When we at Artspace held a silent vigil to commemorate our being able to withstand 100 days of AUPE's siege of our homes, we were pleasantly surprised to see some media show up. I don't know how they found out about our little vigil, but it was good to see them.
One of them was a camera man from CTV. Nice guy. Interviewed a couple of people, talked to a few more, took a whole bunch of footage, and off he went.
Well, we all know that there's a huge difference between how much video is taken, and how much ends up being used.
The end result was a 45 second news clip.
Unfortunately, CTV doesn't seem to have an embed function, so you'll have to go here to see it.
(update 1: link repaired)
Whoever wrote this didn't to their research, because there are some ridiculous errors, right from the start.
Let's start in the first 2 seconds.
That's right. The first TWO seconds.
"A labour dispute at a facility for disabled people..."
Seriously???
Media folks, get this right, because this is getting ridiculous.
Artspace is NOT A FACILITY for the disabled. It is a housing co-op that has a high percentage of adapted units - about 1/4 or 1/3; I can't remember exactly at the moment. Granted, any percentage would be high, since few apartments or townhouses have any adapted units at all.
[update: there are 29 adapted units out of 88]
Artspace is made up of an apartment building and a row of townhouses. It's a co-op, which means all members are equal owners.
The whole point of Artspace is that it is NOT a facility. That's why we have SAIL.
Which leads to the next error.
"SAIL Inc, who operates the facility..."
Who the heck gave them this information? It is so incredibly off base, it blows my mind.
Since there is no facility to operate, clearly, SAIL doesn't have that role. It has no role at all in the daily operation of Artspace at all, either.
Artspace is the co-op. It's where we live.
SAIL is an in-house care company that allows user members with disabilities to have the care they need to live independent lives in their own homes, rather than in a facility.
SAIL does not run Artspace.
Artspace does not run SAIL.
They are separate entities, run by separate volunteer boards.
Most of the members in Artspace have nothing to do with SAIL.
Then they accurately state that the staff were locked out after they'd gone on strike, but without any context, so it sounds like they were locked out because they went on strike, which is false.
The anchor then says, "SAIL claims subsequent picketing by AUPE members has been invasive."
No. It was not "subsequent" picketing. First, by using the word "subsequent," they make it sound like there was no picketing before the lock out. They were on strike. Of course they were picketing right from the start.
And it's been invasive from the start, since they have been picketing our homes, not the place of employment; Artspace, not SAIL. Some of the worst attacks on our community occurred in those first weeks. Our user members go to see what the "care" staff were really like, which left them unwilling to have such abusive people into their own homes. It was this abusive behaviour from the beginning that had our user members act to stop people they no longer felt safe with from coming back after suddenly announcing on a Friday that they would be returning to work on a Saturday morning - a handy way for the union to not have to pay strike pay on a long weekend.
Then they cut to a few seconds of interview from an Artspace member.
Who is not a SAIL user. Which actually makes the point: Artspace is not a facility for the disabled. Otherwise, we wouldn't have over 100 able bodied people living here.
It's not SAIL that is saying this. It is Artspace members who are saying this.
As for the clips of AUPE picketers, I don't know where those came from; they are pretty old. Something dug out of the archives, I suppose. Weird to see the leafless willow in the background of some of the shots.
Notice the use of the bull horn by an AUPE big wig.
Bull horns and a large crowd, around our private home.
Guess what? That's invasive!
And as has been said time and time again, the noise is abusive and harmful.
An un-named AUPE official is then said to deny the accusation (well, duh... Of course they do), and claims they are "disturbing and false."
Yes, they are disturbing, but not because they are false. They are disturbing, because they are true.
Too bad CTV didn't send someone down to film AUPE's invasion of our street the next day.
CTV, we do understand that a lot is lost when an entire news segment is reduced to only 45 seconds. We do understand the need to portray both sides.
But do you think you could have at least got the most basic of facts right?
CTV: another failure in journalism.
Update 2: There has been communication with CTV about the factual errors, and it has been very positive. Hopefully, that means there will be some sort of correction made.
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