Redacted

You know, it’s easier to understand why the government would want to get rid of the CBC so desperately. It’s the job of any reporter to tweak the government’s nose, and the job of any really good reporter to poke the government in the eye.

And despite the drastic cuts, the CBC is keeping up the tradition. Take this story, for example. A simple Access to Information request with a pointless redaction. Well, probably pointless. It’s possible the missing word was “Thermonuclear” or “Diefenbaby”.

I suppose the polite thing to do would be to write up the original story on health guidelines… but a real journalist will find unnecessary government censorship to be a far more compelling subject.

And then there’s this story, from the same day: Suspiciously high and unexplained death rate among the Canadian Ranger volunteers. The report merely lacks the information, instead of blacking it out… it’s possible that the statistics simply haven’t been gathered. And it’s also possible that there’s an innocuous explanation, like the volunteers being elderly. If the average age of the volunteer rangers is anything like that of the RCMP Citizens on Patrol, then fifty deaths would be expected.

But instead the request for an interview are denied. And requests to interview a SFU history professor on the subject are blocked… how exactly does a government keep journalists from talking to professors again? Journalists ask questions, and professors profess, it seems like conversations would develop anytime they’re on the same block.

It’s good to know that if the government wants to kill the CBC, the CBC will still fight back.