Liberal Millionaires Club

This is a true story. No names have been changed.

I was barred from the Guardian yesterday. Was it a technical glitch or purposeful move by the Guardian to stiffle free speech?

It started about 9 AM when I commented on Rock concert costs taxpayers $400,000. I was about the 25th of eventually 51 comments.

I briefly pointed out that we had scooped the Guardian on this story 3 weeks before Myrtle Jenkins Smith on her way to first $1 million, October 25th, 2008.

A tipster pointed us to the link on the government website that disclosed Smith was one of two partners in the firm that promoted the Alanis Morissette concert. She was also the one to benefit personally from the $300,000 loan write off by Minister Docherty.

We state without equivocation we love all our tipsters, like all good reporters do. You could be a secret tipster too if you have some good dirt.

We also asked the Guardian why they didn’t identify Smith in their article. Neither did CBC, Mike Currie and the Liberals in the house.

All very hush hush and on the QT. Is Smith under police protection, immunity or the witness protection program?

The post was short and to the point. It was probably more polite than what I said above.

By 1 PM, 25 other comments had been posted but mine was missing.

During the morning I sent personal email notices of the new epsiode of This Hour Has Five and 1/2 minutes on the NJN Network to some of the news people at the Guardian, as we do every week.

The Guardian is an newspaper: they rely on news stories and we have the stories. They have told me they appreciate some of the stories we send them, fair enough.

At 1:14 pm, the Guardian’s spam filter at Transcontinental kicked back emails from Gary MacDougall the editor and Bill McGuire the news editor. Wow that was weird!

So I wrote Gary an email cc’d Bill and asked them to check it out, my comment included. Those emails bounced back fast than a rubber ball.

Queer and queerer yet since Gary’s a cool guy for a newsman.

Undaunted, I sent a Bill and Gary a fax at 3:55 pm on Friday. Nothing, nada not a peep.

When I saw the Saturday’s story on Brooke MacMillan taking PNP funds, I jumped at the chance. Lo and behold, they printed my comment, namely,

Stephen Pate from Charlottetown, PE writes: The plot thickens and the net widens on the biggest corruption scandal in PEI history. MLAs, secret numbered companies, hush money to civil servants, accounting and legal fees inflated many times beyond the norm for Atlantic Canada, now a Deputy and perhaps soon to be discoved Minister and the Premier?
Money is the great corrupter of mankind.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, in their eagerness to get rich, have wandered away from the faith and caused themselves a lot of pain. 1st Timothy 16:10. True then, even more true today.

Maybe Friday’s “Stop Stephen and Disability Alert at all costs” was a computer glitch, perhaps the Guardian has their Barracuda Spam shields too high.

Maybe the weekend crew didn’t get the message – shields up!

We imagine the Guardian is getting enormous pressure from Liberals, UPEI types, Music PEI types and especially that phoney disability bigot at UPEI -H. Wade “I’m Rich and Arrogant” MacLauchlan.” We are printing so many stories and videos – all true – showing the Emperor Has No Clothes.

“Will Pate shut up? Who cares about him and his cripples and blind people?” those detrators and vested interests complain to Gary, his publisher and head office at Transcontintal.

Somedays all that pressure can get to you. I hope not because the Guardian has a reputation as a fearless advocate for public disclosure and openness.

Maybe Gary will respond to our fax, or maybe he won’t.

I love freedom of the press and I hope the Guardian does too.

Thank God for the internet. He did create it didn’t He?

…and now for something completely different.

Have a great day, on me.