Truth, lies and videotape

As an old warhorse journalist whose biases have always skewed toward rabid dislike of anyone who tries to control the media, my biases are working overtime right now.

Lawyer, philanthropist had a fierce sense of social justice

A luminary in human rights advocacy, Canadian lawyer Yude Henteleff was a natural explorer both in his travels and in his daily life. Henteleff lived 97 years with passion and dynamism.

He died Dec. 8, 2024.

Henteleff’s accomplishments and list of awards and accolades began at age 16 when he was elected president of the Jewish Youth Council and then to the youth division of the Canadian Jewish Congress. His activities in the Jewish community were extensive and lifelong.

The father, grandfather and partner lived life to the fullest, propelled by a fierce sense of social justice and belief in “tikkun olam,” a Hebrew phrase meaning “to repair the world.”

Conservative MPs beat Liberals, NDP on online engagement, study finds

OTTAWA - A new study from McGill University says Conservative MPs far outpace their Liberal and NDP counterparts in online engagement, partly due to the their voices being amplified on X.

The report from McGill’s Media Ecosystem Observatory found in 2024, online posts from federal Conservative MPs garnered 61 per cent more engagement — likes, shares and comments — than those from Liberal and NDP MPs combined.

It found that engagement with Conservative politicians on X has increased 52 per cent since Elon Musk, a key ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, took over the platform previously known as Twitter in 2022.

The report looked at online posts from all members of Parliament on Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube and TikTok between January 2022 and November 2024.

Study shows importance of local news

A new study shows the importance of local news to community knowledge, connections and democracy in small and mid-sized Canadian communities.

YouTube election fraud conspiracy theories fuel impeached South Korean president and his supporters

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Thousands have braved the frigid January weather in Seoul protests, waving South Korean and American flags and shouting vows to protect their embattled conservative hero, the impeached South Korean president facing imprisonment over potential rebellion charges.

The swelling crowds in South Korea’s capital are inspired by President Yoon Suk Yeol's defiance, but also by the growing power of right-wing YouTubers who portray Yoon as a victim of a leftist, North Korea-sympathizing opposition that has rigged elections to gain a legislative majority and is now plotting to remove a patriotic leader.

“Out with fraudulent elections and a fake National Assembly!” read one sign, brandished by an angry man in a fur hat during a recent protest near Yoon’s presidential residence, the site of a massive law enforcement operation Wednesday that made Yoon the country’s first sitting president to be detained in a criminal investigation.

Many at the pro-Yoon rallies, which are separated by police from anti-Yoon counter-protests, are significantly influenced by fictional narratives about election fraud that dominate conservative YouTube channels — claims that Yoon has repeatedly referenced in his attacks on election officials.

Manitoba to consider support for news outlets

The Manitoba government says it is dedicated to protecting democracy, journalism and freedom of the press and plans to strike an all-party committee to determine how best to do that.

“If there’s a business landscape that makes it much more difficult for journalists to keep doing that important work, I think there is a need to have a conversation about some form of public support or at least a fair hearing of those issues,” Premier Wab Kinew said Friday.

The promise will be unveiled in Tuesday’s throne speech, which kicks off the new legislative session.

The committee would “look at the future of journalism in the province, including whether there’s public supports that might be needed, or to discuss whether a specific percentage of government and Crown corporation advertising should be dedicated to supporting local media,” Kinew said.

Spending on private health-care aides skyrockets

While the province tries to rein in the soaring costs of private agency nurses, spending on private health-care aides has also skyrocketed.

Freedom of information requests show spending on private agency health-care aides is way up in at least two Manitoba health regions.

The Interlake-Eastern Health region spent $8.7 million on private health-care aides in 2023-24, more than double the $3.4 million spent in 2021-22. The Prairie Mountain Health region spent almost $14.8 million for the first nine months of the 2022-23 fiscal year, nearly triple the $4.8 million spent in 2021-22.

Nearly half of what the Prairie Mountain region spent on agencies went toward travel costs, said Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees’ Union that filed the freedom of information requests.

Classrooms don’t have to be smartphone-free zones, tech-fluent educators tell province

A group of tech-savvy teachers is calling on the province to create guidelines on cellphone use in schools and offering to help get it done.

The Manitoba Association of Education Technology Leaders has taken a firm stance against introducing a sweeping ban of personal wireless devices in kindergarten-to-Grade 12 buildings.

Manitoba Education has no policy in place. School divisions create their own appropriate use policies, while most buildings allow teachers to make rules for their own classrooms.

Tuxedo’s Laidlaw School, Collège Béliveau in Windsor Park and West Kildonan Collegiate are among Winnipeg facilities that have imposed stricter measures this year.

Controversy? Conspiracy in cryptic Conservative code? Just another day for Manitoba Tories

Stop the presses. Former federal Conservative MP Candice Bergen thinks youth today are “entitled” and they have been “brainwashed” by post-secondary and public education.

If you’re wondering right now what exactly Bergen was trying to communicate, and why, you are not alone.

The opposition NDP used question period to drop a 78-second clip of an address Bergen — who is the co-chair of the Progressive Conservative 2023 election campaign — delivered to a group of young Tories at an event held in a meeting room at the Manitoba Legislative Building. The recording included several pretty bizarre comments. |

Behold the transformation of Poilievre

It appears newly minted Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is willing to add a little water to his wine. After months of criss-crossing the country peddling conspiracy theories and fuelling anti-Liberal rage with juvenile slogans and deranged claims about Canadians losing control of their lives, Poilievre is showing signs of moderation.

Disdain, confusion around officials’ handling of UFO reports

Although the subject of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) is very popular and has persisted since the 1940s — when the darned things were known as flying saucers — skeptics often note that few academic or scholarly studies on this topic have been produced.

Search for the Unknown: Canada’s UFO Files and the Rise of Conspiracy Theory, based on the excellent doctoral dissertation by Canadian historian Matthew Hayes at Trent University, challenges that assertion. In this way it’s similar to David Jacobs’ 1973 history thesis The UFO Controversy in America, from the University of Wisconsin.

Hayes’ in-depth, heavily annotated work is not, however, a book about UFOs. In fact, Hayes only describes three Canadian UFO cases in detail and briefly notes a few dozen others.

Hayes instead “presents a history of the Canadian government’s investigations into reports of UFOs, and how these were handled, handed off, and defended from 1950 to the 1990s.”

Puncturing the shield of ‘implicit bias’

A leaked internal report this week into the conduct of four Winnipeg firefighters showed evidence of “implicit racial bias” against an Indigenous woman and “racial animus” towards a paramedic (also a person of colour) on a call in October 2020.

The report is clear: identifying the actions of the firefighters put the woman’s health at risk, delayed her journey to the hospital, and showed callous disregard for her safety. One firefighter riding in the ambulance refused to help the paramedic, forcing the injured woman to hold the dressing to the stab wound on her own neck.

Later, one of them called it: “Just another call in the North End.”

According to the report, it was part of “retaliation” against the paramedic, who previously alleged racist conduct by members of the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service — including one of the firefighters involved, who called him a “sand n-----.”

Justice system unfairly punishes and rewards

Almost half of the people in Manitoba agree there is a problem with the Canadian justice system when it comes to treatment of Indigenous peoples, according to a recent report in the Winnipeg Free Press (”Manitobans divided on justice system,” April 16, 2018). Like many problems, it’s complex and the way to resolution starts with understanding the many issues.

Here at the John Howard Society, we work with men in conflict with the law, and the vast majority of the people we work with are Indigenous. We see first-hand that the system doesn’t treat everyone fairly for at least three reasons: economic, cultural and prejudicial.

High rates of unemployment and an inability to secure stable housing lead to greater rates of incarceration for those awaiting trial. When a person is charged with a crime, they are often released on their own recognizance. But, if they can’t provide an address for where they will live, they are more likely to be taken into custody. And once someone is in custody, it’s much harder to get out.

By this point, you need a lawyer to represent you at a bail hearing, you still need an address where you will live and there is a legal principle that the accused has to be able to assist in their own defence. I have seen a homeless individual held in custody for almost three weeks for shoplifting less than five dollars’ worth of merchandise, unable to get bail or go to trial because he could not properly instruct his lawyer due to addictions and mental-health issues.

‘Mistake’ leads to Canadian Forces ad on far-right website

OTTAWA — The Canadian Forces have been running a recruitment ad on the American website Breitbart — a digital force in far-right politics that’s among U.S. President Donald Trump’s staunchest allies and one of Canada’s biggest critics.

The military indirectly paid Breitbart, in violation of Ottawa’s advertising rules, but has since pulled its ad off the site.

The ad popped up several times across Breitbart. In one case, it appeared in an article about a Italian mosque, weighing into that country’s Sunday election, which was accompanied by an October 2016 photo showing scores of Muslims praying next to the Colosseum in Rome.

The military took down the ad after the Free Press asked how it was spending taxpayer’s money. But the fact it appeared on a far-right website speaks to the unpredictable nature of online advertising, with Ottawa using a system that provides no idea of exactly where its ads will appear.

A country born amid controversy

Given his penchant to portray Canadian history as a glorious fusion of brazen courage, underdog determination, generosity of spirit and the march of progress, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau definitely would have been in his element had he been in Toronto 150 years ago.

The new province of Ontario had the most to gain from Confederation. By virtue of its large population, Ontario’s politicians were to dominate the new federal or central government and the province’s economic potential was seemingly unlimited. (It is not by accident that the western boundary of Ontario set in the early 1880s extends as far as Kenora, 1,900 kilometres from Toronto.)

Thus, on July 1, 1867, there was great optimism among Toronto’s 50,000 citizens. The ringing of the bells at St. James Cathedral at midnight on June 30 had signified that the Dominion of Canada was now a reality.

The publisher of the Toronto Globe, George Brown, a key player who, along with John A. Macdonald and George-Étienne Cartier, had made Confederation a reality, had stayed up most of the night composing a 9,000-word article about the meaning of Confederation that took up the entire front page of the Globe on July 1. “We hail the birthday of a new nationality,” he wrote. “A United British America, with its four millions of people, takes its place this day among the nations of the world.”

While our 150th birthday party is a big, 'Dominion Day' began with respectful restraint

It’s safe to say what is now called Canada Day had modest beginnings in these parts.As far back as 1869 — two years after Confederation and one year before Manitoba was born — the July 3 issue of the Nor’Wester, the paper of record for the “Colony of Assiniboia,” dutifully reported that celebrations on July 1 were muted.

“Dominion Day was kept in our little town by the raising of the ‘Canadian’ flag upon the now celebrated staff — said to be 70 feet, be the same 20 feet more or less — which flag was liberal sainted during the day by an ‘Anvil Chorus’ adapted to ‘God Save the Queen’ and ‘Hurrah! for the New Dominion,” the paper noted. “The affair was wound up by a large bonfire in the evening.

“Not a gun was heard, or a funeral note or anything else,” the account added, “but then you see the H.B.C. (Hudson Bay Company) is keeping her patriotism like champagne, well bottled and wired down, for a future occasion, when we may expect to see it burst forth in a manner calculated to astonish the natives.”

Of course, these were the days of the Riel Rebellion in the Red River Colony. Not exactly the time to be popping that “champagne” in public. Besides, the majority of the less than 1,000 colony settlers considered themselves British. And a vast majority of residents, the Métis under Riel, were literally at war with the new Canada.

Témoignage de survivantes de l’Holocauste à l’USB

Le père Patrick Desbois, un prêtre catholique français réputé pour son travail de recherche sur l’Holocauste, en est convaincu: “Les génocides ne commencent pas avec les chambres de gaz. Ils commencent plutôt par des petits manquements de respect.” Des petites indignités comme celle qui restera gravée à jamais dans la mémoire de Régine Rubinfeld Frankel.

On est en 1942. La jeune Régine, âgée d’une dizaine d’années, est partie de la maison où sa famille se cachait, avec un carnet de rations, chercher des vivres dans la ville la plus proche. Au lieu de retourner à pied avec ses sacs — un trajet de huit kilomètres — elle a décidé de prendre le bus. Mais le chauffeur, une connaissance, exige qu’elle descende plusieurs kilomètres avant son arrêt, alors que la nuit tombe.

“Même maintenant quand j’en parle, j’ai envie de pleurer, parce que je me demande toujours pourquoi il n’y avait pas une seule personne dans ce bus qui a dit: ‘Laisse-la!’ ”

Régine Rubinfeld Frankel et sa sœur, Rachel Rubinfeld Fink, ont raconté leurs souvenirs lors d’une conférence intitulée “Plus Jamais”, présentée à l’Université de Saint-Boniface le 9 novembre.

Welcome debate over political ads in newspapers

It appears we’ve caused a bit of a stir today by selling advertising to the Liberal Party on the front of the Brandon Sun.

A full 4-page section purchased by the Liberals is wrapped around the Sun’s Friday edition in advance of the federal byelection in Brandon-Souris on Monday. The first thing readers see is Justin Trudeau’s smiling face.

I’ve seen the word “controversial” used in a number of tweets and blogs about the advertising. Some are a bit more graphic.