Questioning the CBC's love affair with Chrystia Freeland

Chrystia Freeland? Who she? For readers outside of Canada (and many inside!) Walt will explain. The fragrant and unbearably smug Christina "Chrystia" Freeland is Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs (or "Global Affairs", whatever the new PC term is). She started out as Minister of International Trade in the first government of Justin "Junior" Trudeau, and was "elevated" in 2017 after demonstrating a lack of talent for international negotiations on free trade. See "Vote NO MA'AM!", WWW 25/10/16 and "Bill Maher calls BS on 'shared values' with Muslims", WWW 18/4/16. Walt regrets that Ms Freeland's minion have succeeded in having the video of her appearance with Bill Maher deleted. As I remember it, he made her look like a fool who knows next to nothing about the real world.

One of our agents was trying to make the same point in the "Comments" section of some articles on the CBC News website. He called out Ms Freeland for being a "limousine liberal" -- a useful idiot who knows next to nothing about the real world. Our agent has been trying for a week or so to get the CBC to print that comment -- just the "limousine liberal" part -- or anything close to it. Here's what happened.

By "pinked", our agent means his comment got "disabled". That's the word that appears in the PINK bar. Geddit? But why? What's so offensive about "limousine liberal" or the coded version of the phrase used here by our agent? Here are two more screen grabs.

You have to give our agent full marks for perseverance, eh. But he's now given up, and appeals to Walt for help. What he wants to know (but can't ask the CBC since there's no way to contact the moderators) is whether the Corp's list of prohibited comments includes any negative reference of any kind to the Honourable Chrystia Freeland. The supplementary question -- assuming the answer to the first to be "yes" -- is WHY? Why is the CBC so in love with Ms Freeland that even the mildest of snarks about her is verboten?

In one case, the mere mention of her name got "pinked". What about free speech? Why is Ms Freeland above criticism? Anyone from the CBC who wishes to answer these questions is free (geddit?) to use Walt's comments section. All you have to do is click on the headline, and the box will appear. We're waiting.