Thursday, November 25, 2010
Who are they serving by deliberately knee-capping the Opposition?
.
BC Mary comment: Why do they do it? Why does a clever journalist like Trevor Lautens -- who wrote some of the most delicious paragraphs in the following column -- slip into the ugly rhetoric of blaming the irrelevant NDP when, holy Ratzinger, the New Democrats at their absolute worst can't be accused of betraying the public interest by giving away the central, vital railway link in our province. The appalling crime of the NDP is that they seem to do nothing much of anything, and, in my books, their cardinal sin is that they've done nothing to save BCRail. Like, right now, Carole James should be riding (naked) a horse down Granville Street, beating a drum, and calling for (a) a Public Inquiry into what process took BC Rail from public ownership into private pockets against the public's wishes, and (b) a formal demand that all documents from the BC Rail trial be held in trust, in safekeeping, as the basis for the Public Inquiry or any other inquiry such as a Third Party Review. Those documents are an irreplacable part of British Columbia history.
What is it that makes hired journalists write these knee-jerk references to bad, bad New Democrats while they themselves are wading in the stench of the Campbell muck?
I think I know. I think we all know.
Sigh.
Well ... Lautens did write some good analysis too. Forgive me for picking a few of those gems. For the ugly rhetoric, go to the full article HERE.
http://trevorlautens.ca/writing/2010/11/24/justice-muted-by-basivirk-settlement/
Justice muted by Basi/Virk settlement
Nov 24th, 2010
by trevor
Appeared in North Shore News – October 29, 2010
Gordon Campbell offered realignment this week. Better you should go to Canadian Tire, Carter Chevrolet etc. They know about realignment.
With the wheels falling off his government, tires flat and the gas gauge showing empty, the premier faces the prospect that British Columbians will trade in his sputtering 2001 Model T Liberal machine for a new, glittering (only paint-deep?) NDP 2013.
{Big snip} ......
Thus B.C. politics, as the media love to say, is reduced to entertainment, a “blood sport,” the blood being Hollywood ketchup as opposed to the real stuff shed by those in the past seeking liberty, dignity of the individual, freedom from arbitrary measures, and such quaint stuff.
Back to the case of Dave Basi and Bob Virk: These ministerial aides, after five years of denial, abruptly pleaded guilty to breach of trust and accepting benefits (corruption, in street terms) in the province’s sale of B.C. Rail to CN Rail, and were sentenced to two years less a day of house arrest — a curfew hardly sterner than tough parents might impose on a naughty teenager. Everyone OK with that? Anyone? How about anyone other than those engaged in the legal industry, some masked men in the government, and maybe Basi, Virk and kin?
That case began with an unprecedented raid on the B.C. legislature almost seven years ago and turtled through the courts for five years, ending with a plea bargain — once associated in starchy Canadian minds with, horrors, the U.S. court system — which stuck taxpayers with $18 million in legal costs, including the pair’s $6-million bill, in return for their guilty pleas and the prisonless punishment. Two deputy ministers handled forgiveness of the legal bills. The special prosecutor negotiated the plea bargain. The court acquiesced.
One of the lawyers involved in this exercise explained at decorous length the progress of the case through the courts. To listen to it attentively was to admire the delicate filigree work, the stained-glass windows, the baroque music (Vivaldi comes to mind) of our vaunted legal system. What I didn’t hear was a single word of the libretto of justice.
The guilty pleas, quite coincidentally, absolved former ministers and others from testifying, which would have been an inconvenience at least, and maybe even an embarrassment at higher levels of the government. (Among those also spared as Crown witness was Brian Kieran, a journalist-turned-lobbyist whom I very much liked — though he once had the temerity to slag my goodly self in his Province column — who ruefully told CBC radio that he “kicks himself every day” for his tangential role in the affair.)
Gary Mason in the Globe and Mail noted that the B.C. Rail trial ended “with a couple of guilty pleas, and with it went any chance of finding out what was really going on behind the scenes of this $1-billion deal.”
This paper’s learned readership doesn’t need reminding that there are two standards that judges must meet in their rulings. In criminal trials, the required test is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” But in civil courts the test is the much lower “balance of probabilities” — closer to what the great unwashed would call plain sense and a basic grasp of human mendacity, selective memory and the plausible manner that hides a scoundrel.
On the balance of probabilities, it is my view that the official narrative of the Basi/Virk case is humbug — Blind Justice touching one stone, unaware that it is part of the Sphinx. And as silent as the Sphinx, as Mason implied, about what really went on.
BC Mary comment: Why do they do it? Why does a clever journalist like Trevor Lautens -- who wrote some of the most delicious paragraphs in the following column -- slip into the ugly rhetoric of blaming the irrelevant NDP when, holy Ratzinger, the New Democrats at their absolute worst can't be accused of betraying the public interest by giving away the central, vital railway link in our province. The appalling crime of the NDP is that they seem to do nothing much of anything, and, in my books, their cardinal sin is that they've done nothing to save BCRail. Like, right now, Carole James should be riding (naked) a horse down Granville Street, beating a drum, and calling for (a) a Public Inquiry into what process took BC Rail from public ownership into private pockets against the public's wishes, and (b) a formal demand that all documents from the BC Rail trial be held in trust, in safekeeping, as the basis for the Public Inquiry or any other inquiry such as a Third Party Review. Those documents are an irreplacable part of British Columbia history.
What is it that makes hired journalists write these knee-jerk references to bad, bad New Democrats while they themselves are wading in the stench of the Campbell muck?
I think I know. I think we all know.
Sigh.
Well ... Lautens did write some good analysis too. Forgive me for picking a few of those gems. For the ugly rhetoric, go to the full article HERE.
http://trevorlautens.ca/writing/2010/11/24/justice-muted-by-basivirk-settlement/
************************
Justice muted by Basi/Virk settlement
Nov 24th, 2010
by trevor
Appeared in North Shore News – October 29, 2010
Gordon Campbell offered realignment this week. Better you should go to Canadian Tire, Carter Chevrolet etc. They know about realignment.
With the wheels falling off his government, tires flat and the gas gauge showing empty, the premier faces the prospect that British Columbians will trade in his sputtering 2001 Model T Liberal machine for a new, glittering (only paint-deep?) NDP 2013.
{Big snip} ......
Thus B.C. politics, as the media love to say, is reduced to entertainment, a “blood sport,” the blood being Hollywood ketchup as opposed to the real stuff shed by those in the past seeking liberty, dignity of the individual, freedom from arbitrary measures, and such quaint stuff.
Back to the case of Dave Basi and Bob Virk: These ministerial aides, after five years of denial, abruptly pleaded guilty to breach of trust and accepting benefits (corruption, in street terms) in the province’s sale of B.C. Rail to CN Rail, and were sentenced to two years less a day of house arrest — a curfew hardly sterner than tough parents might impose on a naughty teenager. Everyone OK with that? Anyone? How about anyone other than those engaged in the legal industry, some masked men in the government, and maybe Basi, Virk and kin?
That case began with an unprecedented raid on the B.C. legislature almost seven years ago and turtled through the courts for five years, ending with a plea bargain — once associated in starchy Canadian minds with, horrors, the U.S. court system — which stuck taxpayers with $18 million in legal costs, including the pair’s $6-million bill, in return for their guilty pleas and the prisonless punishment. Two deputy ministers handled forgiveness of the legal bills. The special prosecutor negotiated the plea bargain. The court acquiesced.
One of the lawyers involved in this exercise explained at decorous length the progress of the case through the courts. To listen to it attentively was to admire the delicate filigree work, the stained-glass windows, the baroque music (Vivaldi comes to mind) of our vaunted legal system. What I didn’t hear was a single word of the libretto of justice.
The guilty pleas, quite coincidentally, absolved former ministers and others from testifying, which would have been an inconvenience at least, and maybe even an embarrassment at higher levels of the government. (Among those also spared as Crown witness was Brian Kieran, a journalist-turned-lobbyist whom I very much liked — though he once had the temerity to slag my goodly self in his Province column — who ruefully told CBC radio that he “kicks himself every day” for his tangential role in the affair.)
Gary Mason in the Globe and Mail noted that the B.C. Rail trial ended “with a couple of guilty pleas, and with it went any chance of finding out what was really going on behind the scenes of this $1-billion deal.”
This paper’s learned readership doesn’t need reminding that there are two standards that judges must meet in their rulings. In criminal trials, the required test is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” But in civil courts the test is the much lower “balance of probabilities” — closer to what the great unwashed would call plain sense and a basic grasp of human mendacity, selective memory and the plausible manner that hides a scoundrel.
On the balance of probabilities, it is my view that the official narrative of the Basi/Virk case is humbug — Blind Justice touching one stone, unaware that it is part of the Sphinx. And as silent as the Sphinx, as Mason implied, about what really went on.
*************************
BC Mary: Not bad, really, if only he could get off the Paid Political Pounding of the New Democrats. Why not pick on the Green Party for a change? Or the 2nd coming of the Conservative Party? The Rhinoceros Party? Or how about the HPUBP (the Honest Public Affairs Bureau Party). Sheesh, I'm as disgusted as anybody can be, with the non-performance of the BC Opposition (NDP) but really and truly, is this how an ethical media informs a suffering, bewildered, bamboozled public? I don't think so.
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Here is another astonishing twist to the normal workings of a civil society (and please, don't start calling me names ... this isn't about Bill Vander Zalm, it's about DEMOCRACY and a FREE SOCIETY). Have a look at what these citizens are reporting in a general mail-out received today:
BILL VANDER ZALM CALLS FOR RESIGNATION OF ELECTIONS BC ACTING CHIEF ELECTORAL OFFICER CRAIG JAMES
Vander Zalm: Elections BC decision to reject Recall application for Oak Bay-Gordon Head based on “too long word count” continues pattern of obstruction and incompetence
DELTA – Fight HST Leader Bill Vander Zalm is calling for the resignation of Elections BC Acting Chief Electoral Officer Craig James in the wake of his decision to reject the application for Recall by Oak Bay-Gordon Head proponent Michael Roy Hayes on the basis that the Recall statement attached to the petition application is “too long”.
Vander Zalm says in a letter to Recall proponent Hayes, James said he considers the words “MLA” and “HST” to be not two words, but a total of eight words (Member of the Legislative Assembly and Harmonized Sales Tax) on each reference, resulting in the application statement exceeding the 200 word allotment.
“This simply continues the same pattern of obstruction that has characterized Elections BC since Craig James was appointed by Premier Gordon Campbell to take over. If there were restrictions on acronyms, that information should have been given to the applicants at the time they were handed their application. But it wasn’t because Craig James obviously made it up yesterday when he decided this would be another way to serve his BC Liberal masters by trying to sabotage the Recall petition. It is outrageous!” Vander Zalm said.
Colin Nielsen, the Lead Organizer for the Oak Bay-Gordon Head Recall says he has also been told that since the application was rejected, over 150 canvasser applications must also be re-done and re-signed.
“This is a deliberate attempt to blow us out of the water before the Christmas break. All Elections BC had to do was call us up and let us know there was a ‘technical glitch’ and we could have easily fixed it. But James is doing everything he can to try to thwart the democratic process rather than facilitate it. It’s like he’s making up the rules as he goes along,” Nielsen said.
Nielsen says he and proponent Hayes plan to return immediately to Elections BC on Thursday with the revised petition application and the existing canvasser applications to demand that the application process be facilitated.
“Enough is enough. This has got to stop. There is no reason to make us waste weeks trying to re-do all of the canvasser application again. It is like we are living in some sort of banana republic run by corrupt officials,” said Nielsen.
Vander Zalm says the latest decision by James is part of a pattern of obstruction regarding the Fight HST group. “The Acting CEO was appointed by the government, not the BC Legislature. He does not enjoy the independence and support required to be effective in this critical role as guardian of the democratic process.”
Vander Zalm says that since taking office, Acting CEO James has made a number of questionable decisions that have led many in the public to conclude he is not acting independently of the BC Government, as follows:
James ruled that a BC Liberal government web site which contained dozens of HST advocacy videos at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars did not qualify as “Initiative advertising” even though the web site by Fight HST did.
When the petition to end the HST was completed and validated, James refused to forward it to the Standing Committee of the Legislature as required by the Initiative Act, forcing the Fight HST proponents to get the Supreme Court to order Elections BC to submit the petition, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars to private citizens.
James has undertaken a major overhaul of the Elections BC management structure, including firing deputy Chief Electoral Officer Linda Johnson, a 28 year veteran of the agency who also happened to rule against the BC Liberal government’s planned mailout during the petition.
James sent intimidating letters to over 2,000 British Columbians, including numerous elderly citizens who accidentally signed the Initiative petition twice, threatening them with two years in jail and $10,000 fines only one week before Recalls were set to begin and over three months after the petition had been counted and validated.
James has gone on record as saying that a referendum on the HST will take between one year and nine months to conduct, even though entire province wide elections have been held in the past within 4 weeks of a government giving notice to EBC that it has dropped the writ.
“Now he is telling the people of Oak Bay-Gordon Head their application for a Recall has been rejected because common acronyms like HST and MLA are actually eight words. It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious,” said Vander Zalm.
“This time he has gone too far. We call on Craig James to admit he has lost the confidence of the people of BC and done irreparable damage to the independent reputation of Elections BC, and resign. Failing that, we call on the premier to remove him and we call on the entire BC Liberal caucus and all of the potential leadership candidates to immediately denounce this charade,” Vander Zalm concluded.
To comment on the article or to view the EBC Documents, click here: http://fighthst.com/press-release-vander-zalm-calls-for-resignation-of-ebc-ceo-james-for-rejecting-recall-application/
Vander Zalm: Elections BC decision to reject Recall application for Oak Bay-Gordon Head based on “too long word count” continues pattern of obstruction and incompetence
DELTA – Fight HST Leader Bill Vander Zalm is calling for the resignation of Elections BC Acting Chief Electoral Officer Craig James in the wake of his decision to reject the application for Recall by Oak Bay-Gordon Head proponent Michael Roy Hayes on the basis that the Recall statement attached to the petition application is “too long”.
Vander Zalm says in a letter to Recall proponent Hayes, James said he considers the words “MLA” and “HST” to be not two words, but a total of eight words (Member of the Legislative Assembly and Harmonized Sales Tax) on each reference, resulting in the application statement exceeding the 200 word allotment.
“This simply continues the same pattern of obstruction that has characterized Elections BC since Craig James was appointed by Premier Gordon Campbell to take over. If there were restrictions on acronyms, that information should have been given to the applicants at the time they were handed their application. But it wasn’t because Craig James obviously made it up yesterday when he decided this would be another way to serve his BC Liberal masters by trying to sabotage the Recall petition. It is outrageous!” Vander Zalm said.
Colin Nielsen, the Lead Organizer for the Oak Bay-Gordon Head Recall says he has also been told that since the application was rejected, over 150 canvasser applications must also be re-done and re-signed.
“This is a deliberate attempt to blow us out of the water before the Christmas break. All Elections BC had to do was call us up and let us know there was a ‘technical glitch’ and we could have easily fixed it. But James is doing everything he can to try to thwart the democratic process rather than facilitate it. It’s like he’s making up the rules as he goes along,” Nielsen said.
Nielsen says he and proponent Hayes plan to return immediately to Elections BC on Thursday with the revised petition application and the existing canvasser applications to demand that the application process be facilitated.
“Enough is enough. This has got to stop. There is no reason to make us waste weeks trying to re-do all of the canvasser application again. It is like we are living in some sort of banana republic run by corrupt officials,” said Nielsen.
Vander Zalm says the latest decision by James is part of a pattern of obstruction regarding the Fight HST group. “The Acting CEO was appointed by the government, not the BC Legislature. He does not enjoy the independence and support required to be effective in this critical role as guardian of the democratic process.”
Vander Zalm says that since taking office, Acting CEO James has made a number of questionable decisions that have led many in the public to conclude he is not acting independently of the BC Government, as follows:
James ruled that a BC Liberal government web site which contained dozens of HST advocacy videos at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars did not qualify as “Initiative advertising” even though the web site by Fight HST did.
When the petition to end the HST was completed and validated, James refused to forward it to the Standing Committee of the Legislature as required by the Initiative Act, forcing the Fight HST proponents to get the Supreme Court to order Elections BC to submit the petition, at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars to private citizens.
James has undertaken a major overhaul of the Elections BC management structure, including firing deputy Chief Electoral Officer Linda Johnson, a 28 year veteran of the agency who also happened to rule against the BC Liberal government’s planned mailout during the petition.
James sent intimidating letters to over 2,000 British Columbians, including numerous elderly citizens who accidentally signed the Initiative petition twice, threatening them with two years in jail and $10,000 fines only one week before Recalls were set to begin and over three months after the petition had been counted and validated.
James has gone on record as saying that a referendum on the HST will take between one year and nine months to conduct, even though entire province wide elections have been held in the past within 4 weeks of a government giving notice to EBC that it has dropped the writ.
“Now he is telling the people of Oak Bay-Gordon Head their application for a Recall has been rejected because common acronyms like HST and MLA are actually eight words. It would be laughable if it weren’t so serious,” said Vander Zalm.
“This time he has gone too far. We call on Craig James to admit he has lost the confidence of the people of BC and done irreparable damage to the independent reputation of Elections BC, and resign. Failing that, we call on the premier to remove him and we call on the entire BC Liberal caucus and all of the potential leadership candidates to immediately denounce this charade,” Vander Zalm concluded.
To comment on the article or to view the EBC Documents, click here: http://fighthst.com/press-release-vander-zalm-calls-for-resignation-of-ebc-ceo-james-for-rejecting-recall-application/
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BC Mary: I say again -- although no citizen should need to say these things -- I have no axe to grind, I know nobody (except Bill Tieleman) working on this RECALL campaign, but I believe these facts as presented. It's long past time where we can afford to keep calling one another bad names (Me good, You bad) in a time of crisis.
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Comments:
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Trevor lives, works, relaxes in West Vancouver, why would he, where his electoral riding(s) have voted anything but NDP, support the NDP.
Stealing, a page from Laila Yuile's writings, why is it that the Sea to Sky highway costing well over $600 million, not have a toll on it so West Vancouverites and pay for the use of the highway? Why the Golden Ears, Why Port Mann?
Why is it that the First and Second Narrow Bridges don't have tolls on their bridges...even shadow tolls?.... Answer: because Trevor would have to write something nasty about the BC Liberals for the next 25 years (the length of the concessionaire toll on the sea to sky highway).
Stealing, a page from Laila Yuile's writings, why is it that the Sea to Sky highway costing well over $600 million, not have a toll on it so West Vancouverites and pay for the use of the highway? Why the Golden Ears, Why Port Mann?
Why is it that the First and Second Narrow Bridges don't have tolls on their bridges...even shadow tolls?.... Answer: because Trevor would have to write something nasty about the BC Liberals for the next 25 years (the length of the concessionaire toll on the sea to sky highway).
# posted by 
: November 25, 2010 at 9:02 a.m.
: November 25, 2010 at 9:02 a.m.
Oh, Anon 9:02, come on into the real world of instant communication!!
Trevor isn't writing for his immediate neighbourhood. He's writing about British Columbia, in a way which can -- and already has -- moved well beyond his neighbourhood.
I doubt that a genuine journalist ever thinks in the terms you describe.
That's an awfully strange excuse for him to be stomping the NDP. Would he really need to???
Trevor isn't writing for his immediate neighbourhood. He's writing about British Columbia, in a way which can -- and already has -- moved well beyond his neighbourhood.
I doubt that a genuine journalist ever thinks in the terms you describe.
That's an awfully strange excuse for him to be stomping the NDP. Would he really need to???
It just gets more disgusting when you think it can't! I at this point in time don't give a rat's ass what the NDP did in the 90's. This is 2010 and what is going on now, well people, you better wake up! Get out of your little 'it doesn't affect me' house and job and start paying attention. You will having nothing, I mean "NOTHING" by the time the present regime sells it/leases it for the next 30, 50, 999 years. Then you will see and be a part of the lower class, as the middle class is slowly disappearing. There will only be the rich and the poor and most of those middle class will be the poor, not the rich. Open your eyes people.
Than goodness for people like Mary, Laila, Grant, Norm etc. The real stories that you should be paying attention to, not the lieberal media hacks, and the overpaid PAB employees.
Than goodness for people like Mary, Laila, Grant, Norm etc. The real stories that you should be paying attention to, not the lieberal media hacks, and the overpaid PAB employees.
# posted by : November 25, 2010 at 9:35 a.m.
: November 25, 2010 at 9:35 a.m.
As stated in the press release, the whole process stinks of BC Liberal corruption. EVERYTHING THEY TOUCH goes bad, is questionably legal or is an obvious conflict of interest. Of course the BC Liberals would not care anyway - they are led by someone who is mentally unbalanced, crooked and corrupt and cares not one iota for the people or the province of British Columbia.
It is getting close to the time that the people start to flex their powers - maybe general strikes, large civil disobediance - that sort of thing. This government and Campbell know nothing of being fair, civil and reasonable - it is all about "screwing thepeople and the provonce" nothing else.
Sorry, but it needs to be said and aired.
Thanks
JW
It is getting close to the time that the people start to flex their powers - maybe general strikes, large civil disobediance - that sort of thing. This government and Campbell know nothing of being fair, civil and reasonable - it is all about "screwing thepeople and the provonce" nothing else.
Sorry, but it needs to be said and aired.
Thanks
JW
# posted by : November 25, 2010 at 10:43 a.m.
: November 25, 2010 at 10:43 a.m.
Why? Because Elections BC isn't holding Vander Zalm's and Delaney's hands anymore on how to bring down the government? The fact is, the organizers STILL could have submitted a draft wording of the recall text for review: they didn't, and were rightly spanked for being so stupid.
# posted by : November 25, 2010 at 12:15 p.m.
: November 25, 2010 at 12:15 p.m.
Of course Campbell had to get rid of the two honest members of Elections BC. He had to put another of his butt kissing boys, to dirty everything he touches. The filth of this BC Liberal government, must always be remembered, and never allowed to be in our province, ever again. That the Liberal ministers and mla's, that support that monster of a Campbell, are as dirty as he is. On Global TV last night, teachers were saying, children are so hungry, they can't even do their lessons. Hungry children, Campbell, Hansen, De Jong and the BC Liberal Party, wear as a badge of honor. They take great pride, in, having the highest number of hungry children in all of Canada. Campbell is especially proud of, having the lowest minimum wage, starting at $6.00 per hour. Way to go BC Liberals, this is your finest hour.
# posted by : November 25, 2010 at 1:57 p.m.
: November 25, 2010 at 1:57 p.m.
Just let them keep adding fuel to the fire. Every time they try to manipulate the outcome of the recall cAmpaign it just adds to the list of voters that will recall their mla. And confirms what they are already thinking about the liberals. Proof if you will. Keep it up Mr. James. Campbell and the rest will need somebody to help with their resumes.
# posted by : November 25, 2010 at 7:02 p.m.
: November 25, 2010 at 7:02 p.m.
Scampbell doesn't have to worry about his resume. He will be looked after by those whom he has been looking after for the last ten years. He'll be fine as long as he stays away from grassy knolls (This isn't inflamatory, Bobblehead Abbott uses the term and he is collaborative)!
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