It was with great sadness that I learned that the
editor of the Daily Gleaner is no more.
Brian Kemp the guy in charge of the letters to the
editor is no more.
I had lots of fun with this guy during the last 2 to 3
years.
These editors have to be very well educated on every
issues of the day because every citizens always write
about something different.
David Williams was the editor of the telegraph Journal
for years and I used to call him almost every day.
I will admit that maybe I drove him nuts but he was
always nice to me.
My letters to the editor in the telegraph Journal came
to a complete halt around four years when Peter
Huggart a guy from Ontario took the orders from J.D.
Irving and ordered no Anit-Irving letters will be
printed.
Rob Linke also made certain that my letters will not
be printed in the Irving’s paper!!!
I made a complaint to the Atlantic Press Council and
Ken Simms < a guy from Halifax > phoned me and told me
the Irvings can do this.
From that day on, it was the end of democracy in New
Brunswick.
This is the reason that I always compare Hiltler to
the Irvings because they are denying certain
individuals the right to speak out.
Which reminds me? I got to write a letter to the CRTC
about Rogers Television.
Boy!!! the year 2006 is beginning on a bad note.
Going back to Brian Kemp? I never met the guy but we
chatted for hours over the phone.
I found him to be a very nice person and a gentleman.
A couple of years ago, I started to write letters to
the Irving Paper of the Daily Gleaner.
One day, I asked Brian - How can a person have a guest
column printed in the paper?
Do you have to dedicate your life and soul to the
Irving Empire?
He told me that I could write one and which I did.
It was a good story about the way the poor are treated
in Saint John compared to Fredericton.
It was going to be my first guest column in the Irving
papers since I wrote one for the Readers years ago.
I was told that the column would be printed on a
Monday.
I told everyone that my column will be printed and it
was a good one.
Well? Peter Huggart got transferred on a Sunday
afternoon from the telegraph Journal to the Daily
Gleaner and this Loyal Irving employee gave the orders
not to print my
column.
I was a little down and I told Brian that I will never
write a letter to the Daily Gleaner again with this
guy from Onario in charge of the Daily Gleaner.
Around six months afterwards, I call Brian and he told
me - Charles, you used to write all kinds of good
letters to the paper.
Come on Charles, write a good one.
I said - Sorry! I won’t lower myself to the Irving’s
newspaper.
This went on for a very long time until one day I
phoned Brian and told him that I decided to lower
myself to the Irving’s paper and write a letter.
He answered - Charles, that's very nice of you…lol…I
must admit that Brian took a lot of abuse from me but
never once did he hung the phone in my ear.
Letters I wrote and they all got printed.
Everything was going fine.
As long that I didn’t write Anti-Irving letters.
But there was one classic story that will always stand
out. This was an email I wrote on December 20th, 2004-
I got an funny story that happen to me last Monday.
I sent a letter to the editor of the Daily Gleaner the
story about my priest!
I knew that I already had a letter about the Irvings
but I decided to send another one about Father Brien!
I phoned the Editor and asked - Did you received my
letter?
He quickly answered - Charles, I have two letters
here! Which one you want printed? The one of the
Irvings or the one of the Priest????
I quickly replied - MY GOD??? YOU’RE ASKING ME TO
CHOOSE BETWEEN GOD OR THE IRVING???? I KNOW THAT MANY
OF YOU IRVING EMPLOYEES BELIEVE THAT THE IRVINGS ARE
GOD BUT I’M VERY SORRY!!! WE MUST PUT THE IRVINGS ON
ONE SIDE FOR A WHILE!!!
WE MUST CHOOSE GOD!!!!!
Someone told me a joke - The Irvings might believe
there are God but God never one said that he believes
he’s Irving!!! …lol…
I phoned the Editor during the week to make certain
that the letter of the priest will be printed and he
did a fantastic job.
Here’s the letter if you missed it-
document.write(CETransPubCode("DG Readers' Forum"));
Daily Gleaner | Readers' Forum
As published on page A11 on December 18, 2004
Father Brien will be honoured
Dear Editor: While sitting in my classroom in the late
1960s, a mysterious man walked into our class.
It was the new priest who was just ordained as a
priest in Memramcook. He had black hair and was
carrying a guitar.
His name was Father Emery Brien, and we all loved this
man. Emery was different from other priests. He got a
group together and played the drum and guitar in the
church.
This was very unheard of in those days. It was called
Le Groupe rythme de Memramcook. Every Saturday
evening, Acadians would attend the service and the
main reason was to listen to these performers.
In the early 1980s, Father Brien was transferred to
Saint Louis de Kent and a huge party was held in the
valley to say good bye to this fine priest.
I might add there wasn't a dry eye in the area.
I visited Father Brien once or twice while he was
stationed in his new village. After a few years, I
lost touch with Father Brien, although I did see him
at least once.
When I began my protest in my tent in front of the
legislature I was told that Father Brien was stationed
in the capital. I just couldn't believe it. I quickly
phoned the priest and he came to see me.
It sure was nice to see my old friend again. He was
the main force of my protest. As I told Premier
Bernard Lord, Father Brien told me that I am doing the
right thing. I told the premier that I had the Lord on
my side.
If I could have the other Lord on the same side
everything would be perfect.
During the evenings, Father Brien would come and visit
me and we would discuss many different issues. I was
curious about his views on the scandal in the Catholic
church.
He told me that some priests abuse their hold on
power. They believe they can get away with almost
anything. He told me that many kids came to him for a
hug. If the parents are not around, he makes certain
there's no hugging. He will hug a child if the parents
are around.
It's a darn shame that the scandal ruined it for the
good priests.
So, why did I decide to write about this priest you
may ask?
On Dec 19th, after the 10 a.m. service, people will
mark the 40th anniversary that Father Emery Brien was
ordained as a priest.
There will be a little get together in the basement of
Ste-Anne-des-Pays-Bas after the first service.
Everyone is welcome.
Charles LeBlanc Fredericton
Yes, my letters to the editor to the Irving’s
newspapers are officially over!
The Moncton Transcript have banned my letters years
ago and the Telegraph Journal has quickly follow its
sister papers.
Now the Daily Gleaner has joined all the Irving
papers.
I will miss Brian Kemp because he was truly one of the
best.
Who’s the individual in charge of the letters these
days?
Surely, it must be someone who has just graduated from
Saint-Thomas.
The Irvings are training and brainwashing these future
journalists big times.
We are all in trouble in New Brunswick.
By the way? Where's the report from the Senate on the
Irving’s monopoly in this Province???
Good bye Brian and you’ll be missed.
Here’s a copy of a guest column he wrote in today’s
Irving paper.
It is a sad day indeed.
So long Brian et Bonne Chance mon chum!!!!!
Here's Brian's Good bye note. in his own words-
Daily Gleaner | Guest Commentaries
As published on page C8 on January 2, 2006
There is a tinge of sadness at leaving Fredericton
Click to zoom Brian Kemp outsdie the Daily Gleaner
By BRIAN KEMP
My love for Fredericton became obvious as I jogged
along the trail near the river one July afternoon,
just before supper and nearly entered the throes of
heat stroke.
It was about 34 C, and the heat was drawing the
moisture from my body at a rate that worried me quite
a bit.
Coming from Saint John, and its fog and cooler
temperatures, I was certainly not used to running in
such conditions.
As I ran, I started to curse this place and its heat.
"Why, why, why did I come here?" I remembered thinking
as I entered the outer edges of heat stroke.
But then I reached the walking bridge that crosses the
river and jogged on it for the first time.
There were dozens of people all along it: families,
couples, older folks, other joggers - it was
Fredericton, all in one place.
People were enjoying the outdoors and taking in what
nature had to offer, even though it was one of the
hottest, most humid days of the year.
I don't know whether it was the near heat stroke or
the somewhat cool breeze from the river, but from that
moment on I looked at Fredericton in a different way.
I liked the place.
No longer did I compare it to my hometown. No longer
did I not get a sense of the place.
I did that day, and the feeling stuck, and I later
found it again in other places in the area, from Odell
park to the beach at Mactaquac.
It's one reason why I feel a tinge of sadness at
leaving Fredericton and my job as Opinion editor at
The Daily Gleaner.
Yes, when you read this, I'll be in my new city,
Toronto, taking on new challenges.
(Some say ducking bullets will be my biggest challenge
up there. We'll see. The resident computer expert at
The Daily Gleaner, Danny Lawson, suggested I wear a
bullet-proof vest made out of Alpine caps. Good idea,
I'll get right on that and, if it doesn't work, it
will be "user error," a popular techie term.)
I should tell you a little about myself, so you might
miss me.
I'm the the person who wrote most of the editorials
you've read in this paper the last four years.
I've edited your letters and worked with regular
columnists and our guest columnists.
Maybe you liked me, maybe you didn't. It didn't matter
to me.
As long as we were debating the issues I didn't care
whether we took opposite views on same-sex marriage or
the smoking ban.
I will certainly miss that debate. There are some
brave and opiniated people in this city.
I say brave because they go out on a limb and put
their names to strong letters that do make a
difference in the public conciousness.
A few letters stand out in my mind - from the woman
who witnessed a boy beating on a girl on the north
side and was sorry she did nothing to stop it, to the
letter from the family of a man who drowned in the St.
John River thanking his would-be rescuer.
I welcomed all letters. I want to thank the thousands
of you who wrote. I learned something from each one.
Learning is good.
I certainly learned there are some stubborn
politicians in the region. Fredericton Coun. Walter
Brown comes to mind right away.
Walter, my former boss Kathy Jenkins (who hired me)
and I certainly had our share of run-ins when it came
to the proposed development of Fort Nashwaak and the
development of trails on private land on the north
side, for example.
Walter did not back down when we disagreed with him.
In fact, he let us have it.
At first, I did not understand his nature, but I later
saw that he cares about people and cared about making
the right decision, even though in those two cases he
was wrong.
(Sorry, Walter, I could not resist.)
While I'm thinking about politicians, I must tell
Mayor Brad Woodside, a former columnist for the paper,
that I forgive him for telling me last that he was
going to run for mayor again.
I think I heard he was running from a man who was
asking me for money on the street.
The fellow said he was on his way out of town because
he thought Woodside was going to win. Just kidding,
Mr. Mayor, he didn't say that. I actually told him he
should leave.
(See, I'm not bitter.)
One thing that lessened my bitterness - somewhat, it
seems - was the people that work at The Daily Gleaner.
They are truly a great group of people who work hard
every day to put out a good product.
Like all work environments, people have different
roles to fill, and I'm not talking about job
descriptions when I say that.
My role, self appointed of course, was to instigate
and antagonize.
I was the opinion editor, after all, and had to give
my opinion on most anything.
(My only regret was the top five bags of popcorn
rating I gave to Sweet Home Alabama during my short
stint as a movie reviewer here. That opinion should
have been reeled in and gutted. My colleagues here
pretty well shamed me into stopping my reviews after
that particular one. I would like to thank them.)
I offer a public apology to those people here, whom I
offended. I'd list their names, but there are only so
many words left in this column.
I guess I figured that if I ever left that my buddies
will certainly remember me.
Well, it turns out that I will remember them as well,
quite fondly, in fact.
We had a lot of fun as we worked hard, and that is a
blessing in a workplace. You, the readers, are being
served by a dedicated bunch of editors, writers and
photographers.
The Daily Gleaner is only as good as the city. And
this is a good city with much to be proud of.
I'll miss much about this city by the river, and it's
not the heat stroke talking.
17 comments:
A private company controlling what is published in newspapers that it owns does not end democracy - or even democratic dialogue.
It doesn't in theory, and it hasn't in New Brunswick.
Also see Godwin's Law - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin's_law
"there is a tradition in many Usenet newsgroups that once such a comparison is made, the thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress."
~I wonder if the great democraticly minded editor of this site will allow this post to remain~
Every once in a while Charles, you come across a person like the person your wrote about.
And Yup, it's Sad to see them go or leave or whatever. That's when you have to think of the Old Bob Hope song he used to sing at his USO Shows for the troops away from home at Christmas and New Years
" Thanks For The Memories "
People like the chap you wrote about, almost Make up for all the Other Goof's we come across day after day after day :>)
You can tell Christmas is Over for Another Year { lol }
Let the Verbal Shot's Begin { lol }
4:39 PM
Your statement has been shot down, Charles allowed your statement to Stand.
So why don't you go have an extra helping of Dumb for Supper Tonight.
Geezzzzzzzzzzz
Me coomparing the Irvings to Nazis is totally taken out of context. The Irvings don't go around and shot or execute people. My main concern is freedom of speech. I told this to many talk shows and we continue to do so in this. When you deny people from writing letters on certain issues? Then you have old Germany all over again! It's simple as Bonjour!!!!
My God? I just read the blog. The grammar is terrible...sorry about that.....
Don't worry about it Charles, your is better than what you read in Empire Newspapers :>)
'Godwin' may have a law, that doesn't make it true, you might as well say "if somebody says 'lemon pie' then they have lost the argument". In case it hasn't been noticed-this isn't Usenet, and there are no 'traditions' here.
However, I will once again voice my complaint that I believe that the Hitler comparison simply serves to mark Charles as an extremist and drives many people away. I've heard this many times from family and friends and always tell them to 'see past it'.
The argument is of course about censorship, and we shouldn't pretend Hitler was the only person who burned books, it's still a regular practise in many parts of the states, and maybe in Canada.
Under Stalin state censorship was far worse than anything Hitler dreamt up. In the book 'Animal Farm' the introduction by George Orwell claims that while the book is a parody of totalitarian Russia, it applies to Britain as well. Ironically, the printers would not allow the introduction to be printed and even now you can't find a copy of the book with the original introduction.
We all know that Hitler=genocide, so the immediate mention of his name brings up that whole issue and distracts from the REAL issues-private ownership of the press.
I also sort of agree that it is NOT the 'end of democracy' simply because this is New Brunswick, a former colony which still operates under "responsible government". Which means of course that democracy hasn't even begun in this province. Go read about the political structure of our neighbour Maine and you'll see what I mean.
7:23pm? That's a very good point. Every instance you mentioned the name Hitler? You think about the Jews. I'm thinking what happen before the killing of the Jews. My main point is when he first took power? He took control of the newsspapers. My main concern is our freedom of speech!!!!
The chap who mentioned state censorship hit the nail on the head.
State censorship is bad - even evil.
Corporate news censorship is just business.
ALL censorship is the same. The germans never owned the press, the press simply followed their lead. The same goes for Irving. So the government is bound to the press, do what the company wants or you'll lose the election (obviously, if there is only one company owning all the press).
But for Charles I'd suggest a more apt comparison communist Russia, even though they killed more people, people don't go into irrational hysterics and get off topic. Or simply the company towns of down south. However, quite honestly most NB'ers know the situation, and there really doesn't have to be a 'mascot' for the censorship. Clearly the Irvings ARE doing state censorship, since the provincial government has no say in media.
As Thomas Jefferson once said:
Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and cannot be limited without being lost.
Plain and simple Charles.
Yeah, the government should control the press better so Irving can't own it all.
Yeah, the government should control the press better so Irving can't own it all.
No, the PEOPLE should own the press.Which is what is slowly happening with the internet.
Too bad we don't have a paper that would print what is really going on instead of attacking the Court brothers. They try to destroy the character of some people and then build other people up and give them a positive spin. This election has not been any different when they hire writers to biasly write to put certain political people down to serve their own purpose. It has always worked in the past but now I hope people become more informed. Years ago someone would say this is a good person but now that nolonger is acceptable because you have to check things out. Just look back at how people voted for the Mayor and Councillors; if only we could get rid of them. The damage will be done and they will go their merry little way and we will have to pick up the pieces; paying high rates for everything. Wake up and speak up!
Two points. The Court brothers do a good enough job of making themselves look bad - they don't need the Irvings bashing them.
Second, "the people" don't own the news because "the people" can't afford to publish newspapers.
"The damage will be done and they will go their merry little way and we will have to pick up the pieces; paying high rates for everything. Wake up and speak up!"
Imagine how hard it will be to get business here with these high taxes. Oh wait, the business taxes are low. Good thing.
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