Seeking an explanation and apology from the CBC

Dear Mr. Bratina,

I am writing to complain about being mistreated by your government's news organization, the CBC.

I am seeking an apology and an explanation from the CBC for their abusive behavior in regard to censoring some of my comments on one of their pages.

On Monday, December 30, 2019 the CBC posted an article in the Business·Analysis section titled, "What you can do in 2020 to keep the world from burning up," by Don Pittis.

The article included a comments section. As I write this note, almost 4,000 comments have been published with the exception of my own.

Initially, I posted two comments on the site. My comments showed a healthy skepticism with respect the climate change narrative that has so dominated the news these last three decades.

Here is the first one,

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"I don't know about you guys, but I can't wait for it to get warm enough to go fishing again.

To speed things up, I rented some greenhouses in the country near here and turned the CO2 generators on full blast. Then I opened all of the windows. I also kept my car running 24/7, even while parked in the driveway. It seems to have worked somewhat since this Christmas has been unusually warm and there has been little snow. I also try to eat as much meat as I can afford.

I have been doing my part to prevent another ice age from coming despite Liberal policies aimed at making Canadians freeze in the dark.

And of course, I celebrate Earth Hour every year with gusto!"

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I included a link to a YouTube video of myself celebrating Earth Hour back in 2009.

Celebrating Earth Hour.

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In accordance with CBC's commenting guidelines, my comment contained absolutely nothing that could be described as offensive and likely to expose an individual or a group of individuals to hatred or contempt on the basis of race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, age or mental or physical disability - as you can plainly see.

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I posted a second comment which was also clearly within the stated CBC guidelines that you can read in the screenshot here,

The link in the screenshot points to
Hiding The Hot Past
by Tony Heller.

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A short while later, I observed that the CBC moderator had disabled both of my comments. It was quite obvious that the reason my comments had been hidden from public view had absolutely nothing to do with violating CBC guidelines. I can only conclude that the moderator was abusing their power for personal reasons. Perhaps they didn't like my tone, or my opinion, or my name. None of that should play any role in determining whether or not others have the opportunity to hear my position on these issues.

This marginalization of my contribution to public discussion really hurt my feelings and did palpable harm to my sense of personal dignity and self worth. I've been trying very hard to stay away from alcohol and marijuana but this painful episode was almost enough to start me off drinking heavily again.

I realize that, given your party affiliation, you probably do not sympathize with my opinions on the climate change debate, but do you not agree that I have as much right as any other Canadian citizen to participate in that debate?

If you do agree that I have a right to civic inclusion in Canada, then I wonder if you could use the facilities at your disposal to contact the CBC moderator who has treated me with such heartless indifference and, at the very least, obtain an explanation or justification from this person, or persons, as to why my opinion does not deserve to be heard along with the other almost 4,000 people who did have their comments published. (Many of whom, by the way, are in clear violation of CBC's stated guidelines by attacking others based upon what they clearly regard as mental disabilities.)

It would be even better if you could get that person or persons to admit to their wrongdoing and provide me with a personal apology in addition to an explanation.

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For a more complete picture of this horribly painful experience at the hands of this publicly funded news organization I have included several more screenshots of my deleted comments which, after the first two, represent my muted protests at this form of editorial bullying.

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Thank you for your time and patience. I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,

Hans Wienhold
Stoney Creek, Ontario

Please note: I reserve the right to publish your response on my blog and in any areas of social media that have not, as yet, adopted the CBC's exclusionary policies.

Screenshots