Dan Fumano,
just another
courtier journalist
He knows about Rollie Woods’
racistly tainted sleazebag record
but still grants the liar credibility
Rollie Woods: a repugnant liar, corrupt cop, corrupt deputy
police complaint commissioner, supporter of gratuitous cop
violence against a disabled native woman and, according to
Postmedia reporter Dan Fumano, a credible news source.
My October 15, 2022, e-mail (pasted below) to Vancouver Postmedia reporter Dan Fumano accuses him of not wanting to know about serious corruption at B.C.’s Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. Actually I think he does know but, wishing he didn’t, pretends not to.
Way back in 2014 he interviewed me over the phone after seeing this website. As I recall, the brief conversation regarded some RCMP issue about which I wasn’t aware (and I’m not sure he was clear on it either), so I wasn’t any help. This project focuses on the OPCC.
Months later he responded to a press release in which I called on media to question the OPCC about its handling of the Taylor Robinson case. Although Fumano didn’t commit himself, he did ask me to keep him in touch regarding the issue. But he was soon overruled, very arrogantly, by an egotistical Vancouver Province editor named Gordon Clark (Gordzilla, as he liked to call himself).
Years later, in late 2020, Fumano replied to my open letter to the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs: “Thank you for copying me on your open letter, this was a good read. I have read your writing on police oversight in the past with interest.”
My open letter emphasized the Taylor Robinson case, among others, and mentioned the involvement of Rollie Woods, then deputy police complaint commissioner. Furthermore it would be hard to read my previous writing on police oversight without seeing references to Woods, at least some of the OPCC cover-ups he was involved in, and his brazen lying to the Georgia Straight and Times Colonist.
Nevertheless in September 2022 Fumano granted Woods credibility in a story that was, of all things, about cop lying and other cop misconduct. This isn’t a matter of not wanting to know, as my e-mail below misguidedly states. It’s a matter of sucking up to people of power, authority or status, no matter how obvious their corruption.
If Fumano has any distinction among his often repellent media colleagues, it’s his ability to seem like a Nice Guy. That makes it especially disappointing to see his implied support for ethical corruption—not to mention ethical corruption that smacks of contempt for natives.
But journalists are a highly conventional bunch. And journalism jobs keep getting cut.
Misguidedly understated as it is, here’s my response to Fumano’s story:
Subject line: Courtier journalism
To: Dan Fumano, dfumano@postmedia.com
October 15, 2022
Hi Dan:
I belatedly read your September 30 story about whether it’s too difficult to fire bad cops. Your reporting is quite good, until the last part. Did you really have to treat Rollie Woods as a credible source for a story that’s largely about cop lying and other police misconduct?
I could briefly outline Woods’ discreditable conduct as head of VPD Professional Standards, his ethical corruption as deputy police complaint commissioner and his brazen lying to the Times Colonist and Georgia Straight.
In addition to the brief outline, I could send you much more info to substantiate all of the above. But I don’t think you or anyone else in the media want to know. Apart from the OPCC’s secrecy and unaccountability, media support helps characters like Woods get away with slimeball ethics.
Just as bad cops bring discredit to good cops, courtier journalists do the same to good journalists. The difference is that there are far more good cops than good journalists.
Greg Klein
gklein79@hotmail.com
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