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Driving to work on Saturday and Sunday I tune to CBC to get an idea of what is going on in Alberta and the world.  On Sunday though I was quite perplexed.  The topic was – I think – bear safety.

Bear safety, especially during spring, is a relevant topic in many parts of Alberta as human and wild habitats are now entangled.  Reminding humans not to be stupid around bears saves human and bear lives.  I was expecting a rundown of the basic tips for not being an idiot around bears.  Something like this (also found on CBC).

You know, relevant fact based information that will useful most people.  But that didn’t happen.

Instead, I was introduced to ‘indigenous ways’ of coexisting with bears, and how important it was to work with indigenous Canadians.  The news piece featured a short interview with an individual who said that coexisting with bears was the indigenous way of life and it was culturally important feature of their heritage.

What I took from the piece was that it was important to, in an ‘indigenous way’ coexist with bears – because Indigenous Canadian Culture…

What was missing from the news story was any sort of factual information on keeping yourself safe during the annual spring bear awakening season(!).  I’m pretty sure the phrase ‘indigenous ways of knowing” was repeated at least three times during the piece, and I thought to myself, “What additional knowledge is being added to the topic of bear safety?”.

I’m guessing the answer is pretty close to zero.  Biologists have done a fairly good job at studying, recording, and making knowledgeable observations about bear behaviour why not share some of those with the public?  But no, our national broadcaster decided to make the story about (undefined) mystical ways of knowing how to coexist with bears.

I know mornings can be a slow news time, but maybe CBC, just maybe make your news stories contain well, news?