Was watching TV late last night - it was a late CBC News journal of some sort - and the gentleman reporter was issuing an update/retraction to their previous night's report on Y2K.

Apparently the night befre they ran a show on Y2K and mentioned something about risks to goverment pension plans or something to that effect. Anyway, it seems the government got an inordinate amount of calls on it and must have called CBC to set the record straight. It must have been quite a phone call indeed because the reporter said something to the effect of (not verbatim) "....The Canadian Government has indicated that they have solved the Y2K problem and that the flow of pension cheques will continue...".

It just seemed odd to me that our national news agency would issue such a misinformed retraction - are they not journalists? Do they not have a mind of their own? Are they completely ignorant of the entire Y2K supply chain environment?

In my books, no one has *solved* the Y2K problem and no one can say that the flow of pension cheques will be uninterrupted when that process at the very least depends at least upon telephones, banking and government personnel showing up to work to watch the process - none of which they can say is *solved*.

This is the spin machine at it's best - the media *scares* the public a bit and generates some phone calls, then backtracks and offers an amazing retraction the next day that completely negates their efforts the night before.

Pollies - I'm not saying that cheques WON'T flow - they very likely will - but this is absurd that our trusted journalists are bowing under government pressure to calm the public with outrageous claims of complete compliance. THAT'S what makes my blood boil.

-- Angry Canuck (canuck@canada.com), August 12, 1999

Answers

Angry

The Canadian News has been asleep at the wheel over y2k. Ironicly we seem to be ahead of any other country on a world scale.

From what I have heard over the E-vine is that the (canadian) goverment is looking at the Elists and websites for signs of worry and or panic and they are not finding it so the issue is put on a back burner. My question is where is the Canadian public in this? I don't know but if it is -30 and the shit hits the fan then everyone will be blaming each other for the lack of information. Worse because of the complaciancy, contingency plans on a municipal level will not be as developed as they could be.

The Canadian Goverment though has done a pretty good job in my books at dealing with the y2k problem, but just like the States there is this "don't rock the boat" message and I think alot of stuff is falling through the cracks that needs to be fixed due to the lack of awareness at how far the problem reaches. S&MEs, Health, Chemical - refinery plants, international implications, and just plain old nasty Canadian Winters could be a major problem.

I am figuring on a bloody cold winter, the last two have been quite warm (golfing in edmonchuck?) One has to hope the "everything is ok!" mantra is right or we could have alot of problems.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), August 12, 1999.

Angry

Here is my Canadian website. It is pretty much up to date and the best information you will find about Canada on the net. It is pretty low key but do some digging in it and there are things to wonder about.

 Y2K in Canada and Beyond

-- Brian (imager@home.com), August 12, 1999.

Hello, Angry, I want to give you a long answer but time does not permit at the moment, so I'll give the short answer now and say more later. "You don't bite the hand that feeds you."

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), August 12, 1999.

Compare this with the release of the Senate report:

Senate Report: "Those who believe y2k will only amount to a bump in the road in this country are seriously mistaken"

Bennett the next day: "y2k will only amount to a bump in the road in this country"

If if wasn't so damn disgusting it would be funny.

-- a (a@a.a), August 12, 1999.

Tinfoils, they're always good for a laugh. I did a little investigationg on this and it seems the CBC ran a Y2K story from January that was sadly out of date. Viewers called into complain about the old information and they issued a clarification. Conspiracy? Cover-up? Only if you are a tinfoil...

-- Y2K Pro (y2kpro1@hotmail.com), August 12, 1999.

Angry Canuck, as a Canuck myself who's lived in the US now equally as long as I've lived in Canada, I can tell you that the Canadian government is indeed controlling the Canadian media. It is clear and obvious to me because I have residences in both countries. "You don't bite the hand that feeds you" is right on the money.

-- Chris (%$^&^@pond.com), August 12, 1999.

Y2K Pro

Did I say there was a conspiracy/coverup? Don't put words in my mouth - here you sit criticizing everyone for their overreactions and reading between the lines, yet you do the same. You've been here too long, me thinks, it's making you sloppy.

All I said was that it bites that this news agency is so weak-minded and incompetent that it simply takes government spin as the 'truth' and doesn't bother to dig even a bit into the issue.

-- Angry Canuck (canuck@canada.com), August 12, 1999.

Okay, Angry, I'm back. I think the discussion of the role the Canadian media has played in the y2k story should be relegated to its own thread, so I'll focus mostly on the report done by the CBC Magazine. The one that aired on Tues. evening of this week was a repeat of a show that was originally aired in very early January and, given the date it was first shown, it was actually ahead of what appears to have been shown in U.S. mainstream media, if one compares it to the discussions on this board at that time.

The only change was an added note by Lyndon McIntyre at the end stating that 350,000 businesses had not yet started on the problem. Unfortunately, that statement left room for interpretation because the program itself had wandered back and forth between Canada and the U.S.--was that number for Canada alone, all of North America, or worldwide? Lyndon's tone was serious as he said it.

Now, if the govt got a lot of calls about mention of the cheques when the show was aired this time, that's good news. It means that more people were paying attention this time than they were the last time it aired. :)

Onward to last night's disclaimer. This time, as he passed-on to us what had been said to him by government people, his face, his tone, even his body language, as well as his wording, told me that he did not believe what he was saying: the Canadian govt is all ready! However, the govt has just announced this week that it is about to release a report saying it is ready (mentioned on an earlier thread.) What the CBC needs to examine when the report is released is how the government managed to get ready so fast, given that the Auditor General, Denis Desautels, said in their show that one third of the departments were a way behind!

If CBC does not do that, then there will be cause for anger!

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), August 12, 1999.

The 350,000 businesses quote appears in this Canoe article from Sunday, August 8, 1999 entitled "Ottawa's Y2K bug repellent -- strong enough?" Guess I can stop hoping the figure was an international conglomerate!

The quote is attributed to Doug Drever, a spokesman for Industry Canada's Year 2000 Secretariat.

Other interesting quotes from the article: "Ottawa has produced more than 20 million documents on the issue and the government's Y2K Web site has generated more than 700,000 visits. Nearly 40,000 phone calls to a toll-free information line have also been logged. We do know people are listening."

More intriguing stuff: "Some say the inaction is partly the result of politics."

"Peter de Jager, a Canadian computer consultant and expert on Y2K, says a lack of co-operation and co-ordination between Ottawa and the provinces has "interfered strongly" with Canada's millennium bug efforts.

"Right from Day 1, Y2K required a central organizing agency, and that was never forthcoming," de Jager said.

"There was never in our government a Year 2000 czar, if you want, who was in charge and therefore responsible for the remediation of this problem. Ottawa has spent up to $3.5 billion on its own efforts -- becoming a model Y2K fighter -- but was too slow off the mark."

"The Canadian government has done a tremendous amount to make people aware and to put their own house in order; there's no debate about that," de Jager said. "But they started late; there's also no debate about that, either."

Are students the answer? "Ottawa is also offering $50 million in flexible loans through the Canadian Business Development Bank and the First Step action plan, which pairs students and businesses to help isolate susceptible areas and implement solutions."

The article also quotes Joe Boivin.

For more Canadian media reports, go to Canadian y2k.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), August 14, 1999.