For this Sunday, the big story is the resignation of Nigel Wright, Chief of Staff at the PMO. That was always going to happen, given the headlines surrounding Mr. Wright’s gift of $90,000+ to Mike Duffy. You can bet Duffy now has zero chance of re-entering the Conservative caucus and pressure will be huge on him to resign from the senate. Possibly ditto Pamela Wallin and I suspect Patrick Brazeau. The Liberals have their own issues with Mac Harb.
We’ll cover out of the gate with NDP ethics critic and member of parliament Charlie Angus and Michelle Simson who returns to the show. Michelle is the one who had the ethics to post all her expense spending online and you know from what she’s told us that she was punished by the Liberal Party and shunned by many (most/all) other MPs for informing Canadians openly of her expense spending.
There’s only one way for the Conservatives, or for that matter other parties to reassure Canadians this expense spending mess will be properly addressed and that is to introduce and pass legislation which makes it mandatory all expense spending is available online. MPs and Senators. Works for the Alberta government Gregory Thomas of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation told us on air yesterday.
interest continues of course in the Rob Ford story. His brother and Toronto city councillor Doug Ford told us yesterday that he will be speaking to the Mayor’s issue on Tuesday and informed us he has never seen his brother around cocaine.
Now as far as Gawker trying to raise $200,000 by crowdfunding online is concerned, many media are reporting what they seem to suggest is succes by Gawker to be up to $55,000 or so. I would consider that to be a failure. If you’ve been trying to raise that $200,000 for two days and with huge international coverage and you only manage a quarter of that, it speaks to something. Maybe young parents with worries about their kids being exposed to drugs can’t see themselves directing money which would go into the pockets of illegal drug dealers in order to obtain a video reported to be of Mayor Ford maybe smoking crack cocaine. Anyway, $55,000 or so after two days online with huge coverage is not a success story for Gawker.
1.8 million views…and 640,000 in one day! That’s the tally for Texas high school student Jeff Bliss’ video of his verbal challenge of his high school teacher and the education system. Last Sunday we played the clip of Jeff Bliss’ rant in-class and heard your reaction. It was mixed. Later in the show we caught up with Jeff and I spoke to him about what he did and why. To me Jeff came across as a very intelligent, well spoken, passionate about education young man. I liked him and I liked that he cared about not only he, but also his generation receiving a proper education. Much of what he said also applies to what we’ve talked about on air re Canadian public school education. So, today I’ll play back the interview with Jeff Bliss, talk to Manitoba high school teacher Michael Zwaagstra (MichaelZwaagstra.com) who heard the original interview and take your calls.
Barack Obama is facing scandals in Washington, but it’s not affecting his poll numbers it appears, although Bob Woodward says the scandals are “not yet” Obama’s Watergate moment, but could they become that? Jonathan Easley of The Hill in Washington joins us.
Domestic violence. Today though it’s domestic violence involving women being violent toward their male partners or husbands. Barbara Kay of the National Post joins us, as will Hamilton criminal lawyer Jeff Manishen. Do police and does Canada’s justice system treat men who are victims of domestic violence from their female partners indifferently? A few weeks ago Earl Silverman who ran Canada’s only shelter for male victims of domestic violence committed suicide. He had never received any funding for his shelter (his own home) and in his suicide note Earl Silverman lamented the indifference he felt he encountered from the justice system.
And finally, it’s going to be movie reviews with Chris Bumbray (Joblo.com). Today Chris shares his thoughts on Star Trek Into Darkness and The Great Gatsby.
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