SAINTS PRESERVE US
The National News, Oh Boy
There was an extraordinarily awkward press
conference staged in Ottawa
yesterday. Four men, representing the Ottawa Police Service, the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police, the Canadian Armed Forces and the City of Ottawa, were crammed
together behind a table meant for two. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
was there to cover it. The speakers had no information to impart to the nation.
When they switched to Canada’s
other official language to say nothing, CBC anchor Peter Mansbridge intoned
something like, They’re speaking in French now.
Thanks for that insight.
Hours earlier a Canadian soldier on
ceremonial guard duty at the National War Memorial had been shot to death in
cold blood. Shortly thereafter the murderer was swiftly ventilated inside the
halls of Parliament.
Canadian iconography is generally
associated with the great outdoors: fishing boats against a crazy mosaic of
garishly painted maritime homes, endless wheat fields, kids playing pond
shinny, glaciers in Rocky
Mountain ranges.
Considering what we have built or erected throughout nearly 150 years of
Confederation, nothing is as close to our hearts as the cenotaph and the Peace Tower.
The murderous attacks in the capital hit home, hit everybody where it hurts.
And so with downtown Ottawa in lockdown, foreign embassies secured
and our capital's famous and familiar streets swarming with armed and masked police,
somebody had to tell us everything was under control. We were left instead with
a split screen of endless, repetitive video loops described and re-described by
sputtering commentary; has Mansbridge taken elocution lessons from Jian
Ghomeshi?
Initial reports cited two other possible instances
of gunfire along the Rideau Canal: one at the
swank Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel and the other in the always crowded Rideau
Centre, a core shopping mall. These two rumours were duly reported. Why? To fill
airtime? Viewers were agape; were we witnessing some sort of orchestrated commando
assault? News is about facts. It’s okay to keep a lid on unsubstantiated events
that may require an hour or two to either confirm or shoot down: better for all –
better for the heart rates of the transfixed audience and better for the
journalistic reputation of the news provider. Yesterday’s events suggest a realistic
role for traditional media in this digital age: don’t just regurgitate the
torrent of social media cacophony, filter it, be its gatekeeper. Take on the
role of Canada’s
Upper House, give us sober second thought.
In an instance of inane irony our only assurance
of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s health and well-being was a picture Tweeted
by the Prime Minister’s Office. Ten hours of silence from the top combined with
inept reporting from the Mother Corporation made for a mildly uncomfortable
afternoon and evening in this time zone. Is our government still functioning?
Members of the Canadian Armed Forces were advised not to go out in public
wearing their fatigues. One suspects that this order was not welcomed; pride in
uniform is paramount and now more than ever is the time to display the colours,
the camouflage, the epaulettes and the shoulder patch flashes. Cowering is not an option, walk tall.
This Ottawa affront, this national crime,
this breakdown between the Prime Minister and the people who elected him, this
inarticulate bilingual mumbling from the authorities to the people they are
sworn to protect, this laughably inept news reportage by an organization
dedicated to the people and funded by the people, was wrought by a single
disenfranchised loser with a rifle. Another fellow in an Internet line who may
have joined the Moonies or drunk the grape Kool-Aid with Jim Jones had he been
born sooner. This is the type of little fucker who stalled the country for an
entire day.
No comments:
Post a Comment