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Neanderthalean cynicism confirmed

Jim Sinclair's (of the B.C. Federation of Labour) letter of December 2 confirms the Neanderthalean cynicism of the union leaders who precipitated this needless problem at the Calgary Herald. They have no grievance, are well paid (an average reporter receives over $64,000 annually), work 35 hour weeks and enjoy a free fitness centre and subsidized day care.

We have shown nothing but respect for the "basic rights of workers", including the right not to be used as industrial cannon-fodder by corrupt union leaders. The present strike is an attempted left-wing coup d'etat in the newsroom of the Calgary Herald, which serves a community that includes very few mindless socialists of the type he would find convivial.

Our company, in founding the National Post and other daily newspapers, including those in Cranbrook, Fort St. John and Peace River, has created almost as many jobs in the industry as the labour movement has been severely complicit in terminating, in the deaths of the Montreal Star, Ottawa Journal, Toronto Telegram, Winnipeg Tribune and Oshawa Times.

I note his gratuitous comment about Canada and ChrČtien. In the last month in Canada I found no one in sympathy with the primitive, parochial and xenophobic views he expressed. My "personal squabble" with ChrČtien is a legal dispute over breach of contract and the rights of citizenship, not subjects of and for which I would expect him to have the slightest knowledge or respect.

If he wishes to cancel a subscription to the National Post (presumably as a result of lip-strain after too ambitious a foray into bisyllabic reading), contact its circulation department. That newspaper, like the Nelson Daily News, will face up to living without him with courage and fortitude.

Sincerely, Conrad Black

Predictably comprehensively misinformed

In response to Adriana Rosenszvaig's (general secretary of the International Graphical Federation) letter of December 2, I have the pleasure of informing you that every assertion in it about our conduct in the current dispute at the Calgary Herald is mistaken. She have predictably been comprehensively misinformed by the CEP. The intermediate and senior employees involved receive approximately $65,000 as an annual basic compensation package for a 35-hour work week. Their average age is in the early 30's, with ample prospects for increased compensation, and the office in which they work is an excellent facility with subsidized daycare services and a free fitness centre. There is no history of capricious or unreasonable termination of employment and none will occur in the future. They are free to return to work at any time and approximately one third have already done so. The rest should follow as their present antics will gain them nothing. These poor misguided strikers are just pawns, pathetic industrial cannon fodder, for dishonest union organizers.

Practically the exclusive issue is the ambition of the CEP to use the shareholders' newspaper to misinform the public as they have misinformed her. This practice seriously eroded the franchise by alienating the Calgary community in the past. We have reinforced the franchise in the last several years as circulation, advertising and the extent, balance and quality of editorial content have all improved materially.

Several newspaper unions have been complicit in the destruction and closing of a number of Canadian newspapers in the last 20 years, including the Ottawa Journal and the Montreal Star, throwing thousands of people into unemployment. There will be no recurrence in this case. The Calgary Herald in the hands of the readers has not suffered at all from the strike; objectively it is probably an improved product. The CEP enjoys no support from informed public opinion and its attempt at readers' and advertisers' boycott has been a complete fiasco, despite the famous intervention of a few bedraggled posturing left-wing writers.

I trust that she will find this the "positive answer" she requested.

Yours sincerely, Conrad Black

Whining press pup not baronial stuff

As the proprietor of the Sherbrooke Record, one of the few remaining independent newspapers in Quebec, I am deeply vexed over the state of media ownership today.

We operate a small-circulation, non-chain newspaper and can’t reasonably afford our own printing press. This makes me reliant on my competitor – Quebec media colossus Power Corp. – who prints my paper in Granby, a distance of some thirty miles away. When I recently spoke in public about my discomfiture with the rapid concentration of media ownership and openly criticized Power Corp., so serious was the deterioration of our relationship with our printer, that we are now obliged to transfer our business to the only other printer in the geographic area, whose place of business is in the state of Vermont.

I realize my young age of only 25 years may make my statements seem naive. Some may say that with age and wisdom, I will come to understand there is nothing to worry about. However, I can’t stand docilely by and witness what is happening to Canadian newspapers.

In my opinion, further consolidation towards monopolistic situations is reprehensible and monopolies are undesirable. Diversity of opinion and aggressive newsgathering tend to disappear with the disappearance of competition, and public opinion could thereby become more hostage to private interests than to public policy.

C. Black, Sherbrooke, Quebec

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