Only Al Gore can verify whether or not Canadian Prime Minister has crushed free speech on Bush's behalf

"Where were you when Cloak and Dagger was killed?"

 http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040207/MOJO07

Posner’s is the only article in the mainstream media that I know of covering the story of a Mr. Lenny Bloom's # 1 radio show, "Cloak and Dagger" on Mojo 640AM in Toronto. Mr. Bloom has some serious allegations posted on his website,  http://www.cloakanddagger.ca ; namely that Paul Martin had this show cancelled at President Bush's request because the radio show was giving away too many state secrets. As the days unfold, it seems that there are more and more layers to the Liberal Onion of Corruption, and I would not be suprised if Mr. Bloom's allegations are true. We are certainly living in interesting times, to paraphrase an old Chinese curse.

Regardless of the scandalous allegations on Bloom's website (which include Tony Blair taking a 16billion dollar bribe from President Bush) I want to know why, if his allegations are patently untrue, has Bloom gone uncharged (for 76 weeks) under Canada's Libel laws? Were Prime Minister Martin and the Liberal cronies afraid that an inquiry would bring down their whole deck of cards? Judging from the events of the day, I'd say so.

Unfortunately, Mr Posner's article does not offer closure on the story. It says that Al Gore verifies the whole thing, but did not go so far as to verify with Gore's office. Also,it cites BBM survey Data, but does not give concrete proof (by citing said data) of Bloom's claim that his show was number one in its timeslot.

Will someone please contact Al Gore and ask whether or not he will stand by these allegations, namely, that President Bush asked Paul Martin to get the show off the air as part of oil concessions in Monterrey, Mexico. If it is true that Mr. Martin did have the show cancelled, then this means that President Bush can crush free speech in our country, which I thought was sovereign.

How could Mr. Martin close down a radio show? Easily - Mojo AM640 is owned by Corus Entertainment, a Shaw-family majority owned subsidiary. As a Hollywood Reporter article hints, Canada's media houses may have been unduly kind to Mr. Martin, as they have been expecting him to loosen up foreign media ownership restrictions in Canada, and the ensuing buyouts could enrich the shareholders of Corus, Rogers, Bell and CanWest.  http://www.friends.ca/News/Friends_News/archives/articles01020401.asp

Just a thought; the Carlyle group is getting into Telecom.  http://www.thecarlylegroup.com/eng/industry/industryportfoliol4-2315.html Moreover, they are definitely familiar with the Canadian market  http://money.msn.ca/articles/investor/finnews/reuters/P366639.asp as they recently sold subsidiaries to Quebecor.

The CEO of Corus is a Mr. John Cassaday, and the only link I can find between him and Mr. Martin is their alma mater, the University of Toronto.  http://www.alumni.utoronto.ca/greatalumni.htm What we have here is a possible motive; Martin, to get cozy with President Bush, bows to (as Bloom alleges) “oil concessions” and then does him a favor by 'calling in' a favor from one of Canada's media houses, who stands to benefit from having Mr. Martin in power. Posner's article could make the jump from the land of conspiracy theory to the land of fact if he just asked Al Gore and Corus (not Mojo) what the hell is going on here.

I can’t find Al Gore’s office, so maybe some IndyMedia members know where the heck we can contact him to verify.

Again, we might have to wait until all the facts are in, as it would fit in with Bloom’s show format to make insane allegations. It’s easy to see why Bush would want the show off the air simply by looking at the stuff on Bloom and Skolnick’s websites, or the stuff that’s archived on  http://www.rense.com like this article  http://www.rense.com/general49/midfing.htm


www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040207/MOJO07





Quebecor/Carlyle link wrong
by Harper Fan • Friday February 13, 2004 at 03:08 PM



The Reuters link should be  http://money.msn.ca/investor/finnews/reuters/news/ReutersStory_26.asp

and the story should be:
Financing Gains Take Quebecor to Profit
Thursday, February 12, 2004 5:26:14 PM ET

By Robert Melnbardis

MONTREAL (Reuters) - Media and printing company Quebecor Inc. posted a fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, aided by financing and other gains but held back by losses at its printing unit.

Quebecor, a holding company that owns Canada's Sun Media newspaper chain -- which is expected to be spun off this year, possibly along with broadcasting and Internet assets -- said it earned C$67.4 million ($50.5 million), or C$1.04 a share.

That compared with a profit of C$300,000, or nil a share, a year earlier.

The latest net profit figure included a C$97 million gain on debt refinancing and the repurchase of preferred shares of its Videotron Telecom unit.

In December, 54.7 percent owned Quebecor Media bought the shares of the business telecoms unit held by Carlyle Group for C$125 million, which produced an after-tax gain of C$154 million, the company said.

Excluding unusual items, Quebecor lost 1 Canadian cent a share in the quarter, compared with a profit of 71 Canadian cents a share, according to company documents.

The average estimate of analysts polled by Reuters Research was for a profit of 72 Canadian cents a share.

Revenues fell to C$2.9 billion from C$3.2 billion.

Profits at Quebecor, which is controlled by the family of its president and chief executive, Pierre-Karl Peladeau, were held back by losses at its Quebecor World Inc. printing unit.

Quebecor World, in which Quebecor has a 35.6 percent equity stake but 84.6 percent of the voting rights, reports its results in U.S. dollars.

It posted a net loss of $54 million in the quarter, compared with a profit of $71 million, on weak advertising spending and production overcapacity in the global printing market.

Standard & Poor's Ratings Services downgraded its outlook on Thursday for Quebecor World to negative from stable, largely because of the company's weak debt ratios and concerns about difficult market conditions. S&P said it could downgrade Quebecor World's debt ratings if there is no meaningful improvement in its credit ratios in the next few quarters.

MEDIA UNIT SPINOFF EXPECTED

Analysts expect Quebecor to seek to spin off the media unit this year. Aside from Sun Media, the unit controls broadcaster TVA Group Inc. , Netgraphe Internet information and electronic commerce company and Nurun Web integration and technology unit.

During a conference call with analysts, Quebecor executives did not discuss a timetable for the unit's spinoff, but took pains to note its improving profits and cash flow.

Revenues at Quebecor Media rose to C$631 million from C$623 million, while its profit jumped to C$178 million from a loss of C$180 million.

The Videotron unit, which is Quebec's largest cable operator and No. 3 in Canada, posted a 5.6 percent increase in revenues to C$210 million from C$199 million, while operating income rose to C$75 million from C$64 million.

Operating profit was flat at C$66 million in its newspaper division on sales of C$225 million versus C$223 million. Sun Media is Canada's second-largest newspaper chain.

Broadcasting revenues were flat at C$97 million, while operating profit fell to C$28.6 million from C$30.8 million.

Revenues in the leisure and entertainment division, which owns the Archambault music store chain and book publishing assets, rose marginally to C$69.2 million, while operating profit was flat at C$6 million.

Quebecor class B shares rose 5 Canadian cents to C$26.80 on the Toronto Stock Exchange on Thursday. They have risen 61 percent over the past year and 14 percent over the past month.

($1=$1.32 Canadian)

© Reuters 2004