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“MEETING THE THRESHOLD”: JUSTIN’S TANTRUM GETS JUSTICE ROULEAU’S APPROVAL

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BRUCE DOWBIGGIN


“MEETING THE THRESHOLD”: JUSTIN’S TANTRUM GETS JUSTICE ROULEAU’S APPROVAL


BRUCE DOWBIGGIN

Published

17 hours ago

10 minute read

“The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from
the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and
thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we
have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious
the triumph.” Thomas Paine



Thomas Paine might say these are times that try the souls of men and women in
Canada, not just Paine’s United States. Last week’s entirely predictable
decision by Justice Paul Rouleau on Justin Trudeau’s invocation of the Emergency
Measures Act has now seemingly opened the way to Trudeau and future governments
to remove the civil rights of those who criticize them.

Yes, Rouleau did concede that the prime minister’s vitriolic language about the
Truckers had enflamed and provoked. That his unwillingness to address any
competing scientific evidence (immunity/ PCR false positives/ vaccine
efficiency)  led to misinformation. That his shirking leadership counted on
other levels of government to do his heavy lifting. That the police and media
created fake news about arson and crimes the Convoy people had nothing to do
with.

But he (sighing) reluctantly conceded that, all things considered, other levels
of government— hint, hint: Doug Ford and the inept Ottawa police— were more
culpable. See? Ford, the guy on the outside of the Family Compact, gets the
blame. Here’s where Justice Rouleau put his finger on the scale to allow the PM
his escape: “The (federal) Government did not have a realistic prospect of
productively engaging” with those who “believed COVID-19 vaccines were part of a
vast global conspiracy to depopulate the planet.”



Realistic prospect? Where did the disappearing PM try to engage? He sent in
mounted police and forensic accountants to save his skin. After scolding the PM
for his divisive language, Rouleau buys into Trudeau’s  dystopian view of the
conspiracy fanatics who would not engage with a PM who wouldn’t engage them. If
this mob had wanted to invade Parliament we’d have a trucker as PM now. But they
didn’t. They held back. But Rouleau gives that no credit. Only Trudeau’s blind
panic has merit.

And so, Shazam, bye-bye civil rights cherished for almost 200 years in order to
win the PM’s Doug Ford proxy war. Even the more aggressive Woke governments
around the world were awed by how easy it all was.  Made even easier by
purchased media that bulleted the big takeaway in tandem. “Met the threshold”.—
as Trudeau knew they would.

—Federal government met the threshold to invoke Emergencies Act: Rouleau – CBC
(which speculated during the occupation that Putin was at work behind the
scenes).

—Canada’s use of emergency powers during ‘Freedom Convoy’ met threshold,
commissioner says – Reuters

—Trudeau’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ shutdown was justified, inquiry rules – Politico

And so Canada’s ‘summer soldier and the sunshine patriot’ escaped yet again from
the standards he demands of others but not himself. Should we be surprised?

However honest Rouleau may be he is a creature of Ottawa® , marinated in its
power structures and bred for the status quo of the Ontario/ Quebec nexus,
trying to keep the game going a while longer. A Liberal party fixer for John
Turner in the 1990s Rouleau practiced at those most sacred institutions of 514/
613/ 416 power: Heenan/ Blaikie and Cassels/ Brock. His call to the bar has been
supported by Liberal and Conservative PMs.



His sole venture outside Canada’s Eastern Time Zone corridor of power was on the
Supreme Court of Yukon in 2014, Nunavut Court of Justice in 2017 and Supreme
Court of the Northwest Territories in 2017. And while he laboured honestly over
the task of exculpating PMJT from his worst instincts, his judgment reinforces
the politics, not the legals outside the political power grid of Justin’s
“otherness”. Like the SCOTUS authors who issued the Dred Scott decision in 1857
to save the U.S. from the civil war that they soon caused, Rouleau’s was more a
political move than any judicial insight.

As has been noted before, justice must not simply be done, it must be seen to be
done. And this patch-up job excusing another high-handed Justin episode will
reverberate for generations as leaders grasp at its findings like a life
preserver to crush opponents’ rights and liberties. It was a decision to send a
chill down the back of any civil libertarian.

So was Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek’s recent walk across a public space in the
city. A protester asked the committed progressive how she and city council can
support spending $70,000 on a Drag Queen Story hour for children at city
libraries.



Gondek turned to a nearby Calgary policeman and accused the protester of
breaking a new law prohibiting yelling at city politicians and suits. The cop
responded by issuing the protester a ticket for $500. Gondek then strode away
triumphantly, assured that while free speech is trampled she and her fellow
council members have a safe space anywhere they go in public, far from the
madding crowd.

No surprise, as the first woman mayor of Calgary has a PhD in urban sociology
which “furnishes understanding of the complex as well as profound meaning of
every urban reality, notably the territorial stabilization of social life, the
rise of a space symbol system and culture, and the origin and evolution of human
settlements.”

Her grad-school word salad is just another tiny step in the progressives’ march
against “disinformation, misinformation and distortions”, ie. anything that
contradicts the WEF narratives of the day. Ones that judges like Rouleau will
defend. We can only hope that someone tests this cavalier test of city council’s
Woke sensibilities at as higher level.

It’s a clear sign to those who don’t bother to vote in civic elections of the
mischief that fluff-heads like Gondek can get up to. Her platform since winning
the mayoralty? Day One she declared a climate emergency in Calgary, the
conventional energy capital of Canada. Cost: $250K. Next, she scotched the arena
deal with Calgary Flames over solar panels. Officials are still trying to undo
that snarl. Her current obsessions are leaf blowers, gentrifying the Stephen
Street mall and begging for ESG cuddles.

Gondek’s mayoralty is a prime argument for preferential balloting. While
garnering almost all the lefty votes she still failed to win 50 percent of the
total vote. However, three opponents split the centre/ right vote (disclosure:
one is a personal friend of Usual Suspects) that would have easily won the
election had the trio settled on one opponent for Gondek.

As we’ve seen in the CPC vote and elsewhere, preferential balloting delivers a
more nuanced result that better reflects the voters’ preferences. Had there been
preferential balloting at Calgary city hall it’s likely Gondek would be free to
walk unmolested around the city as defeated mayoralty candidate. Which is more
freedom that she wishes on her protesters and the Trucker Convoys.

Sign up today for Not The Public Broadcaster newsletters. Hot takes/ cool slants
on sports and current affairs. Have the latest columns delivered to your mail
box. Tell your friends to join, too. Always provocative, always independent. 
https://share.hsforms.com/16edbhhC3TTKg6jAaRyP7rActsj5

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time
winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a
regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six
Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was
voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org
. His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is
available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx


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BRUCE DOWBIGGIN

www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com

BRUCE DOWBIGGIN Award-winning Author and Broadcaster Bruce Dowbiggin's career is
unmatched in Canada for its diversity and breadth of experience . He is
currently the editor and publisher of Not The Public Broadcaster website and is
also a contributor to SiriusXM Canada Talks. His new book Cap In Hand was
released in the fall of 2018. Bruce's career has included successful stints in
television, radio and print. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada's
top television sports broadcaster for his work with CBC-TV, Mr. Dowbiggin is
also the best-selling author of "Money Players" (finalist for the 2004 National
Business Book Award) and two new books-- Ice Storm: The Rise and Fall of the
Greatest Vancouver Canucks Team Ever for Greystone Press and Grant Fuhr:
Portrait of a Champion for Random House. His ground-breaking investigations into
the life and times of Alan Eagleson led to his selection as the winner of the
Gemini for Canada's top sportscaster in 1993 and again in 1996. This work earned
him the reputation as one of Canada's top investigative journalists in any
field. He was a featured columnist for the Calgary Herald (1998-2009) and the
Globe & Mail (2009-2013) where his incisive style and wit on sports media and
business won him many readers.

FOLLOW AUTHOR

More from this author
Bruce Dowbiggin / 17 hours ago


“MEETING THE THRESHOLD”: JUSTIN’S TANTRUM GETS JUSTICE ROULEAU’S APPROVAL

Bruce Dowbiggin / 5 days ago


THE EQUITY PARADOX: WHY DON’T WOMEN SUPPORT WOMEN’S SPORTS?

Bruce Dowbiggin / 6 days ago


CANADA’S GREAT ARTISTS DON’T NEED TRUDEAU’S CRTC TO SUCCEED





BRUCE DOWBIGGIN


THE EQUITY PARADOX: WHY DON’T WOMEN SUPPORT WOMEN’S SPORTS?

Published on February 19, 2023

By

Bruce Dowbiggin

It’s fair to say that the last person in Canada you’d want to pick a public beef
with is Christine Sinclair, the captain of Canada’s Olympic gold medal winners
in soccer from the Tokyo 2022 Olympics. You. Are. Going. To. Lose. Sinclair
embodies everything virtuous about playing for your sport and your country.



But Canada Soccer has still decided to pick a fight with Sinclair and the
national women’s soccer team over cuts to the budgets of the national soccer
teams and an alleged failure to keep up payments. At the real heart of the issue
is pay equity with the men’s team which had  just returned to the World Cup for
the first time since 1986. (The men’s 2022 edition of the World Cup generated
$440 million to participating teams.)

Last week the Canadian National Women’s Soccer team threatened to strike before
the upcoming “She Believes” tournament. Sinclair said it broke her heart to take
the action. Then Canada Soccer fired back, saying it would sue the players if
the Canadian Professional Soccer Association broke its contract to play in the
upcoming tournament.

So Sinclair and her teammates backed off the strike threat— but not off the
moral high ground in the media. “We are being forced back to work for the short
term,” said Sinclair. “This is not over. We will continue to fight for
everything we deserve and we will win. The She Believes is being played in
protest.”

What is baffling in this bun fight is that both sides seem agreed on the issue
of equal pay for the woman players. ”Pay equity for our Women’s National Team is
at the core of our ongoing player negotiations. Canada Soccer will not agree to
any deal without it,” the statement said.

Fine. They can do whatever they want with the money generated by World Cups and
other tournaments played by men and women. If they want that split 50/50, so be
it. And they agree that the women’s team is a national treasure.

But about equal pay for work of equal value… we have yet to see Canada’s women’s
soccer generate anything like what the men generate from World Cups etc. Not
even close. Attempts to establish a pro league for women are dormant. So the
money to balance that equation has to come from somewhere else. The men aren’t
giving up what they earn. Government? Cui compromitto? Cui bono?

As we wrote in July of 2019, “So where is the money supposed to come from to
equal Megan Rapinoe’s pay with Lionel Messi or Paul Pogba? Clearly, women’s
soccer does not generate the money men’s soccer does. In calling their treatment
unfair, the women players seemed to be implying that public money should be
shifted to benefit them.”



When this argument on “eating what you kill” was made in negotiations for the
American soccer teams, the women sued for discrimination. (After an early
decision in their favour, the suit was dismissed on appeal). They asked, “Aren’t
women paid the same at Wimbledon?”— and they only play three sets to the mens’
five? Executives quickly capitulated to the howler monkeys on social media.



But that still doesn’t placate women athletes who insist they are victims of
discrimination. As we wrote, “The problem Megan Rapinoe and her colleagues have—
one that they share with women in many, but not all sports— is that they can’t
even make the sale to their fellow women. Statistically women are 51 percent of
the population. Yet, outside a few sports like figure skating or during
Olympiads, their fellow women take a pass on buying tickets or cable TV
subscriptions to watch them.”



Not much has changed in this regard since 2019. There are huge new piles of
money coming into sports from digital rights and gambling, and men still
generate the lion’s share. How nowhere is women’s sport? They’ve legalized
gambling on women’s sports— and no one still goes near them.

Salty comedian Bill Burr admires the skills and dedication of women athletes but
says there’s only one culprit in this wonky economics. “Look at the WNBA: they
have been playing in front of 300 to 400 people a night for a quarter of a
century. Not to mention, it’s a male-subsidized league. We gave you a league,
and none of you showed up. 

“Where are all the feminists? That place should be packed with feminists — faces
painted, wearing jerseys, going f—ing nuts like the guys do! None of you went to
the f—ing games. You failed them. Not me. Not men — women failed the WNBA.
Ladies, name your top five WNBA players of all time. Name five WNBA teams. Name
the WNBA team in your city. You can’t do it!”

“You’re playing in a 20,000-seat arena — 1,500 people show up. That’s not a good
night!”

Look, if people want the emotional feminist argument, fill your boots. In the
land of good will and virtuous notions Christine Sinclair should get the
entertainment money generated by women. But she’s not.

That money, as Burr points out, is going to entertainment vehicles like The
Kardashians and RuPaul. Advertisers follow the audience and, despite equal pay
settlements across sport, the money is not going to women’s sports. And when we
hear political radicals assail men’s sports for drowning out women’s sports, we
say, physician heal thyself. The cure lies in your hands, not men’s.

Sign up today for Not The Public Broadcaster newsletters. Hot takes/ cool slants
on sports and current affairs. Have the latest columns delivered to your mail
box. Tell your friends to join, too. Always provocative, always independent. 
https://share.hsforms.com/16edbhhC3TTKg6jAaRyP7rActsj5

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time
winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a
regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six
Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was
voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org
. His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is
available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx


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BRUCE DOWBIGGIN


CANADA’S GREAT ARTISTS DON’T NEED TRUDEAU’S CRTC TO SUCCEED

Published on February 18, 2023

By

Bruce Dowbiggin

“I know who the gatekeepers are. They are still here, telling us in Bill C-11
that we have progressed, that we are more understanding and that our value
system has evolved to be inclusive. This statement is a transparent endowment to
those whose support they need and whom they desire to influence, but it is a
terrible insult to the great writers in my country that I know.” —David Adams
Richards



One of the gratifications in writing is finding someone who can express your
feelings in a superior fashion. Even more gratifying is when a friend finds the
perfect expression of those thoughts. Imagine my happiness to see my old friend
David Adams Richards—raconteur, novelist and cranky Canadian loyalist— take the
floor in the Senate to defenestrate the execrable Bill C-11. (His prior work
helped capsize C-10)

So please forgive us if we quote liberally from his January speech in the upper
chamber on the attempt to turn the CRTC into a national ministry for public
enlightenment or the culture section of a Central Committee.

David’s lucid, heartfelt resistance to ceding the power of censorship to the
sort of bureaucracy that can’t get you a passport or remove fallen trees from a
VIA Rail line is impertinent and necessary. These are the very reasons why he—
or those like him who complain— will be among the first targeted when some
Ottawa trust-fund plutocrat needs a whipping post to hold off truckers or
farmers or whichever “others” come next to the doors of Parliament to make the
PM’s acquaintance.



A product of New Brunswick’s Miramichi, Richards knows those “others” the prime
minister sought to make non-persons. “I grew up in a place in the east of Canada
called the Maritimes and have fought for every inch of soil in my fictional
world that, for years, dismissed who I was and especially whom I wrote about.”

From his time jousting with the Canada Council or New Brunswick paper pushers he
knows the crushing power of bureaucrats and time servers who will want to make
themselves, not the artists, the story. “We have filled the world with our
talent, but not because of the Minister of Heritage. We have spread our books
and movies across the world, but it is not because of some formula. 

“We have insulted so many of our authors, singers, actors and painters by not
paying attention to them, and then claiming them when they go somewhere else.
They come back to get the Order of Canada and to be feted at Rideau Hall. Drake
is known worldwide not because of the Canadian Radio-television and
Telecommunications Commission, or CRTC. Thank God Drake was not up to them, or
Leonard Cohen or Gordon Lightfoot either.”



This notion of success without a committee is heresy, of course. Particularly in
an age where the pews of civil servants are being filled with radicals and quota
appointees who see the process, not the outcome, as the point. Twenty years ago
the grey suits and time servers on arts panels were often former artists and
creators. Now they are virtue-saturated bullies who think the idea of Black Out
nights at the theatre represents racial progress.



They, like Mao, believe that unification is achieved through relentless division
and struggle “by the socialist system itself”— in other words, under the power
and influence of the cult and its doctrine. Artistic expression under C-11 will
come to serve the ongoing struggle for a more perfect culture. Those not fitting
the prescription will be cast into a snow bank of irrelevance.



Richards hears— and fears— their approach. “I think, overall, we have lately
become a land of scapegoaters and finger pointers, offering accusations and
shame while believing we are a woke society. Cultural committees are based as
much in bias and fear as in anything else. I’ve seen enough artistic committees
to know that.”

It was hoped that the gross overreach in the Emergency Measures from this time
last year might have swayed Mr. Trudeau and his faculty lounge of compliant
stooges from another attempt at locking down more of what was once a liberal,
free society. Guess again. Like all good party members and fellow travellers
Trudeau’s constituency is elsewhere, not in Canada.

Egged on by the one-world government pep squad the PM believes one flaw
disqualifies an entire system. His locked-down mind can’t see that the system
flaws he fears so much are in fact the diversity he craves. They signify our
vibrancy. He calls it disinformation. “The very bill suggests a favouritism
brought forward by a notional knowledge of what Canada should be and what groups
we are now allowed to blame.”



Richards concludes, “This is not opening the gate to greatness but only to
compliance. The writers I know don’t need to advance to fit an agenda, and
neither do the songwriters or bloggers. When this bill mentions how we have
evolved, it is simply a suggestion to comply.”

Vive la Resistance C-11.

Sign up today for Not The Public Broadcaster newsletters. Hot takes/ cool slants
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box. Tell your friends to join, too. Always provocative, always independent. 
https://share.hsforms.com/16edbhhC3TTKg6jAaRyP7rActsj5

Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster  A two-time
winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a
regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six
Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was
voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org
. His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is
available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx


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