Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Another assault on Delta and all of B.C., says Gentner. Update: coal protests in Washington State, U.S.A., similar to Deltaport issues.
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BC Mary comment: This is about the strange set-up at Deltaport ... thanks to Delta Optimist for this report dated May 31, 2011
"Yet another assault on Delta and all of B.C," says Guy Gentner, MLA for Delta North, "where multi-national corporation profits take precedence over the needs of British Columbians."
On February 22, just four days before Premier Christy Clark was elected as the Leader of the BC Liberals and Premier of British Columbia, the government put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the feasibility a B.C. Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) Program that will "reduce/eliminate international barriers to trade, investment, labour mobility and competitiveness."
John Ries from the Sauder School of Economics at UBC has stated that Foreign Trade Zones are simply a race to the bottom. With Foreign Trade Zones, the Liberal government has to provide subsidies to multi-national corporations and loosen environmental and labour standards. It is unclear what the benefits are to British Columbians, but it is clear that Foreign Trade Zones are indicators of a failed economic policy.
{Snip} ...
... Gentner stood in the Legislature during question period and estimates to question the Minister of Transportation and Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation whose ministries have both signed off on the RFP. Gentner asked each time what the benefits of FTZs are to British Columbia, and got nothing of substance that would assure British Columbians this is not a race to the bottom as stated by John Reis from Sauder School of Economics at UBC.
"The people of Delta and British Columbia want answers and we are again not getting them from this Liberal government," said Gentner. "We have seen time and again the secrecy within which this government continues to operate. The implementation of the HST, the sale of BC Rail, ramming through legislation without proper debate, are all examples of how the rights of British Columbians are be abrogated in the interests of corporations and profits."
Read more HERE:
http://www.delta-optimist.com/Another+assault+Delta+says+Gentner/4870718/story.html#ixzz1NzWKpNuv
BC Mary comment: This is about the strange set-up at Deltaport ... thanks to Delta Optimist for this report dated May 31, 2011
"Yet another assault on Delta and all of B.C," says Guy Gentner, MLA for Delta North, "where multi-national corporation profits take precedence over the needs of British Columbians."
On February 22, just four days before Premier Christy Clark was elected as the Leader of the BC Liberals and Premier of British Columbia, the government put out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the feasibility a B.C. Foreign Trade Zone (FTZ) Program that will "reduce/eliminate international barriers to trade, investment, labour mobility and competitiveness."
John Ries from the Sauder School of Economics at UBC has stated that Foreign Trade Zones are simply a race to the bottom. With Foreign Trade Zones, the Liberal government has to provide subsidies to multi-national corporations and loosen environmental and labour standards. It is unclear what the benefits are to British Columbians, but it is clear that Foreign Trade Zones are indicators of a failed economic policy.
{Snip} ...
... Gentner stood in the Legislature during question period and estimates to question the Minister of Transportation and Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation whose ministries have both signed off on the RFP. Gentner asked each time what the benefits of FTZs are to British Columbia, and got nothing of substance that would assure British Columbians this is not a race to the bottom as stated by John Reis from Sauder School of Economics at UBC.
"The people of Delta and British Columbia want answers and we are again not getting them from this Liberal government," said Gentner. "We have seen time and again the secrecy within which this government continues to operate. The implementation of the HST, the sale of BC Rail, ramming through legislation without proper debate, are all examples of how the rights of British Columbians are be abrogated in the interests of corporations and profits."
Read more HERE:
http://www.delta-optimist.com/Another+assault+Delta+says+Gentner/4870718/story.html#ixzz1NzWKpNuv
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In Washington State, U.S.A., not far from Deltaport BC, a righteous battle rages between the shippers of coal and those who realize what coal shipments do to the land and sea.
Please visit the article to access several important links.
Update: Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike today announced his opposition to plans for a coal port near the city. Earlier in the week, the growing debate over the global warming implications of shipping coal to China brought big turnouts to meetings there.
By Floyd McKay
June 02, 2011.
Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike said Friday (June 3) that he will work to oppose a bulk shipping terminal at Cherry Point north of the city that plans to export some 48 million tons of coal a year to China. Pike commented after a pair of public meetings this week that brought out large-scale opposition to the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal.
Although Pike has stated in the past that he wants environmental review of the $500 million project to go beyond the terminal site and include Bellingham and other impacted communities, his statement moves beyond that stated concern to outright opposition to the project as it is now planned. It is the heavy reliance on coal — nearly 90 percent of planned exports — and the resultant rail traffic that focuses his concerns.
Pike's concern about coal and rail impacts is echoed by his chief opponent in the fall mayoral election, former state Rep. Kelli Linville, who lives with her family some 75 yards from the main switching yard in Bellingham. Linville said she has always been an opponent of burning coal and supported the state's "no coal" policies; she also raises concerns about additional rail traffic.
She said, however, that she will wait for the public process to comment at an official on-the-record public hearing, rather than state her final position now. "I support the public process; let it work its way through," she told Crosscut. She noted that it would be very difficult for terminal developers to mitigate impacts to local communities, which could include major upgrades to rail crossings and other improvements.
The difference between Pike and Linville can be boiled down to timing and emphasis. Pike on Feb. 28 stated that he would await the formal process before taking a firm position on the coal port; Linville has maintained that stance throughout.
Pike said Friday he simply sees no chance that Gateway Pacific, to be operated by SSA Marine and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, which would transport the coal from the Powder River Basin to Cherry Point, are willing to consider helping local communities mitigate the considerable impact of the coal shipments.
"I hoped they would make a commitment to provide meaningful mitigations or — even better — a willingness consider other commodities, and not rely exclusively on coal exports for the terminal's financial engine," Pike said.
"Instead, these proponents brought denial of any potential harms and blatant defiance that they should change their plans in any way. In fact, it has become public knowledge that they have signed a multi-year deal with Montana's Peabody Coal to ship at least 24 million tons of coal from our sensitive shores as their major focus of business for the foreseeable future.
"That is not a future that I want to see. By any calculation, the proposed coal-dependent terminal at Cherry Point does not add up. I will, therefore, work with citizen groups, other elected officials, businesses and the health care community to oppose the current plan for the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal."
Linville said she was in agreement with Pike on the matter of mitigating the impact of the coal shipments, and is also concerned that coal is to be the major export from the terminal.
Commenting to The Bellingham Herald in May, Linville noted that she had supported an earlier plan to build an export terminal at Cherry Point, but the 1992 project did not mention exporting coal. "I did not support a dedicated coal port," she said. "I'm opposed to a single-purpose port. I support a final pier up there that supports multiple exports."
She also said she fought for steps to phase out coal-fired power in this state while she was a legislator. "I don't support coal-burning," she said. "I would much rather be exporting clean energy technology to China. ... We should be investing in what we want to have happen, instead of fighting what we don't want to have happen."
The third candidate in the mayor's race, Clayton Petree, was also quoted in the Herald story as waiting for more information before deciding on the terminal. "This is a time to listen, learn, and participate — not leap one way or another based on speculation about something we don't yet know enough about," Petree said. "In this case, the boldest approach is caution." He expressed particular concern about the impact on the city's planned waterfront development.
Although Bellingham is the largest city in Whatcom County, it will be the Whatcom County Commission that will ultimately decide the fate of applications for a shoreline permit and a final project permit. Formal applications have yet to be filed by SSA Marine, although preliminary study has already begun by county, state and federal agencies. When the applications are filed, the formal process of taking public testimony will begin, with early emphasis on setting the scope of the review process.
Scoping, as the procedure is called, determines if the environmental studies will be limited to the terminal site or expanded to include impacts on Bellingham and other communities. Rail traffic drawn by the site-about 18 additional trains of more than a mile in length-will carry coal and return empties from Gateway Pacific at full capacity of the planned terminal. Several communities, including Bellingham and Ferndale in Whatcom County, are bisected by the tracks.
Friday's statements by Pike and Linville followed an intense week on the part of coalport opponents, with two large gatherings Tuesday and Wednesday night, bringing out some heated rhetoric against the Gateway Pacific proposal and the idea of exporting coal in general. The week began in Fairhaven's Village Green, where a nationally known opponent of coal took the stage before a large and enthusiastic crowd.
"This is the perfect place for this fight," environmental author and global-warming warrior Bill McKibben told a crowd of nearly 1,000 Tuesday (May 31) in Bellingham, kicking off two days of events in a community many regard as the "greenest" in the state.
McKibben, whose 1989 book, The End of Nature, was the first popular-press warning of the approach of global warming, came to Bellingham to stir what has been a relatively low-key opposition to SSA Marine's proposal to build a $500 million export facility at Cherry Point, north of Bellingham. It would export up to 48 million tons of coal annually to China, to be burned powering electrical plants there, and 6 million tons of other undetermined bulk commodities.
Enthusiasm stirred by McKibben and organized largely by Re Sources, a local sustainability organization, resulted in 800 signatures on petitions to elected officials calling for community impacts to be included in environmental impact studies for the Gateway Pacific Terminal. SSA has opposed expanding the studies beyond borders of the site, which could mean the project operators would be required to mitigate the effects of additional trains and other off-site impacts.
The tide of opposition spilled over to a Wednesday community forum called by Mayor Pike, as about 300 people packed a municipal courtroom and another 200 waited outside to address Pike regarding their concerns about the project. The mayor has said he wants community impact to be considered in the environmental reviews.
The forums marked a change in the tenor of the battle for the export terminal. SSA Marine last fall started a quiet campaign to line up political support for the plan, and by the time Bellingham residents were aware the effort was afoot, the project had lined up a group of small-town mayors, Congressman Rick Larsen, three legislators, the local Chamber of Commerce, and the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council. Leading the effort was Craig Cole, a former county councilman and retired businessman with strong community connections.
Re Sources and some environmental leaders began organizing early this year, focusing their efforts on coal as the chief export for the terminal. McKibben emphasized the role of coal in the Cherry Point plan Tuesday, referring to coal as "the most dangerous substance on the planet" and urging his Bellingham audience to play a key role in combating climate change.
"Climate change is one of the first chances we have ever had to find out if we really are all brothers and sisters," McKibben said of the global movement to combat global warming. Bellingham, because of its reputation for sustainability and support for a green economy, is an ideal place to combat coal mining and exports, he stated.
While Whatcom County will prepare the crucial final project permit, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the shoreline permit, and several state agencies are involved in preparing environmental data for those permits. Bellingham is not a direct player in the process, but it is about 40 percent of the county's population.
Mayor Pike, mindful of the city's role (or lack of a role), asked his Wednesday night forum to tell him what community impacts should be studied in the process, beyond those that will be examined on the Gateway Pacific site. He got an earful, as about 50 people approached the microphones to express concerns.
Nearly all of the concerns focused on coal as the major export commodity, and most told Pike that health issues from breathing coal dust and diesel fumes from added coal trains are their major worries. Sara Mostad, a Bellingham physician, presented a petition with the names of 80 local doctors, and said medical research shows a clear danger to air and water quality from coal dust, including an impact on asthma and other respiratory issues. Her testimony was seconded by a woman who described herself as a lung cancer survivor living near the railroad tracks.
The majority of those speaking appeared to be solidly against exporting coal from Cherry Point under any circumstances, echoing McKibben's call the previous night. Dana Lyons of Bellingham called for "civil disobedience in every town along the route" if necessary to halt the coal trains. He drew loud cheers from the crowd, despite admonitions against applause.
While the evening evoked more applause for project opponents, labor leader David Warren, recently retired as head of the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council, charged opponents with fear-mongering and distortions, and accused Re Sources of refusing to meet with labor leaders. "Our relationship is over," Warren stated heatedly, "We're going to fight for these jobs."
When Warren concluded, "let me express my disappointment at how quickly the people of this community can turn their backs on the unemployed," he drew catcalls from the audience. Warren and two other labor representatives were the only speakers defending the project; several other speakers identified themselves as union members before blasting the project and calling for jobs that did no harm the environment.
Although health concerns were the predominant worry at the forum, several of the speakers addressed the impact of more large trains on the economy and livability of the community. Six coal trains of about a mile and a half in length currently run through Bellingham en route to Roberts Bank south of Vancouver; half are full, the others are returning empty cars to the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. Gateway Pacific, in full operation, would add about 18 trains a day, full and empty, to the six already running, and the trains are expected to be longer and heavier than current trains.
In a previous statement of concern, Mayor Pike cited the impact of the added trains to the city's ambitious plans to remake a former mill site into a new mix of business, office, and residential developments on the city's waterfront. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks run through the development site. Speakers also cited the impact on popular parks in the city and along Chuckanut Drive, where train tracks run through or alongside the facilities.
Although most of the speakers were from Bellingham, several spoke from Ferndale, a smaller community closer to Cherry Point, where railroad traffic bisects the city; and also from rural communities opposing any plan to shift coal traffic to an alternate rail line running from Burlington north to Sumas.
Wednesday night's forum played no formal role in the review process, other than to show community opposition to the project and perhaps provide some cover for leaders who may want to oppose the terminal but are concerned about organized labor's charge that they oppose high-wage jobs. SSA Marine says it will provide about 280 full-time jobs when the terminal is built to capacity, plus temporary construction jobs building the facility. Whatcom County has an unemployment rate above the state average, and local project backers have cited jobs as their primary argument for building the terminal.
Behind the scenes, politics will heat up in coming months and could be crucial to a final outcome. In addition to the city mayoral race, County Executive Pete Kremen is stepping down, opening that critical position for a fall vote. Thus far, only conservatives from outside Bellingham have shown an interest in filing for the position; project opponents have yet to get a candidate into the race. Three county council members are also up this year. Ultimately, the county council, now with a pro-development majority, will join the Executive in deciding the key project permit.
That decision could be two years down the line; SSA Marine has yet to file a formal permit application, although state and county agencies are already working on preliminary papers. A team of environmental specialists, organized as a Multi-Agency Permit Team (MAP), working out of the governor's office, has been meeting behind closed doors since November, reviewing SSA Marine's proposals. The MAP team has posted documents from its considerations, but participation has been limited to representatives of eight state, local, and federal agencies plus Gateway Pacific. No outside organizations have been allowed to attend the sessions. This prompted an April 27 letter to the MAP team from Bellingham environmental lawyers Barbara Dykes and Tom Erlichman, who represent some private businesses and property owners in Whatcom County.
Their letter concluded: "A student of the . . . process might conclude, sadly, that the exercise lacks perspective and grounding in reality, when it excludes the majority of affected jurisdictions, businesses, property owners, and citizens along the affected transportation corridor. Public confidence can be restored in the (MAP) review if it is quickly revised to include a broader base, allowing these affected entities to participate in the discussion about project design, impacts, and scope of agency review to come. Without that change, this post-application . . . review process behind closed doors seems skewed in favor of the applicant. The affected public is left with the impression that the review is well underway, while they are being left outside as showpieces in an agency environmental review process that is already pre-determined in many important respects."
Formal hearings to determine the scope of the environmental studies, including the issue of including communities distant from the site and impacted primarily by rail traffic, will await Gateway Pacific's formal permit application, expected within the next several weeks.
In Bellingham at least, the informal hearings have begun and the temperature is rising. Activists expect to organize in several other western Washington communities that would be impacted by rail traffic, since the coal trains would move up the state from Vancouver to Ferndale.
Floyd J. McKay, professor of journalism emeritus at Western Washington University, is a longtime Northwest journalist who covered Oregon politics for two decades. He can be reached at floydmckay@comcast.net.
Pat Rasmussen
World Temperate Rainforest Network
patr@crcwnet.com
509-669-1549
www.temperaterainforests.org
~~~~~~~
Coal-for-China debate burns its way into Bellingham's mayor race
Update: Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike today announced his opposition to plans for a coal port near the city. Earlier in the week, the growing debate over the global warming implications of shipping coal to China brought big turnouts to meetings there.
By Floyd McKay
June 02, 2011.
Bellingham Mayor Dan Pike said Friday (June 3) that he will work to oppose a bulk shipping terminal at Cherry Point north of the city that plans to export some 48 million tons of coal a year to China. Pike commented after a pair of public meetings this week that brought out large-scale opposition to the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal.
Although Pike has stated in the past that he wants environmental review of the $500 million project to go beyond the terminal site and include Bellingham and other impacted communities, his statement moves beyond that stated concern to outright opposition to the project as it is now planned. It is the heavy reliance on coal — nearly 90 percent of planned exports — and the resultant rail traffic that focuses his concerns.
Pike's concern about coal and rail impacts is echoed by his chief opponent in the fall mayoral election, former state Rep. Kelli Linville, who lives with her family some 75 yards from the main switching yard in Bellingham. Linville said she has always been an opponent of burning coal and supported the state's "no coal" policies; she also raises concerns about additional rail traffic.
She said, however, that she will wait for the public process to comment at an official on-the-record public hearing, rather than state her final position now. "I support the public process; let it work its way through," she told Crosscut. She noted that it would be very difficult for terminal developers to mitigate impacts to local communities, which could include major upgrades to rail crossings and other improvements.
The difference between Pike and Linville can be boiled down to timing and emphasis. Pike on Feb. 28 stated that he would await the formal process before taking a firm position on the coal port; Linville has maintained that stance throughout.
Pike said Friday he simply sees no chance that Gateway Pacific, to be operated by SSA Marine and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad, which would transport the coal from the Powder River Basin to Cherry Point, are willing to consider helping local communities mitigate the considerable impact of the coal shipments.
"I hoped they would make a commitment to provide meaningful mitigations or — even better — a willingness consider other commodities, and not rely exclusively on coal exports for the terminal's financial engine," Pike said.
"Instead, these proponents brought denial of any potential harms and blatant defiance that they should change their plans in any way. In fact, it has become public knowledge that they have signed a multi-year deal with Montana's Peabody Coal to ship at least 24 million tons of coal from our sensitive shores as their major focus of business for the foreseeable future.
"That is not a future that I want to see. By any calculation, the proposed coal-dependent terminal at Cherry Point does not add up. I will, therefore, work with citizen groups, other elected officials, businesses and the health care community to oppose the current plan for the proposed Gateway Pacific Terminal."
Linville said she was in agreement with Pike on the matter of mitigating the impact of the coal shipments, and is also concerned that coal is to be the major export from the terminal.
Commenting to The Bellingham Herald in May, Linville noted that she had supported an earlier plan to build an export terminal at Cherry Point, but the 1992 project did not mention exporting coal. "I did not support a dedicated coal port," she said. "I'm opposed to a single-purpose port. I support a final pier up there that supports multiple exports."
She also said she fought for steps to phase out coal-fired power in this state while she was a legislator. "I don't support coal-burning," she said. "I would much rather be exporting clean energy technology to China. ... We should be investing in what we want to have happen, instead of fighting what we don't want to have happen."
The third candidate in the mayor's race, Clayton Petree, was also quoted in the Herald story as waiting for more information before deciding on the terminal. "This is a time to listen, learn, and participate — not leap one way or another based on speculation about something we don't yet know enough about," Petree said. "In this case, the boldest approach is caution." He expressed particular concern about the impact on the city's planned waterfront development.
Although Bellingham is the largest city in Whatcom County, it will be the Whatcom County Commission that will ultimately decide the fate of applications for a shoreline permit and a final project permit. Formal applications have yet to be filed by SSA Marine, although preliminary study has already begun by county, state and federal agencies. When the applications are filed, the formal process of taking public testimony will begin, with early emphasis on setting the scope of the review process.
Scoping, as the procedure is called, determines if the environmental studies will be limited to the terminal site or expanded to include impacts on Bellingham and other communities. Rail traffic drawn by the site-about 18 additional trains of more than a mile in length-will carry coal and return empties from Gateway Pacific at full capacity of the planned terminal. Several communities, including Bellingham and Ferndale in Whatcom County, are bisected by the tracks.
Friday's statements by Pike and Linville followed an intense week on the part of coalport opponents, with two large gatherings Tuesday and Wednesday night, bringing out some heated rhetoric against the Gateway Pacific proposal and the idea of exporting coal in general. The week began in Fairhaven's Village Green, where a nationally known opponent of coal took the stage before a large and enthusiastic crowd.
"This is the perfect place for this fight," environmental author and global-warming warrior Bill McKibben told a crowd of nearly 1,000 Tuesday (May 31) in Bellingham, kicking off two days of events in a community many regard as the "greenest" in the state.
McKibben, whose 1989 book, The End of Nature, was the first popular-press warning of the approach of global warming, came to Bellingham to stir what has been a relatively low-key opposition to SSA Marine's proposal to build a $500 million export facility at Cherry Point, north of Bellingham. It would export up to 48 million tons of coal annually to China, to be burned powering electrical plants there, and 6 million tons of other undetermined bulk commodities.
Enthusiasm stirred by McKibben and organized largely by Re Sources, a local sustainability organization, resulted in 800 signatures on petitions to elected officials calling for community impacts to be included in environmental impact studies for the Gateway Pacific Terminal. SSA has opposed expanding the studies beyond borders of the site, which could mean the project operators would be required to mitigate the effects of additional trains and other off-site impacts.
The tide of opposition spilled over to a Wednesday community forum called by Mayor Pike, as about 300 people packed a municipal courtroom and another 200 waited outside to address Pike regarding their concerns about the project. The mayor has said he wants community impact to be considered in the environmental reviews.
The forums marked a change in the tenor of the battle for the export terminal. SSA Marine last fall started a quiet campaign to line up political support for the plan, and by the time Bellingham residents were aware the effort was afoot, the project had lined up a group of small-town mayors, Congressman Rick Larsen, three legislators, the local Chamber of Commerce, and the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council. Leading the effort was Craig Cole, a former county councilman and retired businessman with strong community connections.
Re Sources and some environmental leaders began organizing early this year, focusing their efforts on coal as the chief export for the terminal. McKibben emphasized the role of coal in the Cherry Point plan Tuesday, referring to coal as "the most dangerous substance on the planet" and urging his Bellingham audience to play a key role in combating climate change.
"Climate change is one of the first chances we have ever had to find out if we really are all brothers and sisters," McKibben said of the global movement to combat global warming. Bellingham, because of its reputation for sustainability and support for a green economy, is an ideal place to combat coal mining and exports, he stated.
While Whatcom County will prepare the crucial final project permit, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the shoreline permit, and several state agencies are involved in preparing environmental data for those permits. Bellingham is not a direct player in the process, but it is about 40 percent of the county's population.
Mayor Pike, mindful of the city's role (or lack of a role), asked his Wednesday night forum to tell him what community impacts should be studied in the process, beyond those that will be examined on the Gateway Pacific site. He got an earful, as about 50 people approached the microphones to express concerns.
Nearly all of the concerns focused on coal as the major export commodity, and most told Pike that health issues from breathing coal dust and diesel fumes from added coal trains are their major worries. Sara Mostad, a Bellingham physician, presented a petition with the names of 80 local doctors, and said medical research shows a clear danger to air and water quality from coal dust, including an impact on asthma and other respiratory issues. Her testimony was seconded by a woman who described herself as a lung cancer survivor living near the railroad tracks.
The majority of those speaking appeared to be solidly against exporting coal from Cherry Point under any circumstances, echoing McKibben's call the previous night. Dana Lyons of Bellingham called for "civil disobedience in every town along the route" if necessary to halt the coal trains. He drew loud cheers from the crowd, despite admonitions against applause.
While the evening evoked more applause for project opponents, labor leader David Warren, recently retired as head of the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council, charged opponents with fear-mongering and distortions, and accused Re Sources of refusing to meet with labor leaders. "Our relationship is over," Warren stated heatedly, "We're going to fight for these jobs."
When Warren concluded, "let me express my disappointment at how quickly the people of this community can turn their backs on the unemployed," he drew catcalls from the audience. Warren and two other labor representatives were the only speakers defending the project; several other speakers identified themselves as union members before blasting the project and calling for jobs that did no harm the environment.
Although health concerns were the predominant worry at the forum, several of the speakers addressed the impact of more large trains on the economy and livability of the community. Six coal trains of about a mile and a half in length currently run through Bellingham en route to Roberts Bank south of Vancouver; half are full, the others are returning empty cars to the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. Gateway Pacific, in full operation, would add about 18 trains a day, full and empty, to the six already running, and the trains are expected to be longer and heavier than current trains.
In a previous statement of concern, Mayor Pike cited the impact of the added trains to the city's ambitious plans to remake a former mill site into a new mix of business, office, and residential developments on the city's waterfront. The Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks run through the development site. Speakers also cited the impact on popular parks in the city and along Chuckanut Drive, where train tracks run through or alongside the facilities.
Although most of the speakers were from Bellingham, several spoke from Ferndale, a smaller community closer to Cherry Point, where railroad traffic bisects the city; and also from rural communities opposing any plan to shift coal traffic to an alternate rail line running from Burlington north to Sumas.
Wednesday night's forum played no formal role in the review process, other than to show community opposition to the project and perhaps provide some cover for leaders who may want to oppose the terminal but are concerned about organized labor's charge that they oppose high-wage jobs. SSA Marine says it will provide about 280 full-time jobs when the terminal is built to capacity, plus temporary construction jobs building the facility. Whatcom County has an unemployment rate above the state average, and local project backers have cited jobs as their primary argument for building the terminal.
Behind the scenes, politics will heat up in coming months and could be crucial to a final outcome. In addition to the city mayoral race, County Executive Pete Kremen is stepping down, opening that critical position for a fall vote. Thus far, only conservatives from outside Bellingham have shown an interest in filing for the position; project opponents have yet to get a candidate into the race. Three county council members are also up this year. Ultimately, the county council, now with a pro-development majority, will join the Executive in deciding the key project permit.
That decision could be two years down the line; SSA Marine has yet to file a formal permit application, although state and county agencies are already working on preliminary papers. A team of environmental specialists, organized as a Multi-Agency Permit Team (MAP), working out of the governor's office, has been meeting behind closed doors since November, reviewing SSA Marine's proposals. The MAP team has posted documents from its considerations, but participation has been limited to representatives of eight state, local, and federal agencies plus Gateway Pacific. No outside organizations have been allowed to attend the sessions. This prompted an April 27 letter to the MAP team from Bellingham environmental lawyers Barbara Dykes and Tom Erlichman, who represent some private businesses and property owners in Whatcom County.
Their letter concluded: "A student of the . . . process might conclude, sadly, that the exercise lacks perspective and grounding in reality, when it excludes the majority of affected jurisdictions, businesses, property owners, and citizens along the affected transportation corridor. Public confidence can be restored in the (MAP) review if it is quickly revised to include a broader base, allowing these affected entities to participate in the discussion about project design, impacts, and scope of agency review to come. Without that change, this post-application . . . review process behind closed doors seems skewed in favor of the applicant. The affected public is left with the impression that the review is well underway, while they are being left outside as showpieces in an agency environmental review process that is already pre-determined in many important respects."
Formal hearings to determine the scope of the environmental studies, including the issue of including communities distant from the site and impacted primarily by rail traffic, will await Gateway Pacific's formal permit application, expected within the next several weeks.
In Bellingham at least, the informal hearings have begun and the temperature is rising. Activists expect to organize in several other western Washington communities that would be impacted by rail traffic, since the coal trains would move up the state from Vancouver to Ferndale.
Floyd J. McKay, professor of journalism emeritus at Western Washington University, is a longtime Northwest journalist who covered Oregon politics for two decades. He can be reached at floydmckay@comcast.net.
Pat Rasmussen
World Temperate Rainforest Network
patr@crcwnet.com
509-669-1549
www.temperaterainforests.org
___________________________________________
Questions? Email arthurcaldicott@sqwalk.com
or dawnc1@telus.net
or dawnc1@telus.net
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CN to start construction of Calgary Logistics Park in summer 2011.
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cn-to-start-construction-of-calgary-logistics-park-in-summer-2011-123831954.html
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BCRail: $1.1 billion. Victoria-to-Langford: $950 million.
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BC Mary comment: The dictionary says that "relevant" means when something is just so right that only one word can highlight the relevance of the situation. OK, let me say that one word -- BCRail -- which certainly highlights the $950 million price-tag for building 20-miles of track between Victoria and Langford. BC Rail was a class II regional railway and the third-largest in Canada, operating 2,320 km (1,441 miles) of mainline track vital to the provincial economy. Gordon Campbell thought that a $1.1 billion sell-off price was great news. And now, Victoria wants to spend almost as much on on 20 miles of track in Victoria's back yard?? Isn't this relevant??
Revenue options explored for Greater Victoria's billion-dollar rail system
Funding may come from hike in gas taxes
By Bill Cleverley
Times Colonist - May 31, 2011
With a billion-dollar light rail system on the horizon, members of Victoria's transit commission will be meeting with Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom this morning looking for more revenue sources.
Everything from an increase in gas taxes to a piece of carbon taxes to possible new fees for parking or vehicle registration should be up for consideration, says Saanich councillor and transit commission member Susan Brice.
"Obviously transit is fulfilling a vision that the province has for increasing ridership," said Brice.
"[We'd like to] talk about whatever options there might be. That might be a gas tax - whatever. We're into a project here that certainly puts the Victoria Regional Transit Commission in a more significant decision-making process than it had for the previous 10 or 20 years."
The Victoria Regional Transit Commission, the Capital Regional District and the BC Transit Board have all endorsed plans for a $950-million light rail system between Victoria and Langford but say they need commitment from senior levels of government before they can move ahead.
Victoria Regional Transit Commission chairman Christopher Causton did not want to get into specifics about what might be discussed at the meeting.
Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard, a transit commission member, says while additional revenue is always welcome, something also has to be done about the way money is being spent by B.C. Transit without what he believes is adequate opportunity for local oversight.
B.C. Transit is a Crown corporation that essentially acts as a contractor to various regional transit systems in the province.
{Snip} ...
"So if it is true that millions of dollars are being spent on real estate for potential LRT, it just adds to my frustration that next year's budget request is going to be huge. They're going to look at another double-digit tax increase. And if you try to do something about it you can't."
Leonard's not alone in calling for a change in transit governance. More than three dozen municipal and regional government officials are also hoping for a meeting with Lekstrom to share concerns with respect to transit communication, marketing, transportation planning, governance and funding.
"Obviously, senior government funding is wonderful but I think we need public confidence in how money is being spent and I don't have that confidence," Leonard said.
Read more HERE:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Revenue+options+explored+Greater+Victoria+billion+dollar+rail+system/4866182/story.html#ixzz1NwHGQ6Dv
BC Mary comment: The dictionary says that "relevant" means when something is just so right that only one word can highlight the relevance of the situation. OK, let me say that one word -- BCRail -- which certainly highlights the $950 million price-tag for building 20-miles of track between Victoria and Langford. BC Rail was a class II regional railway and the third-largest in Canada, operating 2,320 km (1,441 miles) of mainline track vital to the provincial economy. Gordon Campbell thought that a $1.1 billion sell-off price was great news. And now, Victoria wants to spend almost as much on on 20 miles of track in Victoria's back yard?? Isn't this relevant??
____________________
Revenue options explored for Greater Victoria's billion-dollar rail system
Funding may come from hike in gas taxes
By Bill Cleverley
Times Colonist - May 31, 2011
With a billion-dollar light rail system on the horizon, members of Victoria's transit commission will be meeting with Transportation Minister Blair Lekstrom this morning looking for more revenue sources.
Everything from an increase in gas taxes to a piece of carbon taxes to possible new fees for parking or vehicle registration should be up for consideration, says Saanich councillor and transit commission member Susan Brice.
"Obviously transit is fulfilling a vision that the province has for increasing ridership," said Brice.
"[We'd like to] talk about whatever options there might be. That might be a gas tax - whatever. We're into a project here that certainly puts the Victoria Regional Transit Commission in a more significant decision-making process than it had for the previous 10 or 20 years."
The Victoria Regional Transit Commission, the Capital Regional District and the BC Transit Board have all endorsed plans for a $950-million light rail system between Victoria and Langford but say they need commitment from senior levels of government before they can move ahead.
Victoria Regional Transit Commission chairman Christopher Causton did not want to get into specifics about what might be discussed at the meeting.
Saanich Mayor Frank Leonard, a transit commission member, says while additional revenue is always welcome, something also has to be done about the way money is being spent by B.C. Transit without what he believes is adequate opportunity for local oversight.
B.C. Transit is a Crown corporation that essentially acts as a contractor to various regional transit systems in the province.
{Snip} ...
"So if it is true that millions of dollars are being spent on real estate for potential LRT, it just adds to my frustration that next year's budget request is going to be huge. They're going to look at another double-digit tax increase. And if you try to do something about it you can't."
Leonard's not alone in calling for a change in transit governance. More than three dozen municipal and regional government officials are also hoping for a meeting with Lekstrom to share concerns with respect to transit communication, marketing, transportation planning, governance and funding.
"Obviously, senior government funding is wonderful but I think we need public confidence in how money is being spent and I don't have that confidence," Leonard said.
Read more HERE:
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Revenue+options+explored+Greater+Victoria+billion+dollar+rail+system/4866182/story.html#ixzz1NwHGQ6Dv
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Saturday, May 28, 2011
Articles like this are rarely seen in our West Coast media
.
BC Mary says: Here is an extraordinary Globe and Mail article about Jack Layton. It's the best I've seen, answering so many questions with fairness and dignity.
Here's the URL:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/jack-of-hearts-layton-stakes-his-biggest-bet/article2038265/
and here's a quote from:
Layton stakes his biggest bet as Jack of Hearts
By John Allemang
The Globe and Mail - May 27, 2011
... That's why Mr. Layton appeals to NDP colleagues who refuse to accept that a high-minded belief system is a losing proposition. “He's put the elements in play for a victory,” says Pat Martin, who initially opposed Mr. Layton's Toronto-centric urbanity when he was chosen as leader in 2003. “Jack is the master of a personalized management style, which is a rare skill set on the left. … He's slowly but surely rebuilt the NDP from a dysfunctional group of activists, without losing sight of our founding principles, and that's why people trust us now. People know we've evolved into a modern social-democratic party.” ...
BC Mary: A detailed study, highly recommended. We'll never see this article (or anything like it) in a West Coast newspaper. Might be a good idea to pass it along to others. - Mary.
P.S. Some readers will be asking "What does this have to do with BC Rail?" I am preparing the answer even as we speak, because believe me, after you read the Globe and Mail story (above), you'll be wondering why such articles are rarely if ever seen or heard in the West Coast daily news media ... which has everything to do with what kind of information British Columbia was/is given about many things, especially BC Rail. - M.
BC Mary says: Holy smoke, here's another commentary which also begins to level the playing field for Canadian citizens ... !! Also, be it noted, from an eastern newspaper.
• Restore civility to Parliament.
• Put economic equality front and centre. “It’s in the economic realm that the body politic is hurting,” said Schreyer. After five decades of building an egalitarian society, “we are moving in the opposite direction, with 1 per cent of the population in North America controlling 26 per cent of the wealth, and with unconscionable levels of compensation for the executive echelon. Yet here’s Harper cutting taxes for those already enjoying a standard of living that’s beyond the wildest imagination of most Canadians.”
• Define the NDP platform’s cap-and-trade proposal for climate change. Come to grips with a carbon tax.
• Try to align Quebecers’ social democratic values more permanently with a federal, as opposed to a separatist, party.
• Articulate a foreign policy that would restore Canada’s role in the world, not as a warmonger but as an advocate of peace, human rights and development.
• Lead a values debate at home to help reverse the right-wing tilt of our public policy.
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P.S. from BC Mary: I have decided to celebrate this auspicious occasion by invoking the first and last of these Expectations. This means that two mud-slingers bit the dust in the comments section here today ... proving the point about the knee-jerk reaction as taught by the corrupted BC media. It sure didn't take long before the nasties started throwing mud - any old mud (correct, false slogans, and/or just plain stupid) -- and I call those comments for what they are. I think we've all heard enough of that B.S. in the past. Don't need it now. Let's look on the bright side, and discover what a functioning democracy looks like. For example ...
BC Mary says: Here is an extraordinary Globe and Mail article about Jack Layton. It's the best I've seen, answering so many questions with fairness and dignity.
Here's the URL:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/jack-of-hearts-layton-stakes-his-biggest-bet/article2038265/
and here's a quote from:
Layton stakes his biggest bet as Jack of Hearts
By John Allemang
The Globe and Mail - May 27, 2011
... That's why Mr. Layton appeals to NDP colleagues who refuse to accept that a high-minded belief system is a losing proposition. “He's put the elements in play for a victory,” says Pat Martin, who initially opposed Mr. Layton's Toronto-centric urbanity when he was chosen as leader in 2003. “Jack is the master of a personalized management style, which is a rare skill set on the left. … He's slowly but surely rebuilt the NDP from a dysfunctional group of activists, without losing sight of our founding principles, and that's why people trust us now. People know we've evolved into a modern social-democratic party.” ...
_____
BC Mary: A detailed study, highly recommended. We'll never see this article (or anything like it) in a West Coast newspaper. Might be a good idea to pass it along to others. - Mary.
_______
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BC Mary says: Holy smoke, here's another commentary which also begins to level the playing field for Canadian citizens ... !! Also, be it noted, from an eastern newspaper.
________________
Siddiqui: Advice for Jack Layton from distinguished roster of NDP elder statesmen
By Haroon Siddiqui
Editorial Page
Toronto Star - May 15, 2011
Still sorting through the multiple meanings of the stunning federal election results — the regional, not national, trends that saw the NDP sweep Quebec and the Tories make inroads in Ontario, leaving the Maritimes and the West largely unchanged; the Tories making the most of their 2 per cent increase in popular vote; the hand-wringing over whether the Liberals should merge with the New Democrats — we have yet to fully absorb the emergence of the NDP as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition for the first time in our history.
The media have attributed this sea-change to Jack Layton’s cute moustache and his cane. The triviality fits the times in which the collective political memory extends to yesterday’s TV images. This does an injustice to the NDP’s long and distinguished track record as the single biggest intellectual and practical force for egalitarianism in Canada.
It was Tommy Douglas’s NDP government in Saskatchewan that pioneered medicare. It was the NDP that put pensions and unemployment benefits on the national agenda. It was the NDP in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia that ushered in affordable public auto insurance, which we could use in Ontario.
NDP also has had a solid track record of fiscal prudence.
Allan Blakeney in Saskatchewan (1971-82) produced 12 balanced budgets. When his successor, Tory Grant Devine, left a huge deficit and a $14 billion debt, the NDP’s Roy Romanov (1991-2001) balanced the books. In Manitoba, Ed Schreyer (1969-77) produced surpluses in eight of his nine budgets. When his successor, the Conservative Sterling Lyon, racked up a deficit of $200 million within four years, his NDP successor Howard Pawley cleared it and created a surplus. (Pawley’s memoir, Keep True: A Life in Politics, published by the University of Manitoba Press, has just been released).
Only Bob Rae in Ontario (1990-95) left a big deficit, a legacy of a debilitating recession as well as poor management.
By contrast, look at the conservatives’ record — the deficits and debts created by Ronald Reagan, Brian Mulroney, Stephen Harper and Mike Harris.
The NDP has had iconic leaders — quintessential Canadians: honest, principled and brave, wise and witty, amiable and approachable, averse to wedge politics.
The most fun to be with was Douglas, who after being premier (1944-61), became federal leader (1961-71). The “the little Scot” always had a joke, sometimes at his expense. He was once debating a Tory at an outdoor event, using a manure spreader as a platform. He began: “This is the first time I’ve spoken from a Liberal platform.” To which a farmer sitting up front shot back: “Let her roll, Tommy. She ain’t had a bigger load yet.”
His successor, David Lewis, also an immigrant (from what’s now Belarus), was so articulate that if you reproduced his extempore comments verbatim, you’d be reading perfect sentences and paragraphs. Remarkable, given that English was not his first language — he had learned it reading Charles Dickens with a Yiddish-English dictionary.
His son, Stephen, who became leader of the Ontario NDP and has distinguished himself working on AIDS in Africa, is easily Canada’s most eloquent speaker today.
It was David Lewis who forced Pierre Trudeau’s minority government (1972-74) to start Petro-Canada as a crown corporation.
His successor, Ed Broadbent, (1975-89), proved one of our best parliamentarians. His successor, Audrey McLaughlin, was the first female leader of a national party. Her successor, Alexa McDonough, (1995-2003) courageously led a campaign to repatriate Maher Arar from the torture chambers of Syria.
What can we expect from Layton?
I spoke to Schreyer, Pawley, Romanow and Stephen Lewis. Here’s what they expect him and want him to do:
By Haroon Siddiqui
Editorial Page
Toronto Star - May 15, 2011
Still sorting through the multiple meanings of the stunning federal election results — the regional, not national, trends that saw the NDP sweep Quebec and the Tories make inroads in Ontario, leaving the Maritimes and the West largely unchanged; the Tories making the most of their 2 per cent increase in popular vote; the hand-wringing over whether the Liberals should merge with the New Democrats — we have yet to fully absorb the emergence of the NDP as Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition for the first time in our history.
The media have attributed this sea-change to Jack Layton’s cute moustache and his cane. The triviality fits the times in which the collective political memory extends to yesterday’s TV images. This does an injustice to the NDP’s long and distinguished track record as the single biggest intellectual and practical force for egalitarianism in Canada.
It was Tommy Douglas’s NDP government in Saskatchewan that pioneered medicare. It was the NDP that put pensions and unemployment benefits on the national agenda. It was the NDP in Saskatchewan, Manitoba and British Columbia that ushered in affordable public auto insurance, which we could use in Ontario.
NDP also has had a solid track record of fiscal prudence.
Allan Blakeney in Saskatchewan (1971-82) produced 12 balanced budgets. When his successor, Tory Grant Devine, left a huge deficit and a $14 billion debt, the NDP’s Roy Romanov (1991-2001) balanced the books. In Manitoba, Ed Schreyer (1969-77) produced surpluses in eight of his nine budgets. When his successor, the Conservative Sterling Lyon, racked up a deficit of $200 million within four years, his NDP successor Howard Pawley cleared it and created a surplus. (Pawley’s memoir, Keep True: A Life in Politics, published by the University of Manitoba Press, has just been released).
Only Bob Rae in Ontario (1990-95) left a big deficit, a legacy of a debilitating recession as well as poor management.
By contrast, look at the conservatives’ record — the deficits and debts created by Ronald Reagan, Brian Mulroney, Stephen Harper and Mike Harris.
The NDP has had iconic leaders — quintessential Canadians: honest, principled and brave, wise and witty, amiable and approachable, averse to wedge politics.
The most fun to be with was Douglas, who after being premier (1944-61), became federal leader (1961-71). The “the little Scot” always had a joke, sometimes at his expense. He was once debating a Tory at an outdoor event, using a manure spreader as a platform. He began: “This is the first time I’ve spoken from a Liberal platform.” To which a farmer sitting up front shot back: “Let her roll, Tommy. She ain’t had a bigger load yet.”
His successor, David Lewis, also an immigrant (from what’s now Belarus), was so articulate that if you reproduced his extempore comments verbatim, you’d be reading perfect sentences and paragraphs. Remarkable, given that English was not his first language — he had learned it reading Charles Dickens with a Yiddish-English dictionary.
His son, Stephen, who became leader of the Ontario NDP and has distinguished himself working on AIDS in Africa, is easily Canada’s most eloquent speaker today.
It was David Lewis who forced Pierre Trudeau’s minority government (1972-74) to start Petro-Canada as a crown corporation.
His successor, Ed Broadbent, (1975-89), proved one of our best parliamentarians. His successor, Audrey McLaughlin, was the first female leader of a national party. Her successor, Alexa McDonough, (1995-2003) courageously led a campaign to repatriate Maher Arar from the torture chambers of Syria.
What can we expect from Layton?
I spoke to Schreyer, Pawley, Romanow and Stephen Lewis. Here’s what they expect him and want him to do:
• Restore civility to Parliament.
• Put economic equality front and centre. “It’s in the economic realm that the body politic is hurting,” said Schreyer. After five decades of building an egalitarian society, “we are moving in the opposite direction, with 1 per cent of the population in North America controlling 26 per cent of the wealth, and with unconscionable levels of compensation for the executive echelon. Yet here’s Harper cutting taxes for those already enjoying a standard of living that’s beyond the wildest imagination of most Canadians.”
• Define the NDP platform’s cap-and-trade proposal for climate change. Come to grips with a carbon tax.
• Try to align Quebecers’ social democratic values more permanently with a federal, as opposed to a separatist, party.
• Articulate a foreign policy that would restore Canada’s role in the world, not as a warmonger but as an advocate of peace, human rights and development.
• Lead a values debate at home to help reverse the right-wing tilt of our public policy.
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorialopinion/article/991387--siddiqui-advice-for-jack-layton-from-distinguished-roster-of-ndp-elder-statesmen
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P.S. from BC Mary: I have decided to celebrate this auspicious occasion by invoking the first and last of these Expectations. This means that two mud-slingers bit the dust in the comments section here today ... proving the point about the knee-jerk reaction as taught by the corrupted BC media. It sure didn't take long before the nasties started throwing mud - any old mud (correct, false slogans, and/or just plain stupid) -- and I call those comments for what they are. I think we've all heard enough of that B.S. in the past. Don't need it now. Let's look on the bright side, and discover what a functioning democracy looks like. For example ...
Let's stop and appreciate one special thing Siddiqui says in this editorial, when he salutes "the NDP’s long and distinguished track record as the single biggest intellectual and practical force for egalitarianism in Canada".
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Suggested reading:
Puget Sound Radio - May 24, 2011
Link: http://www.pugetsoundradio.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1306249390/
See also:
Read Elizabeth James' summary HERE.
http://www.nsnews.com/news/Promises+made+broken/4873603/story.html
The Train That Never Ends ... and the Sleeping BC Mainstream Media
Puget Sound Radio - May 24, 2011
Link: http://www.pugetsoundradio.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?m-1306249390/
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See also:
Promises made and broken
Read Elizabeth James' summary HERE.
http://www.nsnews.com/news/Promises+made+broken/4873603/story.html
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BC Mary comment: I was wrong. There is a decently unbiased story in Vancouver Sun about Bob Rae as the new leader of the federal Liberal Party. See it HERE.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/vast+political+career+begins+next+chapter/4895081/story.html
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/vast+political+career+begins+next+chapter/4895081/story.html
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011
The Real Illegitimacy of a Harper Government
.
By Robin Mathews
May 24, 2011
The Harper group is illegitmate as government, now, I believe, on the basis to two irrefutable facts. The Contempt of Parliament ruling against it invalidates candidates. And its illegal activities in election spending in the 2006 election, only now being exposed in court because of falsehoods and delaying tactics employed by Harper and the Conservative Machine, also invalidate it.
I wrote to and (earlier) posted here a complaint to the federal Chief Electoral Officer. I said that the finding by the House and naming by the Speaker of Mr. Harper and Conservative Members as being in Contempt of Parliament made Mr. Harper and the named Members (in my judgement) legally unable (as not legitimate) to run in the recent election.
I asked the Chief Electoral Officer to seek an interpretation of the relevant section(s) of the Elections Act from the Supreme Court of Canada (especially since no party before in history has been named in Contempt of Parliament) … and because the powers of Parliament are unique, special, and cannot be dismissed easily.
I was answered (May 16, 2011) by Ronald Lamothe, Investigator – to whom I had not addressed my letter. (Mr. Lamothe is one of those who engaged in the investigation which has brought the Conservative Party to court in relation to the In-and-Out Scandal.) He does not state that he is answering my letter on behalf of Marc Mayrand, Chief Electoral Officer. Mr. Lamothe informs me that the finding of Contempt “was against the government, and not any one individual. Furthermore, a motion of the House of Commons is neither a finding that a crime or offence has been committed, nor a finding of criminal guilt.”
Mr. Lamothe continues that the list of persons ineligible (under the Elections Act) to be a candidate “does not include anyone who was the subject of a finding of contempt of Parliament.” That finding, “therefore does not deprive anyone of their right to be a candidate in the federal election.”
The opinion expressed by Mr. Lamothe (using incorrect grammar) is precisely the one that I believe can ONLY be upheld or dismissed by a full review of the Elections Act by the Supreme Court of Canada. (The ruling by the Speaker of the House of Commons that the “government” was in Contempt of Parliament was not, as Mr. Lamothe calls it, a “motion”.)
In an almost precisely parallel instance, very recently, a higher court finding supports my request – in a finding over the long-dragging, Harperite, 2006 In-and-Out Election Scandal.
I will explain the In-and-Out Scandal in a moment, which, in itself, (in natural justice) invalidates the Harper group completely from holding Parliamentary positions.
Briefly – readers must know Opposition parliamentarians smelled a rat very early after the 2006 election. They began to investigate Conservative Machine spending, using the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics. The Harperite committee members and those called to witness did everything illegitimate they could to prevent an examination of Conservative Party electoral spending behaviour in the 2006 election – including ignoring subpoenas to appear issued by the Chair of the committee.
As a principal point, readers must observe that a major tactic of Harper’s operation is to breach trust, to violate procedure, to circulate falsehoods, and to abuse traditional practice – in short, to undertake immoral (and illegal actions) that he believes cannot be challenged successfully in law.
That explains why Elections Canada did not act until 2008 when court action against the Conservative Party was undertaken by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Since 2008, the Harper Machine has used every shady and disreputable tactic possible to prevent the investigation from proceeding fairly. In fact, its refusal to surrender records of the 2006 election forced the RCMP to raid Conservative offices to obtain information.
Before a Federal Court, the Harper lawyers argued, in short, that Elections Canada is there to receive and acknowledge receipt of election-spending records, NOT to assess them for legitimacy or to investigate their lawfulness! The presiding judge decided more investigation was needed, and he stopped the action for a time. He DID NOT side with the Conservative Machine argument. His finding was appealed, and the appeal judge(s) declared, in effect, that the relevant clauses of the Election Act would be meaningless if Elections Canada were unable to proceed from receipt of records to the assessment of their legitimacy and to remedial action if they were deemed illegitimate.
My exchange with Ronald Lamothe is a parallel case. I asked the Chief Electoral Officer to request a review by the Supreme Court of Canada of the relevant sections of the Elections Act to find the powers of Parliament in regard to them and the full meaning of a finding of Contempt of Parliament in relation to the Elections Act. Mr. Lamothe writes that – in effect – there is nothing in the Act which provides for application of Contempt of Parliament to Members of Parliament named in Contempt – in relation to their legitimacy, thereafter, as candidates in an election.
That would mean – as in the other example in which the Conservatives argued the Act gives no further powers than to record receipt of reports – that a ruling of Contempt of Parliament against a Party and/or its members is meaningless, that it carries no power to punish, that it exists without relevance to those it condemns.
That is simply not believable.
And so I reject the opinion of Ronald Lamothe. I continue to hold that the ruling of Contempt of Parliament against the Conservative parliamentarians is meaningful, carries power, is relevant – and may well invalidate them from running as candidates in an election for a period of (at least) five years. Only a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada will solve the difference of interpretation.
In brief, the In-and-Out Scandal is about – to use the words of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the fact that “the Conservatives willfully exceeded the elections expense limit”, thereby seeking unfair advantage in the 2006 election (and, probably, gaining from it).
They attempted, moreover, to claim as election spending in those constituencies the monies sent to them for only a few hours before being sent back. And they set out to claim rebates on the money that came in-and-out in each of something like 67 or 68 ridings.
Think of that. These are the allegations: Harperites shipped into each of some 67 or 68 constituencies tens of thousands of dollars – for only a few hours, after which the money was returned. THEN it was siphoned off to OVERSPEND in tight constituency races.
During the few hours the tens of thousands of dollars were sitting in constituencies, they were added. in those constituencies, to “monies raised” there, AND EACH candidate applied to have you and me (Canadian taxpayers) reimburse them for the money falsely claimed to have been raised in the constituency.
Each of the Harper candidates in those ridings broke the law. Each must be held responsible for assisting in violation of the Elections Act.
Four or five of the Harper candidates refused to take part. One of them, in Ontario, reports he believed the matter illegal from the start, and he praised the court action against the Conservative Machine. One is the famous Helena Guergis, thrust out of cabinet and caucus by Stephen Harper. She refused to go along.
Was that at least part of the reason Stephen Harper threw her to the wolves?
The key fact (for Canadians) in relation to the alleged infractions of the Elections Act in 2006 is that the Breach of Trust by the Conservative Machine is so serious that the Party cannot claim to be a legitimate government. The wrong-doing in 2006 continues as a factor in everything the Conservative Machine has done since. It cannot have cheated to its advantage, used the advantage, and then pretend that its present situation is not a product of that action – which I am confident the courts will find to be fraud.
One of the charges is that the fundraising arm of the Conservative Party reported material “that they knew or ought reasonably to have known contained a materially false or misleading statement, namely that all election expenses in respect to the 39th federal general election had been properly recorded.”
Shadow-boxing, misleading the public, claiming false things, the Harper group has soiled the whole process of democratic procedure in Canada. The Scandal does not – as Stephen Harper and his group have claimed – relate to an “accounting dispute”, is not about “administrative charges’. The court did not rule in favour of the Conservative Party when it upheld the argument that the Elections Act restricted investigation – in fact, it called for more investigation.
The Chief Electoral Officer, Marc Mayrand, didn’t lay charges against the Conservative party – the Director of Public Prosecutions did after examining evidence produced by the Commissioner of Canada Elections.
Other parties – as constantly claimed by Stephen Harper’s spokespeople - did not engage in the same activities. That is a lie.
One of many.
Wading through the fog of false Conservative Machine claims only makes more and more clear the willingness of Harper and his group to destroy democracy in Canada. In the process, I believe, they have so violated law and process that they no longer possess legitimacy as parliamentarians. I believe, moreover, that Canadians must – in an overwhelming majority – come to that conclusion.
By Robin Mathews
May 24, 2011
The Harper group is illegitmate as government, now, I believe, on the basis to two irrefutable facts. The Contempt of Parliament ruling against it invalidates candidates. And its illegal activities in election spending in the 2006 election, only now being exposed in court because of falsehoods and delaying tactics employed by Harper and the Conservative Machine, also invalidate it.
I wrote to and (earlier) posted here a complaint to the federal Chief Electoral Officer. I said that the finding by the House and naming by the Speaker of Mr. Harper and Conservative Members as being in Contempt of Parliament made Mr. Harper and the named Members (in my judgement) legally unable (as not legitimate) to run in the recent election.
I asked the Chief Electoral Officer to seek an interpretation of the relevant section(s) of the Elections Act from the Supreme Court of Canada (especially since no party before in history has been named in Contempt of Parliament) … and because the powers of Parliament are unique, special, and cannot be dismissed easily.
I was answered (May 16, 2011) by Ronald Lamothe, Investigator – to whom I had not addressed my letter. (Mr. Lamothe is one of those who engaged in the investigation which has brought the Conservative Party to court in relation to the In-and-Out Scandal.) He does not state that he is answering my letter on behalf of Marc Mayrand, Chief Electoral Officer. Mr. Lamothe informs me that the finding of Contempt “was against the government, and not any one individual. Furthermore, a motion of the House of Commons is neither a finding that a crime or offence has been committed, nor a finding of criminal guilt.”
Mr. Lamothe continues that the list of persons ineligible (under the Elections Act) to be a candidate “does not include anyone who was the subject of a finding of contempt of Parliament.” That finding, “therefore does not deprive anyone of their right to be a candidate in the federal election.”
The opinion expressed by Mr. Lamothe (using incorrect grammar) is precisely the one that I believe can ONLY be upheld or dismissed by a full review of the Elections Act by the Supreme Court of Canada. (The ruling by the Speaker of the House of Commons that the “government” was in Contempt of Parliament was not, as Mr. Lamothe calls it, a “motion”.)
In an almost precisely parallel instance, very recently, a higher court finding supports my request – in a finding over the long-dragging, Harperite, 2006 In-and-Out Election Scandal.
I will explain the In-and-Out Scandal in a moment, which, in itself, (in natural justice) invalidates the Harper group completely from holding Parliamentary positions.
Briefly – readers must know Opposition parliamentarians smelled a rat very early after the 2006 election. They began to investigate Conservative Machine spending, using the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics. The Harperite committee members and those called to witness did everything illegitimate they could to prevent an examination of Conservative Party electoral spending behaviour in the 2006 election – including ignoring subpoenas to appear issued by the Chair of the committee.
As a principal point, readers must observe that a major tactic of Harper’s operation is to breach trust, to violate procedure, to circulate falsehoods, and to abuse traditional practice – in short, to undertake immoral (and illegal actions) that he believes cannot be challenged successfully in law.
That explains why Elections Canada did not act until 2008 when court action against the Conservative Party was undertaken by the Director of Public Prosecutions. Since 2008, the Harper Machine has used every shady and disreputable tactic possible to prevent the investigation from proceeding fairly. In fact, its refusal to surrender records of the 2006 election forced the RCMP to raid Conservative offices to obtain information.
Before a Federal Court, the Harper lawyers argued, in short, that Elections Canada is there to receive and acknowledge receipt of election-spending records, NOT to assess them for legitimacy or to investigate their lawfulness! The presiding judge decided more investigation was needed, and he stopped the action for a time. He DID NOT side with the Conservative Machine argument. His finding was appealed, and the appeal judge(s) declared, in effect, that the relevant clauses of the Election Act would be meaningless if Elections Canada were unable to proceed from receipt of records to the assessment of their legitimacy and to remedial action if they were deemed illegitimate.
My exchange with Ronald Lamothe is a parallel case. I asked the Chief Electoral Officer to request a review by the Supreme Court of Canada of the relevant sections of the Elections Act to find the powers of Parliament in regard to them and the full meaning of a finding of Contempt of Parliament in relation to the Elections Act. Mr. Lamothe writes that – in effect – there is nothing in the Act which provides for application of Contempt of Parliament to Members of Parliament named in Contempt – in relation to their legitimacy, thereafter, as candidates in an election.
That would mean – as in the other example in which the Conservatives argued the Act gives no further powers than to record receipt of reports – that a ruling of Contempt of Parliament against a Party and/or its members is meaningless, that it carries no power to punish, that it exists without relevance to those it condemns.
That is simply not believable.
And so I reject the opinion of Ronald Lamothe. I continue to hold that the ruling of Contempt of Parliament against the Conservative parliamentarians is meaningful, carries power, is relevant – and may well invalidate them from running as candidates in an election for a period of (at least) five years. Only a ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada will solve the difference of interpretation.
In brief, the In-and-Out Scandal is about – to use the words of the Director of Public Prosecutions, the fact that “the Conservatives willfully exceeded the elections expense limit”, thereby seeking unfair advantage in the 2006 election (and, probably, gaining from it).
They attempted, moreover, to claim as election spending in those constituencies the monies sent to them for only a few hours before being sent back. And they set out to claim rebates on the money that came in-and-out in each of something like 67 or 68 ridings.
Think of that. These are the allegations: Harperites shipped into each of some 67 or 68 constituencies tens of thousands of dollars – for only a few hours, after which the money was returned. THEN it was siphoned off to OVERSPEND in tight constituency races.
During the few hours the tens of thousands of dollars were sitting in constituencies, they were added. in those constituencies, to “monies raised” there, AND EACH candidate applied to have you and me (Canadian taxpayers) reimburse them for the money falsely claimed to have been raised in the constituency.
Each of the Harper candidates in those ridings broke the law. Each must be held responsible for assisting in violation of the Elections Act.
Four or five of the Harper candidates refused to take part. One of them, in Ontario, reports he believed the matter illegal from the start, and he praised the court action against the Conservative Machine. One is the famous Helena Guergis, thrust out of cabinet and caucus by Stephen Harper. She refused to go along.
Was that at least part of the reason Stephen Harper threw her to the wolves?
The key fact (for Canadians) in relation to the alleged infractions of the Elections Act in 2006 is that the Breach of Trust by the Conservative Machine is so serious that the Party cannot claim to be a legitimate government. The wrong-doing in 2006 continues as a factor in everything the Conservative Machine has done since. It cannot have cheated to its advantage, used the advantage, and then pretend that its present situation is not a product of that action – which I am confident the courts will find to be fraud.
One of the charges is that the fundraising arm of the Conservative Party reported material “that they knew or ought reasonably to have known contained a materially false or misleading statement, namely that all election expenses in respect to the 39th federal general election had been properly recorded.”
Shadow-boxing, misleading the public, claiming false things, the Harper group has soiled the whole process of democratic procedure in Canada. The Scandal does not – as Stephen Harper and his group have claimed – relate to an “accounting dispute”, is not about “administrative charges’. The court did not rule in favour of the Conservative Party when it upheld the argument that the Elections Act restricted investigation – in fact, it called for more investigation.
The Chief Electoral Officer, Marc Mayrand, didn’t lay charges against the Conservative party – the Director of Public Prosecutions did after examining evidence produced by the Commissioner of Canada Elections.
Other parties – as constantly claimed by Stephen Harper’s spokespeople - did not engage in the same activities. That is a lie.
One of many.
Wading through the fog of false Conservative Machine claims only makes more and more clear the willingness of Harper and his group to destroy democracy in Canada. In the process, I believe, they have so violated law and process that they no longer possess legitimacy as parliamentarians. I believe, moreover, that Canadians must – in an overwhelming majority – come to that conclusion.
*************************
It would seem to me that the proposed "perimeter security pact with the United States" is already a done deal and that the consultation process is a farce and charade. This has been tried before under different names - but this "deep integration" is nothing less than a betrayal of national interests that makes Canada a less sovereign state and very much a more dependent satellite territory - much like Puerto Rico. The United States can take what it wants - mostly in terms of precious resources such as water and energy - hydroelectric and fossil fuel resources - and Canada will have to take what is offered in terms of control by Washington and dictated by a subservient administrative government in Ottawa.
The public consultation process is a sham - we know that already special access and privilege has been accorded to private corporate interests in drafting this agreement. As this agreement is basically a constitutional issue - as it changes our parliamentary democracy and the sovereignty of the country, a true public inquiry is needed which would allow input in a real way from all sectors of the Canadian population. As with all constitutional issues the provinces would need to unanimously agree on these fundamental changes. It would appear that the Harper government has no intention to bring this before the public to let the real "commons" - the people - know what is being projected.
Is economic prosperity the real goal? NAFTA has failed to bring prosperity to Canada. The dispute mechanisms within NAFTA have been conceded by the Canadian government even when rulings continuously favored Canada. The soft wood lumber dispute is a key example of where prosperity is defined south of the 49th parallel and any errors in previous trade agreements which actually benefited Canada are corrected by subservient Canadian politicians only too eager to please their American masters. Canada is a country and it is supposedly negotiating an agreement with an empire - history only too clearly shows how that works out.
Why is there a need for a security perimeter? This is talk that better typifies the cold war of the 1950's. Where is the problem today? There is no threat from the north and indeed nothing from the east or west. The only threat to Canadian sovereignty comes from the south - from the United States of America. This is a country that is unable to provide for its own citizens. It is a country drunk on its own need to consume but unable to provide all that it wants to consume. The south-west of the USA has developed in unsustainable ways - they will shortly have major problems with water shortages. Rather than regulate their own consumption, and control the water merchants, they look enviously at Canadian water resources to the north to meet their future needs. This supposed " perimeter security pact " with the United States is no security for Canadians but rather an open door to the American culture to simply come and take what they want without regard for the people up north and the long term consequences of such unbridled consumption.
The United States as a country has reason to fear negative responses from many regions of the world. This fear is well deserved because of the actions of the US government and its military adventurism throughout the world. Canada until recent times has not earned this animosity of the world nations - although in recent years Canada's foreign policies are putting it out of step with most of the world. The Canadian response to the climate change crisis is typical of how Canada as a nation is out of step with the world. The promotion of the Alberta tar sands - with the accompanying disaster for the ecological well being of the whole Athabasca region flowing into the Arctic ocean and all the peoples living north of the tar sands exploitation - is a source of great embarrassment and concern. However it is not a concern for the United States as it gets a secure source of petroleum energy while Canada pays the price. Canada does not even get a fair price for its resource.
So where is the concern? Why does Canada need a security perimeter within US interests? This illustrates a major concern - that the political party which is now the Canadian government is actually funded and working on behalf of a foreign power. It negotiates an agreement that is not in Canadian best interests.
As with the Maher Arar scandal of a few years ago - we have seen that Canada is already co-operating too much with American "security" phobias much to the detriment of the interests and well being of Canadian citizens.
I protest the process with which this proposed perimeter security pact with the United States is being foisted upon Canada and its citizens. It is bad for Canada. It is bad for Canadians. It weakens our sovereign claims to our land, our resources and our heritage.
I denounce those who are intent on slipping this agreement through and suggest that they are not patriots nor true lovers of our nation. Vassal states have always had locals who are willing to sell out their neighbours for a slice of the pie. History has names for them. Future generations will only weep and be angry that this was allowed to happen.
Sincerely,
Phillip P. Little
Ladysmith, B.C.
Speaking on the same topic of Canada's integrity, Phillip P. Little of Ladysmith, B.C., wrote this telling message in response to :
Beyond the Border Working Group.
Beyond the Border Working Group.
It would seem to me that the proposed "perimeter security pact with the United States" is already a done deal and that the consultation process is a farce and charade. This has been tried before under different names - but this "deep integration" is nothing less than a betrayal of national interests that makes Canada a less sovereign state and very much a more dependent satellite territory - much like Puerto Rico. The United States can take what it wants - mostly in terms of precious resources such as water and energy - hydroelectric and fossil fuel resources - and Canada will have to take what is offered in terms of control by Washington and dictated by a subservient administrative government in Ottawa.
The public consultation process is a sham - we know that already special access and privilege has been accorded to private corporate interests in drafting this agreement. As this agreement is basically a constitutional issue - as it changes our parliamentary democracy and the sovereignty of the country, a true public inquiry is needed which would allow input in a real way from all sectors of the Canadian population. As with all constitutional issues the provinces would need to unanimously agree on these fundamental changes. It would appear that the Harper government has no intention to bring this before the public to let the real "commons" - the people - know what is being projected.
Is economic prosperity the real goal? NAFTA has failed to bring prosperity to Canada. The dispute mechanisms within NAFTA have been conceded by the Canadian government even when rulings continuously favored Canada. The soft wood lumber dispute is a key example of where prosperity is defined south of the 49th parallel and any errors in previous trade agreements which actually benefited Canada are corrected by subservient Canadian politicians only too eager to please their American masters. Canada is a country and it is supposedly negotiating an agreement with an empire - history only too clearly shows how that works out.
Why is there a need for a security perimeter? This is talk that better typifies the cold war of the 1950's. Where is the problem today? There is no threat from the north and indeed nothing from the east or west. The only threat to Canadian sovereignty comes from the south - from the United States of America. This is a country that is unable to provide for its own citizens. It is a country drunk on its own need to consume but unable to provide all that it wants to consume. The south-west of the USA has developed in unsustainable ways - they will shortly have major problems with water shortages. Rather than regulate their own consumption, and control the water merchants, they look enviously at Canadian water resources to the north to meet their future needs. This supposed " perimeter security pact " with the United States is no security for Canadians but rather an open door to the American culture to simply come and take what they want without regard for the people up north and the long term consequences of such unbridled consumption.
The United States as a country has reason to fear negative responses from many regions of the world. This fear is well deserved because of the actions of the US government and its military adventurism throughout the world. Canada until recent times has not earned this animosity of the world nations - although in recent years Canada's foreign policies are putting it out of step with most of the world. The Canadian response to the climate change crisis is typical of how Canada as a nation is out of step with the world. The promotion of the Alberta tar sands - with the accompanying disaster for the ecological well being of the whole Athabasca region flowing into the Arctic ocean and all the peoples living north of the tar sands exploitation - is a source of great embarrassment and concern. However it is not a concern for the United States as it gets a secure source of petroleum energy while Canada pays the price. Canada does not even get a fair price for its resource.
So where is the concern? Why does Canada need a security perimeter within US interests? This illustrates a major concern - that the political party which is now the Canadian government is actually funded and working on behalf of a foreign power. It negotiates an agreement that is not in Canadian best interests.
As with the Maher Arar scandal of a few years ago - we have seen that Canada is already co-operating too much with American "security" phobias much to the detriment of the interests and well being of Canadian citizens.
I protest the process with which this proposed perimeter security pact with the United States is being foisted upon Canada and its citizens. It is bad for Canada. It is bad for Canadians. It weakens our sovereign claims to our land, our resources and our heritage.
I denounce those who are intent on slipping this agreement through and suggest that they are not patriots nor true lovers of our nation. Vassal states have always had locals who are willing to sell out their neighbours for a slice of the pie. History has names for them. Future generations will only weep and be angry that this was allowed to happen.
Sincerely,
Phillip P. Little
Ladysmith, B.C.
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and, as if on cue, news comes from Deauville, France (where the G8 are meeting) that our Stephen Harper is talking to Barack Obama about this very thing ...
Harper to talk border security with Obama at G8
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/997260--harper-to-talk-border-security-with-obama-at-g8
Harper to talk border security with Obama at G8
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/article/997260--harper-to-talk-border-security-with-obama-at-g8
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Friday, May 20, 2011
Open Courts? Ha! Ask those who covered the recent BC Rail Corruption Trial
.
BC Mary comment: If the British Columbia government had been open and honest about the entire BC Rail affair, they would have held the BC Rail Political Corruption Trial in BC Supreme Courtroom 20 which was fully equipped with cameras etc. for the Air India Trial. Or they would have outfitted other courtrooms with cameras and recording devices for broadcast to the province on the government channel.
Without a doubt, the BC Rail Trial is the most significant trial ever held in British Columbia, with far-reaching effects. Every citizen (the actual former owners of the railway) ought to have had access to the pre-trial and trial hearings.
Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done.
If that simple rule had been followed, there would be no rotting stench left behind by the ugly maneuvering of the Crown and the judge in this trial, no unanswered questions crying out ... in short, no critical need for a Public Inquiry into the "sale" of BC Rail.
But then, an open and honest government wouldn't have sold BC Rail in the first place.
Open Court is a 21st-century idea
B.C. should embrace technology and establish digital policies to allow cameras in the courtroom; the U.S. has been doing it for years
By Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun - May 20, 2011
For a few hours, I watched on my laptop as Judge Mark Coven of Quincy District Court, south of Boston, plied his trade ... it was real justice meted out in a real courtroom by a real judge in real time.
While jurists in B.C. continue to wring their hands over even restricted camera access to their courtrooms, U.S. jurisdictions are embracing live video streaming of arraignments, pleas, bail hearings, surrender proceedings and other judicial business.
For the last fortnight, a pilot project called OpenCourt has provided live Quincy Court proceedings over the Web and other electronic services thanks to WBUR, the local National Public Radio station, and a $250,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Massachusetts has allowed cameras in its courtrooms since the 1980s but this is a broader unprecedented experiment.
It aims to foster greater transparency during this transitional time for public discourse in which fewer news outlets have the resources to cover courts and more and more citizens want to “report” via social media andblogs.
While the Supreme Court of Canada has long televised its hearings, the provincial judiciary continues to suggest there are major issues over electronic access to courtrooms that require further debate.
And bloggers are treated for the most part like second-class media wannabes — ask those who covered the recent BC Rail corruption trial.
I think our judges are dragging their feet and defending an out-of-date status quo.
We are living in the past; OpenCourt is a 21st-century idea.Massachusetts is a forward thinking jurisdiction that is adapting to the reality of the modern media environment, court coverage and who can cover the judiciary.
{Snip} ...
Check it out at http://opencourt.us/
The project should help other jurisdictions embrace technology and establish digital policies.
B.C. judges, lawyers and legislators please take note: We should follow this lead.
Read Ian Mulgrew's full story HERE:
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/OpenCourt+21st+century+idea/4819556/story.html#ixzz1MwzCE1v3O
BC Mary comment: If the British Columbia government had been open and honest about the entire BC Rail affair, they would have held the BC Rail Political Corruption Trial in BC Supreme Courtroom 20 which was fully equipped with cameras etc. for the Air India Trial. Or they would have outfitted other courtrooms with cameras and recording devices for broadcast to the province on the government channel.
Without a doubt, the BC Rail Trial is the most significant trial ever held in British Columbia, with far-reaching effects. Every citizen (the actual former owners of the railway) ought to have had access to the pre-trial and trial hearings.
Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done.
If that simple rule had been followed, there would be no rotting stench left behind by the ugly maneuvering of the Crown and the judge in this trial, no unanswered questions crying out ... in short, no critical need for a Public Inquiry into the "sale" of BC Rail.
But then, an open and honest government wouldn't have sold BC Rail in the first place.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Open Court is a 21st-century idea
B.C. should embrace technology and establish digital policies to allow cameras in the courtroom; the U.S. has been doing it for years
By Ian Mulgrew
Vancouver Sun - May 20, 2011
For a few hours, I watched on my laptop as Judge Mark Coven of Quincy District Court, south of Boston, plied his trade ... it was real justice meted out in a real courtroom by a real judge in real time.
While jurists in B.C. continue to wring their hands over even restricted camera access to their courtrooms, U.S. jurisdictions are embracing live video streaming of arraignments, pleas, bail hearings, surrender proceedings and other judicial business.
For the last fortnight, a pilot project called OpenCourt has provided live Quincy Court proceedings over the Web and other electronic services thanks to WBUR, the local National Public Radio station, and a $250,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
Massachusetts has allowed cameras in its courtrooms since the 1980s but this is a broader unprecedented experiment.
It aims to foster greater transparency during this transitional time for public discourse in which fewer news outlets have the resources to cover courts and more and more citizens want to “report” via social media andblogs.
While the Supreme Court of Canada has long televised its hearings, the provincial judiciary continues to suggest there are major issues over electronic access to courtrooms that require further debate.
And bloggers are treated for the most part like second-class media wannabes — ask those who covered the recent BC Rail corruption trial.
I think our judges are dragging their feet and defending an out-of-date status quo.
We are living in the past; OpenCourt is a 21st-century idea.Massachusetts is a forward thinking jurisdiction that is adapting to the reality of the modern media environment, court coverage and who can cover the judiciary.
{Snip} ...
Check it out at http://opencourt.us/
The project should help other jurisdictions embrace technology and establish digital policies.
B.C. judges, lawyers and legislators please take note: We should follow this lead.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/OpenCourt+21st+century+idea/4819556/story.html#ixzz1MwzCE1v3O
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What are you doing Friday night?
.
BC Mary comment: If indeed the world is coming to an end on Saturday, March 21, 2011, at 6:00 PM, then I want the following BCRail entry to be remembered as Wikipedia's summary of the BC Rail story as of this Judgment Day of the Apocalypse. Given the dire circumstances being forecast, I trust that Wikipedia (and Toronto Star) won't mind.
BC Legislature Raids
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more HERE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_Legislature_Raids
Events
Timeline
2009 federal appeal (secret witness)
BC Rail Corrupion Trial
People
Accused
Dave Basi
Aneal Basi
Bobby Virk
Informants
Erik Bornmann
Special Prosecutor
William Berardino
Judges
Patrick Dohm
Elizabeth Bennett
Anne MacKenzie
Journalists
Bill Tieleman
Organizations
BC Rail
OmniTRAX
CN
CP
Pilothouse Communications
BNSF
Ferroequus
BC Liberals
"E Division", RCMP
v · d · e
The BC Legislature Raids resulted from search warrants executed on the Legislature of British Columbia, Canada, in 2003 and has become a collective term for the associated criminal proceedings and ensuant controversies. Justice Elizabeth Bennett began hearings in BC Supreme Court in April 2007. The claims made in disclosure hearings sparked speculation as political observers and online commentators attempted to determine why these searches took place. Comments made on the case by BC Attorney-GeneralWally Oppal and questions as to the legality of warrants obtained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have raised concerns of a mistrial which might have sealed evidence in the case. As proceedings developed, the proceedings have brought to light questions concerning the propriety of the sale of BC Rail to CN Rail and the conduct of various government officials and consultants as well as the role of various members of the government, including Premier Gordon Campbell and his advisers. The preliminary hearings into eventual criminal court proceedings were kept sealed from the public until opened up in the public's interest, and by requests from defence council, in the fall of 2008 by the presiding justice, Elizabeth Bennett, who struck down the court ban in the grounds of the importance of an open court in regard to the importance of the case to the public interest, contrary to the objections of the government-appointed Special Prosecutor. Successive revelations of further documents revealed a complex web of information relating to various parties which has still not been fully analyzed and promoted much speculation as to still-further ramifications of the raids. The Premier and other cabinet officials, including former Attorney-General Wally Oppal, have repeatedly refused comment on the grounds that the matter is before the courts.
Contents [hide]
1 Drug sting "Everywhichway" leads to government aides
1.1 BC Rail link
1.2 Agricultural Land Commission connection
1.3 Liberal "insiders"
1.4 Charges laid
1.5 Legality of warrants
2 Developments in 2009
2.1 Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act
2.2 The Kinsella Connection
3 Developments in 2010
3.1 The BC Rail Corruption Trial
3.1.1 The first witness: Chief of Staff Martyn Brown
4 References
5 External links
5.1 National news coverage
5.2 The players and government background information
5.3 Blog/internet sites
BC Mary comment: If indeed the world is coming to an end on Saturday, March 21, 2011, at 6:00 PM, then I want the following BCRail entry to be remembered as Wikipedia's summary of the BC Rail story as of this Judgment Day of the Apocalypse. Given the dire circumstances being forecast, I trust that Wikipedia (and Toronto Star) won't mind.
BC Legislature Raids
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Read more HERE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_Legislature_Raids
Events
Timeline
2009 federal appeal (secret witness)
BC Rail Corrupion Trial
People
Accused
Dave Basi
Aneal Basi
Bobby Virk
Informants
Erik Bornmann
Special Prosecutor
William Berardino
Judges
Patrick Dohm
Elizabeth Bennett
Anne MacKenzie
Journalists
Bill Tieleman
Organizations
BC Rail
OmniTRAX
CN
CP
Pilothouse Communications
BNSF
Ferroequus
BC Liberals
"E Division", RCMP
v · d · e
The BC Legislature Raids resulted from search warrants executed on the Legislature of British Columbia, Canada, in 2003 and has become a collective term for the associated criminal proceedings and ensuant controversies. Justice Elizabeth Bennett began hearings in BC Supreme Court in April 2007. The claims made in disclosure hearings sparked speculation as political observers and online commentators attempted to determine why these searches took place. Comments made on the case by BC Attorney-GeneralWally Oppal and questions as to the legality of warrants obtained by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have raised concerns of a mistrial which might have sealed evidence in the case. As proceedings developed, the proceedings have brought to light questions concerning the propriety of the sale of BC Rail to CN Rail and the conduct of various government officials and consultants as well as the role of various members of the government, including Premier Gordon Campbell and his advisers. The preliminary hearings into eventual criminal court proceedings were kept sealed from the public until opened up in the public's interest, and by requests from defence council, in the fall of 2008 by the presiding justice, Elizabeth Bennett, who struck down the court ban in the grounds of the importance of an open court in regard to the importance of the case to the public interest, contrary to the objections of the government-appointed Special Prosecutor. Successive revelations of further documents revealed a complex web of information relating to various parties which has still not been fully analyzed and promoted much speculation as to still-further ramifications of the raids. The Premier and other cabinet officials, including former Attorney-General Wally Oppal, have repeatedly refused comment on the grounds that the matter is before the courts.
Contents [hide]
1 Drug sting "Everywhichway" leads to government aides
1.1 BC Rail link
1.2 Agricultural Land Commission connection
1.3 Liberal "insiders"
1.4 Charges laid
1.5 Legality of warrants
2 Developments in 2009
2.1 Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act
2.2 The Kinsella Connection
3 Developments in 2010
3.1 The BC Rail Corruption Trial
3.1.1 The first witness: Chief of Staff Martyn Brown
4 References
5 External links
5.1 National news coverage
5.2 The players and government background information
5.3 Blog/internet sites
"""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""
That's for Friday night, May 20, 2011 if the Apocalypse rolls in over us ... uh, wait a minute ... that is, if it hasn't already snuck in while we were voting or something.
Next, here's a here's a handy set of cues on best behaviour expected of us in Apocalyptic times.
If Judgment Day comes Saturday, what are you doing Friday night?
Toronto Star - Fri May 20 2011
Brendan Kennedy
Staff Reporter
How to spend the last night before the apocalypse — repent or party?
Since Friday is not just the end of the week, but also the last night on earth before we either ascend to heaven or suffer eternal damnation (preceded of course by five months of supernatural earthquakes and unspeakable suffering), you’ve got to figure out how to give yourself and the rest of civilization a proper send-off.
Unless of course you think you’ve got a shot at cracking Team Rapture. Then all you have to worry about is who’s going to look after your loyal — but agnostic — golden retriever.
Please visit the site to see these Photos: Top 10 signs the world is ending
Saturday, May 21, 2011, is the day of the rapture — Judgment Day, when Jesus Christ will return to earth to rescue the souls of believers and vanquish the rest — at least according to Harold Camping, the founder of Family Radio, a California-based evangelical Christian radio network.
“The Bible guarantees it!” Family Radio’s website exclaims. The non-profit network of dozens of evangelical radio stations, has posted 3,000 billboards about the rapture across the world, including 85 in Canada.
Pre- and post-rapture parties are being planned all over the world, mostly of the satirical variety.
One Toronto man turned to Craigslist Thursday in the hopes of finding a last-minute bedmate to satisfy his earthly pleasures for the last time.
“I love sex and don’t want to die without another kick at the can,” the 31-year-old wrote under the heading: FINAL HOOK-UP BEFORE THE RAPTURE. “Please respond with a photo. God dislikes anonymity.”
By Thursday afternoon, more than 300,000 people had signed up to attend a “Post-Rapture Looting” event on Facebook.
“When everyone is gone and god’s not looking, we need to pick up some sweet stereo equipment and maybe some new furniture for the mansion we’re going to squat in.”
“Does the rapture come with fog?” Lola Augustine Brown asked Thursday morning on Twitter. “Apparently in #Toronto, the #rapture comes with a deluge,” another answered.
As for dealing with that golden retriever, fortunately a number of opportunistic entrepreneurs have got you covered.
For a one-time $10 administrative fee, After the Rapture Pet Care, will ensure your dog is not orphaned by your salvation. “Our non-Christian administrators will activate our rescue plan,” assures Sharon Moss, owner of the business.
Camping, 89, who also predicted the world would end in 1994, claims to have reached his conclusion after studying the Bible and mathematically interpreting a timeline of ancient events, including the Biblical flood survived by Noah. (The erroneous ’94 prophecy was based on the same type of calculation, but Camping says he has corrected his previous mistakes.)
According to Camping, the rapture will occur at 6 p.m. local time, meaning the reckoning will begin in New Zealand at around 2 a.m. EST. A series of massive earthquakes will then more or less destroy the earth in waves across the time zones. Souls of believers will be lifted to heaven and anyone who survives the quakes will live through a chaotic and tormented hell on earth until Oct. 21, when God will decide enough is enough and destroy the planet.
Source (with good photos) is HERE.
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/994227--if-judgment-day-comes-saturday-what-are-you-doing-friday-night?bn=1
BC Mary comment: if you don't already love your fellow Canucks, please visit the site and see their comments. They're pouring in. The comments, I mean.
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Next, here's a here's a handy set of cues on best behaviour expected of us in Apocalyptic times.
If Judgment Day comes Saturday, what are you doing Friday night?
Toronto Star - Fri May 20 2011
Brendan Kennedy
Staff Reporter
How to spend the last night before the apocalypse — repent or party?
Since Friday is not just the end of the week, but also the last night on earth before we either ascend to heaven or suffer eternal damnation (preceded of course by five months of supernatural earthquakes and unspeakable suffering), you’ve got to figure out how to give yourself and the rest of civilization a proper send-off.
Unless of course you think you’ve got a shot at cracking Team Rapture. Then all you have to worry about is who’s going to look after your loyal — but agnostic — golden retriever.
Please visit the site to see these Photos: Top 10 signs the world is ending
Saturday, May 21, 2011, is the day of the rapture — Judgment Day, when Jesus Christ will return to earth to rescue the souls of believers and vanquish the rest — at least according to Harold Camping, the founder of Family Radio, a California-based evangelical Christian radio network.
“The Bible guarantees it!” Family Radio’s website exclaims. The non-profit network of dozens of evangelical radio stations, has posted 3,000 billboards about the rapture across the world, including 85 in Canada.
Pre- and post-rapture parties are being planned all over the world, mostly of the satirical variety.
One Toronto man turned to Craigslist Thursday in the hopes of finding a last-minute bedmate to satisfy his earthly pleasures for the last time.
“I love sex and don’t want to die without another kick at the can,” the 31-year-old wrote under the heading: FINAL HOOK-UP BEFORE THE RAPTURE. “Please respond with a photo. God dislikes anonymity.”
By Thursday afternoon, more than 300,000 people had signed up to attend a “Post-Rapture Looting” event on Facebook.
“When everyone is gone and god’s not looking, we need to pick up some sweet stereo equipment and maybe some new furniture for the mansion we’re going to squat in.”
“Does the rapture come with fog?” Lola Augustine Brown asked Thursday morning on Twitter. “Apparently in #Toronto, the #rapture comes with a deluge,” another answered.
As for dealing with that golden retriever, fortunately a number of opportunistic entrepreneurs have got you covered.
For a one-time $10 administrative fee, After the Rapture Pet Care, will ensure your dog is not orphaned by your salvation. “Our non-Christian administrators will activate our rescue plan,” assures Sharon Moss, owner of the business.
Camping, 89, who also predicted the world would end in 1994, claims to have reached his conclusion after studying the Bible and mathematically interpreting a timeline of ancient events, including the Biblical flood survived by Noah. (The erroneous ’94 prophecy was based on the same type of calculation, but Camping says he has corrected his previous mistakes.)
According to Camping, the rapture will occur at 6 p.m. local time, meaning the reckoning will begin in New Zealand at around 2 a.m. EST. A series of massive earthquakes will then more or less destroy the earth in waves across the time zones. Souls of believers will be lifted to heaven and anyone who survives the quakes will live through a chaotic and tormented hell on earth until Oct. 21, when God will decide enough is enough and destroy the planet.
Source (with good photos) is HERE.
http://www.thestar.com/news/crime/article/994227--if-judgment-day-comes-saturday-what-are-you-doing-friday-night?bn=1
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BC Mary comment: if you don't already love your fellow Canucks, please visit the site and see their comments. They're pouring in. The comments, I mean.
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Wednesday, May 18, 2011
BCRail: it's later than we think
.
Delta MLAs raise alarm over free trade zones
Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington is raising alarm bells that valuable agricultural land could be turned into a tax-free industrial wasteland.
{Snip} ...
Noting South Delta and, in particular, land around the Deltaport container terminal would be prime candidates, Huntington asked Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Blair Lekstrom if the government is contemplating such a zone in Delta.
She said even though she had been told it could end up elsewhere, it's suspicious that B.C. Rail has stockpiled more land than it requires for rail expansion and that a land consolidation group is secretly optioning agricultural land in Delta.
"A Dubai model free trade zone has nothing to do with community. The whole point of a modern free trade zone is to protect business from community. This isn't about jobs. It's about greed. It's about flipping land in Delta, and it's about the destruction of the finest agricultural land in Canada," Huntington said during question period Tuesday.
"I'm asking this minister: if this feasibility study recommends free trade zones in B.C., will the minister tell us today that his government will not remove land from the ALR to create an industrial wasteland in Delta?"
Lekstrom responded by pointing out what's being explored are foreign trade zones and not free trade zones. He said he doesn't want to predetermine what the report will say.
Lekstrom, noting the zones are not a new concept and are in use around the world, said a location hasn't been determined.
The zones were created in the United States to provide special customs procedures, including duty-free treatment, to U.S. firms engaged in international trade-related activities. By having goods sitting in the zones, duty payment is deferred on those items until they are brought out for sale in the market. The zones are supposed to help to offset customs advantages available to overseas producers who compete with domestic industry.
GCT Global Container Terminals Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and one of the largest financial institutions in Canada, wants the federal government to explore establishing foreign trade zones in this country. The company operates four container terminals through several principal businesses, including TSI Terminal Systems Inc. at Deltaport.
Global Container Terminals is part of a steering committee that includes YVR, CN, CPR, Port Metro Vancouver, Halifax and Montreal Ports, and Centreport in Winnipeg. The committee wants a review of federal policies and processes regarding foreign trade zones and has made the B.C. government aware of its efforts. {Snip} ...
Waltz noted lands adjacent to Deltaport, which is eyed for a major container terminal expansion in the next few years, could be an ideal candidate to establish a foreign trade zone, particularly the new logistics centre that will open at the Tsawwassen First Nation.
Delta North NDP MLA Guy Gentner described it all as one of the biggest assaults yet on Delta.
Read this whole story HERE.
http://www.delta-optimist.com/Delta+MLAs+raise+alarm+over+free+trade+zones/4804669/story.html#ixzz1MjhxxUvH
And from 100 Mile House, B.C. ...
BC Rail land subdivision a step closer
By Ken Alexander
100 Mile House Free Press - May 18, 2011
After receiving no public comment or written submissions regarding an Official Community Plan (OCP) amendment to give former BC Rail "Remainder Lots" agricultural designation, the District of 100 Mile House gave third reading and adoption of the application at its May 3 meeting.
Bridge Creek Estates ranch manager Don Savjord wanted to get a small strip of BCR remainder land near Exeter Station designated agricultural so he could include it with ranch property.
It had been a long process because Savjord came before district in October 2010, and council authorized the subdivision application in the Agricultural Land Reserve to proceed to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC).
By the end of the year, Savjord received permission from the ALC to subdivide the land.
Then Savjord brought back to council on April 12 for the OCP amendment and received first and second reading. Then, the application was taken to the public hearing process.
After the May 3 adoption, everything is in position so he can bring it back to the district to apply to subdivide the property from the BCR remainder land and consolidate it with the existing ranchland.
The reason council is involved is because the land in question lies within the municipal boundaries.
In 2008, BC Rail subdivided its railway corridor, which was basically the railway bed, from its remaining land holdings, with the intention of selling the remainder lots in the future.
The general area of the remainder lots is where Exeter Station Road crosses the BCR tracks and is about one kilometre in length and contains about 30 acres of land.
Source is HERE.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/122106489.html?c=y&curSection=/okanagan_similkameen/lakecountrycalendar&curTitle=BC+News&bc09=true
MLAs Guy Gentner and Vicki Huntingdon raised questions in the Legislature this week about the possibility of a foreign trade zone in South Delta.
Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington is raising alarm bells that valuable agricultural land could be turned into a tax-free industrial wasteland.
{Snip} ...
Noting South Delta and, in particular, land around the Deltaport container terminal would be prime candidates, Huntington asked Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Blair Lekstrom if the government is contemplating such a zone in Delta.
She said even though she had been told it could end up elsewhere, it's suspicious that B.C. Rail has stockpiled more land than it requires for rail expansion and that a land consolidation group is secretly optioning agricultural land in Delta.
"A Dubai model free trade zone has nothing to do with community. The whole point of a modern free trade zone is to protect business from community. This isn't about jobs. It's about greed. It's about flipping land in Delta, and it's about the destruction of the finest agricultural land in Canada," Huntington said during question period Tuesday.
"I'm asking this minister: if this feasibility study recommends free trade zones in B.C., will the minister tell us today that his government will not remove land from the ALR to create an industrial wasteland in Delta?"
Lekstrom responded by pointing out what's being explored are foreign trade zones and not free trade zones. He said he doesn't want to predetermine what the report will say.
Lekstrom, noting the zones are not a new concept and are in use around the world, said a location hasn't been determined.
The zones were created in the United States to provide special customs procedures, including duty-free treatment, to U.S. firms engaged in international trade-related activities. By having goods sitting in the zones, duty payment is deferred on those items until they are brought out for sale in the market. The zones are supposed to help to offset customs advantages available to overseas producers who compete with domestic industry.
GCT Global Container Terminals Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and one of the largest financial institutions in Canada, wants the federal government to explore establishing foreign trade zones in this country. The company operates four container terminals through several principal businesses, including TSI Terminal Systems Inc. at Deltaport.
Global Container Terminals is part of a steering committee that includes YVR, CN, CPR, Port Metro Vancouver, Halifax and Montreal Ports, and Centreport in Winnipeg. The committee wants a review of federal policies and processes regarding foreign trade zones and has made the B.C. government aware of its efforts. {Snip} ...
Waltz noted lands adjacent to Deltaport, which is eyed for a major container terminal expansion in the next few years, could be an ideal candidate to establish a foreign trade zone, particularly the new logistics centre that will open at the Tsawwassen First Nation.
Delta North NDP MLA Guy Gentner described it all as one of the biggest assaults yet on Delta.
Read this whole story HERE.
http://www.delta-optimist.com/Delta+MLAs+raise+alarm+over+free+trade+zones/4804669/story.html#ixzz1MjhxxUvH
And from 100 Mile House, B.C. ...
BC Rail land subdivision a step closer
By Ken Alexander
100 Mile House Free Press - May 18, 2011
After receiving no public comment or written submissions regarding an Official Community Plan (OCP) amendment to give former BC Rail "Remainder Lots" agricultural designation, the District of 100 Mile House gave third reading and adoption of the application at its May 3 meeting.
Bridge Creek Estates ranch manager Don Savjord wanted to get a small strip of BCR remainder land near Exeter Station designated agricultural so he could include it with ranch property.
It had been a long process because Savjord came before district in October 2010, and council authorized the subdivision application in the Agricultural Land Reserve to proceed to the Agricultural Land Commission (ALC).
By the end of the year, Savjord received permission from the ALC to subdivide the land.
Then Savjord brought back to council on April 12 for the OCP amendment and received first and second reading. Then, the application was taken to the public hearing process.
After the May 3 adoption, everything is in position so he can bring it back to the district to apply to subdivide the property from the BCR remainder land and consolidate it with the existing ranchland.
The reason council is involved is because the land in question lies within the municipal boundaries.
In 2008, BC Rail subdivided its railway corridor, which was basically the railway bed, from its remaining land holdings, with the intention of selling the remainder lots in the future.
The general area of the remainder lots is where Exeter Station Road crosses the BCR tracks and is about one kilometre in length and contains about 30 acres of land.
Source is HERE.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/news/122106489.html?c=y&curSection=/okanagan_similkameen/lakecountrycalendar&curTitle=BC+News&bc09=true
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Tuesday, May 17, 2011
CN investing $3.6 Billion ...
.
CN
Canadian National Railway Company is expanding the capacity of key segments of its rail infrastructure to support increased freight traffic and the economy in northern Alberta and Western Canada.
“CN is experiencing continued growth in Western Canadian freight volumes,” said Keith Creel, CN executive vice-president and chief operating officer.
“We are making strategic rail investments in Alberta to increase network capacity and improve train velocity along our transcontinental main line between Edmonton and Winnipeg, and to be positioned to handle greater volumes of freight over our line to Fort McMurray, the gateway to Alberta’s oilsands production region.”
As part of this strategy, CN is investing $12 million to construct 5.6 kilometres of track between two sidings located about 32 kilometres east of Edmonton on the Wainwright Subdivision.
This will create about 12.5 kilometres of new double track, which will help dispatchers to expedite the meeting of trains and to increase train velocity on one of the highest-density corridors on the CN system.
“Western Canada is an area where we are experiencing good traffic growth for bulk commodities, such as grain, coal, sulphur, potash, forest products and chemical goods,” said Mark Hallman, CN director of communications and public affairs.
“Wainwright handles intermodal containers being transported through (import) Vancouver and Prince Rupert, as well as forest products through B.C. (export) and domestic containers. There are also import containers being shipped into the US Midwest to Chicago, Memphis and Central Canada.”
To transport these shipments, CN is investing $12 million to build 11,400 feet of track east of Clover Bar yard on the Wainwright subdivision in the greater Edmonton area to facilitate switching in the terminal.
The additional track will help to expedite arrivals and departures of freight trains at the yard.
In another strategic investment, CN is investing $3 million to reconfigure tracks at Walker Yard in Edmonton, which will increase the velocity of the terminal in handling greater volumes of freight traffic.
“We are expanding the rail corridor to Fort McMurray to handle petroleum coke and sulphur going south out of that area,” said Hallman.
“This will also allow us to handle construction materials, equipment and machinery that are entering this area.”
The company is investing $10 million on CN’s secondary Lac La Biche Subdivision in northern Alberta to support additional traffic to and from Fort McMurray.
CN bought the Athabasca Northern Railway Ltd in December 2007 for $25 million to provide direct rail access to the major energy projects in development in the Athabasca, Peace River and Cold Lake oilsands regions.
The deal involved a rehabilitation plan that invested $135 million in rail-line upgrades over three years to improve transit times and service between Boyle, AB and Fort McMurray.
The line from Boyle, 150 kilometres north of Edmonton, crosses unstable muskeg over 35 per cent of its length, and needed improved rails, ties, bridges and ballast after years of neglect.
CN’s rehabilitation plan was supported by long-term traffic volume guarantees the company negotiated with shippers Suncor Energy Inc., OPTI Canada Inc., and Nexen Inc. These oilsands producers ship sulphur and petroleum coke to Asia and receive incoming shipments of construction materials, machinery and diluent, which is a petroleum product used to thin out bitumen so it can move through pipelines.
The upgrade of the 300-kilometre length line increased train speed from an average of 16 kilometres an hour to 40 kilometres per hour and allowed for heavier loads.
The rail link from Boyle to Fort McMurray was constructed during the First World War and received few upgrades until CN began its rehabilitation plan.
The previous owners of the Athabasca Northern Railway planned to sell the line off as salvage. But, when the price of oil began to take off in the early 2000’s, the owners changed their minds and decided to try their hand at running it.
Source is HERE:
http://www.journalofcommerce.com/article/id44414
Source is HERE:
http://www.journalofcommerce.com/article/id44414
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And then there's this:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/breakingnews/Manitoba-commodities-on-way-to-China-via-CentrePort-121581244.html
And then there's this:
Manitoba commodities on way to China via CentrePort
By: Martin Cash
By: Martin Cash
Winnipeg Free Press - 05/10/2011
CentrePort Canada has announced its first export project that will see Winnipeg’s location and rail assets leveraged to start shipping enhanced volumes of Manitoba agricultural commodities to China.
The project includes partnership and collaboration with both CN and CP railroads as well as China’s largest logistics company and another Chinese company that has developed specialized technology used in container shipping of commodities from South America.
The concept calls for locally grown soybeans, green peas and canola meal to be loaded into containers, taken by rail to B.C. ports and shipped to China, specifically to an inland port in the city of Chongqing.
Diane Gray, CEO of CentrePort said the plan makes sense for all parties concerned.
The railways are pleased because it will mean they will carry loaded containers on the back haul to China (as opposed to empty ones as is often the case), the Chinese market gets a more reliable supply of these agricultural commodities and CentrePort has a debut program that it may eventually build infrastructure around to support.
Gray said shipments are hoped to begin this fall.
In the future she said volumes could be as high as 100 containers per week.
CentrePort Canada has announced its first export project that will see Winnipeg’s location and rail assets leveraged to start shipping enhanced volumes of Manitoba agricultural commodities to China.
The project includes partnership and collaboration with both CN and CP railroads as well as China’s largest logistics company and another Chinese company that has developed specialized technology used in container shipping of commodities from South America.
The concept calls for locally grown soybeans, green peas and canola meal to be loaded into containers, taken by rail to B.C. ports and shipped to China, specifically to an inland port in the city of Chongqing.
Diane Gray, CEO of CentrePort said the plan makes sense for all parties concerned.
The railways are pleased because it will mean they will carry loaded containers on the back haul to China (as opposed to empty ones as is often the case), the Chinese market gets a more reliable supply of these agricultural commodities and CentrePort has a debut program that it may eventually build infrastructure around to support.
Gray said shipments are hoped to begin this fall.
In the future she said volumes could be as high as 100 containers per week.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/breakingnews/Manitoba-commodities-on-way-to-China-via-CentrePort-121581244.html
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And this. Just a little double-cross here and there, going forward ...
The Tyee - May 17, 2011.
Excerpt:
"When you hear about the foreign trade zone, you just start connecting all the dots," said [Vicki] Huntington, [Independent M.L.A.] who represents Delta South. "Delta's going to be used as the province's doormat . . . It's sad when there's a government with such single mindedness about economic values over all other values. It's a danger to the health and welfare of British Columbia."
The provincial government began searching in February for a consultant to study the pros and cons of setting up such a zone, where "tariffs are reduced or eliminated and goods can be stored duty or tax-free," Public Eye website reported.
Huntington and NDP Delta North MLA Guy Gentner both asked about foreign trade zones in question period today.
There's reason to be suspicious, Huntington said in the legislature, "When the former, former Minister of Transportation [Kevin Falcon] takes B.C. Rail to Dubai with him, when Global Container Terminals at Deltaport is owned in Dubai, when Global Container chairs the steering committee advocating free trade zones in B.C., when B.C. Rail has stockpiled more land than it requires for rail expansion and when a land consolidation group is secretly optioning agricultural land adjacent to the B.C. holdings in Delta."
She asked, "Will the minister tell me whether this government is contemplating a free trade zone on the agricultural lands in Delta?"
The current transportation and infrastructure minister, Blair Lekstrom, said no decisions have been made about establishing a foreign trade zone. "There is no determination, locations of any such," he said. "I think that would be far too premature . . . There has been no indication of any piece of property, whether it be in British Columbia or anywhere else that I know of, that has been committed to such an exercise."
Huntington said she believes that the government has secretly moved far along in its planning and it's likely a done deal.
"This isn't about jobs," she said. "It's about greed. It's about flipping land in Delta, and it's about the destruction of the finest agricultural land in Canada ..."
Source is HERE.
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Politics/2011/05/17/DeltaZone/
Note also the familiar "Knife-in-the-back" flourish ...
BC log exports soar on new Chinese demand
Excerpt:
When Port Alberni Mayor Ken McRae sees a freighter leaving his coastal sawmilling town loaded with wood, the pride he once felt has turned to a deep concern for the future of the British Columbia coastal forest industry.
Once those ships were loaded with lumber. Now, half the cargo is logs.
Log exports have exploded in B.C. in the last few months, largely to feed China's voracious appetite for fibre. McRae is not opposed to exports; they have a place in a healthy industry, he said. But he fears China's appetite for B.C. logs is going to cut into manufacturing here.
"China, Korea and Japan are paying more for logs than most of our sawmillers can afford. It's a huge issue that's going to come back to bite us," he said in an interview.
McRae is not the only one who sees a structural change taking place in the global forest industry with huge implications for B.C. China is switching from relying on the vast forests of the Russian Far East, where log exports are now restricted, to the countries of the Pacific Rim, said Gerry Van Leeuwen, vice-president of the research firm International Wood Markets. And B.C., which still accounts for a small piece of China's log import pie, is China's fastest-growing source of fibre in a string of countries around the Pacific. {Snip} ...
The scope of the changes underway hit Van Leeuwen on an April trip to China when he saw 80 small sawmills in the port city of Qingdao. Six months ago, there wasn't a single mill there, he said.
Port cities like Qingdao are all attracting sawmills that previously were in the Russian border region. Each mill consists of a head rig for slicing logs one board at a time and a band saw for making a finished board. Lumber is all cut and stacked by hand, a labour-intensive process that can't match the volume of a B.C. mill. But China has thousands of these mills.
Fuelling China's appetite for Pacific Rim wood, said Van Leeuwen, is an ambitious plan to build 35 million low-cost homes over the next five years to accommodate the inflow of peasants into urban areas. The homes are all concrete, but it takes lumber to make the concrete forms and scaffolding.
{Snip} ...
Here's the price breakdown: A log that sells on the BC domestic market for $50 would typically fetch $85 on the export market. The province levies a $15 fee in lieu of selling it locally, leaving the exporter with a $20 premium, 40 per cent above the domestic price. On the north and central coast, licensees are permitted to export 30 per cent of their annual allowable cut.
{Snip} ...
For B.C. loggers, emerging from a four-year-long depression that cut their sector down to half its size, China is a lifeline, said Dave Lewis, executive director of the B.C. Truck Loggers Association.
For the last two years, only half the allowable annual cut -the amount of timber that can be sustainably harvested -has been logged on the coast.
"Half our timber was sitting out there because the mills couldn't afford to pay what it cost to bring it out. The reality is, there's lots of wood. But there's no U.S. lumber market so [sawmills] can't afford to pay what it costs to bring the wood out." {Snip} ...
Read the full story HERE:
http://www.vancouversun.com/exports+soar+Chinese+demand/4795186/story.html#ixzz1Mcv7JC7i
Foreign Trade Zone threatens Delta farmland
The Tyee - May 17, 2011.
Excerpt:
"When you hear about the foreign trade zone, you just start connecting all the dots," said [Vicki] Huntington, [Independent M.L.A.] who represents Delta South. "Delta's going to be used as the province's doormat . . . It's sad when there's a government with such single mindedness about economic values over all other values. It's a danger to the health and welfare of British Columbia."
The provincial government began searching in February for a consultant to study the pros and cons of setting up such a zone, where "tariffs are reduced or eliminated and goods can be stored duty or tax-free," Public Eye website reported.
Huntington and NDP Delta North MLA Guy Gentner both asked about foreign trade zones in question period today.
There's reason to be suspicious, Huntington said in the legislature, "When the former, former Minister of Transportation [Kevin Falcon] takes B.C. Rail to Dubai with him, when Global Container Terminals at Deltaport is owned in Dubai, when Global Container chairs the steering committee advocating free trade zones in B.C., when B.C. Rail has stockpiled more land than it requires for rail expansion and when a land consolidation group is secretly optioning agricultural land adjacent to the B.C. holdings in Delta."
She asked, "Will the minister tell me whether this government is contemplating a free trade zone on the agricultural lands in Delta?"
The current transportation and infrastructure minister, Blair Lekstrom, said no decisions have been made about establishing a foreign trade zone. "There is no determination, locations of any such," he said. "I think that would be far too premature . . . There has been no indication of any piece of property, whether it be in British Columbia or anywhere else that I know of, that has been committed to such an exercise."
Huntington said she believes that the government has secretly moved far along in its planning and it's likely a done deal.
"This isn't about jobs," she said. "It's about greed. It's about flipping land in Delta, and it's about the destruction of the finest agricultural land in Canada ..."
Source is HERE.
http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/BC-Politics/2011/05/17/DeltaZone/
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Note also the familiar "Knife-in-the-back" flourish ...
BC log exports soar on new Chinese demand
Excerpt:
When Port Alberni Mayor Ken McRae sees a freighter leaving his coastal sawmilling town loaded with wood, the pride he once felt has turned to a deep concern for the future of the British Columbia coastal forest industry.
Once those ships were loaded with lumber. Now, half the cargo is logs.
Log exports have exploded in B.C. in the last few months, largely to feed China's voracious appetite for fibre. McRae is not opposed to exports; they have a place in a healthy industry, he said. But he fears China's appetite for B.C. logs is going to cut into manufacturing here.
"China, Korea and Japan are paying more for logs than most of our sawmillers can afford. It's a huge issue that's going to come back to bite us," he said in an interview.
McRae is not the only one who sees a structural change taking place in the global forest industry with huge implications for B.C. China is switching from relying on the vast forests of the Russian Far East, where log exports are now restricted, to the countries of the Pacific Rim, said Gerry Van Leeuwen, vice-president of the research firm International Wood Markets. And B.C., which still accounts for a small piece of China's log import pie, is China's fastest-growing source of fibre in a string of countries around the Pacific. {Snip} ...
The scope of the changes underway hit Van Leeuwen on an April trip to China when he saw 80 small sawmills in the port city of Qingdao. Six months ago, there wasn't a single mill there, he said.
Port cities like Qingdao are all attracting sawmills that previously were in the Russian border region. Each mill consists of a head rig for slicing logs one board at a time and a band saw for making a finished board. Lumber is all cut and stacked by hand, a labour-intensive process that can't match the volume of a B.C. mill. But China has thousands of these mills.
Fuelling China's appetite for Pacific Rim wood, said Van Leeuwen, is an ambitious plan to build 35 million low-cost homes over the next five years to accommodate the inflow of peasants into urban areas. The homes are all concrete, but it takes lumber to make the concrete forms and scaffolding.
{Snip} ...
Here's the price breakdown: A log that sells on the BC domestic market for $50 would typically fetch $85 on the export market. The province levies a $15 fee in lieu of selling it locally, leaving the exporter with a $20 premium, 40 per cent above the domestic price. On the north and central coast, licensees are permitted to export 30 per cent of their annual allowable cut.
{Snip} ...
For B.C. loggers, emerging from a four-year-long depression that cut their sector down to half its size, China is a lifeline, said Dave Lewis, executive director of the B.C. Truck Loggers Association.
For the last two years, only half the allowable annual cut -the amount of timber that can be sustainably harvested -has been logged on the coast.
"Half our timber was sitting out there because the mills couldn't afford to pay what it cost to bring it out. The reality is, there's lots of wood. But there's no U.S. lumber market so [sawmills] can't afford to pay what it costs to bring the wood out." {Snip} ...
Read the full story HERE:
http://www.vancouversun.com/exports+soar+Chinese+demand/4795186/story.html#ixzz1Mcv7JC7i
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BC Mary comment: There's nobody on guard for the people of BC. Corporations? yes. Foreign corporations, oh yes. But for some decent people watching over the economic wellbeing of ordinary citizens who do the jobs, pay the taxes, raise the kids, heal the wounded, volunteer, and care about the future ... who's actively safeguarding us?
_________________________
Thanks for sending this, Rita. I know you're exhausted from the good work you do. But Karma will bring it all back to you someday soon.
Things can't go on like this.
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Monday, May 16, 2011
BC Rail: If privileged people do the stealing, does that make it OK for ordinary people to keep doing the losing out part?
.
Monday morning shocks
By BC Mary
Monday, May 16, 2011
Early this morning, May 16, 2011, I turned on the TV to CBC Newsworld. With no ado whatsoever, thank goodness, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation took me to the small northerly town of Slave Lake, Alberta, because 50% of that little town burned to the ground last night click HERE
http://www.vancouversun.com/Evacuated+residents+Slave+Lake+reeling/4791581/story.html
... including their Town Hall, their High School, and their Library ... while 7,000 residents ran for their lives ... and the wildfires are still burning hard. Imagine. Just like that.
Next I saw the rich farmlands around Borden and Portage la Prairie, Manitoba (not that far away, as crows fly) being destroyed by drowning in an incredible, historic flooding. Farm after farm, family after family, homes, livestock, everything drowning with the water still rising. Imagine. Just like that.
There's a spot of trouble south of us, too. HERE.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/17/us-weather-usa-spring-idUSTRE72G5XU20110317
But mostly, down south of the international border, we see cheers and rejoicing at the $1Billion Florida launch of the Shuttle ENDEAVOUR on its final journey. That's correct: each launch costs them $1Billion. At the same time as U.SA. hits its $14 Trillion debt limit today, they will be dipping into pension funds to add borrowing capacity, says Reuters today, May 16, 2011. See that HERE.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/17/us-weather-usa-spring-idUSTRE72G5XU20110317
Apropos of the world as perhaps only the despicable Col. Russell Williams once perceived it, today's "news" shows a major star of the financial world getting himself hauled off to the slammer HERE
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/us-strausskahn-arrest-idUSTRE74D29F20110516
instead of marching to his personal preference of becoming president of France. Incredible, when he's SO important. See that HERE.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/business/global/17euro.html?pagewanted=2
For ordinary folks, there's special stuff. Like, about ordinary people being beheaded while shopping ... ordinary people being dug out of newly-discovered pits ... or given day parole after murdering 4 children last year. The reader might get the uncanny idea that this is only to be expected. As in, Ours not to reason why, ours but to do or die. HERE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charge_of_the_Light_Brigade_(Poem)
Oh, and what do ordinary folks think about the reported death of the notorious, the infamous Osama bin Laden? Phhttt. Shrug. Probably a fabricated narrative intended to pull attention away from somebody's birth certificate. Maybe the Strauss-Kahn arrest was fabricated too (he was a socialist, you know).
On the other hand, many important things get UNfabricated: such as Christy Clark's astoundingly amazing photo finish (she won, of course, in the final few moments of election day) and nobody cares. What do ordinary folks know, after all. [Answer: seems obvious to me that ordinary folks are supposed to know very little. Try finding a photo of Gordo's longtime girlfriend who was paid big taxpayers' bucks in his office for many years. Try finding out much about Strauss-Kahn already. Try ... well, you get the point.]
So I ask you: is there some law against helping citizens resolve a legitimate, responsible inquiry into ... for example ... w.t.f. happened to the nation's 3rd largest railway? How come somebody else thinks they own it, against our wishes? Why is the deal they made with the Campbell Gang still partly secret?
Why haven't charges been laid where bribery and deception have occurred? Is there some law that prevents the news of our world being presented to us as fairly and squarely as possible? Is there some law that says certain evil things can and should happen without recourse? Did Gordo slip new legislation into being, which decrees that some familiar crimes are OK, but other kinds of familiar crime are criminal? You think I am kidding? I am not kidding.
The loss of BC Rail is, in my view, a tragedy equal to a wildfire ... equal to a historic flood ... equal to the loss of sovereignty ... and I tell you frankly ... next Monday morning, I'd like to see, on CBC Newsworld or in The Globe and Mail, or The Guardian U.K., or even on CNN or preferably all of the above, a wall of full-on support for the people of British Columbia who have also suffered and paid and suffered and paid, because "somebody" stole our railway -- BC Rail -- and nobody is willing to unlock those evil secrets. Are we really supposed to believe that because privileged people did the stealing ... it's OK for ordinary people to keep doing the losing-out part?
Today's news makes me think that this might actually be true. One of Gordo's mangiest crimes was to impersonate and degrade the name of the historic Liberal Party of Canada.
No wonder the BC Liberal Party is thinking of changing its name to better suit its current identity. Some like the "Conservative Reform Alliance Party", that's C.R.A.P. But the best suggestion I've heard so far is the
Witness Protection Party.
Monday morning shocks
By BC Mary
Monday, May 16, 2011
Early this morning, May 16, 2011, I turned on the TV to CBC Newsworld. With no ado whatsoever, thank goodness, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation took me to the small northerly town of Slave Lake, Alberta, because 50% of that little town burned to the ground last night click HERE
http://www.vancouversun.com/Evacuated+residents+Slave+Lake+reeling/4791581/story.html
... including their Town Hall, their High School, and their Library ... while 7,000 residents ran for their lives ... and the wildfires are still burning hard. Imagine. Just like that.
Next I saw the rich farmlands around Borden and Portage la Prairie, Manitoba (not that far away, as crows fly) being destroyed by drowning in an incredible, historic flooding. Farm after farm, family after family, homes, livestock, everything drowning with the water still rising. Imagine. Just like that.
There's a spot of trouble south of us, too. HERE.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/17/us-weather-usa-spring-idUSTRE72G5XU20110317
But mostly, down south of the international border, we see cheers and rejoicing at the $1Billion Florida launch of the Shuttle ENDEAVOUR on its final journey. That's correct: each launch costs them $1Billion. At the same time as U.SA. hits its $14 Trillion debt limit today, they will be dipping into pension funds to add borrowing capacity, says Reuters today, May 16, 2011. See that HERE.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/17/us-weather-usa-spring-idUSTRE72G5XU20110317
Apropos of the world as perhaps only the despicable Col. Russell Williams once perceived it, today's "news" shows a major star of the financial world getting himself hauled off to the slammer HERE
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/16/us-strausskahn-arrest-idUSTRE74D29F20110516
instead of marching to his personal preference of becoming president of France. Incredible, when he's SO important. See that HERE.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/17/business/global/17euro.html?pagewanted=2
For ordinary folks, there's special stuff. Like, about ordinary people being beheaded while shopping ... ordinary people being dug out of newly-discovered pits ... or given day parole after murdering 4 children last year. The reader might get the uncanny idea that this is only to be expected. As in, Ours not to reason why, ours but to do or die. HERE.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Charge_of_the_Light_Brigade_(Poem)
Oh, and what do ordinary folks think about the reported death of the notorious, the infamous Osama bin Laden? Phhttt. Shrug. Probably a fabricated narrative intended to pull attention away from somebody's birth certificate. Maybe the Strauss-Kahn arrest was fabricated too (he was a socialist, you know).
On the other hand, many important things get UNfabricated: such as Christy Clark's astoundingly amazing photo finish (she won, of course, in the final few moments of election day) and nobody cares. What do ordinary folks know, after all. [Answer: seems obvious to me that ordinary folks are supposed to know very little. Try finding a photo of Gordo's longtime girlfriend who was paid big taxpayers' bucks in his office for many years. Try finding out much about Strauss-Kahn already. Try ... well, you get the point.]
So I ask you: is there some law against helping citizens resolve a legitimate, responsible inquiry into ... for example ... w.t.f. happened to the nation's 3rd largest railway? How come somebody else thinks they own it, against our wishes? Why is the deal they made with the Campbell Gang still partly secret?
Why haven't charges been laid where bribery and deception have occurred? Is there some law that prevents the news of our world being presented to us as fairly and squarely as possible? Is there some law that says certain evil things can and should happen without recourse? Did Gordo slip new legislation into being, which decrees that some familiar crimes are OK, but other kinds of familiar crime are criminal? You think I am kidding? I am not kidding.
The loss of BC Rail is, in my view, a tragedy equal to a wildfire ... equal to a historic flood ... equal to the loss of sovereignty ... and I tell you frankly ... next Monday morning, I'd like to see, on CBC Newsworld or in The Globe and Mail, or The Guardian U.K., or even on CNN or preferably all of the above, a wall of full-on support for the people of British Columbia who have also suffered and paid and suffered and paid, because "somebody" stole our railway -- BC Rail -- and nobody is willing to unlock those evil secrets. Are we really supposed to believe that because privileged people did the stealing ... it's OK for ordinary people to keep doing the losing-out part?
Today's news makes me think that this might actually be true. One of Gordo's mangiest crimes was to impersonate and degrade the name of the historic Liberal Party of Canada.
No wonder the BC Liberal Party is thinking of changing its name to better suit its current identity. Some like the "Conservative Reform Alliance Party", that's C.R.A.P. But the best suggestion I've heard so far is the
Witness Protection Party.
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Anonymous comment noted in passing:
Too bad our former beloved Premier wasn't in this club
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/993074--mother-of-schwarzenegger-s-secret-child-revealed
Too bad our former beloved Premier wasn't in this club
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/993074--mother-of-schwarzenegger-s-secret-child-revealed
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