Quote:
Originally Posted by killer_carlson
Say what you want about Sun TV, but they sure got it right with Chief Spence and her spending.
I think Sun TV invites much of their criticism, but they do swing for the fences and occasionally make contact.
Im on Telus so i dont get access to the channel unless online, but id pay to have access. I actually enjoy the variety of perspectives that different news providers provide.
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They got it right, but distorted the facts. That's the issue with the Sun; the question isn't who can read the documents and tell everyone what it says, the question is are they providing the information in a balanced way so that people can form their own opinions?
Pundits like Ezra Levant bandied about figures from the reserve and gave a completely different spin than what was actually going on. Issues like the $9M stock portfolio that he ranted and railed against. Its a travesty alright...because its only $9M. That money amounts to nearly nothing for a town.
Then he talks about the "profits" the reserve shows for last year and makes it sound like this is all totally unnecessary help from the federal government. Here we have a classic issue of taking the accounting value of properties and assets and saying that is the same as a cash flow surplus. Would he recommend that they simply peel off some siding or eavestroughing from a building to cover things? Its ridiculous.
Lastly, and probably most important is we should absolve the federal government here either. They've sent our tax dollars to these reserves for decades and both helped create this mess and have done nothing to actually resolve any of the difficulties. How many years have we known of these kinds of concerns? How many millions have been sent to line the pockets of chiefs and their relatives will others live in abject poverty? It's not entirely a problem creates by and on the reserves...but you sure don't hear that from Sun media. Maybe if we had a Liberal government you would, but they won't criticize the CPC.
Lest anyone thinks I am letting the reserves off the hook here, I do think that there are obvious improprieties or at least what appear to be improprieties. The thing is that the issues that Levant pointed to before the release of the audit and the results of that audit are markedly different. So to suggest that he somehow had this pegged from the start is a little misleading; he was right, but not in the way he was expecting or on the actual points he was pontificating about.