Author: Graeme Decarie

It’s been many, many weeks since the beginning of the shale gas confrontations at Rexton. As we all know, there is not the slightest possiblity that Alward will accept a ban on shale gas exploration in that region. If there were such a possibility, these meetings would have happened long

…you know, the ones you see at the supermarket check-out with a picture of a fat woman in a bikini with the face blacked out, and the headline “Guess what former cover girl this is.” That’s the class of the TandT with its headline “Blood evidence released in Oland case.”

…..His columns were never brilliant. But at least they were unpretentious, and they dealt with subjects of some meaning to our daily lives. But today, he decided to deal with a heavy duty topic and, oh my, it showed his limitations. It’s on fracking – and it’s ill-infromed, wildly illogical,

For a start, just a brief return to young Goguen and his “newsletter”. He made much of Harper’s determination to get tough on crime, and also to crack down on pedophiles.1. One of the toughest countries on crime is the US. It has more people in jail than any other

Yesterday’s blog was so long, I had no room even for a brief word about out federal Conservative MP, Mr. Goguen, and the very expensive news sheet he delivered to all our homes. It’s titled “Another Productive Summer”. And it’s just full of pictures of how busy he’s been. Okay,

The American government has shut down for lack of money – with implications we can only guess at.. Canada’s John Baird gives very strange speech at the UN. An expensive flyer from Goo-goo Goguen lands in Moncton mailboxes. And the big news of the day, the banner headline on the Times

I’ll save the blooper for the end. It’s a real collector’s item. The only international news story is one from Kenya, “Last body in morgue identified after mall attack.”  Now, here’s a story which has appeared daily for over a week. But what’s the point of it? I can see

‘Newsrooms’, the total number of reporters available to a news medium, are generally far too small, and getting smaller. The result is that it’s not possible to have enough reporters with enough training to understand most of the stories they have to cover. And any digging or research with a

Transport Canada will be investigating the work of Professor Lapierre in the building of the bridge to PEI.  Well, of course. Here is a man with no qualifications involved in a huge project, and one in which a mistake could cost lives. The wording of the press release is interesting.

last night, I made a list of  stories I felt sure the Irving press would not carry. I acted as if I were news editor for the TandT, selecting those stories important enough to print. It took less than an hour – so editors do not appear to face a demanding

For a long time I have thought and written that Rod Allen is a hugely self-satisfed writer of meager talent as displayed in some of the most trivial columns I have ever seen. But I was wrong. I admit it. If you read his column for today, (a defence of

All the comment I’ve seen on l’affaire Professor Lapierre has missed the point and only one group has reacted with any credit to itself. The rector of UdeMoncton has expressed fears the behaviour of Professor Lapierre will damage the reputation of the university. It probably will – though not seriously

…that, for anyone who gives a damn, is the most interesting news in today’s TandT. The front page is wasted on baffelgab about the health system, and the new, “businesslike” structures being imposed on it. The trouble is that health is not a business. You cannot run it as if

Mr. Alward and his merry men, especially Craig Leonard, have made much of their claim that Professor Lapierre was honoured by the prestigious National Academy of Sciences when it invited him to be a speaker for its convention. But the National Academy of Sciences was not pleased to read that.

Do you know of the Atlantic Press Council?  It’s a sort of Better Business Bureau. That is, it’s an organization set up, supposely, to police people – in this case, journalists. In reality, though, it is very, very close to the people it’s supposed to be policing. In effect, it’s

… that’s a fast-breaking story featured on page 1, and written by crusading reporter Brent Mazerolle. I’ll bet you didn’t know that Canadians like coffee. But nobody can fool young Brent. Read the story now. Read it while it’s hot. And get ready for the changes that means in your

As we can read on p. 32, it does not matter that Professor Lapierre was unqualified in science for the jobs he took on. No. He wasn’t hired for his scientific reputation. It was for his wonderful talent in bringing people together to talk.Sorta makes ya stop and think, don’t

First, I’m sorry that my computer is ignoring my paragraph structure, creating long strings of sentences. I’ll try to correct it with more spacing. The big headline on p. 1 is stunning. “Lapierre hounded from jobs”. Hounded. The implication is clear. He was treated brutally, unfairly, maliciously chased from his

That’s the big news, front page story for today. Boy, I’ll bet no other city in the world can offer that that service. And, at that, it’s a modest claim. If you’re going to an NFL game in Moncton, you can also walk, run, ride a bicycle, hop on a