Bruce Dowbiggin
A-A-Ron: Sacked For Defying The Needle Gang

“I realize I’m in the crosshairs of the woke mob right now. So, before my final nail gets put in my cancel-culture casket, I think I would like to set the record straight on so many of the blatant lies that are out there about myself.” —Aaron Rodgers
There are two popular media takes about Aaron Rodgers not taking Joe Biden’s favourite vaccines for Covid-19. The first— and easiest to find agreement— is that Rodgers was less than candid about his unique approach to combatting Covid-19 under the NFL protocols made up last year— and still unreasonably clinging to the game.
Rodgers says the Packers knew his vaccination status. “I have followed every single protocol to a T… My daily routine is the routine of an unvaccinated person.” But to those who’ve seen NBA stars like Kyrie Irving and Andrew Wiggins publicly declare their opposition to getting jabbed, Rodgers kept his unique position on the down-low.
It seems that, after watching the NBA dudes getting slammed by FauciLand, he preferred to soft-pedal his opinions. Plus there were all his sponsors. Not good optics.
He clearly has opinions to voice. “They’re purely trying to out and shame people,” he told former teammates Pat McAfee and A.J. Hawk. “Like needing to wear a mask at a podium when every person in the room is vaccinated and wearing a mask – makes no sense to me.
“If you got vaccinated to protect yourself from a virus I don’t have as an unvaccinated individual then why are you worried about anything I could give you?” Nice try. In a game governed by rules, the liberal media mob feels Rodgers tried to add a fifth down or a ten-point TD. Rodgers should have done like Irving et al. and let these sincere objections rip rather than get exposed later.
The second take on Rodgers (engaged to actress Shailene Woodley, who prides herself on making her own medicines) is that he consulted popular podcast host Joe Rogan about alternative therapies when he learned he had an allergy to something in the mRNA vaccines. (Rodgers conversion to alternative lifestyles by his significant other is reminiscent of Colin Kaepernick— another Bay Area resident—going full BLM after being indoctrinated into Woke World by the new woman in his life.)
The Rogan consult is the take getting him most of the grief and caused his healthcare sponsor to drop him as a spokesman. As Matt Walsh tweeted, “The sports media are far, far angrier at Aaron Rodgers for not getting vaccinated than Deshaun Watson for sexually assaulting dozens of women, or Henry Ruggs for driving 156 mph while drunk and killing someone.”
For the Media Party, who demand obeisance to Woke narratives about masks, lockdowns, single-, double-, triple-xaxxing and crushing scientific inquiry, consulting a standup comedian and former MMA figure is off-script. They will countenance late-night (formerly) comedy show hosts talking Covid. But dissent? Science, to them, is carved in stone. Rogan is a poison.
Rogan, however, is curious about the science around a virus that has stumped the clever folks in white coats. He asks questions. His podcasts go into depth (often two-hours plus) with people who have credentials or are simply quoting public research. He doesn’t pretend to be an expert. He simply—no better way to say it— speaks his truth and reads the material.
This unconventionality represents a mortal threat to people who brought you Covid: The Musical! It would be no exaggeration that the millions in Rogan’s audience for his podcasts— and a string of alternative guests— has thrown shade on the litany of false narratives generated by the WHO, CDC, Health Canada and their slappies in the press. Who react with anger when their mistakes are pointed out.
But Rogan is no Q-Anon phantom. Along with Russell Brand, Ricky Gervais and, increasingly, Bill Maher these alt-voices are relentless in debunking PCR tests, mask mandates, etc. A public exhausted by official propaganda about magic vaccines— and the media’s willing acceptance of corrupt science— is turning to non-Hollywood personalities for guidance.
While Joe Biden’s message pushed out by these sources is summed as “Comply!”, the alt-hosts are more like Maher. “I know some people seem to not want to give up on the wonderful pandemic, but you know what? It’s over… You shouldn’t have to wear masks…vaxx, mask, pick one! You can’t make me mask if I’ve had the vaxx… the red states are a joy and the blue states are a pain in the ass.”
The results of the censorship have seen progressive cable-news media’s ratings collapse by up to 68 percent (CNN) in primetime. And the thrashing in last week’s off-year elections. But what does that say about Wolf Blitzer’s feelings? Or Rachel Maddow’s deeply felt conspiracy blockbusters on MSNBC?
Funny you should ask about Rachel and credibility. Last week the DOJ charged a Russian with lying about his role in the RussiaGate investigation of Donald Trump. That would be the same RussiaGate investigation Maddow sold— and still sells— nightly as fact to her viewers for four years.
The criminal charge against Igor Danchenko makes clear that the entire Russia/ Trump investigation (which paralyzed his presidency) was generated by the Hillary Clinton 2016 presidential campaign as a dirty tricks op. Primary sources were invented, laundered to a former spy, disseminated by compliant media such as Maddow and used by the FBI to launch the failed Mueller Investigation into Trump’s activities.
Despite the evidence generated by the DOJ Maddow refused to admit she pushed a loser, citing more dark conspiracies on the right. Leading independent journalist Matt Taibbi— who called the story “a “sizable boil on the face of American journalism”— to excoriate the MSNBC darling. ”Whatever the category below ‘disgraced journalist’ is, she entered it with gusto with last night’s performance,” Taibbi wrote. “Every reporter who touched that allegation should be ashamed, and Rachel is at the front of that huge crowd.”
So if you’re looking for why Aaron Rodgers might have looked elsewhere for information on Covid-19 check out the carcass of disgraced establishment healthcare and the willing wind therapists who peddled it. And who now want to bury Rodgers for going off script.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster (http://www.notthepublicbroadcaster.com). The best-selling author of Cap In Hand has been nominated for the BBN Business Book award of 2020 for Personal Account with Tony Comper. A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s also a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. His new book with his son Evan is called InExact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History is now available on http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx
Bruce Dowbiggin
Canada Day 2025: It’s Time For Boomers To Let The Kids Lead

So how did you spend your first Canada Day under new PM Mark Carney? If you’re CBC, freed from the clutches of Pierre Poilievere, you do a fawning interview with ex-pat comedian Mike Myers, whose Elbows Up appearance on Saturday Night Live and whose partisan hockey sweater appearance with Carney were pivotal moments in the recent election. (Saving CBC from drastic budget cuts— not that they mentioned it.)
After Donald Trump’s bellicose 51st state comments, Myers’ nostalgic harkening to the days of Gordie Howe and Mr. Dressup pivoted Boomers’ voter preferences in Canada. Soft Quebec sovereigntists petrified by Trump abandoned the Bloc for the Liberals. Progressives ditched the NDP for the Grits. And some wobbly Conservatives moved to Carney’s side, too, after the charm offensive by Myers, who hasn’t lived in Canada since the 1980s.

The result? Liberals vaulted 20 points in the polls and barely missed a majority in their fourth consecutive election win. Boomers were exultant. Their subsidized media was joyous. And the rest of the world asked if Canada was a serious country after the Libs naked substitution of Carney for the loathed Justin Trudeau. After all, hadn’t the U.S. Democrats tried the same thing and been summarily spanked by voters?
More to the point, had Canadian voters missed a great opportunity by sticking their heads in the ground on Chinese gangs using Canada as a drug launch pad, Canadian banks being fined billons for money laundering, immigration flooding social services, cratering GDP and Palestinian protests clogging the streets?
This at a time when the under-50 generation has lost faith in its destiny within Canada. As we wrote in March why are 43 percent of 18-36 male CDNs telling pollsters they would accept U.S. citizenship if they were guaranteed full rights and financial protections? Where upper-class products of liberal education— the future professional class— have taken to wearing keffiyehs to the convocations and demonstrations. Where housing is an unattainable goal in most major Canadian urban centres.
It’s not hard to see them looking at the Mike Myers obsession with a long-gone Canada and saying let’s get out of here. The signs are there. Recently former TVOntario host Steve Pakin attended two convocations. The first at the former Ryerson University, which switched its name to Toronto Metropolitan University in a fit of settler colonizer guilt. The second at Queens University, traditionally one of the elite schools in the nation. Here’s what he saw.
“At the end of the (TMU) convocation, when Charles Falzon, on his final day as dean of TMU’s Creative School, asked students to stand and sing the national anthem, many refused. They remained seated. Then, when the singing began, it was abundantly noticeable that almost none of the students sang along. And it wasn’t because they didn’t know the words, which were projected on a big screen. The unhappy looks on their faces clearly indicated a different, more political, explanation.

“I asked some of the TMU staff about it after the ceremony was over, and they confirmed what I saw happens all the time at convocations. Then I texted the president of another Ontario university who agreed: this is a common phenomenon among this generation at post-secondary institutions.”
At Queens, where Canadian flags were almost non-existent, O Canada was sung, but the message of unrest was clear: “Convocation sends a message of social stability,” Queen’s principal Patrick Deane began in his speech. “It is a ceremony shaped in history. You should value your connection to the past, but question that inheritance. Focus on the kind of society you’d like to inhabit.”
You can bet Deane is not telling them to question climate change and trans rights. As Paikin observes, “if we fail to create a more perfect union, we shouldn’t be surprised when a vast swath of young people don’t sing our anthem the way so many of the rest of us do.” So why are the best and brightest so reluctant to see as future in becoming the new professional class that runs society?
In the Free Press River Page searched the source of their discontent. “If the Great Recession, Covid-19, and the spectre of an artificial intelligence-assisted ‘white collar bloodbath’ has taught the professional class anything, it is that their credentials cannot save them. This insecurity, compounded by the outrageous cost of living in many large cities, has pushed the PMC’s anxieties to the breaking point.
“Add that to the triumph of identity politics in professional class institutions like universities, corporate C-suites, non-governmental organizations, and media—itself a byproduct of inter-elite competition as many have observed—and what you have is the modern left.
“… they’ve already come to the baffling conclusion that there’s no difference between class struggle and child sex changes. More to the point, the socialist mantra “From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” has only ever stood the test of time in Anabaptist sects. It requires a religious devotion to self-sacrifice that is not characteristic of this anxious and hyper-competitive class—as many actual socialists have spent the last decade warning.”

As we wrote in March Boomer nostalgia is a dead end. “It’s time that Canada’s aging elite ceded a greater voice in the national debate to younger voices. They need an intervention of the type Trump is now performing on Canadians addicted to sitting in first class but paying economy. He brought them into a room with the chairs and levelled with them about getting the free stuff they assumed was their right. Defence, security, trade, medical access. He’s the first president to do this in half a century.
And like all people addicted, CDN Boomers don’t want the truth. They want performance theatre, T-shirts and hockey games. They blame Trump for their predicament, caught between grim realities. Will they take the 12 steps? Or will their kids have to tell them the facts as they escort them to the home?” Because we’re now seeing the likely answer to that question everywhere in Canadian society.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
Bruce Dowbiggin
The Game That Let Canadians Forgive The Liberals — Again

With the Americans winning the first game 3-1, a sense of panic crept over Canada as it headed to Game 2 in Boston. Losing a political battle with Trump was bad enough, but losing hockey bragging rights heading into a federal election was catastrophic for the Family Compact.
“It’s also more political than the (1972) Summit Series was, because Canada’s existence wasn’t on the line then, and it may be now. You’re damn right Canadians should boo the (U.S.) anthem.” Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur before Gm. 1 of USA/ Canada in The 4 Nations Cup.
The year 2025 is barely half over on Canada Day. There is much to go before we start assembling Best Of Lists for the year. But as Palestinian flags duel with the Maple Leaf for prominence on the 158th anniversary of Canada’s becoming a sovereign country it’s a fair guess that we will settle on Febuary 21 as the pivotal date of the year— and Canada’s destiny as well.
That was the date of Game 2 in the U.S./Canada rivalry at the Four Nations Tournament. Ostensibly created by the NHL to replace the moribund All Star format, the showdown of hockey nations in Boston became much more. Jolted by non-sports factors it became a pivotal moment in modern Canadian history.
Set against U.S. president Donald Trump’s bellicose talk of Canada as a U.S. state and the Mike Myers/ Mark Carney Elbows Up ad campaign, the gold-medal game evoked, for those of a certain age, memories of the famous 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR. And somehow produced an unprecedented political reversal in Canadian elections.
As we wrote on Feb. 16 after Gm. 1 in Montreal, the Four Nations had been meant to be something far less incendiary. “Expecting a guys’ weekend like the concurrent NBA All Star game, the fraternal folks instead got a Pier Six brawl. It was the most stunning beginning to a game most could remember in 50 years. (Not least of all the rabid Canadian fanbase urging patriotism in the home of Quebec separation) Considering this Four Nations event was the NHL’s idea to replace the tame midseason All Star Game where players apologize for bumping into each other during a casual skate, the tumult as referees tried to start the game was shocking.
“Despite public calls for mutual respect, the sustained booing of the American national anthem and the Team Canada invocation by MMA legend Georges St. Pierre was answered by the Tkachuck brothers, Matthew and Brady, with a series of fights in the first nine seconds of the game. Three fights to be exact ,when former Canuck J.T. Miller squared up with Brandon Hagel. (All three U.S. players have either played on or now play for Canadian NHL teams.)
“Premeditated and nasty. To say nothing of the vicious mugging of Canada’s legend Sidney Crosby behind the U.S. net moments later by Charlie McEvoy.”
With the Americans winning the game 3-1 on Feb. 15, a sense of panic crept over Canada as it headed to Game 2 in Boston. Losing a political battle with Trump was bad enough, but losing hockey bragging rights heading into a federal election was catastrophic for the Family Compact. As we wrote in the aftermath, a slaughter was avoided.

“In the rematch for a title created just weeks before by the NHL the boys stuck to hockey. Anthem booing was restrained. Outside of an ill-advised appearance by Wayne Gretzky— now loathed for his Trump support— the emphasis was on skill. Playing largely without injured Matthew and Brady Tkachuk and McAvoy, the U.S. forced the game to OT where beleaguered goalie Craig Binnington held Canada in the game until Connor McDavid scored the game winner. “
The stunning turnaround in the series produced a similar turnaround in the Canadian federal election. Galvanized by Trump’s 51st State disrespect and exhilarated by the hockey team’s comeback, voters switched their votes in huge numbers to Carney, ignoring the abysmal record of the Liberals and their pathetic polling. From Pierre Poilievre having a 20-point lead in polls, hockey-besotted Canada flipped to award Carney a near-majority in the April 28 election.
The result stunned the Canadian political class and international critics who questioned how a single sporting event could have miraculously rescued the Liberals from themselves in such a short time.

While Canada soared because of the four Nations, a Canadian icon crashed to earth. “Perhaps the most public outcome was the now-demonization of Gretzky in Canada. Just as they had with Bobby Orr, another Canadian superstar living in America, Canadians wiped their hands of No. 99 over politics. Despite appeals from Orr, Don Cherry and others, the chance to make Gretzky a Trump proxy was too tempting.
We have been in several arguments on the subject among friends: Does Gretzky owe Canada something after carrying its hockey burden for so long? Could he have worn a Team Canada jersey? Shouldn’t he have made a statement that he backs Canada in its showdown with Trump? For now 99 is 0 in his homeland.”
Even now, months later, the events of late February have an air of disbelief around them, a shift so dramatic and so impactful on the nation that many still shake their heads. Sure, hockey wasn’t the device that blew up Canada’s politics. But it was the fuse that created a crater in the country.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
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