1. Re: Bell Media and the infinity content problem:
More people are listening to the news, talk shows and documentaries now than at any point since the invention of TV. But the formerly dominant audio medium -- live terrestrial radio -- is no longer profitable. 2. Much of this is self-inflicted. Bell Media cheapened its product for years to juice profits and eventually to staunch the bleeding. As the drop in quality steepened -- the 2000s/2010s -- radio stations were met with competition. Not something they ever had to deal with.

1. 📰 Rover Update 📰
We're a small publication with no full-time employees, roughly 900 paid subscribers and 6,000 free subscribers.
This year, we made 49 payments out to freelancers totalling $15,025 (an average of $306 per job) 2. The average is a bit low because most of the freelancing we do involves a one or two hour editing contract that costs $150.
Roughly 33% of our freelance budget went to racialized women and 62% of it went to women (both historically underrepresented groups in journalism).

1. Just about every day in Canada, there’s a column about feminism harming/demonizing young men or some re-assessment of MeToo that focuses on a handful of cases where men are unfairly punished by the “feminist mob” instead of the thousands of women who live with abuse. 2. The reality is, about half of women murdered in this country were killed by a current or former partner. About a third of women over 15 have or will experience sexual violence. Women earn 12% less than men in Canada. Indigenous women are still coerced into sterilization.

Note to the premier, stop blaming Quebecers for your mismanagement of the pandemic. It isn’t being outdoors while the sun is still out that’s driving transmission. It’s gyms, schools, workplaces. All decisions you took. The degree to which this government is willing to reverse course on its half-assed strategy, lie about the safety of school children and blame shit on hOuSe pArTy diScOtEqUeS is only fuelling conspiracy theories and cynicism. Straight bullshit.

1. A final thought on this Blanchet thing. I was sexually abused as a child (not by a family member) and it took me more than 25 years to talk about it.
You blame yourself, you’re too humiliated to talk about it, you’re ashamed and it confuses your understanding of sexuality. 2. The trauma fucks with your memory, it messes with your sleep. Everyone I’ve ever slept next to tells me I twitch relentlessly in bed, wake up super easily, am always guarded, didn’t like being touched for years.

1. What do you call it when 90% of a people can no longer speak their language, when we take their children and place them in an abusive system, when their landmass shrinks to a postage stamp and we try to take more of it by force? 2. Someone like Mathieu Bock Côté will argue that this is a natural byproduct of Quebec’s nation building. But if that’s the case, then why demand sovereignty from Canada? Didn’t Canada just win in the Darwinian game of nation building?

1. Some things about Kahnawake that certain columnists should know:
* It’s a community of 8,000 that supports two weekly newspapers, (@easterndoor @ioriwase) a radio station and community television in the Mohawk language
* Their paddle club has sent athletes to the Olympics 2.
* Their iron workers were on the ground when the Twin Towers came down. Many helped clear rubble and developed cancer later on
* Their Lacrosse teams are among the finest in Canada
* Their kids attend school and university in Montreal (some even en français)

1. After giving Josee Legault a platform to accuse anglo Quebec journalists of harming democracy, the @FPJQ gave me -- a dues-paying anglophone member -- the right to address Legault's claims. But not without restrictions. 2. For starters, the FPJQ disclaimer at the beginning of the piece puts three paragraphs worth of distance between the federation and "M. Curtis." Also, they assure members that publishing my reply in no way puts Legault's anti-anglo journalist rant into question.

Pay attention to the critiques of New York Times' visit to Nunavut. Piece provides little historic or political context for poverty/death, uses the phrase "fume-sniffing teenagers," inadvertently helps stereotypes about Inuit. Lots to unpack. I’ve re-read @nyimes piece and it doesn’t sit right. You can’t discuss the North without talking about Canada’s attempts at erasing Inuit culture/language, it’s exploitative to open the piece on a scene of domestic violence without talking about inter generational trauma.