---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Terry Halifax
Date: 16 April 2011 17:57
Subject: Biased Reportage with CBC North
To: ombudsman@cbc.ca
Cc: John Agnew, mediamentor@gmail.com
From: Terry Halifax
Date: 16 April 2011 17:57
Subject: Biased Reportage with CBC North
To: ombudsman@cbc.ca
Cc: John Agnew
Terry Halifax
Box 2117
Inuvik, NT
X0E 0T0
867.678.2899
Dear Mr. Lapointe,
I’m writing over my concern of political bias from the CBC North office in Yellowknife NWT.
Let me begin with the 2008 election with a story by CBC reporter Lee Selleck:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/
In this story, Mr. Selleck and his friend, NDP candidate Dennis Bevington accuse Richard Bargery, the campaign manager of then Conservative Party candidate Brendan Bell of being unjustly awarded a contract for consulting services.
Mr. Bevington raised this issue in Parliament and received his reply on April 24. The story from Mr. Selleck appeared on CBC October 9 — five months later and five days before voters went to the polls.
The contract involved a contract dispute between pharmacists in the NWT and Yukon and their employers. The Health Canada negotiator had quit and they needed a replacement immediately. When they first called Mr. Bargery, he declined. They called everyone else qualified and they also declined to take the contract. They called Mr. Bargery again and he reluctantly accepted.
In researching the story, Mr. Selleck called every pharmacist in the NWT and Yukon asking questions about how Mr. Bargery handled the conflict between pharmacists and businesses. Every single pharmacist gave glowing reports on Mr. Bargery’s efforts, but none of that was reported. Further, although Mr. Bargery was awarded a contract for $69,304, he invoiced for a little more half of that. That was not reported either.
When CBC broke this story, the regional newspaper did a follow up story on it:
http://www.nnsl.com/frames/
While the newspaper had a much more balanced report of the incident, it appeared on election day. Mr. Bell lost the election by 523 votes.
As we are in the middle of another campaign, I see further bias coming from the CBC North office with Your Take reporter, and known NDP supporter, George Lessard.
Mr. Lessard is tasked with “new media” coverage and here he takes condescending and disparaging remarks about Conservative candidate Sandy Lee:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/
Ms. Lee has been traveling non-stop since this campaign began. The NWT is a vast territory with many small communities accessible only by air. She is a very busy person
Mr. Lessard joined Ms. Lee’s Facebook group page and began posting links to his coverage of the campaign, openly debating with our members and posting other links that further the NDP platform. As one of the administrators of the page, I warned Mr. Lessard to desist posting these links in an effort to smear our party and our candidate.
Today, Mr. Lessard posted the following:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/
Mr. Lessard could have simply said that Sandy Lee and Bonnie Dawson did not reply to the survey. Instead, he feels it necessary to write the following:
As the NWT minister for the Status of Women, Sandy Lee defended the rights of women in the territory, then she resigned to run in the federal election as the Conservative candidate.
Today I visited the website of The Status of Women Council of the NWT to arrange an interview with Executive Director Lorraine Phaneuf. On their front page was their "Five Questions to Candidates" they asked all five federal candidates on issues that effect women... so I paused to read it... and was disappointed to see that Lee did not respond to the questions.
Bad grammar and horrible punctuation aside, there is nothing balanced or even fair about this story.
Mr. Lessard is not a journalist and I don’t expect him to understand the intricacies and complexities of publishing bias during an election, but that does not excuse the CBC for publishing this one-sided view. If Mr. Lessard wants to campaign against the Conservative Party, that’s his right, but we as tax payers should not be funding it.
Mr. Lessard has been permanently banned from our candidate’s Facebook page.
John Agnew and CBC North can take this as notice that during this election, the Conservative Party will not tolerate this blatant bias in publicly-funded reportage.
Thank you for your time, Mr. Lapointe, I know you must be busy, but I look forward to a timely response to this matter.
Sincerely,
Terry Halifax
April 16, 2011
Box 2117
Inuvik, NT
X0E 0T0
867.678.2899
Dear Mr. Lapointe,
I’m writing over my concern of political bias from the CBC North office in Yellowknife NWT.
Let me begin with the 2008 election with a story by CBC reporter Lee Selleck:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/
In this story, Mr. Selleck and his friend, NDP candidate Dennis Bevington accuse Richard Bargery, the campaign manager of then Conservative Party candidate Brendan Bell of being unjustly awarded a contract for consulting services.
Mr. Bevington raised this issue in Parliament and received his reply on April 24. The story from Mr. Selleck appeared on CBC October 9 — five months later and five days before voters went to the polls.
The contract involved a contract dispute between pharmacists in the NWT and Yukon and their employers. The Health Canada negotiator had quit and they needed a replacement immediately. When they first called Mr. Bargery, he declined. They called everyone else qualified and they also declined to take the contract. They called Mr. Bargery again and he reluctantly accepted.
In researching the story, Mr. Selleck called every pharmacist in the NWT and Yukon asking questions about how Mr. Bargery handled the conflict between pharmacists and businesses. Every single pharmacist gave glowing reports on Mr. Bargery’s efforts, but none of that was reported. Further, although Mr. Bargery was awarded a contract for $69,304, he invoiced for a little more half of that. That was not reported either.
When CBC broke this story, the regional newspaper did a follow up story on it:
http://www.nnsl.com/frames/
While the newspaper had a much more balanced report of the incident, it appeared on election day. Mr. Bell lost the election by 523 votes.
As we are in the middle of another campaign, I see further bias coming from the CBC North office with Your Take reporter, and known NDP supporter, George Lessard.
Mr. Lessard is tasked with “new media” coverage and here he takes condescending and disparaging remarks about Conservative candidate Sandy Lee:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/
Ms. Lee has been traveling non-stop since this campaign began. The NWT is a vast territory with many small communities accessible only by air. She is a very busy person
Mr. Lessard joined Ms. Lee’s Facebook group page and began posting links to his coverage of the campaign, openly debating with our members and posting other links that further the NDP platform. As one of the administrators of the page, I warned Mr. Lessard to desist posting these links in an effort to smear our party and our candidate.
Today, Mr. Lessard posted the following:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/
Mr. Lessard could have simply said that Sandy Lee and Bonnie Dawson did not reply to the survey. Instead, he feels it necessary to write the following:
As the NWT minister for the Status of Women, Sandy Lee defended the rights of women in the territory, then she resigned to run in the federal election as the Conservative candidate.
Today I visited the website of The Status of Women Council of the NWT to arrange an interview with Executive Director Lorraine Phaneuf. On their front page was their "Five Questions to Candidates" they asked all five federal candidates on issues that effect women... so I paused to read it... and was disappointed to see that Lee did not respond to the questions.
Bad grammar and horrible punctuation aside, there is nothing balanced or even fair about this story.
Mr. Lessard is not a journalist and I don’t expect him to understand the intricacies and complexities of publishing bias during an election, but that does not excuse the CBC for publishing this one-sided view. If Mr. Lessard wants to campaign against the Conservative Party, that’s his right, but we as tax payers should not be funding it.
Mr. Lessard has been permanently banned from our candidate’s Facebook page.
John Agnew and CBC North can take this as notice that during this election, the Conservative Party will not tolerate this blatant bias in publicly-funded reportage.
Thank you for your time, Mr. Lapointe, I know you must be busy, but I look forward to a timely response to this matter.
Sincerely,
Terry Halifax
April 16, 2011
- - ------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I recently posted a link to the Your Take blog post on the Social Media side of the Western Arctic campaign that I did to all of the candidate's Facebook pages... below you will see as much of that thread that's left after Sandy Lee's Beaufort-Delta Campaign Committee person, Terry Halifax deleted part of my interaction with Kim Lee... and the e-mail he sent after he did it...
George Lessard 
www.cbc.ca
The latest Canadian election news & election results.
on Thursday · · · Share ·
David Radcliffe I think in the north, banging on doors has more merit that a Tweet. Not that this is not a viable form of communication but in Sachs Harbor a tweet is the sound a ptarmigan makes.21 hours ago · · 3 peopleYou and 2 others like this.
Terry Halifax Interesting concept that Dennis has there on eliminating usage-based billing. I suppose they'll use the same method to tell the banks how much interest they will charge customers on credit cards. I don't know why they bother making these ridiculous claims. The fourth place party can't effect any change, especially when their representave has a hard time staying awake on the job.21 hours ago · · 2 peopleYou and Dez Loreen like this.- Terry HalifaxYou're so right David. Although Facebook has grown in popularity throughout the North, Twitter doesn't have much appeal to anyone but the truly geeky. I see people of all ages on Facebook because it's a great way to stay in touch. Making co...mparisons about who has the time to Tweet and click the little "thumbs up" button is only a reflection of which supporters have too much time on their hands. I'd like to see a running tally on which candidate has visited the most communities and knocked on the most doors. That's what wins elections.See More5 hours ago ·
Kathy KimTotally agree with you guys Terry and David. Sandy definitely is a Woman of Action; she not only does the talk but walk the walk for her firm beliefs in bringing change to the north. And as we all know, online community can be deceiving an...d as reported on CBC news last week that it only costs 5 dollars to buy 1,000 tweeters.(I'm not suggesting anyone is doing this!!!) Sandy- keep knocking on door and earn your vote one person at a time.See More2 hours ago · · 1 personTerry Halifax likes this.- Terry Halifax Further to the subject: http://fullcomment.nationalpos
t.com/2011/04/15/lorne-gunter- social-media-does-not-bring- down-govts-or-win-elections/ 2 hours ago ·
Terry Halifax is the Beaufort-Delta Campaign Committee person for Sandy Lee's Conservatives in the Western Arctic Riding.
There was a posting on their Facebook page "Sandy Lee for Western Arctic MP" by Kathy Kim which said in part "...Sandy definitely is a Woman of Action..."
To which I replied "If "...Sandy definitely is a Woman of Action..." then why did she not answer the The Status of Women Council of the NWT's "Five Questions to Candidates" they asked all five federal candidates on issues that effect women in the NWT.
You can read the resulting answers from four of the five candidates here.
http://www.scribd.com/full/
You can see his full reply below, but in brief he said "...That page is there for Sandy's supporters, not for you to attempt to smear our candidate. Persist and I'll just boot you..."
So I guess that after this posting... I may be "booted" from the page and no longer able to report on what's going on there
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Facebookc@
Date: 15 April 2011 12:46
Subject: Terry Halifax sent you a message on Facebook...
To: George Lessard <mediamentor@gmail.com>
From: Facebook
Date: 15 April 2011 12:46
Subject: Terry Halifax sent you a message on Facebook...
To: George Lessard <mediamentor@gmail.com>
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