AG Plant to resign today

Update: March 11, 2005 AG Plant Quits Government

As reported here earlier, AG Plant has announced he will not run in this election. CBC has more ...

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Geoff Plant will be resigning this morning. He will stay on as Attorney General through the election. Plant will likely state his resignation is due to family reasons.

Plant is the third high profile Cabinet Minister to announce he will not be running. Collins and Clark resigned in the last eight months.

The loss of Plant another moderate voice in the Campbell Liberal government paints a more conservative picture for the party.

Clean out back room money from BC politics!

Want to clean out the back room money deals in politics. The things that make you wonder if there is a connection with what the government does after they are elected and wonder if there is a connection to who donated to that government?

Here is an example: Forest Companies in BC have contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the BC Liberal party since 2000. What do these private companies have to gain or desire from the Liberals that motivates them to financially support them in such a large way.

Would they want the government to reduce their taxes, maybe remove the requirement that logs cut down in a community be milled in that community or is it fewer government inspectors. I am sure that a forest company doesn't really care about "good policy" beyond that which allows them to produce more each year, they are looking for three things, cheap skilled labour, low taxes, and few limitations on how they do their business. They have one private mission, profits for shareholders.

More examples coming in the weeks ahead. Tomorrow the Insurance business and their not so secret mission to force ICBC into irrelevancy.

In the interim if you agree with ending corporate and union donations and limiting third party advertising during an election do what I just did. I just signed this petition to get big money out of BC politics and thought you may like to do the same.

A picture is worth 130 Billion dimes!

Krieger ~ Vancouver Province, March 10, 2005

"They claimed that they were going to have the most open and transparent government. Now we see they're going to run and hide."

- Joy MacPhail on the Campbell Liberals refusal to debate the budget

VIHA replaces 15% wage cut with a Smile

From the world of wierd news, Are they really spending $180,000 to do this?

The Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) website is about to launch its smile teams. I am not making this up. The authority is going to go up and down Vancouver Island smiling at staff and if that smile is really bright, they will be giving away treats.

This is the same health authority that has cut thousands of jobs, extended working hours and rolled back wages and benefits by 15% of those health care workers that remained. And they think a smile will improve moral. This effort happening now wouldn't have anything to do with the election would it? Thats what Have You Had Enough Yet? concludes.

BC Liberals get campaign donation ahead of time

The BC big media choose not to cover a story that had the Liberals in trouble. The NDP raised concerns March 8 during Question Period with respect to the Premier's failure to reply to a letter he received last fall from three emminent child advocates.

The advocates were very concerned with the lack of public accountability. The Canwest papers did not print the story in Vancouver area papers March 9. Was this an effort to cover Gordon Campbell's backside heading into an election? My guess it was. Not only does the publisher (Canwest) of the Vancouver Sun, The Province and the National Post donate real money to Gordon Campbell, they also make inkind donations. Sometimes it is more valuable in what you don't do than what you do.

The other large national daily, the Globe and Mail also failed to run the story. Seems the big media though in competition for advertisers can agree on one thing, Gordon Campbell.

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The Straight had this to say today,

Editions of Greater Vancouver’s four daily papers didn’t report on March 9 that Premier Gordon Campbell had not responded to a letter last year from three former senior child advocates. On March 8, B.C.’s former children’s commissioner Cynthia Morton, former B.C. ombudsman Dulcie McCallum, and Joyce Preston, B.C.’s former advocate for children, youth, and families, released a letter they wrote to the premier last June expressing concerns about the lack of public accountability. The premier’s office never responded, even though their letter was hand? delivered and requested a meeting.

During question period in the legislature on March 8, all three NDP MLAs interrogated B.C. Liberal cabinet ministers on the topic. At one point, NDP MLA Jenny Kwan said, “These advocates write and I quote: ‘How will government report publicly on maintaining if not enhancing the health and safety to children while the budget has reduced its services to children and families? We have examined service outcomes of the ministry and are unable to see transparent measures to address these matters. This is inconsistent with the commitment that the Premier has made publicly to hold all ministries to account for quality outcomes.’?”

On March 8, reporter Dirk Meissner wrote a story on this issue for Canadian Press. It appeared on the CanWest Global Communications Corp. Web site [www.canada.com/] but not in many Vancouver-area editions of the company-owned Vancouver Sun, Province, and National Post, or in the Globe and Mail, which is owned by Bell Globemedia

Political Donations ~ What gives?

Its time to end political donations from corporations and unions.

Today a report was released by the Conservation Voters of B.C. The report argues that businesses and unions have too much influence, because there are no limits to political donations.

I agree. It is time to end this practice, corporations and unions are not voters and have too much to gain by donating. At the least we are filled with the picture of conflict if not outright conflict existing.

Carole James the leader of the NDP has pledged to bring forward legislation to ban all corporate and trade union donations to political parties. Where do the BC Liberals stand on this? They haven't said much, but then again, they received 74% of their funds from corporations. The NDP received 14% from unions last year.

More at CBC Vancouver.

Campbell Liberals abuse and neglect the Legislative Assembly

The Campbell Liberal Government is about to give themselves the largest blank cheque in BC history and in doing so ignore parliament's rules

David Beers at thetyee.ca makes a unique request of the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, The Honourable Iona Campagnolo.

The Honourable Iona Campagnolo
Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia
Government House1401 Rockland Avenue
Victoria, B.C., V8S 1V9
email address: GHInfo@gems6.gov.bc.ca
March 8, 2005

Your Honour:

This letter is rather extraordinary, but we live, it seems, in extraordinary times. My purpose is to request that you utilize the powers vested in you and your office to safeguard the democratic rights and legislative interests of the people of British Columbia, which now are in imminent danger of abuse and neglect...

David ends his letter thus;

Your Honour, I again concede that my request is extraordinary. But you alone possess the constitutional and statutory powers to prevent the government's intent to abuse and neglect the Legislative Assembly, and to protect the interests of British Columbians.

Feel the same way. Send your own email to the LG at GHInfo@gems6.gov.bc.ca

Broken Promise # 2 Cutbacks in ancillary services and acute care beds in Kamloops

Cutbacks in acute care beds and ancillary services causing problems leading to unacceptable delays in BC Hospitals

This report from Kamloops City.com

A TNRD Director who gave up waiting for treatment at Royal Inland's Emergency Ward says it's just not acceptable. Ronaye Elliot went to the hospital and was told she would have to wait over 8 hours to be looked at. Elliot said she was too ill to sit and wound up going home. She says the blame for the problem rests with the Interior Health Authority. She reiterated recent complaints by others about ambulance attendants having to spend long hours waiting to turn over patients to emergency room staff, and says we need to find a better way.

Dr. David Poulin, spokesman for the Health Authority, says the waits are the result of a number of factors, including a lack of beds. He says the IHA is not the only health authority facing similar problems. He says they're trying to find the best way to deal with things with the money they have available. And quite rightly, Health Authorities around the province say a great deal of the problem lies with the amount of money that comes down from senior levels of government.

Cutbacks in ancillary services like labs and x-rays, along with the lack of acute care beds, has caused serious bottlenecks in ER's in almost every hospital.

Police chastise Vancouver-Burrard Liberal MLA Mayencourt

Update 1: March 7, 2005 Mayencourt's Citizen's Arrest

Strategicthoughts.com has some dire news for Mayencourt

Campbell Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt received exceptional support from the government when his anti-squeegee kid private member's bill became law. Will Campbell stand by his man when police, and possibly crown counsel, report on Mayencourt's attempt to make a citizen's arrest of a panhandler? Read more

Police chastise Vancouver-Burrard Liberal MLA Mayencourt

"Little sister, don't you
Little sister, don't you
Little sister, don't you kiss me once or twice
Then say it's very nice
And then you run
Little sister, don't you
Do what your big sister done"
words & music by doc pomus - mort shuman

Vigilante action against aggressive panhandlers is the wrong solution, police say. "It's a matter of safety," . "It doesn't make sense to be confronting these individuals. If you're fearful of them, or if they're making threatening remarks or gestures, just walk away, call the police, call 911, and we'll do our best to get there." - Const. Howard Chow, Vancouver Police as reported in the Vancouver Sun today

Police are warning the public not to follow the example of Vancouver-Burrard MLA Lorne Mayencourt.
Mayencourt, the Liberal who initiated the Safe Streets legislation that outlaws aggressive panhandling and squeegee kids, is sporting a cut cheek after an altercation with a panhandler outside a cafe in his West End riding.

Mayencourt is a desperate politician these days, grabbing anything he can to keep from falling any further behind the NDP in Vancouver-Burrard. You don't need to take a poll in this Vancouver riding to know Lorne Mayencourt is trailing NDP candidate Tim Stevenson. Ask people on the street or in the coffee shops what they think of the Liberal MLA and you get some strong reactions. Few people step up to defend him, most see him as ineffectual at best especially within the large gay community.

After the Police advised the public against vigilante action, Mayencourt told the Vancouver Sun, "That's good advice." What else could Mayencourt say. He is wearing more than a cut to his face.

What is an aggressive panhandler according to Vancouver police. Const. Howard Chow told the Vancouver Sun ...

"It's somebody who's in your face, who doesn't permit you access, who's threatening, who may actually start pushing you or shoving you out of the way or preventing you from getting past."

More on Mayencourt's sad sad adventures here:

Citizen Lorne or Bully?
Poor Bashing MLA, Mayencourt says he was bashed
BC's Worst MLA
Mayencourt on Jailing Street Kids
Lorne does the streets with Cell Phone

Citizen Lorne or Bully?

MLA Lorne Mayencourt in Vancouver got a punch in the face a week ago, from a panhandler, he alledges. Seems Lorne, the Westend partyboi decided that a panhandler in front of the coffeeshop was being too aggressive. Lorne championed a new law intended to the throw the book at aggressive panhandlers.

The Westend and downtown of Vancouver has seen a large increase in panhandlers and homeless people over the last 3 years. Many of these people are dealing with concurrent disorders of drug addiction and mental health issues. And a good number of the panhandlers are people that just cannot afford to get by in Vancouver.

Seems Lorne and his supporters, largely condo owners in units so high above the panhandlers you wonder how they actually met a panhandler, are becoming upset with seeing these poor folks on the street with the nerve to ask for some change or wash a car window in exchange for coin.

Lorne worked to pass the Safe Streets Act and Trespass Act. Poverty activists, police and others told Lorne we already have laws to address aggressive panhandlers, people that assault others etc. The law was passed anyway, now when less than 3 tickets (they fine people who panhandle for money to buy something to eat) have been issued province wide. Lorne is upset, accusing the Vancouver Police of ignoring his new law. He is furious that crown prosecuters are reluctant to take cases forward.

That's where Lorne decides he is going to force the issue. The MLA for Vancouver Burrard challenges a panhandler outside a popular coffee shop on Denman Street. He calls 911 three or four times to tell them a panhandler is being aggressive. The police do not respond in a time period appropriate for our Citizen Lorne, so he decides to make a citizens arrest.

In attempting the arrest, the honourable member of the BC Legislative Assembly receives a cut to his face and his glasses fall off according to Michael Smyth of the Vancouver province. The police arrive and an investigation ensues.

Lorne is in deep doo doo this election. He is well known for how he has failed seniors, renters and the gay community, including gay youth in our schools. He has three other claims to fame; 1. has never said no to a Liberal piece of legislation; 2. keep poor people off the streets act (Safe Streets Act) and 3. No one uses their government paid for cell phone more than he does.

Perhaps after the election we can get the government to consider a new act, The Save our Streets from our Honourable MLA Act.

Campbell Liberals redrawing history

The Campbell Liberal Government lack a sense of justice and history in their efforts to create cheaper services that operate like business. The Land Title branch is eliminating much of the access to important maps created over the years. These maps contain vital information of BC's history.

The maps are also useful in establishing the locations of first nations villages, hunting areas and trade. Without access to this information, first nations negotiators could end up missing vital information that establishes their legitimate rights.

It would be awful to think this was the reason behind the Liberals efforts to "downsize" land titles. It is more likely that they did not even think about it and now that it has been raised they are going to carry on anyway, which is worse. Open, honest and accountable government began almost every Gordon Ca,mpbell speech in the 2001 election. They have not lived up to their pre election promises.

Add this to the list of broken promises in BC.

Poor Bashing MLA, Mayencourt says he was bashed

Update 4: March 5, 2005 - Wow. And I thought I was hard on Mayencourt....

Bear 604 says, "If this actually happened and isn't another one of Mayencourt's rough tricks/publicity stunts, this could be the first time this page advocates violence against an elected official. I hope Mayencourt wasn't seriously hurt, but I also hope he was hurt enough to make the realization that if you bash the poor long enough, the poor bash back."


Update 3: March 5, 2005 - See Haveyouhadenoughyet

MLA gets aggressive with aggressive panhandler. Vancouver police have so far refused to arrest and lay charges against a panhandler alledged to have aggressively hassled people on the streets of Vancouver, or an MLA alledged to have aggressively hassled a panhandler. Lorne Mayencourt, Liberal MLA for Vancouver Burrard, a leading centre of BC's growing panhandling industry, survived an alledged physical altercation with an unidentified person, with only a bruise to the face. Injuries to the other party were not reported.


UPDATE 2: March 4, 2005 - The Vancouver Sun interviews people in the heart of the Westend, asks people about panhandlers, the Safe Streets Act and Mayencourt. Its not pretty, Mayencourt, the Liberal MLA for Vancouver Burrard is not well thought of.


UPDATE: CBC adds this to the story, "And I think they need me to not say anything about this until such time as they've completed their investigation," (Mayencourt) he says.

Mayencourt tells Vancouver Sun he cannot say more, then tells CBC he cannot say more, but he adds more to the story. It is not surprising given Lorne's desire to be seen on TV. The new information Liberal MLA Mayencourt added and reported by CBC is, "Mayencourt says he doesn't know if his attacker knew him – or whether his campaign for the Safe Streets Act had anything to do with the attack.

Quick, someone send in BCTV, he will talk under the hot lights!
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Just what would be the odds ...

Lorne Mayencourt, the man who has made a life trying to be something important has reported an incident involving a street person and himself in the Westend of Vancouver, an area he represents as the Liberal MLA in the BC Legislature.

According to news reports Mayencourt told police he was assaulted by a street person on Sunday. He has a scrap on his face he alledges came from an altercation with the panhandler. Mayencourt is being uncharacteristically quiet about this. When contacted by the Vancouver Sun he told them he would wait for the investigation to be completed and then have his say.

Mayencourt was visibly incensed recently when he was told that it was unlikely someone would go to jail for violating the Safe Streets Act he helped bring into law.

Anyone that has lived in Vancouver knows that although some of the panhandlers can be rude, it is extremely rare that an assault occurs. There is a noted increase in the number of panhandlers on the street over the last three years and some of these people do have a more desperate demeanor. The Vancouver Sun today reports that in the more violent cases reported, the panhandlers and squeegee kids are often those assaulted.

Mayencourt and the Liberals brought in the Safe Streets Act under the guise of providing the Police and Municipalities with a tool to address aggressive panhandling. The law provides for fines to be given for those breaking the law.

The recent incident reported by Mayencourt to the police has a bit of stink to it. He has been under considerable pressure from his condo owning buddies to solve the panhandling problem and now the MLA better known for being the Westend Partyboi, is attempting to show them he meant it when he said he would clean up the problem, single handedly if needed.

The Vancouver Sun said today, "Mayencourt has been described by newspaper columnists as a colourful politician with a "hot-headed temper." In 2001, he reportedly told a woman at an all-candidates meeting to "shut up." There is more on another incident reported by The Straight that ran under the headline: Mayencourt Goes Postal on Letter Carrier.

All of this like Mayencourt's week on the streets is a bit bizarre. Most public representatives would have walked away and then reported the incident. Mayencourt should have walked away from the "problem" panhandler and maybe he did. And then maybe there is an election to be won.

Broken promises ~ Surrey hospital and Campbell Liberals

For almost four years Liberals have represented Surrey in the Legislature. During this time the health care crisis in the Fraser Health Authority and Surrey Memorial Hospital has gone from bad to urgent.

The Campbell Liberal government had ignored the crisis successfully until now. It took less than two weeks for rookie MLA, Jagrup Brar to spur the Liberals into damage control and action. Brar is the new NDP MLA from Surrey Panorama Ridge.

All along the Campbell led Liberals have tried to distance themselves from decisions made by the Health Authorities. When an issue was raised in the Legislature, the Liberal government would tell the opposition the health authority has the funding and the the freedom to spend the funds they receive to meet local priorities.

The Liberals had hoped this would get them off the hook with respect to health care in BC. It hasn't worked as health care has remained the top concern of BC voters in poll after poll.

The Health Authority told the government in November that a new emergency was desperately required for Surrey Memorial Hospital. The government ignored the information. There was no money in the the recent budget to fund construction of a new emergency room for what is Canada's second busiest ER.

The Liberal government under pressure in the legislature to address the urgent needs for a new emergency ward at Surrey Memorial responded by blaming the messenger of the November request for urgent funding. The Health Authority fired their CEO in an effort to look as if it was his leadership that failed to address the ongoing problems at Surrey Memorial.

Health Minister Shirley Bond has directed the Health Authority to spend $28 million asap in correcting the problem. That's a good start and should have been included in the budget. It wasn't. The health authority will do as the government demanded and use the $28 million but that is just a bandaid for the problem. The $28 million was earmarked for training and staffing the emergency wards in the Fraser Health Authority. Now it is gone, who will pay for the training and staffing needed? Don't look to the budget, the dollars are not in there.

The problem in Surrey Memorial is compounded seriously by the government's failure to deliver on their promise to build 5000 new care beds. In fact the government has created less than 200 care beds province wide. The Fraser, Vancouver Island and Interior health regions have all lost care beds since the Liberals were elected.

Broken promises seem to be the hallmark of this government. Broken promises lead to broken families, broken communities.

Alternative News Sources

Today with mainstream media more than ever before in the hands of so few, (Canwest owns BCTV, the Vancouver Sun and Province and National Post) finding alternative views has been difficult. One source I refer to often is The Gazetteer. Ross publishes opinion in well thought out and researched pieces. A good alternative source to the main stream "pro-campbell press".

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PEJ NEWS, a free service that provides both original material and republished stories often missed or buried on page D19 in the big media. PEJ NEWS is a progressive site where you will find news on peace, environment and justice issues in BC, Canada, the USA and internationally. Check out Peace, Earth and Justice News (PEJ NEWS).

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Along the side of this space you can see a news feed from My Blagh News. This is a new service developed to provide views from the left.

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Check out the following story from The Gazetteer

The High Cost of Being Poor in B.C.

A while back we noted that Will McMartin scored a TKO when he called out third string Liberal Hackmeisteress Judy Virk for her extremely misleading statements about Commander Campbell's changes to the tax system in the province of British Columbia.

Essentially, Mr. McMartin destroyed Ms. Virk's argument by pointing out how continued tax swindles for the rich are rapidly moving us from a progressive to a regressive tax system. McMartin subsequently laid this all out, in convincing detail, in the pages of the Tyee.

Go to The Gazetteer for more...