Author Archives: NJN Network

CBC kills story about Human Rights complaint by wheelchair-bound journalist

“Aren’t we supposed to be the good guys? A fight breaks out in the CBC newsroom when reporters discover CBC management has hidden a human rights story for two years.

CBC News Producer Donna Allen named in Human Rights Complaint – dodging the bullet (CBC photo)

“Wayne Thibodeau and Donna Allen have won journalist Stephen Pate’s human rights complaint against CBC and Transcontinental,” court reporter Brian Higgins gleefully told the May 1st 2013 meeting.

Cheers and laughter broke out in the CBC Newsroom on University Avenue in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.

Higgins waved in the air a copy of the Supreme Court application for a judicial review that had just been served on the PEI Human Rights Commission.

Thibodeau, political reporter for the Charlottetown Guardian, and Allen, the Executive Producer of CBC News on Prince Edward Island asked the court to “overturn the decision by Anne Nicholson” PEI Human Rights Commission chairperson. Continue reading →

Sod turning ceremony in Rustico for French school today

: Ecole St. Augustin circa 1940

Rustico, PEI – The public is invited to the the sod-turning ceremony at the site of the new École Saint-Augustin and Early Learning Centre Les Petits Rayons de Soleil on Monday, September 20, 2010 at 11:00 am.

The construction site is just around the bend from historic Église Saint-Augustin in Rustico. A reception and the unveiling of plans follows at the Barachois Inn. (submitted)

300,000 video viewers elsewhere after YouTube suspension

File under – you can’t keep a good man down.

Last June our YouTube topped 100,000 views. We’re were pretty excited that you appreciated what we were doing. Just as the site hit 300,000 YouTube suspended our account. Since then we’ve gone on to bigger and better things. There is life after YouTube.

Continue reading →

CBC erects pay-as-you embed pay wall

Canada’s national broadcaster wants you to pay if you use their stories in a blog

CBC pay wall, maybe this snap of their website costs $250 a month, click for larger image

Michael Geist, copyright lawyer and blogger, Twitted this today,

“CBC adopts new licensing plan: wants $250 to embed 1 article on a site for 1 month http://bit.ly/bwxM1e (via @Jnnn) about 5 hours ago from Tweetie”

This is a new form of pay wall – you can read but don’t touch.

The rate of $250 per story per month is so ludicrous. There is no market. No one is going to pay CBC anything like $250 per month for a story.

The economics of it are upside down. There are no sites making $250 from a single post on a monthly basis. How many internet sites are generating $250 from their whole site? Not many blogs.

There is no market for this CBC attempt to get double paid by taxpayers. We are already pumping $1 billion annually to float the CBC boat.
Continue reading →

PEI gets failing grade on UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities

The PEI Government has failed to improve the lives of persons with disabilities. Islanders with disabilities have the lowest incomes, receive only minimal supports and have their human rights abused on a daily basis without recourse.

Premier Robert Ghiz, "we are going to show respect for Islanders with disabilities"

PRLog – Today marks the UN International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

Despite 15 years of consultation and program development, it also marks another day when PEI fails to meet its commitment of inclusion and human rights for persons with disabilities.

Islanders with disabilities have the lowest incomes, receive only minimal supports and have their human rights abused on a daily basis without recourse.

“Government will take today to press release their commitment to the disabled while in fact only giving lip service to the real problems faced by those living with disabilities,” said Stephen Pate, director of PEI Disability Alert Inc.

Continue reading →

Canada fails to meet commitment to UN Convention on Disabilities

Canadians with disabilities make up the poorest people in our country, are excluded from Canadian society and have limited recourse to redress human rights abuse.

PRLog – Despite signing the UN Convention on Disabilities, Canada does not meet international standards for the human rights of people living with disabilities.

“Canadians with disabilities make up the poorest people in our country, are excluded from Canadian society and have limited recourse to redress human rights abuse,” said Stephen Pate, Director of PEI Disability Alert Inc.

The human rights situation of Canadians with disabilities is comparable to traffic laws expressed as principals of safe driving with every driver expected to enforce the law without the police.

Continue reading →

Kafkaesque captcha at PEI Newcomers Association

PEI Newcomers email captcha - gotcha - click for larger image

First off, let’s admit it’s a wonderful sunny day on PEI. Yesterday was so warm at 3 PM, I had to dig out last summer’s shorts and put them on. Today is a little colder but so nice out of the wind. Spring or summer is here.

I was downtown wheeling around in my wheelchair on errands. Surprisingly two offices I visited – IRAC and PEI Newcomers – don’t have automatic doors.

They should have their entrance doors with a button to make them accessible for the disabled. I wrote Moe Rogerson (IRAC) and Kevin Arsenault (PEI Newcomers) and asked them about it.

PEI Newcomers don’t trust the Internet. They have a web form to send them messages.

However, the web form has a captcha invented in a Frank Kafka nightmare. It is only three letters long. No matter what you enter it comes back “Validation string is not correct.”

Click on the image to see what happens. I tried it 5 or 6 times and got bored.

Maybe they get tired of whining Chinese immigrants who want help or their deposits back. Just put a little eternal loop in the email form and ipso presto – no annoying immigrant emails.

I asked Kevin about that too.

Update – November 27th, 2009 – Kevin told me to take him off my email contacts after I asked about the accessible door and now he is retiring to move on to greener pastures.