Grizzly Inquiry into Campbell Liberals FOI Case

Grizzly Inquiry into Campbell Liberals FOI Case

A precedent-setting legal review before BC’s Freedom of Information and Privacy Commissioner is underway. The Campbell Liberals have refused to turn over public information with respect to where grizzly bears are killed in BC despite a court of appeal decision in April 2004 directing them too.

“A clear decision was already made by the courts. The outright defiance by the government to provide us with the grizzly bear data we need only makes me question what they are trying to hide,” said Chris Genovali, Executive Director of Raincoast Conservation.

The society is asking for the figures in digital format so it can easily measure scientific data to determine the health of BC’s grizzly population.

Broken Promise #1

"The most open, accountable and democratic government in Canada" - A New Era for BC

The Old Negro Space Program

This is just too good not to post.

The Old Negro Space Program

"Most people don't realize, in 1957 -- if you were black, and you were an astronaut ......

you were out of work."

... by way of Kung Fu Monkey

Could Polak help the Westend's Uncle Tom?

Mary Polak the former chairperson of the Surrey School Board has won the Langley Liberal nomination today in a recount by the same margin she won on March 9, 4 votes.

BC's political Odd Couple, Lorne Mayencourt and Polak will both be Liberal candidates in the May 17 election. Though Polak has a good shot at being elected, her partner, the Westend's "Uncle Tom" is not so lucky. "Uncle Tom" Lorne Mayencourt, previously known as the Westend party boi will be a one-term wonder.

Mayencourt still awaits the report of a special prosecuter into his "posse" like attempt to clean up the Westend's streets of all those unsightly panhandlers. If that doesn't go well expect the Liberals to drag out Lynne Kennedy to run. She has wanted this for some time. Or maybe the former Empress Jannie will run. Jannie is the ever present drag queen pumping Lorne where ever she goes. I wonder what she thinks of her man now. It must be so embarrasing pimping for this "Uncle Tom", perhaps she closes her eyes.

Should Mayencourt "escape" the special prosecuter he could ask Mary Polak to come downtown and campaign for him. Take her to The LGBT Centre Lorne, she can explain her stance against gay books in schools, I am sure if we heard it directly from her like you have that we too will understand. When you finish there go by YouthCO, BC's award winning youth AIDS prevention and education society. Mary can explain to them why she banned them from Surrey schools.

One final thing Lorne, did you ever start paying back the people you left debts with. You promised in the last election to do this if elected. Of course you being so Ga Ga over Big Daddy Gordon I expect you have learned how to break a promise or two.

I have other questions to ask our Uncle Tom concerning his days with two local AIDS organizations but that will wait for another posting soon.

You can find more on Lorne Mayencourt, Mary Polak, Gordon Campbell, BC Liberals and the BC Election using the technorati search box in the sidebar.

Gordon Campbell's Polak awaits annointment in Langley

Mary Polak has been waiting to be officially declared the BC Liberal candidate since Christ arrived in Langley. Maybe not that long but the nomination was held March 9 and the Liberals are just getting it straightened out. Polak lost in the Surrey byelection last fall and felt she needed safer territory and Gordon Campbell gave her his blessings.

Polak won March 9 in Langley (Her new home to be) by four votes on the fifth ballot. Not such a ringing endorsement for one that is seen as a Liberal star.

Polak's nomination brings "way out" into the open the rise of the social conservatives in the Campbell Liberal gang. The loss of the likes of Collins, Clark, Stephens, Plant and a few others is creating a huge hole in the Campbell Liberal Government. The hole is being filled up with the likes of long time social conservative Rich Coleman and Mary Polak.

The Liberals did make an attempt to cover over this social conservative take over in getting Carole Taylor to run in Liberal safe Vancouver Langara. Taylor of course is the wife of former Vancouver Mayor Art Phillips who employed Gordon Campbell as an executive assistant for a period of time. Campbell then went onto be one of Vancouver's most polarizing mayors.

The question remains, did Gordon have some old debts to repay here and how much money was spent to pay off nomination costs of McCormick and Clarke both of whom withdrew from a heated nomination battle for one of the surest routes to Victoria for a Liberal, the Vancouver Langara constituency, to make room for Taylor.

Back to Langley where the anti-choice and homophobic Polak will get the news sometime this day that she is the Campbell anointed one. A prediction from Langley Liberal Jordan ....

"My prophecy: Polak by four, on the fifth count. Just like March 9. The system works."
- Jordan the purveyor of all things Liberal and Conservative at Langley Politics blog

You can find more on Polak, Gordon Campbell, BC Liberals and BC Politics using the Technorati search box in the sidebar to your left.

Vancouver heroin prescription trial begins

This could be a life saving intervention

"This is more than establishing a standard of care, it's about establishing a standard of caring. Illness does not just exist in a clinic or as a subject of study for researchers, but is an on the ground life and death reality for people. The barriers which exist as part of the study are, nonetheless, barriers. For the participants of this study who are suffering this is not a pilot project, this could be a life saving intervention." - Dr. Dan Small of the PHS Community Services Society

North American Opiate Medication Initiative (NAOMI) study is underway in Vancouver. The study will also have trial site locations in Toronto and Montreal.

Read more here at Seven Oaks and the Vancouver Four Pillar Strategy

Also: background on the NAOMI

Poverty - an election issue in BC

If you are in Vancouver or planning to be you may want to attend the Breaking Free conference on poverty in our province. The effort is to make Poverty an election issue.
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Breaking Free

April 2-3, 2005

A Community Discussion on Poverty

April 2 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. - Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre
1607 East Hastings Street, at Commercial

This community discussion will bring together organizations working on poverty from a range of areas. Speakers on three panels will share who they are, what their mandate is, the hurdles they have faced, how they have overcome some of these hurdles , and the hurdles that remain. Participants will learn about policies that affect people in poverty, and organizational strategies aimed at making poverty a key election issue.

Speakers confirmed for the Community Discussion include:

• British Columbia Coalition of People with Disabilities


• British Columbia Government and Service Employees’ Union


• Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives


• Check Your Head


• End Legislated Poverty


• First Call


• Seniors Network


• Surrey Food Bank

In the afternoon, we intend to work together to develop strategies that participants can take back to their organizations – strategies to ensure poverty is a key election issue.

A Political Dialogue on Poverty

April 3 2 p.m. – 4 p.m. - Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue
580 West Hastings Street at Seymour

Representatives from several provincial parties will share what they will do towards ending poverty in BC if elected in May. You can share your thoughts and ask questions that will bring poverty to the forefront of the election.

These are offered at no charge, but registration is required. Sign up now at www.thefulcrumproject.org or phone 604-986-9208 for more information or to register.

Campbell and empathy in the same sentence?

empathy:

"the ability to share someone else's feelings or experiences by imagining what it would be like to be in their situation"

Compare sympathy (understanding)

"Fund for kindergartners, pre-schoolers to learn empathy."

I did not make this up dear reader. The Campbell Liberal government recently sent out a media release announcing funding for two programs that assist our young children "develop" empathy. The program was developed by the Vancouver School Board and now is being made available around the province.

There is something ironic (and just not right) about the Campbell Liberal government being associated with the subject of empathy.

Minister of state for early childhood development, Linda Reid says ...

“Helping kids feel connected to each other and showing them how they can be a good influence helps them to become the best people, parents and citizens they can be.”

Monday magazine had this to say about the Campbell Liberal government's media release ...

"Most parents will tell you, however, that kids learn more from the examples we set than from what we say. So it would follow that a paternalistic government that wants to encourage empathy should act empathically, especially when dealing with people in need."

Read more at Monday

Bullshit Detector

"When the provincial Liberal government issues a press release announcing new funding for whatever, standard practice includes quoting the happy recipient of the cash thanking the Liberals for their generosity."

- Dee Hon, Terminal City

This is the way of government largesse these days. If you want it then you are going to say something nice. It is not that odd, governments have done this for years, pulled in third party validaters or the people receiving the funding to say what they will be using the money for. Yet there is something different about the announcements these days.

There is no real excitement about the news release. I recall early in the Liberals term of office, working for a respected non-profit community organization and the Premier was about to participate in a ribbon cutting ceremony, for a project that looked like it may be delayed or even cut. The host agency was beside itself in that their project had been halted by the new government and was under a review. The project was revamped somewhat and then allowed to proceed providing the agency with a great sigh of relief.

The difficulty then came after the project was allowed to continue. There had to be a ribbon cutting ceremony to tell the community the project was going ahead afterall. The Premier was invited, the guests were invited. Just one major difference this time out. It was a community event and with any other government it would have involved community. It was not this time, in a carefully controlled gathering the Premier and new local MLA made their lofty speeches, careful responses followed from the recipients of the funding and the project went ahead.

Agencies that receive provincial government funding are careful these days, very, very careful. Never before has there been such feeling in community. Frontline workers and board members rail in private about the government policy, the cuts to funding, the holes being created in the safety net. Not a peep is heard outside the inner circle, least the Liberals hear about it.

The agencies are caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place. The services they deliver today are a far cry from what they did only four years ago. The numbers of people requiring assistance from these agencies has gone up, yet they have less money from government to provide the service.

The column in the Terminal City with which I began this space with today, tells it clearly. Not only must an agency today suck it up, they are expected today to say something positive about the little bit of money the Liberals are giving back. Money that no where meets the amounts the Campbell Liberals slashed from these community service budgets.

The only people who feel safe to speak out today are those that have had all their funding eliminated. Yet it is the essence of that fear that should drive these agencies to speak out. They know there is real measurable pain and suffering being done to people by the decisions made by the Campbell government. They see it first hand day in and day out.

The question now for these agencies is this. Are you really helping people with your silence? This government may win the next election, they will for sure if you remain silent and sign onto the nice little press releases. The least you can do is to not participate in the governments annoucements.

Read more on this issue at the Terminal City online here.

Vote for Change - March 28

Campbell Liberals make it darn near impossible to get by.
(Vote for change calendar)

bcgeu calender

BC Liberals Cheat workers again?

The Feds and BC employment standards investigating the Campbell Liberals contractor for breaking the law? The Have you Had Enough Yet Crew has more here. Seems you just can't get away with anything except breaking promises. What's a Liberal to do? Bill Tieleman broke the story wide open in The Straight.

also: Gordon Campbell's Liberals running boiler rooms?

And in other news... Dave Barrett has returned to his old form. Barrett is travelling around BC these days making speeches and rallying the left and middle class to defeat the Campbell Liberals on May 17.

Barrett was Premier of BC from 1972 - 1975. He ran for the NDP in in 1960 and was elected. Prior to being an MLA, Barrett was a Social Worker. In Prince George Wednesday Barrett often referred to his former social work skills with lines like this...

"This government is not fair, it's not decent, and if they stop now, they are in the range of my professional skills," he said. "They go on any longer, and they will need a psychiatrist."

You can read more on Dave's trip to Prince George in the Prince George FreePress.

You can find more on the BC Liberals, Gordon Campbell and the BC election using the technorati search box in the side bar to the right.

Ebay selling Punisher Campbell t-shirt!

You can find The Punisher T-shirt for sale on Ebay! The image of Gordon Campbell taken while he was in custody for drinking and driving in Hawaii that is too hot for political parties opposed to Campbell has made the news big time in BC.

Mall-Wort had the shirts for sale for a brief time. When it hit the media they pulled the remaining stock from the shelves. Want one, go to e-bay!

ICBC scores good weather bonus

ICBC, the people of BC's public insurance company have paid out incredible bonuses to its executive and staff. In all $18 million was to be paid out, $10 million going to 750 managers and executive officers. The company said bonueses are being paid out due to ICBC's most profitible year ever.

The company credits good weather for the profit. So one is left wondering what anyone at ICBC management did to deserve such whooping bonuses. Are they taking credit for being good money managers? For implementing programs that reduced accident rates? The answer is clearly no.

Have you had enough tells it like it is here

ICBC Pays Bonuses as Insurance Rates Do Not Go...
Yesterday it became public knowledge that ICBC intends to pay their management team bonuses of up to 45% of their ...

ICBC pays out millions in bonuses CBC British Columbia, Canada - 24 Mar 2005 The performance bonuses range up to $64,000 for the Chief Operating Officer. But the top executives aren't the only ICBC employees receiving extra money. ...

Consumers' Association of Canada: Consumers’ Association demands ...... FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 7, 2005 Consumers’ Association demands ICBC Reduce Auto Insurance Rates for BC Drivers in Response to ICBC’s Record Profits ...

James Slams Executive Bonuses at ICBC
NDP Leader Says BC Liberals Should Give Windfall Profits Back to Drivers

Broken Promise # 2 - Healthcare when and where you need it

Pharmacare: BC's Provincial Drug Plan squeezes more from the sick

Pharmacare, our provincial plan for drugs, is supposed to assist seniors and those with costly
prescription drug requirements.

Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberal Government introduced the "Fair" Pharmacare plan in February 2003. The plan shifted $90 million from government to those needing the drugs.

When the plan was introduced the separate seniors plan was wiped out as well. The previous plan provided lower deductibles and covered more drugs and services.

Todate according to the BC Health Coalition 50% of expenditures under Pharmacare are for drugs for seniors. That means almost one half of senior families in BC, or 175,000 families, are now paying more for their drugs.

The "Fair" Pharmacare program introduced in 2003 by Campbell Liberals came after a previous cut in pharmacare made in 2002. Deductibles were increased for most of us, including those on MSP premium assistance. A person on premium assistance saw their deductibles climb from $600 to $800 a year and 17 different drugs were de-listed under Pharmacare that year.

This is just another example of broken promises. BC voters had no idea that we would have a 50% increase in MSP premiums and loss of coverage for physiotherapy, chiropractic care, eye examinations, podiatry, massage therapy and naturopath services.

The Campbell Liberals have not lived up to their promises. Not only have our wages gone down, our costs have gone up. If the BC Government were a private company and we its board of directors, we would fire the CEO for such performance.