Posted on the Maclean’s website today:
…a series of exposés published by Calgary’s Fast Forward Weekly quoted unnamed vendors accusing the board of intimidation…. Some charged that the market’s bylaws—dictating the height of display tables the use of hot plates—are arbitrarily enforced to punish disobedience or push out unwanted vendors. “It sounds really nasty and it is” one vendor told Maclean’s . ([Market board president Rod] Bradshaw maintains that the bylaws are consistently enforced and that recent surveys of vendors suggest the complaints are coming from a small minority.)
In an apparent bid to staunch the flow of bad press management confiscated copies of Fast Forward Weekly from the market floor after it published “Fear and loathing at the Calgary Farmers’ Market” a particularly damning piece. “Why would we want to distribute information that is not in the best light?” Jack Habina a board director asked a Fast Forward Weekly reporter. (Habina and others dispute many of the allegations in the Fast Forward Weekly articles.) “We pulled their papers—we felt that they were not being objective” Bradshaw told Maclean’s . “There’s nothing wrong with criticism if it has justification.” The optics were dismal. “Smile! The Calgary Farmers’ Market board is watching” ran a subsequent Fast Forward Weekly headline…
The full Maclean’s story is here .
(To recap here are the relevant Fast Forward stories: Fear and loathing at the Calgary Farmers’ Market (June 4); Fast Forward pulled from Farmers’ Market (June 11); Calgary Farmers’ Market muzzles the press (June 18); Smile! The Calgary Farmers’ Market board is watching (July 9).)
