I'm just sayin'

Pot Edward Island II

I'm back from vacation, with lots of stories to tell about how I covered more of this country by air in the last two weeks than anyone should.

Sadly (or happily, depending on your point of view) I have a ton of work to catch up on, but I did want to show you this from the National Post, where the guy who wrote the Pot Edward Island article tries to defend himself.... funny stuff:

The author of an article in a Boston newspaper that claimed Prince Edward Island was a marijuana paradise has fired back at Canadians who derided his story as wildly inaccurate.

Alan Earls, a reporter for the Boston Phoenix weekly, had described P. E. I. as "Pot Edward Island," and claimed among other things that it has become a haven for dope growers fuelled by cheap Quebec electricity.

In reality, P. E. I. gets most of its power from New Brunswick, and Denis Morin, and RCMP spokesman quoted in the article about the seizure of increasing amounts of marijuana in the province later said that the figures were "quite minor in the scale of things for P. E. I. and Canada."

In a response to his critics in Monday's edition of the newspaper, Mr. Earls said they were motivated by "anger that a dumb American would have the audacity to find fault with anything Canadian (it is tough, I'll admit), let alone anything having to do with Canada's garden spot, P. E. I."

Fuck you too.

EDITED TO ADD:

I found his full response on the website of the self-agrandizing rag he writes for. I feel compelled, in the interest of fairness, to share it all.... which is more accurate or fair than this hack was:

ALAN R. EARLES RESPONDS
Prince Edward Island is probably the nicest place I’ve ever visited. There, I’ve said it. Unfortunately, when I’ve traveled there (twice, in 2006 and 2008), I have also discovered that, despite the fact that it looks like paradise, it has problems just like other places. In particular, the provincial newspapers have had quite a few stories about local pot growers. So, I got interested and wrote an article for the Phoenix about this aspect of PEI that is not well known to outsiders and which, in fact, probably should worry islanders.

Folks up north nailed me on a couple of reporting errors — like my statement that PEI imports “cheap” electricity from Quebec (it actually comes from New Brunswick). I was also told repeatedly by Canadian critics that I had named the wrong person as director of the PEI Federation of Agriculture. After re-checking my facts, however, I found that I was indeed right and my friends in Canada were wrong: the holder of the title is in fact Mike Nabuurs (though I did miss the last two consonants on his name in my piece — sorry Mike!).

The article was not meant to suggest that PEI has become a giant exporter of pot or a major narcotics haven north of the border. Rather, the point was to contrast an ongoing and seemingly worsening situation with PEI’s image as a clean, peaceful, and serene destination. That this situation could worsen or could impact the larger picture of drug trafficking in New England and in the Maritimes seems implicit. The minor factual errors in the story do not undercut the accuracy of this message.

The errors weren't "minor", they were throughout the entire story, and most of the premise. He tries to sound like the "cheap" electricity comes from New Brunswick, when in fact, it just isn't cheap.

See that Colbertesque truthiness at work. Say you got the name wrong, not the entire idea of the cheap electricity.

From the tortured prose in the original, and the slick ass covering in the response, this clown is the sort of guy I warn people about... the reporter with the story already written in their head before they even talk to anyone.

Now, on to my vacation stories.

Pot Edward Island?

An article from the Boston Phoenix has some of my fellow Islanders very upset, branding Prince Edward Island as a pot grower's paradise.

A link to the story here

A local CBC story about the Tourism Minister expressing rage here.

The article is based on one shooting of an elderly gent who was operating a grow op in rural PEI. Thing is, that was in 2004 and this is not.... not that I blame a farmer for trying out new crops, potatoes don't fetch what they used to.

Plus, the writer is a little overwrought, if you get my drift. Here is the lead paragraph:

When you think of PEI, you probably come up with crisp, clean-cut tourist-brochure images: lush and rolling hills, tranquil ocean beaches, villages of whitewashed cottages and, inevitably, the smiling face of the island’s indefatigably cheery heroine, Anne of Green Gables. But while Lucy Maud Montgomery’s fictional Edwardian character maintained her Pollyanna disposition on the strength of nothing but her spunk and a cheerily romantic vision of how life should be, it seems modern-day islanders have discovered another way to smile through the summer and avoid the blues during the bleak local winters.

Try to read it starting at the second line, and see if you can make it through without a breath. Then he gets into describing a "lurid" story in The Guardian... really, "Hey everybody, watch out for grow ops" isn't that damn lurid.

Want to see something lurid, how about this description of PEI, describing four city police forces (there are really only two) and "dry" communities in PEI. I live in a territory with actual dry communities, and there is not a dry community on PEI, unless they mean without a liquor store in the community... just drive for 15 minutes, you'll hit a LC on the Island.

Getting an authoritative picture of the province’s pot industry is difficult.

No kidding, especially when you are writing from Boston and can't get simple facts right, like the amount of cops and the legality of alcohol.

The writer also says that PEI pot is fueled by cheap electricity from Quebec... untrue, so untrue.

something that may be deep-rooted in the largely libertarian attitudes of PEI and the Maritimes in general.

So, are Islanders "largely libertarian" or are they scared of the big bad dope growers? Anyone who has lived in the Maritimes can attest that the residents are far from libetarians.

Then the writer quotes The Guardian's comments section... because anonymous message board posts are clearly the best look into a community's psyche.

Officialdom is not immune to such sentiments either. In July 2003, when Marc Emery, a Vancouver activist on a crusade to make pot legal in Canada, performed his trademark stunt of getting high in public, Charlottetown police looked the other way and refused his invitation to arrest and prosecute.

That part is true, but they are adding motive where none exists. Emery wanted to get arrested, and the City Cops couldn't be bothered to arrest him.

The City Cops really don't much care about weed. I remember being outside the backdoor of a wellknown Charlottetown nightclub with a group of people who were, as Black Thought would say, "huffing on the tenth letter".

A woman officer for the Charlottetown PD started making her way carefully down the alley, acknowledged us, and kept on creeping.

We found out the next day that there had been a stabbing a few blocks away and she was chasing the stabber. Good work City Cops, keeping your eye on the ball.

Why give Emery any more free publicity?

Many of the mainstream farmers Nabuu represents — for the most part a prosperous bunch in this “Garden of the Gulf” — aren’t paying much attention to the burgeoning industry.

This one gets a big FUCK YOU from me. PEI's farmers are not prosperous. A few factory farmers are for sure, but I've visited with potato farmers getting less than one cent a pound.

If you are going to make sweeping statements about a province, at least show up, douche.

The article finishes with:

Alan R. Earls is a Boston-area writer. He can be reached atearls_alan@yahoo.com.

He can also go fuck himself... not for promoting PEI Red-Hair, the jewel of the Million Acre Farm, but for taring the province with a brush -- weilded without art, grace, style or substance -- and he couldn't even be bothered to visit.

Bigger than life, and twice as tough

Joseph gets bigger every day, and here are two cool pics to share of my 10 month old baby boy. Inflatable Elvis got a full taste of his baby of rage routine last night, when Joseph kicked his ass but good.


UCLA like thuggin' style at work.

We don't feed the baby chocolate, but he found some. I got home for lunch, and saw some clothes stained brown.. I assumed the worst, a poop explosion of sorts.



Nope, just a silly baby who found some chocolate.

Sovereignty Squad

Operation Nanook is coming up, which is like Christmas in August for reporters here in Nunavut. The Armed forces come in and put on a show for everyone and get in some very unique training. Reporters get to tag along and send the story everywhere else.

That is key, what is a sovereignty exercise if there is no one there to take pictures? It is a tree falling in the forest, and does nothing to reinforce Canadian claims to the Arctic.

Luckily the good folks at Joint Task Force North know that, and few things I have done with them have been fantastic. They are JTFN, and we, the media are the Sovereignty Squad, bolstering their claims with independant 3rd party journalism.

Plus, it is fun. I've been to the Eureka Weather Station, and I never would have been there if it wasn't for the Forces. This time out, I am on board ships for three days and then I'm spending two days on the land with the Rangers.

All that said, I always laugh when I get the waiver to sign for the Forces. It is the most uniquely northern document I have ever been asked to sign (except for the Legion membership application, where you have to state you aren't a communist).

Here is the funny part:

"I understand that military activities in northern regions of Canada involve unique additional inherent risks including but not limited to:

-- geographic and temporal disorientation (how very Star Trek, temporal disorientation)
-- falling onto and through ice and packed snow
-- wind-chill freezing of exposed flesh (Welcome to Iqaluit)
-- hypothermia
-- frostbite
-- trench foot (Stay out of trenches)
-- immersion foot
-- dehydration
-- hypothermia
-- cold diuresis (I don't even know what this one means)
-- sun burn
-- snow blindness
-- constipation
-- and wild animal attacks"

Now that is a waiver... and you have to release the Queen from any responsability. Your Majesty, whatever happens will likely be my own fault, so I do release you.

I am America, and so can you

Stephen Colbert is America's last best hope.

Who else could say this with a straight face:

"Throughout the 1970s, white men were caricatured in “whitesploitation” films like Death Wish and Annie Hall."

Enjoy the weekend.

Blogging bits

Since it is summer, blogging has slowed to a crawl. A stop even. So, to tide you over until the snow starts flying again, some bits of blog, short ones:

-- I caught my first char on Sunday, after three years trying. He was small, but had hooked himself so bad, catch and release wasn't an option. I got blood all over my sunglasses trying to put him out of his misery.



-- Our son is so tall that when he went to the doctor yesterday, he was too tall for the baby measure they have. Joseph Too Tall fears nothing. He is standing and dancing, just not walking yet, but he started giving everyone high fives yesterday.

-- Tonight on APTN National News, I find a way to carry a slushie on camera for most of a story. Worst tasting slushie ever, I think they forgot the sugar. In related news, it went up to 23 degrees on Monday.

-- The Swedish military landed in force on the weekend. The poor guy I was talking to, the only words I said that he understood were "Mats Sundin". NHL, cutting through cultural barriers.

-- In the last two weeks I've seen a handful of CF-18's and the Swedish jets taking off from the airport. Wow... so loud, as I live next door to the airport.

-- I have a new talent, now I am going to be doing a little camera work to go with my on air stuff. The more skills I can add up, the better. News is all moving toward one medium. If you want to have a career in it, you better learn how to use all the tools. On that subject though, if you own a chisel, you aren't always a carver, so we'll see.

-- Saturday is Parks Day, my first solo shooting assignment. No bears please.

See you in September :)