An anonymous blogger calling him or herself "Your CKLN Insider" created a blog called The Real CKLN Exposed, which presents a story of waste, corruption and malfeasance with a rogues' gallery of characters. The blog purports to give the details of what led to the Canadian Radio Television Commission revoking the license for Ryerson University's student radio station.
I don't know how accurate it is, but it makes for very interesting reading.
UPDATE: An anonymous commenter suggested this link to a story from the Ryerson U paper The Eyeopener, which provides some more info on the fall of CKLN. Thank you and reader tips are always welcome!
19 comments:
The anonymous blog is pretty incoherent and completely inaccurate. It's an attempt by one of the guys who is responsible for the station losing its licence to deflect attention and responsibility from himself.
What actually happened was a group took over the board of CKLN in 2007 by a combination of bullying and rule-breaking (for instance, the leader of the group had himself elected "former core staff rep" to the board even though he was not former core staff.) This group then proceeded to bully and intimidate people off the board and appoint their cronies and then hired themselves as station manager and program director at inflated salaries and hired their cronies to other positions like "fundraiser" (who led the station to new depths in fundraising). The volunteers at the station rebelled and organized a meeting to impeach the board in early 2008. The impeached members of the board refused to leave, however, and instead purged the station of their opponents. Ryerson responded by cutting off funds and then the group started fighting among themselves resulting in them locking each other out and breaking in and "occupying" the station. see https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=53726673660
That was too much for Ryerson and they changed the locks on everyone and forced the station off the air for six months - which is the main reason CKLN lost its licence along with the fact that this group failed to respond to listener complaints and CRTC requests for information. Several months later a new board was elected but by then too much damage was done. To make matters worse, one of the former board members sued the station with a frivolous lawsuit that was ultimately dismissed but not before forcing the station to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on legal fees - a drain that robbed the station of resources or the ability to hire staff and made the CRTC situation worse.
You won't read any of this on that blog because the people behind the mess are also behind the blog but you'll find it in mainstream newspaper reports and elsewhere.
It seems like the story behind CKLN could make a modern day Shakespearean tragedy, except it's more sordid and convoluted.
Thanks Anonymous at 1:45 for your comment. I'm not an insider at CKLN so only know what I've read about its final days. But knowing about some of the organizations and affiliations of people behind it, like the Canadian Federation of Students and OCAP, complete incompetence and people on power-trips trying to supress each other would come as no surpise.
This lawsuit filing appears to have been without merit as it was abandoned, ie. never carried through with.
The proof is here http://www.causepimps.ca/andy-lehrer/documents.pdf
It looks like the filing for this lawsuit not to carry through with it but only used as an excuse to get people like you to cut their links to certain websites under the implicit threat that they too would be sued, even though the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that websites are NOT responsible of the content of websites they link to.
Nope. What happened was the lawsuit was primarily against an attack website called real-ckln. After the lawsuit was filed the information was removed from the blog thus making that particular lawsuit unnecessary so it wasn't proceeded with.
Nope, what happened was that after the lawsuit was filed the material that was being objected to was removed from the "real-ckln" blog and therefore that particular lawsuit was not proceeded with.
As for the court ruling, what the Supreme Court stated was that links were not libellous in the case where the page being linked to could change after the link was made. It's not clear that this would also be the case in a situation where a link is made to a site which could be shown to have been libellous at the time the link was made.
You always have had to twist things around to justify your actions. You forgot to mention http://www.causepimps.ca http://www.poverty-activist-toronto.ca and http://www.torontotenantsassociations.ca listed on your filing which DO continue to contain the content against you. Then from my search there are another 30 sites I just searched that have some or all of that same content and it looks like more new items are getting dug up monthly even if it is only about the school in North York or the one in Scarborough.
When are you going to stop harassing sites like freedominion as if everybody is entitled to have your opinion?
Like the ONDP buttons read, "Socialist Party of Ontario, because nobody else could stand me!" I am waiting to see how badly your foolish looking fringe party does in next years provincial election.
When are you going to stop harassing and stalking me?
I received a comment which I could not publish because some of the language was defamatory, but it included a link to a court decision which was quite interesting and peripherally related to this and is available through This link
I'm going to ask again T.R., when are you going to leave me alone? You've been harassing, stalking and trying to bully me for three years now. When is it going to stop?
I've been getting some very unusual comments on this post. The last one from someone calling him/herself Fat Blocker, which I cannot publish in full because it in part contains unsubstantiated defamatory comment. But here it is with those sections excised:
"I know this is a little confusing but; The first "Anonymous" is XXXXXX XXXXXX himself (that would be the Dec.2011) as are most of the subsequent ones (Oct.2012). You can tell it's him because of the XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX while threatening lawsuits tactic he's known for. Just google his name and see what comes up. His lawyer would be a very busy guy if he had one. The second "Anonymous" (Oct.22 2012) is clearly not him though, although he obviously knows who he is"
--- ----
Guys, just so you know, this is a year old post that receives very little traffic other than the two or three people who have recently been leaving comments. My suggestion would be you may want to email each other to save time.
Well, the October 22 anon was TR and he was also "CKLN volunteer" (though he's never been one) and the fellow trying to post as "Fat blocker". TR, again, you've been harassing me for three years and you've been harassing other people for up to 10 years and all you've accomplished is that you've isolated and marginalized yourself. It's time to stop. Look at yourself, you spend half your time pretending to be a conservative and posting on Free Dominion or newspaper comment boards trying to attack your "enemies". You used to even pretend to be a landlord so you could post on the Ontario Landlord Association board even though you're a tenant and supposedly favour tenant rights (did they finally kick you off?) You spend *more* time pretending to be a conservative so you can attack me and your other invented "enemies" rather than promoting your own ideas like electoral reform and basic income. You really need to stop your destructive behaviour and re-evaulate what you're actually doing. But please, just leave me alone, stop it with the abusive attack pages and the harassment.
Oh yes, and TR is also the October 28 7:28 anon. You've never worked with me TR so you don't know how I am to work with - neither did the anti-CKLN person who first manipulated you into attacking me. There was never any personal "advantage" sought or obtained (again, we're talking about a very small community radio station - what "advantage" was even possible?) and certainly not at anyone else's expense (whose expense exactly, TR?) The CKLN board was a volunteer position that took up a lot of time and energy for which we received a lot of heartache and grief in return. It's truly ironic that TR was used to attack one the only radio or TV station that ever gave him any airtime. Another example of how TR's hatefulness is ultimately self-defeating. Again TR, please cease and desist your harassment campaign against me and others, take down your abusive attack pages and do something productive with your life.
Oh and the 6:09 and 7:08 anons are both TR as well which is particularly obvious due to the projection/reversal that is being used ie a number of the false accusations he makes against me actually describe his own behaviour. Also the false quotations are another TR trademark. John Clarke and I don't know each other and have never worked together, I doubt he even knows who I am and the Peter Tabus quotes are also fake.
"Eye on a Crazy Planet" indeed. Where's there's smoke, there's fire.
I have received a request from Andy Lehrer to remove a comment from an anonymous poster that he considers to contain libelous statements. Although the comment does not mention him by name, he thinks it refers to him.
The comment in question refers to unsubstantiated allegations of behaviour and unreferenced comments made by John Clarke of OCAP and NDP MPP Peter Tabluns.
The rest of the comment is republished in quotation marks below with the sections in question excised:
"Why would you assume I am TR and why did you include an irrelevant link to a lawsuit against the city of Toronto?
With a 20 year history of XXXXXXXX and XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XX XXX XXXX, people from both the left to the right there are a lot of people who have been XXXXX XXXXXXXXXs if you are who I think you are.
But then you aren't identifying yourself and if you are who I think you are you have used so many identities and names.
I can only imagine what would happen if all those people got together if you are who I think you are.
John Clarke has XXXXX X XXX of details XXXXX XXX after explaining how XX XXXXXXX XXX XXXXXX XX XX XXX XXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXX to The Left in Toronto.
MPP Peter Tabuns also was extremely XXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXX CCCCCCCC CCCCCCC CCCCCCCC As he said `XXXXX XXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXX'. "
---- ------- --------
I do not like to censor blog comments and have been printing all other than than some that have been clearly defamatory.
However, as this post has become a venue for two or three people to exchange insults and make accusations against each other, I am going to have to create a rule specific to it.
From now on, on this post any allegations of behaviour by an individual should contain verifiable references or they will not be published.
Here is what he said that was and is publicly posted in his own words June 2000 on various websites including the University of Utah
http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/pipermail/marxism-thaxis/2000-June/016451.html
Andy Lehrer requested the following anonymous comment be edited - this is it with the parts he found defamatory excised:
"I think I know who you are.
It wasn't for long but it sure seemed long. Nobody could XXXXX to XXXX XXXX XXX and all XXXX XXXXXXX to XXXX XXXXXXXX for XXXXXXXXX at XXXXXXXX XXXXXX XXXXXXXXX expense.
You will never learn. It is part of who you are.
October 28, 2012 7:08 PM "
Another anonymous comment came in with a web address purporting more information - I don't have time to review and verify all the assertions made in the latter part of the comment so I'm only publishing the first part below:
" What an interesting discussion. Since you only want verifiable links I would interject that you should look at the website at http://andylehrer.freeiz.com/CKLN.html as its pages have a lot of links and information."
At this point I'm going to have to call a moratorium on comments on this post UNLESS they are directly related to CKLN.
This obscure,10 month old post has become a venue for a flame war and my moderating it is not something I have the time or inclination to do.
There is plenty of information available on the web about the individuals involved. The Real CKLN Exposed site is still up for those who want to get that perspective and googling any of the individuals involved will provide any interested party with all sorts of further information.
I am not taking any position on the veracity of any allegation made on any of these referred websites.
I would however suggest that this issue is old now and people need to move on.
Post a Comment