Bouquet...
To a downtown Red Deer flower shop, called La Petite Jaune Fleur, for leading a campaign that saw Mother’s Day gift baskets presented to moms staying at the Central Alberta Women’s Shelter in Red Deer.
According to Laura Turner, executive director of the Red Deer Downtown Business Association, a total of 17 baskets, as well as flowers and gifts from La Petite Jaune Fleur, were delivered for Mother’s Day.
Many downtown businesses supported the effort.
Good for everyone involved!
Such generosity and thoughtfulness helps make our community a great place to live.
Dart...
To the American Legion for trying to stop the May 28 release of photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing detainees in Afghan and Iraqi prisons.
The pictures, which are said to capture the horrific mistreatment of prisoners, are expected to be made public in response to an American Civil Liberties Union Freedom of Information Act request.
It’s important for the American people to see the photographs so that they can understand the extent of the war crimes engaged in by their troops.
If they don’t get to see the pictures, they may never get an opportunity to appreciate the viciousness of such torture tactics as waterboarding, and the world may be doomed to more of what Scottish poet Robbie Burns called “Man’s inhumanity to man.”
It’s bad enough that President Barrack Obama has decided not to prosecute American soldiers who have engaged in torture. But if the truth is not even allowed to be presented through photographs, then one has to wonder how corrupt America has become.
The U.S. has no business torturing prisoners and if it continues, there’s little doubt that other military forces will soon be torturing Americans.
And no one will benefit from that.
So it’s time for the American Legion, and the U.S. military in general, to take their lumps.
The truth will set them free, even if the torture victims never fully recover from the physical and psychological torture imposed on them by American soldiers.
Dart...
To CTV for launching a self-serving campaign designed to increase its revenues at the expense of ordinary Canadians.
In case you’ve missed it, CTV president and CEO Ivan Fecan has called on Ottawa to impose a new tax that could cost Canadian cable and satellite TV subscribers as much as $600 million annually.
As well, the network has begun an advertising blitz designed to “educate viewers on the state of Canadian broadcasting” by lamenting the potential loss of local TV stations.
Unfortunately, in many markets, local TV production values have already been cut to the bone and there isn’t much left worth preserving.
So this recent effort by CTV is a bit like worrying about horses escaping from a barn when the door was left open many years ago.
In a news release, CTV says the survival of the network — which operates stations across Canada — could be at stake if a fee for carriage is not endorsed by the broadcast regulator, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
If that’s true, it’s unfortunate, but CTV would be wiser to concentrate on producing better content than picking a fight with the CRTC.
And given the proliferation of better content available from the United States and other providers in Canada, via cable and satellite TV, it won’t be the biggest tragedy in the world if a few private stations are eliminated.
CTV’s troubles are regrettable, but completely predictable.
Good luck to everyone still working in the industry, but it’s likely time to move on.
With governments claiming they don’t have enough money to properly fund hospitals and schools, the last thing Canadians need to worry about is whether we lose a few mediocre TV stations in our 500-channel universe.
Lee Giles is an Advocate editor.