Parents defend son accused of leaving accident

We are writing today regarding the CBC reporting of the incident about our son, Jordan St. John.

The media has portrayed him to be a heartless and a reckless individual when that is the furthest thing from the truth. This has deeply hurt us as parents and no one will ever understand this unless you have kids of your own and have been through a similar situation.

Our Son, Jordan is 19 years old, an upstanding young man; a high school graduate with a full-time job; he treats people with respect; he’s a good young hunter; he is always helping others; he has plans to go to college this fall; he is active in sports and dreams of having a bright future.

We wish to point out that he has never been in trouble with the law until this incident.

The accident happened in a dark area of town at an intersection that has very poor lighting. Jordan did his best to avoid a head-on collision with a quick last-second reaction, but unfortunately, the person involved did sustain some injuries but nothing life threatening.

He is very sorry about what happened as he has never intentionally hurt anyone to this day. We made him quite aware of the fact that he has a responsibility as a human being to ensure that he always looks out for others no matter the circumstances.

It is a natural reaction for most of us to run but please keep in mind that this was an accident; there was no intent to injure; no drugs or alcohol involved.

Your misleading report tries to draw another conclusion so that you can get your attention grabbing headlines. Or is it just plain bad reporting? There has been a lot of bad reporting over the years and it is time that someone points it out to the taxpayer-funded CBC.

Do we ever wonder why so many young people get discouraged about life? Is it because of all the negativity that we are subjected to everyday? Think about it.

The southern media continually portrays Nunavut as a hopeless territory with the worst of everything in the country. The only attention we are given is the negative side of life which represents such a small fraction of everyday life.

The fact is that there are a lot more positive things that happen in Nunavut every single day. In our opinion, the public broadcaster has stooped to a new low.

We would suggest that, maybe they be renamed the CBC North Inquirer as they seem to be hungry for bad news stories with absolutely no regard or respect for people.

We always understood professionalism for a journalist to mean that you do your homework, get your facts straight before you report stories, but I guess like the slanderous tabloids and magazines of the day, reporters are hungry for headlines.

Remember, this was an accident with an error in judgment that has led to charges being laid. To the reporter and manager, defamation of character is serious and one day, you will be held accountable for your actions.

Where is the Inuit Broadcasting Corp.? In its heyday, the IBC was a first class organization with lots of positive programming that left a lasting impression on many of us who grew up in the 1980s.

We cannot say that about CBC North and its lust for headlines. Our tax dollars should be used for uplifting programming and accurate reporting and certainly not the tabloid style reporting that is becoming the norm.

I sincerely hope that our MP and Senator will consider incidents such as this when they are involved in reviewing the dollars allocated for the public broadcaster.

We are a young territory with a lot of growing pains but our people are resilient and Nunavut is full of promise. A positive attitude goes a long way in ensuring a bright future for our young people.

Ryan and Dorothy St. John
Arviat

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