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Canadian news by government decree

By Garth Pritchard
Thursday, December 22, 2005

It was January 8, 2005--I was in Sri Lanka, shooting footage for a documentary on the Canadian DaRT group, sent to help the people after a 32-foot wave, traveling 500 miles an hour hit the fragile houses and people of the ampara district.

Prior to leaving, the politicians in Ottawa had spoon-fed the Canadian news outlets. So, Canadian Press reported of the DaRT: "the wrong people, the wrong place, antiquated equipment"--once again the Canadian soldiers had been set up for failure by their own bureaucracy. The political ministers were fed the information by their staff, and in turn, they spoon-fed the ever-receptive ear of the Ottawa news gallery.

In Sri Lanka, after the politicians had taken a direct run at the Canadian DaRT, the Prime Minister of Canada showed up. Canada Free Press ran the story and showed some pictures of the stunning behaviour of the Prime Minister and his handlers as they knocked people down, walked over graves, left the Canadian Padre standing speechless and, to use his words, " … body-checked out of the process." The Padre had, in fact, been asked by the Prime Minister’s handlers to say a few words and to have a minute’s silence to remember the 12,000 souls who had died there, most of them children.

My camera records 15 seconds before the Prime Minister’s pit bull-like female aide yelled,"Let him move on! Let’s go!" Body-checked out of the procession, the Canadian Padre could only watch in disbelief. CP had two photographers on the scene and they leap-frogged ahead, taking the pictures that had quite obviously been pre-arranged: the now famous shot of the Prime Minister silhouetted against the sky as the pit bulls yelled--directing the PM to the photo op and the waiting cameraman--"He’s in the ditch! He’s in the ditch!"

Then on to the next shot. One of them, of course, was the picture of Paul Martin drinking water from a plastic bottle. Of course, that’s what the whole trip was abou--it had nothing to do with Canadian soldiers and what they had accomplished. The Prime Minister didn’t even bother to come and visit the headquarters of the DaRT group, and there certainly were very few pictures with Canadian soldiers.

The sound of silence in our media about this travesty was deafening. Dozens of Ottawa journalists, led by Peter Mansbridge and his CBC crew, were there with the Prime Minister. They had to have recorded what my cameras recorded. Yet very little of this was written about or seen back in Canada. If it had not been for the Toronto Sun, this story would never have been told.

a few months later, I found myself again with Canadian soldiers--in afghanistan this time. all doors were open to me to tell their story. What they were doing and what they accomplished was staggering. They were there with the PRT--the Provincial Reconstruction Team. The same old players were involved: External affairs, Foreign affairs and CIDa. These two ministries and one agency were represented by--believe it or not--two people on the ground. as the weeks progressed, the accomplishments of the soldiers were huge. They were patrolling down the streets on foot, in areas that the americans, including their much vaunted Special Forces, had feared to tread. The old city was open to the Canadians.

In one particularly dramatic day, Canadian soldiers dismantled a bomb factory. The dark art of how to blow up artillery shells with the use of a telephone; how to make a detonator from a Bic pen; a saw blade used as contacts, ballast for fluorescent lights used as electronics--and of course, the end use of all of this: to blow up artillery shells as North americans--the infidels--passed by.

We will never know how many lives were saved--the elections were days away and it was obvious this factory was in the process of creating bombs to disrupt the building of a new country.

The bomb factory story was immediately sent to Ottawa. This time to the military’s public relations people, led by a civilian. For reasons known only to the military’s DGPa, this story was basically censored. It seems the Ottawa spin doctors didn’t quite see the news value in all of this.

It happened to the Canadians--a mine, a bomb went off--Canadians were slightly hurt. Lock down in country. Because journalists were there in the embedded program, they had agreed to wait--let the parents and other family members know about their loved ones before it became a news story flashed around the world in an instant. The military also agreed that they would release the story to the embedded media in afghanistan first.

YOU GUESSED IT--the story was leaked from Ottawa to an Ottawa journalist.

That’s how it’s done nowadays. Control.

The journalists in afghanistan could only rant at the poor information officer.

Next, the unthinkable happened--an earthquake in Pakistan. The DaRT group was being sent. Ottawa was not going to make the same mistake twice: all the doors were slammed shut to me. The civilian head of the Canadian military’s public relations–DGPa--proudly ranted at me "Not this time, Garth. Have you got any idea how pissed CIDa is at you?" and here I thought that he represented the Canadian soldiers, as in the Privates, the Master Corporals and the Sergeants. I should know better.

The editor of The Canadian War Correspondent association’s newsletter, in an article in the fall of 2004 entitled "The Enemy Within", put forward the premise that then-Lt. General Rick Hillier was the problem--that the General was the one filtering the news coming out of afghanistan.

a year later, the General is now the Number One soldier in Canada--he’s not the one. It is the bureaucracy in Ottawa. all the lines lead to one enormous filter, owned by the Liberals. CIDa has obvious access to the Department of National Defense--as does External and Foreign affairs.

Our national media is quickly boiling down to three or four major players: with the juggernaut of TorStar buying into CTV and the Globe and Mail; our so-called national broadcaster, with a billion dollars of our money per year to prove it; and the asper chain, both written and electronic.

This has all happened, and very quickly too.

So where is the CRTC in all of this? another multi-million dollar agency — again filled with the government of the day’s (decades’) puppets.

Which brings me to the city that is in the process of destroying a nation.

It’s the ugly secret in Ottawa. Long term government means the bureaucracies are set in granite. It’s Ottawa out--the bureaucrats filter it, feed it to the Ottawa media, and through them Canadians are told the story--or some version of it. But most of all, the Liberal government is protected.

The Canadian media is more than happy to be spoon-fed. Once the story is out, that’s the way it is--the bureaucrats have got that one figured out.

Consider the upcoming election, and the so-called debates, with so-called average Canadians asking the questions. Here’s a classic example of how the system is filtered. The questions are asked, "Gay marriage?" "Medicare?" Haven’t we had three elections on these issues already?

So, are we expected to believe that the thousands of questions posed by Canadians came down to gay marriage and Medicare issues? again?

Oh, and by the way, my national newspapers are calling all this insanity a tie!

Huh?

In this fashion, the country is being misdirected. The price tag is, and will continue to be staggering.

Centralization in the mainstream media is happening. I, personally cannot believe that this is going to be good for a free media or, for that matter, a free democracy.

The game is to feed the Canadian public--with only one entity calling the plays.

Here at Canada Free Press we’re looking for input from our beloved bloggers. Guys, it may come down to you:

Keep us informed. ask the questions. This film-maker has been shot. CBC will not run anything produced by us, nor will the National Film Board. What Canadians accomplished around the world will be filtered, with the help of the very people who stand at the pulpit and pronounce that they represent their people. Nonsense!

You will never see the bear witness footage of what happened. Included in this nightmare--which I will call censorship--is National Film Board, the Television Fund, Canadian Council Grants, and of course, the CBC. The funding for these agencies is supplied by the taxpayer. But without help from one of them, it is impossible to show Canadians the truth. They control the money, and they control the switches.

The filter is in place, and working--365 _ days a year.

Canada Free Press columnist Garth Prtitchard, is an award-winning documentary filmmaker living in alberta.



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