- Allan Bonner Communication Management Inc.
- Login & Register
- Mon - Sat: 9.00am to 8.00pm
Blog List | Allan Bonner Communications Management Inc.
Event: Ocean Ranger Sinking, Hibernia Oil Fields, off NewfoundlandDate: 15 February 1982Summary: A captain who had only been on board for eight days made an error trying to correct a list on the vessel on 6 February 1982. When the alarm sounded, the crew were slow to react, having been through two false alarms in
The Brian Mulroney Legacy
RIP Brian Mulroney. Explore the complex legacy of Canada’s former Prime Minister, Brian Mulroney, in this insightful discussion about the biography “Master of Persuasion.” From being a media darling during his campaigning to facing challenges in communicating controversial policies like the Meech Lake Accord, discover the intricacies of Mulroney’s political journey. Delve into the impact
Event: Walton Town Centre—gas tanker overturning Date: 11 April 1987 Summary: A gasoline tank truck overturned and collided with a small car. A bystander probably called emergency services, and both police and ambulance arrived at about the same time. The police officer went to a pay phone away from the scene, and medical responders went
Event: Alaska EarthquakeDate: 27 March 1964Summary: The quake registered 8.6 on the Richter scale, larger than the 2010 quake in Haiti (7) and ten million times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Response came from 40,000 US service people stationed in Alaska and federal aid. Result: At least 118 dead and $500
Event: Union Carbide Chemical Disaster, Bhopal, India Date: 3 December 1984 Summary: Methyl isocyanate leaked out of the plant and into the camp and town nearby. Some reports said the accident was caused by sabotage, and others suggested that workers had gone on a long tea break after hearing multiple and confusing alarms. The American CEO was arrested
Take a listen to my insights shared in a recent interview on @rnz “Row erupts between Canada and India over murder”
Event: Hurricane HazelDate: 12-16 October 1954Summary: The hurricane had taken 500 lives as it crossed Haiti and the eastern US. But Toronto’s weather forecast for the 15th and 16th said the storm had weakened and would only bring light rain. Although most people in Ontario associated hurricanes with the tropics, there had been 25 tropical
Event: Siege of Iranian Embassy, LondonDate: 30 April 1980Summary: Six armed men stormed the embassy, taking 29 hostages and making various demands on the new Khomeini government. Police responded to an alarm, they knocked on the door and the head terrorist told them to go away. Crowds of Iranians arrived and began chanting support for
Date: 1 June 1974 Summary: Chemical engineers predominated in a facility that occasionally needed mechanical-engineering expertise. Some repairs had been made, including using ‘dog-leg’ pipe and substituting pipe with a smaller diameter, which had caused increased pressure. The manufacturing-process included heating gasoline. A vapour cloud ignited, causing an explosion—one of the largest petrochemical-plant explosions in
A Case Study: The Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion, 19,000 feet up, Cape Canaveral, Florida
Date: 28 January 1986 Summary: The problem with the flight became evident at seventy seconds after lift-off, right after the ‘throttle-up’ exchange between mission control in Houston and Commander Richard Scobee. NASA scheduled press briefings and then postponed. One official said it had been a good weather day (despite the icicles seen on the spacecraft
Event: TWA 800 Crash, Long Island, New YorkDate: 17 July 1996Summary: About twenty minutes after takeoff, at about 14,000 feet, the Boeing 747 crashed into the water. The plane had spent double its projected lifespan— 10 years—in the air. TWA and the plane had a good safety record. Some investigators settled on terrorism as the
An egalitarian trend in the media is to add the perspectives of ordinary people who don’t actually have perspectives “Know it alls” and the “right people” in fashionable suburbs in my parents’ generation referred to television as the “boob tube.” Others referred to the “idiot box.” Parents denounced rock and roll radio but without the
Question Period, after all, is an essential tool for political accountability It’s not called ‘answer period,’” say many political aides. Their advice to cabinet members is that s/he then doesn’t have to answer a question in Question Period. They add a smirk showing they’ve revealed something naughty and know it. This comment is usually injected
Event: Volcanic Eruption, Krakatoa, Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java Date: 27 August 1883 Summary Thought to be extinct, the volcano on the island of Krakatoa erupted with such force that it caused a 120-foot tidal wave. Five cubic miles of rocks flew 17 miles in the air. The shockwaves circled the earth seven times.
The Printed Word
What’s a print journalist like? That’s like asking what’s a politician like. The answer depends. There are beat reporters who only cover politics, general reporters who do sometimes, business reporters, columnists, editors and many others who put together a newspaper or magazine. A print interview might involve an hour with an editorial board or a
Giving Good Clip
I went into the media training business about 20 years ago because I had interviewed plenty of politicians who seemed to have no clear position. They didn’t seem to be up on their files. They seemed guilty of something. In those days, there were a lot of misconceptions about how to deal with reporters—ask questions
Event: 9/11, World Trade Center, New York City Date: 11 September 2001 Summary The terrorist group al-Qaeda coordinated suicide attacks on the US. They hijacked four airplanes, crashing two into the World Trade Center Towers, another into the Pentagon and a fourth (probably destined for the White House or the Capitol) near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Some