Dispersing the Fog - Ep 22 - Junior Hockey Verdict, Latest From Supreme Court, Dept Comm Allen
3 Comments
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 4:59 PM
Subject: Re: Jen Gerson speaks to Paul Palango about the 2020 Nova Scotia massacre
To: <lineeditor@protonmail.com>, paulpalango <paulpalango@protonmail.com>, <ps.ministerofpublicsafety-ministredelasecuritepublique.sp@ps-sp.gc.ca>, Sean.Fraser <Sean.Fraser@parl.gc.ca>, mcu <mcu@justice.gc.ca>, Michael.Duheme <Michael.Duheme@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>, Bev.Busson <Bev.Busson@sen.parl.gc.ca>, <leslie.church@parl.gc.ca>, Chuck.Thompson <Chuck.Thompson@cbc.ca>, Yves-Francois.Blanchet <Yves-Francois.Blanchet@parl.gc.ca>, pm <pm@pm.gc.ca>, <andrew.lawton@parl.gc.ca>, ragingdissident <ragingdissident@protonmail.com>, <ezra@forcanada.ca>, <jasonlavigne@outlook.com>, <junonews@substack.com>, Premier <PREMIER@novascotia.ca>
Cc: <roger@tankscope.com>, <klemon@redpointmedia.ca>, <rjewett@redpointmedia.ca>, <cseto@redpointmedia.ca>, <tleba@redpointmedia.ca>, <clandry@redpointmedia.ca>, premier <premier@gov.ab.ca>, ministryofjustice <ministryofjustice@gov.ab.ca>, Marco.Mendicino <Marco.Mendicino@parl.gc.ca>, Mark.Blakely <Mark.Blakely@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>, dominic.leblanc <dominic.leblanc@parl.gc.ca>, <dlametti@fasken.com>, rfife <rfife@globeandmail.com>, <dean@deanbeeby.ca>
“But now, with a most inhuman cruelty, they who have put out the people’s eyes, reproach them of their blindness.” - poet John Milton (1608-1674)

From: Kathe Lemon <klemon@redpointmedia.ca>
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Subject: Delayed Response Re: Jen Gerson speaks to Paul Palango about the 2020 Nova Scotia massacre
To: <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for your message.
I am away from my desk and will not be checking email frequently until
the end of Stampede on July 11.
If you have an immediate concern, please text me at 403-613-1030.
Otherwise I will return your message when I am able.
Thank you,
Käthe Lemon (she/her)
President and co-owner
RedPoint Media Group
403-232-7706
redpointmedia.ca
We have moved to a hybrid office set up.
Letter mail is accepted at cSPACE Marda Loop: 1721 29 Avenue SW, Suite
375, Calgary, AB, T2T 6T7
If you are trying to set up an in-person meeting or larger delivery,
please contact me for arrangemen
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*Käthe Lemon (she/her)*
*President, Co-Owner*
*403-232-7706*
*redpointmedia.ca* <http://www.redpointmedia.ca/>
*We have moved to a hybrid office set up. *
Letter mail is accepted at cSPACE Marda Loop: 1721 29 Avenue SW, Suite 375,
Calgary, AB, T2T 6T7
If you are trying to set up an in-person meeting or larger delivery, please
contact me for arrangements.
---------- Original message ---------
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Subject: Thank you for your email
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for contacting the Office of the Premier. This is an automatic confirmation that your message has been received.
Please note that the Premier receives a tremendous volume of e-mails and letters every week. If your message requires an answer, we will get back to you as soon as possible.
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tariffs/ or call our toll-free tariff hotline at 1-800-670-4357. - To discover Nova Scotia Loyal and learn how to identify, buy, and support local Nova Scotian products, please visit: https://nsloyal.ca/
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For the most up-to-date information from the Government of Nova Scotia, please visit: https://novascotia.ca/.
Thank you,
The Premier’s Correspondence Team
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From: Ministerial Correspondence Unit - Justice Canada <mcu@justice.gc.ca>
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Subject: Automatic Reply
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for writing to the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada.
Due to the volume of correspondence addressed to the Minister, please note that there may be a delay in processing your email. Rest assured that your message will be carefully reviewed.
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Merci d'avoir écrit au ministre de la Justice et procureur général du Canada.
En raison du volume de correspondance adressée au ministre, veuillez
prendre note qu'il pourrait y avoir un retard dans le traitement de
votre courriel. Nous tenons à vous assurer que votre message sera lu
avec soin.
Nous ne répondons pas à la correspondance contenant un langage offensant.
---------- Original message ---------
From: Fraser, Sean - M.P. <Sean.Fraser@parl.gc.ca>
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Subject: Automatic reply: Jen Gerson speaks to Paul Palango about the 2020 Nova Scotia massacre
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Thank you for your contacting the constituency office of Sean Fraser, Member of Parliament for Central Nova.
This is an automated reply.
Please note that all correspondence is read, however due to the high volume of emails we receive on a daily basis there may be a delay in getting back to you. Priority will be given to residents of Central Nova.
To ensure we get back to you in a timely manner, please include your full name, home address including postal code and phone number when reaching out.
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Merci d'avoir contacté le bureau de circonscription de Sean Fraser, député de Central Nova. Il s'agit d'une réponse automatisée.
Veuillez noter que toute la correspondance est lue, mais qu'en raison du volume élevé de courriels que nous recevons quotidiennement, il se peut que nous ne puissions pas vous répondre dans les meilleurs délais.
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From: Blanchet, Yves-François - Député <Yves-Francois.Blanchet@parl.gc.ca>
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 4:28 PM
Subject: Réponse automatique : Jen Gerson speaks to Paul Palango about the 2020 Nova Scotia massacre
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
(Ceci est une réponse automatique)
(English follows)
Bonjour,
Nous avons bien reçu votre courriel et nous vous remercions d'avoir écrit à M. Yves-François Blanchet, député de Beloeil-Chambly et chef du Bloc Québécois.
Comme nous avons un volume important de courriels, il nous est impossible de répondre à tous individuellement. Soyez assuré(e) que votre courriel recevra toute l'attention nécessaire.
Nous ne répondons pas à la correspondance contenant un langage offensant.
L'équipe du député Yves-François Blanchet
Chef du Bloc Québécois
Thank you for your email. We will read it as soon as we can.
We do not respond to correspondence that contains offensive language.
---------- Original message ---------
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com>
Date: Sat, Jul 12, 2025 at 4:25 PM
Subject: Jen Gerson speaks to Paul Palango about the 2020 Nova Scotia massacre
To: <lineeditor@protonmail.com>, paulpalango <paulpalango@protonmail.com>, <ps.ministerofpublicsafety-ministredelasecuritepublique.sp@ps-sp.gc.ca>, Sean.Fraser <Sean.Fraser@parl.gc.ca>, mcu <mcu@justice.gc.ca>, Michael.Duheme <Michael.Duheme@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>, Bev.Busson <Bev.Busson@sen.parl.gc.ca>, <leslie.church@parl.gc.ca>, Chuck.Thompson <Chuck.Thompson@cbc.ca>, Yves-Francois.Blanchet <Yves-Francois.Blanchet@parl.gc.ca>, pm <pm@pm.gc.ca>, <andrew.lawton@parl.gc.ca>, ragingdissident <ragingdissident@protonmail.com>, <ezra@forcanada.ca>, <jasonlavigne@outlook.com>, <junonews@substack.com>, Premier <PREMIER@novascotia.ca>
Cc: <roger@tankscope.com>, <klemon@redpointmedia.ca>, <rjewett@redpointmedia.ca>, <cseto@redpointmedia.ca>, <tleba@redpointmedia.ca>, <clandry@redpointmedia.ca>, premier <premier@gov.ab.ca>, ministryofjustice <ministryofjustice@gov.ab.ca>, Marco.Mendicino <Marco.Mendicino@parl.gc.ca>, Mark.Blakely <Mark.Blakely@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>, dominic.leblanc <dominic.leblanc@parl.gc.ca>, <dlametti@fasken.com>, rfife <rfife@globeandmail.com>
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 18
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Contact: Curt Allen: (416) 705-3632, or "curtis.allen@sympatico.ca"
Dispersing the Fog - Ep 18 - Order of Canada to MCC Chair, Special Guest Ret'd Dep Comm Curt Allen
6 Comments
From: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Jul 30, 2020 at 11:19 AM
Subject: Attn Justice Michael MacDonald I just called and left a voicemail
To: <jmmacdonald@stewartmckelvey.
Cc: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
https://davidraymondamos3.
https://stewartmckelvey.com/
Home » Our Team » MacDonald, The Honourable J. Michael
The Honourable J. Michael MacDonald
Counsel
Queen’s Marque
600-1741 Lower Water Street
Halifax, N.S.
B3J 0J2
+1.902.444.1746
+1.902.420.1417
jmmacdonald@stewartmckelvey.
Language(s) spoken: English
Bar Admission(s): Nova Scotia, 1979
Download Bio |
Download vCard
The Honourable J. Michael MacDonald joined Stewart McKelvey as Counsel
in April of 2019 following a distinguished career on the Bench. Mr.
MacDonald was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia
in 1995 and the Associate Chief Justice three years later. He became
the 22nd Chief Justice of Nova Scotia and the Chief Justice of the
Nova Scotia Court of Appeal in 2004. During his time sitting on both
courts, he wrote approximately 500 decisions. A member of the Canadian
Judicial Council for twenty years, he has chaired several of its
committees, most recently the Judicial Conduct Committee.
As Chief Justice, in 2014, Michael led the creation of the Nova Scotia
Access to Justice Coordinating Committee, a group of legal
professionals working to make Nova Scotia a national leader in access
to justice. During his tenure as Chief Justice, he promoted several
judicial outreach initiatives to engage the Indigenous and African
Nova Scotia communities. His efforts to foster inclusion on the Bench
include creating a judicial mentorship initiative for African Nova
Scotian and Indigenous lawyers. He also volunteered with Phoenix Youth
to host justice day camps for young people from racialized
communities.
Michael’s access to justice initiatives have been recognized by Cape
Breton University with an honourary doctorate of laws degree. The
Canadian Bar Association (Nova Scotia Branch) has renamed its annual
access to justice award the “J. Michael MacDonald Access to Justice
Award” to honour Michael’s work in this area.
He has presented at, and participated in, numerous legal conferences
in Canada, the United States, and Europe, and has assisted the
judiciaries in Kazakhstan and Ukraine. He is a regular guest speaker
at Dalhousie’s Schulich School of Law and a recipient of the Queen’s
Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals.
Michael focuses his practice on alternative dispute resolution.
Education & Career
Education
Dalhousie University, LLB, 1979
Mount Allison University, BA, 1976
Activities
Member, Canadian Bar Association
Member, African Nova Scotia Access to Justice Judicial Committee
Advisor, Access to Justice and Law Reform Institute of Nova Scotia
Board Member, Phoenix Youth
Creator and Chair, Nova Scotia Access to Justice Coordinating
Committee, 2014 – 2018
Chair, Canadian Judicial Council, Judicial Conduct Committee, 2014 – 2018
Chair, Nova Scotia Judicial Council, 2004 – 2019
Chair, Executive Office of the Nova Scotia Judiciary, 2004 – 2019
Previous Member, Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society Council
Previous President, Cape Breton Barristers’ Society
Previous Board member, Enterprise Cape Breton Corporation
How Jen Gerson Became One of Canada’s Most Popular Political Pundits
The backstory to her seemingly overnight success shows how Jen Gerson masterfully positioned herself to be the perfect person in the perfect position to write about Alberta politics at exactly the moment it became relevant to everyone.
Starting last winter, journalist Jen Gerson seemed to be everywhere. She had abruptly left a National Post correspondent position at the end of January. By mid-February, three weeks into her freelance career, Gerson had already amassed an impressive number of stories. People noticed. Edmonton journalist Omar Mouallem posted on Twitter that he had read four great articles that day, all penned by Gerson. Her former National Post colleague Tristin Hopper tweeted that Gerson was “in the midst of the most explosively successful post-@NationalPost 100 days in the history of National Posting. If you haven’t noticed, her byline is more ubiquitous than Benedict Cumberbatch.”
Gerson replied: “S—, I’m only on day 33, f—ers.”
By the end of April, at the actual 100-day mark, Gerson had written about Canada’s obsession with the sex lives of ice dancers, gotten into a Twitter fight with Conrad Black about journalistic standards, tackled the “hippie vs. rig pig” pipeline battle between B.C. and Alberta, addressed sexual harassment in Canadian politics and written about the chaotic Ontario provincial election – including breaking the story about the Ontario Progressive Conservative party conference call that put an end to Patrick Brown’s run for Premier. Gerson also started a gig as the journalist-in-residence at the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Law, appeared regularly on CBC’s Power & Politics panel and began a biweekly politics podcast with journalist Justin Ling called Oppo.
Gerson’s omnipresence appeared sudden and explosive, but I wanted to know how and when her journalistic fuse was lit. She agreed to meet with me last spring even though she was coming off a rough week. Gerson was recovering from strep throat, and her 18-month-old son had also been sick and spent the previous few nights in Gerson’s bed kicking her in the face. She had just recorded an episode of Oppo from inside her closet because it is the most soundproof place in her house. “You have to picture me in my closet still, in my pyjamas, shaking back and forth because I haven’t slept,” Gerson said. “And I’m on antibiotics. I am so exhausted.” Still, she sat down with me to run through what has gotten her to this point.
Gerson’s first press conference, in 2002, was about the notorious Robert Pickton pig farm, where police eventually identified the remains of 26 murdered women. Gerson was 16 years old. She was volunteering for course credit with the student newspaper at her high school, Gleneagle Secondary in Coquitlam, and was shadowing a reporter from the local newspaper who took her in “like a little duckling,” Gerson said. She recalls questioning one of the other reporters in the scrum about a bit of journalism jargon he used. “I was trying to feel tough,” Gerson said. “I was really – how should I describe it? – intense as a 16-year-old.”
The reporter ride-along to the Pickton press conference, along with the September 11 attacks which occurred around the same time, abruptly expanded Gerson’s view of the world outside her little town. These two tragedies – one global, one local – combined with Gerson’s long-held fascination with language and story. “I don’t know if that is a grim thing to say, but it was an interesting and exciting time to be trained as a journalist,” Gerson said. “The world became a very different place after that.”
After graduating from high school, Gerson enrolled in journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto. She quickly realized her future job prospects didn’t rely on her GPA. “I took the lay of the land and I realized nobody is going to give a shit if I have an A or a D,” Gerson said. “Nobody is going to care about my grades.” Instead, she focused on gaining newsroom experience. Gerson joined the Ryerson student newspaper, The Eyeopener. “I knew from high school the student newspaper was where all the cool kids hung out,” she said. She started off as circulation manager, a sort of rite-of-passage job that involved pushing a massive cart loaded with papers throughout campus and making early morning deliveries. The job earned her goodwill among the higher-ups at The Eyeopener. “All of the editors went for breakfast with me afterwards. It was a social thing.”
Social things were hardly Gerson’s speciality. “I was an only kid. I never got along with other people,” she said. “I was a weirdo.” Gerson was also a year younger than all her peers, and couldn’t join them for post-class drinks. More than this, though, Gerson’s ruthless pursuit of her career goals did not always endear her to her J-school classmates. “Right from the beginning, I had my eye on the prize to a creepy degree, and that was extremely off-putting to my peers,” she admitted. “I definitely didn’t win Miss Congeniality or Miss Popularity in university. That’s for sure.”
Gerson landed plum internships at The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and the Calgary Herald. Then, in 2007, she got a job as a tourism reporter at The National, a new government-owned newspaper based in the United Arab Emirates. She enjoyed the travel opportunities the job offered, but found the expat vibe in Abu Dhabi a sort of frat-house version of a foreign news desk. “Everybody is away from home and they drink a lot. You wind up going on these boozy brunches every Friday and getting into trouble,” Gerson said. “It is literally like grown-up university.” Despite that, she enjoyed the scene for about two years before The National‘s credibility began to disintegrate under the weight of increased government censorship.
At the time, Gerson figured that Yemen might be an interesting place for her to work next. She arranged to spend a month in Sana’a studying Arabic. She did the math on how many freelance articles she would have to publish every month to pay her rent and how much she would need to spend on “kidnapping and ransom insurance.” But then, on the day she had planned to send her deposit to the language school, the Calgary Herald sent her an email offering her a general-assignment reporter position. The timing seemed like a sign. “I decided to come home,” she said.
Gerson worked at the Herald for nearly two years before getting promoted to covering Alberta for The National Post. Premier Alison Redford dropped the writ on the provincial election on Gerson’s second day on the job. Within a few months, Redford was out, Jim Prentice stepped in, and then Rachel Notley’s NDP wave washed away 44 years of Conservative rule. Alberta politics – long considered the most boring beat in Canadian journalism – suddenly became the most interesting and relevant political topic in the country. “I just lucked out,” Gerson said. “I ended up on the back tail of a star and rode it in.”

Retired journalist Catherine Ford poured me a glass of wine, then fetched half of a limoncello martini she had leftover in the fridge from the night before. When she returned to her living room, she said, “If I had a daughter, I’d want her to be Jen Gerson.”
I was there because I had been told Ford was, along with Don Braid and Colby Cosh, something of a mentor for Gerson. This made perfect sense. The two journalists share much in common. Ford describes Gerson as a funny and mouthy woman who “doesn’t take s— from anyone,” an accurate description of Ford herself. Ford said, too, that “Jen has a tendency to be – what’s the word I am looking for? – confirmed in her opinion. Like I was.” Both women are admired for their fierce and entertaining columns, even by readers who may disagree with them.
It is tempting to suggest Gerson is following in Ford’s footsteps. Instead, Ford imagines following Gerson. “In Jen, I see the possibilities that might have been if I started out now,” she said. When Ford first joined the London Free Press in 1966, she was the only female news reporter at the entire paper, and women journalists have long felt pressure to be “one of the boys.” “Jen is quite feminine,” Ford said. “You can be that [now] and still be a great journalist. That’s a huge difference.”
However, Ford doesn’t envy Gerson for the current precarious state of the business and the paucity of journalism jobs available to young reporters. Nor does she have any interest in the online world today’s journalists must navigate. “If I was starting out in the business today and I didn’t have a thick skin, with all the trolling on social media, I am not sure I wouldn’t have drunk more than I used to,” Ford said.
For her part, Gerson endures less online abuse than many other female pundits she knows. Gerson’s writing rarely delves into the sort of topics like feminism and race that tend to rile the web’s most vicious hate nerds. Most of all, though, Gerson thinks her refusal to align herself with one political tribe or another makes her a less of a target. She considers herself to be generally centre-right-leaning in her politics, and harbours “a fundamental skepticism about the competence of any government to do anything useful,” but she is neither a party flag-waver nor an ideologue. It is hard to wage war on someone who hovers outside the fray.
Gerson also believes that her fierce online character dissuades many attackers. “I think people realize that if you want to f— with me on Twitter, I’ll f— with you right back,” she said. “And I’ll probably win.” The Jen Gerson on the page, though, is not the same as flesh-and-bones Jen Gerson. “Every pundit has a persona, to some degree,” she said. While Gerson The Person considers herself shy, Pundit Gerson describes herself as bossy and aggressive. “I’ve got a funny, bulls—, sort of take-no-prisoners persona,” Gerson said. She wouldn’t consider her persona false, but it is certainly crafted. This “puppet of Jen Gerson” allows her to separate herself from the sort of online backlash that punditry breeds, especially for outspoken women like her. “Most of the time I can disconnect from the emotional consequences of being out there,” she said.
All of Gerson’s work presents her particular stance on an issue – she is an opinion writer more than a reporter, although her work is based in research – but she does not care if readers come over to her side. “I’m not invested in people’s growth. That’s just useless to me,” she said.
Gerson would rather guide readers through her thought process than necessarily change their views. In her critique of the 2018 federal budget, for example, she ran the numbers on the Liberals’ much-ballyhooed overhaul of the Universal Child Care Benefit and revealed that households making $30,000 per year are still spending between half and two-thirds of their net income on childcare. “We women are very good at this kind of math,” she wrote.
Math has driven Gerson’s career from the very beginning. Every career move she has made as a journalist emerged from unsentimental arithmetic. Her focus on experience instead of grades at Ryerson, for example, or her calculation that penning short opinion columns is a more financially fruitful use of her freelance hours than investigative reporting. Gerson has written a couple of book proposals, too, but has reasoned that even a successful book about Alberta politics won’t earn enough money to be worth her time writing it. “I’m not interested in making $20,000 a year,” she said. “Money is how we keep score.”
Mercenary mathematics may fuel her career choices, but it is her long-held desire to tell good stories that drives the work itself. This hasn’t changed since she was a precocious high-schooler. “I want to be good at doing the craft,” she said.
Gerson has never harboured any hope to change the world and rejects the J-school aphorism that the purpose of journalism is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. “That is an activist model,” she said. “If you’ve accepted that, then you’ve accepted your role in journalism as an activist, and as a left-leaning activist whose job it is to shit on the rich.” Gerson said she worries that too many journalists consider challenging power to be a more important goal than simply telling truthful stories. “That being said, I’m perfectly happy to take out the powerful when I think they deserve it. I’m thrilled. I’ll take your head and I’ll put it on a wall if you deserve it,” then she added, “I’m really nice. I’m just very disagreeable.”
This story has been corrected to include the correct spelling of Don Braid’s name.
The Line Podcast: We answer your (non-gross) questions
In this episode of The Line Podcast, recorded very early on June 19, your hosts are making the best of a classic summer situation: we're both gone. Jen is off-grid somewhere. Matt is unplugging on another continent. But we didn’t want to leave you hanging — so we figured we’d get ahead of it.
How do we do that when we can’t talk about the news of the day?
We don’t even try!
This episode of The Line Podcast is brought to you by Unsmoke Canada. Canada can be a global leader in reducing the harm caused by smoking, but it requires actionable steps, including giving adult smokers the information they need to choose potentially less harmful alternatives. Learn more at Unsmoke.ca.
That’s right. Unlike our usual episodes, which we record as close as possible to release, this one was done early. We used the time to go back to a fan-favourite format: answering your questions. These all came from our paid subscribers at ReadTheLine.ca. As always, the questions were great — well, except for some of the crazy ones, which we're just going to politely ignore. (But seriously?) As always, we couldn’t get to all of them. But we got through a lot. Including, as video viewers will notice, a power outage. Sigh.
But let's stay focused on the questions. We talk about our careers. The future of The Line, and its origin story. The state of Canadian journalism, and what can and can't be done about it. Canadian politics, American politics, geopolitics. We field some questions that are lighthearted. Others that are deeply personal. Some answers are thoughtful. Some are silly. One or two may result in regret.
But overall, it was fun. Thanks for taking part in this.
Programming note: The Line Podcast and On The Line will be off next week. No episodes on July 1 or July 4. But back after that. And we will be releasing some content at ReadTheLine.ca that week — something new and fun. (Actually fun.) So be sure to subscribe at ReadTheLine.ca and never miss an update.
See you soon, though. And take good care.
The Line is entirely reader and advertiser funded — no federal subsidy for us! If you value our work, have already subscribed, and still worry about what will happen when the conventional media finishes collapsing, please make a donation today.
The Line is Canada’s last, best hope for irreverent commentary. We reject bullshit. We love lively writing. Please consider supporting us by subscribing. Follow us on Twitter @the_lineca. Pitch us something: lineeditor@protonmail.com
Jen Gerson | CBC
Jen Gerson: The Conservative case for the CBC
The CBC needs a radical overhaul that includes an extensive mandate review. Defunding solves nothing.
The speaker noted with some dismay the number of satellite TV dishes affixed to the balconies of apartments in urban areas that tend to become the first homes of new arrivals to the country. With the advent of affordable global satellite television, those who had relocated to Canada could keep abreast of news at home, in the languages they were most comfortable with. This influx included not only the plethora of private television networks, but also their public counterparts: RT, IRA, CCTV — virtually every country in the world invests in some content offering, and makes that offering widely available both domestically and abroad.
In liberal democracies, public broadcasting tends to value at least a degree of journalistic independence. In authoritarian nations, well, not so much. But they broadcast just the same.
Of course there's nothing inherently wrong with seeking news and entertainment from one's homeland. Nothing could be more natural than the desire to seek out the familiar, especially while adapting to a new culture and a new home. My fellow conversationalist was not unsympathetic to that desire, yet those satellite dishes concerned him, nonetheless. Canada is welcoming a nearly unprecedented number of new immigrants at the same moment in which its sense of itself as a nation has, arguably, never been weaker. Or, as Justin Trudeau himself once put it "There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada."
If that's so, how do we expect this influx of new Canadians to cohere to the vacant identity of their adopted homeland? Is the move to Canada a thing that exists in the body only; the spirit to remain entrenched in the values, language, news and entertainment of the citizen’s soul? His homeland? How does a nation as widely dispersed and malleable as ours, one that welcomes people from around the world, create some kind of pan-Canadian values and identity? How the hell do we actually work together?
I don't have an easy answer to that question, but I did note at the time that this individual had unwittingly articulated the best Conservative case for the CBC.
For immediate release: Feb 13, 2023
RedPoint Media Group, Avenue’s publisher, announced that it has been acquired by Käthe Lemon and Roger Jewett.
Today, RedPoint Media Group, Avenue’s publisher, announced that it has been acquired by Käthe Lemon and Roger Jewett.
Lemon has been the President of RedPoint for the past year and a half and before that she was the Editor of Avenue for 15 years.
Lemon will continue in her role as President, and will lead daily operations while working to grow RedPoint’s Content Studio. RPM Content Studio creates a number of custom publications (including the award-winning Leap for the Alberta Cancer Foundation and Spur for the Calgary Foundation) as well as branded marketing and content marketing work.
Jewett has been RedPoint’s CFO for the past two and a half years and will now become RedPoint’s CEO. Jewett was previously President of RareMethod and CEO of Twist Marketing and also has experience as an investor and CEO or CFO of several successful, rapidly growing companies in the ski resort, medical device, aviation and environmental services industries.
“Käthe and I are very proud to become the owners of RedPoint,” says Jewett. “We look forward to working with RedPoint’s talented team, growing the business and continuing RedPoint’s tradition of producing excellent work and promoting Calgary’s many amazing attributes.”
Established more than two decades ago, RedPoint Media Group is now the largest locally owned magazine publisher in Calgary.
“We are excited about continuing to celebrate Calgary through storytelling in Avenue and our other publications,” says Lemon. “We believe Calgarians love this city and love the work we do, in particular what Avenue is doing. The magazine will continue to be available free to share our stories as widely as possible and we are asking Calgarians to help support us with that mission by subscribing to our newsletters and print publication and by becoming Avenue A-List members.”
RedPoint Media Group has roots in Calgary dating back to 1994, when Avenue started publishing. For the past several years the company has been owned and operated by Pete Graves, prior to which it was owned by his father, Don Graves.
“Having worked with Käthe for so many years, and in so many areas, I believe in her 100 per cent,” said former owner Pete Graves. “Käthe loves RedPoint, and it is a great partnership with Roger, who has had success in a number of industries. His strong financial and business knowledge make this a strong leadership combination.”
Lemon and Jewett plan to build on RedPoint’s legacy of quality content and trusted storytelling that has been created by the Graves family for close to 30 years.
As we head into this next chapter for Avenue, we hope that you’ll continue to support Avenue.
403-240-9055
The Team
Roger Jewett CA
CEO & CFO
1 (403) 650-7718
With over 30 years of experience leading growth companies and extensive start-up experience, Roger is committed to creating value for clients. Responsible for strategy, management, profitability and finances, Roger guides TankScope's processes and business development.
Roger's previous jobs include CEO at Rare Method, CFO at NewLeaf Airlines, CFO at Enerjet, CFO at Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, and CFO at Guardian Helicopters.














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