Tuesday, March 06, 2007

 

Questions in Legislature over Public Inquiry

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Priceless support is coming to The Legislature Raids blog. The following helper first informed us of the push for a Public Inquiry to look into the B.C. Rail-CN transaction, and now writes: Here is the TC story I was talking about in my last email. The campbell government is no different than the war criminal Bush who has enacted laws that will retroactively protect him and senior members of his government from prosecution as war criminals. This is outrageous, absolutely outrageous. Now the campbell government wants to change the rules because they can sense the pressure that is building over the bc rail giveaway.

B.C. TO UPDATE PUBLIC INQUIRY LEGISLATION
Lindsay Kines, Times Colonist
March 06, 2007

The B.C. government moved yesterday to update the province's public-inquiry process a year after similar changes died in the face of stiff opposition.

Attorney General Wally Oppal tabled legislation to replace the Public Inquiry Act with a "modern" law that will permit formal and informal commissions of inquiry.

Unlike the bill introduced last spring, Bill 6 will require that all inquiry reports are made public, Oppal said. {Snip}

The NDP, which called last year's bill the Secret Inquiry Act because it allowed cabinet to withhold some reports, said the new legislation is little better.

"It appears that we're getting the same old wolf with a slightly different sheep's clothing," said NDP critic Leonard Krog.

"This act, it appears, still gives cabinet the right to sit on a report for an extended period of time, presumably until after a following election."

Krog said cabinet should be required to release reports by commissions of inquiry within two to three weeks.

"The time should be brief," he said. {snip}


Full story: http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=67c2939c-b9ff-494c-a4cd-b11376833e7f
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Comments:
The prospect of future inquiries of any kind being much of a factor in official decision making in this province is important. The fact that this Campbell government has such a poor record on openness and accountability is covered in this report:
http://www.opengovernment.ca/pdf/bc_open_govt.pdf

The fact that this motion was defeated in the legislature yesterday is not a good sign either:

Be it resolved that this House urge the BC Government to introduce the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement between British Columbia and Alberta to this House for full debate before it comes into effect on April 1, 2007.

Sometimes Mr Campbell's reluctance to show up in the house is not that hard to understand.
anonOmous
 
I am so angry I could spit nickels! This darned government along with the media, need to be shot/drawn and quartered!
What is that we as citizens can do? Why are we allowing this nonsense to continue? We are in serious trouble and I do wish the general population would awaken from their slumber and take to the streets! When is enough enough??
 
Dear anonymous (March 7) ...

Your passion is felt strongly by many of the people who will read what you've said here.

The one thing I would change is that awful 4-letter word "shot" ... heaven forbid.

One more thing. We can't blame "the general population" for being asleep. It's not as if they're deliberately ignoring the news. Fact is: the general public does not have access to all the news they should have. Big media in B.C. media is set up that way.

Some people talk about establishing a people's press ... a very tough challenge. Any thoughts?

And hey, thanks for commenting. We surely know and appreciate where YOU stand!
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Mary,

I'm sure he only meant "mug" shots, to go along with their fingerprinting and being supplied an orange jumpsuit.

But seriously, as I have pointed out before, the government and the justice system abuse the people's respect long enough and to a high enough degree at their own risk. The American Revolution, the French Revolution, Algeria, modern day Iraq and the demise of the Romanovs, to mention just a few historical events are not fictional creations of novelists or screenwriters. Perhaps everyone should read Thomas Jefferson's words at the beginning of the Declaration of Independence, on all sides. When there's nothin' left to lose, eating cake eventually just doesn't cut it anymore.
 
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