BC Liberals Seniors Tax (BCLST)

Did you hear the one about the government that decided to put a tax on being a Senior?
No - WELL, THAT'S OUR f#$^*(g BC LIBERAL GOVERNMENT.

It hasn't been enough to keep the most children in Canada living in poverty for the last six years.

To drive an epidemic of homelessness and poverty that they are now rapidly trying to clean up.

Or to drive chaos, bankrupt and dismantle our provincial Health Care and child welfare systems.

Draining away BC Hydro, carving and slicing away Crown and Agricultural lands.

Bringing in the HST (Hey Suckers Tax) to drain our wallets.

Cutting money from programs for abused kids, the disabled, addictions and mental health and from the Special Olympics!

No, they could add to that morally adrift administration and governance. In their infinite wisdom they're now bringing in the Senior Tax (ST).

Because, you know, those damn seniors just have too much income.
And if a buck can be made off of 'em, dammit, that just makes sense and must be good public policy. At least in the Machiavellian BC Liberal government. Sinking to levels we haven't even seen the depths of yet. Just wait until after the Big Party.

Babies, that's it. We are not taxing babies, pets or the dead. The possibilities are apparently endless to the BC Liberal government.
Look for more Stupid and Amoral taxes coming to you from the BC Liberals in 2010! You'll be on the edge of your seat! You will laugh, but mostly cry!

*************************

B.C. care-home fee rise sparks concern
CBC News

Most B.C. seniors will have to pay more to live in a care home in the new year and many might not be able to afford it, according to the provincial NDP.

The province is raising care-home fees eight per cent in the new year and 10 per cent the next year.

The change — affecting 75 per cent of seniors living in care homes — will bring in an additional $54 million, the province says. The revenue is to be used to improve services for seniors.

Health Minister Kevin Falcon denied seniors will face hardship as a result of the fee increases.

Falcon said all drug costs in residential homes are covered by the government, and all seniors will be able to keep a minimum of $275 a month for personal needs under the new rate structure.

*************************

Ombudsperson releases first report on care of seniors

• News release

• List of findings and recommendations

• Full report

*************************************

Are they insane, stupid, morally bankrupt? All of the above?

Are these Pod people?

Hatched from eggs of some cold-blooded creatures?

Do they not have parents, or loved ones who will now be seeing their dwindling funds being taxed by the very government most have paid into the coffers of for decades?

I just don't get how they don't say to themselves, no, this just goes too far. It will hurt too many. Are BC Liberal MLA's, flunkies and supporters incapable of accessing the kind of humanity this takes at this point in time? It appears to be the case and that is just so damn scary.

********
Complaints about seniors' care prompt probe by B.C. ombudsman

B.C.'s ombudsman has launched a widespread investigation into the quality of care for senior citizens in the province, prompted by the more than 50 complaints her office received this summer about seniors' care facilities and services across B.C.

Kim Carter said Thursday the complaints include neglect in care facilities, the separation of spouses, accessibility of services and the closure of some facilities.

From the Who are They Trying to Fool File: Coleman & Campbell Homeless for a Day Dare

"It's just that on my conscience and on the conscience of the police officer on the street, I think they need to have a tool for the duty of care."
- Rich Coleman - December 02, 2009

How about the Duty of Care the current administration had toward not creating an explosion of homelessness, marginalization and social exclusion? The BC Liberal government bears a great deal of responsibility and with the Big Party coming, they need to get the blight of BC's homelessness off the streets somehow.

Problem is, and it's a BIG PROBLEM: THERE ARE NOT ENOUGH G.D. SHELTER BEDS TO ACCOMMODATE ALL OF THE PEOPLE POLICE ARE SUPPOSED TO "ESCORT" AGAINST THEIR WILL IN THE FIRST BLOODY CASE.

This Act is idiotic, unenforceable and vile. And it wouldn't pass a Charter case, but they're going to try to ram this through.

To prove my point, I want one of Coleman's minions to sit down with the Shelter list and start calling each one for a bed one day. They must report out how many beds are available. Do it four times, once in every season.

I am personally issuing a Double Dog Dare to Rich Coleman and Gordon Campbell -

Here are the Rules of Engagement:

• Each of these individuals will live 1 day/24 hours in the life of a homeless person in the Downtown Eastside.
• They leave their money, ID, phones - basically everything they own behind. They will be given a garbage bag so they can use that if they find things that might be helpful along the way.
• They will be dropped off at Main & Hastings with $2, early in the morning, often the time the homeless must be out of the shelters. For 24 hours they will try to survive, with no assistance from highly paid peons, just themselves.
• This new life will happen in winter, the temperature is dropping. They will be given runners that have a hole in the bottom and no socks. They will each be given an unwashed donated jacket.

Ready, Set, Go:

• Realizing you need to focus on where you will eat and sleep for the day you will each need to figure out where you can find food and shelter. You don't know the numbers of shelters, or have a phone to call any of them (Blackberries left behind). You find out you can make a couple of calls for free at some drop-ins, but lots of people need to use the phone too. Every shelter you call tells you they don't have any beds for that night.
• Someone tells you about a free lunch at the church, so you go get in line. It's started raining really hard, but you're pretty hungry and breakfast was a few hours ago so you just have to deal with it. After the long wait, you have some food and are soaked to the bone now and feeling really cold.
  
• You still haven't found a shelter bed for tonight.
  
• As you wander around, there is nowhere to go, you will notice all around you people who are, like you, homeless. Some are obviously on drugs, or mentally ill. You see that lady at the bus stop, she's picking up butts. She is talking to herself. As you walk by her, you see she has soiled herself and you notice she is walking around with her buttocks exposed and she doesn't have a jacket. Her cheeks are sunken in and she is shivering and mumbling to herself. [Ed. I know they wouldn't wonder, but they should ask themselves - how did she get like this? What has happened to her? Why isn't anyone doing anything to help her? ]
  
• Someone tells you of another shelter you might try, it's still raining and getting colder and you walk to that shelter. You get there and there is no bed for today.
  
• It's really, really cold and wet out there, it's almost snowing and it's now dark. The night comes early this time of year. You really never noticed that too much before.
  
• You found out about another place you can get some dinner. You get in that line. You notice something, you saw some of the same people at the other line up earlier in the day, or people you saw walking around.
  
• you drag out the meal as long as you can, still soaked, you have no place to sleep tonight. Where do you go?
  
• You remember you still have the $2, since you haven't been able to find a bed at any shelters you decide to go find a restaurant you can buy a coffee. You will spend some time in there. You go in and ask to buy a coffee. You're really surprised at how rude the worker is to you. What's their problem, what did you do to deserve that?
• Someone at another table starts telling you their story. They say they got in an accident at work, couldn't work. WCB wouldn't pay up, said they weren't hurt. Their employer fired them. Couldn't pay rent, applied for EI and welfare but because they got fired they can't get onto either. Their family tried to help out for a bit, but, you ended up on the street. You don't know what to say.
  
• You stay and stay and stay at the restaurant. You ask for re-fills but don't have any more money. The assistant manager says you have to go, this place isn't a shelter he tells you. You don't have any money to buy stuff, you can't stay here. As you leave you hear him say under his breathe "go get a job ya bum."
• Now what? The rain has turned to snow. It's so cold. You never knew before today that there were so many different kinds of cold. Better find somewhere under cover.
  
• Found a spot, looks like someone puked here earlier, just avoid that area, at least its out of the rain/snow. It is SO cold. Never been cold like this before. Hear voices and a flashlight is shined right in your face. "Hey, you can't stay here, get outta here. This is private property." It's a security guard. They say, "hey, I'm not looking for any problems, just wanted to be dry." As you leave you hear them say "fuckin' crackheads." You decide not to tell them it's not true, it might start something.
  
• On the move again, need another spot. See people smoking crack at one place. Find another area, security comes. Move again. You feel so tired. And cold. You think to yourself, I can't continue like this all night. But where do I go?
  
• Find another spot. It's too cold and wet to sleep, but I'll just close my eyes for a second. Next thing you know, someone is shouting at you. "Hey, you can't stay here. We're taking you to a shelter" shouts a VPD police officer. "It's the new law."
  
• You say "good, I was trying to get a bed earlier, I couldn't get one. Which shelter has the bed?" The cop says he's not sure, they're waiting to find out. But, while they wait, they'll put you in cuffs and in the back of the car.
  
• You hear the radio crackle a lot, there's a lot going on, but these guys are here with me now. Waiting to find out where the bed is. And waiting. And waiting. No bed at any shelter. Now what do they do with you?
• You aren't apparently crazy. Cops tell you that you aren't a risk to yourself, or others. We can't take you to the hospital, it would just put you out anyways. We need to get to a call. They unlock the cuffs, they say you can get out of the car. You can go but move along from this area. We don't want to see you here again tonight they say.
  
• But where to now? Feeling exhausted, sore, wet and cold, hopeless, alone. Only a few hours left to go until the morning. Start walking again. It's really coming down now, but more rain than snow at least.
  
• Somebody starts yelling at you " what are you lookin' at?" They're coming toward you. You say "I don't want any problems, I'm just walking by." You're pretty scared the guy might hit you. You hurry up and get out of there.
• You finally find a spot, you avoid the human waste, but at least its out of the rain. It's started to snow again. You stay there. You don't sleep, anything could happen if you do. You don't know what time it is, but, when it starts getting lighter you start making your way back to Main & Hastings. You can't stop shivering. Your hands are shaking. Your feel are numb, so it takes a long time to walk there. There are already people gathering.
  
• As your ride comes to pick you up, you realize that another day of being homeless in the Downtown Eastside has just started for these people. Your assistant arrives, they are shocked at your appearance. And you know you smell. But you get to leave. You get out alive. Many don't.
  

• And people wonder how, or why people become homeless. Many of us are one paycheque away from poverty. One car accident away from missed rent payments. One lost job away from an eviction notice and being homeless.
• And people wonder why some street people do drugs.
• And people wonder why some street people are mentally ill.

And I wonder why our government has created such broken lives and people? Why they keep throwing people away like garbage? And why they now want to arrest them for having no other way to live than deep, chronic poverty, with compromised health and complete and total social dislocation. With no way out, except for one very final one.
After living on the streets, death becomes a shadow friend, something a little closer than it was before. And some days, maybe the solution to the endless, grinding life ahead.

*******************************
VPD's Silence on Shelter Act Doesn't Worry Coleman

Province fine tuning details on how to implement controversial law

Mike Howell, Vancouver Courier. Dec. 2, 2009.

Housing Minister Rich Coleman said Monday he is not concerned that Police Chief Jim Chu has not publicly endorsed provincial legislation that allows police to remove homeless people from the streets.

"Jim is the chief and he'll use the laws that are at his disposal, and whatever they choose to do as far as their policy in the City of Vancouver is fine," Coleman told the Courier.

Coleman said the government is still working out the logistics of police transporting a homeless person who may have a cart or other belongings that wouldn't fit in a police car.

The new act gives police the power to use "reasonable force, if necessary" during an extreme weather alert to transport a homeless person to a shelter. If that person refuses to stay at a shelter, police cannot hold the person there, Coleman said.

With the act unlikely to be repealed, the focus has to be on ensuring there's enough shelter space and that homeless people seek shelter rather than get picked up by police, Jang said.

We're #1 - In Child Poverty - BC's Kids Lose Again

You sir, are an @$$. Here's a tip for you & your minions. B.S. (ie. the spin machine of the overpaid and overstaffed PAB) and telling the same untruths over and over doesn't make them true. It doesn't make you more palatable to those who are living beyond desperation and the rest of us. Those who know that their government has not only failed them, but has completely excluded them from participation and inclusion in their own society.

Why isn't our government concerned about the growing legions of alienated and discarded people slipping into deep poverty, homelessness and the distress of being forced into a place of abject and unrelenting survival seeking?
Why are they ushering so many into social dislocation, of deprivation, even at the most tender and vulnerable ages?
Who does this benefit?

The BC Liberals are failing in so many ways. And the people, the ones with nothing left to lose are getting damn sick, tired, hopeless and angry about it.

Back to the Basics - See the Dark Lord explaining what the province is doing to remediate child poverty. Basically nothing. I bet you're shocked.
Public Eye Online. Nov. 24, 2009.

The provincial government will be "reducing people's taxes, increasing the number of jobs and investing in education." That seemed to be the extent of Gordon Campbell's plan to deal with the rate of child poverty in British Columbia - which is the highest in the country for the sixth year in a row. Of course, the premier could have likely said more about what his government is doing to solve that problem. But he didn't when reporters scrummed him on his way into a caucus meeting.

By Sean Holman | Posted in Provincial | Comments (1)
Tagged: child poverty, Gordon Campbell

************************
Report on the Budget 2010 Consultations

************************
2009 BC Child Poverty Report Card
First Call: BC Child & Youth Advocacy Coalition

Premier Campbell’s BC Progress Board has argued, “All children, irrespective of their social background, should have an equal chance to succeed in the province, and there is compelling evidence that children from low income families are at greater risk.”

British Columbia had the highest child poverty rate in Canada for the sixth year in a row in 2007. According to the Statistics Canada before-tax Low Income Cut-Offs (LICOs), the proportion of children living in poverty in BC was 18.8% – well above the national child poverty rate of 15%. This means that an estimated 156,000 children were living in poverty in BC. That is greater than the combined population of Nanaimo and Prince George.

Crime & Public Disorder: Why are the BC Liberals Driving this Train to Hell?

This is absolute nonsense. So whose job is it going to be to be running the criminal records for welfare applicants? Where is the information found going to be kept? For how long? Who gets access to that information? Will it become part of someone's personal file with the welfare ministry? Now, here's the million dollar questions - what choice will criminals have but to continue to create crime & the public disorder that arises out of this life and collateral damage?

We should all be asking ourselves why the BC government is doing so much to promote crime & disorder in Beautiful BC in such a short time? Because we should all understand that is what happening on a gigantic scale. These people are just devoid of morality, it's so bloody odious.

I don't even think this is legal. I'm sure they will waste tons of taxpayers funds defending the indefensible for the Charter suit. But then most people have no idea they can look up anyone's name and find out whether they've had criminal charges against them in the last few years, where, how many appearances, whether they've been ordered for psychiatric assessment and what their sentence was. Go ahead, test it out with your name, or someone you know.

Court Services Online

Record could stop Welfare
VICTORIA/CKNW(AM980)

11/20/2009

Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman is defending a bill that will cut off welfare for people convicted of indictable criminal offences.

Coleman had said the bill would cut off welfare for serious crimes like sexual assault and murder, but in debate with the NDP this week he admitted the legislation does not spell that out and "indictable offences" could include minor crimes like shoplifting.

But he says the intent is still to only cut off welfare for serious crimes, "But you know, there's a way to balance that, and we'll do that."

Coleman denies an NDP claim the bill casts too wide a net, and could see single moms lose their welfare for minor offences.

The Minister has this to say about the opposition, "You know, they have a love affair with criminals, these guys."

'NW: "Who?"

RC: "The NDP."

NDP critic Shane Simpson says Coleman's comments are ridiculous, "Well, that's just an absurd comment. I believe the problem with the Minister is the Minister when he spoke in second reading, he either misrepresented the truth when he suggested what this bill was, or he didn't understand his own legislation. And then he got caught on that when we got to further debate the other day, and I suspect the Minister's just feeling a little testy because he was shown to be wrong."

Simpson says the Government should have spelled out in the legislation exactly what crimes would see people cut off from welfare.

Psychopathology Breeds Contempt for the Public Good

See, I wasn't joking about the size of the ego and there is no room in BC for this disgusting kind of arrogance. Get the hell out of our Province and back to the depths to which you belong. You can't talk about OUR people like this. People who swore an Oath to the public good in BC, unlike those whose only fealty is sworn to the Almighty dollar no matter what it costs the citizens of the province one is visiting. And there are more than a few of 'em careening around BC right now.

I say let's give it a whirl, say bye-bye to the pocket liners, re-jig the Boards (no more double-dipping and conflict of interest), cap the salaries of CEO and directors and get back to an understanding of what public services are all about - serving the public interest.

BC Ferries Boss Dismisses Report of Being Overpaid as "Nonsense"
Comptroller general biased toward public-sector model, Hahn suggests
Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist. November 10, 2009.

Excerpts:

David Hahn began an interview by saying he had to be careful with his comments, then variously referred to the report's findings and recommendations as "biased," "nonsense," "craziness" and "dumb."

Hahn even objected to a section where comptroller general Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland stated that, compensation aside, the quasi-private company was reasonably well-managed.

"I'd probably take exception with the word 'reasonably,' " he said. "I think it's so much better, it's night and day."

Hahn, who earned more than $1 million last year, said he was insulted by the report's suggestion that he had too much influence over his compensation. The board decides how much he gets paid, not him, he said.

"I kind of chuckled, and thought it was sad at the same time, when she said the targets were easy to achieve," he said. "Do you think building ships in B.C. and getting that done the right way is easy to achieve? Do you think the on-time performance on the ships or changing the culture of B.C. Ferries from what it was to what it is, is easy?

"I don't know. Maybe she never rides the ferries or didn't ride them a long time ago. But I know from where it was to where it is today, we've got a lot to be proud of."

Hahn also rejected the report's call for increased accountability and greater separation between the B.C. Ferry Authority and B.C. Ferries' board of directors. The authority appoints itself to the B.C. Ferries board, creating what Wenezenki-Yolland called a conflict of interest. She also recommended an expanded role for the B.C. ferry commissioner.

Hahn suggested Wenezenki-Yolland was "biased" toward a public-sector model.

"I think she's saying B.C. Ferries should return to the way of the past. And let me tell you, if they fully implemented her mindset and it went back into this Crown environment, it would take less than a year for things to fall apart."

********************************

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

1. has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
3. believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people (or institutions)
4. requires excessive admiration
5. has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
6. is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
7. lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

Off with Their Gigantic Inflated Heads: BC Liberal Appointees Bleeding Taxpayers Dry

“The relevant talents of the guy that Gordon Campbell's appointees have hired to run BC's ferry fleet appear to lie mainly in breaking up and selling off a major transportation company's assets.”
[The Troubled Company Reporter ; Georgia Straight Dec 18/03]

The Queen had it right "Off with their Heads" only I would add with their Greedy Egomaniac heads. Well, the latest audits are in. Great work on the part of Comptroller General Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland in exposing the monumental waste of tax payer dollars on the salaries of the Transportation Kings.

But, lets be clear, this latest bombshell (not) is laid, as usual, at the BC Liberals feet. They picked their henchmen, they filled the boards and they waved goodbye to our taxpayer funds, while many of us waved goodbye to adequate transportation services.

But - it's not like any of this is new News. It's been reported before what these scoundrels were doing on the public dime:

On April 1st , the BC Ferry Authority Board of Directors gave themselves a retroactive $233,000 pay hike on top of salaries and bonuses totaling $730,000 for attending meetings to increase fares and vote themselves pay raises. [Vancouver Sun Apr 16/08; Hansard Apr 15/08]

And what did Kevin Falcon, then Minister of Transportation have to stay to taxpayers: "Boo hoo."

Who on earth has ever heard of such a flagrant conflict of interest (and violation of the public interest) to have some of the same members sitting on the board that would set the salaries for themselves?

What layer of hell do these people spring from and how do they actually look at themselves in the mirror each day and not know what gigantic failures they are as protectors of BC's public good? At least everyone else now knows it too. Sorry excuses. I'd be hanging my head in shame if I were named as part of something like this - but, guess what, I WOULDN"T EVER FIND MYSELF DOING THIS TO THE TAXPAYERS OF BC. If you asked most taxpayers about this, I think they would say "nice gig, how do I get a sweet deal like this to pick my own salary? But seriously, ask ten random people on the street and they would get what a crappy deal this is for those of us who have to actually PAY THEM.

Read about 'em and weep at what they've been getting away with at our expense
(bye bye Health care system...):

BC Ferry Services Inc. Board of Directors

BC Ferry Authority Board of Directors

*************
Translink: Proudly & Openly Screwing Taxpayers for Years

It's also been reported that Translink is completely unaccountable. Like that is news.

TransLink Pay Scale Raises Eyebrows in BC
CBC News. February 8, 2008.

Directors of the Greater Vancouver transit authority have raised eyebrows by voting to award themselves a hefty pay package.

Behind closed doors and without issuing a press release, the TransLink board approved a wage scale that pays six times more than what the previous board was being paid to do similar work.

News of the increases come after the B.C. Ministry of Transportation restructured the TransLink board last year, replacing elected directors with appointed ones.

**********************

What to Do: Housecleaning is the Only Way to Go:

The best way for efficiencies to be made is start cutting at the top and work their way down, chop, chop, chop of the Boards. I think a few million can be found chopping the exorbitant, unsustainable salaries of these BC Liberal appointees who've been sucking taxpayers dry as taxes and fees were raised for the citizens of BC just to get basic transportation, if they even have that anymore.

So, Monday, what can we expect from Hahn? What can we expect from the government? Prendergrast has made it easy for the province by already bowing out and heading back to NY. I think there must be some sort of ferry fleet Emperor Hahn could find to tear apart back in his home state of New Yawk, or somewhere else.

It's pretty clear, the taxpayers of BC can't afford these free-wheelin', high-life livin' Emperors anymore. Hello, remember - ECONOMIC CRISIS. If that's what all of us non-Royals have to deal with, then so can these folks.

*************************
Major BC Ferries and TransLink reforms needed: report
CBC News.

The top levels of both BC Ferries and TransLink require a major restructuring to give them more accountability, greater transparency and better oversight, B.C.'s comptroller general says.

*****
Senior Ferries Staff Overpaid: Labour Relations Expert
Rob Shaw and Ann Hui, Times Colonist. July 30, 2009.

"Taxpayers can't, like shareholders in a private business, protest or sell shares in B.C. Ferries if they're unhappy with the way it's run. We don't have that choice as taxpayers," he said [Ken Thornicroft, professor of law and labour relations with the University of Victoria's business school].

Ferries CEO David Hahn receives more than $1 million a year in salary and benefits. His four vice-presidents each earn around $500,000 a year, bringing the senior management total to more than $3 million a year.

**************
Follow the disappearing dollars, to find out what this was all really about, anyone noticing a theme about disappearing Crown lands (BC Ferries, BC Rail...)
from William Thomas:

On April 2, 2003, Kevin Falcon and the Minister of Land and Water quietly signed documents transferring all BC Ferry crown land, foreshore, water lots, terminals, berths and parking lots to the BC Transportation Financing Authority in exchange for a $330 million promissory note. The BCTFA immediately turned around and charged the Campbell government $330 million for a 60-year lease on the berths and terminals just transferred to it.

So the newly formed and heavily indebted BC Ferry Services Inc. handed back BCTFA's $330 million to lease the facilities it had owned just seconds ago. Presto! What had been public crown land was now owned by the newly hatched BC Transportation Financing Authority.

BC Ferries ended up with an insupportable debt that was soon to quadruple under a massive and long overdue modernization of ships and shore facilities that could best be carried out by the provincial government. But not after this bookkeeping flim-flam that removed government liability to what it called an “arms-length” distance that left taxpayers liable for any payback shortfalls.

By holding all but one voting share of the company, the province now owned a private company called BC Ferry Services. To insure that the BC government could not “interfere” with what is no longer a provincial ferry fleet, this voting share was handed to the newly created BC Ferry Authority, which controls the new BC Ferry Service through its Board of Directors. As the Ferry Authority explains on its website, “By its structure, the Authority ensures the operations of BC Ferries are independent from the provincial government.” [bcferryauthority.com]
*********
TransLink eyes $18M tax hike for Metro Vancouver residents

TransLink is facing an $18-million budget shortfall and residential property owners may be asked to pick up the tab for the transit authority.

TransLink, the regional transit authority, used to be run by a board made up of regional mayors and councillors. But in March 2007, B.C. Transportation Minister Kevin Falcon announced sweeping changes to TransLink.

The former board was replaced by a government-appointed board of professionals — accountants, lawyers and engineers who govern day-to-day operations — and by a council of 30 mayors to look at long-term planning.

One of the first moves of the new board was to hold a vote behind closed doors to give themselves pay raises without any public notice, raising their pay to more than six times what the previous board was paid.

TransLink head departs for new job in NYC
CBC News.

Finance official offers fixes for Ferries, TransLink :: The Hook

Andrew MacLeod.

The BC Liberal Government: An Unmitigated Disaster & Disgrace

"I just can't understand why the opposition would want to maintain government positions at the expense of services to kids. What is it you don't like about providing front-line services to kids?"

Mary Polak - Minister of Children & Family Development, speaking about criticism of cuts of positions that supported parents in in accessing Infant Development services and Special Needs daycare for children with disabilities.

“It will be very straightforward,” said Falcon, noting that people will pay 80 percent of their after tax income for their care. “Will they be happy about it? They certainly probably will not be.”

Kevin Falcon - Minister of Health, speaking about increases for seniors living in residential care facilities.

**********************************

Sitting back sometimes and taking a breather, taking in what's happening around one's watering hole often pays off. You begin to see things at a broader level, spot the themes and the patterns swirling around said watering hole.

Beautiful BC is the metaphorical watering hole in this story. The destruction and cuts being carried out by the BC Liberal government toward the vulnerable, the marginal and the insecure are the most prevalent themes and patterns occurring these days. The corruption, the greed and the diminishing status of the BC public service are themes and patterns all too obvious to many of us.

Since 2005 BC Liberals Sucks has been blogging and creating a log, a library chronicling the mismanagement, the corruption and the actions of a morally bankrupt government. In 2009, we can see that when we think they cannot reach new lows of depravity, they take our collective breath away with their cruelty toward our most vulnerable and precious citizens, with their excuses for those who have abused the public trust placed in them, by their greed and incompetence.

The quotes above are perfect examples of the mean-spirited, cold-hearted manipulative and self-serving excuses made by this government to those who attempt to speak and advocate on behalf of those who will experience harm at the expense of their own government. There is nothing like straight from the mouth comments like this to cut to the core of this government.

Being such a media fiend, reading mainstream, non-mainstream, blogs and comments of citizens of our fair province, talking to people from all walks of life, I think I have a good handle on the "pulse" of many. What I see in BC is that many of us are being wounded. We are being kicked when we are down and when we need the support of our government most. We are being handed B.S., lies and sophistry to cover up the misdeeds of those who lined their pockets at our expense, those who cause harm in how they conduct government, OUR government.

Our young people don't vote - for good reason. Governments have become lethally corrupt. They cause the harm they should be working 24/7 to mitigate. And it isn't just short-term pain, for long-term gain. The actions carried out by government will have long-lasting impacts. The harm done today, will reach into our next generations. One need only look to the legacy of colonization and the attempted genocide of Aboriginal peoples of Canada to see the damage done by amoral and greedy governments. I guarantee that when many of us look back in a decade or two and ask where things went so wrong for BC - the blame will be fixed firmly on the shoulders of those who smugly sit in Victoria over this last decade - the decade of the destruction of BC's public services and social safety net.

Let's review the damage directly caused by the BC Liberal government to it's citizens:

• BC has the highest child poverty rate for 6 years in a row. Their government robbed them of a decent childhood and robbed them of a better future.
• Cuts to sexual abuse counseling for children, cuts to proven Early Intensive autism Intervention services, inadequately funding for child & youth mental health services, systemic failure of the child protection system to meet it's mandate and protect children.
  
• BC now has the LOWEST minimum wage in Canada (highest standard of living in many communities) while our Premier and MLA's voted themselves raises and gave senior bureaucrats & Liberal appointees raises again.
  
• Cuts to school district funding for repairs, improving infrastructure, earthquake proofing of buildings. Imagine the scenes we've seen from China, from all over the world of the damage done from earthquakes.
  
• Cutting program advisers who assisted families in accessing Infant Development intervention and Special Needs daycare. See here.
• Plans to increase daily fees for long-term residetial care for our Elders fortunate enough to even make it into residential care. See here.
  
• Cuts to services for those seniors who try to live in the community as long as they can, sometimes to their own detriment.
• Creating and driving an epidemic of homelessness across BC and then expecting local communities to deal with a government-constructed nightmare, that only senior levels of governments can fix.
• Perverting, manipulating, corrupting and diminishing the justice and legal system of BC.
• Raid of the BC Legislature. Destroyed and missing e-mails. Manipulation of the legal process so the truth of what has been done to the people of BC can be kept behind closed doors. Perversion of the common-law system to evade giving testimony of government involvement.
• Cuts to Legal Aid.
• Disenfranchising the poor and homeless from voting.
• Destruction and reckless disregard of the environment, wild salmon as we know it, expansion of Run of River projects.
• Corporatization of BC and the billions that used to stay in BC communities and flow into our government coffers now leak like a sieve into the hands of private corporations.
• Massive breach of our privacy rights to our personal information through the privatization of government held information systems (Ie. provincial revenue) to American-owned corporations. The biggest slashing of BC's public services in our history to fund a 10 day party that will bankrupt us and future generations.

What to do?

I have the sense people feel completely uncertain about what to do to deal with the recklessness and harm being imposed by this government on it's citizens. At no point in the last decade are more people aware of the mismanagement, corruption and mess we're in because of these clowns.

BC has long been viewed with skepticism, as a joke etc. But our reputation has been so diminished that I don't think we can fully comprehend the harm of that, whether that is across Canada, or amongst the international community. We have been cited again and again by the international Human Rights community for the poor conditions created by our government. We should all feel disgraced and ashamed of our poor standing nationally and internationally. The BC Liberal government did that to us.

As many of us know, the recall legislation is flawed, and the standards are very difficult to meet. The way I see it, although we only marginally still live in a democratic province, admittedly it feels much more like an oligarchy, or some awful fascist dictatorship these days, one of the things we must do is let our elected representatives, our MLAs AND MP's know how unhappy we are with the decisions of this government. This goes double for BC Liberal MLA's. They quite frankly need to be told by constituents that they will be wiped from the map in the next election. They need to know that they can't simply walk away from their record in their ridings once they return to private life. The stench and shame of standing by and doing nothing while more and more citizens of BC will follow them wherever they go. When faced by amoral, corrupt and incompetent government, citizens must now mete out the consequences to those who prosper and succeed on the backs of the rest of us.

There is more than enough blame to go around. Those who carry out the cuts and diminish public services through their "leadership" and those who were elected to represent the people, who are silent bystanders to atrocities. We cannot tolerate either group anymore. Our BC is at stake, we all need to realize that and do whatever we can to ensure our government, our nation and others know what is being done to the people of BC by the moral and fiscal failure of the BC Liberal government.

That Ho is a Bad@$$: Friends in High Places

David Ho is no stranger to danger, no stranger to getting caught in compromising situations. He generally does quite well having any charges go bye-bye due to friends in high places one might speculate, at least in the past. How come he was busted on all of this back on December 28th 2008 and we’re just hearing about now and charges are proceeding? I smell somethin’ fishy about all of that. Hey, that's a funny little coincidence, I remember something else happening on December 28th 2003.

*******
Billionaire Vancouver businessman David Ho Charged

Vancouver Sun. Sept. 28 2009.

VANCOUVER - David Ho, the billionaire entrepreneur who moved to Vancouver 25 years ago from Hong Kong, used to have a movie-prop police car parked at his $4-million Shaughnessy home to scare off would-be burglars.

On Dec. 28, 2008, at about 5 a.m., a real police car arrived at his Hudson Street home in response to a 911 call from neighbours involving a woman Ho had met online.

Ho, who in 2005 was named business leader of the year by the Vancouver Junior Board of Trade, faces seven criminal charges, including unlawful confinement, various firearm offences and possession of a controlled substance under schedule 1 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which covers cocaine and heroin.

Ho was also a big donor to candidates for Vancouver’s Non-Partisan Association and to former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, whose leadership bid received $100,000 from the entrepreneur.

The B.C. Liberals also benefited from Ho’s generosity. His donations to the party have totalled more than $100,000 since 2005.

Ho told The Vancouver Sun in 2003 that he first met [Vern] Campbell in the mid-1980s, when Ho served a two-year term on the Vancouver police board and Campbell was a police superintendent.

"He was the only guy willing to help me with some things I didn’t understand at the time," Ho told The Sun, crediting Campbell with assisting him in his assimilation into Canadian society.

***

Total Charges - unlawful confinement, unlawfully causing bodily harm, storage of a firearm contrary to regulations, unauthorized possession of a firearm, possession of prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition, possession of a prohibited firearm without a license and possession of a controlled substance.

Global BC Video: Billionaire Vancouver businessman David Ho faces criminal charges

*****************

Ho fucking Ho? Harmony Airways owner David Ho allegedly pulled over by police with two prostitutes, Global TV reports

Bill Tieleman. March 02, 2007.

Global TV's John Daley reported last night that David Ho, owner of Harmony Airways, was recently pulled over by Vancouver Police in the company of two sex trade workers.

Global reports that a crack cocaine pipe was also found in the car and that Ho was given a 24 hour roadside suspension at the time.

Ho's name most recently came up in December 2006 when former BC Liberal Finance Minister Gary Collins quit as Harmony Airways CEO after just two years on the job. Collins recently joined Belkorp Industries as a senior Vice-President.

Ho is a major BC Liberal donor and supporter, donating more than $102,000 to the party.

************************

CTV exposes Graham's connection to Hong Kong criminal network.

Click on the video link under the Graham's Incompetence collection of stories.
Scroll down almost to the bottom and click on the CTV video.
BC Revolution.

"Ho has been transferring large sums of money to various VPD fundraisers. Ho is filmed in the above video at a VPD ODD squad fundraiser dinner."

Ho has been reported to contribute money to the Vancouver Police Foundation.

The stories mention "Ho was caught by the VPD with a large sum of cocaine, yet the VPD dismissed all charges...." [According to CTV video report above, Ho was caught with 30 grams of crack cocaine].

"Ho's family is allegedly one of the many Hong Kong members of the Big Circle crime syndicate that was recently exposed (in a W5 passport scandal report) as having close ties to the upper brass within the RCMP and Federal government. "

VPD says Graham will be cleared in current
controversy
By Charlie Smith. Georgia Straight. Dec. 1 2005.

Vancouver police Chief Jamie Graham is being investigated under the Police Act in connection with donations to the Vancouver Police Foundation. The Vancouver police department issued a November 23 news release stating that three contributors-Electronic Arts, the Wosk family, and Harmony Airways-gave approximately $50,000 to the foundation. Half came from Harmony Airways, which is owned by entrepreneur David Ho.

According to the VPD release, a "senior member" of the department had concerns about tax issues and asked for a review by the RCMP commercial crime section. "

The results of the investigation conducted by the RCMP, assisted by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, was that there was no wrongdoing by anyone and that was confirmed by a Special Prosecutor appointed by the Attorney General's office," the VPD stated.

The VPD claimed in its news release that media falsely stated that Ho had paid for hotel rooms at a conference of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in Vancouver in 2004. "

In any mass conference booking of hotel rooms it is common for the hotel to include a few complimentary rooms," the VPD purported. "Chief Graham and two other executives of the CACP stayed in those rooms and all others were billed."

The VPD also insisted in the news release that Graham will be cleared because the investigation concerns the same issue that the RCMP already reviewed.

Ho is a former Vancouver police-board member and owner of MCL Motor Cars. Several years ago, the Burrard Street dealership supplied a Jaguar, decked out in RCMP colours, to the North Vancouver RCMP detachment for community relations. At the time, Graham was the commanding officer in North Vancouver.

Appreciation Goes a Long Way: Public Service Careers Imploding

Price of Breaking the hearts and destroying the futures of tiny children with autism: $5 million for BC's early intensive behavioural intervention program

Number of Autistic Children "taking up that slack": 70.
(Direct quote from Mary Polak, Minister of Children & Family Development).

Busting Managers from MCFD spending money on a staff party in the Park: Priceless

BTW: The name of your Ministry is the "Ministry of Children & Family Development." You would think one would be aware of that. Wonder if those MCFD employees that have been losing their jobs are "Appreciating" life these days?

Bzzzzzzz, Cut, slash, burn, timmmmmmber. That's sound you hear in the BC public service these days. Disappearing, redundancies, consolidations, tears and sadness as colleagues say goodbye and the sound of bumping and morale dropping even more into the toilet. And those lucky to stay know they'll be run into the ground with the work of too many.

There are so many points in time we will look to with fond reminiscence and say "in the good old day, you know, when our government took care of our most needy, most vulnerable..." Those days are done in BC.

Changing Outcomes - Watch Mary in Action here and here explaining away the unexplainable.
Public Eye Online

Last week, Children and Family Development Minister Mary Polak said the government was "not seeing any appreciable improvement in the outcomes" for autistic children in its early intensive behavioural intervention program - at least when compared with other treatment options. That statement was a reference to a four-year-old report by University of British Columbia special education professor Pat Mirenda. But, in a scrum today, Minister Polak said those outcomes weren't among the reasons why the program is being shutdown. See for yourself if there's been a change in messaging. Minister Polak also stated the government didn't consult Prof. Mirenda prior to making that decision.

***********************************

Is this really the best we can do for babies who could have died?
Question: Would it have been long enough to charge him with murder if that life-saving hero didn't find those children and seek emergency help for them before they expired from heat exhaustion?

Lesson learned: If they don't die, it's okay to leave them alone for a while locked in the car, maybe crack a window and leave 'em a couple of bottles next time. Wouldn't want your kids to get in the way of a fun night of partying.

If these were dogs, the owner would have been charged with Cruelty to Animals.
Are children really worth less consequences than animals in 2009?
Why is Herman worth more?
Man Charged after Strangling and Beating Herman the Cat

No charges after children left in van
CBC News. September 21, 2009
Quotes:

Abbotsford police will not be recommending charges against the 26- year-old father, because they were not able to establish how long the children were in the vehicle, according to Const. Ian MacDonald.

Police were called to the scene by a woman who overheard the father at a beer garden at the fair saying he'd left the children in the vehicle.

Kids left in locked van in Abbotsford: police
CBC News. August 1, 2009.

A woman who alerted police to two young children left in a sealed van for hours may have saved their lives, Abbotsford police said Saturday.

Police said they were doing routine checks at about 1 a.m. PT at the Abbotsford Agrifair when a distressed woman alerted them that two children, ages two and four months, had been left in a van for hours while their father was drinking at the Fat Pig Saloon.

Const. Ian MacDonald said the car was locked, all of the windows were closed and the children were in grave condition.

"They were extremely distressed, as you can imagine. They're still awake and they're in a locked vehicle probably with strange surroundings … they had soiled their diapers and they were extremely dehydrated," he said.

What the HELL is wrong with our world these days and what are we doing to stop this madness?

BC Government Work Environment Surveys: A Collosal Waste of Time

None of the Above
Sean Holman. Public Eye. September 10, 2009.

A senior children and family development bureaucrat suspected "quazi (sic) job action" was one of the reasons why the ministry's employees were slow to participate in this year's annual government-wide workplace environment survey. With six days left to complete that survey, chief operating officer Mark Sieben reported on April 23 that just 63 percent of those employees had done so, lagging behind other ministries. Mr. Sieben advanced several explanations for that lag. In emails sent to fellow executives between April 16 and 23 and obtained by Public Eye via a freedom of information request, he suggested:

Continue reading None of the above.

Comment to above story:

BC Liberals Suck | September 12, 2009 10:13 AM

It's so funny how bureaucrats look for external reasons to blame for lack of participation in these ridiculous workplace surveys. Here are the real reasons:

Government does not listen to employees anyways, so filling out internal surveys is a waste of time and staff know it.

Government spins the numbers anyways, so it is irrelevant to waste time better spent elsewhere - PROTECTING CHILDREN.

Another reason, government has made it clear to their employees that when they offer feedback that is deemed "negative" that government is tracking the "complainers" and making note of them. Talk about Orwellian. Government has threatened and intimidated their staff by telling them "we know who you are" because of your IDIR and we know you are a negative nellie complainer and there is no room for that around MCFD.

Where is the evidence that MCFD has made improvements related to survey results of past Environmental surveys?

Staff, BCGEU and many other stakeholders have been telling the leadership of MCFD what they need to do to improve the work environment for years and years AND THEY DON'T LISTEN.
Examples -
- They are cutting staff and have plans to cut more, that is the single most harmful thing being done to employees and IT'S BEING DONE BY THE "LEADERSHIP" OF MCFD.
- By failing to adequately ensure the safety of employees who often work alone, or in isolation.

Here's some questions - how much taxpayer money has gone toward paying fines to WCB for failures of OSH, to decrease violence toward employees, to create safer working conditions? How many times has MCFD been cited and fined by WCB?

Employees in MCFD, with the exception of management and senior bureaucrats of course, are too damn busy to waste their valuable time filling out surveys that are meaningless and are not going to be acted on. They are busy doing things like PROTECTING CHILDREN AND SUPPORTING FAMILIES.

For some real honest answers to a survey, Pivot Legal Society's report Hands Tied: Child protection workers talk about working in, and leaving, B.C.’s child welfare system.

What did MCFD learn from that survey and change to improve retention? Not one thing and they continue culling the herd.

Any Ministry that would create "Appreciation Champions" as a way to cover up their vast incompetence and failure to adequately support and care for their staff, ignoring years of internal and external recommendations for improving working conditions should not be surprised at low response rates to yet another meaningless survey that will go nowhere.

******************************

Budget-linked Layoffs hit Child Protection Workers in North West BC

BCGEU. Jul 16 '09.

Child protection workers in Terrace, Prince Rupert and Kitimat have received word that six full time positions will be eliminated in their region because of provincial government budget cuts.

Staff-who work with vulnerable children and families at risk-were told by their managers that the cuts are necessary to ensure that the office can balance the costs of front line social workers with the money allocated by the Campbell government to pay for salaries.

It's anticipated that child protection and guardianship services across the north will face similar cuts.

Darryl Walker, President of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union:

"The Campbell government is leaving children and families at risk and will add to the overwhelming caseloads of social workers," says Walker. "Instead of cutting staff in this high stress occupation, Victoria should be boosting funding and lowering caseloads."

Solving the Problem of Mental Illness & Homelessness is Simple: Meet their Needs

It's a particular pet peeve of mine when people start whinging about how "difficult" or "complex" the homeless problem is. How there are "no easy solutions" and other sorts of nonsense. Actually, it dead simple, not hard at all.

The mentally ill and homeless require housing. Now. First. Before anything else. Every human being in this world needs a space to be inside, to have a place to keep their belongings, to have belongings that mean something to them. A place to have some dignity. How would most of us handle not having anywhere to do our business in private, to shower, or bath? Don't we all want to have a place to keep the world out, or to have people visit? Seems pretty basic to me.

And food. Nutritious food. With enough of it. Not from dumpsters. Not thrown out from restaurants. Not past their best buy dates. A place to cook, to have stores of food.

From there, the mentally ill need treatment. They need to be able to get in the front door of their local mental health clinic. Into the hospital when they need it. The research is clear, short-term stays aka "tune ups" do not work for those with chronic and serious psychiatric illness.

We have to stop moralizing about drug use and we need to treat addicts and those who become mentally because of drug use like the sick people they are. Sometimes they need to be hospitalized, they have a right to care for their complex health issues. Addictions are a health issue and part of the DSM-IV and as such fall within the domain of hospitals to treat. We don't get all moral at people with MS, with cancer, with diabetes. We give them health care. And when they need to, they stay in hospital.

Another beef I have with how we frame the issue of the "mentally ill" is to presume that there is some sort of homogenous group of "the mentally ill." Each and every one of us walk by people every day who are diagnosed with some sort of "disorder" and perhaps are on medication.

There is a continuum of mental health on which each and every one of us shows up on at some point along a line. And we can go back and forth depending on many factors.

What being labelled mentally ill does is creates an arbitrary, socially constructed category of people and then exposes them to socioeconomic and cultural vulnerabilities and risk factors that often lead to their marginalization and social exclusion from the privileges and benefits many of us take for granted as citizens who happen to appear at one side of a continuum at a particular point in time in our life.

How is it fair that our governments construct this sort of frivolous and socially sanctioned discrimination against a group that any one of us could slide into given a bad enough set of circumstances? Those with mental illness don't ask to have it. They don't set their sights on living on the sidelines, slaves to something that is often completely beyond their control. But even if it is in their control, why would we still not help and support those who need it. It serves our own self-interest to do so as a society. Public disorder flourishes with lack of access to care for mental illness and addictions and the health impacts. That harms all of us.

Fix the broken mental health system. That is a solution too. If you can't get into a mental health clinic to get an assessment and you can't get into a mental health clinic without an Axis I diagnosis, how does anyone get anywhere? When mental health centres can stop taking patients for a while, where do those people go? How many end up in jail like the good ol' American style of care for their mentally ill?

Fix the Broken Child Welfare System. Think about this, each year the BC Liberals are in power in BC, we are adding to the next generation of mentally ill, homeless and criminal populations. There is no debate, no spin, no BS. A generation of children have grown up with profound systemic and governmental negligence. Some have died because of it. Many have been hurt, raped, abused, neglected. School districts are being forced to cut hot lunch programs for kids for god's sake? BC has led Canada in child poverty for six years in a row because our government does not care whether our next generations of children live in poverty, have enough to eat, or anywhere to live. Whether they have people abusing, or hurting them. Because if they did, they would do something to improve the future viability of our kids. Our children simply do not matter to the BC government and it's high-priced incompetent bureaucracy. While they are creating "Appreciation Champions" they might consider creating Champions for Childrens' Safety & Protection.

How many kids, before they are even adults, actually get mental health services? If a government will cut funding to children who have been sexually abused, they have crossed into a place of no return. A place of true evil. A place where the next generation of mentally ill and addicted citizens get their start, at the hands of their own government, who then throw them out like garbage dumped down at Main & Hastings.

There are many things we could do to help those who have mental illness, to offer them dignity, care and support. But our governments are not doing that. Because they quite simply do not care.


*********************

Dignity for All:
The Campaign for a Poverty-free Canada

I believe that freedom from poverty is a human right.
I believe in equality among all people.
I believe we are all entitled to social and economic security.
I believe in dignity for all.
NOW is the time to end poverty in Canada.

********************

Mentally Ill and Homeless

The Victoria Times Colonist - The Gazette, Montreal

September 10, 2009

In the almost 50 years since Canada first began discharging mentally ill patients from psychiatric institutions to live in the community, homelessness has become an intractable problem for many Canadian towns and cities.

Grandly declaring that mentally ill patients had the right to decide for themselves whether to get treated, governments across the country shut down psychiatric asylums. The fact that the state thereby saved millions of dollars didn't escape the attention of the patients' families, friends and doctors. They complained, but to little avail.

Today, desperately ill psychiatric patients are seen in every major Canadian city: Some ramble incoherently; others can be seen digging through garbage bins.

No one doubts that the mentally ill form the bulk of the homeless population. Research from Ontario shows that they make up 66 per cent of those without homes.

The Ontario research found that in the year before they lost their home, six per cent of homeless people had been in a psychiatric facility, 20 per cent had been treated for substance-abuse problems, 25 per cent had received psychiatric outpatient services and 30 per cent had spent time in police stations or jails.

In a move that has been a disgracefully long time coming, the Canadian Mental Health Commission is launching a $150-million program to see how best to help the homeless. Five cities have been chosen to participate in the four-year-long project: Montreal, Toronto, Moncton, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

The homeless chosen to take part in the project will be divided into two groups. Those in the control group will carry on as usual in their chaotic existence, bouncing from shelter to jail cell to hospital. The other group, numbering about 300 homeless, will be housed and followed by as many experts as are needed. The idea is to find out whether a home and services adapted to the individual will allow that person to lead a more stable life.

British Columbia has already tried this "experiment." Compared with the $694 million a year that homeless people cost in police, hospital and homeless shelters, B.C. found that using a combination of subsidized housing and social services would cost $32 million less.

It isn't necessary, surely, to take another four years to prove the same thing.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

What Price are We Willing to Pay for Our Soul: Culling the Herd BC Liberal Style

I tried to call a welfare office today, one of many that are reported to exist in the Ministry of Housing & Social Development. I was on the phone for over 45 minutes, pressing GD buttons, desperately trying to get to a human. I NEVER DID! Or even a place I could leave a message for someone, anyone who might be able to help.

• I do not have Schizophrenia or any other major mental disorder and need care.
  
• I am not an immigrant with little English.
• I am not a woman who's been beaten again who needs to leave before he kills her, or one of her children.
• I'm not disabled from a work accident & I can't get WCB.
• I haven't lost my job and my EI has run out, there's no jobs where I live, I can't afford to move and I don't know how I'm going to feed my kids.
• I didn't get sick, or have an unexpected accident and find I can't work, can't get EI, or I've been waiting for 3 and a half months now and they still haven't "processed my application."
• I am not homeless.
  
• I am not being pimped, beaten and drugged so my "boyfriend" can make money off of me and I grew up in foster care.
  

What is happening in BC, to our very most in need of public services, is a crime - A CRIME BEING PERPETRATED AGAINST THE PEOPLE of BC.
I am a taxpayer, have been for many years now. I want MY money to go towards helping those who need it. It benefits them, it benefits me and our society at large. There was a time I needed it and there may be a time I need it in the future. My money is no damn good being siphoned into the Olympics instead of providing aid and support to my fellow citizens.

**************************************

Ombudsman recommends improvements to income assistance

Last Resort: Improving Fairness and Accountability in British Columbia’s Income Assistance Program

• News release and backgrounder

The report follows a lengthy systemic investigation that was initially prompted by complaints about income assistance that the British Columbia Public Interest Advocacy Centre (BC PIAC) brought to the attention of the Ombudsman’s office in 2005. The Ombudsman’s office issued its
first report on this investigation in March 2006, and has now concluded the systemic investigation.

“In order to be fair, government programs must be accessible to those they are designed to serve. Policies that are unfair or unreasonable must be changed. It is also necessary for the government to ensure it is complying with its own policies and standards, and to use objective and reliable methods to measure its own performance,” Ms. Carter said.

• Full report

***************************************

Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms

Legal Rights

Life, liberty and security of person

7. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

[Ed. How many among us, our citizens, have died because their right to life was comprised because their government would not help them access a basic income, or shelter. ]

Treatment or punishment

12. Everyone has the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.

[Ed. Denying income assistance and public services to the poor, the disabled and the abused is cruel, intolerable and SHOULD BE unusual treatment in BC and Canada. It has become accepted and acceptable and that is NOT the province, or country I grew up in, nor want as a taxpayer. ]

Equality before and under law and equal protection and benefit of law

15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

[Ed. The poor are not equal under the law in BC. They have no rights, they have NO protections, they have no equal benefits, they have nothing. They do not even have the right to vote in their own province, or country. No ID, no vote].

Enforcement of guaranteed rights and freedoms

24. (1) Anyone whose rights or freedoms, as guaranteed by this Charter, have been infringed or denied may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction to obtain such remedy as the court considers appropriate and just in the circumstances.

Application of Charter

32. (1) This Charter applies

(a) to the Parliament and government of Canada in respect of all matters within the authority of Parliament including all matters relating to the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories; and

(b) to the legislature and government of each province in respect of all matters within the authority of the legislature of each province.

**************************

United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol came into force on May 3, 2008. Convention aims to ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy all human rights on an equal basis with others.

Article 10 - Right to life

States Parties reaffirm that every human being has the inherent right to life and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others.

Article 13 - Access to justice

1. States Parties shall ensure effective access to justice for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others, including through the provision of procedural and age-appropriate accommodations, in order to facilitate their effective role as direct and indirect participants, including as witnesses, in all legal proceedings, including at investigative and other preliminary stages.

2. In order to help to ensure effective access to justice for persons with disabilities, States Parties shall promote appropriate training for those working in the field of administration of justice, including police and prison staff.

Article 28 - Adequate standard of living and social protection

1. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right without discrimination on the basis of disability.

2. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to social protection and to the enjoyment of that right without discrimination on the basis of disability, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right, including measures:

a) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to clean water services, and to ensure access to appropriate and affordable services, devices and other assistance for disability-related needs;

b) To ensure access by persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities and older persons with disabilities, to social protection programmes and poverty reduction programmes;

c) To ensure access by persons with disabilities and their families living in situations of poverty to assistance from the State with disability-related expenses, including adequate training, counselling, financial assistance and respite care;

d) To ensure access by persons with disabilities to public housing programmes; (e)

e) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to retirement benefits and programmes.

Try this on for living:

• Employment and Assistance Rate Tables

Regular welfare - Shelter Maximum - 1 person - $375.00+ $235.00 (Basic support) = $610

Disability Income - Shelter Maximum - 1 person - $375.00 + $531.42 = $906

• Employment and Assistance Statistics