Long-time CTV personality Renu Bakshi has left a big hole in CTV's local reporting capabilities.

CivicScene has just learned that this past Friday was Renu Bakshi’s final day with CTV Vancouver.

Renu had recently taken on anchoring duties on the weekends, in addition to her usual reporting duties.

A tough nosed approach to reporting defined Bakshi’s approach to reporting, particularly when it came to investigative journalism on stories relating to politics and the rights of farm workers, as examples.

It was also refreshing to see a South Asian anchor leading a local newscast, as it is hard to remember the last time that had happened for a local Vancouver newscast.

The reasons behind Bakshi’s departure were initially unclear, as the Indo Canadian Voice is reporting that she “quit,” leaving many questions as to why CTV would let her get away and what prompted her sudden departure.  I have discovered, however, that her Mom is very ill, and that was definitely one of the main reasons behind her departure.  As Renu told me over the weekend, “It is important for me and my family to spend as much time with our Mother as possible.  I will miss the people at CTV and the experience of being able to break stories of interest to the public, but family always must come first.”

Renu had in recent years assisted her father Sudarshan Bakshi, an Order of BC recepient, with the Janta Sewak Society, which has has been involved in charitable work both in Canada and India.  The society’s last few fundraising dinners were amazing affairs, with most of the BC Cabinet in attendance (including the Premier) and personalities like Kelley Hrudy and Canadian music icons Glass Tiger.  What always impressed me about the efforts of the organization was their focus on families, and the way in which contributions always focused on making a direct impact on the lives of those in need.

I for one will miss Renu on my screen, and wish her Godspeed with regards to Mom.  I also hope that some other station jumps at the opportunity to snap her up, as I am aware that the ratings for her weekend anchoring duties dwarfed others in that late-night slot.

All the best to you, Ms. Bakshi.

Until a shit storm started brewing…: )

I am disappointed, however, that it won’t be a national broadcast, which I still contend would hands down attract more viewers than crap like Etalk Daily, Access Hollywood and the Ghost Whisperer.  With so much public money in the mix, this should be a requirement, not a choice.

But at least we in BC will be able to enjoy the spectacle.

Notice the following pieces here, here and here, which seemed to have used CivicScene’s analysis of CTV’s alternative scheduling as the basis for their story.

Now comes word from a friend who caught CTV’s News at 11:30pm last night that there will now indeed by live coverage from the Paralympic Opening Ceremony, although a call to CTV National News in Toronto at 5:30am PST was met with a producer that said he had no idea nor any knowledge regarding sports coverage (odd in consideration of their official Olympic broadcaster status), nor have I been able to track down anything online to confirm this claim.

If anyone has any information, please shoot it over to civicscene at gmail dot com.

On a side note, Allen Garr from the Vancouver Courier also seems to agree with CivicScene’s take on the culpability of Sam Sullivan in the Olympic Village “scandal” over the inaccessibility of the balconies:

“Federal Paralympics ambassador and former mayor Sam Sullivan told the Courier it is a “scandal” that balconies in the Athletes Village are not wheelchair accessible. The real scandal is that Sullivan can get away with this. The decisions leading to the current balcony design, including a discussion over accessibility and a unanimously supported motion on the issue brought forward by council’s Disability Committee liaison Heather Deal all took place under Sullivan’s watch as mayor.”

The Paralympic Games have thus far been treated with disrespect by everyone except the Vancouver public, who have embraced them with open arms.

We are on the verge of hosting the second largest multi-sport festival on earth and about to bare witness to strength, determination and courage the likes of which our region has rarely experienced.  Yet it is a number of high-profile snubs rather than the celebrations that have left an indelible mark on me as an observer.

First, of course, is Sam Sullivan’s fiasco regarding the Olympic Village suites that have balconies which are inaccessible to Paralympic athletes in wheelchairs.

Then, let’s deal with our national Olympic broadcaster CTV (remember…the CANADIAN Television Network) and the treatment that they are giving to the Games:

“The disparity between the hours of coverage is significant. The Canadian consortium led by CTV, for example, broadcast more than 2,200 hours of coverage during the Olympics, but for the Paralympics it has devoted 57 hours: 30 in French and 27 in English.

The only live broadcasts in Canada will be of sledge hockey games involving Canada, as well as the medal rounds.

Friday’s opening ceremony won’t be broadcast live, but will be repackaged Saturday afternoon into a four-hour block with a replay of the first Canada-Italy sledge hockey game.”

Not as many hours being put on television?  Fair enough.  But to not even broadcast the Opening Ceremony?  That is a national disgrace.  And what, pray tell, are they putting on their schedule instead?  Let’s take a look:

6pm – CTV News with Bill Good, which is something that could easily be moved to 5pm or after the big show at BC Place just as it was during the Olympics.

7pm – Etalk Daily with Ben Mulroney, the most annoying television personality this side of Jared from the Subway commercials – and of course, the son of Brian Mulroney.  Enough said.

7:30pm – Access Hollywood with Billy Bush – Thankfully not the son of George W. Bush, but another grating television persona for the ages nontheless.  That said, if Access Hollywood was preempted, we would miss seeing co-host Maria Menounos, who according to her bio has the distinction of conducting the only interview with the entire Obama family.  The bio boldly states the interview was “touted by political experts as one of the defining moments leading to Obama’s victory.” Gag.

8:00pm – The Ghost Whisperer with acclaimed thespian Jennifer Love-Hewitt.  In this episode, Jennifer’s character fights for the soul of a little girl trapped in a haunted house.  Ooohhh…spooky (speaking of course about the acting rather than the storyline).

First of all, this kind of decision is shortsighted from a business point of view.  I can guarantee you that there would be more interest in a spectacle like the Paralympic Opening Ceremonies than this line-up of crap.

Secondly, it is disgraceful that CTV would think that it was appropriate to broadcast a highlights package of the ceremony a day later and peg viewers and Olympic & Paralympic observers (the same people who have bought out every ticket in BC Place for tomorrow night’s festivities) as not being interested.

Finally, there is the snub by the BC Government at the Paralympic torch relay stopover at Riley Park yesterday.

Who did the provincial government send as a representative to the event?  Not the Premier, who couldn’t give up the spotlight for the torch relay for the entirety of the Olympics.  Not the Honourable Mary McNeil, Minister of State for the Olympics and ActNow BC.  Not any of the Vancouver MLAs like Margaret MacDiarmid for Vancouver-Fairview or Dr. Moira Stilwell, MLA for Vancouver-Langara.

No, they sent backbench MLA representing Richmond Centre, Rob Howard.

So, now that the cameras are gone and the attention has died down, so too has the interest from the provincial government regarding the Paralympic Games.

There isn’t much more to say about these kinds of snubs other than that I am utterly disgusted.

For fear of writing something more that I might regret, I am going to cool down and get off the keyboard.

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