We are still all a-twitter over the CBC and Jian Ghomeshi. Would that we cared as much about the portrayal of the mentally ill on CBC as much as we care about the women who allege to have been harassed/assaulted by the Ghomeshi. Would that the Canadian taxpayer be as involved in reprimanding the CBC for its many attempts to explain the murder of Cpl. Cirillo as the actions of a man with mental illness rather than the fact that the facts point to home-grown lone-wolf terrorism.
I have lodged complaints with the CBC and have learned that the CBC will not let facts interfere with their agenda. Let me provide the background before you read the response to my November 5th complaint from Ms. Melanson, executive producer of the local radio programs in Toronto, including Metro Morningat the CBC.
On October 24 the Q media group came together to speak about the death of Cpl. Cirillo. They said that they would not jump to conclusions as this was a sensitive issue. They meant not jumping to the conclusion that ZIha-Bibeau was a terrorist. But they had no problem especially Judy Rebick, self-styled radical, calling Zihaf Bibeau “clinically insane” and so went the programme.
November 4, Matt Galloway of the Morning Show read us a letter from the Facebook page of Ms. Polko, the twenty something girlfriend of four months, of Cpl Cirillo, the soldier who was shot in the back while standing guard at the War Memorial in Ottawa, by Zihaf-Bibeau.
Ms. Polko had urged “Canadians to focus their anger at Cpl. Cirillo’s death on Canada’s mental health system.” And “she felt Canada’s mental health care was “dismal” and “dysfunctional”, that we don’t do enough to prevent the kind of tragic event that had taken her boyfriend’s life.” According to Ms. Melanson, “Ms. Polko’s view was newsworthy. We broadcast a brief potion of her Facebook post that morning to reflect how at least one person, someone who was in a close personal relationship with Cpl. Cirillo, understood his violent death.” But the CBC did not ask his closest and dearest friends, his mates in the military for their opinion on the mental state of Zehaf-Bibeau? Why not? More importantly, what bearing does having a close relationship with the victim have to do with understanding a violent death?
Dr. Kwame MacKenzie,the Medical Director of Underserved Populations, Access and Transitions, at Ontario’s Centre for Addition and Mental Health was interviewed and asked to RESPOND to Polko’s assertions. A psychiatrist from CAMH was put into the position of responding to this young woman’s emotional rant on Facebook as if their opinions were equal in value. Had the CBC not read this letter from this distraught uniformed young lady there would have been no need to call on this psychiatrist to undo the damage caused by connecting immoral, unethical, evil actions with the mentally ill.
Mr. Galloway then raised his concerns about spending money on bombing ISIS versus spending money on mental health care as if it were either/ or.
This is your CBC.
I have posted the response by the CBC first, followed by my original complaint. I will be writing to Ms. Melanson about her attempt to justify journalistic relativism. I trust you dear readers to make up your own minds about the journalistic standards of Canada’s Broadcasting Corporation.
Dear Ms. Weber Bederman:
I am the executive producer of the local radio programs in Toronto, including Metro Morning and would like to reply to your concerns.
In substance, you wrote that having the “temerity” to repeat the views Andrea Polko, Cpl. Nathan Cirillo’s girlfriend, posted on Facebook — suggesting that Michael Zehaf-Bibeau may have had mental health issues, rather than calling him a terrorist — is an example of CBC’s “agenda”. You went on to include the death of Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in Quebec saying it is “offensive” that CBC “demeans and denigrates” the mentally ill by “allowing” people to say that “these terrorists weren’t terrorists but rather mentally ill when they committed their acts of terror”.
I regret you see the principled effort to understand the reasons behind the shocking events that morning in Ottawa as “demeaning”. We had no intention of demeaning the mentally ill or anyone else for that matter. Nor do I believe we did.
The deadly shooting on Parliament Hill was a searing event in this country. It is fair to say that many Canadians struggled to understand how such an event could have happened. In the days and weeks since then, we have learned more about Zehaf-Bibeau’s activities, his interactions with police and the courts, his drug addition, religious beliefs, ideological commitment and often erratic behavior. Yet, the reasons, his motivation, for going on a shooting rampage that morning remain murky. It is still under police investigation and a matter of some conjecture.
On Nov. 4, two weeks after the shooting, we knew much less about the man behind the troubling events. Earlier that day, Ms. Polko had posted a Facebook update urging Canadians to focus their anger at Cpl. Cirillo’s death on Canada’s mental health system. She wasn’t the only one at the time to question Zehaf-Bibeau’s mental health (for example, “Michael Zehaf-Bibeau a crack addict who tried to rob McDonald’s so he could go clean in jail, records show”, National Post, Oct. 24. Two days later, his mother was widely quoted saying she believes he was “mentally ill” at the time.)
Ms. Polko’s view was newsworthy. We broadcast a brief potion of her Facebook post that morning to reflect how at least one person, someone who was in a close personal relationship with Cpl. Cirillo, understood his violent death. Clearly it is not a view you agree with, but that does not diminish its validity or undercut the reasons for discussing it.
It is part of CBC's mandate under the federal Broadcasting Act to carry different points of view on controversial issues of public interest and concern, such as this one. Indeed, allowing the expression of a range of views is at the heart of the notion of fairness and balance in journalism. It is the CBC's obligation to present differing views fairly and accurately so that listeners can make up their own minds about the views expressed.
And I expect they did that with Ms. Polko. But I should emphasize that we did not present her view by itself. She felt Canada’s mental health care was “dismal” and “dysfunctional”, that we don’t do enough to prevent the kind of tragic event that had taken her boy friend’s life. It is a strong indictment, so we turned to an expert in the field to test that view. Dr. Kwame MacKenzie is the Medical Director of Underserved Populations, Access and Transitions, at Ontario’s Centre for Addition and Mental Health, a man we thought was well positioned to offer our listeners an informed view on the matter, which he did.
Program host Matt Galloway began by asking him what he thought of Ms. Polko’s view of the state of mental healthcare in the province. He praised her compassion for others, but reminded listeners that while we know Zehaf-Bibeau had addition problems, “we don’t know exactly if what he did was due to his mental health problems”. And he reminded listeners that those with mental health issue are more likely to by the victims of violence than the perpetrators. The discussion continued about the state of mental health care in the province (improving in Dr. MacKenzie’s view) and the availability of help for those who need it. Indeed, he pointed out that while there had been a great deal of talk about security after the shooting, we should also be talking about mental health. “It’s not an either or”, he said.
Dr. MacKenzie, a highly respected administrator, researcher and academic, is in an ideal position to challenge stereotypes about those with mental health issues, and to caution that we need to have conversations about security, without, as he put it, "tarnishing" those with mental health issues. Far from “demeaning” the mentally ill, the interview served as a sensible caution about assumptions people sometimes make when trying to understand an otherwise inexplicable and violent act.
I should also emphasize that it is not the only such interview dispelling myths about mental health that we’ve broadcast on the program. If you are a regular listener to Metro Morning, you will know it is a topic we discuss regularly, most recently in a continuing story about police treatment of the mentally ill.
Now almost two months later, we are still learning about the two events and still trying to understand why they happened. You said it was terrorism. Terrorism is a description, of course; terrorism may result from a violent act, but it usually does not fully explain the reason the act was undertaken. Of course, we will follow developments in the story and continue to discuss them on the program.
Here is my complaint of November 5
Good morning, Ms. McGuire
This morning at 7:15 AM Matt Galloway introduced the letter written by Corporal Cirillo's girlfriend, Andrea Polko, who expressed her concerns about lack of treatment for the mentally ill. Her conclusion is that the "real source" of the tragedy was mental illness.
A twenty-something girlfriend, of sadly not very long, had written a piece on Facebook that the CBC chose to present as proof that the terrorist was not a terrorist but mentally ill. That was the agenda.
You started a serious discussion with the musings of a young woman with no background in mental health or terrorism. And then interviewed the expert from CAMH who went on to debunk and deconstruct the comments that had been made including those of Mr. Galloway who tried unsuccessfully to get the expert to say that mental illness was the "root cause" of the death of Corporal Cirillo. After all-that's what Andrea wrote on Facebook "confirming" the statements made by your mental health "expert" panel on October 24.
The expert, on the other hand, said the man who murdered the corporal had a drug addiction but refused to connect that with mental illness.
He said that connecting the two increases fear of the mentally ill. Increases the stigma which we fight all the time; for which Bell has developed Let's Talk. He stated clearly and succinctly that mentally ill people more often than not harm themselves, not others. No matter the question or comments of Galloway, the expert from CAMH refused to connect the murderer with mental illness.
He also pointed out that yes, we could do better, but there are programmes available, especially for emergencies which surprised Mr. Galloway. Perhaps because Mr. Galloway preferred to believe the opinions expressed by Andrea Polko-subtext: If only we had better mental health care Corporal Cirillo would be alive today.
Despite the opinion of your expert guest from CAMH, despite his continued attempts to negate the feelings and opinions of a twenty-something woman with no background in mental illness Mr.Galloway still ended the segment referring to her letter and the concern she expressed about mental health care.
This Ms. McGuire is the bias to which I referred in my initial complaint. You have an agenda at the CBC and no amount of facts will affect that agenda. The murderer of Corporal Cirillo may have had problems but he was not mentally ill.
In a final effort to carry forward more of the CBC's agenda, Mr. Galloway raised his concerns about spending money on bombing ISIS versus spending money on mental health care as if it were either/ or. The CBC does not agree with the government's stand on fighting terrorism, yet your expert guest would not agree with Mr. Galloway despite the fact that he said he was a pacifist. Mr. Galloway tried throughout the interview to pivot away from calling the murderer of Corporal Cirillo a terrorist pushing the CBC agenda as stated October 24 that the murderer was mentally ill-"clinically insane."
Your attempts at laying the death of Corporal Cirillo at the feet of the mentally ill is doing a disservice to those of us with mental illness-as stated by your expert psychiatrist from CAMH.
I look forward to your response to my complaint regarding Q on October 24/25 taking the above comments into consideration, as well, that go to the bias of CBC which seems to be, start with a conclusion and then search for "facts" to back it up. And when facts are not available, uneducated opinions will do.
There will be another chapter to this story. For those of us with mental illness, stories like this one on the CBC must be held up to scrutiny, deconstructed and put in the trash where it belongs.
