Looks like the SupposiTories have won their war against our national news channel, eh? I remember the good old days when CBC used to just broadcast the news, from coast to coast to coast and from around the world. Nowadays, they’ve become a right-wing crapaganda mouthpiece, and nowhere is that more evident than in their reporting on the fascist movements of Ukraine…and Venezuela:
Air Canada has suspended flights to and from Venezuela as month-long protests against the government continue in the South American country.
“Due to ongoing civil unrest in Venezuela, Air Canada can no longer ensure the safety of its operation and has suspended flights to Caracas until further notice,” the airline said in a statement on its website.
“Air Canada will continue to monitor the situation and will evaluate the reintroduction of flights with the objective of resuming operations on the route once Air Canada is satisfied that the situation in Venezuela has stabilized.”
The first flights affected are a flight from Toronto to Caracas on Tuesday evening, and a return flight from Caracas to Toronto Wednesday morning.
The airline and travel agents have started notifying affected customers, and that its reservations and ticketing office in Caracas remains open.
Air Canada says that affected travellers can obtain refunds if they have not already begun travelling, and those who have already started their trip may be re-booked on other airlines at no additional cost or obtain a refund.
Prior to the suspension, Air Canada was operating three return flights weekly between Toronto and Caracas.
Air Canada’s suspension came just a few days after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said any airline that reduced or suspended flights in and out of Venezuela would face severe measures.
Maduro said any airline that leaves won’t be allowed back while he is in power.
So you can see that they’re trying very hard to paint Madurito as some kind of tyrant, when in fact he is taking reasonable measures against foreign corporations aiding and abetting the attempted coup. Meanwhile, locally owned and operated airlines, such as Conviasa, will be more than happy to take up chickenshit profiteer Air Canada’s slack. (They’re not reporting that, obviously. Wouldn’t want to give the impression that Venezuela is actually still tourist-friendly — and right at the height of the winter travel season, too!)
The rest of the piece is all the usual arglebargle about inflation (remember what precipitated the Caracazo? CBC doesn’t), instability (ditto), violence in the streets (megadittoes) and all that other shit. They don’t mention, obviamente, that the “demonstrators” are paid out of Washington’s pockets, to the tune of an astronomical 5,000 bolivars a week, to maintain their illegal blockades. They don’t mention that food trucks carrying products to government-subsidized markets have been sabotaged, or that hoarded goods have been smuggled and illegally sold across the Colombian border. They don’t mention that all of this began right after the government announced a new law to…well, prevent all of that!
They also don’t mention those infamous trip-wires the not-so-starving kids of the so-called middle class have been seen stringing at intersections to catch motorcyclists (many of them Chavistas from the poor parts of town), or the homemade spike belts those innocent little angels have been laying, or the fact that they’ve been burning National Guard motorbikes after killing their riders.
They don’t mention the deranged opposition general holing up in his fancy mansion with his machine gun, vowing to kill anyone who comes to arrest him, or the Colombian paramilitaries caught with C-4 explosive.
They don’t mention the oppos’ “tollbooths”, which consist mainly of masked thugs extorting bribes from passing motorists. Nor do they mention how a renowned orchestra director from Maracaibo was pelted with rocks at such a “tollbooth” in his wheelchair, and his dog thrown into a burning heap of trash, because he tried to intercede on behalf of a family trying to take a sick kid to the doctor.
They don’t mention that a Chilean woman got killed by those “peaceful” protesters. They’re also not reporting that those “peaceful” demonstrators are violent even as far away as New York. And they certainly don’t mention how unpopular all these violent, extremist measures are.
None of that makes it onto CBC, because all of that makes it clear that the real problem isn’t the government, it’s the little local brownshirts trying to oust it.
And they are most definitely not reporting this. Did you know we have a new ambassador to Caracas, and that he’s a specialist in “democratic transitions”, in line with the Washington Consensus? If you did, chances are you didn’t hear it from CBC. They’re not reporting THAT. Because that would make Madurito’s disgust at the likes of Air Canada seem very well justified. And heaven knows the CBC don’t want the president of Venezuela to look reasonable and intelligent — at least not as long as he’s a Bolivarian!
So, no accurate and responsible reporting on the real situation in Venezuela. Nope…instead, we just get yet another wear-out-the-panic-button tale of how evil and awful the Bolivarian government of Venezuela is for stepping in and trying to prevent a bunch of local thugs (and their foreign and corporate puppetmasters) from taking power that they were not elected, and therefore are not entitled, to. They don’t care what real Venezuelans think about all these inane media wars at all. Their “job” is clearly not to inform the Canadian public, but to mislead it about anyone whom the US, and by extension our own lackeys on Parliament Hill, have deemed to be The Enemy.
Oh CBC, how far your democratic star has fallen.
