European Union & Privacy Matters

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I don’t know how many readers I have that live in the EU, or are EU subjects, but I know that the international body is installing new requirements about safeguarding web users’ information, so whether you EU readers are one or many, this statement is for you, and really for anyone concerned about their privacy and personal information.

I

I don’t have any data harvesting software that picks up people’s info, even when they don’t leave it deliberately.

II

If you choose to subscribe to my blog—which you can do by clicking through to “Sign up to get New Posts By Email” on the right-hand rail adjacent to this post—that just means you get an email announcing each new post I publish, but my referral system doesn’t do—and will never do anything—with your email address, other than to automatically send you the new posts.

III

If I ever were to email you directly and personally it might be to announce something major, like the creation of a wholly new blog, but not randomly or incessantly.

IV

If you happen to subscribe to this blog, or to my other site, The Great Gray Bridge, thanks for doing that. But whether you do,or not, I promise to keep your data away from any commercial users. Thanks most of all for reading The Great Gray Bridge and Honourary Canadian.

For more information, please visit this web page.

 

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SCTV Documentary Coming Soon

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If I had time, I could write a post about how it is that Canadian comedy has been leading the comic parade since the 1980s. Until then, here’s a video of one of my favorite sketches by SCTV, when he played Babe Ruth. Candy plays the skit in a Yankees uniform, visiting the hospital room of a supposedly mortally ill kid. Babe’s been told he’s supposed to try to make the kid feel better, even if only for an hour. So he promises the kid he’ll hit a home run for him. But the kid, played by a good kid actor, acts all entitled and selfish—”Gee, Babe will you hit two home runs for me?” Gee, Babe will you dance around on one foot with your hand on your cap and singing a song for me, Babe?” It’s a subversive little playlet.

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Good for a Laugh—American Network Fails at French Translation of PM Trudeau

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Transnational humor in a funny failure at ABC News, via Buzzfeed Canada. See below for a sampling, or click here for the whole rundown of botched captions inadvertently provided to US viewers by ABC.

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Justin Trudeau Was Great on 60 Minutes, While CBS Correspondent Lara Logan was Terrible

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TrudeauI was eager to watch Justin Trudeau on 60 Minutes Sunday night, and indeed he handled himself very well, but I gotta say I disliked the attitude adopted by interviewer Lara Logan, which had a noticeable American rightwing edge to it with tendentious questions about the 25,000 Syrian refugees Canadians have admitted to their country since last December, and about ISIS. Prime Minister’s Trudeau’s executed a rapid turnaround in Canada’s international reputation, and is showing Canada and the world how to lead one’s country in a new direction, cultivating core social values, all with welcoming inclusion.


Update: During the CBS broadcast, I heard Lara Logan refer to Margaret Trudeau, Justin Trudeau’s mother, and they showed a picture of a young woman with Pierre Elliott Trudeau. The only problem with this? Turns out, they had shown a picture of a different woman (Kim Cattrall, then a young actress). This reminded me that Logan has long been prone to making serious errors as a correspondent for 60 Minutes, like she did in 2013 when she promoted a faux memoir of a security operative who claimed, falsely, he had been in Benghazi when the US embassy there was attacked in 2012. I wrote about this at the time on my other blog, The Great Gray Bridge.

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CBC Radio 3 Memories Flickr Album

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I became active in the CBC Radio 3 community in 2009. It’s been a great six years getting to know the on-air hosts, musicians, and listeners associated with this dynamic outpost for indie music in Canada. I’ve made many of my closest friends through this vibrant and generous community. In honor of this final day of live hosted broadcasting on Radio 3, I’ve assembled “CBC Radio 3 Memories,”a photo album on Flicker with 200 images. One of the photos below shows the day that musicians Adrian Glynn and Zach Gray climbed a tree to play songs for the annual Radio 3 picnic, an indication of how much fun we have. Radio 3 is continuing, albeit in a new format. Let’s hope the station and the great people who work there find ways to continue from strength to strength. Below are just five of the images. Enjoy the whole album!  

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Amanda Lang, CBC Biz Correspondent, Log-rolling for RBC?

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A follow-up late today makes this Amanda Lang story even more corrupt: Canadaland reports that she’s in a relationship with an RBC board member, a fact that was not disclosed at the time Canadaland reports she was trying to derail the investigation by Kathy Tomlinson.

For the record, CBC has now denied improper conduct by Lang, or by CBC.
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Corrupt practice like this should not be tolerated inside any self-respecting news organization.

Post by Philip Turner.
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