Sunday, June 29, 2008

Putting the dink in coincidink

Talk about crazy cross-referencing: The Supreme Court of Canada handed down a decision that expands the use of fair comment on Friday — the same day that reportonbusiness.com profiled the new CEO of Steelback Brewery, who couldn't have distanced himself more from the former CEO whose name doesn't rate a mention.

Let's drink to that -- although with all due respect to Jonathon Sherman, something-anything else will be the libation of choice this holiday weekend.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sager - You may not realize it but I was living in the Sault when you took on the 'beer baron' and that is how I found your blog. Anyone who would call out the clown for what he was has my respect.

From the article, "Sherman doesn't want to dwell on D'Angelo, the P.T. Barnum of beer, who toured with his band, the Steelback 2-4, and bought time on Hockey Night in Canada for commercials featuring the likes of Phil Esposito and, oh yes, himself." Classic:)

Anonymous said...

Lots of luck to the Shermans in their relaunch of Steelback.

May I reccomend a craft beer with a
university sport tie?

Mill St Brewery in Toronto makes excellent beer in my opinion. Last season they did some sponsorship of OUA football, Perhaps this season too? Two good reasons to support the brand.

OttawaFan

sager said...

Thanks guys.

I'm kind off the beer these days (trying to lose some weight), but yes, Mill St., is awesome.

Mike Radoslav said...

There are a number of excellent craft brews out there right now - Mill St., Steamwhistle, Brick, Amsterdam, Big Rock out west - gaining more and more popularity lately. Sherman has a long way to get Steelback back into it, but I wish them the best of luck!

sager said...

Back into it? That implies they were in it once.

I was on a Steam Whistle kick for a while last fall/winter.

Dennis Prouse said...

That Supreme Court ruling on the Rafe Mair case, BTW, was a 9-0 decision. Needless to say, that one won't be revisited anytime soon.

Cases like yours, Neate, are precisely the reason why this ruling was so badly needed. Weak, frivolous libel suits were being launched right left and centre, and libel chill was a favourite tool of the well to do. While the court was technically ruling on that one case, the justices are well aware of the environment in which they are making their ruling. The fact that they ruled unanimously, given the ideological split that exists on even our Canadian Supreme Court, says a great deal. Now, the bar has been reset on libel to being quite high, precisely where it should be.

Speaking of disgraced former beer barons, I was looking for Steelback 2-4 on the Bluesfest calendar, and couldn't find them. Imagine that.

Mike Radoslav said...

touche sager! :)

I never actually bought Steelback before, but kind of assumed someone must've...however I guess horrible commercials don't equal success (funny that!)

This was also the time I was entering University though, when Steelback was making its big push, which of course means I was helping the burgeoning success of brands like Lucky, Carling, and all the Lakeport brews (I actually once bought a 2-4 of Steeler in First Year where the only decipherable marking on this cardboard box was a Steeler logo stamped onto the one side...classy!)

Duane Rollins said...

True story: I worked for a paper in SW Ont a while back. The senior hockey team was called the Steelback Bulls. The back-up goaltender for said team was a bad lounge singer.

Said bad lounge singer had it written into his sponsorship contract that he was to play X amount of games for the team.

He wasn't very good, so the team stopped playing him. At which point said bad lounge singer took his puck (and his money) and went home.

Then the team was just the Bulls again.

Keith Borkowsky said...

Sager, I can't believe you've forgotten the ales of Fort Garry. Manitoba disowns you for the slight.

Big Rock is only big in big hat country.

sager said...

Manitoba hadn't already disowned me?

Gotta remember, on those Daily Graphic wages, I couldn't afford premiums like Fort Garry.... plus I had just come from Nova Scotia, so I was still on a Keith's/Moosehead kick.