Canadians, and by extension the CBC, are being accused of hitting below the belt in the fight for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

Halifax and Glasgow are seen as the frontrunners to land the games, with the Nigerian capital of Abuja also in the running.

An Oct. 1 CBC documentary called The Feral Boys of Glasgow (CBC News: Sunday) shone a harsh light on Glasgow’s knife crime and gang violence problem:

In Canada, we tend to think of gang violence as something imported from the U.S. American culture is filled with music, music videos and movies depicting the “thug life.” But there is another place where gang culture is a fixture, and has been for over 100 years: Glasgow, Scotland.

The situation has become so bad that the United Nations recently declared Glasgow the most violent city in the developed world. Host Carole McNeil travels to Scotland, and brings you a report on the feral boys of Glasgow.

Glaswegians see the broadcast as a dig at Canada’s chief rival, and are crying foul. According to the Oct. 22 Sunday Herald,

GLASGOW’s bid to host the Commonwealth Games could be damaged by a Canadian documentary portraying the city as awash with gangland violence. One million viewers in the North American country watched harrowing scenes of teenage assaults in Scotland’s largest city.

The shocking images were part of what the programme called the city’s “public health catastrophe”.

(Nice to see high ratings being used against the CBC, no?)

The Oct. 29 edition of the Sunday Observer ran an item called Glasgow seethes at sports rival’s ‘dirty tricks’ (subhead: “Battle to host Commonwealth Games turns nasty”).

Although the Glasgow bid team to host 2014 has adhered to the etiquette of not rubbishing its rivals, they are privately seething at what they regard as dirty tricks being employed by their Canadian counterparts.

Last night, the director of Glasgow’s bid hit back at a Canadian documentary which branded the city as one of the most violent places in the world.

CBC, of course, says it was just straight up journalism. “To suggest the documentary was motivated by anything other than legitimate journalistic interest in a significant current social problem would be inaccurate,” CBC spokesman Jeff Keay told the Globe. (The article also says the United Nations recently ranked Glasgow the most violent city in the developed world.)

For the record, the CBC does not have a broadcasting deal in place for the 2014 games.

But why a piece on Glasgow, and why now? Host Carole MacNeil told the Sunday Herald she decided to make the show “after being made aware of Glasgow’s social problems” and to “de-racialize” gang violence.

I found low levels of education, one in six households wholly unemployed and the highest levels of single mums, lung disease, heart disease and depression. When you put that picture together, you think no wonder these kids are on the periphery. There’s no aspiration. That was the thesis of the documentary.

In a later Sunday Herald item, literary editor Alan Taylor had the following riposte:

In an ideal world, BBC Scotland would already be over there making a retaliatory programme showing what a hellhole Halifax is. In 2004, the latest year for which there are crime statistics, Halifax had the highest rate of violent incidents per head throughout Canada, a total of 71,000, two-thirds of which were committed by feral youths under 24.

The two competitors for “the friendly games” clashed earlier, when Halifax bid head Scott Logan commented that Glasgow’s bid could be harmed by London staging the 2012 Olympics. According to the papers, the rivalry also hurts Scottish first minister Jack McConnell’s recent efforts in “wooing Canadian Scots back to their homeland.”

Though she defends the documentary, Carol MacNeil says she understands the reaction. After watching the final cut, she joked, “I thought that I won’t be working for the Glaswegian tourist board”.

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