Today's tonic: Breaking the CBC and our link to public broadcasting?

Breaking: the CBC and our link to public broadcasting? by Susan Riley

 

If this is public broadcasting’s last chance to save itself, it needs to move fast—and the majority of Canadians who, polls say, still support the limping institution will need to make their voices heard.

OPEN LETTER to Mayor Olivia Chow re: Toronto's terrible Ferry Service to Toronto Islands

August 25, 2024

Dear Toronto Mayor Chow, 

The state of Toronto City ferry service to the Toronto Islands is awful.   It seems like the management of the ferry service don't take seriously their responsibilities to provide predictable, reliable service at the advertised times and the result is an angry public, myself included.   

On two recent occasions, I've been trapped on the island with my partner as we waited hours for a ferry (for which we had already paid) to return us back to the mainland.  Advertised departure times on the city's website are COMPLETELY IGNORED by ferry staff as ferries seem to come and go when they please.  No apologies to waiting residents are ever given by any ferry staff I've seen after these long waits.   In early July, we arrived at Hanlan's Point on the island hoping to catch the 9:45 pm return ferry to the mainland.   The 9:45 pm schedule never came, nor did the 10:30 pm.  Only the 11 pm showed up with over 300 people waiting impatiently to board.  

On August long weekend Sunday, a similar occasion happened at Centre Island.  We arrived on time for the 9:45 pm schedule thinking perhaps the Toronto Ferry service would respect its advertised time for Centre Island as they don't for Hanlan's Point.  When we arrived at 9:30 pm at the Centre Island ferry port, there were over 400-500 people already waiting in front of us.  No ferry showed up until 10:10 pm, 25 minutes late, however only about half of those waiting made it onto that ferry, which angered and frustrated hundreds of people.   We had to wait for the next ferry which didn't show up until 10:40 pm.  

 

The waiting stall by the Centre Island port resembles a place you'd force animals to wait for slaughter.   It is dark, crowded and if there were some kind of emergency, or panic, hundreds of Toronto residents could be greatly injured or killed.  The conditions are that bad.  Furthermore, there was ZERO information from City of Toronto officials to help or guide the crowd.  No sense when the next ferry would arrive.  Calls to the Jack Layton Ferry Terminal were met with defiance and lack of empathy.  Our justifiable outrage at their pathetic service was ignored - in fact, city staff hung up on me rather than explain why ferry services were so different than advertised.   The staff person didn't seem to care about the dangerous conditions that the city was forcing people into waiting for a return ferry home.   I took the picture below of the giant stall where people were forced to wait for a ferry that may never come. 

Photo I took in waiting stall at Centre Island port on Aug 4, 2024

The number of frustrated Toronto residents is now in the thousands following this summer of incompetence.   I know we are not alone in our frustrations with the city's ferry service.

I know managers of the ferry service and Toronto city council have let down Toronto residents in recent years by not planning better to repair and replace aging ferries.  The temporary loss of 2 ferries this year really inconvenienced thousands of residents trying to get to Toronto Islands.  The level of incompetence in this mismanagement makes me suspect perhaps city officials are simply trying to help out private water taxi services make more money from residents' frustration with the public ferry service.  Because whoever is running Toronto Ferries does not care about public service.  

This also happens at a time when most city services seem to be in major decline, perhaps caused by lack of funding, but also mismanagement by city leaders, and laziness or lack of support for city staff. 

Toronto must do better than this sorry state of affairs. 

We need to build a pedestrian and cyclist bridge to the Toronto Islands immediately so the public can access this great park without having to experience the agony of waiting hours for an incompetent public ferry service to bother to provide the service they are being paid to provide.  

Enough is enough!   The option of going to the Islands these days is very risky as it's clear now that getting back from the island will be a torturous wait for a ferry to show up an hour or two after its advertised departure time. 

What are you going to do in the immediate short term to fix this sorry ferry service in Toronto?

Sincerely,

Matt Guerin

Very frustrated Toronto resident

Today's tonic: "If Pierre Poilievre gets his way, the next Olympics might not be so fun to watch - To eliminate the CBC would turn the Olympics into yet another product that must be paid for to be witnessed. "

Canadian beach volleyball Silver medalists

I haven't blogged in weeks and a lot has been happening, especially politically south of the border.  Please expect some thoughts soon on the ascension of Kamala Harris to the Democratic presidential nomination.

But for today, another topic: It's been a busy summer with work where I supervise a team of media librarians at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in Toronto. Our team conducts media management of digital workspaces for two Toronto servers at CBC, one for News and one for all other production including CBC Sports.  We also manage several more servers at CBC locations across the country. 

Our team has been since late July setting up records and maintaining and archiving records of all Olympic events, plus any interviews, footage, stills captured, etc. our CBC crews have been shooting with athletes over in Paris.  We ensure the CBC Sports digital server has enough capacity to take in all of this content so that editors and producers can do their jobs getting Olympic shows to air.  

It is an immense responsibility, one we do every Olympic games (as long as the CBC hosts them for Canada).  We look forward to doing the same work for the Winter 2026 Games in Milano, Italy.  That is, if we still have an English CBC to work for.  

That is, if only Pierre Poilievre is stopped implementing his promise to destroy English language CBC.  The iconic cultural institution with other 80 years of branding and accomplishment, the best source of journalism for English Canadians in this scary world overrun with disinformation.  

Public broadcasting's aim should be to bring Canadians together, as we did these last two weeks with the coverage of the Paris Games.  Public broadcasting also ensures a clear source of reliable information, not tainted by association with private corporate interests.  CBC journalists go after stories to tell Canadians, regardless if those stories favour the Liberals, the Conservatives, the NDP, or any other points of view.  The CBC is as unbiased a media organization as you can get in English Canada and is structured to provide excellent national, provincial and local news coverage that impacts you in your communities. 

From far right wing eyes, the centre (or CBC) can look left wing.  From far left eyes, the CBC also looks fairly conservative and too safe.  I've always admired the CBC for its clear, concise, non-sensationalist approach to covering the news of the day.  

Today, I'm happy to share this article by Mark Hill in the Toronto Star, which details how the CBC's coverage of the Paris Games this year has brought Canadians together to share moments of joy, excitement, heartbreak and spectacle.  Over 13 million Canadians watched a part of the Opening Ceremony.  

Destroying the CBC would turn our backs on decades of Canadian-first media.  Poilievre's plan would ensure that "Schitt's Creek" for example would never have existed.  That popular English-language comedy became an international hit and its creator has said that CBC gave the kind of artistic freedom to create that show that made it so special and allowed it to find international audiences including several Emmy Awards a few years ago.  

The examples go on and on.  This will be a huge fight to save Canadians' right to journalism, to public broadcasting, to more English language news and entertainment and sports programming.   

Here's an excerpt from Hill's article: 

To eliminate the CBC would turn the Olympics into yet another product that must be paid for to be witnessed. For all their flaws, what’s wonderful about events like the Olympics and the World Cup is that their novelty and nationality attract reams of fans who otherwise couldn’t care less about sports. If Olympic coverage was subsumed by paid networks like Sportsnet and TSN, one more thread that unites us as a country would be severed, and yet another public service would be lost. 

A few weeks of sport won’t solve the country’s issues. But it is a reminder that we are all Canadian, and that the tedious jeremiads claiming the CBC is to the left of Mao are unmoored from reality.

Also, Olympic table tennis is wild. Don’t take that away from us.

Happy Pride Month, but beware the growing hatred in Canada and elsewhere

June is the beginning of Pride Month in Toronto and most places in North America.  It’s a time to celebrate the LGBTQ community, our history and the gains we’ve made overcoming bigotry and oppression, as well as remind ourselves of the battles still ahead for equality and dignity.

Most of the world is still hellish for LGBTQ folks for a variety of unfortunate reasons, mostly rooted in ignorance and religious bigotry.  Those fights continue and I'll be happy this week to attend Rainbow Railroad's Freedom Party to help raise money for this crucially important cause.  

But lately even the gains we’ve made in most of the democratic world are under increasing threat thanks to a resurgence of right-wing bigotry and irresponsibility.  

Republicans south of the Canadian border, taking advantage of public ignorance about trans people, have been on a rampage, overstepping government power to try to control and destroy trans peoples' rights and safety.  Sadly, they've inspired some Canadian conservatives to similarly target queer youth in Canada. 

The horrible Danielle Smith, premier of Alberta, is trying to roll back the rights of LGBTQ youth in Alberta schools, forcing educators to out trans youth, banning them from the healthcare they need, and making anti-bullying education "optional" for Alberta schools. 

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe even invoked the notwithstanding clause in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms to legislate similar attacks on vulnerable trans youth in his province. 

After his own attacks on trans youth, creepy New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs continues to peddle more attacks on other vulnerable youth, his latest including obsessing over and banning sex education provided to teenage girls designed to teach them about consent and healthy sexuality, before he even bothered to research the education he was banning.   

All of these attacks on vulnerable youth including queer youth are just ploys by conservatives to distract voters from their real agenda, which has always been to give more power to the already powerful elites and gatekeepers of society, all at the expense of the rest of us.  

"Don't worry about those massive tax cuts we are giving the rich while we enslave you and your family to their unfettered corporate greed, and cut your health care and public services!  Look over there!  Those scary trans extremists are trying to rape or hurt your children and only we will stop them," those disgusting conservatives are implying through their legislative actions and messaging. 

Sadly, these efforts to roll back progress seem to have convinced some ordinary conservatives it's okay to embrace their little hatreds.  A new poll out this weekend confirms that general support for LGBTQ rights and visibility is down in Canada by about 10 per cent since 2021.   

None of the gains we've made are chiselled in stone.  In fact, Canadian conservatives have shown they are just as willing as Republicans south of the border to attack our rights and invoke any legal means necessary to play their hateful games.  

Pierre Poilievre has also said he's happy to use the notwithstanding clause to roll back rights.  Considering most of his caucus is still dominated by dinosaurs who still obsess over controlling the bodies of all women on the abortion issue, we ought to be very alarmed about the future. 

I want to urge all people who support equality and dignity for all to reject the politics of hatred being espoused by conservatives or others.  We need to stand up against and challenge this hatred, and to let our more moderate conservative friends, family and neighbours know it's not okay.   

Stay strong, keep up the fight, and carry on! 

Today's warning: "CSIS warns that the 'anti-gender movement' poses a threat of 'extreme violence' to the 2SLGBTQ+ community in Canada"

Intelligence agency says risk will 'almost certainly continue' over the coming year

"Canada's intelligence agency is warning that extremists could "inspire and encourage" serious violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community — a threat the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says almost certainly will continue over the coming year.

"CSIS's comments come as provincial policies on gender-affirming surgeries and pronoun preferences are being hotly debated across the country.

"CSIS assesses that the violent threat posed by the anti-gender movement is almost certain to continue over the coming year and that violent actors may be inspired by the University of Waterloo attack to carry out their own extreme violence against the 2SLGBTQI+ community or against other targets they view as representing the gender ideology 'agenda,'" said CSIS spokesperson Eric Balsam in an email to CBC News."

Why Danielle Smith’s proposed anti-trans legislation is so wrong...

Sadly, it was probably only a matter of time before Alberta Premier Danielle Smith used her majority government power as Conservative premier to try to control and even put at risk the lives of queer youth.  

Smith's history supporting queer rights isn't stellar.  Just 12 years ago, she didn't think it was a big deal for one of her then-Wildrose candidates to have called for all queer people to burn in a "lake of fire".  Her judgment has been questioned for some time.  I think she's just gotten better at looking the part of premier lately. 

Except last week when Smith announced new legislation she plans to introduce this fall in the Alberta legislature that would, among other things, ban gender-affirming health care of any kind for Alberta youth 15 years old or younger, even puberty blockers and hormones.

Smith's paternalistic rationale given to justify this ban is that youth must be prevented from making decisions they may regret later in life.  

It's the same sort of paternalistic, nonsensical thinking that surrounded the debate over sexual orientation and gay people in decades past in Canada.  Back then, many conservatives like Smith also believed being gay was somehow a "phase" or something you fell into by choice, and could easily be "converted" out of through some old-fashioned Christian deprogramming.  Of course, they were wrong then about gay people, just as they're wrong today about trans people.  I knew I was gay when I was 13, and it definitely wasn't some "phase." 

The end result of this particular provision in Smith's proposed law today will be that more trans youth - who typically experience higher rates of depression, self harm and suicide after the onset of puberty - will have to suffer in painful silence until they're 16 before they can do anything about it.  Many more of them won’t make it to 16 if this law passes. 

Smith is also promising to ban trans girls from competing in sports against cisgender girls.   It's not clear at all that this is a problem in Alberta or anywhere else.  It's not like there are armies of highly athletic and muscular trans girls demanding to get into girls' soccer leagues or swim teams.  This is a solution in search of a problem.    

In addition, Smith announced that should trans kids under 16 want to at least be called a name or a pronoun that conforms with their gender at school, they will be outed to their parents, who will then be able to veto this freedom.  If those parents then become violent toward those kids or kick them out of their homes, Smith doesn't seem to care.

Furthermore, Smith announced if 16 or 17-year-olds want to change their names or pronouns at school, they will also be outed to their parents (who at least won't have a veto over that choice).  If those same parents then become violent toward those young people or kick them out of their homes, Smith again doesn't seem to care. 

The end results of all of these policies will be more suicides, more self harm, and more violence. 

Smith's plans also call for bans on any types of gender-affirming surgeries for those under 18. 

Fact: no one under age 18 has ever undergone gender re-assignment surgery in Canada because the medical profession and other professionals, not to mention trans folks, have rightly decided those irreversible steps do need to wait until adulthood.

So why ban something that isn't even happening?  

The answer is simple: Smith's priority is playing politics and further inciting cultural wars, and she seems happy to sacrifice the well-being and safety of queer youth to do it.  Rabid right-wing zealots have latched onto the issue of transgendered peoples as a wedge issue to try to spread hate, divide societies and win more political power.  

Smith is a part of that problem, as evidenced by her recent appearance with American right-wing liar Tucker Carlson, Canadian asshole extraordinaire Jordan Peterson and convicted criminal Conrad Black. 

Even more awful was Smith's duplicitous presentation last week, speaking in soft tones (what an accomplished actor she is), pretending to "care" about the well-being of queer youth.  While in truth, she stabbed them in both the face and the back.  

Tucked away in the announcement is the pledge to now remove "sexual orientation" education, as well as "gender identity" education and even sex education from school lessons for all Alberta youth unless their parents "opt in" and consent to their kids receiving these lessons.  Yes, Alberta students won't be allowed to learn anything about LGBTQ+ people unless parents are okay with it.

In the 80s and early 90s, my high school was a hotbed of homophobia and violent harassment mostly thanks to my fellow heterosexual students.  I suffered in great silence and isolation in my Catholic public school, but I don't think my experiences were much different from those who attended public schools in Ontario.  Rampant, repulsive homophobia was completely mainstream then.  It was hard to live through. 

Today, sadly, I suspect if you walk down typical high school hallways in Ontario, Alberta, or anywhere, I'm sure there's little difference: verbal assaults using the word "faggot" I hear are still common, as is vicious bullying, as we know. 

Schools, school boards and governments are obliged to try to provide safe learning environments for all children, not just heterosexual children.  

The introduction of mandatory education into the truths around sexual orientation - including that LGBTQ+ people don't choose their orientations, and that homosexuality exists in roughly the same percentages (about 3 to 5%) across all demographics in society and has for centuries (since we've been able to record these histories) - is essential to combating homophobia in schools and promoting the safety of queer youth in our care.  

To make this essential education now optional, with the likelihood the most homophobic will now be free to continue their homophobic bullying, even encouraged to do so implicitly by Smith's draconian law, will make Alberta schools more dangerous for queer youth and queer people in general. 

Even to target LGBTQ+ peoples for this special mistreatment sends a message of anti-queer disrespect, that there is something wrong about learning these truths.  Why else would you be required to opt in to receive them? 

Merely teaching children that LGBTQ+ people exist is not indoctrinating children.  It's teaching them the truth about the real world. For the queer children in schools, learning you’re not alone saves lives.

It has long been clear that when it comes to laws governing children or youth in our care - such as in our public schools, or in other laws impacting on children - those laws must always be in the "best interests of the children."  Courts have struck down numerous laws that violated the "best interests of children." 

Of course, "best interests of the children" doesn't mean "doing whatever the kids want."  In fact, many children might disagree often with what is determined to be in their best interests.  

I do sympathize with parents who feel they have a right to know if their kid is using a different pronoun or name at school.  I also sympathize with queer youth who have a right to privacy and safety as they struggle to figure out who they are and where they fit in this scary world.  

As we struggle to find the right balance on this issue, I think one thing is clear: our laws should always be written with the best interests of children in mind.   

The proposed laws announced last week by Danielle Smith are anything but.  When or if Smith actually introduces this legislation in the Alberta legislature, we'll see if she includes the Charter of Rights' notwithstanding clause in it, which would exempt the legislation from Charter challenges for five years. 

But I’m not sure even the notwithstanding clause would protect these laws from being challenged and struck down.  They are clearly written in violation of the best interests of children or youth.  They clearly put children and youth in danger and subject them to considerable harm.  I expect the courts would agree and strike them down given the chance.  

This is not an area in which provincial governments should be legislating.  One-size-fits-all policies will lead to inevitable harm.  We ought to leave these difficult, deeply personal and medical issues up to the individuals involved: the parents, the medical professionals, the educators, and most importantly, the children and youth in our care.    Not overreaching, misguided politicians trying to win more political power for themselves. 

Today's tonic: "Andrew Scott is right – it’s time to retire the phrase ‘openly gay’"

Actor Andrew Scott

I couldn't agree more with this charming, smart actor, Andrew Scott (currently starring in the awesome feature film All of Us Strangers) that the phrase "openly gay" is old school and needs to be retired, as writer Ryan Gilbey highlights in this Guardian piece.

“I’m going to make a pitch for getting rid of the phrase ‘openly gay,’” said Scott, steering the conversation in a more illuminating direction. “It’s an expression that you only ever hear in the media. You’re never at a party and you say, ‘This is my openly gay friend…’” Why, he wondered, is “openly” always attached to that adjective? “We don’t say you’re ‘openly Irish.’ We don’t say you’re ‘openly left-handed’…There’s something in it that’s a little near ‘shamelessly.’ ‘You’re open about it?’ You know what I’m saying?” He proposed that “it’s time to just sort of park it.”