IT'S THE COLOUR OF THE WORDS

I DON'T CARE ABOUT APPEARANCE

I loved those excuses after the CBC got caught discriminating against a white as a program host. It was all a mistake to say "any race except Caucasian" in the job ad. What absolute BS! All you have to do is turn on a TV and there is plenty of evidence that was precisely what the CBC wanted.
And other TV networks and stations for that matter. The pendulum has swung too far, from blatant discrimination to militant acceptance.
I really don't give a damn what the colour of skin is of the announcer or host. I don't care about the nationality or if they are minorities just off the plane. I just want to understand what is being said. If it comes with a nice Island lilt, fine, or a Brit accent, so be it. Unfortunately, too often that's not true. Simple announcements become a Rorschach scramble of syllables.
If you think I'm a crank about English which verges on the broken, I have put my money where the mouths of the incomprehensible should be. Back in 1979, I was the official sponsor of 43 "boat people" that I found in the refugee camps of Malaysia and Hong Kong. I had the legal responsible of looking after them financially for a year. With the help of Sun readers, I insisted that they could not work until they had passed courses in English as a second language.
I think of that every time I encounter someone who has been in Canada for decades and still can't speak English. Or I encounter some person with stilted English in India on a help line who can't deal with colloquial usage  Or the begging phone call, despite my being registered with the useless "do not call" list,  from some person just trying to earn a living but just can't speak English very well.
There is too much evidence that with the politically correct CBC and dumb private broadcast execs,   the colour of skin is more important than the ability to speak the English language with some resemblance to the way it is spoken even in ethnic Toronto.
After all, the electronic employers seem to think, just look at the huge market of Canadians that were born somewhere else. And when we hire minorities, we might increase our business even as we get in good with all the lefties who want us to go overboard on immigration issues.
I remember arguing during the meeting of a university advisory committee that I wasn't sure just how far a university should go in making it easier for minorities to pass journalism or radio and television English courses even after they were given an edge in admittance.
A high-ranking CBC official made it plain that she thought it was important that minorities on the electronic media also sounded like minorities. Her example was Ian Hanomansing. Hanomansing is a handsome competent Canadian newsman reared in the Maritimes but definitely looking Trinidadian. She said he would not be suitable for her on CBC radio because he didn't sound minority but white.
I was the only one of the group to find that strange. And so I was on the losing side of the perennial debate in North American high schools and universities where affirmative action gives minorities an advantage in admittance and then helps with their marks.
As some of the commentaries demonstrated after the CBC was caught with its prejudice showing, it's not just skin colour that is important to Mother Corp. I know as someone who did dozens of TV shows and radio commentaries, that women, New Democrats and gLiberals are preferred to compassionate white Conservatives who worked at a tabloid.
It was not unusual during pre-interviews with  producers to find them losing interest unless I was really provocative. After all, I was too white and right and I was from that damn Sun .
The great Doug Fisher, dean of the Ottawa press gallery, finally insisted that he wouldn't appear on CBC TV unless he was identified as a Sun columnist. Since Fisher was such a giant in political journalism, the CBC and CTV were happy to use him even if he was white and older and not a francophone.
Now if only the CBC was caught putting all its wishes, and not just "not Caucasian," in job ads and in policies for program execs. Then all the pretence would drop and everyone would know for a fact that the CBC desires to be the biggest mouthpiece in the country for lefties and activists.