Toronto police not happy with CBC Ombudsman over Rob Ford 911 story

Earlier today, CBC Ombudsman Kirk Lapointe released his decision regarding the complaints filed against the CBC for its coverage of the Rob Ford 911 call (see here) and Police Chief Bill Blair isn’t pleased with Lapointe basically calling him a liar:

“In view of the fact that the Toronto Police Service depends on budget deliberations headed by the mayor, and in view of the fact this year’s police budget that averted layoffs was reached only in the week before this incident, I concluded the CBC could not rest on Blair’s account. Not only were its sources adamant about their information, the chief was not a disinterested party”

Lapointe is saying that Blair may have lied about the contents of the 911 call to secure the funding he was seeking from the City of Toronto.

Police spokesperson Mark Pugash:

“Chief Blair listened to the calls, the CBC did not. Chief Blair’s account is accurate and truthful, he stands by what he said, and Mr. LaPointe’s suggestion that the ongoing budget process makes the chief  ‘not a disinterested party’ is completely wrong” (see here)

And Lapointe is such a disinterested party himself right?

Update: The Sun’s Lorrie Goldstein mocks Lapointe in his column saying he “needs a proofreader”

Also: See Alberta Ardvark’s post on this earlier here

Macleans calls Chiquita banana boycott a “smear job”

To Macleans’ Nicholas Köhler, it’s just “a silly affair” when a company like Chiquita allows itself to be blackmailed by an American lobby group and then receives a huge backlash from us who are tired of these kind of anti-oil sands tactics.

Notice Köhler also glosses over Chiquita’s human rights abuses and the little detail of “once paying a fine for handing money over to Colombian terrorists” but goes to length attacking EthicalOil’s credibility:

“Yet despite Ethical Oil’s “grassroots” claims, there are undeniable links to the Tories… No wonder the Tory government’s energy and environment rhetoric has begun to echo the group’s “ethical oil” talking points.” (see here)

To journos like Köhler, for not cowing to foreign lobbyist groups, it means these MPs have to be in the pocket of the oil industry. They can’t just be doing the right thing and standing up for Canadian jobs.