Skip to Content Subscribe Our Offers My Account Manage My Subscriptions FAQ Newsletters Canada Canadian True Crime Canadian Politics Health World Israel & Middle East Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Comics NP News Quiz New York Times Crossword Horoscopes Life Eating & Drinking Style Sponsored Play for Ontario Travel Travel Canada Travel USA Travel International Cruises Travel Essentials Culture Books Celebrity Movies Music Theatre Television Business Essentials Advice Lives Told Tails Told Shopping Buy Canadian Home Living Outdoor Living Tech Style & Beauty Kitchen & Dining Personal Care Entertainment & Hobbies Gift Guide Travel Guide Deals Savings National Post Store More Sports Hockey Baseball Basketball Football Soccer Golf Tennis Driving Vehicle Research Reviews News Gear Guide Obituaries Place an Obituary Place an In Memoriam Classifieds Place an Ad Celebrations Working Business Ads Archives Healthing Epaper Manage Print Subscription Profile Settings My Subscriptions Saved Articles My Offers Newsletters Customer Service FAQ Newsletters Canada World Financial Post NP Comment Longreads Puzzmo Diversions Life Shopping Epaper Manage Print Subscription HomeNP CommentJerry Amernic: I was set up by CBC and mocked for the crime of not hating CanadaState broadcaster funded comedy show intended to shame people for not believing extremist narratives about our historyLast updated 7 minutes ago You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.The CBC logo is projected onto a screen during the CBC's annual upfront presentation in Toronto, May 29, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tijana Martin CPLOur state broadcaster, publicly funded, is mired in ideology and short on responsible journalism. It’s alienated viewers for years. Why anyone would watch the drivel it dispenses is beyond me, but then I don’t buy lottery tickets or follow the Game of Thrones. There is also a TV network, publicly funded, to enrich our understanding of Indigenous cultures, identities and languages. Sometimes these organizations join forces.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Enjoy the latest local, national and international news.Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events.Unlimited online access to National Post.National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on.Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.Support local journalism.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one account.Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.Enjoy additional articles per month.Get email updates from your favourite authors.Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.Access articles from across Canada with one accountShare your thoughts and join the conversation in the commentsEnjoy additional articles per monthGet email updates from your favourite authorsSign In or Create an AccountorBoth are kept afloat by the taxpayer. With this in mind, here’s what happened to me. On April 20 I received an email from a documentary producer.This newsletter from NP Comment tackles the topics you care about. (Subscriber-exclusive edition on Fridays)By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try againShe said her name was Pam Gibson and was doing a docuseries to “defend the legacy of Sir John A. Macdonald” and reclaim its “glory and values.” She called me an “essential voice in the movement” and invited me to be interviewed in Vancouver for the production. All expenses paid plus honorarium.Gibson said I was referred by Patrice Dutil, a professor and author who is Canada’s foremost authority on Macdonald. I contacted him and he confirmed things. That would be the only truthful tidbit I ever got from Gibson and the people associated with her.I was told our national broadcaster would air this in the fall. I replied that said broadcaster is no friend of Macdonald, but was assured the company doing it — Forge Media TV — would produce and edit it. They then bumped up my honorarium by 50 per cent and flew me to Vancouver. Note: a few passengers on that plane got a pre-paid lunch and I was one.I felt special.The interview would take place at the national broadcaster’s Vancouver studio, but then the venue got changed because “Pam” said “they were not comfortable with us filming this kind of content from within the headquarters.” But if the state broadcaster was uncomfortable with the content, why air the series? Not to worry. The trusted souls at Forge Media TV were pros.I went to the studio and everyone in the crew fell over backwards for me. I met “Amy Mercer” and “Mike Smith” and “Becky” the interviewer who wanted an autographed copy of my book. Yes, I felt like a somebody, just like that old Speedy Muffler commercial where you walk in and they hand you a cigar! I don’t smoke, but it’s the thought that counts.Along with producers, cameramen, and audio technicians was an actor dressed as John A. Macdonald. He showed me a Macdonald doll which would carry the John A message in schools.After a few softball questions about my book, we got into Indian Residential Schools and I said everything you hear isn’t necessarily correct. Then up on this screen was a quote attributed to Macdonald that appeared to be a racist comment about Asians. I said something was taken out of context and “Mike” assured me they’d have a look.The whole thing didn’t seem very professional. Later I mentioned the often-heard accusation about Macdonald intentionally starving Indigenous people when their food source the buffalo herds dried up, which is nonsense. In the 1880s, eastern Canada was in a recession and the budget for every federal government department got reduced. The Liberals, the official Opposition, wanted to reduce the budget for Indian Affairs even more. But Macdonald fought them and implemented a famine-relief program to feed the natives. He was also responsible for vaccinating them during a smallpox epidemic.In short, he saved thousands of Indigenous lives, but one must do some research to learn this and not rely on social-media feeds.However, not everyone wanted to hear positive things about Macdonald. Not the folks at the national broadcaster nor the actor dressed up as John A who said something to the effect that if the “Indians” as he called them are hungry we might as well starve them.Huh?It wasn’t until two days after returning home that I discovered, through a professional acquaintance, that it had been a set-up. Yes I’d been scammed, along with academic Frances Widdowson and former B.C. Conservative staffer Lindsay Shepherd.Widdowson was a tenured professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary who was fired after denying that the residential schools were genocidal. In my book I call her “public enemy no. 1” for the woke community.I’ve read her books — Disrobing the aboriginal industry: the deception behind indigenous cultural preservation, which was co-authored with Albert Howard and short-listed for the Donner Prize awarded to books “considered excellent in regard to the writing of Canadian public policy,” and Separate but unequal: How parallelist Ideology Conceals Indigenous dependency. Widdowson has a PhD and is no slouch with the Indigenous file, but she got cancelled from the academic community.Shepherd got cancelled, too, when a graduate student at Wilfrid Laurier University after not going along with the gender-neutral insanity that permeates the lunatic left. She also wrote a children’s book about Macdonald that doesn’t follow the “woke” narrative.We’ve since learned Pam Gibson is Molly Gore, an American producer for “left-wing ecosocialist documentaries,” as Juno News put it. Becky is an Indigenous comedienne named Dakota Ray Hebert.And Mike Smith is Igor Vamoose — sorry, Vamos — an associate professor of media arts at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in the U.S.He also goes by Mike Bonanno, but his name should be a.k.a. He’s with The Yes Men and who are they?“The performance-activist duo that impersonates captains of industry and surprises unsuspecting business audiences with satirical, poignant actions that comment upon pressing social and environmental issues.”Whatever. The point is these people weren’t who they said they are. Their production company is phony. They misrepresent what they do. And at the end of this dark tunnel I could see potential for me being depicted not as I would like. And by the way, they paid me in cash. Crisp $100 bills. In an envelope.Other targets who didn’t take the bait include politicians, journalists, and those who question the story about the graves of missing and murdered children in Kamloops.On the day of my shoot they interviewed Shepherd, who we now know has been in their crosshairs since February, and Widdowson, who realized something unsavoury was taking place when two Aboriginal men dumped a bag of children’s shoes in front of her. She then whipped out her phone and started shooting the crew.Earlier this year the same group lured retired RCMP officers to the national broadcaster’s Vancouver studio. Like me, the retired Mounties were flown in. All expenses paid. What was supposed to be an event honouring them turned out to be a public humiliation about perceived injustices perpetrated by the RCMP. All caught on camera.The sorry scheme involved the comedy series Northland Tales, and was being co-produced by our national broadcaster and the network that promotes Indigenous people. It’s been described as an “unscripted, half-hour comedy series where an Indigenous activist trio uses pranks as a form of social action in the vein of Borat.”But the Borat character created by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen wasn’t funded by the BBC.On May 19, our national broadcaster announced it was pulling the plug on the production. Said the broadcaster: “It is important for us in the execution that this entertainment series does not negatively impact our news brand.”Uh-huh.Let me tell you something. If our national broadcaster was a detective agency, Inspector Jacques Clouseau would lead it. If it was a police unit, Frank Drebin of Police Squad would run things. And if the two co-producers behind this scam were looking for a third party to join their venture, we could them The Three Stooges.After all, the name should fit the brand.Jerry Amernic is the author of SLEEPWOKING, a book about historical revisionism in Canada and all the fallout that goes with it. It is available on Amazon.ca. Join the Conversation This website uses cookies to personalize your content (including ads), and allows us to analyze our traffic. Read more about cookies here. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.