Bad Journalism UPDATED

Update: I have received new information.  They will be included below, in italics.

Previous posts have mentioned the piece written in the Edmonton Sun a little while ago.

AUPE was clearly upset about the City TV piece about what they're doing to Artspace members.  They pretended to take the high road in their response about how they don't intend to respond to it.

Then a guy from the Edmonton Sun suddenly showed up, seeking out the SAIL board president, then spending time talking to one of our members on the picket line.  No one knew why he showed up, but after seeing the hatchet job that got published, it appears that AUPE found themselves a leash to pull.

update: I now know that he showed up wanting to talk to someone, and a person at Artspace directed him to the SAIL president.  We still do not know why he came at all, other than that it was not in response to the people from Artspace that I do know tried contacting various media.

The resulting piece is so bad, it serves as an example of how not to do journalism.  The basic, factual errors are bad enough, but no effort was made to actually try and verify any of the claims made.

Let's take a look at just how bad it really is.

Problems start in the very first sentence.

The Alberta Union of Public Employees (AUPE) claims workers locked out of SAIL Inc. have been rammed by cars and chased with 2X4s, 

Those are some very serious charges, which I will address in full, later.  However, no attempt was made to verify them, and it's not like it would be difficult to do.

while residents of the downtown co-op claim they're being terrorized by picketers.

These, too, are serious claims.  We have video, audio, police reports, impact statements, witness statements and more to back them up.

AUPE workers have been locked out of SAIL's independent living art space

*facepalm*

What the heck is this?  Seriously?  What was he trying to even write, there?

SAIL stands for Supports for Artspace Independent Living.  You'd think he'd try to get that right.

And what's with "AUPE workers"?  Why not say what they really are; Health Care Aids, SAIL employees, or any other more accurate description?  Phrased that way, it makes it sound like it's people who actually work for AUPE, rather than SAIL's striking care staff.  Granted, most of the picketers aren't SAIL staff, but AUPE paid picketers, so maybe the author is being more accurate than he intended.

 since May 17 

May 7.  The strike started on May 7.

Lockout took effect on May 19.

after striking for higher wages.

Er... No.  That's not why they were locked out.

She said SAIL residents

SAIL does not have any residents.  SAIL is a company.  It is an office.  No one lives there.

How can someone come to Artspace, with the Artspace name in large letters in several places, not get that the co-op's name is Artspace?

 have been harassed and threatened when they leave and enter their homes, and one day an AUPE supporter brought an air-raid siren.

I believe it was actually 3 days before the police finally put a stop to the air raid siren.

SAIL has posted signs on its front doors...

Once again, SAIL has done nothing of the sort.  Artspace members have posted signs all over the grounds, not just the front doors, including SAIL's private entrance.

stating that no union members are allowed on its property  — under any circumstances.

This is a very strange thing to say.  1) SAIL does not have it's own property.  2) Artspace is private property, jointly owned by Artspace members; during a strike, picketers are not allowed on private property (though they blatantly flaunt this).  There is nothing unusual about people trying to enforce private property laws.

Deborah Stewart, one of the few SAIL residents siding with AUPE, 

I've avoided mentioning Ms. Stewart by name, but since she has decided to be so public about it, that no longer applies.

This next area falls into the he-said/she-said area, but again, if the writer had any interest in being factual, it would have been easy for him to do so.

said she's been removed from SAIL's board 

1) Ms. Stewart has never served on the SAIL board.  I will grant this as an error on the part of the writer, since he does not properly name Artspace at all in this piece.  She did serve on the Artspace board (board positions, and who hold them is, public information).

2) it is against by-laws for board members to discuss board business, so it's disengenious for her to claim she was "removed" from the Artspace Board, since no one can counter her claim without breaking co-op by-laws.  There are similar restrictions on all members in regards to discussing Artspace business.  This includes not disclosing our membership directory or other personal information, yet somehow, the picketers knew people's names, unit numbers and even private information, such as birthdays, the names of people's family members, and even where those family members live.

3) Ms. Stewart, while serving on the board, allowed herself to be part of an AUPE video.  There, she presented herself as the Artspace president, and claimed she was not running for re-election.  This was dishonest, as she was interim president and was never elected for that position in the first place.  Naming herself in this manner made her appear to be speaking as Artspace president, rather than herself, which as a board member, she should not have done.  As a member mentioned previously, she served as VP Membership, the position she was actually elected for.

4) Ms. Stewart has spent many days on the picket line, watching AUPE picketers abuse, threaten, intimidate and harass her neighbours and - they thought, until now - her friends.

and mocked on an online blog. 

Really?  Where?  Certainly not here, since she has not been named on this blog until after this article was written.

Stewart claims she's been videotaped entering her home 

Probably.  So have I.  So has pretty much everyone else in Artspace.  Since the strike started, there are cameras everywhere.  It's an irrelevant statement.

and yelled at by residents.

Personally, I haven't seen that, but it may well be true.  Considering her support of AUPE abuse of Artspace members, including people who once thought she was their friend, I don't find that surprising.  She is not the victim here.

"Nobody talks to me. I'm completely shunned by my neighbours, which is fine," she said, 

If it's fine, then why bring it up?

Plus, as previously said, you make your bed, you sleep in it.  Especially when you're seen on the picket line, talking to the picketers while pointing up at different people's balconies.

calling the anti-union signs "disgusting."

Anti-union signs?  Really?  The accompanying photo has signs that read;

Y R U So Rude?
Zero Tolerance for Bullying
Stop Treating us as a commodity.  We are people with rights.
How does bullying solve anything?

More can be seen here and here and here.

This is what she calls anti-union?  This is what she calls disgusting, but not the way the union picketers have treated her neighbours?

"It's ridiculous that this has been going on as long as it has. I'm absolutely sad that my neighbours have reacted in this way."

Just how are we supposed to react when crowds of people show up at our home, swarming our vehicles as we try to go about our day, harassing us, yelling at us, insulting us, threatening us, assaulting us, using bull horns and air raid sirens, holding parties on our street, luring our children, causing pain, medical harm, fear, stress, etc.?  Are we just supposed to let them hurt us and not react?  Are we supposed to just be good little victims and let our abusers walk all over us without a peep?

As for how long it's been going on, just how was it supposed to end quickly?  SAIL doesn't have the money to meet the demands, and AUPE has rejected all proposals.  Yes, it's ridiculous that it's gone on this long.  It should never have started.  AUPE should have targeted the ones that actually control the money; Alberta Health.  Instead, they chose to picket our homes.

AUPE communications officer Tyler Bedford said SAIL's 30 female staff members are paid 20% less than the industry standard for caregivers in Alberta, and that they're merely looking for a fair wage.

I have no idea what Bedford has to do with us, but it's a simple matter of fact checking, as others have done, to find that when compared to other Home Care Aids, they are actually the highest paid.  In order to get this figure, AUPE is deliberately comparing them to staff at care centres and hospitals; jobs they don't do and wouldn't qualify for.

Bedford said SAIL is one of the most difficult employers AUPE has ever had to deal with.

Well, at least the writer is using the name SAIL correctly here, but it's amusing that Bedford claims WE are the ones being difficult.   They're the ones who have rejected every offer we've made, instead demanding more than we can afford, when we don't even know what AHS will finally decide in regards to how much funding and care hours our user members will qualify for.

SAIL simply cannot meet their demands.  They know this.

"They've also faced a barrage of verbal assaults..." 

AUPE has tried several times now, to once again frame the narrative to something in their control, by trying to portray the picketers as being victims of Artspace member bullying, and this is another example of it.

Let's point out the obvious, here.

AUPE picketers have invaded our homes; our private property.

They came here.

We did not go to them.

We are not at their homes, yelling at them, disrupting their lives, threatening them, bullying them, etc.

They came here.

You cannot invade someone's home, with noise and threats, harassment and intimidation and even physical violence, and then complain when someone responds in their own defense.  The only "barrage of verbal assaults" has come from AUPE picketers.

... located on 93 Street and 101A Avenue.

No.  No it isn't.  93rd Street is in Riverdale.

... SAIL's 88 residents include families and seniors.

No.  No it doesn't.  Nobody lives at SAIL.

There are not "88 residents."  There are 88 units in Artspace.  About 180 people actually live here (the actual number changes, and I will not give out the exact number of members living here right now).  Of those, about 30 are SAIL user members.


The incompetence necessary to make such blatant errors is so severe, it's almost as if the writer was deliberately trying to write the worst article he could.  Surely, he can't really be this inept?

Several people have written to the author of this piece.  In response, he claims that he would have liked to talk to other members of Artspace who disapproved of the union's behaviour, but that he had been directed to our SAIL board president.

To which I ask, directed by whom?  And who directed him to Ms. Stewart?  Certainly no one from Artspace.

As for his claim that he couldn't find anyone else to talk to, it's not like he tried.  Heck, all he had to do was plunk his butt down in the lobby (since he'd already got into the high rise to talk to the SAIL president) and talk to anyone who walked by.  Once word got out that a reporter wanted to talk to people about the strike, he would likely have been swamped by Artspace members.

Update: the interview with our SAIL board president took place outside, in front of the co-op high rise.  There were a number of members gathered there, socializing.  He did not ask anyone in the group to share their stories.

At the very least, you'd think he'd have corrected the most blatant error; using the name SAIL where he should have said "Artspace."

As of this writing, nothing has been corrected.