper on your birthday and it doesn’t get more exciting than that. The Province doesn’t put my name in their paper any more.

The Vancouver Sun had its Uncle Ben Club but we Tillicums wouldn’t have anything to do with them. They didn’t put your name in the paper either. Actually, I should be careful there because good Tillicums didn’t dare look at Uncle Ben so I probably didn’t check it out.

My correspondent suggested that I probably resented being fired by Canwest and boy does that get my dander up! I wrote for Canwest (The Province) for a couple of years and I fired them!

What happened was that Canwest fired the publisher of the Ottawa Citizen after he did not agree to run an editorial written by people at Winnipeg headquarters and distributed to every Canwest paper. The day after the publisher gave a speech defending his position, he was turfed. My pal Gordon Gibson in his regular column for the National Post, the Canwest lodestar, was critical of the decision, and they wouldn’t print his column. I, then, in solidarity with Gibson, declared on my show on CKNW that I didn’t want to write for a company that censored its writers and therefore I resigned. *

It got nasty. The Province told CKNW management that if they didn’t shut me up they would withdraw their advertising. I wasn’t supposed to know about this but management had a leak and I did. I told my audience about this and suggested that just as those who didn’t agree with me could change stations, those who disagreed with Canwest should tell them that in the traditional way; cancel their subscriptions. Evidently many people did just that. The unpleasantness went on for some time.

Many firings along the way

Now I wouldn’t want you to think that I haven’t been fired from time to time. I have the distinction of having been fired twice by Jimmy Pattison (not him personally, we’re friends) but his radio stations and by the owners of CKNW. I was fired by the Black newspapers too and by the NOW chain. Then there was the North Shore Outlook and a family periodical whose name I’ve forgotten. I also wrote for the Vancouver Courier, which I left in order to go to The Province, but that was a very amiable parting which I later rued but they eventually were owned by Canwest so who knows what would have happened if I’d stayed? (Come to think of it, I think I know what would have happened!)

My current outlets

I also wrote for The Georgia Straight whom I left on the very best of terms to go to the Courier. I keep writing their editor to offer them another column but they don’t reply. I’m not quite sure what that means. I’ve written for The Tyee since 2005 and though the temptation must have been great sometimes, they haven’t fired me yet. I also write for a Russian online paper called the Strategic Culture Foundation. It’s got good stuff in it and no, I’m not in Russian. They publish in six languages including English. Then there is The Common Sense Canadian and www.rafeonline.com, my own website for whom I do regular blogs.

Now I wasn’t quite accurate about Canwest, for I guess they did fire me once. When they bought out The Financial Post, for whom I had written for several years, they simply sent my column back saying they had no further need for my services which, while effective, might be seen as somewhat abrupt considering how long I had written for them.

Actually, many years ago The Globe and Mail offered me a column on the op-ed page and when I told Diane Francis, then editor of The Financial Post, about this she got very angry and substantially increased my fee. (That’s never happened to me before although it has sometimes been the other way around).

I’m sort of proud to be a writer who’s actually rejected an offer from the self styled “Canada’s National Newspaper!” I was nasty to them in a book once (Canada: Is Anyone Listening? — to which the answer was obviously NO!) and for my pains The Globe reviewed it but only to the extent they raised supreme hell with me for being nasty to them. It was clear they didn’t think anyone should buy the book!

Still faithfully subscribing

But what about the Sun and the Province today? Do I still subscribe to them?

Of course I do and for very good reasons.

How on earth could I go through life, doing what I do, without reading Rex Morgan MD in the Sun and Luann in The Province? I think my wife Wendy and my daughter Cindy and I are the last unreconstructed Rex Morgan fans in the universe. When I come home from vacation the first thing I do is phone Cindy to find out what’s happened to Rex, June and that repulsive kid of theirs.

I nearly quit The Province when they dumped the Wizard of Id and BC but I simply must read Luann before I can have a decent start to the day.

I get my British Columbia news from Mark Hume, Gary Mason and co. in the Toronto Globe and Mail’s three-page B.C. section, and from The Tyee. I should add that I also get the Sun and Province so I can see what Vaughn Palmer and Mike Smyth aren’t writing about today and, at my age, the obits page is a must.

What about the fact that Canwest B.C. supports the nauseating government and truth challenged premier we have in Victoria?

Well I say what the hell, c’mon folks, be fair! Somebody has to!

Sea lice protest, May 8, at BC Legislature in Victoria.

We all know what a word or punctuation mark can do to a sentence. For example, to write “John, says Mary, is a lousy bed companion” is very different than “John says Mary is a lousy bed companion.”

(In fact, perhaps both are, but that’s not the point).

Today I’m going to deal with a single word in a sentence; the word is “nearly.”

Some background.

On Saturday, May 8, well known and much loved Alexandra Morton ended her walk from her home in Sointula to Victoria in opposition to farmed salmon in the ocean, with a rally at the steps of the Legislature.

The Victoria Times-Colonist and Vancouver Sun, both owned by Canwest, gave appalling coverage, starting with the absurd statement than “nearly” 1,000 people were there. Please look at the picture accompanying this story and see how preposterous that statement was. It mattered a great deal because that statement trivialized the event and I say that was deliberate by the use of “nearly.”

The use of “nearly” can only mean that they actually counted but couldn’t quite make 1,000. There is no other construction one can put on that sentence. For if they hadn’t counted, how could they say that there were fewer than 1,000 people at the rally? This cannot be a guess or speculation because on its plain construction it’s clearly a statement of fact.

The truth is that they didn’t count at all, so their statement is a plain falsehood making one wonder if they were even there. It’s fascinating that when later challenged on their estimate, the Times-Colonist said that they evidently had asked the police who said it was 1,000-2,000, which doesn’t quite explain the “nearly 1,000.” Their nose, in fact, got longer.

‘Thank goodness for people filming’

Let’s look at some other estimates from people used to assessing the size of crowds.

Holly Adams, who was shooting for Global News, said, “I spoke with police outside the Legislature and they estimated just over 4,000 people, and that was just before 5:00 p.m.” That was the estimate used by Global on their newscast.

Wendy Bales, who is a director of the Fraser Valley Regional District, said, “I was there and figured at least over 4,000, with some people coming and going for parts, so there were many more. Global TV reported over 4,000. I was also surprised (but then not) at the lack of coverage. As with so many things, the important stories have to be told by the people, and you can’t believe the story on the surface. So what else is new? Thank goodness for the ‘net’! I can’t wait for the real story to be told. Thank goodness for all the people filming.”

Vicky Husband, who has an Order of Canada, is probably the best known environmentalist in the province. She has seen many rallies and said, “Our estimate is between 4,000 to 5,000″ — the largest crowd she had ever seen on the Legislature lawn.

Erling Olsen, owner/skipper of the Pacific Viking, the fish boat which escorted the canoe that started in Hope and crossed the Georgia Strait, talked to a Victoria Police Officer who told him he had never before seen a crowd of demonstrators at the Legislature as large.

A conservative estimate

Environmental activist Ivan Doumenc did a bit of measuring and I thought it was the last word.

“I took a very conservative guess: I assumed — which is very unrealistic, based on what the photo shows — that each person used two square meters on an exclusive basis. That’s a rectangle of one meter by two meters with no one else but its sole occupier on it. Measure that at home, and you will realize that it’s a very, very conservative assumption indeed. I also assumed that not a single person was standing to the left or the right of the frame of the photo, and I further assumed that the columns of people still moving toward the lawn in the photo’s far background were actually not going to the rally.

”In spite of that, I still found that approximately 3,000 people were occupying my polygon. Once you add more realistic estimations that other people must have been standing outside of the picture, that some people in the far background are actually going to the rally, et cetera, you easily find yourself in that 4,000 plus range which was given to Global News on that day at by several on-site police officers.”

Willfully ignored?

One little word — “nearly” — graphically shows us Canwest’s bias against environmentalists and its obeisance to the Campbell government.

Now with one little word we can understand why Canwest has assiduously avoided covering Alexandra Morton’s eight-year struggle to get the word out about sea lice from fish farms killing migrating wild salmon smolts with the exception of the occasional article, usually buried in the business section.

This explains why Canwest has neglected to interview experts like Dr. John Volpe, Dr. Neil Frazer, Dr. Martin Krkosek, Irish lice specialist Dr. Patrick Gargan and Dr. Daniel Pauly of the University of British Columbia, said by the prestigious Science Magazine to be one of the top 50 scientists in the world.

That’s why Canwest has never appointed a member of their staff to thoroughly investigate the entire issue.

This explains why Canwest has not gone to Norway to ask Marine Harvest, the biggest fish farmer on our coast, all the questions that have been raised. (Several environmentalists including Alex and my partner, Damien Gillis have been several times).

This explains why the fish farmers’ spokesperson gets an op-ed piece, it would seem, when she wants.

It also explains that because the Vancouver Sun’s editorial page, run as it is by a Fraser Institute alumnus, has never to my knowledge published an editorial critical of fish farming; this, no doubt, explains why columnists Vaughn Palmer or Mike Smyth have avoided like a plague dealing with the horrendous impact of fish farms on migrating wild salmon.

What you didn’t read

What was it that Canwest did not cover on May 8th?

There were First Nations’ speakers including Grand Chief Stewart Philip, Grand Chief of the Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs, probably the most powerful native leader in the province. His speech was sometimes humorous but always carried the firm conviction that his people not only opposed fish farms in the ocean but were prepared to take the matter as far into the court system as needed.

The reason this was so important, and should have been reported, is that the two senior governments have clearly vowed to do nothing, leaving the courts the only way to go. Given the record of First Nations in court since the Calder case in 1973, this speech of Grand Chief Phillips and his colleagues had huge meaning, and I would have thought that even Canwest would understand its importance.

One might have thought that Canwest would have at least taken a clip of Alexandra Morton’s speech.

These three papers did a great disservice to readers by not reporting what happened — indeed they practiced censorship by remaining silent (except when they pretended to count the crowd).

It’s trite to say that you can deceive by what you say and by what you don’t say. Canwest, its dailies as well as its community papers, and the Black community papers have, by saying so little, kept their readers in the dark on hugely important environmental issues including not only fish farms, but the Campbell government’s unbelievable destruction of our rivers and giveaway of energy to other jurisdictions.

Embrace new media

The use of the word “nearly” tells us where Canwest apparently is — a staunch supporter of Gordon Campbell’s destruction of the environment so dear to real British Columbians.

Canwest is bankrupt and has now been purchased. Because of the new ownership’s association with Canwest past, this change doesn’t give us any optimism about their coverage to come of environmental concerns.

There is this hope, however. President Obama taught us how to use the Internet and that where we must go if we want to save our precious heritage.

Readers can start their trek to truthfulness by going to www.thecanadian.org. (Sorry for the shameless plug … no, to hell with, it I’m not a bit sorry!)

Where Parisians past cried “aux barricades” we sing out “to the Internet.”

If you took Wednesday’s Toronto Globe and Mail – the National Edition – and looked at the front page, left column you would have seen this headline – “Green Premier’s Agenda hits snag as energy plan rejected” with the sub headline “Commission says Campbell’s initiative not public interest”. This was followed by a full article by the eminent Mark Hume outlining how the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) has roundly criticized the private rivers scheme of the Campbell government.

I’m not going to deal with the issues themselves today – the Save Our Rivers Society will issue a press release in the next few days.

This story is a block buster with shares of Plutonic, one of the major players in the private energy scam, taking a sizeable plunge. The Globe and Mail knows it’s a major story so let’s see what the local CanWest papers had to say.

The Province told us about hoods on bail (this story has taken on the status of regular feature with this paper), the sale of the “fast ferries”, a story about Translink and the Ferries and the perils of driving while using a cell phone, There was the start of a housing project, two full pages about the heat wave, a Canadian killed in Puerto Rico and how you should take your garbage with you (including unopened CanWest papers one assumes). We have now reached the op-ed page and nary a word about the BCUC ruling!

As we move on, we have HST and restaurants, guilty letter carriers and Hutterites and photo ID. On and on it goes, a big story on tanning beds on A 20 and we’re through the News section. Knowing this paper’s penchant for burying stories I even checked out the Sports section.

The Vancouver (seriously West Coast) Sun is the same except that Vaughn Palmer, who usually comments upon the news and doesn’t report it, uses the story for his column and obviously is checking back tears as he relates this tragic condemnation of his Liberal government.

So here we have it – The Globe and Mail, on the front page, not in the BC section, fully reports this blockbuster story while it doesn’t outrank lost dogs and losing BC Lions quarterbacks with “seriously west coast” CanWest.

I said I won’t deal with the finer points because Save Our Rivers Society (www.saveourrivers.ca – check out its Board of Advisors) – has people much more knowledgeable that I to do this. I will, however, give you a political opinion.

The Campbell government has based its very existence on the its rivers policy which is a shameful sham. It encourages the destruction of our rivers beyond repair so that large international companies can produce power which MUST be purchased by BC Hydro at prices 2 to 3 times the value on the spot market. Because this power is mostly produced during the spring run off when BC Hydro had fill reservoirs and lots of power, private power it’s all but useless for British Columbia customers and will be exported at a huge loss by BC Hydro. The policy is madness and if you doubt me, read Dr. John Calvert’s book, Liquid Gold. (Dr. Calvert is on the SORS Board of Advisors.) Given these facts no intelligent observers, as are the members of BCUC, could fail to see that the Government’s rivers policy was a colossal mistake.

Now here’s what happens. Because BCUC offered some positive words about the Burrard Thermal Plant and Site “C” the government will hop on these to justify legislating the BCUC decision out of existence. I need hardly tell you how irresponsible this will be. Whatever other things the BCUC said, the condemnation of the private power scheme stands on its own. The government knows that BC Hydro can indeed phase out Burrard Thermal (which is only used in an emergency) and make up power needs by conservation, upgrades of current generators, new generators and, by exercising our powers under the Columbia River Treaty, repatriating power we send for to the US.

This issue is a political one and it involves a government and a premier with an overweening sense of infallibility which allows them holding their noses but with otherwise straight faces, protecting not the citizens but its corporate paymasters. Rather than do what is right Campbell will not permit BCUC to embarrass him. To him and his crowd, loss of face ranks far ahead of the public good.

It’s a marvelous victory for all who laboured so hard to expose and end an atrocious policy but it won’t last because – and you can bet on this – Campbell will legislate his power policy so that Plutonic’s shares will rise again at the expense of us the voters.

To this government good policy is trumped by his policy even if it’s disastrous – which this is.