Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Bridge saga documentary even handed

I watched CPAC (Canadian Public Affairs Channel’s) new documentary The Billionaire and the Bridge written by Maclean’s magazine’s Luiza Savage. Initially skeptical that this would be more pile on journalism against the owners (the Maroun family) of the Ambassador Bridge I found the 47 minute film to be an even handed presentation of the issue, though there’s nothing really new here for people in this area who’ve been following the bridge debate for years. Savage, who’s not based here but threw herself into learning about the bridge issue - and wrote an accompanying article recently featured as a cover story in Maclean’s - includes all sides of the issue - from truckers, the business community, politicians and diplomats, foes of Matty Maroun, to those who defend him or are otherwise against spending government money on what they see as unfair competition against a private owner willing to build a new bridge on his own dime. The doc, however, is marred by a couple of cheesy shots. One shows thunder and lightning over the Detroit skyline to mark a particularly negative turn of events in the narrative. The second is a picture of a local fountain with a face uncannily looking like Maroun’s spewing water from the mouth. For any of your relatives and friends who live elsewhere and may have heard from national media about it but can’t figure out with the heck the Windsor-Detroit “bridge fight” is all about, you can send them this link: http://www.cpac.ca/en/programs/documentaries/episodes/39088246

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