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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2016-10-13, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2016. PAGE 5. Other Views Must be true. I heard it on the radio There's a weekly comedy show on CBC Radio called This Is That. The premise of the show is simple: the two hosts make up absurd news stories, then `interview' actors (usually each other) who pretend to be principals involved in those stories. Example: The announcer intones that Toronto City Council has a plan to release black bears into city parks. One of the hosts then says something like "We've reached Nigel Fetlock, Toronto City Parks Manager, to comment." And away they go. Everything on the show is deadpan. There is (for once on CBC Radio) no phony laugh track. The stories are presented in the mock reverential tone so familiar to CBC listeners. Just one problem. A lot of listeners think the stories are true. Doesn't matter how ridiculous or outlandish the premise is. One week they announced that in an upcoming visit from the Queen, Canadian motorists would have to drive on the wrong side of the road in her honour. Another reported that dogs in Montreal would be required to respond to commands in both English and French. Still another told the tale of a Canadian university being sued by a student for failing to accommodate her allergies to "cactuses, Olis Arthur Black escalators and tall people." Harper's magazine reported that story as fact. A This Is That spoof about Canadian university teams playing soccer without a ball 'to remove competition from the game' sucked in USA Today and the Washington Times which printed the story as gospel. It wasn't just Americans who got fooled. Each week, dozens of ticked off Canadian listeners burn up the telephone wires to CBC headquarters fulminating about items they've fallen for on This Is That. Outrageous! "Disgusting!" "Appalling!" — those are some of the nicer things they shout into their phones. But here's the thing: the stories on This Is That are always palpably ridiculous. Since when did radio listeners — a sizeable chunk of them anyway — become such suckers? Well, since 1938 at least. That's when Orson Welles' War of the Worlds documenting an alleged Martian invasion threw several thousand American listeners into a tizzy. But that was nearly 80 years ago. Radio was new and listeners were credulous. Haven't our BS detectors become more sophisticated? Actually, we've lost a lot of our BS detectors. Winnowing out the fatuous from the factual used to be a main function of editors at newspapers, magazines, television and yes, radio stations. That was before the Internet. Now everything is presented as `fact'. You want to believe that the British Royal Family is actually a front for a race of extraterrestrial lizard overlords who live at the centre of the earth? There are websites for that. Alternatively, if you want to believe that a Saskatchewan farmer is hosting a Melting Man festival; the Royal Canadian Mint is selling advertising space on our five -dollar bill, or that a Canadian is making thousands by smuggling water over the border to the U.S... Well, for that you can check out This Is That archives — which by the way, now feature a banner headline designed to forewarn the gullible. It reads, in big bold capital letters, "SATIRE". Trudeau lays down the emission law While the forthcoming election in the United States of America is dominating much news (as it should be with the inevitability that our southern neighbours will be electing what's deemed the lesser of two evils), Canadians must remember to keep an eye on what's happening at home. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for example, is making some unilateral moves that affect us all while our attention is south of the border. Trudeau has answered those who claim he does nothing but pose for selfies and photobomb people's weddings by showing his other side; a no-nonsense leader who will force the provinces to toe the line when the time is right. I doubt I'm wrong when I say that some people likely wish he was still out surfing. Early last week, Trudeau gave each province just over a year to implement a cap -and -trade or carbon tax or else the federal government would step in and do it for them. Under Trudeau's proposal for the provinces (which would undoubtedly be the basis for any imposed price plan), companies creating carbon dioxide pollution would be charged at least $10 per tonne, up to $50 per tonne by 2022. The move has brought some critical comments towards Trudeau from both levels of government. Premiers have said that the day marked a bad one for federal provincial relations while, federally, Trudeau's approach is being likened to a sledgehammer by Conservative Party Environment Critic Ed Fast. While I won't get into much of a he -said, he - said situation here (and it would be easy, given that Trudeau's $50 per tonne plan doesn't come close to the $65 per tonne that former Prime Minister Stephen Harper suggested and was criticized by the Liberals for), I will say that I do recall during the last election how Trudeau said he would work with the provinces instead of following the commandment -style leadership that his predecessor had. Here, Trudeau has proven he can be a leader and not simply a soft-spoken poster -boy for Canada, but is that really the kind of leader that we want? Denny Scott Denny's Den We just traded in a leader who held a strict party line that included throwing MPs to the wolves at the first sign of danger and forcing people to act and speak a certain way. Following shortly after his announcement that provinces could implement their own laws or have laws forced upon them for the cap - and -trade or carbon tax, Trudeau's stance on health care also came to light. In a letter filled with interesting word choices, Trudeau spoke about a meeting on health care, an issue that has plagued several concurrent prime ministers, but has yet to set a date. The issue of health care funding is important to the provinces but the pundits say that Trudeau may take a similar approach as he did with the cap -and -trade and carbon tax issue. He may decide to give a my -way -or -the - highway answer and leave the provinces with another bad taste in their mouths. Why does this matter? Well, for starters, regardless of how the tax or cap -and -trade system is implemented, it's not going to have much of an effect for the people making decisions at the top of the province. For those of us out in the bread basket of the province, however, these kinds of changes have a way of making us pay out the nose for things we need to live. Regardless of how carbon production is taxed, it all comes down to the consumers and those of us in rural Ontario are likely going to be hit pretty hard by it. We drive further than our urban counterparts (though it may take less time) and the products we purchase are going to increase in price to offset the distance they have to travel to get to the shelves of local stores. The products we produce, be it a newspaper, food stuffs or anything else, have to travel to get to their destinations and that's going to cost us more than it already does. I'm no Chicken Little here, the sky isn't falling and I doubt the (high-end estimate of) $10 different on gas to heat homes on a monthly basis isn't going to leave anyone on the street, but these decisions aren't being made with rural Ontario in mind. Both provincially and federally, decisions like these are being made and the cost, inconvenience and problems from them are being laid at the feet of ratepayers across province and the country but, where we are, it seems to make it just a little bit more difficult. When work is a 30- to 60 -kilometre drive, an increase in each gallon of gas is going to hurt a lot more than people who take a bus or a subway. When we need to ship our goods across the country instead of across a city, it means we have to pay more already and that's going to increase. I'm not saying the Liberals are bad guys or that the Conservatives are good guys. I'm not saying we should or shouldn't elect anyone in particular. I am saying, however, that our voice needs to be heard. These changes need to be made with the rural lens in mind that I hear so much about at the municipal and county levels. We need to tell the Trudeaus and the Harpers that, while they live in cities, and have a lot of voters there, rural Ontario can't be forgotten when these sweeping, general changes are suggested. And it's on that note that I'd like to announce my candidacy for... had you going for a second there. In all seriousness though, we need to make our voices heard. We need people to speak loud and long on these issues and make sure we're not forgotten and we need to do it soon because $10 more on a gas bill may not seem like a lot, but pair it with increased taxes for a national health care plan, more paid at the pumps and higher prices for goods and it might lead to people living on the streets. Final Thought Patience is the best remedy for every trouble. — Plautus Shawn Loughlin Shawn's Sense Toronto the Unruly After last week's Wild Card playoff game at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, I think I might finally be done trying to defend Toronto Blue Jays fans. The latest "shot heard 'round the world" home run by Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion was most certainly the headline heard 'round the world after the extra innings game that propelled the Jays to the playoffs. However, it didn't take long for most stories to get into the game's other shot — taken by an unruly fan in left field at Baltimore Orioles left fielder Hyun Soo Kim in the form of a thrown full beer can. Many Jays fans immediately took to Twitter and Facebook to decry the "lone wolf' fan for making all Toronto fans look bad. Much of the comments were along the lines of that there is always one idiot who ruins it for everybody. Really? Is it really one idiot doing this? As readers know, I grew up in the GTA and have spent many an hour at the Rogers Centre/SkyDome, so I'm not some outsider pointing fingers, but at what point does a string of isolated incidents become a trend? Last week it was one beer that could have seriously injured a visiting player — not to mention the racial slurs that Kim and centre fielder Adam Jones claim they were subjected to throughout the game. CBC also reports that fans along the first base line were hurling racial slurs at the Orioles' first base coach. Less than one year ago it was the raucous seventh inning of a playoff series with the Texas Rangers that saw dozens of cans of beer showered onto the Rogers Centre field after a call didn't go the Jays' way. Both of these incidents came after the spotlight shone on Jays fans for all the wrong reasons in 2013, when a number of sports blogs and website identified Jays fans as being the most poorly -behaved in baseball. "Do the Toronto Blue Jays have the most unruly, drunken fans in baseball?" asked a Toronto Star headline in April, 2013. A poll at the bottom of that story asked if Jays fans were getting too unruly and 65 per cent of those who responded said yes. This, in addition to Jays analyst Gregg Zaun, a man closer to the fan base than most, confirming in that story that fans were getting younger, drunker and more unruly than even he'd remembered when he played for the team. The question was asked after a drunken fan ran onto the field and another threw something into the visiting New York Yankees bullpen — all in addition to further accusations of throwing beer, food and paper airplanes onto the field that night as well. All of these incidents are held up as examples of extremely poor behaviour above the already accepted drawbacks to an average Jays sold -out home game, which includes profanity, drunkeness and violence (seeing a fight is nearly a guarantee at a home opener). For years I have defended Jays fans. I grew up there and I understand the passion for the team, especially when they're winning, and I understand how Toronto can lose its mind (in a good way) in the midst of a sporting event. Now, after having travelled to over a dozen different stadiums around North America, I've seen that this behaviour isn't par for the course and it only seems to happen in Toronto. Not all Jays fans are delinquent — not even close — but we have to face facts that these are not isolated incidents and stop letting fans off the hook with the lone wolf theory. Toronto Blue Jays fans need to clean it up, because every time their team is on the big stage they seem to embarrass themselves.