Dead Pool 2024

[crazy canuck]

Someone only Canadians will likely know. Rex Murphy has died at age 77.

[PRC]

Someone only Canadians will likely know. Rex Murphy has died at age 77.

I always enjoyed when he hosted Cross Country Checkup on CBC radio.  He was always super sympathetic and gracious with all the random Canadians calling in.

[Jacob]

I didn't always agree with Rex Murphy, but I can see his appeal. He made a very solid contribution to public life in Canada.

May he rest in peace.

[Grey Fox]

 

[crazy canuck]

Jacob and GF may be too young to
Remember him before he went hard right.  He gave brilliant commentary on the National and as PRC mentioned he was a gracious host of Cross Country Checkup. I don't know what happened to him after he left the CBC but he seemed to become a completely different person. Hopefully someone will write a biography- it would be a fascinating read.

[Josephus]

He was a great and entertaining commentator in his day; but he is one of those people who should have been sent to pasture years ago.

[Grey Fox]

Jacob and GF may be too young to
Remember him before he went hard right.  He gave brilliant commentary on the National and as PRC mentioned he was a gracious host of Cross Country Checkup. I don't know what happened to him after he left the CBC but he seemed to become a completely different person. Hopefully someone will write a biography- it would be a fascinating read.

There's that and you need to add about more 16 years for me to have learned enough english.

[Barrister]

He was a great and entertaining commentator in his day; but he is one of those people who should have been sent to pasture years ago.

I would still read his work.

I will admit that occasionally his writing would have me cringe, but most of the time I found him very insightful even in later years.

He indeed had a long and fascinating career.  Born in Newfoundland (before it even joined Confederation) he was a Rhodes scholar, despite being a conservative he worked for the CBC for decades.  His vocabulary was impressive, but always in a way not that he was showing off, but that he just trusted his audience was smart enough to keep up.  As mentioned he was always very polite in dealing with callers on a cross-canada call-in show.

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/rex-murphy-the-sharp-witted-intellectual-who-loved-canada-dies-at-77/

By the way here's Rex's last column, filed a day before his death.  He certainly was not going gently into the night as he just blasts Trudeau for ignoring October 7th.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-trudeau-faced-an-essential-moral-test-after-oct-7-he-failed-it

I can't say I disagree with him here.

[Barrister]

https://twitter.com/stephenharper/status/1788719438159806549

Respects paid by Stephen Harper.

So, I'm not sure if Rex knew that last column would be his last or not, but you have to think words of praise from the current PM are not forthcoming.  And fair enough - sometimes the most classy thing to say is nothing at all.

[grumbler]

By the way here's Rex's last column, filed a day before his death.  He certainly was not going gently into the night as he just blasts Trudeau for ignoring October 7th.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-trudeau-faced-an-essential-moral-test-after-oct-7-he-failed-it

What a dreadful, overblown commentary.  The idea that the West somehow "failed" because the victims were Jews completely ignores the world we live in.  Incidents far worse than October 7 have occurred across the world since 1990:  Rwanda, Darfur, and even, right now, in Sudan.  The West is simply selective in how strongly it reacts to such tales (the response to Srebrenica was stronger because closer to home).  Murphy also ignores the fact that Trudeau did on Oct 8 exactly what Murphy called on him to do:  condemn Hamas and its attack as "horrifying and shocking" and mentioning its "brutality."

Also, any time I read a columnist whose evidence is "I hear that..." I dismiss him as a ideologue.

[Jacob]

I haven't really read anything by Murphy since he left the CBC. I guess he went downhill?

[crazy canuck]

By the way here's Rex's last column, filed a day before his death.  He certainly was not going gently into the night as he just blasts Trudeau for ignoring October 7th.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-trudeau-faced-an-essential-moral-test-after-oct-7-he-failed-it

What a dreadful, overblown commentary.  The idea that the West somehow "failed" because the victims were Jews completely ignores the world we live in.  Incidents far worse than October 7 have occurred across the world since 1990:  Rwanda, Darfur, and even, right now, in Sudan.  The West is simply selective in how strongly it reacts to such tales (the response to Srebrenica was stronger because closer to home).  Murphy also ignores the fact that Trudeau did on Oct 8 exactly what Murphy called on him to do:  condemn Hamas and its attack as "horrifying and shocking" and mentioning its "brutality."

Also, any time I read a columnist whose evidence is "I hear that..." I dismiss him as a ideologue.

Yeah, he really went downhill but became a darling of the Right in this country.

[Sheilbh]

A few corrections.  All civil trials are decided on the same evidentiary basis whether heard by jury or judge alone.

Yeah my point was more  judge and a jury might come to a different conclusion, perhaps especially in this type of case. Also in part because of how ongoing trials are reported which is different.

In the US and Canada Newspapers (and news outlets) don't have to establish the truth of what they are reporting.  But malice will defeat their defence.

You don't need to establish truth. There are several defences in English law like honest opinion, public interest, various types of privilege.

Truth is one of those defences. And it's a complete defence. But it is the most difficult to prove because you have to show that what was said was "substantially true". I think media companies would always argue it but winning on the defence of truth is tough.