BC Liberals Suck

BC Liberals Latest Dream Team

2011-03-14T14:29:00.002-07:00

Premier Christy Clark was sworn in today, March 14th, in Victoria as BC's 35th Premier.

Clark's New Dream Team Cabinet:

Kevin Falcon, Deputy Premier and Minister of Finance. (Ed: keep your enemies closer?)
Mary Polak, Minister of Aboriginal Relations.
Naomi Yamamoto, Minister of Advanced Education.
Don McRae, Minister of Agriculture.
Barry Penner, Attorney General.
Mary McNeil, Minister of Children and Family Development.
Ida Chong, Minister Community Sport and Cultural Development.
George Abbott, Minister of Education.
Rich Coleman, Minister of Energy and Mines and Minister Responsible for Housing.
Terry Lake, Minister of Environment.
Steve Thomson, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations.
Mike de Jong, Minister of Health.
Pat Bell, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation.
Stephanie Cadieux, Minister of Labour, Citizens Services and Open Government.
Shirley Bond, Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General.
Harry Bloy, Minister of Social Development and Minister Responsible for Multiculturalism.
Blair Lekstom, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.
Rich Coleman will serve as the Government House Leader.
Terry Lake will be the deputy Government House Leader.
Ben Stewart will be the Government whip.

Other changes the Sun points out:

"Five members of the last cabinet are gone: Colin Hansen, Murray Coell, Moira Stilwell, John Yap and Margaret MacDiarmid."
Clark brought energy, mines together into one portfolio.
She linked forestry, lands and natural resource operations under its own ministry.
Created a new ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation.
New ministry of Labour, Citizens’ services and Open Government

Some choices quotes:

"Now it’s time for our government to reach out to those families for whom the great promise of British Columbia may have remained elusive. and that works starts now.”

She promised “real and tangible” steps in coming weeks to help families, and said government will be more open and explain its decisions to British Columbians.

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New Premier Names Her Cabinet
CBC News, March 14th, 2011.

Clark cut the size of cabinet from 23 to 18, including herself, meaning a large number former premier Gordon Campbell's ministers will now be sitting on the backbenches of the legislature.

Clark also named another 10 MLAs as parliamentary secretaries to work with ministers to focus on key initiatives of government.

Amongst those who did not get a seat at the cabinet table were former deputy premeir and finance minister Colin Hansen, and Kevin Krueger.

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Moira Stilwel Sidelined in Christy Clark's Cabinet, Sources Say

Gary Mason & Ian Bailey, Globe & Mail, March 14, 2011.

Excerpts:

Dr. Stilwell, a former cabinet minister, will not be one of Ms. Clark’s ministers. Instead, she will be named parliamentary secretary in charge of innovation. She will have a reporting relationship with the minister in charge of a newly-created portfolio for jobs.

Dr. Stilwell’s demotion is surprising. A physician trained in nuclear medicine, Dr. Stilwell is one of the brightest minds in the Liberal caucus.

She was one of Mr. Campbell’s must trustworthy ministers and performed well in colleges and regional economic development, the last post she held before resigning to run for the Liberal leadership. But it was during her unlikely bid for the leadership that Dr. Stilwell shone, impressing many with her thoughtful and articulate responses on a range of policy topics.

As the ink dries on the new government letterheads, we all have no choice but to wait and see how all of this is going to play out for BC citizens.

Next up - when & where will Premier Clark run in a by-election and who will run against her from the NDP?

BC Liberals Bring the Blood Sport of Politics to a New Height

2011-02-11T12:13:00.004-08:00

Oh boy, they weren't kidding when they said politics is a blood sport. The daggers are out, well, when they aren't being plunged into each others' backs during the leadership contests with both the BC Liberals and BC NDP.

This Facebook page has started up to Celebrate Gordon Campbell's last day as Premier - February 26th.

Here's some fun quotes as the race closes in to a finish.

From George Abbott on Christy Clark:

"Clark's HST flip-flop proves she has no credible plan for B.C.," read his press release. "On this significant issue, the public wants certainty and clarity, not more doublespeak and misdirection." Getting more biting in the media interviews, Abbott accused her of "adopting the Kama Sutra of HST positions." (Ed: AWESOME line!).

Her subsequent preference for tying health care funding to the rate of economic growth brought another blast from Ungentle George: "Unrealistic and oversimplified."

Nor was he even slightly amused at the Clark campaign prank of signing up a cat as a party member: "While Ms. Clark's campaign may consider this a joke, it is actually an example of outright fraud."

The summing up: "More and more it is abundantly clear that Ms. Clark's positions are simply not credible, and it shows that she has no real plan for our province, our economy, or our families."

"Ms. Clark's past actions do little to inspire confidence in her ability to unify the party. She walked away from government seven years ago, leaving the party to rebuild on its own, and only returned when there was the opportunity to be in charge. Today, she will not even commit to running as a B.C. Liberal MLA unless she gets to be premier."

From Vaughan Palmer

“Ms. Clark has given me such a plethora of issues to work with,” Mr. Abbott, who resigned as education minister to seek his party’s leadership, said Thursday. “If anybody thinks I should give a free ticket to Christy for whatever reason, they’re wrong. Whatever Christy says is fair game for debate, and that’s what I intend to do.”

He said he has taken Kevin Falcon, another of the six B.C. Liberal leadership candidates, to task for suggesting merit pay for teachers.
(Ian Bailey).

Other campaign news:

Leadership candidate George Abbott released a statement Saturday saying a vendor that works for his campaign created the kitties4christy.com website that poked fun at contender Christy Clark's campaign upon discovering that a cat owned by someone on her team received a party membership card.

Olympia Marie Wawryk, was signed up as a member in December. If her membership had gone unchallenged, the cat would have been eligible to cast a ballot in the party’s Feb. 26 leadership vote. And because the vote is being conducted by telephone and over the Internet, the party may never have known that Olympia is a cat. Kristy Wawryk, a senior volunteer in the Clark leadership campaign, is Olympia’s owner. Initially, Ms. Wawryk identified Olympia as a great-aunt, but the Clark campaign later said the cat had been signed up as a prank...
(Brenda Bouw and Justine Hunter).

On Tuesday, Kevin Falcon admitted a backer had signed up members of the Kamloops Blazers hockey team without their knowledge.

"It's wrong and I don't like it at all. My father was a stretcher-bearer at D-Day. I take democracy very seriously and it really bugs me that people fool around with something so important," Krueger said.

(CBC News).

Falcon's campaign manager, Norman Stowe, has revealed a Falcon supporter signed up several members of the Kamloops Blazers junior hockey team.

Problem is, the players didn't know anything about it.

(CBC News)

Special mention for Mike Smyth's excellent blog title:
Two minutes for Unsportsmanlike sign up!

Runner up to Rod Mickleburgh:

How to Win Friends (not really) and Influence People (a little)

You cheat. No, you cheat. You’re full of it. No, you are. You signed up a cat. No, I didn’t. Okay, I did, but you made fun of it. Et cetera. Welcome to the latest political soap opera: As the Fur Flies.

Which, among the following, is worst?

1. Admitting that you signed up a cat

2. Denying that you signed up a cat.

3. Registering members of a losing Kamloops hockey team, including a player named Dalibor Bortnak, without their knowledge.

4. Making a series of lame jokes about option 3, such as “two minutes for failing to cross-check” and “two minutes for not looking too good.”

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Mike de Jong has become the first of the BC Liberal leadership contenders to disclose the total of donations to his campaign.

The spending limit for candidates in the leadership race is $450,000. Mr. de Jong says he has received $266,450 in donations.

In a statement Friday, the former attorney-general said his donations came from 181 individuals and organizations.

(Ian Bailey)

I guess there won't be too many Valentine cards changing hands amongst the candidates on Monday.

Keep the fun times rolling candidates, you're amusing all of Canada with your antics and we can all use some laughs about now.

Ain't that the Scary Liberal Truth: Dogs Over Babies

2011-02-03T08:10:00.005-08:00

We here at BC Liberals Suck love animals as much as the next person. The sled dog cull is an atrocity and we hope that those responsible face animal cruelty and criminal charges. But when the BC Liberals can ignore the mounting death toll from BC's child welfare system and report after report about the devastating conditions so many of the most vulnerable kids face in their struggle to survive it's just too much.

21 babies who might still be here were less important to the BC Liberal regime that rewarding their senior bureaucrats with "living allowances" and bonuses for keeping staffing levels low and meeting targets out of the Premier's office.

Now they turn around and launch a task force & inquiry when this administration created the conditions where BC has led child poverty in Canada for seven years in a row and the Minister in charge of Children & Families publically states BC doesn't need a poverty reduction plan. This kind of structural violence and negligence towards children protected under the Charter of Rights & Freedoms is what should be under scrutiny and legally actionable.

But some tough talk is reserved for us, as citizens too.
Where are the cries about the dead babies, casualties and collateral damage of a government that set up these conditions?
Where is the inquiry into the children who have died in the care & custody of MCFD/the BC government?
Where is the inquiry into dead children and youth who have been involved with MCFD, or trying to get services from them? Who weren't taken into care & died?
Where is the inquiry into the children who have been critically injured or died in placements that MCFD put them into? Or in Child in Home of Relative homes?

Every single one of us should write our MLA and tell them we won't stand for BC's kids to be treated this way anymore and that unless there is action, they've lost our vote.

Find your MLA here and show that BC's kids mean at least as much as dogs.
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New inquiry raises more questions
VICTORIA/CKNW(AM980)
Charmaine de Silva | Email news tips to charmaine.desilva@corusent.com
2/3/2011

In light of the creation of the task force, some are asking...does the Province care more about dead dogs than dead babies?

The BC NDP's critic for Children and Families, Maurine Karagianis, says its great that the Province has moved quickly to launch the task force into the slaughter of dead dogs near Whistler.

But she has some questions for the Premier, "I'm curious why the Province hasn't taken action yet on the request by the Children's Representative to set up a legislative process for child poverty, and for resources to deal with child death reviews."

Karagianis says the Government's inaction is shameful.

Just last week BC's Child and Youth representative renewed calls for a poverty reduction plan.

Random Thoughts on Who Will Be Our Next Premier: Choose Well Liberal Party, BC is Watching

2010-12-15T20:51:00.005-08:00

The knives are unsheathed in the Republic. Politics in BC constantly prove that the truth is always much more compelling, bizarre and interesting than fiction.

So, where are things at? The BC Liberals are all over the place with candidates coming out of the woodwork. In alphabetical order, some random thoughts about the contenders.

George Abbott - He is the guy to watch. He's got a lot of Liberal MLA's supporting him and Liberal member support. He's enough of a moderate and he's preaching the right approach right now to bruised insiders - he will create a more collaborative, kinder and gentler caucus. He's not going to be the big bully that Campbell has been outed to be. He's held enough important Cabinet positions that he's had a chance to demonstrate some degree of administrative experience. He's not been caught up in any big scandals. We don't know of any "special investigators" that have had to be put on the job to look into any unsavoury allegations about him over the past decade. You better believe savvy Liberal strategists know that if Abbott wins for Premier, this will be a deadly blow to the rudderless NDP.

Christy Clark - She's the biggest gift to the NDP right now, as scattered as they are currently. Reading her bio is surreal. She claims to have been a passionate supporter of families in her first term (1996), yet doesn't even mention her ill-fated turn as Minister of Children & Families. She, like a long list before and after her was very unsuccessful in that role and it was like being banished to Siberia sending her there. In fact she had one of the shortest tenures as Minister and played the "family card" when she stepped out of politics when the heat was growing too much over Basi-Virk.

She was absolutely disastrous as Minister of Education and caused a great deal of angst for many while in that role. She wasn't well liked amongst her own cabinet as Deputy Premier, a position she held during the time of the Raid on the Legislature. It's also pretty telling the only support she has from sitting MLA's and former caucus members is Harry Bloy, who has been firmly planted on the back bench even under her own time as a leader in Cabinet.

Clark is also already talking about calling a snap election if she becomes premier. Mark these words, that would spell the end of her political career for good. Since she took her break to "spend more time with her family" in 2005 and since becoming a CKNW hack, she's managed to probably piss off a number of voters. She has no current history of support in whatever riding she will run in.

BC voters are sick & tired of politicians, in general, and even more so for opportunistic ones who figure they can just show up to the party (election), with nothing to back themselves up. Voters want politicians to earn their votes. As Holman notes in the linked article above, she wouldn't even have the support of MLA's in her own party who were only elected in 2005, because some could possibly lose their pensions if they weren't re-elected. And with the HST as the ticking time bomb with voters, it would be a huge risk to go an election in 2011. She would be disastrous to her own Liberal colleagues.

The knives are really being plunged into her back right now too and demonstrating the baggage she lugs behind her to the Premier's chair and the Legislature for the BC Liberal party over the Raid on the Legislature/ Basi-Virk matters.

"To me, it's case closed." Some very damaging words, captured in this video of Clark being asked about her family involvement in this case. For a public that wants an inquiry to find out who in government was involved and responsible for the "sale" of BC Rail and all of the other boondoggling around it this was not a good, nor smart answer. Like Falcon below, it has to have you shaking your head as to why someone with THE most baggage going into this race would want to do this, or think that if they say it's over, it's over for everyone else. This speaks to insight & judgment in a big way.

IMHO, Clark is THE best Premier to lead the BC Liberals into the next election.

Mike De Jong - He's a solid candidate. No apparent dirt, no apparent "special investigations" into his conduct. Appears to be a capable, competent performer as a Cabinet minister. Rather lack lustre, not the most exciting guy, but he's not unlikable, or ruthless like some of the others are known to be. He's also responded to public feedback, such as need for an Inquiry into Missing & Murdered Women in BC.

In an apparent media grab, he was the first to propose lowering the age for voting to 16. I fail to see how this is any way relevant. He's been the Attorney General & in Cabinet for some time & never had this brainstorm before. Does he know something we don't? Has he been secretly polling teenagers? Are they clambering to elect him? It's really a non-issue and all of the candidates are looking foolish for jumping on this train.

Why, oh why, can't politicians hire strategists & communications people who have a clue how things will be perceived by the voting public before setting politicians up to look like idiots?

Kevin Falcon - His blatant attempt to re-brand himself from the ruthless, vicious and uncaring political character he's demonstrated over the last decade by using own child in ads to soften his image is enough to make even the most diehard Liberal groan. For the rest of us - it makes us want to puke until there's nothing left. If he and the mental giants running his campaign think we're all that stupid to believe this leopard can change his spots so quickly then they have drunk the same Kool Aid as the inner circle NDP'ers who thought Carole James stood a chance of winning the next election. Give us all a break.

Political karma is waiting in the wings. Falcon may have strong support with a number of Liberal MLA's, but like the NDP, they all better be thinking strategically, because even if he calls a quick election, his past actions and the disaster that is BC's health care system under his uncaring administration are top of mind for voters, especially outside of the insular urban areas.

He was also disastrously combative in his role as Minister of Transportation. Voters will also be asking themselves whether they really need another real estate developer Premier as the people of BC wonder what happened to all of the prime real estate that has been lost under this administration over the last decade and where the money went?

Like the NDP, Liberal party members better understand this, in spite of his attempts to re-brand himself as "A New Generation of Leadership," he has the stench of the same old BC Liberal party/Socred oldtimers and that will lose this party the next election. The people of BC, including Liberal voters, are hurting and just damn fed up with the way the BC Liberals have been doing things over the last decade. They want change and an end to the status quo of how this government has operated.

From the He Didn't Really Say that Did He? File:

He stated China “really has the ultimate Kevin Falcon government structure,” because “They don't have the labour or environmental restrictions we do. It's not like they have to do community consultations. They just say ‘we're building a bridge’ and they move everyone out of there and get going within two weeks. Could you imagine if we could build like that?”"

Dr. Moira Stilwell - What can you really say? She's obviously a bright, accomplished and successful woman. I don't think anyone is seeing her as a front runner for Premier and it's unclear what support she has amongst her own MLA's, party and colleagues at the Cabinet table. I say good on her for being the first to throw her hat in the ring and going on record for stating she supports raising the minimum wage, it's more than any of her other competitors have said on the matter.

Love Letters All Around: Welcome to the Banana Republic of BC

2010-12-02T20:53:00.009-08:00

Dan Murphy, The Province.

What absolutely splendid, awkward and interesting times we're having here in the trailer park drama of BC's political scene.

First off, dear readers, I want to thank all of you. Yes, even you PAB lurkers and BC Liberal supporters who seethe at the skewering of your witless leaders. I don't have the time I'd like to devote to discussing all of the reasons I still believe the BC Liberals Suck, although I'm pretty sure most of you have a bunch yourself. So I appreciate that people stop by to see if I have written anything new.

I hope you are finding ways to join the revolution. You know - the one where we make sure our elected officials, of every stripe, gets the fact that they are working for us, using our dollars and we expect a hell of a lot better than we've gotten so far and some things are going to get a change up.

So, after that heartwarming little love letter, let's get ripping, with a bit of a twist.

Who in the hell would ever think we would be getting lessons in leadership, ethics and democracy from the BC Liberals? Definitely not I. But, that's what's happening as they race to lock and load, re-brand and finds them a new leader. Someone who seems new, but is still actually part of the same, tired old party. But, hope springs eternal, even in politics.

Anyone who knows me, knows if I think things aren't working, then I'm a big fan of trying to tear it all apart (in polite society that would include critical analysis and wordy e-mails to people who are pissing me off telling them how things need to change and why). And, when my delightfully tactful and diplomatic methodologies don't find success, then I (figuratively) light the match and scorch things to the ground and help build something new out of the ashes. That's what the BC Liberals are doing right now. It will work, if allowed to.

No doubt inside pressure & Machiavellian scheming was behind Campbell's ignominious admission of defeat (blaming the HST) and announcement he was stepping down as Premier (one of the happiest days BC could have wished for). It's only a loss for the people of Point Grey he will be hanging about until 2013. But I guess that will give the Powers that Be time to get his Directorships worked out. Or whatever his next assignment is now that he's been able to bring BC to its' knees. Carrying out the work of the Man is almost always well rewarded. Campbell need not worry, he is a Made Man.

The Ethical Resisters of the NDP

Beleaguared NDP leader, Carole James and the backroom Silverback hacks are in frantic damage control mode, desperately pulling together an emergency party meeting to try to get the splinter group under control.

Or maybe she's going to drop kick each of them out of the party, if they aren't willing to be "accountable for their behaviour." Booting them out is adding to the rapidly growing list of people she, or her so-called powerbrokers, are punting out of the tent. Isn't that reinforcing the very point the so called "dissidents" are trying to make?

MLA Jenny (Hell ya, I've had enough) Kwan is the most courageous, publically stepping forward, writing a letter and holding a press conference advocating for a one-member one-vote Leadership convention in the NDP. It's escaping me entirely why all the panties are in a bunch over this. When you read the utter nonsense being spouted off by the old school, the fresh voices, ideas and activists of the next wave of NDP leaders become so much more relevant, compelling and necessary.

Why isn't a supposedly democratic organization interested in testing the house, the entire house? This is most important since this hasn't happened once since James became the leader of the party, or lost 2 elections. Hmmm, is Kwan right when she says:

"Under Carole James's leadership, there has been a steady erosion of our democratic principles. Debate has been stifled, decision-making centralized, and individual MLAs marginalized," Kwan said in her statement, adding she thinks the party has also suffered from a "lack of direction" under James.

See a CBC News story on Kwan here. She denies she is interested in running for the leadership of the NDP and explains she is motivated to take this position because of what she is hearing "on the streets."

Statement from Jenny Kwan, MLA, Vancouver-Mt. Pleasant
Dec. 1, 2010.

Kwan isn't wrong either, nor is this about her Wrath, in spite of what some clever political creatures might think. Ask anyone outside the ever more exclusive and delusional inner ranks of the NDP, James, in spite of being a "nice" person (well, not sure if that's still the case), is not the kind of leader the majority of people are looking for now. Two strikes out already. Politics are a cruel mistress, suck it up princess and do the right thing. Time for the old blood to give way to the new, or suffer the fate of all out of touch cabal's, well, they already are - bloody regime change, and devastating loss. It's time for some real, strategic change in the NDP.

The NDP is also currently offering next to nothing for actual policy, or a platform from which to challenge the BC Liberal record. Or a true blue honest opinion. People want to know what they stand for. Pick an informed and principled opinion and stick to it. It's not that bloody hard and it's what earns respect from voters.

From a logical standpoint, this isn't just one off stuff, here are a number of incidents and events that have occurred during the time of Ms. James' leadership:

Michael Sathers was expelled from the NDP caucus.
Moe Sihota was positioned as president of the NDP and then it was learned money collected from donors was going to pay him for the pleasure of ruining the party, er, I meant running, yes, that's right.
Bob Simpson, NDP MLA for was kicked out of caucus, without the proper process being followed, for the mildest and hardly an earth shattering opinion - Carole James speech (pick one), was uninspired and lacked detail. Yes, any reasonable person can see he was way too harsh on James. Oh puhleeze, this is politics, remember, blood sport.
Norm Macdonald, resigned as NDP Caucus Chair over the handling of the Simpson affair.
Katrine Controy quit her position as Caucus Whip of the NDP. And she had the support of other MLA's, including Jenny Kwan, Lana Popham and Claire Trevena.

Sometimes, as painful as they are, breakups are best. All of those sappy self-help books say you can grow from your pain. And then start again with someone else, a little more battle weary, some more baggage, but ready to move on. That's where the citizens of BC find themselves, staring with astonishment at the train wreck break ups happening inside of both parties, with no viable third party alternative yet in the game.

I've got the perfect new tourism slogan:

Welcome to BC: The Banana Republic of the North.

Now that's an Editorial: Fictitious Funds Can't Rescue BC Liberals

2010-09-20T13:37:00.002-07:00

Good editorial, although not exactly earth shattering, it's still nice to see at least a little truth in print for a change. We are hooped here in Beautiful BC. I can't be the only noticing my income dwindling under the new tax on items that previously had no tax. It's actually like a kick in the teeth each time a bill rolls in, or I look at the receipt.

$8.20 HST on Hydro; $9.15 HST to Telus; $1.21 to Gas = it all adds up, month after month.

Went to a worldwide coffee chain and it now costs over $7 for a medium sized drink and a baked good. Over $7 for 2 items!!! Yesterday, I paid over $10 for a half a sandwich and a coffee drink at another local coffee chain. Want to bet this is rapidly informing/reforming my spending habits and those of others I talk to. It can't be a coincidence that there are more and more store owners working the counter. What about all of those jobs the HST was going to bring?

We all know people who lie, most of us have lied at some point in our lives. Once the lies start rolling off our tongues enough, or people around us keep telling us the lies, the truth is replaced by the lies. Seemingly moral, decent people become warped and are treading water in oceans of lies. It's a scary place to be. No life preservers can save people from drowning in the lies that have been created once they've started swimming in the ocean.

It's pretty much only a matter of time before the end once people become trapped in promulgating the lies. Wonder if it's true that in the last moments of life people review the memories of their lives? There are some people who will be able to answer this figurative question as they continue the demise of their political lives.

Fictitious Funds Can't Rescue BC Budget
Burnaby Now. Sept. 18, 2010.

The provincial government's recent presentation of its revised budget is insulting.

Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced Tuesday that British Columbia's deficit for this fiscal year is now expected to come in at $1.4 billion - $335 million less than when the plan was tabled.

That much is good.

But then Hansen went on to invite taxpayers to tell him what to do with the government's newly "available dollars" for next year. Fund new services? Cut taxes? Reduce the debt?

This part is outrageous.

It doesn't take an accountant to understand that these dollars are fictitious.

The province isn't making more money than originally planned; it's only borrowing less. There is not, in fact, any "extra" money available at all.

To treat the difference between the old projected deficit and the new projected deficit as cash is misleading and irresponsible - and doubly so coming from a government that only just repealed its own law making deficits illegal.

Worse, to suggest that this discrepancy could be used to pay down debt crosses the line from ill-advised to ridiculous.

Since when can negative funds be used to cut debt?

It's nothing new for a government to use accounting sleight-of-hand to buy votes, but to do so in such a blatant fashion is disrespectful.

Any voter with a credit card understands our province's predicament very well.

No amount of silly rhetoric is going to change that.

If the B.C. Liberals want to regain the respect of their electorate, they have to stop trying to dupe them, and begin treating them as the thinking adults that they are.

One is the Loneliest Number: BC Liberal Party Implosion

2010-09-12T09:27:00.004-07:00

“There is such an anger and frustration out there a lot of [party] members are walking away. They don't want anything to do with the B.C. Liberals. They're just very, very upset with what's gone on right now.”
- Former Williams Lake mayor and B.C. Liberal nominee Scott Nelson (in the Vancouver Sun), Sept. 7, 2010

This week's song, One, is dedicated to Premier Campbell for all of his work on the HST.

What an extraordinary time of decline in the popularity of Premier Gordon Campbell. Headlines and news stories loudly trumpeting that Campbell now has the dubious distinction of having the lowest poll number, 12%, of any Premier in Canada and even apparently any leader around the world according to the news report on Global BC TV last night.

You're #1 at sucking Mr. Campbell, wooohooo!
We always knew this, it just took everyone else some time to catch up, including some of your party faithful.

It's very exciting to see some of the BC Liberal foot soldiers, starting to fight back and speak out publically and advocate for Campbell's resignation (and Hanson's in Bateman's case, at least initially).

People should not miss the importance of these actions - they demonstrate that the people who co-opted the BC Liberal party have become so unbelievably arrogant and out of touch they've even lost the faith, support and money of their own party members and cheerleaders. You know you're at the point of oblivion and well on the way to extinction when you're being attacked from inside the organism.

Some of these people, like Steve Forseth and Jordan Bateman are the future of this party and they are pissed that their party has been hijacked by the HST issue and by the likes of Campbell and co. who are destroying the party from within and without.

These henchmen and hacks are the future candidates, in the "paying their dues" time of their political careers. And they're angry because these savvy young Libs know, the BC Liberal brand is becoming mud with voters all across the Province and across the voting spectrum and age demographics. Lose, lose and lose any way you look at it.

Here, in no particular order, some of the evidence of the slow, painful and very welcome implosion of the BC Liberals:

Blair Lekstrom calls on Gordon Campbell to resign

By: Energeticcity.ca Staff

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

CTV British Columbia is reporting that South Peace MLA Blair Lekstrom is calling on Premier Gordon Campbell to step down.

"You hope that he knows when the time has come. I think, without question, most people would agree that the time has come to have a new premier," Lekstrom told CTV News.

Lekstrom resigned from the Liberal caucus earlier this year in protest over the HST and has been sitting as an independent MLA since.

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McKay Calls for Campbell to Resign

CFTK TV.

Former Bulkley Valley-Stikine MLA Dennis MacKay called on BC Premier Gordon Campbell to retire because of the HST.

MacKay says he's become increasingly disillusioned with the Liberals under Campbell, especially with the harmonized sales tax.

MacKay also says he supports former Liberal cabinet minister Blair Lekstrom who quit Campbell's cabinet and the Liberal caucus last June over the way the government was moving ahead with the HST despite widespread concerns among British Columbians.

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Premier Campbell should urgently consider Retirement for the good of the BC Liberal Party

Steve Forseth.

"I now find myself, with deep regret, having to join the ranks of Blair Lekstrom, Scott Nelson and Sheila Orr asking BC Premier Gordon Campbell to retire as Leader of the BC Liberal Party..."

For months now, I have tried to convince BC Liberals’ privately, via numerous emails/phone calls, that the provincial government’s communication strategy vis-a-vis the HST and the future of Gordon Campbell is woefully inadequate and needs to change before the voters’ stop listening to us as BC Liberals’.

Gordon Campbell no doubt retains the support of both the Caucus and Cabinet – after all, he is the “Boss”. However, he does not now have, in my view, the support of rank and file BC Liberal Party members’...

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B.C. Liberals try to quash party rebellions: HST Backlash: Members say Campbell has poisoned the party

By Michael Smyth, The Province, September 12, 2010.

Excerpts:

Party activists were determined to send Campbell, and the rest of the party brass, a pointed message: The premier has become such a reviled and politically toxic figure that his continued leadership of the Liberals threatens to send the reeling party over a cliff.

Reichert told the rebellious group they had no authority to call for Campbell's resignation and their resolution was out of order. The executive stuck it in his face by voting on it anyway, deciding unanimously to "receive, note and file" the resolution, recording the vote in the official minutes of the meeting.

"He [Kelly Reichert, executive director of the B.C. Liberal party] seemed very worried this was going to leak out to the media and it would embarrass the premier," Forseth said, adding the Liberal fixer pleaded for patience.

"He said Campbell could absorb the damage from the HST, so the next leader would not have to wear it," Forseth said. "But our worry is that it's too late for that. The longer Gordon Campbell stays, the worse it will get."

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A brilliant editorial by Joseph Roberts of Common Ground magazine is a must-read, but you will have to pick it up at your local library, health food store or elsewhere, as it's not online from what I can see. Here are excerpts below.

Two Wrongs Don't Make a Right: Harper and Campbell tried to harmonize their financial blunders

Two wrongs don't make a right, but this is how Harper and Campbell tried to harmonize their blunders so voters wouldn't notice, or find out.

The first big error occurred when the Conservatives cut the GST from 7% to 5%, which gutted the Feds’ profitable margin for tax collection... The Feds were short of money and not wanting to look stupid, they couldn't just say, “Sorry, we screwed up and we need to put the GST back to 7%, or maybe even eight or 9% to make up for the lost tax revenues.”

They came up with a new tax scheme called the Harmonized Sales Tax. They would pitch it to the provinces and offer them an incentive in the form of transition funding (some call it a bribe).

BC was reeling from the Olympic debt hangover even though MLA’s wages just kept going up. [Ed. And the salaries of senior bureaucrats.] But they wouldn't let the voters know they had blown their budget. It would have been political suicide before the election to tell voters they would be bringing in a new tax (i.e. hiders make liars).

More than 700,000 voters in BC have signed the anti-HST petition and they want better governance. Voters do not like taxation without representation, as was the case when BC's HST was rammed through by an order in Council rather than being fully debated in the legislature. Voters want democracy. They are standing their ground through the process of referendum and if that does not provide relief, then through recall of MLA's.

Two wrongs don't make a right but it does make for strange bedfellows. The provincial Liberal/Conservatives and the federal Conservatives/Liberals have taken each other as dancing partners to distract the voters from seniors fiscally lame screw-ups. Simply put, the Feds are in debt so they take our tax money and give it to the province. Likewise, the province is in debt so intakes are provincial tax money and gives it to the Feds.

This dance of debt continues until the music stops. It is not this writer's intention to have Tweedledee or Tweedledum run our government, but whichever parties are elected, the citizens of our land should be treated with honesty, fairness and provided full disclosure. This is currently not the case and it is up to the citizens to make it so.

One by One: BC Liberals Will Resign or Fall, It's Their Choice

2010-09-03T11:24:00.002-07:00

"The fact of the matter is it wasn’t on our radar. We didn’t engage in any discussions. I wasn’t thinking about it until after the election.”

- Premier Gordon Campbell (The World Today, CKNW), Aug. 7, 2009

Lies Always Lead to More Lies

Remember back when we were young and many of us experimented with telling little lies, most of the time, when caught, we pled "I don't know why" when asked to fess up to our lies. Invariably, someone either pointed it out to us, or we learned for ourselves that our desperation not to be caught for our original lie led to the next lie, which led on to the next one and so on. The HST is like that for the BC Liberals and most particularly, Colin Hansen, doomed Minister of Finance and Premier Gordon Campbell of the rapidly sinking BC Liberal party.

"The harmonized sales tax was not on our radar. We said it was not part of our election platform and it wasn't."

- Finance Minister Colin Hansen (Times Colonist), July 28, 2009

On March 12, 2009 a briefing note was prepared by senior staffers of the Finance Ministry for the Minister, Colin Hansen on the potential impacts of the HST. This was immediately preceding the election.

It's impossible to recap the media storm swirling around about the disclosures of government documents, such as briefing notes to Hanson and Campbell which are incontrovertible proof, smoking guns even, that heading into the last election the BC Liberals not only knew HST was looming on the horizon, but they also had clear opinions that the HST had the significant potential to harm BC's economy and citizens. Senior bureaucrats, the guys paid to research and think (yes that does happen in government) also informed these elected officials it would likely be at least five years before any improvements would be seen to BC's economy if the HST were to be brought in.

Directly quoted, the briefing note stated:

“There are also studies showing potential short-term economic costs. Given current economic conditions, this could be a concern.”

“The [C.D. Howe] study suggests that it may take five or more years before the impact on [gross domestic product] is positive and even longer for real wages and job numbers to recover.”

Carole James, Opposition leader of the BC NDP, having her say in a guest column in the Province, stated:

"Incredibly, the finance minister claims he never read the HST briefing note. How is it possible that the finance minister failed to read a briefing note prepared for him on what is arguably the single-biggest policy decision of the B.C. Liberal administration?

Either he's not being straight with the public or he's incompetent. And as the finance minister points fingers at anyone but his own government, the B.C. Liberals have left British Columbians adrift. And that's the worst part of this whole mess."

Hanson & Campbell Must Resign

Unlike Jordan (pulled-back-in-line) Bateman, Coleman's Langley Liberal lackey, I won't apologize, or retract this - Colin Hanson must resign. There is no other course of action. He has so profoundly compromised his own integrity as an elected official, a politician and as a human being that he cannot continue to sit in Victoria, or anywhere else.

How must the voters of Vancouver-Quilchena feel? They put this man into office in May 2009. Now they know he lied directly to them during the last election? The evidence continues to mount that Hanson has told more and more lies, to cover up the original lie. He simply is no longer fit and cannot be allowed to continue to represent the people of that riding or the people of BC.

If Hanson does not resign, once November comes, the people of Vancouver-Quilchena must remove him from office by recall. Start sharpening your pencils people. You met the bar for the HST petition, the egregious actions of your sitting MLA cannot go unpunished because he has made a mockery of your trust in him as your elected political representative and the more he spreads his own "misinformation" the more he mocks every single one of you who voted for him. He also seriously continues to damage the very electoral process and political system.

It's people like Colin Hanson and Gordon Campbell who have led to mass cynicism, mistrust (putting it mildly) and a vast disconnect of legions of voters from the electoral system and democracy in BC. We would condemn these kinds of actions of political elites in other countries, this continuing offense to democracy cannot be tolerated or allowed in our own waning civil society.

In January 2009 Premier Gordon Campbell received a briefing note on the HST before he went to the Council of the Federation (of Canadian premiers) meeting.

When you lay down with dogs, you get up with fleas

I've said it before and I will say it again, how low will BC Liberal MLA's allow themselves to go as they cling to this fetid and bloated carcass of the BC Liberal party? How much of their own personal integrity and ethics of what is right and wrong are they willing to degrade and sacrifice for this party and it's corrupt and incompetent ways? What cost are these BC Liberals willing to tolerate to their own families? If there is anyone I feel bad for in all of this it is the families of these people, because the cost of the shameful and disgraceful behaviour of these public officials is also born by their families too. Aren't politicians capable of thinking about that anymore?

Open Message to the BC Liberal MLA's

Take a moment to learn from Blair Lekstrom, who now sits as an Independent in the BC Legislature. He saw the writing on the wall over the HST. It might not be classy and pure self-interest and survival, but he knew that if more people signed the anti-HST petition than voted for him, it was only a matter of time before he'd be thrown out of office in disgrace.

All you Liberal MLA's better start crunching the numbers, because come November, all of those people who signed the anti-HST petition and I bet a lot more people will be lining up to sign for your recall as the fall out from the HST costs us.

The anti-HST petition machine have got the numbers and they're going to pick you off, one, by one. They know the weakest links in the chain. As many of you MLA backbenchers know, or those stuck with bad portfolios (such as Mary Polak) know, you're just grist for the mill. You helped bring money into the party coffers, maybe a few other things, but other than that, you sit and do nothing, or worse, you've sat by silently while life became a whole lot more expensive and difficult for your constituents.

It isn't a stretch to say that over the last decade in BC, the quality of life for many has been degraded by the BC Liberals governance and administration. Selling off our assets and resources to multi-nationals who take the profits out of the province. And there hasn't been a damn thing citizens, or voters could do about any of it.

But the HST is the tipping point. People are angry and scared, because their paycheques, or pensions, or incomes are not going nearly as far as they did before all of these increased taxes. Life has gotten a whole lot harder for too many for some of you Liberals to survive your own government and party.

So, it's time for the line to be divided in the sand. Liberals MLA's who've sat there quietly while this was all going down better make some big decisions. Will you go down with the party, or will you pull a Lekstrom and fight for your own survival?

You have little to lose by backing away from a dying party and much, much to lose continuing on. You be the judge, but know this - citizens and voters in your ridings will be watching your every move and many more who voted for you in 2009 will be ready to kick you out in disgrace in November 2010.What do you think life will be like for you after that?

Citizen Power

If anything, one of the biggest lessons being learned across Canada by the anti-HST petition is that citizens have power in the face of an arrogant, incompetent and uncaring government. Naysayers said it couldn't be done. They were proved wrong with resounding support to scrap the HST.

For the first time in Canadian history, citizens launched a successful anti-government petition, which was upheld by the courts. The power of citizens can no longer be underestimated. It is what will bring this BC Liberal government down. I look forward to that day, because the BC Liberals have Sucked from day one and they have cheapened and worsened the lives of many for the benefit of a few. That isn't our BC and it's time to reclaim it back from the scoundrels, scalawags and ne'er-do-wells.

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HST Briefing Memo: Hansen & Campbell Caught Red Handed

Rafe Mair, The Common Sense Canadian, Sept. 2, 2010

Colin Hansen, our Finance Minister, not only isn't telling the truth about the HST situation, he is a sniveling, cringing coward to boot. Be a Man, Hansen! Own up, level with people! You look like the kid with chocolate all over his face denying to his Mom that he pinched the chocolate bar as the store keeper alleged.

If you cannot be honest, at least stand up and admit it!

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Liberals HST Woes go from Bad to Worse

Michael Smyth, The Province, September 3, 2010

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VICTORIA/CKNW(AM980)
Sean Leslie | Email news tips to Sean
9/3/2010

Finance Minister Colin Hansen says he's not surprised that a new poll shows two thirds of British Columbians feel the HST has cost them money.

Hansen says the survey by Angus Reid Public Opinion confirms many people have some bad information about the tax, "63 per-cent think that their cell phone bills went up, which they didn't. 61 per-cent think that adult clothing got more expensive because of the HST. That's not true. And what was really surprising is that 76 per-cent thought that basic groceries would be subject to the HST, and of course they're exempt."

Hansen complains the Government wanted to correct that misinformation in a mail-out to British Columbians that Elections BC rejected during the Bill Vander Zalm ANTI-HST petition campaign.

Zippy Campbell: The Declining Days of the Empire

2010-08-10T17:29:00.003-07:00

Photo: Darryl Dyck, Reuters

The Beginning of the End for Gordon Campbell

Adrian MacNair, National Post, August 10, 2010.

Excerpts:

The B.C. Liberal Party won its third consecutive majority government in an election only a short 15 months ago, garnering 49 seats in the Victoria Legislature with a popular vote of 46%. In that election the B.C. NDP came in second with 42% of the popular vote, giving them 35 seats, but ultimately no ability to control any legislation being passed by the governing Liberals.

Though the NDP were powerless to stop the passage of the Harmonized Sales Tax into law in early May, several polls have shown that as many of four out of five British Columbians do not like the tax, and it has hurt the Liberal Party badly. What a difference 15 months can make.

A new Angus Reid poll conducted for the Vancouver Sun, took a random sampling of 800 British Columbians in July, and asked what party they would support if an election were held tomorrow. Liberal support has tumbled to 27%, nearly 20 points below their previous electoral result, while the NDP has surged to 48%. Even the Green Party and the B.C. Conservative Party have picked up momentum on the raw and visceral dislike for the HST, improving to 13% and 6%, respectively.

The poll also asked the hypothetical question of whether they would still support the same choices if embattled Premier Gordon Campbell, whose approval rating was 28% according to a poll conducted by The Mustel Group in May, were to resign and a new leader take his place.

This is significant, since it means that not only is Mr.Campbell damaged goods for the party, but he has done perhaps irreparable damage to the party itself. Even tossing the party leader overboard may not be enough to save the ship at this point.

The Liberals have shown surprising resiliency over their nine years in power, despite numerous scandals, controversies and bad press. The implementation of the carbon tax in 2008, for instance, at a time when gasoline prices were at a historic high worldwide, was not enough to remove them from power...

When it was revealed a few short months after the 2009 election that Premier Campbell’s lowball estimate of a $495-million deficit “max” was actually $2.7-billion, the leader took a huge hit on his credibility. And when it was announced that the province would be receiving a $1.6-billion “transitional” payment from Ottawa that was factored into the projected deficit, many critics called this the “Fudge-it Budget 2,” after the former NDP premier Glen Clark.

Now, 14 years later, it is Gordon Campbell who is under pressure to resign for the good of the party, following his own Fudge-It Budget. But it must be said that support for the leader has evaporated mostly because of his obstinate refusal to back down from the HST, despite a grassroots petition initiative to repeal it that secured 700,000 signatures between April and July. The HST, which has been characterized as a $2-billion tax shift from corporations to consumers even by former finance minister Carole Taylor, has shown early signs of damaging the rebounding B.C. real estate market.

The Angus Reid poll shows that in a breakdown of results by region, gender, age and income, the Liberals trail the NDP in every category but one: those who earn over $100,000 a year still support the Liberals by a margin of two percentage points.

Even if Mr.Campbell doesn’t voluntarily step aside as the clear obstacle to his party’s future electoral fortunes, he may quite well lose his seat in the legislature come November. The same group that launched the successful HST petition will be looking to begin a recall campaign, which by B.C. elections law cannot begin until 18 months following the previous general election. If Mr. Campbell is unseated from his Vancouver-Point Grey riding, you can be sure that the internal pressure from his party to step aside will become almost overwhelming.

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The party and current posse are so tainted and there are so many skeletons falling out of the closets, it's gotta be regime change, or the Liberals will truly become the Socreds. It's the slowest falling upon the sword ever - year after year. Scandal, mismanagement and controversy, with so much more sure to come. You can only plug a hole in a dam for so long. And we here on the street, the vanquished, so to speak, are being taxed out of a decent life, with BC's resources and assets being given to the Corporation as plunder for the victors.

Interesting Times Ahead: How Low can the BC Liberals Go?

2010-08-06T08:39:00.004-07:00

Isn't this a hoot? Apparently the BC Liberals are doing so bad at the polls that even if Walking Eagle (who is so full of B.S. he can't fly) was replaced by more popular, appealing and charismatic leaders the party would still be behind the NDP, a party whose "leader" is pretty much invisible and a party that doesn't really have much in the way of a platform, or strategy to actually get elected. hahahaha

HST Damage Mounts

One month into the HST, how are things adding up for all of you? I know my wallet is lighter and I'm definitely watching how I spend my money more, as are others I know. People on fixed, or low incomes - seniors, families, the poor will be really struggling more and more each month.

Someone I know recently had a five day stay at a hotel. They paid $72.85 in HST on the room. $5.40 HST on daily parking. HST on food, and on anything else purchased.

Premier Campbell & Minister Hanson, can you remind us all how the HST is going to balance out again?

Fall Recall

The Fall should be damn interesting, as the anti-HST folks should have no problem springing into action with an easy recall of some of the Liberal MLA's. They've done their homework and know which ridings are the most vulnerable.

Lekstrom saw the writing on the wall and jumped the sinking ship first. When more people sign the petition than voted for you, as a MLA , it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out your days might be numbered in a most public, humbling and embarrassing way. There is some karma coming for the ostrich and possum crowd.
Can't wait for the mayhem, should be interesting to see.

As more and more businesses start feeling the pinch from the HST and the general economic downturn, look to them to start complaining louder. I would also guess there will be some real rancor between businesses that are losing and the BC Liberal corporate supporters and cheerleaders (I guess donations to the Liberals come with a price tag after all).

But the question of the day remains, what will be left of BC by the time of the next election? And what state will things be in? The Liberals have a lot of work left to be done to sell off BC's precious resources and assets.

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Replacing Campbell Would help Liberals But Not Save Them, Poll Says
Party led by Carole Taylor or Dianne Watts would be more popular, but would still lose to NDP
CHAD SKELTON, Vancouver Sun August 6, 2010

Angus Reid Public Opinion surveyed 800 British Columbians in late July and asked them which party they would support if an election was held tomorrow.

Only 27 per cent of those surveyed picked the Liberals, well behind the NDP at 48 per cent. The Greens picked up 13-per-cent support and the B.C. Conservatives six per cent.

The Liberals, who beat the NDP 46-42 in the May 2009 election, have trailed in opinion polls ever since, largely due to public anger over the introduction of the harmonized sales tax.

The Liberals hit bottom in early July, when an Angus Reid poll put them at just 23-per-cent support — slightly above the 21 per cent the NDP received in the 2001 election, when it was reduced to two seats.

The poll results reveal how deeply unpopular Campbell has become.

Three-quarters of those surveyed said they disapprove of the job the premier is doing. And two-thirds said their opinion of Campbell has worsened in the past three months. Only two per cent said it has improved.

We're Drowning in Taxes, Tolls & BC Liberal Hubris: How the Citizens of BC Find our Incomes Dwindling Away to Nothing

2010-06-27T11:35:00.004-07:00

Dear Mr. Campbell:

Regular Joe Jason Cox wrote to the premier: And The Province got him a response

I just finished watching the news and see that we will be paying a toll on the new Port Mann Bridge.

I am so tired that at every turn in this province I have to pay for something -- and not just a little bit but a lot.

The majority of the population of B.C. is close to my tax bracket -- and NOT yours -- and we are so pounded with paying in this province for everything that there is rarely enough to enjoy. You have helped make it hard to live here in my province.

There is a user fee for everything, parking fees are unacceptable, tolls, property taxes, HST, the overall price of everything, and still you do not even raise the minimum wage?

How do you think we all make it? Do you even care? You grin and give out empty promises and do the exact thing all politicians do -- screw the working man.

I have often discussed with other folks how we all would gladly pay our share if we could actually see how much this province brings in, total! Then we would like to see where it goes!

I have never understood how one of the richest nations on the planet can charge its people so much money for everything. You all are clearly doing something wrong. You have sold so much of B.C. to outside interests it makes me sick to my stomach for what you've done to my child's future.

I don't know if you ever started out in politics to really change things and perhaps you did for folks with money, but you have done nothing for me and the rest of my British Columbian friends.

Change needs to be made.

I will do my best to write, email, call and personally talk to anyone who is ready to ignite change. We desperately need it. I expect the usual political, positive-spin email or letter back without any apology as per usual. You just don't care.

Yours Truly,

Jason Cox

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The Response: I know that many feel like Jason, which sickens me too much to repeat here.

You Can't Mediate Stupidity & Incompetence: MCFD's Real Problem

2010-05-19T08:21:00.002-07:00

Oh all the hullabaloo, it's easy to lose track of the trees in the forest but I will help bring focus back.

All of this nonsense about MCFD refusing to release cabinet documents to the Representative for Children & Youth, which has now landed in BC's Supreme Court, costing taxpayers thousands of dollars that could have been spent on BC's kids. Make no mistake, this whole debacle, the latest in BC's child welfare system, had it's start with MCFD's Deputy Minister Lesley Du Toit. Her incompetence is legendary now, as is her lack of results and the FACT that the child welfare system has never been in worse shape.

Her refusal to meet with the Representative and the unprofessional secrecy and lack of accountability as a BC public servant in one of the most important Ministries in BC is at the heart of this whole dispute. This is a person who Gordon Campbell personally selected to eviscerate the child welfare system, which is being done cut by painful cut. That is what she is here to do, with her excessive salary (what bonus did she pull in each year since 2006), with her $2000 per MONTH "living allowance" and with a total absence of transparency, or accountability. And then she will go home. She will leave BC's child welfare system as a pale shadow of what it once was. She will return to her homeland, leaving a generation of kids as collateral damage to the ideology of the BC Liberals cut, privatize, deregulate, decentralize, ASD mantra.

Let's face it, if any one of us caused problems on the scale that this DM has, we would have been canned before you could blink an eye. Yet she rolls from screw up to failure year after year, yet, she manages to keep her overpriced job. Why? Why do our taxpayer dollars go to keep this person on BC's payroll?

Enough is enough. It's time for a major "change effort" and "transformation" of the leadership of MCFD.

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BEIJING/CKNW(AM980)
Sean Leslie |
5/19/2010

Premier Gordon Campbell is hoping former Judge Ted Hughes can sort out a dispute with the Child and Youth Representative over access to Cabinet documents.

Speaking from Beijing, China, Campbell said he welcomed Hughes' offer to act as a mediator, "I think this is a great opportunity for us to do what we were trying to do all along, which is provide the rep with the information she needed while protecting Cabinet confidentiality. I think both of those things are important and in the public interest. But we have consistently provided the rep with all the information she needs and to have Mr. Hughes come forward and say this is something that he can help us with, I think that's a great solution."

Hughes wrote an open letter to the Premier this week calling on him to take leadership on the issue of child protection.

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BC Children's Rep Wins Court Decision
CBC News. May 19 2010.

BC Backs Down in Youth Watchdog Fight
CBC News. May 19 2010.

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Let's Make a Deal: See Minister Polak talk her way around this one.
Public Eye Online. May 19 2010

The government has accepted former conflict of interest commissioner Ted Hughes offer to mediate a dispute between the children and youth representative and the ministry of children and family development. Mr. Hughes - who recommended the creation of the representative's office in 2006 - made that offer in a letter sent to Gordon Campbell yesterday. In the letter, he asked the premier to withdraw legislation would strip the representative of her unrestricted legal right to cabinet documents...

Ted Hughes Letter to Premier Campbell
Posted on Public Eye Online.

A government amendment seeking to strip the children and youth representative of her unrestricted legal right to access cabinet documents would "strike a negative blow to the heart" of efforts to restore confidence to British Columbia's child welfare system. That's the assessment of Ted Hughes, whose 2006 review of that system recommended the creation of that office, which is presently held by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond. In a letter delivered to the legislature today and addressed to Premier Gordon Campbell, Mr. Hughes called on him to withdraw that amendment - or, at the very least, wait until the next sitting of the legislature to pass it. In doing so, the former conflict of interest commissioner expressed hope the differences between the government and the representative's office could be resolved through mediation. Mr. Hughes also weighed-in on children and family development deputy minister Lesley du Toit's troubled relationship with Ms. Turpel-Lafond.

According to his letter, "this unfortunate and unacceptable relationship is standing in the way of the full repair of the child welfare system of this province which my Report was intended to achieve." Again, Mr. Hughes suggest mediation as a solution - offering his services to help resolve that dispute at no cost to the government. And he encouraged the premier to "take a leadership rule in such an initiative." The following is a complete copy of Mr. Hughes's letter.

Deputy Premier Allan Seckel's Letter to Ted Hughes

Chickens Coming Home to Roost: BC Liberals Continue to Unravel

2010-04-28T18:27:00.004-07:00

Update to the many scandals, skeletons and scalawags who've been written of so fondly in previous posts.

Any comments on your government picks Premier Gordon (I blew 0.149) Campbell? Or, Minister (Squeaky-Clean-Right-Now) De Jong?

What's that? Oh yeah, it's before the courts so you can't comment.

Remember this:

At one point she Twittered, "Those B.C. wines are the best."

B.C. Liberal Jane Thornthwaite - North Vancouver-Seymour MLA

Update: Just check out Thornthwaite's sheer arrogance when questioned as to the charges. Ask yourself, if she isn't embarrassed at her poor judgment, her actions and being charged with a criminal offense as a member of our Legislature, what the hell is wrong with her?

See for yourself what this BC Liberal MLA is all about when caught by Public Eye Online. Only question that remains, when can we expect her resignation because this is a poke in the eye of the people of BC?

MLA charged with drunk driving need not resign seat, premier says

From BC Premier Fined for Drunk Driving

"British Columbia's premier was fined $913 US (about $1,350 Cdn) Monday after pleading no contest to a drunk driving charge in Hawaii. The premier was also ordered to take part in a 14-hour substance abuse program, and undergo an assessment for alcoholism."

From Campbell Alcohol Level Nearly Twice the Limit

British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell's blood-alcohol content was almost twice the legal limit when he was arrested for impaired driving last Friday.

The premier told reporters Wednesday that he just received the results of the breathalyzer test, and found that they were 0.149. The legal limit is 0.08 (80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood).

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Breaking News:

Impaired Driving Charge against Liberal MLA Approved
Jeff Beamish, Vancouver Sun. April 28, 2010.

A special prosecutor has approved impaired driving charges against Liberal MLA Jane Ann Thornthwaite, the Criminal Justice Branch of the ministry of attorney-general announced today.

Independent Special Prosecutor Mark Jetté approved a charge of operating a motor vehicle while having a blood alcohol level over 80 milligrams in 100 millilitres of blood.

Her first appearance is scheduled for May 12, in North Vancouver provincial court.

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What does improperly mean, exactly? How was it improper, or why? What will come of this?

Farmland Boundary Changes Improper: ALC

CBC News. Wednesday, April 28, 2010

B.C.'s Agricultural Land Commission has concluded that 66 parcels of land in Chilliwack were taken out of the Agricultural Land Reserve improperly between 1991 and 2009, CBC News has learned.

Les was mayor of Chilliwack between 1987 and 1999.

One of the boundary adjustments that the commission has deemed "inconsistent" with existing regulations included land Les allegedly owned through a numbered company, according to the review.

"I am aware of the report," Les told CBC News in Victoria Wednesday. "But until the Special Prosecutor is finished his work, I am not commenting."

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It should read Plea, not Verdict. It's an important distinction.

Not much can be said about this case due to Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie's publication ban on this case. It's sad that in BC and Canada we are being kept in the dark about a case that is in the public's interest to know about. This involves our government, our resources, our assets and the future of our province. Why the secrecy and whose interests does it serve?

Basi, Virk Corruption Trial set for May 17 After Not-Guilty Verdicts Entered

Three men entered formal not guilty pleas Wednesday in B.C. Supreme Court to corruption and money laundering charges related to the sale of Crown-owned BC Rail to CN Rail.

Former B.C. government ministerial aides Dave Basi and Bob Virk are charged with fraud and breach of trust. Basi's cousin, Aneal Basi, is accused of money laundering.

Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie set a jury trial date for May 17 in B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver. It is scheduled for six weeks. A pre-trial conference will be held May 3.

The charges stem from an RCMP raid on the B.C. legislature in 2003.

lpynn@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

**
Gary Collins and Judith Reid among 44 witnesses scheduled to take the stand at BC Rail trial

Two former B.C. government ministers are on a list of nearly four dozen high-profile witnesses slated to testify when the oft-stalled legislature raid trial finally gets underway later this month."

Basi and Bobby Virk are charged with fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes over allegations they accepted money and other benefits in exchange for leaking information about the $1-billion sale of Crown-owned BC Rail to Canadian National Railway (TSX:CNR).

Basi worked for then-finance minister Gary Collins, while Virk worked for then-transportation minister Judith Reid.

Former employees of lobby firm Pilothouse Public Affairs Group, Brian Kieran and Erik Bornman, are also on the list of witnesses and are expected to give key testimony.

Premier Gordon Campbell's chief political strategist, Martin Brown, and his former deputy ministers, Brenda Eaton and Ken Dobell, are also on the witness list read to prospective jurors on Wednesday. So are CN Rail CEO Claude Mongeau, former CP Rail CEO Bob Ritchie and OmniTrax executives.

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In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. - George Orwell

BC Liberals Suck Campaign to Stop the HST: MLA's who Vote for it End their Political Careers

2010-04-04T13:23:00.003-07:00

“Aside from the deceitful way Gordon Campbell imposed the HST on British Columbians and the government's falsehoods about it since, consider [B.C. Liberal MLA Don] McRae's grasp of economics...

“[The HST] takes cash away from working families, who by spending it, would drive economic activity. In other words, one thing the HST absolutely doesn't do is ‘reflect the changing economy.’ It actually makes things worse.

“Is Mr. McRae pulling your leg - or is his understanding of economics really that sketchy?”

- Kim Pollock (letter to the Comox Valley Record), March 25, 2010

The BC Liberals intend to do the housekeeping and then bring in the Hey Sucka Tax (HST) here in Beautiful BC. We have a narrow window to have that plan scuttled. The plan is simple and strategic because there is so much momentum building. Make no mistake, this tax will cost the citizens of BC millions. Most of us have seen our budgets stretched and our buying power and standards of living are dropping as the costs of just basics keeps rising. Every one of us has seen our grocery, heat, hydro, gas and just basic living going up with no end in sight to that.April 1st saw even more increases to our basic living expenses.

Add on the HST which will apply to so many other things and we will all be feeling it. Small and medium businesses will also feel it, particularly restaurants as people will have no choice but to look for ways to cut their expenses. Leisure and luxury spending will simply have to be reduced. We are a nation that is crippling itself by our spending on credit and illusionary money. When the HST comes in, our real world spending is going to take a hit, as are the many businesses that will be impacted by this cruel tax.

Let's work together to stop the BC Liberals from bringing in the HST.

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Campbell's HST Illusion

David Schreck. March 8 2010

Finance Minister Colin Hansen was almost laughed out of the room when he told reporters that money from the HST would be earmarked for health care.

On March 6th, Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer wrote: "By the end of this week, even Hansen was admitting that the move to link the HST to health care was mainly an exercise in public relations."

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

"’Of two things you can be certain -death and taxes.’ -Benjamin Franklin
“As forward-thinking as he was, inventor Ben likely never imagined death would be taxed.

“B.C. residents are a scant 3 1/2 months away from the implementation of the harmonized sales tax -the dreaded HST -and, yes, death is included on the provincial government's hit list.”
- Greater Vancouver Home Builders Association CEO Peter Simpson (Vancouver Sun), March 20, 2010

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

On July 1 the BC Liberals plan to "go live" with their plan which will combine the five per cent federal GST with the seven per cent provincial sales tax and saddle us with a 12 per cent tax " harmonized" tax on hundreds of goods and services previously only subject to the five per cent GST. We cannot afford to let that happen.

On April 6 this begins, it runs to July 5 2010. The Petition requires 300,000 signatures are needed to meet the minimum threshold, 400,000 in total to be on the safe side -- in all 85 provincial ridings.

HST Initiative Petition

An initiative to end the harmonized sales tax (HST). Elections BC.

The purpose of the initiative draft Bill is to declare that the agreement between the federal government and the British Columbia government to establish a harmonized sales tax (HST) is not in effect. The draft Bill would reinstate the 7% provincial sales tax (PST) with the same exemptions as were in effect as of June 30, 2010 and establish the provincial sales tax as the only sales tax in British Columbia for the purposes of raising provincial revenue. The draft Bill proposes that it be effective retroactively to June 30, 2010. The Bill also proposes that the provincial share of HST revenues received between June 30, 2010 and the date of Royal Assent of the Bill that exceeds what would be collected under the PST rules as of June 30, 2010 would be reimbursed to British Columbians on a per capita basis.

William Vander Zalm

Website: www.fightHST.com

HST Extinguishment Act

Public Notice - Recall and Initiative Act
Advertisement - Know the Rules

Media Obligations for Initiative Petitions and Votes
Recall and Initiative Act

You can register or confirm your registration with Elections BC by going on-line to http://elections.bc.ca or calling (250) 387-5305 or toll free 1-800-661-8683

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Here are some ways to get involved in stopping the HST:

Voting Record & the Election

Contact your MLA and ensure that they know that how they vote on bringing in the HST will determine whether they will continue to have a career in politics. Ensure that they are aware their voting record on the HST will be made public and that by voting for the HST, this will be considered a vote against their constituents and businesses in their riding.

Ensure that they are aware that in the next election all efforts will be made to ensure that voters in their ridings are aware of their betrayal in voting for the HST. Tell them that they can no longer be trusted to put voters ahead of their political party and masters. Therefore, they can no longer claim to represent the voters in their riding and the people of BC.

Any BC MLA that votes in favour of bringing in the HST has brought an end to their political career. As citizens, we can't do much to stop them from proceeding once they return to private life, but what we can do is shun them as the backstabbing ne'er-do-wells that they are. Their names should be mud forever more as traitors to the people of BC.

It's put up or shut up time for the citizens of BC. We must use the tools we have at our disposal - OUR VOTE being one of the most important. Politicians under this regime have been engulfed in a sea of corruption. Anyone associated with the BC Liberals is tainted and their stench emanates outward. We must use democracy to send a message to this current mess of politicians and to those who plan to run in the future. The message is simple - if you betray and harm the people in BC, you will be removed from politics and your good name and reputation will be destroyed.

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Find your MLA's contact information here.

Here is where you can find the voting record of MLA's.

Join the Facebook group:

Petition against HST in BC!! | Facebook

Grassroots & Community Action

Make sure you are up to date for the voter's list with Elections BC so you can VOTE TO END THE HST!!!
Set up your own blog, or group in your area against the HST
Inform citizens of the potential costs of the HST
Provide your contacts with information about how to contact their MLA to register their opinions prior to the vote to bring in the HST.
Organize, or attend rallies against the HST
Contact all of your elected officials - MLA's, city council's, MP's
Bring resolutions to your city council's and ask them to pass a resolution in support of stopping the HST from being passed

Tweet a BC Liberal : Vote Against the HST

Restaurants:

Say No to a Meal Tax - No HST - Sign their Petition

Open Letter to Premier Campbell and Finance Minister Hansen

Dear Premier Campbell and Finance Minister Hansen:

Over the past few weeks, nearly 200,000 British Columbians have signed petitions in restaurants and on-line at nomealtax.ca, voicing their strong opposition to a new 7% tax on restaurant meals. Many have also shared their views.

Business, Industry and Other Leaders

Lobby your contacts in government and MLA's and ensure they are aware of the potential costs to business operations and the risks of voting for bringing in the HST.
Inform yourselves, your membership and networks of the voting record of MLA's on bringing in the HST.
Ensure that your contacts in government and industry organizations and lobbyists ensure that MLA's are aware that their voting record on the HST will lead to the loss the support from your sector, that your group and individuals in business will no longer contribute donations to political parties, or individuals running for office.

Safety first for BC's Abused & Neglected Kids: I call B.$.

2010-03-17T21:38:00.004-07:00

In this great video by Public Eye Online of a very unnerved Minister Mary Polak (Child & Family Development) explaining why MCFD is no longer setting targets and providing an accounting of how many children and families are cycling through MCFD and not getting the interventions and support they really need.

From Safety First @ Public Eye Online

Rate of re-occurrence of child abuse and neglect increased from 16.9 percent in 2004/05 to 20.4 percent as of December 2009.
The ministry has now dumped that performance measure from its service plan.
Strong, Safe and Supported, the ministry's massive and poorly understood effort to overhaul the way children are protected in this province.[Ed. Or not, as the case might be.]
None of those new measures deal with child safety outcomes.
British Columbians can still find out about the rate in a separate document posted online, among several other measurements not included in the service plan.
The ministry has abandoned setting public targets for reducing the recurrence of child abuse and neglect.
Eight years after the tragic death of a two-year-oldtriggered a now four-year-old independent review of British Columbia's child protection system, one has to wonder what that says about the direction that department is headed in.

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

If the service plan has to have a limited amount of bullets for some stupid reason then I would respectfully state that THE most important thing MCFD could do is fulfill it's bloody mandate - PROTECTING children and youth, ensuring their SAFETY to the best of their ability and providing children and families with the resources, SUPPORTS and tools they require to be okay.

The service plan is NOT what should guide MCFD, the Child, Family & Community Services Act should. Maybe Minister Polak and Ms. Du Toit should read it sometime, since it is supposed to be the legislated mandate of the Ministry. Here's some Coles notes:

Guiding principles

2 This Act must be interpreted and administered so that the safety and well-being of children are the paramount considerations and in accordance with the following principles:

(a) children are entitled to be protected from abuse, neglect and harm or threat of harm;

Best interests of child

4 (1) Where there is a reference in this Act to the best interests of a child, all relevant factors must be considered in determining the child's best interests, including for example:

(a) the child's safety;

(b) the child's physical and emotional needs and level of development;

(d) the quality of the relationship the child has with a parent or other person and the effect of maintaining that relationship;

(e) the child's cultural, racial, linguistic and religious heritage;

(f) the child's views;

(g) the effect on the child if there is delay in making a decision.

(2) If the child is an aboriginal child, the importance of preserving the child's cultural identity must be considered in determining the child's best interests.

*******

They are doing away with the statistics because they are decimating the child welfare system even further and they wouldn't want to capture that in stats. That does not make for good photo, or video ops.

It will be blatantly obvious though, so many kids are being left at-risk and with the financial situation more families are in crisis and vulnerable which increase stress and other factors that contribute to abuse and neglect.

How can a government not even care who gets hurt?
It all comes down to values. Transparency, openness and accountability are pretty important ones to me. We owe it to our kids to do all we can to decrease the number of kids who are abused and neglected.

If we can't even do that, our society has been completely degraded and is entirely negligent in meeting the basic human rights of it's most vulnerable citizens. And that cannot be allowed to continue, nor tolerated in our society and province.

Reasons #37 & #38 People Hate Politicians: They Speak & They Mess with $hit when they Shouldn't

2010-03-11T21:17:00.005-08:00

You know, politicians get a really bad rap, but clearly, some deserve it and sometimes there are those rare moments when citizens get to see them at their worst, or when they are being the most politiciany and their true colours come shining through.

Watch for that here: The Ministry of Hair Splitting
Public Eye Online.

Last week, the ministry of children and family development's top bureaucrat told MLAs she's "never refused" to meet with the government's independent child protection watchdog, despite having recently rebuffed the watchdog's request for a briefing. But the bureaucrat's political boss, Mary Polak, didn't find any fault with Lesley du Toit's contention because, according to her, there's a difference between a meeting and briefing.

Continue reading The ministry of hair splitting.

By Sean Holman | Posted in Provincial | Comments (4)
Tagged: children and family development, children and youth representative, Lesley du Toit, Mark Polak, Mary Ellen-Turpel Lafond

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"Stilwell told the Straight by phone it was “likely” that the CHP party platform advocated the recriminalization of homosexuality while she was at the helm, but that this fact had “gone out” of her head in 2010."

Advocate Romi Chandra furious at Heather Stilwell selection to the board of the B.C. College of Social Workers

A Collegial Atmosphere?
Public Eye Online.

An outspoken social conservative will be overseeing the new body responsible for one of the province's most liberal professions - social workers. Children and Family Development Minister Mary Polak quietly appointed Heather Stilwell to the B.C. College of Social Workers's board of directors effective January 1. Ms. Stilwell, who was reportedly the minister's mentor when the two were Surrey school trustees, has impressive list of social conservative credentials including being leader of the federal Christian Heritage Party and the provincial Family Coalition Party.

She was also president of the anti-abortion Pro-Life Society of B.C. and the Alliance for Life Canada, as well as being a board member and western regional coordinator for Campaign Life.

As a school trustee, she supported limiting sex education and opposed condom machines and books featuring same-sex parents.

Minister Polak's predecessor Tom Christensen introduced the legislation that created the college in 2008. The college is charged with registering social workers, developing practice standards and investigating complaints about members of the profession.

**********************
Mary Polak: Appointment flips bird
Langley Advance. Published: Friday, February 12, 2010.

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

From the BC Association of Social Workers:

Dear Minister Polak:

I am writing at the request of several of our members who have expressed considerable concern over your recent appointment of Heather Stilwell to the board of the BC College of Social Workers.

We acknowledge that Ms. Stilwell brings valued administrative and legislative experience to the BCCSW Board through her past service on the Surrey School board. However, as you are likely aware, many social workers have reacted very strongly to Ms. Stilwell’s appointment, citing her publicly stated positions on homosexuality, abortion and other issues which they believe run contrary to social work values. They question why someone whose views differ so radically from deeply-held social work principles was selected to be a public appointee to a college of social workers. These principles are made clear in our Canadian Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics:

Social workers respect the unique worth and inherent dignity of all people and uphold human rights.

Social workers uphold each person’s right to self-determination, consistent with that person’s capacity and with the rights of others.

Social workers respect the diversity among individuals in Canadian society and the right of individuals to their unique beliefs consistent with the rights of others.

Read the whole letter from Pam Miller, President of the BCASW here.

Laws are for Suckers, Not for BC Liberals: Please Drink & Drive

2010-02-24T20:11:00.006-08:00

At one point she Twittered, "Those B.C. wines are the best."

B.C. Liberal Jane Thornthwaite - North Vancouver-Seymour MLA

Doesn't it just do us proud as citizens of BC and Canadians?

We really have learned from your own drunk driving episode (the one we know about) Mr. Campbell. What a load of B.S. Of Course "the Right Honourable" Gordon (I've only had a few martoonis, occifer) Campbell is front and centre. Golly gee, cut the l'il lady some slack. We can all grow from our mistakes. Excuse me while I retch.

Clearly, since the plague of BC Liberal politicians who've been in office operate on a different moral comp@$$ than the rest of us who don't want our KIDS to grow up thinking that it is normal for people to drink & drive (or our politicians) then it's time for some new laws in BC.

1. If you are a sitting MLA and you are charged with a Criminal Code violation, you will have been deemed to be suspended from caucus and the Legislature.

2. If you are a sitting MLA and you are convicted of a Criminal Code violation you shall automatically resign as a member of the Legislature and a by-election must be held as soon as practicable in your riding.

You will not be eligible for the usual perks for MLA's. No education/re-training funding, no gentle glide back into private life. Hell NO! When any of us get busted for something illegal, we are FIRED! Or quit.

We shouldn't have to explain this, but apparently we do. When you breach your Oath, when you lose your personal and political integrity and sustain criminal conviction while in political office, you no longer have the right, nor should have the benefits of represent the people of BC. Or the government. You have failed your constituents, you have brought dishonour to your party and government and beyond.

One last thought, or question, who is paying Ms. Thornthwaite's legal bills?

MLA reveals she is facing drunk driving charges
CKNW.

B.C. MLA rebuffs calls to step down
CBC News.

B.C. Liberal Jane Thornthwaite has no plans to step down while she faces impaired driving charges and Premier Gordon Campbell agrees that the North Vancouver-Seymour MLA should stay on the job.

A government spokesman said she allegedly recorded a .11 blood-alcohol level in a breathalyzer test. The legal limit is .08.

VANCOUVER/CKNW (AM980)
Dan Burritt | Email news tips to Dan
2/24/2010

Premier Gordon Campbell said Jane Thornthwaite will not be asked to resign as an MLA - nor should she. "No, she should not, I don't think," said Campbell.

Campbell said he would have hoped everyone would learn from his drunk driving arrest in Hawaii in 2003.

He said he told Thornthwaite she made a mistake and it is not something anyone would expect to happen.

"I understand how that stays with you for the rest of your life. It's something that she's going to have to live with, and she's going to have to earn the trust of her constituents as she goes ahead."

Campbell said the message remains, do not drink and drive.

************************************
For Immediate Release - Jan. 10, 2003
Office of the Premier

I have made a serious mistake, and I want to apologize to everyone including my family, my colleagues and the people of British Columbia.

Last night, I was returning home from dinner with friends, and the Maui police pulled me over. I was arrested and charged with driving a vehicle under the influence of alcohol. I do not intend to contest the charge.

I will make myself available to the media Sunday, Jan. 12, at 3 p.m. at a location to be determined.

Gordon Campbell
Premier

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

Judging Campbell by Campbell's standards
by Vaughn Palmer, Vancouver Sun, Saturday, January 11, 2003

He has not taken the position, as some of his supporters hastened to do
Friday, that a person who stands accused should remain in office until
after their day in court.

On the contrary. He has argued repeatedly that, in the public interest,the presumption of innocence has to take second place to the need to protect the integrity of the office.

(Ed.: Once in power, that translates to: Rules & laws - bah, those are for other people, not me, or my friends.)

"I'm trying to be quite explicit about this," Mr. Campbell declared. "When the conflict commissioner decides there is enough to carry out an investigation, I think that everyone would be better served if they stepped aside during the investigation."

And if he were premier? "If I were being investigated, I think that [stepping aside] would be a reasonable position for me to take -- yes."

Drunk driving is a serious, dangerous, criminal offence. Drunk driving by a premier is arrogant disregard for the safety of others compounded with reckless disregard for one's own reputation and political career.

It puts a whole new colouration on those jokes about Mr. Campbell being a control freak and a micromanager, as one Liberal supporter observed Friday afternoon.

Olympic-Sized BC Liberal Recipe for Poverty & Homelessness

2010-02-08T20:33:00.006-08:00

Homeless woman in Vancouver - Tyee.ca

"Housing Minister Rich Coleman said the government's offer was based on [Jean] Swanson's group [Carnegie Community Action Project] promoting their services to the community. She wanted to go further and do a bunch a stuff to criticize and go after different pieces of policy, which frankly didn't surprise me," Coleman said. "That organization hasn't supported anything, whether it be the [government's] purchase of the single-room occupancy hotels or the adding of services for people with mental health and addictions issues, or the housing we've built. There's never been a positive comment come out of them in all the time I've been minister since 2005."

Mike Howell, 12th & Cambie. Vancouver Courier
Published: Friday, February 05, 2010

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Coleman, don't piss on us and tell us it's raining. The BC Liberal Poverty Plan, the agenda of soulless neoCon despots the world over worked better and faster than they could have even dreamed. Your government has tragically and dramatically increased the number of homeless and poor children, adults and families in BC. Then yàll realized you had to quickly do something to bandaid it since the world was coming to visit for the bankruptcy event of 2010, er, the Olympics.

Anyone working in social services, on the frontlines and the marginalized classes will tell you that the BC Liberals have been the biggest Misery Merchants and Poverty Pimps in the history of BC. They have driven a generation of citizens in BC to the streets, to deep, abject unrelenting poverty. A little harsh, hard to swallow or prove. Not at all. It is the truth. It`s so distasteful to mention _that_ sometimes the unrelenting truth hurts and those who mete out the despair and pain for their own benefit don`t like being reminded of their hand in it.

Here is the BC Liberal Recipe for Poverty & Homelessness, which has driven the crisis of homelessness and deep poverty in BC over the last decade.

1. They assembled some of the most bloodthirsty, amoral and vicious ne'er do wells they could find (we don't need to name names, we all know who they are by now and they know it too) and they killed the BC Liberal party from within like a cancer, installing SoCreds and worse.

2. They came to government. Again and again. On lies, omissions, and grave, grave errors of voters lulled into believing the hype. Best Place on Earth - for those with money, sure. The poor and homeless don't vote, who cares.

3. They conducted their core reviews and then carried out massive funding cuts across all governmental Ministries and public sector organizations.

Result - The need to slash thousands from the welfare rolls. They wouldn't haggle over how they accomplished "the numbers."

4. They slashed 11% from the budget to the Child Protection Ministry and over time installed the most incompetent, amoral and overpaid senior bureaucrats in child welfare history in BC. From 2001 to 2010 BC has now had a generation of children and youth left unprotected, abused, neglected and many have been deprived of the basic necessities of life. They sped up booting youth out of care of to fend for themselves, putting them on youth agreements, or just plain slamming the door in the face of youth who came under their mandate to protect, shelter and care for.

Result - The next generation of homeless, ill-socialized and deprived and in survival mode from childhood.
BC has led Canada in child poverty for 6 years. In good times and bad. And the child welfare and family support systems have been sliced and diced with much more planned apres Olympics.

5. They hired and promoted from within those who would ensure that anyone who could be deprived of basic income assistance and disability status would be blocked from getting in the door in the first place. Sounds like rank paranoia, nope, the M.O. is to prevent citizens from accessing services, stop them at the front door, because once they have a foot in it, it's hard to get them out. The peon's may not get that, but that's why they make good peons, they are always in a state of fear, so they will do as they are told.

6. They quickly shut down local welfare offices, consolidating and laying off staff and moving to the call centre model.

7. They did away with disability caseloads, where some of the most marginalized, disabled and vulnerable people benefited from one caseworker who knew their situation, they didn't have to explain things to strangers over and over and get lost in the shuffle.

8. They introduced the arcane and diabolical phone tree system you need a PhD to use and you still can't get a hold of anyone, or leave a message. Good luck if you are an immigrant, have mental illness, Fetal Alcohol syndrome, developmental disabilities, addictions or have any conditions that may make it difficult to navigate the labyrinth.

Result - 75% of Homeless people counted around BC reported that they could not access basic income assistance, or shelter.

Up to 15,500 Homeless: Report
Tally of BC homeless by health profs far higher than housing minister's.

By Andrew MacLeod, 31 Jan 2008, TheTyee.ca

Housing and Support for Adults with Severe Addictions and/or Mental Illness in British Columbia ( 765 KB)(October, 2007).

9. They introduced the insane 23 page applications for individuals to apply for Persons with Disability status. They made those who already had PWD have these done, wonder how many lost disability as a result of not finding doctors and other "assessors" willing to sign on the dotted line. Or how many couldn`t find anyone to fill the paperwork out in the first place.

10. They narrowed the window of who is considered àvailable to work`
Result - people who are genuinely disabled and those who have chronic health conditions are disqualified from PWD and have time-limited benefits.

British Columbia. Office of the Ombudsman.
Last resort : improving fairness and accountability in British Columbia’s
Income Assistance Program.
(Public report no. 45 to the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia)

BC`s Badly Broken Welfare System: BC Libs created 'overly complex' maze that kept needy off rolls: ombudsman
Andrew MacLeod, 13 Apr 2009, TheTyee.ca

`...release of Ombudsman Kim Carter's Last Resort, a 121-page report that found the welfare system is "overly complex" and not designed to meet the needs of the people applying for help. Kafkaesque bureaucracy was keeping people from getting assistance, she found.`

11. They decided that parents with children over 3 should be kicked off income assistance. Too bad if they don`t have any employment skills, or prospects or daycare. Oh yeah, they also introduced a child care application form which was several pages long and more complicated to fill out than a passport. And, parents had to find someone willing to sign off for them.

12. With the Olympics coming on rapidly, the visions of public disorder, homelessness and poverty downtown had to be dealt with, so The BC Liberals slashed funding to affordable housing and then began a buying spree of buildings in the Downtown Eastside that are already housing people. They`ve funded temporary shelters.

What they are doing too little of is building affordable housing outside of the DTES and around BC and doing more to create longer-term solutions to cockroach and bedbug hotels, chaos and housing instability for a significant and ever-increasing number of BC citizens. I think we will see what their real commitment is to the people of BC once the big tents are all packed up and gone. I shudder to think of what is coming. Enjoy the Games. Reality will be upon us all too soon.

What Secrets do the BC Liberals have to Hide? Suspension of Access to Information & Privacy Investigations in BC

2010-01-23T14:31:00.009-08:00

Foul demons be gone! What more do we have to put up with? On the eve of the Olympics more madness from our government, which seems to be adrift of a captain and rapidly heading for the rocks.

What a mockery this loathsome BC Liberal regime makes of even a pretense of fairness and of valuing the rights, dignity and respect for people of BC. They are an insult to freedom and liberty to the citizens of our province.

The man most in the know of the secrets and risks to the BC government, David Loukedelis, the so-called "independent officer" [aka BC Liberal appointee] who was the Commissioner of the Office of Information & Privacy Commission (OIPC) has just scored a gig as Deputy Minister of the Attorney General. The AG, home of the Justice Branch, the lawyers who protect the government from accounting for their employees gross lapses and errors and sometimes criminal acts. Boy, if one were suspicious one might think this had been coming for awhile, Loukedelis has been remarkably benign in this most important role. What secrets does Mr. Loukedelis bring to his new post, you bet there will be many.

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2nd B.C. public servant fired for welfare privacy breach
CBC News

In April, the RCMP found files on 1,400 social assistance clients in the home of a government worker, but it took the government seven months to notify those whose confidential files were involved.

Loukidelis's investigation is one of several taking place into the security breach that has already led to the firing of two civil servants, one of whom reportedly had a criminal record for credit card fraud and counterfeiting at the time he was hired.

*********************
This resignation and appointment and how it has all been handled stinks to high heaven. If you look at a Ministry of Children & Families, they've had numerous changes of useless and clueless figure-heads. The delegations of it's employees didn't cease because some new idiot was on the way out and a new one in. The day-to-day work and mandate did not cease while the new lamb to the slaughter was briefed on the file by those whose jobs it is to carry on business and mandate while the political nonsense carries on. People can't possibly think it's that the elected ones (many of whom have little to no experience doing anything of much use) or Liberal appointees (Order in Council) who are really bringing the brains, elbow grease and know-how to the table??? Is anyone that naive?

Installed into the position in 1999, he has weathered the changing of the guard time and time again. Since the entire BC government is run out of Premier Gordon Campbell's office (which explains A LOT), there is no way that Mr. Loukedelis left the one position and was appointed a Deputy Minister (Order in Council) without that happening through the Premier himself. No competent, moral, or ethical government, or administration would make this set of decisions and leave the Commission without a delegated leader (in this case a Commissioner) unless it served the government's political purposes.

The government of BC, the BC Liberal government, is operating outside the laws of natural justice and the people of BC must do something about this before everything that matters to us is stripped by these banana republic corpo-demons.

Commissioner David Loukidelis' letter of resignation (19 Jan. 2010)
I hereby resign, effective today, as Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia.

DOCUMENT: Mary Carlson letter (PDF)

Privacy Official Sounds 'Urgent' Alarm
CBC News. January 22, 2010.

Work at the office of B.C.'s Information and Privacy Commission in Victoria is reported to have ground to a halt after the commissioner resigned suddenly this week.

Privacy Commissioner David Loukidelis resigned unexpectedly Wednesday to take a job as deputy attorney general.

Commission executive director Mary Carlson circulated a letter labelled "extremely urgent" at the B.C. legislature Friday calling for a quick resolution of the situation.

The Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner is independent from government and monitors and enforces British Columbia's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and Personal Information Protection Act.

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

How B.C.'s Government Tracks, Stalls Muckrakers

A deeper look at how Liberals track FOI-filing reporters reveals the methods, the spins, and how the reporter herself ended up on the list.

By Ann Rees, 3 Apr 2004, TheTyee.ca

But confidential "Advice to Minister" notes show the FOI process in B.C. has been twisted to serve as a communications tool, which allows government to scrutinize the FOI activities of law-abiding citizens who intend to hold it accountable.

The 65 communications notes obtained under FOI show spin doctors, using a sophisticated surveillance system, routinely track and review potentially-damaging requests.

All requests from media, anyone working for the Opposition, lobby groups, and others, who might use records to embarrass government, are automatically flagged as "sensitive" on the government-wide database.

Records deemed politically dangerous are reviewed by Liberal spin doctors prior to releasing them to the requester.

In addition, troublesome requesters are often identified by name and brought to the attention of the minister responsible, a breach of privacy protections in the Act.

And the entire exercise has the blessing of cabinet ministers, and the Office of the Premier through its Public Affairs Bureau (PAB) which designed and operates the communications FOI surveillance system.

Meanwhile, the Office of the Privacy and Information Commissioner launched an investigation following complaints from several requesters, including this reporter, who were identified in the confidential communications notes.

Not only did the ministry track requests which I had filed to MCFD directly, it also tracked related FOI requests which I had submitted to Regional Health Authorities which operate separate FOI systems - logging my legal activities across different levels of government and flagging them to the attention of the Minister.

*********

The “10 steps” that any would-be dictator must go through to close down an open society:

Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy.
Create secret prisons where torture takes place.
Develop a thug caste or paramilitary force not answerable to the people.
Set up an internal surveillance system.
Harass citizens’ groups and rights organizations.
Engage in arbitrary detention and release.
Target key individuals.
Control the press.
Declare all dissent to be treason.
Suspend the rule of law.

2009 Top Ten Reasons the BC Liberals Still Suck

2010-01-11T18:40:00.002-08:00

Because We all Know they Suck. I think even some of their people even know it too.

From cradle to grave in BC, the BC Liberals have found a way to tax us, harm us, sell BC's resources and assets, and kill BC's future prosperity. Unless you happen to be rich. Gordon Campbell doesn't have to care (and doesn't), he will be richly rewarded by his corporate and political masters for screwing the citizens of BC. He has led the worst and most corrupt government in BC and possibly Canadian history.

A decade in government has demonstrated that time and time again, the BC Liberal regime is incapable of acting in the public's interest and they have displayed a ruthless, Machiavellian bloodthirst to pick the government and province's bones clean. Ask yourselves - what legacy has the BC Liberals left in their wake. BC will never be the same after their bloodletting is done.

BC is #1 in Child Poverty for 6 Years in a Row!!!

Grinding, don't-ever-have-enough poverty. That's how the BC Liberals like to keep our future generations & their families. While Gordon Campbell is jetting all over the world and Canada, having photo-ops, over 100,000 BC kids each day don't have enough food, or the basic necessities of life. This is the shame of BC. Get real Mary, enough window dressing from the bunch of you, get to work and help our kids have a future or start building the jails now. Child poverty has been the choice of the BC Liberal government since 2001.

BC Liberals Senior Tax (BCST)

Not satisfied that around BC many of our elders live out the end of their lives in care homes, some better than others. Most of these citizens have worked their entire lives and contributed and paid into BC's coffers so that systems of care would be there for them when they need it most. Oh, no, if there is money to be made, trust the BC Liberals to find it. Come 2010, they will be raising care-home fees by eight per cent. In 2011, they will increase the fees by 10 per. This Seniors Tax will impact 75 per cent of seniors living in care homes.

Privatization

I don't think that most citizens truly understand how much of our province and infrastructure has been privatized, with billions of dollars flowing to private corportations, dollars that used to flow into our governments coffers to pay for public services. This means jobs lost, revenue paid into government, resources and assets lost forever. Crown lands. Agricultural lands given up to developer friends.

They are Piss Poor Manager's of the Public Purse

Why are they in politics in the first place? If they ran a business like they administered our government most of them would bankrupt a lemondade stand. Would you hire a Kevin Falcon, or a Rich Coleman? What about a Mary Polak? Why do you think they gave themselves "transitional" salaries and training etc. when they don't make it back into government. BC Liberal MLA's names are mud and unless they have an actual profession to return to, their employment prospects are pretty slim. But, they've taken care of that - the disgraced always find themselves with some snazzy corporate Directorships. And if you've been a BC Liberal MLA over the last decade, make no mistake about it - you are considered a disgrace to a growing majority, remember that when it's time to return to private life.

See BC's Bizarre Fiscal Plan for more details. And be afraid, very afraid.

Slashing & Burning Health Care & Community Support Services

Cancellation of thousands of surgeries. Downgrading health care services offered at local hospitals. Slashing of mental health and addiction services for adults and CHILDREN. Cuts to community support that actually prevent significant harm that requires more costly and intensive interventions. Penny-wise pound foolish public policy. And we all know where they money's going, we aren't stupid. To the 2 week party - the Olympics. That will bankrupt all of us. Our next generation of BC children who aren't even born yet will be left holding the bag. Who could have ever conceived of leaving unborn citizens a legacy of debt and substandard public services? The BC Liberals could conceive of it and they made it happen. Remember that next time at the polls. See Campbell Cuts for more details.

Lies, Omissions and Treachery in the 2009 Provincial Election

Does this sound familiar? The budget deficit will be maintained at $495 million. A blatant, total lie to the people of BC. After the election, we were told some version of the truth (they really don't know how to do that) and the real deficit figure was more like $2.8 billion.

They suppressed government documents during the election, purposefully obstructing the public's right to know by manipulating Freedom of Information requests. They didn't want taxpayers to know about the increase in people on Income Assistance.

They failed to mention they were bringing in the HST (Hey Stupid Tax). It would have been difficult for anyone to vote for them if the public knew about that. So, they omitted that from their platform, lying by omission to the people of BC.

B.S.Illusion & Inaction on Climate Change

Remember how in the last term Gordon Campbell was all about the environment, about doing something about climate change. Remember how he told us bringing in the Carbon Tax (CT) was going to somehow magically make a difference. Well, it's made a difference alright - it's slicing off even more of our meagre funds. For people who have no choice but to heat their homes & drive because there is no transit, or those who need their cars - we are paying and paying and paying. And not a damn thing has been done for the environment.

In fact, under the BC Liberals leadership, the environment is in the worse shape it's ever been, with no plans to do anything about it - except expand the damage. They plan to expand coal methane bed extraction, go big in privatizing more of our rivers to "Independent Power Producers." Why should corporations own our rivers and sell the power back to us for more money? Where have our salmon gone? The Feds plan to investigate, no interest from the BC Liberals to find out why these crucial food resources have been disappearing under their leadership.

BC Liberal Homelessness

The blame rests squarely on the head of this government. They brought in some of the most draconian, cruel and evil public policies any government in Canada (or elsewhere) ever has. They slashed the numbers on welfare. They brought in barriers to accessing it. They brought in reasons to disqualify people.

In a decade BC's rate of homelessness has exploded around the province. Cities and towns that never had issues of homelessness now do. Children, youth and families are now homeless. We have a generation of people who have been marginalized, socially excluded and forced into a mode of survival that a just, humane and compassionate government would never allow. But Gordon Campbell's BC Liberal government created this crisis. No matter how much Coleman blathers on about the province buying up hotels. There are still thousands of people homeless around BC. Because their own government made it thus. It is a provincial disgrace.

Housing and Support for Adults with Severe Addictions and/or Mental Illness in British Columbia ( 765 KB)

Bringing in the HST

As if the rising cost of living, the Carbon Tax they brought in last year and the downward spiral of most of our budgets, the parasitical government decided to bring in this tax that will include so many more things that never used to be taxed. There is a reason even typical Liberal supporters such as the BC Restaurant & Food Association has started a petition against it. Sign the petition here. The HST is going to downgrade all of our standards of living at a time when none of us can afford that.

And, the one that seems be the most important reason the BC Liberals Still Suck:

They have lowered the bar so far, we will truly never be the same again as a society. We are all tarnished a bunch more because of them.

In May 2009 they ran at least 4 BC Liberal candidates (and incumbent serving MLA's) who were under investigation for various violations (Rich Coleman & Mary Polak for interference in the Langley municipal election, as far as we know they've been exonerated and no charges have ever been filed). Whatever happened with the "Other aspects of the complaint [that] are still being evaluated, Thiessen said. He couldn't give extensive details, noting that, so far, there were "only allegations" being looked into. Other individuals or agencies are also involved.

Then there is John Les, who had to resign as Solicitor General when "special prosecutor Robin McFee has been examining whether Les "improperly benefited from any commercial transactions involving land developers."

And Les' predecessor, leadfoot Public Safety Minister and Solicitor General John Van Dongen resigned from the BC Liberal Cabinet "following revelations that his driver's licence has been suspended for excessive speeding... van Dongen said the suspension had been triggered by two cases of "excessive speeding" in the last 18 months on a highway on Vancouver Island and on Highway 99."

But, in a surprise move, the usually moral people of Abbotsford returned the Honourable Van Dongen to the People's House. See what I mean, lowering the bar. For good.

Mentioned above, the lies, the treachery and deceit in not telling voters (including to their business buddies who were forking over the election ca$h) that they were bringing in the HST.

It hasn't been enough to plunge thousands into unrelenting poverty and homelessness, then the BC Liberals brought in legislation so that in the May 2009 election, those same thousands no longer have a right to vote for their own government. If they don't have ID, or anyone to "vouch" for them, then their own BC Liberal government disenfranchised them and took away the basic right conveyed to citizens in a democracy - to vote.

For moving forward with the pillaging of our lands, our resources, our Rivers.
Lower the bar so we have no choice but to get used to paying transnational Corporate masters our hard earned & dwindling paycheques. We're all really just serfs to the oligarchy in the BC Liberal regime and their Shadowy puppet masters.

Is it really too much to ask that this madness stop? We are in a new year and a new decade. The possibilities and opportunities for positive change are endless and at the tip of our fingers.

It is really time for the More of Us (than the few of them) to kick some BC Liberal @$$. We need to take back our Province and stop more hurt and fix the damage done.
Who's up for that as a Res/volution?

BC Liberals Seniors Tax (BCLST)

2009-12-30T18:33:00.002-08:00

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!

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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.

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Ombudsperson releases first report on care of seniors

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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.

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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

2009-12-03T18:23:00.005-08:00

"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.

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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

2009-11-24T18:43:00.003-08:00

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

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Report on the Budget 2010 Consultations

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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?

2009-11-20T20:46:00.003-08:00

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

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

2009-11-11T11:30:00.004-08:00

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."

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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:

has a grandiose sense of self-importance (e.g., exaggerates achievements and talents, expects to be recognized as superior without commensurate achievements)
is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love
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)
requires excessive admiration
has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations
is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends
lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others
is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him or her
shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

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

2009-11-06T20:41:00.004-08:00

“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

2009-10-11T13:13:00.006-07:00

"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

2009-09-28T19:57:00.005-07:00

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

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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

2009-09-22T20:09:00.005-07:00

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

2009-09-12T10:14:00.003-07:00

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.

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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

2009-09-10T19:01:00.004-07:00

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.

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

2009-09-08T19:59:00.007-07:00

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.

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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

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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.

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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

Go Big with Our Money, or GO Home: Is it Really Too Much to Ask for some Business 101 Courses for BC Liberals?

2009-09-05T19:18:00.005-07:00

Doesn't it just get exhausting having such idiots in "power" of our great province?
I said it from day one, they were going to be piss poor managers of the public purse, of the public services that our citizens depend on. One thing I don't think most of us realize is how this cluster bomb occurred on such a scale. It's the privatization and devolution folks. And of course the ideology.

They took all of the services that were under the Ministry of Health, with one infrastructure, spread around the regions. Then the rocket scientists n Victoria decided to devolve Health to 6 regional authorities. No mere duplication of infrastructure - NO WAY, GO BIG OR GO HOME on our dime. Instead of one Deputy Minister with an exorbitant compensation plan, they deputized 6, read 'em, 6 high-priced Chief Executive Officers (CEO's) & 6 boards. 6 Human Resource workshops. 6 of everything.

Hmmm, will we ever find out the taxpayer price tag on what it actually cost to devolve and move our health and other services to community regions and all of the privization of our former services? And now this has been shown to have been a GIGANTIC FAILURE and wasted MILLIONS of our dollars, that could have actually been put into our actual services. I know, a NOVEL IDEA. Actually funding services.

So now, behind the glass, they are quietly consolidating everything they can, bringing Health authorities closer and closer, it's sharing time, kids, don't you just feel warm and cozy.?
Had the average Jane and Joe on the street been asked back in 2002 if they thought it made business sense to create 6 complete infrastructures versus keeping the one that existed before, do you think they would have come up with the right answer? Or the BC Liberal answer to health services? I, too, think the people of BC would have understood that this is not a sustainable way to run a business and that said business had a good chance of becoming insolvent sooner rather than later. Well, here we are 9 years into the reign of BC Liberal terror and they are bringing it back together AND cutting the services that our people need. Let's rid of them before they get rid of more of us through systemic and government neglect.

The privatization continues and our public services go careening down the toilet, leaving our most vulnerable and needy, our seniors, our kids, those in pain are SOL. And we're experiencing a fast growing socially dislocated middle and working class who are finding there is no social safety net to catch anyone now.

This government is CLOSED for the business of the public good. End of story. Except for Olympic funding of course. There is still money left for that. The hole in the bottom of BC's cookie jar will be readily apparent after the World has gone home and BC's citizens are left to pick up the pieces of our broken and broke society for the next few generations.

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Government to Cut 1630 civil service jobs
This year's layoffs of one per cent will affect about 300 people

By Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines, Canwest News Service – The Vancouver Sun

September 2, 2009

Excerpt:

The 300 immediate layoffs are spread across nine ministries: attorney-general, advanced education and labour market development, citizens' services, finance, forests and range, housing and social development, labour, public safety and solicitor-general, and the office of the premier.

McDonald said more layoffs were avoided through cost savings. That included a voluntary four-day work week, senior executive reductions, and previously announced layoffs in the Public Affairs Bureau and human resources department.

Bruce Carter, chief executive of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce:

"We have an entire segment that exists to service government and right now that entire segment is starving," Carter said. "It's possible we could lose companies as a result of this."

Companies elsewhere in B.C. that fill government contracts will feel similar effects. Carter said government cutbacks to administrative, travel and professional service budgets made in February have already had a "huge" impact on the local economy.

[Ed. The slashing of community social and health service contracts is happening too.]

BC budget projects $2.8-billion deficit

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2006/07

The top public sector wage earners

Health Service Authority Salaries

2007/08 Disclosures

Secure Care was Dead Long Ago: More MCFD Waste

2009-08-31T11:41:00.002-07:00

It's too bad when MCFD was reasoning out why they wanted to waste so much money on accreditation that they didn't factor in upholding their actual mandate of protecting and supporting at-risk children, youth and families with their plan to spend millions on "maximizing the quality of the service delivered on its behalf to the public." More wasted taxpayer funds while the system crumbled around the Empresses of MCFD who didn't know, or care what's been happening to the kids. How many years in and how many millions spent? Taxpayers deserve an answer to those questions.

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Comments for Public Eye Online, see stories below:

Ms. Sowden hit the nail on the head - this is a matter of great expense. When the BC Liberals came into government in 2001, the Secure Care Act was scrapped. It will cost millions to create the infrastructure for such a program and the money would be much better spent actually funding a functional, ethical and responsible child & youth welfare system. The BC Liberals don't want to do that and they definitely aren't going to move forward right now sinking millions into this.

Within MCFD, they are very quietly scrapping programs which have cost taxpayers millions of dollars. A specific example of this waste and monumental mismanagement of taxpayer funds is the current move to stop accreditation. This money will never be recouped and has essentially been flushed down the toilet by the clowns in charge. Think lots of nice catered lunches, at fancy hotels and money poured into an American accreditation agency for absolutely nothing.

They're also preparing to slash even more frontline jobs and make practice changes that are going to further diminish the capacity of the child welfare system to protect children, they gave up long ago even pretending to care about, or protect youth. Look for even more pain ahead for BC's young people and their battered families.

Most of us will thankfully never know the pain and heartbreak of watching helplessly as our child becomes addicted, getting sucked into the underworld, the street, getting sexually exploited and losing their innocence, becoming one of "those people" you see on the 6'o clock news. Those parents and family members who have been through it find out quickly that the government will not lift a finger to help. You get what you vote for. Remember that next time.

Listen and learn

Earlier this month, Public Eye reported the provincial government could introduce legislation allowing authorities to detain at-risk youths against their will. But the Liberals gave no indication they might pass such a law during the election campaign. When asked by the Children of the Streets Society whether their party would "advocate and assist in the development of regulations, policies and procedures to implement a Secure Care Act," the Liberals stated they would be "prepared to listen" to the group's "perspective on this issue."

Continue reading Listen and learn.

Security deposit

Children of the Streets Society executive director Diane Sowden said yesterday introducing legislation allowing authorities to detain at-risk youth in secure care facilities could be a costly exercises. And, according Ms. Sowden, it's one that won't work unless the government funds support services for youths that will prevent the need to detain them. Speaking on Public Eye Radio, she said, "When you're talking about the services for secure care, it's not just the ability to apprehend and hold a young person. There has to be a continuum of services. And that isn't in place yet. And that has to run from prevention to safe care and everything in between."

Continue reading Security deposit.

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Sure to disappear soon from MCFD's website:

About Accreditation

Third-party accreditation guides human service organizations in the development and maintenance of interrelated accountability and quality improvement systems. Through meeting organizational and program standards, organizations are supported in the delivery and continuous improvement of safe, effective and efficient services. Accrediting bodies continuously gain feedback from consumers, stakeholders, professionals and associations to ensure that the accreditation standards and review processes reflect current international best practices.

The Ministry of Children and Family Development and Community Living British Columbia are committed to maximizing the quality of the service delivered on its behalf to the public. Accreditation status indicates that the accredited organization has achieved an appropriate level of organizational proficiency and that it has reliable mechanisms in operation to continually improve the quality of services it delivers.

The Guide to Accreditation provides an overview of accreditation as a quality assurance mechanism for the Ministry of Children and Family Development. The overview includes the ministry policy, summarizes the benefits of accreditation and provides a comprehensive list of questions and answers about everything you wanted to know about accreditation.

From the Guide:

Accreditation is generally accepted as a quality assurance mechanism.Compliance with comprehensive standards has a high probability of contributing to or resulting in good service quality. Quality assurance techniques facilitate the development of management controls and organizational skills required for consistent, client-focused, deliberate service delivery activities and to prevent organizational or service delivery problems. In addition, accrediting bodies require activities that go beyond maintenance of quality to the continuous improvement of quality.

Ministry of Children and Family Development Accreditation Policy (revised August 2006)

The Ministry of Children and Family Development (the ministry) is committed to maximizing the quality of the services delivered on its behalf to the public. Accreditation indicates that the accredited organization has achieved an appropriate level of organizational competence and that it has reliable mechanisms in operation to continually improve the quality of its service delivery.

A Little Musical Interlude on the Road to Hell Paved by BC Liberals

2009-08-25T19:55:00.002-07:00

Rage Against the Machine - Township Rebellion

Public Enemy - Fight the Power

The Playbook to the BC Liberal Plan for Destroying BC?

2009-08-19T20:41:00.004-07:00

To the victor belong the spoils.

- New York Senator William L. Marcy

To the vanquished goes the suffering.

Spoils System

In the USA, the granting of offices and favours among the supporters of a party in office. The spoils system, a type of patronage, was used by President Jackson in the 1830s in particular, and by Republican administrations after the Civil War. The practice remained common in the 20th century in US local government.

The term is derived from a speech after an election victory by Democratic Senator William Marcy: ‘To the victor belong the spoils of the enemy.’

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Comment to Paul Willcocks story:

No, Gordon Campbell has not lost his mind

Disaster capitalism at its core. The purposeful collusion of parties to construct as much public disorder as possible in order to ram through the biggest gutting of a society, aka OUR province, as demonically possible.

"how do you assess a premier who defines climate change as an enormous threat to mankind, then loses interest within 24 months?"

A fake, opportunist, political hack, flaky, self-interested, well-managed? I could go on...

BC Liberals Suck

P.S. You can’t lose something you never had.

Taking their cue from a Kiwi, the Liberals have embarked on a tidal wave of change so mighty that opponents won't be able to keep their heads above water
Paul Willcocks, Vancouver Sun. Wed Jun 20 2001.

Excerpts:

Mr. Douglas' book Unfinished Business, popular in Liberal circles.

The real insight into the Liberals' tactics comes in Chapter 10, which offers a battle plan for small-government reformers. Douglas outlines 10 principles for successfully pushing through radical change in a way that overwhelms opponents.

[Ed. Ummmm, would that be US, the CITIZENS of BC?]

"first principle is that for quality policies, you need quality people...

"Implement reform in quantum leaps, using large packages,'' advises Douglas in his second commandment.

His third is just as dramatic: ``Speed is essential,'' he writes. ``It is almost impossible to go too fast.''

Incremental reforms, especially unpopular ones, leave groups within society feeling unfairly treated. If everyone is being affected at once, at least they can't complain of being singled out.

Rapid changes also allow governments to link both the positive and negative aspects of reform.

``Do not try to advance a step at a time,'' Mr. Douglas writes. ``Define your objectives clearly and move towards them in quantum leaps. Otherwise the interest groups will have time to mobilize and drag you down.''

``One you build the momentum, don't let it stop rolling,'' Douglas counsels.