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04 March 2013

The new nicey, nice journalism

Step one, in all multicultural stories, trot out all the familiar, shopworn cliches...
“The suspect, he was a young guy, nice guy, a popular guy. It’s not something you would EVER expect.”
Or how about...
"You NEVER hear about this kind of thing.”
Eventually, though, you actually have to actually say something factual...
"Kuujjuaq has a disproportionately high crime rate for a town of its size. A total of 640 assaults were recorded in 2012, with 424 of them being alcohol related, according to statistics from the Kativik Regional Police Force."
"Disproportionate", huh? When a journalist uses that word in what is otherwise a politically correct puff piece, that, for me anyway, raises a red flag.

Curious about what that actually meant, I started to Google. Turns out, it isn't what was said that's important. It's what was left out.

Apparently, Kuujjuaq is a village of 2,400 people... which works out, statistically, to every fourth person in the place taking a beating. Bear in mind, we're talking reported assaults... which are always a fraction of actual incidences.

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RELATED: Money is the solution... right?
In 2002, the entire community of Davis Inlet was relocated after footage of gas-sniffing children, screaming they wanted to die, was broadcast worldwide.

Just three years later, and after $160-million in moving costs, the chief of the new community Natuashish was forced to admit that the problem was again out of control.
When will the government stop playing, "Once upon a time..."?