Beware the Moores

A COUPLE WEEKS AGO, The Honourable James Moore, Canadian Heritage Minister, made waves when he visited the set of CTV/CBS' Flashpoint. The meeting with the stars and writers was pressed into service by Heritage to make a special announcement, which turned out to be the creation of the new Canadian Media Fund, which is slated to replace the Canadian Television Fund in 2010.

Well, hang on to your hats, because Moore's canceled his schedule today and now there's supposed to be another big press avail and announcement in Toronto.

Toronto's Port Authority were contacted last week about using the old Rochester Ferry Terminal for the announcement, but that plan was discarded quickly, and no one gave a reason. That ferry terminal, of course, has served for the last two years as the backdrop and set for my ex-show, The Border. I don't know whether it's logistics that sunk the Ferry Terminal idea or something else.

Maybe whatever Moore's planning, the backdrop of a CBC show wouldn't be appropriate with all the stuff over the cuts still fresh. It's a pretty rainy day in Toronto, so their Plan B doesn't seem to make a lot of sense.

Supposedly now the whole thing's going down at the old CHUM building at John and Queen around five-thirty p.m. If you go by John and Queen right now, John Street is blocked off between Queen and Richmond street, and a stage is being hastily erected like they do for the Muchmusic Video Awards.

A friend of mine who works as an editor in the building also told me that bigwigs have been going up to the big executive suite on the fifth floor since about 8am -- including Ivan Fecan and Leonard Asper from Canwest. This sounds like it's something a little more than just strategy for the upcoming OTA hearings.