by arthur Weinreb, associate Editor,
april 29, 2004
The May 3 edition of Maclean’s Magazine that hit the streets on april 26 contains a special report on U.S.-Canada relations. The main article is entitled "The Know-it-all Neighbour" and the accompanying pieces came out just four days before Prime Minister Paul Martin was set to visit Washington. While the timing of the article is understandable, its publication was meant to serve a greater purpose than just writing about a topical issue.
Maclean’s is notorious for not just having a left wing bias but a bias in favour of the Liberal Party of Canada. There is not even a weak attempt to hide its bias in favour of the latter.
The lead article begins, "THE EXPECTaTIONS have been set so low that just being together in the same room is now considered an accomplishment." The first paragraph goes on to say that "Canadians shouldn’t hold their breath for significant trade deals, cross-border accords, or even mealy-mouthed memorandums of understanding."
That’s it in a nutshell. The entire point of the exercise is to lower the expectations of Canadians so that when Martin returns to Canada without getting everything that he wanted, the public will go easy on him.
This is Liberal party spin at its best.
Toronto Star and aP slants story to boost Kerry
In an april 27 aP story, the Toronto Star reported on Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s appearance the day before on Good Morning america. During an interview with GMa’s Charles Gibson, Kerry was confronted with his contradictions as to whether he in fact threw his war medals over the White House fence back in 1971. On various occasions, Senator Kerry has said that he threw his medals, or did not throw medals but threw his ribbons, or that he threw the medals of two other veterans but not his own, over the fence.
To take the heat away from Gibson’s questioning, Kerry lashed out at George W. Bush, saying that Bush never did prove that he fulfilled his military obligations by completing his National Guard service. It was the attack on Bush that became the centrepiece of the story and not what Kerry did or did not do with is service medals. The Star obliged aP’s slant with the headline, "Kerry takes shot at Bush Guard Duty" while leaving "Senator’s anti-war activities targeted" as the second sub-headline.
John Kerry is the american version of Paul Martin--always taking both sides of any and all issues. If the Toronto Star really wanted to be balanced, they would have reported what Kerry said 12 years ago. Prior to the 1992 election when the senator was supporting draft-dodger Bill Clinton, Kerry claimed that a candidate’s service record was not relevant. How things change.
Did Walkom go too far?
Columnist Thomas Walkom wrote an opinion piece that appeared in the april 20 edition of the Toronto Star entitled "Time to leave the Khadrs alone". Walkom feels that Canada’s favourite al-Qaeda family have not committed any crime that we know of and their critics who call for their Canadian citizenship to be revoked should not be listened to. These critics, in Walkom’s opinion should not be setting Canadian values.
after indicating that Conservative foreign affairs critic, Stockwell Day says that the family should be stripped of their citizenship, Walkom writes:
"They may have views that many Canadians don’t like. But so does Day. as far as I know, no one has started a petition to strip him of his citizenship".
There is no doubt that some Canadians would love to see the former Canadian alliance leader stripped of his citizenship. But Stockwell Day is a good Canadian. He doesn’t detest and loathe this country the way the Khadrs do. as far as we know, he’s never taken up arms against Canada’s allies in the war against terrorism. It’s extremely unlikely that he has told any of his children that the greatest accomplishment that they can make is to blow themselves up. Stockwell Day works hard for Canada and has given a lot back--he doesn’t just breeze in when it’s convenient and demand services.
To compare a Member of Parliament, no matter how much you dislike his policies, his personality or his ability, to a family that would like to see our entire way of life destroyed, is going way over the top.