Zakreski's earlier struggles | Zakreski story on Foster Parent case when many features were under a court gag order

CBC lockout expected after talks break down
Work stoppage would disrupt English-language programming

By JILL MAHONEY, Glob and Mail, August 15, 2005

CBC employees expected to be locked out after eleventh-hour talks broke down late last night between the public broadcaster and its main union, the guild said.

This is no way to negotiate a new contract," said Arnold Amber, a negotiator for the Canadian Media Guild, which represents the corporation's journalists, producers, technicians and other support staff.

Mr. Amber said the CBC notified the union it intended to lock out its 5,500 members at 12:01 a.m. EDT today. Employees were poised to begin picketing immediately, he said.
However, late last night CBC spokesman Jason MacDonald said both sides "were still in the room". He added that the broadcaster had not formally informed the union it would trigger the work stoppage.

"We certainly haven't done that yet. Our commitment is to the midnight deadline," he said. Both sides negotiated through the weekend. The union said talks broke down a couple of hours before the lockout could occur.

A work stoppage would disrupt the public broadcaster's English-language programming schedule, raising the possibility of temporary anchors, abbreviated newscasts, repeat programming and outdated Web content. Canadian Football League games could be televised without sound. Without journalists and other employees -- including anchor Peter Mansbridge -- managers were expected to help provide basic programming.

"The programming will be done professionally. It will not be the same CBC that people are used to seeing, that's for sure," Mr. MacDonald said.

The main sticking point, according to the CBC and the union, was the corporation's plan to hire more workers on a short-term contract basis. The union says approximately one-third of CBC staff is working on a contract basis.

"We steadfastly do not believe bringing the fast-food industry to broadcast is good for quality broadcast, is good for public broadcast and is good for our members," Mr. Amber said.

Mr. MacDonald said the issue of contracting is key to the future of the CBC.

"We'd like more flexibility to hire contract employees in the future for some jobs and that's essential in today's broadcasting industry given that programs, formats and even services change and evolve," he said.

Last month, union members voted 87.3 per cent in favour of giving their bargaining team a strike mandate.

By DENIS ARMSTRONG, Ottawa Sun, August 16, 2005

Instead of reading the news, familiar radio and television personalities Alan Neal, Diane Duthie and Sandra Abma were the news yesterday as 550 local CBC employees hit the bricks.

Talks between management and the Canadian Media Guild broke off Sunday following nearly 18 months of negotiations in which a compromise could not be reached over management's increasing use of contract workers. And from talk on the street yesterday, it doesn't look like a settlement will come anytime soon.

"It's the Wal-mart-ization of the CBC," said Marc-Philippe Laurin, president of the local chapter of the guild. "We want permanent people for permanent work."

Currently, 1,600 of the CBC's 5,000 employees are on short-term contracts.

The lockout is the fifth labour dispute since 1999 as the publicly funded broadcaster attempts to reel in costs, which are currently running at about $2 billion annually.

Management was not available for comment but many have been shipped to Toronto where they will operate a skeletal broadcast schedule that relies on reruns and foreign feeds. The BBC World Reports newscasts replace the 6 p.m. and The National newscasts, while the primetime TV schedule will feature reruns.

Radio One's national Radio Morning will be replaced with generic music and news packages out of Toronto while the afternoon schedule will recycle The Roundup and Disc Drive. BBC's Analysis and Outlook will replace The World At Six and As It Happens while the weekend will rerun past shows.

Veteran arts reporter Abma said she was "heartbroken and in shock" at the lockout.
"I was scheduled to start covering the Toronto International Film Festival today. Then there are the big fall launches. It hurts not doing what we love doing."
denis.armstrong@ott.sunpub.com

Truth can never be told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell

Truth suppress'd, whether by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com

If you hold the mouth of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb

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Publisher : Sheila Steele

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Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)

 

Sermonette: The Naked Truth -- (You will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this page

Another target of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway

Our activism contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the civil trial.

Index to the stories on this website

This is not regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated

Index to Saskatoon Police stories

This is a pretty good scrapbook for the 1998-2002 period.

Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |

Stephen Williams: Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police

Terry Arnold: : Snitch a suicide?

RCMP scenario stings: Brian Hutchinson starts digging

Gary wells: Faulty eye-witness testimony

Tulia, Texas

Gilmer, Texas

Willie Upshaw

Wrongfully convicted in Canada

Foster Parent false accusations

Martensville

Don Smith obscenity trial: an obscene conviction

James Lockyer

Hurricane Carter

Johnny Cochran speaks up for Bill Sampson

Vopnis

Abdulai Mohamed

Nfld Defamation story:

Wanda Young

Racism in the Federal Civil Service

The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns convictions

Trial set for June 15

We know part of this disclosure is a forged statement and perjured affidavit from a Winnipeg cop

The Crown is still fighting Fred Poirier -- and they are losing. Secret Commissions Case from Northern B.C.

 

 

2005: In the United States the proven wrongful convictions just keep coming at us!

 

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Brandon Morin:

Convicted in Oregon

of rapes which did not happen

This website has good information about Measure 11 -- Oregon's Mandatory Sentencing requirements which have been in place since 1994. In this case we see how the combination of a flawed grand jury system and prosecutors who seek not justice but convictions is a recipe for wrongful convictions.

 

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Canadians who have been wrongfully convicted because of improper investigations combined with zealous Crown

A round-up of wrongful convictions in Canada

Robert Baltovich

Michael Burns

Sebastian Burns

Rodney Cain

Wilbert Coffin (hanged, 1953)

Jason Dix

Jim Driskell

Jody Druken

Randy Druken

Hugues Duguay

Michel Dumont

Peter Frumusa

Walter Gillespie and Robert Mailman

Clayton Johnson

Yvonne Johnson

Herman Kaglik

Darren Koehn

Kulaveeringsam "Kulam" Karthiresu

Stephen Leadbeater

Donald Marshall

Chris McCullough

Michael McTaggart

Felix Michaud

David Milgaard

Guy Paul Morin

Shannon Murrin

Jamie Nelson

Greg Parsons

Benoit Proulx

Atif Rafay

Louise Reynolds

Thomas Sophonow

Gary Staples

Billy Taillefer

Steven Truscott

Joe Warren

Leon Walchuk

 

AIDWYC

Innocence Project (Canada)

Innocence Project (U.S.)

Northwest Law Center on Wrongful Convictions

 

Kirstin Lobato

Jeffrey Scott Hornoff

Willie Upshaw

Hurricane Carter

Guildford 4

Birmingham 6

Amirault

Houston

U.S. wrongful convictions: Exonerateed

Kirk Bloodsworth

Laurence Adams

Ludrate Burton

Stephen Cowans

Wilton Dedge

Albert Johnson

Kenneth Marsh

Dwayne McKinney

James Bernard Parker

Peter Reilly

Peter Rose

Sylvester Smith

Clifford St. Joseph

John Stoll

Marty Tankleff

Wilton Dedge

Ray Krone

 

Still working on it:

Dennis Deschaine

Dennis Perry

Tim Sandfort

 

 

Revitalizing the archives From 1998 until 2002, injusticebusters was in the throes of identity crisis. What was it? What were we doing? We grappled with editorial policy at the same time we were learning the nuts and bolts of building and posting a website. Once we had a secure, paid site I had full editorial control, although I talked regularly to Richard Klassen who was forced to move his family several times and did not always have access to the internet. Rick's pages: one | two We posted our earliest and later actions. Early versions of the site can be found on the Wayback Machine. I began following other threads to stories of police and prosecutorial misconduct and the site's character took on another facet: a newsclipping scrapbook where stories could live longer than they would in print form. I also began picking up other stories of wrongfully convicted people. It was an explosion. By 2003 there were over 700 pages. I also had contact with several other people (Don Smith, Leon Walchuk, Monique Turenne, the Vopnis) and kept these stories going. It was the story of the Ross children's treatment at the hands of the Saskatchewan government which grabbed the attention of The Fifth Estate. The civil claim (The $10M Lawsuit as we called it) was only mentioned briefly at the end of their show which aired in November, 2000. When Richard Klassen began to make progress in bringing his civil claim to court, the government and police defendants alleged he was breaking the rules of court by publishing discovery material on the internet. MacNeil clinic (the document which started it all) The Thompson Papers Carol Bunko-Ruys reports This claim was absolutely false. However, rather than risk being thrown out of his civil claim, Klassen undertook before Judge Mona Dovall to sever all ties with the website. The court fights: Les Perreaux report QB271 These pages have links which lead to other pages from that era. Now that some of the dust has settled, I have been going back through the material we had posted in the early days. In the spirit of keeping the scrapbook alive, I have been reformatting and placing links. The original material remains intact. I hope the information, which chronicles our struggle is useful to you. The identity crisis is over. We know who we are --Sheila Steele, March 28, 2005

 

Blogging

Blogging has been in the news. It is the new, trendy thing with 40,000 new blogs being created each day. I established a blog for this website last September and it is now "taking off." These are a few of the pages with ongoing discussions.

Tasering Mary Lutz

Saskatchewan Centenary

Quint Blog discussion

Rotten apples in the Saskatoon Police

Blogging for choice

Michael Cardamone witch hunt

Implement recommendations of public inquiries

Stealing from the poor

Vancouver's killer cops

Tisdale rapists appeal

Winnipeg police misdeeds

Milgaard Inquiry

Chief Sabo: can he be trusted?

The Old Boys' Club Must Go!

Vancouver activists

John Hudak: Falsely accused mountie

City of intolerance

Constable Larry Lockwood: Exciteable!

Eric Cline

This is a great way for like-minded people to communicate and share our views. It is easier than making a website and marginally more difficult than a forum.

People who want to contribute simply have to punch the "comment" link and they will be taken to a page with a box which allows them to write their comment, preview and post it. It takes a while for the comment to show up and some people get impatient and repost. That's fine, I trash the duplicate posts and no harm done.

Please, please give it a try. The internet is distinguished from other media in that it is really and truly interactive. Blogging makes it possible to express your viewpoint even if you don't have a computer. You can go to the library or a friend's place or an internet cafe. Once you've mastered the basics (and believe me, if I can do it, you can do it) you will be participating in one of the most democratic -- and potentially powerful -- media the world as we know it has ever seen.

Come on. Don't be shy. Join the Weblog World! -- Sheila Steele, March 20, 2005

Toronto Police paid out $30M in secretly resolved claims over last five years