When Burnaby NOW reporter Kelvin Gawley showed up to a press conference hosted by the People’s Party of Canada – with party leader Maxime Bernier –he was told he couldn’t take part.
Gawley was greeted on Thursday with the tired Trumpism “fake news” by a PPC supporter, who said the NOW couldn’t be part of the presser.
Now, this was weird behaviour because just a couple of weeks before, the PPC contacted me and asked if Bernier come to our office on Thursday to meet with the editorial staff.
I said sure because we’re open to all of the candidates and parties running in the Burnaby South byelection.
That statement might surprise PPC supporters because many of them think the NOW is somehow against them. I have written some blogs critical of PPC candidate Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson, but I’ve also written opinion blogs critical of the Conservative, Liberal and NDP candidates during the campaign. Just recently I took aim at Jagmeet Singh for his campaigning with Kennedy Stewart.
But as far as our news coverage goes, Gawley has devoted extensive space to the PPC in a fair manner. My blogs are opinion pieces.
But the PPC supporters can’t seem to tell the two apart so when they were organizing the Bernier event on Thursday, the NOW wasn’t on the PPC’s “favourites” list of media outlets.
But Gawley went anyways and was told he couldn’t come in. However, another PPC representative saw Gawley and did invite the NOW to take part, which led to our story yesterday that you can read here.
Sigh.
It’s exhausting dealing with such childishness.
Personally, if the PPC doesn’t want us to interview Bernier then that’s their loss. You don’t want coverage, fine. That’s your prerogative. The NOW will always have stories to write about.
But I’m glad more sensible heads prevailed.
Bernier is a skilled politician who also has some disturbing views on many topics, such as immigration.
Which is why he draws support from people like Vancouver resident Sherolinnah Eang, who was interviewed by Gawley as she cheered Bernier’s arrival.
Apart from admitting that she has never voted in the 45 years she’s lived in Canada – nothing to be proud of – Eang said Bernier is “very similar to President Trump” in both policy and personality, calling both men honest (yikes!).
Eang also whined about how her freedom of speech was compromised because she can’t freely express her love for a certain American president.
“I love Trump, and I\’m afraid to express that,” she said.
Eang said people swore at her when she wore one of U.S. President Donald Trump’s signature campaign hats with his slogan: “Make America Great Again.”
To Eang, I say that you have the freedom say whatever you want, but people here have the freedom to tell you they hate your opinion.
Same as people have the right to yell at me about my opinion pieces in the NOW (which happens a lot).
That’s how our society works.
What Eang seems to want is the freedom to never be challenged on her views. Well, that’s not going to happen – especially when her views support a racist like Trump.
The byelection is on Monday and I hope every eligible voter exercises their democratic right to vote.
Once the dust settles, things will gear up for the full federal election this fall, which means many months more of childishness to come.
Good times.
This content was originally published here.