by Larry Powell Will the CBC ever learn? More than five years ago, the radio program "The House," interviewed their "go-to" guy on just about everything; corporate apologist and big-shot business tycoon Derek Burney (l.), a former Canadian ambassador to the U.S. and adviser to Brian Mulroney.  He sang the praises of the proposed Keystone XL pipeline (extremely controversial even then) and railed against the "violent emotion" being used by environmentalists to oppose it. He never gave, nor was he asked to give, examples of what he meant by violent. Neither did he nor the CBC ever mention that he (Burney) was then (and may still be, for all I know), a director of Trans Canada Pipelines, proponents of the project! It was only after I made a formal complaint to the CBC ombudsman that they apologized for the "oversight."   Fast forward to this morning and, lo and behold, the same program interviewed the same Derek Burney! This time, in a

  Dear Editor, Re; The phony tainted milk scare (Margaret Wente, Globe & Mail, October 29, 2015).  In her preamble, Ms. Wente suggests that  “we need to blow the whistle on junk science”.  I agree, but we need to do the same on junk journalism, which is exemplified by her article. My understanding is that journalism’s first obligation is to tell the truth (i.e. the whole truth, and not half-truths & tainted opinions; as is the case with Ms Wente’s piece).  For example, she states that: The (bovine) growth hormone, also known as rBST, which stimulates the cow’s milk production, is  “the same hormone that is naturally produced in the cow’s pituitary gland.”  Further:  “Milk from treated cows is virtually identical to other milk.”   And:  “ there aren’t any effects of  rBGH on human health”.   These statements are not true; in fact, Recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone  (rBGH or rBST) is a genetically engineered drug, originally developed by Monsanto, which la

by Chris Hedges - OpEd News  The assault of global capitalism is not only an economic and political assault. It is a cultural and historical assault. Global capitalism seeks to erase our stories and our histories. Its systems of mass communication, which peddle a fake… Story here.

iPOLITICS Let’s recap. Amanda Lang gets paid a bushel of money to talk at events sponsored in part by a big bank — the one her boyfriend works for. She then invites the bank’s president on her TV show to crap on a story broken by her CBC colleagues about that bank and the Temporary Foreign Workers Program while, at roughly the same time, she goes AWOL and disses the story herself in The Globe and Mail without warning her bosses. And it was no big deal. Not, apparently, according to the CBC’s in-house ‘review’ of events. Story here.

The Tyee The Canadian network took us for dummies from the start. In the end, it cost them millions. Story here.

PLT: Just watching the news tonight. According to CTV, the latest, terrible storms, this time in Ontario & Quebec, are due to "nature." All the damage from high winds - trees crushing cars, damaging houses, knocking out power for up to a million people and killing a woman in Quebec, was just because of "nature." So is the heat wave now plaguing the maritimes, apparently. The only mention of global warming came in a promo for some stupid movie involving sharks flying through the air. With this kind of negligence, deceit and ignorance rampant in our mass media concerning the most serious environmental problem facing our planet today, God help us all.  It's not nature, media! It's climate change! This is what it looks like! And we are to blame!  Get used to it! Step up! Tell it like it is, you bozos!!! P.S. CTV is not alone in its malfeasance. While most media are now mentioning the term "climate change" more than they used to, they might

Greens do politics differently (But not in the way that Rex Murphy thinks) By Elizabeth May In his Saturday National Post column , Rex Murphy claimed that Canada’s  Green party has no  goal other than to get me elected as an MP —  and that this has been the case for “two or three general elections.”   Full story here. Rex Murphy caricature courtesy  of By the Bay Art Studio

Chris Hedges  - TruthDig I was in a military courtroom at Fort Meade in Maryland on Thursday as Pfc. Bradley Manning admitted giving classified government documents to WikiLeaks. Details here.