cbc

…and apparently plucks them and makes ridiculous suits out of their exquisite plumage. So okay, the last time—coincidentally exactly one month ago, when the playoffs began—that Don Cherry wore something this outrageous, I was really at a loss for words. But today’s Coach’s Corner just killed me:

This is so not okay. RCMP in Kamloops, B.C. tasered an 82-year-old man in his hospital bed to subdue him so they could get “more important work to do on the street tonight.”

Frank Lasser, 82, appeared fragile Thursday when he showed the Taser marks on his body and talked about the ordeal he went through Saturday.

“They [police] should have known I had bypass surgery,” Lasser told CBC News.

Lasser has had heart surgery and needs to carry an apparatus to supply oxygen at all times. He was in the Royal Inland Hospital Saturday due to pneumonia but has since been released.

You can see pictures of the burn marks on Lasser’s body on the CBC article. In fairness, it appears that he became delusional and pulled a knife, and wouldn’t let go of it after police showed up. But for goshsakes, there’s got to be better ways to deal with this than overreacting by tasering an 82-year-old hospital patient. This is the kind of thing that kills elderly Polish immigrants who can’t speak English. It’s gone on way too long.

Hat-tip: Pam Spaulding at Pandagon

Yet another hilarious example of government waste, this time from Natural Resources Canada. Apparently its wireless and mobile communications spending is way out of control. The CBC is reporting on a recent audit which has discovered that the lack of oversight in this government agency is so bad that they could not even provide an inventory of all the BlackBerries and mobile phones they own. This one department is costing taxpayers half a million dollars per year. Multiply that by dozens more government departments, and that’s one huge hell of a waste.

Among the particulars of this audit that I find so amusing: employees made their own contracts with the phone companies, resulting in a patchwork of over 1500 individual contracts, 20% of all the devices were owned by people who had no reason for owning one in their job, and the department in question had no procedures to recover the cost when an employee used a government-provided mobile device for personal matters.

This is a perfect example of what happens when laws and government policies are too slow to catch up to actual practice. It’s a shame that an audit—probably costing the taxpayers the equivalent of a year of wireless services for Natural Resources Canada—had to be conducted as the first step on the road (hopefully) to eliminating some of this waste. No surprises here, and I bet that nobody’s going to raise the issue in today’s Question Period because they’ll be too busy benefitting from government waste elsewhere.

In an effort to appeal to Canada’s large and growing Chinese population, the CBC has started to broadcast hockey games in Mandarin:

There’s no word for hockey puck in Mandarin.

So Jason Wang, who’s been calling the Montreal-Boston series of the NHL playoffs in his native Chinese language for the CBC - a first for the public broadcaster - just uses the Mandarin word for ball.

It’s one of the many hockey terms Wang has had to translate and in some cases make up as he calls the games for a Chinese audience. He says it’s no easy task.

“Especially in hockey, where Chinese culture doesn’t have a context for it, so I have to translate a lot of the terms, all the penalty calls, and sometimes I have to borrow from other sports,” says Wang, sitting in the small recording booth at the CBC building in Vancouver where he calls the games while watching them on a large TV.

This appears to be a textbook example of translation involving cultural compatibility issues. There are many words and phrases that can’t simply be translated but which exert influence on the patters of idiom in a certain cultural context. Hockey in Canada is a perfect example. Consider this exchange during Question Period in the House of Commons the other day:

KEN DRYDEN (Liberal, York Centre): Mr. Speaker, with every scandal around him, the Prime Minister can pretend—

VARIOUS MEMBERS: Oh, oh!

SPEAKER: Order, order. This is question period, not a hockey game. We are hearing now a question from the honourable member for York Centre and we have to be able to hear the question. Order, please. …

DRYDEN: Last week [James Moore, the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Works and Government Services] talked about something else he was almost too young to know. Pull the goalie? This is April. I do not get pulled.

JAMES MOORE: Mr. Speaker, he says he does not get pulled. He pulled himself on every confidence vote in the House of Commons. He did not show up. Again, I know 1972 was a fond year for my colleague from York Centre, and 1974 may be a fond one for him as well with the Nixon administration, but the reality is that we have spoken the truth. We have stood up and have consistently voted in the best interests of Canadians. The member for York Centre can sit there and sulk, and slowly skate to the bench as he sits there and does nothing for Canadians.

Devoid of a context in which hockey is part of the cultural discourse and the speakers can count on their interlocutors understanding and correctly processing these metaphors, this exchange makes much less sense. It can probably still be understood, but some of the flavour would be lost. The task of the translator, then, is not simply to translate the words, but to translate the cultural context as well.

I wish I spoke Mandarin so I could really understand the nuances of this process. And I wonder how the Chinese Ice Hockey Association and Chinese ice hockey teams, like the China Sharks, deal with these issues. Anybody who knows more than I about Chinese, hockey, or Chinese hockey, is encouraged to contribute!

Across Canada, people protested the recent decisions by the CBC to axe the only remaining radio orchestra in North America and change the character of Radio Two away from classical music as a major focus. At the protest in Vancouver, about three hundred people showed up: this was the biggest turnout in Canada, but this is, after all, the city that is the home base of the CBC Radio Orchestra. Many important people in the Canadian music scene—not just strictly classical music—were there to address the crowd and lead us in very well-tuned protest songs and anthems and chants.

The full album of pictures is here (I’m slowly migrating my photo software to Plogger). Here are some ‘best of’ hits:

Also, check out Adam Abrams’ blog post, with which I express my complete agreement, as well as his photo album from the event. Also, if you have Facebook, check out the event page for the nationwide protests, as well as the Facebook groups for classical music at the CBC and for the CBC Radio Orchestra. Also make sure to check out the web site for Stand on Guard for CBC.

I know Don Cherry is a loudmouthed tool, and his fashion sense would get him laughed off the set of Project Runway in a heartbeat, but what sort of animal did he have to rip the hide off of barehanded to get the jacket he was wearing on Coach’s Corner on tonight’s Hockey Night in Canada?

The last remaining radio orchestra in North America, the Vancouver-based CBC Radio Orchestra, will be disbanded after 70 years. From the CBC:

The decision to disband the orchestra—formed in 1938 when radio orchestras were common—comes down to dollars and cents, a CBC executive in Vancouver said Thursday.

“We know for example that for a concert that we fund through our CBC Radio Orchestra, we can extend our reach to three by doing it through other musical organizations,” said Jennifer McGuire, executive director of CBC English Radio.

In other words, it’s too expensive to fund classical music, since nobody listens to it except old fogies and you can’t compete with the private sector that way. Needless to say, this decision has many people—not least the musicians—ticked off. From today’s Globe and Mail:

“It is a travesty that this decision has been made. It’s a travesty that the government continues to cut the funding to the CBC. But it is also a travesty that bureaucrats that occupy the top echelons of radio don’t have the guts to stand up for this orchestra,” said violist Andrew Brown as he emerged from the meeting, receiving an impromptu standing ovation from other musicians who had gathered in the hotel’s lobby.

“Just bafflegab,” said Brian G’froerer, who has played principal horn with the orchestra for 30 years, when asked how CBC executives Jennifer McGuire and Mark Steinmetz had responded to the musicians’ concerns inside the meeting.

A mock political advertisement from this week’s edition of the Rick Mercer Report on CBC. (Again, the transcription is mine, as is the addition of hyperlinks.):

[The scene: a father reading a newspaper, talking to his son of about ten years.]
Billy: Dad, why is Stephen Harper suing Stéphane Dion?
Dad: Well, Billy, the Prime Minister had no choice but to sue Stéphane Dion. Mr. Dion said some pretty nasty things about him.
Billy: But he’s the Leader of the Opposition. Isn’t it his job to do that?
Dad: To a point. But if you damage someone’s reputation, well, then that’s libel.
Billy: But what about Dion’s reputation? Harper ran all those ads saying he’s not a leader. He looked like a total tool.
Dad: Yes, yes he did. But that’s not libel.
Billy: Why not?
Dad: Well, if it were, Mr. Dion would sue Mr. Harper.
Billy: Oh.
Dad: You see, Billy, suing people makes Stephen Harper feel good inside. Like when you score a goal in hockey.
Billy: Is that why he’s also suing Ralph Goodale, and Michael Igna…
Dad: Ignatieff. I believe it’s Russian. Always sue everyone, Billy, remember that.
Billy: Thanks, Dad.
Dad: Take no prisoners, Billy. [The two of them high-five.]
[Shot of Parliament at night, with inset of Harper.]
Voice over: Stephen Harper is bringing change to Ottawa. Strengthening democracy. Through lawsuits.
[Back to scene of home.]
Billy: [whining] Dad, Stephen Harper’s suing me now!
Dad: Well, it’s your own fault, Billy. You asked too many darn questions. Should have kept your mouth shut.
Billy: [Grunts, falls backward onto couch.]
[Conservative Party logo.]
Voice over: The Conservative Party of Canada. Consider yourself warned.

You can watch the original video here (season 5, episode 18, second item: ‘Mercer: Consider yourself warned’).

From today’s Mercer Report on CBC (season 5 episode 17), Rick’s Rant perfectly sums up many of my feelings about the recent scandal involving the Prime Minister and the Conservative Party. (The transcription is mine, as is the addition of hyperlinks.)

Well, what a great week in Ottawa, hey, if by ‘great’ I mean ‘filled with scandal’. There was a new one every day, most of them involving the Prime Minister. Jack Layton was on Lou Dobbs, for god’s sakes; you don’t see that every day. But if I had to pick my favourite scandal it would have to be the Cadman affair. Did the Conservative Party offer Chuck Cadman, a Member of Parliament who was dying, a million-dollar life insurance policy in exchange for his vote? Because that’s what his widow says. But you don’t have to take her word for it. Stephen Harper is on a tape saying yes, ‘financial considerations’ were offered to a dying man. Well, if you buy the adage that where there’s smoke there’s fire, there’s so much smoke coming out of this sucker you can see it on Google Maps.

And so what’s the Prime Minister say now? Forget my voice on the tape, the only thing we offered Chuck Cadman was a chance to join the Conservative Party. Stephen, no offence, that’s the stupidest thing I ever heard in my life. Can you imagine, if you were on your deathbed, a couple of Tories came over to your house to try to buy you off and they offered you a membership in the Conservative Party? Because apparently a lot of people on their deathbed think, ‘Hmm, I wish I’d spent more time with the Tories.’

And so what’s Harper’s reaction once the opposition started asking questions? He’s suing. He’s suing the leader of the opposition. Never before in the history of Canadian democracy has a prime minister sued the leader of the opposition, but that’s what Harper’s doing. Suddenly, he’s like that guy on TV from upstate New York who’ll sue anyone anytime for anything. This coffee’s too hot? He will sue. Ask him a question outside of Question Period? He will sue. A lawsuit, by the way, that’s going to cost the taxpayers millions and millions of dollars. Our money being spent to ensure the Prime Minister won’t answer any questions that should be answered. Yes, it’s been a crazy week. And it could also be a tipping point, because Stephen Harper has always had one ace in the hole: his reputation as a straight shooter. Well, you can wave that goodbye, because when it comes to preserving reputations, Conrad Black had a better week.