Canada Soccer officials defend controversial deal with Canadian Soccer Business

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General secretary Earl Cochrane grilled Monday about finances by Heritage Committee

Neil Davidson · The Canadian Press · Posted: Mar 20, 2023 

Canada Soccer general secretary Earl Cochrane on Monday said talks were underway to "modernize” its controversial agreement with Canadian Soccer Business. He also acknowledged the governing body had erred in cuts this year to the women's national team program. (David Lipnowski/Ho-Canada Soccer/Canadian Press/File)

Canada Soccer defended its controversial deal with Canadian Soccer Business on Monday under questioning on Parliament Hill by the Heritage Committee.

But Canada Soccer general secretary Earl Cochrane said talks were underway to "modernize" the agreement.

Canada Soccer board member Paul-Claude Berube said the governing body, back in 2017 when negotiations with the CSB started, was "spending hand over fist" to the tune of $1 million a year just to broadcast national team games.

"We needed income to ensure we that could continue developing soccer across Canada," Berube told the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage. "And this was one of the approaches that was approved by the board of directors."

The agreement, which allows the CSB to oversee and retain funds from marketing and broadcasting rights in exchange for an annual payment to Canada Soccer, has come under fire. Critics say terms of the deal do not reflect or reward the recent success of both national teams.

Conservative MP Kevin Waugh said the CSB deal has "absolutely handcuffed" Canada Soccer.

Berube, who said the agreement was unanimously approved by the board, said Canada Soccer receives $3 million a year under the CSB deal.

Money from the broadcasting and sponsorship right has also gone to help fund the men's Canadian Premier League.

WATCH | Canadian women's soccer players take equality fight to Parliament Hill: 

Members of Canada’s gold-medal winning women’s soccer team told MPs they’re being asked to do more with less and aren’t being compensated, or treated, the same as members of the men’s team.

Cochrane said efforts are underway to rework the CSB deal, acknowledging that "today the unilateral term option and limited ability for us to share in upside revenue are drawbacks of the agreement."

• Jonathan Osorio says relationship with Canada Soccer can be mended, but it will take time

"But we hope to resolve those issues shortly," he said.

'We were wrong'

Cochrane passed on most of the CSB questions to Berube who, unlike Cochrane, was part of the board when the agreement was struck.

Cochrane also acknowledged that the governing body had erred in cuts this year to the women's team program.

"Recently Canada Soccer made some funding decisions for the operations of the women's team that it thought would have minimal impact. We were wrong," he said. "Those decisions were made with good intentions of controlling spending. But we should not have made those decisions that negatively impacted the women's team."

• Canadian women's soccer team tells MPs their program is being asked to do more with less

• 'We can make history' on gender equity, says Hamilton coach after Canada Soccer leadership change

Cochrane said Canada Soccer was in talks with the women's team technical staff to give them what they need ahead of this summer's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.

Canada Soccer was also represented Monday by board director Stephanie J. Geosits. All three officials appeared via video conference.

Former Canada Soccer president Nick Bontis was invited to appear but was unable to attend.

"Everybody around this table wanted Mr. Bontis," said Waugh.

The committee moved to require Bontis, Canada Soccer chief financial officer Sean Heffernan and CONCACAF president Victor Montagliani, a Vancouver native who is a former president of Canada Soccer, to appear before a future hearing.

WATCH | 'We don't trust Canada Soccer:' Christine Sinclair: 

Addressing a heritage committee hearing looking into safe sports, Women's Team Canada captain Christine Sinclair describes a meeting she and her teammates had with executives of Canada Soccer to negotiate their compensation.

Bontis resigned last month after provincial and territorial governing bodies, in a letter, asked him to step down.

National team players, regardless of their gender identity, will be paid the same amount for their work in representing our country.— Canada Soccer general secretary Earl Cochrane

Committee questioning ranged from the exact date the CSB deal had been approved by the Canada Soccer board to whether the governing body was dealing with any sexual misconduct allegations [none presently, according to Cochrane] and whether it had a "slush fund" like Hockey Canada ["absolutely no slush fund," said Cochrane].

Gender equality

Cochrane repeated that Canada Soccer's offer to the national teams involved equal match fees and splitting competition prize money between them.

"Simply put, national team players, regardless of their gender identity, will be paid the same amount for their work in representing our country." Cochrane said.

He said the proposed deal would make the Canadian women the second highest-paid team in the world, behind only the U.S.

Cochrane also revealed that Canada may be getting more games to host at the 2026 World Cup given the recent match schedule expansion of the 48-team tournament that is being co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the U.S.

• OPINION
  Canadian women soccer players defiant in wake of shameful treatment by Canada Soccer

The initial plan was to have Canada host 10 of the 80 matches. Now with the total number of matches up to 104, Cochrane said Canada could host as many as 15 matches.

"It is unknown what [financially] Canada Soccer will receive from those games," Cochrane added.

Monday's hearing came 11 days after testimony by captain Christine Sinclair and teammates Janine Beckie, Sophie Schmidt and Quinn, who goes by one name.

The players, who have made a combined 732 appearances for Canada at the senior level, told the parliamentary committee that the Canadian women's team has essentially been treated as an afterthought compared to the men's side.

Variety of roles

Sinclair, the world's all-time international leading goal-scorer among men and women with 190 goals, painted a picture of an obdurate governing body unwilling to share financial information – and favouring its men's team.

Cochrane was named general secretary last July after serving as acting general secretary since January 2022 after Peter Montopoli stepped down to become chief operating officer for Canada FIFA World Cup 2026.

Cochrane has had a variety of roles with the governing body over two stints dating back to 2001.

As general secretary, Cochrane is the "operational leader of Canada Soccer" working with the president — an elected position — and the board of directors. Charmaine Crooks has been elevated to acting president from vice-president pending elections in May.

The sixth-ranked women's team, which formed the Canadian Soccer Players' Association in 2016, has been without a labour deal since the last one expired at the end of 2021. They have struck an agreement in principle with Canada Soccer on compensation for 2022 but say other issues have yet to be resolved.

• More soccer coverage

The 53rd-ranked men, who organized last summer as the Canada Men's National Soccer Team Players Association, are working on their first formal labour agreement.

Both teams have resorted to job action over their dissatisfaction at the labour impasse.

The men boycotted a planned friendly against Panama last June in Vancouver. And the women's team briefly downed tools before last month's SheBelieves Cup before being forced back onto the pitch by threats of legal action from Canada Soccer.

The Heritage Committee has already taken Hockey Canada to task as part of its Safe Sport in Canada research.

NASA telescope images reveal brightest explosion ever recorded, as a star collapses into a black hole

Morgan McFall-Johnsen
Tue, October 18, 2022 

An illustration shows a black hole driving powerful jets of particles traveling near the speed of light.NASA/Swift/Cruz deWilde

NASA space telescopes detected the brightest explosion ever recorded.

Astronomers think the bright burst came from a dying star collapsing and forming a new black hole.

Images show the faint object erupting with powerful gamma rays.

NASA telescopes have detected the brightest, most high-energy flood of radiation from space ever recorded.

About 1.9 billion years ago, a dying star collapsed, exploding in a powerful burst of gamma rays that careened toward Earth. Finally, they washed over our planet on October 9. They set off detectors on three telescopes in orbit: the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory, and the Wind spacecraft.

Swift’s X-Ray Telescope captured the afterglow of GRB 221009A about an hour after it was first detected. The bright rings form as a result of X-rays scattered by otherwise unobservable dust layers within our galaxy that lie in the direction of the burst.NASA/Swift/A. Beardmore (University of Leicester)

Those telescopes, and other observatories around the world, quickly homed in on the source of the radiation: a distant object now called GRB 221009A, pulsing with the powerful glow of its gamma-ray emissions.


It was the most luminous, powerful event ever detected, NASA announced on Thursday. The telescopes' images show just how dramatic the explosion was.

Images taken in visible light by Swift’s Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope show how the afterglow of GRB 221009A (circled) faded over the course of about 10 hours.NASA/Swift/B. Cenko

"In our research group, we've been referring to this burst as the 'BOAT', or Brightest Of All Time, because when you look at the thousands of bursts gamma-ray telescopes have been detecting since the 1990s, this one stands apart," Jillian Rastinejad, a PhD student at Northwestern University, said in a statement.

This sequence constructed from 10 hours of Fermi Large Area Telescope data reveals the sky in gamma rays centered on the location of GRB 221009A. Brighter colors indicate a stronger gamma-ray signal.NASA/DOE/Fermi LAT Collaboration

Rastinejad led a group of researchers who conducted follow-up observations on Friday, taking more measurements as the gamma rays continued to flood past Earth.

The radiation probably came from a supernova explosion — a dying star collapsing into a black hole. It could be decades before another gamma-ray burst this bright appears again.

"It's a very unique event," Yvette Cendes, an astronomer and postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, told Mashable, adding that a giant gamma-ray burst in a galaxy so close to us is "incredibly, incredibly rare."

"It's the equivalent of getting front row seats at a fireworks show," she said.

The sheer power and brightness of the ancient explosion allows astronomers to collect lots of data on it, which could reveal new insights about how stars die, how black holes form, and how matter behaves near the speed of light, as it's ejected from a supernova. It helps that the object is relatively close to us, compared to other gamma-ray bursts astronomers have detected.

That proximity "allows us to detect many details that otherwise would be too faint to see," Roberta Pillera, a Fermi LAT Collaboration member who led initial communications about the burst, said in a NASA statement. "But it's also among the most energetic and luminous bursts ever seen regardless of distance, making it doubly exciting."

‘Most powerful explosion ever’ detected by telescopes

Rob Waugh
·Contributor
Mon, October 17, 2022 

The gamma ray burst was picked up by multiple telescopes. (NSF's NOIRLab)

Astronomers have spotted a record-breaking gamma ray burst, the most energetic type of electromagnetic explosion in the universe.

The explosion, in a distant galaxy 2.4 billion light-years from Earth, represents the collapse of a star many times the mass of our Sun, scientists believe.

The collapse of the star has launched an extremely powerful supernova and gives birth to a black hole.

Gamma-Ray Burst GRB221009A was first detected on 9 October by orbiting X-ray and gamma-ray telescopes.

Read more: What are fast radio bursts, and why do they look like aliens?

The titanic cosmic explosion triggered a burst of activity from astronomers around the world as they raced to study the aftermath from what is one of the nearest and possibly the most-energetic gamma-ray burst (GRB) ever observed.

Just-released observations by two independent teams using the Gemini South telescope in Chile – one of the twin telescopes of the International Gemini Observatory operated by NSF's NOIRLab – targeted the bright, glowing remains of the explosion.

The GRB, identified as GRB 221009A, occurred in the direction of the constellation Sagitta.

The teams now have access to both datasets for their analyses of this energetic and evolving event.

"The exceptionally long GRB 221009A is the brightest GRB ever recorded and its afterglow is smashing all records at all wavelengths," O'Connor said. "Because this burst is so bright and also nearby, we think this is a once-in-a-century opportunity to address some of the most fundamental questions regarding these explosions, from the formation of black holes to tests of dark matter models."

Read more: Telescope detects 100 mysterious radio signals from billions of light years away

Gemini chief scientist Janice Lee said: "The agility and responsiveness of Gemini's infrastructure and staff are hallmarks of our observatory and have made our telescopes go-to resources for astronomers studying transient events."

Already communications have gone out to fellow astronomers through the Nasa Gamma-Ray Coordinates Network, the archive of which is now filling up with reports from around the world.

"In our research group, we've been referring to this burst as the 'BOAT', or Brightest Of All Time, because when you look at the thousands of bursts gamma-ray telescopes have been detecting since the 1990s, this one stands apart," Rastinejad said.

"Gemini's sensitivity and diverse instrument suite will help us to observe GRB221009A's optical counterparts to much later times than most ground-based telescopes can observe. This will help us understand what made this gamma-ray burst so uniquely bright and energetic."

When black holes form, they drive powerful jets of particles that are accelerated to nearly the speed of light.

These jets then piece through what remains of the progenitor star, emitting X-rays and gamma-rays as they stream into space.

If these jets are pointed in the general direction of Earth, they are observed as bright flashes of X-rays and gamma-rays.

Another gamma-ray burst this bright may not appear for decades or even centuries.

There are also extraordinary reports of disturbances in the Earth's ionosphere affecting long wave radio transmissions from the energetic radiation from the GRB221009A event.

Scientists are also wondering how very-high-energy 18 TeV (tera-electron-volt) photons observed with the Chinese Large High Altitude Air Shower Observatory could defy our standard understanding of physics and survive their 2.4 billion year journey to Earth.

"The Gemini observations will allow us to utilise this nearby event to the fullest and seek out the signatures of heavy elements formed and ejected in the massive star collapse," O'Connor said.

It's Not A Leadership Race

Not since the ill fated Don Getty regime have the Tired Old Tories been in such a sorry state. Before Getty the Lougheed Team could do no wrong. After Getty the man of the people; King Ralph could do no wrong. The Tories would do well in the polls because of the Leader. The leaders polling numbers would often be stronger than the party's, and thus the party was buoyed by the popularity of its leader.

Now with wimpy Ed as leader the election comes down to hard fisted Realpolitiks. Despite polls saying Ed's Tired Old Tories are at 40% that is a serious crash in popularity, the direct result of Ed's mushy leadership.

The leadership debate showed that this is not a race about who will be premier, but rather which party will govern and which one is the opposition. While Taft and Stelmach vied for Premiership, Brian Mason showed himself as the leader of the Opposition.

And even then party politics and labels are not as important as the local campaigns. Because there is a lack of political process that involves us as citizens.

Election forums becoming a rare event in Alberta CBC.ca

Liberals have called for strategic voting, and Albertans will. But it won't necessarily be for the Liberals. Sure they will gain seats, as will the NDP.
Hinman and his right wing rump party are destined for the dustbin of history, splitting the vote on the right. Hinman is fighting for his political life just to retain his own seat.

Instead of venturing into Calgary, Wildrose Alliance Leader Paul Hinman campaigned in his home riding of Cardston-Taber-Warner, knocking on doors and attending a barbecue with supporters.

And who knows the Green Party may even have a chance, with their appeal to rural Tory voters disenchanted that Farmer Ed has become Alberta CEO and the mouthpiece for Big Oil.

Farmers join forces with 'tree huggers' to protest Tories' lax environmental record

Tomorrow there will be a sea change in Alberta. A record number of folks are voting in advanced polls. There are hundreds of thousands of new Albertans and consequently undecided voters. Conservative party supports will stay home in droves unsatisfied with Stelmach's regime.

Barely 5 per cent of the electorate could be bothered tuning in to the only leaders' debate of the campaign.

And voter turnout, which hit historic lows last time with a meagre 44-per-cent turnout, could well drop even lower on Monday.

“The turnout's going to be brutal,” says Arnie Hansen, an Onoway-area cattle rancher and oil driller who has come in to the fertilizer supplier this sunny afternoon.

“That's the way it works in Alberta. They stay home. They don't vote for someone else. They just stay home.”

All in all it looks like perhaps we will have a minority government. Or at least as close a semblance to a minority government after 76 years of the One Party State. Who will lead this new government is anybodies guess.

Polls have repeatedly projected an 11th consecutive Tory majority on Monday, but they also reveal a persistently large number of undecided voters - even this late in the campaign. Meanwhile, a surprising number of voters are calling for a change in government, are unhappy with Progressive Conservative Leader Ed Stelmach and are willing to switch their vote.

"There's definitely a lot of fluidity yet in the voter commitment," said Harold Jansen, a political scientist at the University of Lethbridge. "Voters are ready for a change. They're ready for something different, but none of the opposition parties have done a good job inspiring it."

The undecided segment has all parties - especially the Tories - in a knot.

But it ain't about leaders or party labels. It is about issues though. And voters will decide what issues are important and vote for their issues, which leaves Stelmach's Tired Old Tories in a very weak position.

And in the final analysis this election is about who has the hard slogging political machine in each riding. Who can get out the vote. It's the closest thing to real election this province has seen since 1971.

And I would remind folks who say the opposition parties are weak, that back in 1971 the Lougheed Team that came to power had only 6 sitting MLA's.

And when all is said and done its not just about who gets to govern but who is the opposition. That is the understated part of this election. And surprise, surprise guess which party looks good for that job.

During the campaign, Brian Mason's New Democrats have shown they have the policies and philosophy to provide effective and consistent opposition.

Neil Waugh, Edmonton Sun, Sunday March, 2, 2008

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Sun Love In With NDP

Is subversive socialism creeping into the Sun Editorial Room. After all their new marketing slogan smacks of Bolshevism; Read Red. Red being their banner colour.

And they are saying nice things about Brian Mason and the NDP after Brian met with them yesterday.

When Mason appeared yesterday to talk to the Sun's editorial board he didn't seem to have any blood-sucking socialist fangs and wasn't wearing a red beret.

Instead, he wore a tie and jacket and patiently outlined a policy platform aimed at what ex-premier Ralph Klein dubbed severely normal Albertans.

Kerry Diotte, a transplanted Ontario libertarian, gushes again over Brian and the NDP.

There's long been an innate fear of socialism here and it has been reflected by the poor showing by NDP candidates who run federally and provincially.

That's why it's got to be frustrating for a guy like Alberta NDP Leader Brian Mason, who's the most charismatic of the three major party leaders contesting the March 3 provincial election.

Which is why he falls into the revisionist right wing myth that Alberta fears socialism. Which is contradicted by the historical fact that Western Canadian Socialism was given birth here with the strikes of miners who belonged to the IWW in Medicine Hat and Lethbridge. Again in 1919 with the founding Convention of the One Big Union in Calgary, during the Winnipeg General Strike, organized by the Socialist Party of Canada. And later with the founding of the CCF in Calgary in the 1920's, not as some mistakenly believe in Regina.. Albertans embraced socialism even in its later distributionist right wing variant; Social Credit.

Neil Waugh gushed this week over Brian as well.

There was nothing about a Liberal-style assault on the oilsands for Our Brian, clearly a friend of the working man and woman, or at least not for now. Heck, he even wants to charge a bitumen removal "barrel tax" to force oilsands outfits to upgrade their production here.

Then today Waugh joins in with a clarion call of pending class war because of Big Oil's finger puppet Ed Stelmach. Suddenly Waugh is sounding like more like Lenin than Ayn Rand.

That was all before Canadian National Resources Ltd.'s $2-billion oilsands overrun suddenly appeared to bite the Tories this week.

With only 10% of the Horizon oil sands plant at Fort McMurray still to build, the costs mysteriously soared 28% in what the company blurb called the "toughest, most labour intensive portion" of the controversial project controlled by Calgary billionaire Murray Edwards.

"Unfortunately, mid to late January and early February saw a significant deterioration of labour productivity on the site," company brass lamented.

The reason was "much colder than normal weather seriously curtailed activity."

Who knew that it sometimes hits -40 C at Fort Mac in the winter? When in doubt, blame the workers and the weather.

But it won't be CNRL shareholders picking up the extra $2 billion. Somebody messed up big time and tried to build the biggest piece of the project in brass monkey weather.

In all likelihood, Alberta taxpayers will once again bite the bullet.

Even under Stelmach's new royalty deal (a strangely forgotten part of the PC campaign), oilsands outfits still only pay pennies on the dollar until the massive plants are paid out. Then the royalty jumps to a more reasonable rate of 25% to 40%, depending on oil prices.

Energy department spokesman Jason Chance insisted that any additional costs "would have to be validated and determined whether they are appropriate. It's based on what the reality is."

The sweet deal CNRL got from the Tories for Horizon allowed the company to tear up the oilsands labour construction deal and broke the peace that ruled in the oilsands for the last quarter century. It touched off last fall's Hard Hat Flu walkouts.

This resulted in the "No Plan" Stelmach attack ads backed by the Alberta Building Trades Council.

These took a turn for the bizarre last weekend when the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees' brass, after "extensive debate," voted to kick in $300,000 to the TV spots, meaning government workers are now attacking their own work.

Meanwhile Employment Minister Iris Evans continues to sit on the probe into CNRL's all-fall-down tank farm, where two Chinese foreign temporary workers were crushed to death.

"The chickens are coming home to roost for Mr. Stelmach," Mason chuckled, calling for a "special unit" of government auditors to "validate and verify" CNRL's cost-overrun claims.

Or is Klein's political ghost now haunting Eddie's campaign bus?

Mason also met with the Liberal Edmonton Journal editorial board. And again a fair gushing ensued over the only charismatic politician in the race. Mason was the winner in the 2000 race, and the NDP has made the transition from being a decimated party in 1993 to rising from the ashes in 1997 to winning four seats in 2004. And in each of those elections the NDP was a new party with new directions and new leaders who appealed to the public.

Albertans should be grateful the competent, thoughtful, personable likes of Brian Mason is willing to fight the uphill battle, to make the case for New Democrat MLAs in the legislature at election time, and to stoke debate on issues such as health care each time the Tories introduce one of their numbered "ways" of challenging the public system.

Do the NDs have a place in the next legislature?

That's a decision voters -- in practice, Edmonton voters -- must decide as they balance their desire for change in government offices, their recognition that our new Edmonton-area premier already constitutes change from the Calgary-centric Klein past, and their admiration for stands of principle by people like Mason and his predecessors Raj Pannu and Pam Barrett.

But would this election be as valuable or as useful a forum of political renewal and debate without Mason's and the NDP's thoughtful perspective on issues?

It certainly would not.

The Edmonton media seems to have given Brian and the NDP an election bouquet of good wishes on Valentines Day.


SEE

Careful Of What You Ask For


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Time For Public Auto Insurance

This decision couldn't have come at a better time. Once again the Tired Old Tories tried to pull the auto insurance companies fat out of the fire and in doing so of course passed a law that blamed the victims.

Taking a page out of the Republican handbook about tort law cases, and blaming trial lawyers, the Tories capped claims rather than doing anything about out of control profiteering by the insurance companies.

That law was tossed out last Friday. Already we could be seeing increases in insurance premiums while a public insurance program would actually save Albertan's hundreds of dollars per person.

The insurance industry has suggested that if the legislation is not eventually upheld, it could lead to a rate increase of $200 a year per policy holder.

Of course the Tories will appeal this decision wasting more taxpayers money and solving nothing but doing the bidding of their masters; the insurance companies. And it means they will try to kill it as an election issue. But they will be as successful with that as with their appeal.

A senior Tory official confirms that candidates have been sent a letter telling them they're not supposed to talk about the auto insurance issue since it's before the courts. (The Canadian Press)

It would have been a perfect political day for Stelmach, had a curious e-mail not arrived in my in-box.

The e-rocket was from "Alberta Progressive Conservative Campaign Headquarters" and PC candidates were ordered to "delete and destroy any copies."

In it the "Campaign Team" reminded them of last week's court decision ruling Ralph Klein's flawed auto insurance reforms "unconstitutional" and warned candidates they "must not comment on this decision."

It isn't hard to understand the political sensitivity over the goof, especially after the premier admitted yesterday that "there may be tremendous pressure on increasing rates."

Neil Waugh, Edmonton Sun.

The plaintiffs in the court challenge argued that the insurance industry in Alberta had manufactured the premium crisis by raising rates unnecessarily. They entered evidence into court that showed the insurance companies never lost money in the province; to the contrary, by the time the legislation was enacted in 2004 the insurance industry was well on its way to reaping record profits.

During the court case, Dennis Gartner, the province's superintendent of insurance during the reforms, admitted under oath that the government had no way of knowing how much money insurance companies were making.

After years of waffling, the Klein government finally acted on the controversy in 2004, imposing a $4,000 cap on soft-tissue-injury claims. Since then, personal injury lawyers among others have argued that the ruling -- seen as a sop to the well-connected private insurance lobby -- robbed many accident victims of their basic Charter rights.

Needless to say, the government disagreed, maintaining that its reforms helped all Albertans and didn't affect anyone's liberty. Furthermore, it rejected out of hand the notion that high premiums be tackled with a public auto-insurance scheme, ironically at a time B.C.'s conservative Campbell government was abandoning talk of privatizing the Insurance Corporation of B.C, having discovered that public insurance seemed to work best for taxpayers.

But last Friday, Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Neil Wittmann exploded the $4,000 cap, deeming it unconstitutional. As well, he found the existing Minor Injury Regulation discriminates against a specific group of injured Albertans. Wittmann didn't mince words, either, summarily rejecting the government's contention that the legislation was designed to help victims.

Instead, he ruled, the so-called reforms unfairly sacrificed a single group of Albertans "at the altar of reducing insurance premiums."

Now, as anyone financially responsible for a teenager appreciates, the word "high" didn't do justice to premiums faced by some drivers under the old system. "Astronomical" was closer to the mark, and the relief spurred on by the 2004 legislation has been welcome. But the premium grid that did most of the work of changing such inequities is itself unlikely to be affected by Wittmann's ruling.

There will be no waiting period, as requested by the Stelmach government.

Alberta Finance has announced it is studying the ruling, but that shouldn't take long. As of today, the $4,000 cap is no more. Indeed, virtually every argument put forward by the cap-smashing plaintiffs was accepted by the court.

Without the law - and its rate-increase controls - in place the public faces the prospect of increased insurance premiums, Premier Ed Stelmach said Monday.

But opponents decried the government's stance, noting the ruling also clearly indicates that the insurance industry was enjoying record profits at the time and had everything to do with charging the public for bad long-term investments, said NDP Leader Brian Mason.

Mason's party has pledged to introduce public insurance if elected March 3, noting that the most recent Canadian Consumers Association study shows a public system like that in B.C. would save the average Alberta motorist about $400 per year.

"The premier can run from this, but he can't hide," said Mason. "He allowed an industry that was making record profits to run roughshod over the public and to deny injured Albertans their basic rights."

'SCREWED THE PEOPLE'

"Eventually this will come home to roost ... the government clearly screwed the people and took the side of big insurance over Alberta families."

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Edmonton Journal A Liberal Rag

Brian Mason and the NDP have been complaining about lack of press coverage they get in the pages of the Edmonton Journal. When days before Farmer Ed went on TV, Liberal leader Kevin Taft finally came out, five weeks after the royalty report was issued, to say he supported the royalty review recommendations. It made front page news in the Journal, and he was given an approving pat on the head in the papers editorial.

The NDP on the other hand was given short shrift over their announcements regarding the royalties.

The NDP issued a statement to their members and supporters in their email newsletter;

Some party members have asked about the extensive coverage the Alberta Liberals have been receiving in the Edmonton Journal. This has been the case for several years, and with an election approaching, it will likely only get worse. The Journal is entitled to support the Alberta Liberals editorially, but unfortunately, its news coverage is often biased in their favour. This relates not only to the content of articles, but also to placement of stories, headlines, and photos.

Last week's coverage of the Liberal's position regarding royalties is a good example. The Liberals waited nearly 5 weeks before taking any position on the Royalty Task Force report, and then issued only the vaguest support for increasing royalties. In the Journal, this warranted a front page story and an editorial praising Kevin Taft for helping to "define the issue". In the meantime, Brian Mason and the NDP caucus have worked tirelessly to raise awareness on royalties and to fight for a better deal. Kevin Taft failed to provide leadership on this issue when it counted - but this does not deter the Edmonton Journal.

I want to be clear that this problem does not extend to other media outlets. It is unique to the Edmonton Journal. The Sun newspapers and the Calgary Herald have conservative editorial perspectives, but this doesn't usually affect their news coverage. Television and radio outlets also give generally fair coverage.

I would like to encourage our members and supporters to be aware of this problem, and to consider challenging biased coverage when they see it. The best way to do this is to write letters to the editor when you see unfair news coverage. You can write to the Journal at letters@thejournal.canwest.com. You may also wish to consult other media sources in order to get a more complete picture of politics in Alberta.

Thank you.

Sandra Houston,

Provincial Secretary

Often the pro-Liberal editorial bias of the Journal creeps into the news stories coming from the Leg.

The other day when Mason got an emergency debate over the royalty issue passed in the Legislature the Journal headline was:

Conservatives' actions regarding royalties criminal: Taft
... EDMONTON - The Conservatives' lack of accountability on oil and gas royalties verges on criminal behaviour, Alberta Liberal Leader Kevin Taft charged.

Which was not the real news story as even Right Wing Edmonton Sun Columnist Neil Waugh noted in his column;

Then he hilariously got out stick-handled by Brian Mason's tiny NDP caucus who asked for - and got - an emergency debate on resource royalties.

The reason behind the pro-Taft position of the Journal news and editorial writers covering the Leg was made clear in Leg Reporter Graham Thompson's column on the same subject. After spending the first half of his column uncritically quoting Taft he goes on to belittle the NDP's success at getting an emergency debate on the royalties issue. A debate that does not occur often in the Tory dominated house.
And one supported by disgruntled backbenchers not Stelmachs cabinet.

In supporting the NDP motion for an emergency debate on royalties, government members were embracing the old adage that the enemy of my enemy is my friend and so were happy to see the NDP go at the Liberals like two scorpions in a bottle and leave the government relatively unmolested.

It is much easier for the NDP to take a black and white stand on royalties than the Liberals.

The NDP doesn't have any chance of forming government and therefore doesn't have to worry about implementing its policies. Its ambition begins and ends at replacing the Liberals as official opposition.

It's an understandable strategy, one leader Brian Mason has been playing for months. And it's one he'll continue to play all through the fall session.

Or compare these two stories on the Premiers charge that the NDP wanted to bring back the dreaded NEP. Of course it is a favorite tactic of the Government to cry NEP when wanting to inflame their supporters. Of course the charge didn't stick but you wouldn't know it from the Journal article.

Edmonton Journal

Premier Ed Stelmach compared an oil and gas production tax to the much maligned national energy program today in the legislature.

Such a tax was one of the key recommendations of the province's royalty task force that delivered its report in September.

In question period, NDP Leader Brian Mason pressed Stelmach as to why he didn't adopt it and panel's other recommendations. Stelmach said it would cripple the province's economy.

"He wants a production tax, which goes back to the old strategy ... that drove Albertans out of the province, created a situation that people actually couldn't pay off their mortgages, had to leave, businesses went broke," Stelmach said.

"We're not going back to that kind of model of collecting royalties."

It was the second straight day opposition leaders went after Stelmach over royalties.

The Alberta Liberals demanded to see energy department documents from previous royalty reviews. So far, the government has kept most of those documents from the public.

Stelmach didn't answer the question directly. Instead, he talked about his government's record since he became premier last year.

Taft also asked Stelmach to explain why his governments refused to raise royalties until this year, despite warnings from the energy department that they were missing their internal targets.

"We take advice, obviously, from others," Stelmach said.

"But at the end of the day in this government the decisions are made by government, not listening to advice that may come from bureaucracies."

Edmonton Sun

Premier Ed Stelmach compared a key recommendation of his own royalty task force to the dreaded national energy program yesterday.

He also said the government overruled calls from experts for higher royalties from the energy sector because it got better advice from Tory politicians.

After ignoring repeated demands from the opposition to table all documents related to proposed energy royalty increases in the house, Stelmach suggested his government couldn't have followed through on an independent panel's recommendation that it charge a surtax on products from the oilsands.

"He's supporting the panel in its entirety," Stelmach said of a question from NDP Leader Brian Mason on why Alberta receives less oil royalties than nearly every other jurisdiction on earth.

"He wants a production tax, which goes back to the old, old strategy the former party from Ottawa imposed in Alberta, that drove Albertans out of the province and created a situation where people actually couldn't pay off their mortgages, had to leave. Businesses went broke. We're not going back to that kind of model for collecting royalties."

Mason was incredulous, noting that the independent task force was appointed by Stelmach's own government.

"Mr. Speaker, I just heard the premier compare the royalty task force to the Trudeau government's national energy program.

"So my question is, if they came up with something that's equivalent to the national energy program, Mr. Premier, why did you appoint those individuals?"

Stelmach didn't answer, instead suggesting the NDP can't both support the report and criticize it.

And for those who are in the know many of the editorial staff at the Journal have been suspected of having a bias towards the Liberals. And not just because the are the 'Official Opposition'. Now we know for sure.

Another One Bites the Dust...

Edmonton Journal veteran Larry Johnsrude is leaving journalism for redder pastures -- to join the staff of the Alberta Liberals.

He's the third high profile Alberta journalist to make the jump to politics this year. In January, Paul Stanway of the Edmonton Sun and Tom Olsen of the Calgary Herald joined Premier Ed Stelmach's office as senior flacks.

Here's the letter Johnsrude wrote to his colleagues at The Journal

Hi all,
With mixed emotions I would like to announce I have accepted the position of Director of Communications for the Alberta Liberal Caucus. It wasn't something I was seeking but was an opportunity that presented itself and I felt I couldn't turn it down. Over the past 11 years with The Journal, I have enjoyed working with all of you. I admire your professionalism and journalistic integrity. Journalism has been good to me, but I feel this is an opportunity to acquire a new set of skills and embark on a new profession.
Best wishes to all.
Larry Johnsrude

Johnsrude was the web-site editor for the Journal. He used to do a political blog
until April of this year. His new online blog he launched back then is now gone. As is he.

I've got a new blog address: MY NEW BLOG ADDRESS

It uses new software that allows for posting photos, video, links and room for feedack — all the bells and whistles.

The blog address this one appears on will remain online as an archive of my pre-April 24 postings. But anything posted since then will be at my new blog address.

Not Found: Forum Not Found

The forum you requested does not exist.

So if you detect a bias in the news coverage in the Edmonton Journal when it comes to Kevin Taft and the Alberta Liberals it's part of the Journal's view that the paper is a political player, a king maker if you like.

The paper has a long history of this going back to when they covered civic politics in the city and what applies to civic politics also applies to their provincial coverage.

In Edmonton, just as the Journal pandered shamelessly to William Hawrelak's Citizens' Committee during the 1950s, it again shilled patently for the new age progressivism of the city's brie elites in the 1990s. According to Lorimer, "Given the situation in which the mass media operate, however, it is unlikely that there can be any dramatic change in the way they inform people about city politics."(f.42) With little budget for sustained investigative reportage, and with so little real, long-term news of significance to break, the press gallery appears to fear becoming as marginalized on the news pages as the councils they cover. One remedy has been to transcend "objective" reporting and to editorialize within the guise of covering the story.

The Journal quickly turned on Bill Hawrelak when he decided to run again in the Sixties after he was found to have been in a conflict of interest. They ran a concerted campaign against him ,including front page editorial telling voters not to vote for him, but he won anyways.

During the Lougheed years, when the PC's dominated the Leg and the NDP had only one seat,and the Liberals none, they viewed themselves as the 'official opposition'. This inflated view of their political importance, has continued in the editorial mindset at the paper ever since.

This of course fulfills William Burroughs dictum; "we don't report the news, we write the news."

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Presto Shills For Big Oil

Presto Manning was on CTV Question Period this morning shilling for Big Oil and whining about the Alberta Royalty compromise produced by Eddie Stelmach.

CTV's Question Period: Preston Manning, Fmr. Reform Party leader

Presto was following up on criticisms he made earlier this week in a comment piece he wrote in one of them 'damn eastern newspapers'; the Globe and Mail, aka Canada's National newspaper. Preston Manning: The Stelmach royalty uncertainty principle Which of course is owned by the same folks who own CTV.

Presto has upset folks even on the right like Neil Waugh at the Edmonton Sun. Whose side is Presto on?

Presto engaged in some political prestidigitations on Question Period about how this will hurt Eddie in the polls when the election comes. And as usual with the rose coloured glasses of the Calgary right wing he predicted that it won't benefit the Liberals or NDP or even the would be right wing rump parties, but rather it would be because conservatives will stay home.

Manning added it's becoming increasingly unlikely that Stelmach and the Conservatives will win another election unless the "government demonstrates a capacity it hasn't shown thus far."

"I don't see votes going to the Liberals or the NDP, I think their biggest danger is another 150,000 people staying home who voted Conservative the last time," he said.

Well at least they have homes. It's not just the royalty deal that is driving a stake in the heart of the Tired Old Tories it's stories like this Halloween surprise.

Drastic rent increases at a Fort McMurray complex are renewing calls for rent control.

"The province needs to step in. Every other province has some form of rent control," said Rob Picard, angered by his skyrocketing rent.

On Halloween night, Picard was spooked by an 86% increase to his rent. The three-month notice means the rent on his two-bedroom 700-square-foot apartment in the River Park Glens, also known as the Syncrude Towers, is jumping from $1,425 per month to $2,650.

"I work for Suncor. I make good money, but I can't afford this. The illusion that this is Fort McMurray and everybody can afford this is just wrong," said the heavy equipment operator.

He's not the only one complaining.

Gunner Antos has a two-bedroom apartment in the same building and will see his rent go from $1,500 a month to $2,700. Those prices could even drive highly paid workers away.

"They're crying for workers and they're raping us," said Antos.

"You've got people who have jobs living in tent cities. They have people with jobs living in the bush."

Service Alberta spokesman Eoin Kenny said the government is not looking at rent controls at this time.

The apartment building has about 500 units, although some are individually owned.

"With this type of hit, even though I work for Syncrude, I may be forced to take a room this late in life," said Gerald Morrison, who has lived at the complex for more than 20 years.

"I always thought Fort McMurray was fair and square, but they're gouging now."

The landlords left a note on apartment doors Wednesday afternoon saying the change will be effective Feb. 1.

Mr. Morrison said his three-bedroom apartment is going from $1,800 a month to $2,950 - without utilities - despite a leaky roof, carpenter ants and unpainted walls. Two years ago, his rent went from $1,100 to $1,500, and then to $1,800 last February.

David Campkin said the one-bedroom apartment he and his wife share rose to $2,250 from $1,450. He said the unit's condition is "absolutely appalling" with a carpetless concrete floor and none of the promised security.

The provincial Residential Tenancies Act passed in April requires landlords to give tenants three months' notice before raising rent once a year. River Park Glen appears to have met the conditions.

There is no ceiling on rent increases in Alberta, where a sizzling economy is attracting workers from outside the province and making affordable housing scarce. A government-appointed committee suggested rent controls to Premier Ed Stelmach earlier this year, but he rejected the recommendation.

Lets do some quick math shall we. 500 units X $1500=$750,000. Rolling in the dough while not providing tenants with repairs. Can you say high rise slum lord.

Another whiner from Alberta is Harpers pal the ex-CEO of Encana, Gwyn Morgan
who also published a comment attacking the royalty compromise in that same eastern rag. The irony is that populism was what got Presto elected and made the Reform/Alliance/Conservative party possible. And Gwyn makes the same case that Presto does in attacking Farmer Ed.

Populism tramples principle in Alberta

GWYN MORGAN

From Monday's Globe and Mail
October 29, 2007 at 6:30 AM EST

Experience has taught me that populist politics are seldom principled. It's not that populists don't want to do what's right and best; it's just that if a choice has to be made as to which has priority, what is popular wins.

The second matter of principle Mr. Stelmach's government has violated is reneging on oil sands royalty commitments under which capital has already been invested. Except in the case of Syncrude and Suncor, the money was invested without a contract binding the government to honour the terms.

Nonetheless, investors rightly see this unilateral change as a clear case of doing what is popular rather than what is right. And in terms of doing what is best, the damage to Alberta's reputation certainly illustrates the wrong choice.

Industry is still in shock, but the computer models used to compare before and after investment feasibility are grinding away. Companies with investment opportunities outside Alberta will be looking at them a lot closer. The natural gas drilling and development service sector was already suffering, so expect an even worse downturn. New project decisions in the oil sands will have to factor a much higher government take into a business already replete with risk.

Mr. Stelmach states: "I'm confident we've made the right decisions for today and for Alberta's future."

As for me, I continue to believe that populist politics are seldom principled.

Populism is what kept Ralph in power for years. Of course in Ralph's case that was populism that benefited the oil boys in Calgary. So that was principled.



SEE:

Income Trusts; Predatory Capitalism

Stelmach's Royalty Give Away

Made In Calgary Homeless Plan

The Sky Is Not Falling

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