CityOnLine, CityTV, No One Is Illegal-Toronto

How not to conduct a media interview

For anyone considering a career in television journalism, viewing CityOnLine on Citytv should be required watching. Hosted by Ann Rohmer the program provides an excellent study in "how-not-to" conduct an interview.

On Monday, Rohmers guest was Simi Zeheri of the group No One Is Illegal-Toronto. That organization is a far left group that believes that anyone who comes to Canada should be granted citizenship and the only reason that they are not is because our government is racist.

Neither Rohmer nor the shows producers ever thought that in the interest of fairness and in order to bring out all the facts, another guest with an opposite viewpoint should have been present. They probably did think about it but giving both sides of the issue is far less important to the station than helping the left push their agenda. After all, how difficult is it to find someone with a varying viewpoint; that is, someone who thinks that illegal immigrants are, well, illegal?

The lack of balance would not have been as important were it not for the fact that Ann Rohmers interviewing style makes Larry King look like Bill OReilly. Not once did she ever question or confront Zeheri as to anything her guest said.

The subject matter of Mondays show were the recent events in which immigration officers used children in school as bait in order to flush out their illegal-immigrant parents. Rohmer sat silently by while Zeheri accused "the government" of these actions. The actions were undertaken by a few enforcement officials of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and not the government and this distinction is important in light of subsequent events. After these incidents became public, a spokesperson for CBSA said that at least one of enforcement actions breached departmental protocol. More importantly, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day issued a strong directive after these incidents became public saying that enforcement agents cannot enter schools unless requested to do so by a parent, guardian or school official. Rohmer did absolutely nothing to bring out the governments position, leaving Sima Zeheri in full control of the program and able to spin the facts in her favour.

Rohmer never questioned Zeheris statement that these children were in school "legally". They werent. Only Canadian citizens and permanent residents have a legal right to attend school; others must obtain permission to do so. The fact that many school boards purposely dont ask for proof of immigration status for policy reasons does not make school attendance legal for children who are in the country illegally.

The forlorn looking Rohmer sat quietly be while Zeheri said that there are 500,000 not fully documented people in Canada. That works out to about one in every 64 people who are present in this country; a ridiculously high number. It obviously never crossed Rohmers mind to ask where that number came from. On the off chance that Rohmer is reading this, that figure did not come from the federal government. Canada does not impose exit controls on people who leave the country and have no idea whether people who are in the country at some point are still here. For that reason, according to CBSA spokesperson Laurie Gillmore, statistics on the number of persons who are illegally in Canada are not kept. But Rohmer simply allowed the 500,000 figure to go unchallenged.

This was neither a news interview nor a current affairs program. It was nothing more than giving the group, No One Is Illegal Toronto, an opportunity to push its far left agenda. In the CityOnLine poll that was taken that day, 543 viewers were opposed to children being used as bait and 321 thought it was okay. At least not everyone was buying the line that Citytv was trying to push.

The right to remain silent has its place in Canadian society; just not while hosting a purported informative current affairs program.

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Toronto Free Press. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Men's News Daily, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck and The Rant. Arthur can be reached at: Columns 2006 '05 '04 '03 '02 '01 '00 1999 Media 2006 '05 '04 '03 '02 Toronto 2006 '05 '04