Introduction
To mark Canada’s 150th year as a nation, our taxpayer funded state broadcaster, the CBC, invited Canadians to “tell their story”. Stories which would provide material for their Heritage Moment videos.
Well, this is one man’s story. Almost every man’s story. But unfortunately it is not the kind of story that the CBC wants to include in its “inclusive” portrait of what it means to be a Canadian.
Our protagonist, you see, is flawed. He is not an immigrant. He is not a refugee. He is not a woman of colour. And he is not a “she” — or something in between. To make matters worse, he is not a member of the Arts Community. He is not a native dancer, carver or a story-teller — or an over-rated, second-rate cultural icon who owes his celebrity to CBC promotion. Nor is he an immigration lawyer, a grievance monger, the head of an identity group or a social justice crusader.
In fact, he is just an ordinary working class Canadian. That was his fatal mistake. To the CBC, if you’re not marginalized, you’re not interesting. If you can’t produce a registered victim card, you are not the kind of Canadian that the CBC wants to hear from.
But we must not allow the CBC to be the gatekeeper of stories. We must try to give “ordinary man” a voice and a platform. Here then, I give you:
Jim’s Story
He did it. Jim Thatcher did it. He survived Aboriginal Month in Canada.
Day after day, Jim took a pummeling. The CBC gave it all they had. They threw…