PONDERABLE
Who is responsible for the two-month Guelph police cover-up of the arrest of Liberal MP Marwan Tabbara on charges of assault, break and enter, and harassment?
HE’S DONE IT AGAIN
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has again unapologetically demonstrated his hypocrisy and sense of personal entitlement by “taking a knee” at a massive protest in Ottawa last week, an event where physical distancing was impossible. Trudeau seems to sincerely believe that rules, even ones he sermonizes to the rest of us about, do not apply to him. At Easter he ignored the mitigation rules of two provinces by journeying from Ottawa, Ontario to Harrington Lake, Quebec to spend time with his family. And let’s not forget that during his tenure as prime minister he’s been found guilty of breaching parliament’s code of ethics at least four times. Trudeau is the epitome of people that my late friend, the great Celtic entertainer John Allan Cameron, called contumacious recidivists. (Even Rex Murphy may have to look that up.)
AND THEN THERE’S FRANCOIS-PHILIPPE CHAMPAGNE
Foreign Affairs Minister François-Philippe Champagne has two registered mortgages on condos with the state-owned Bank of China in London, England. Upon Champagne’s appointment, Trudeau’s mandate letter to him stated “You must uphold the highest standards of honesty and impartiality….the arrangement of your private affairs should bear the closest public scrutiny. This is an obligation that is not fully discharged by simply acting within the law.” Our minister of foreign affairs owing over a million dollars to a foreign state-owned financial institution, particularly one owned by China, clearly does not meet this standard. Champagne is obviously another Liberal MP who thinks rules don’t apply to him.
A SEA CHANGE IN SPORTS PLAY-BY-PLAY
I didn’t have space to deal with this last week, but Chris Cuthbert, for my money the country’s best play-by-play announcer, leaving TSN to join Sportsnet didn’t, as some sports journalists reported, set off a ripple effect in sports broadcasting, but rather a sea change. Let’s start with TSN. Gord Miller, TSN’s main hockey guy can finally relax because he’ll no longer be cast in Cuthbert’s long shadow. But the network has major decisions to make regarding its main asset, the CFL, because when it comes to football Cuthbert has no peer. One possibility is that Rod Smith will become the lead football announcer, probably to the chagrin of the more experienced Rod Black. I have to confess that I watch the CFL only during the playoffs, so it’s likely there are other options of which I’m unaware.
Now to Sportsnet. Cuthbert’s stated reason for changing networks is a desire to do more hockey, particularly Saturday nights and Stanley Cup finals; in Canada that means Sportsnet. Jim Hughson has been its lead hockey announcer for a while now, but the simple fact that Cuthbert is a better announcer means something has to change. As Hughson lives on the west coast and Cuthbert, as far as I know, in the Toronto area, co-number ones would work. There’s also some confusion as to where all this leaves Dave Rendorf.
During the 1988 Stanley Cup playoffs Chris Cuthbert accomplished one of the most extraordinary feats in sports broadcasting history. He was covering a Washington Capitals/New Jersey Devils game as a reporter for the CBC when the network’s main game (Boston vs Montreal) was forced off the air by a major power outage in the Montreal area. The CBC picked up the video feed from Washington and Cuthbert took to the air, all by himself, as play-by-play announcer, analyst and host. Even without the benefit of graphics or replays he pulled it off without a hitch.
AND SPEAKING OF THE CFL
The Canadian football League, like sports leagues all over the world, is wrestling with the problems caused by Covid-19. However, its situation is a bit different in that the pandemic merely exacerbated problems that already existed: a heavy reliance on ticket sales and a shaky structure.
The league’s four prairie franchises (Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary and Edmonton) are solidly successful. B.C. and Hamilton seem viable, but Montreal and Ottawa have a history of inconsistency, while Toronto is a city where minor league teams go to die. For example, it won’t even support a top-level junior hockey team. And then there’s the situation in the Maritimes, where a solid fan base probably exists but no one with sufficiently deep pockets has emerged.
The CFL has applied to the federal government for financial help, without which the league as we know it will probably no longer exist.