Posted by While I am loathe to cast dispersion on our leaders and public officials in this time of crisis (I believe that we should stick together and show support and a united front); this is so egregious that I cannot avoid it. Readers will know that I am no fan of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and I make no attempt to hide this fact. But when the Canadian Brainwashing Corporation doesn’t even report let alone criticize the questionable actions of the Prime Minister, it has to be brought to light. Trust me, I have googled the subject of both these articles along with the CBC and have no hits on either and have had to rely on the coverage by CTV.
The first is this article, “Don’t head to your cottage to wait out COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians warned“. Canada’s chief public health officer weighed in on the subject Sunday [March 29], making it clear in no uncertain terms that this is not the time to head for a cottage, cabin or camp. “Urban dwellers should avoid heading to rural properties, as these places have less capacity to manage COVID-19.”
The second is this article, “Trudeau says he’ll keep self-isolating, announces new help for charities.” Actually its not the main point of the article but a small quote hidden in the main body of the article. “Trudeau said Sunday that he was ‘very happy’ that his wife had been cleared. He said she had taken their children to the prime minister’s retreat property at Harrington Lake.”
WTF? The same day you have the chief public health officer come out and tell the public not to head to their cottages and rural retreats, the Prime Minister sends his wife and kids off to the official summer residence and all-season retreat? That’s some serious George Orwell Animal Farm thinking there Justin. I don’t know what makes me more angry, the fact that Trudeau goes and does something so against what he has public health authorities tell the rest of us to do after months of telling us to respect the experts; or the fact that the CBC and other news media has failed to report or question these actions by the Prime Minister.
Update 1 (13 April 2020): If you needed any more evidence of the bias and propaganda that is the state-funded Canadian Brainwashing Corporation, we get this top news article, “Scheer and family joined other MPs on packed flight to Ottawa, ignoring social distancing rules“. “Parliamentarians packed onto a small nine-seat government jet last week — ignoring pandemic health guidelines to maintain a distance of two metres from others — in their haste to reach Ottawa for a vote on federal emergency economic legislation that passed on Saturday.”
“Outgoing Green Party Leader Elizabeth May, who lives in B.C., boarded the Challenger jet along with Liberal B.C. cabinet minister Carla Qualtrough, Conservative Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer, his wife and their five children last Friday — filling all seats on the aircraft. Health guidelines urge individuals to maintain a two-metre distance from others to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus. But on the Challenger flight last week, passengers sat beside each other with just a few inches separating them, according to one of the passengers on board.”
Seriously? Are CBC reporters and journalists retarded? How does anybody expect you to social distance 2m on an airplane? Basically, you can’t although airlines are taking steps to try to minimize exposure on commercial flights as suggested in this CNN article, “If you must fly, here are some tips to do it safely“. Besides, 7 of the 9 passengers are the Scheer’s and their five kids so its not as if you randomly threw nine strangers together onto a plane.
But the CBC tries to make an issue out of opposition Conservative leader, Scheer trying to get back to Ottawa with his family in order to vote on silly little things like government legislation to help with the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. “Why did all the Scheers fly? The Conservative Opposition leader’s press secretary, Denise Siele, didn’t answer several questions from CBC News. She did say in an email, however, that it was cheaper for the family to fly together. ‘This one way trip resulted in less travel than Mr. Scheer flying back and forth every time the House sits, or flying the entire family on commercial flights through multiple airports using MP travel points,’ Siele said.”
OK, unless the CBC editorial staff’s English comprehension is even worse than my low expectations of what they are, where in that statement is anything that even remotely suggests that cost was a consideration in Scheer’s decision? If anything, the statement suggests that by reducing the amount of back-and-forth travel through public airports, Scheer is attempting to minimize risk and exposure to himself and his family. But somehow CBC bastardizes this statement to suggest its because Scheer wants to save a few bucks?
“The Scheers, Siele said, returned to Ottawa after spending several weeks in Regina over the March break and will now stay in the capital for the rest of the spring session. May said she doesn’t know the reason either. Last week, the Green MP said the Prime Minister’s Office told her a government plane would pick her up, along with Qualtrough and Scheer. She said she was relieved because she did not want to travel commercially.”
“Later, May said, staffers in the PMO informed her that Scheer had requested space for his wife and family. ‘That would mean every seat would be occupied,’ May said. ‘And they (the PMO) also said Jill and kids would otherwise have to fly commercial and I thought, Why would I ask Jill and the kids to go through all those airports?’ May said the PMO told her she could refuse to allow the Scheer family to board, but she agreed.”
Well yeah. That’s kind of the point of sending a government private jet to return key legislators to Ottawa. It reduces public exposure and minimize the risk of contracting novel coronavirus for important public officials. Even vacuous Green Party leader Elizabeth May understands that simple concept which CBC seems to have difficulty grasping despite quoting it straight in their article.
As if to grant themselves license to do this ridiculous hack job on Conservative opposition leader Scheer by appearing to be “balanced”, CBC finally reports on what I wrote above — albeit as a footnote to the attack piece on Scheer and two weeks too late. “Are the Trudeaus breaking the rules? Prime Minister Justin Trudeau might be breaking at least one public health guideline as well. Trudeau, his wife Sophie and their three kids have been spending time at Harrington Lake, the prime minister’s lakeside retreat and official summer residence in Quebec, about 30 kilometres northwest of Parliament Hill. Quebec’s public health officials have asked Ontarians not to go to their country residences across the provincial border. The PMO’s deputy director of communications, Chantal Gagnon, said the prime minister went to Harrington Lake to spend Easter with his wife and children.”
Yup, no snarky and inept spin or faux analysis of this statement by the CBC though. Heck, the CBC even hedges its weasel wording by saying Trudeau “might” be breaking a public health guideline even though there should be no question about this because he is clearly breaking it. The CBC also doesn’t even report on the closure and police blockades between Ontario and Quebec even though Ottawa and Gatineau are right across the river from each other and Trudeau has to cross provincial borders to get to Harrington Lake. Once again, I’m forced to go to CTV which brings us this from 1 April 2020, “Quebec police set up checkpoints to limit non-essential travel between Ottawa and Gatineau.” “The Quebec Government announced that starting at 12 p.m. on April 1, police will be deployed in the Outaouais region aiming to ‘limit non-essential movements’ between Ontario and Quebec. On Wednesday afternoon, the Surete du Quebec and Gatineau Police set up checkpoints on the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge and Champlain Bridge. A checkpoint was set up on the Alexandra Bridge early Wednesday evening… Gatineau Police say at the checkpoints, police will assess on a case-by-case basis whether or not the travel is essential, for instance:”
- To get to work if teleworking is not an option
- For medical appointments or care, or
- For humanitarian reasons
Seeing as Trudeau visiting his family at the government owned rural retreat at Harrington Lake cannot possibly be viewed as either of the first two, I would guess that humanitarian reasons is the only reason that this would be allowed. But as the Ottawa Citizen reports, “Police are showing up on bridges to curtail movement, bylaw officers are going into parks to issue warnings (maybe fines) and bust up birthday parties, and medical officers of health are being urged to legally force sick people to stay at home.” Somehow, I don’t think the Surete du Quebec are showing up Harrington Lake at the Prime Minister’s summer retreat though.
When all this is over, and Trudeau and his liberal cronies finally get turfed from power, the time will come for us to stop wasting public money on subsidizing the shoddy liberal propaganda machine that is the Canadian Brainwashing Corporation. Seeing as the economy will be in shambles and we will need to cut unnecessary expenditures, I can tell you where there is an easy C$1.9bn of annual costs you can cut pretty easily.