Port Mann Fiasco

Who  would have thought in 1964 when I helped build the most expensive piece of highway in Canada at the time, the Port Mann bridge that it would be torn down in my lifetime 45 years later, especially considering the fact that it was only 2006 that the bridge was totally refurbished and another lane added. The reality is that this is what this government stands for ideological dogma, short term thinking and quite literally no planning ahead, all the way from the NEW ERA in the hospitals and health care to the tearing down of a newly refurbished, upgraded bridge 45 years into it’s life, it’s a sad fact that the taxpayers of BC will be paying for the old Port Mann bridge upgrades decades after it has been torn down. Is this financial expertise, is this good Conservative money management or is this just another example of reckless short term incompetence with no planning to speak of at all, is this how responsible governments should conduct themselves. 

No wonder there is no money for social programs with the multi-millions this government has squandered on pretty much everything they have touched, the Golden Ears Bridge will be lucky if it lasts 30 years as it was pulling apart within months of being built and the new 3.3 billion dollar Port Mann bridge appears to be doing not much better and apparently has an expected life span of 35 years. 

When you consider BCs other bridges this is inexcusable folly, the Lions gate bridge is 76 years old and counting the Patella bridge is 75 years old and the Iron workers bridge is 52 years old and counting, Golden gate bridge 75 years and counting, this government is all about show, flash and propaganda, pretty well everything this government touched will be gone long before it is paid for. 

I am sure when the citizens of BC finally see the uncooked books in other words the real financial disaster that is the BC Liberals legacy, they will be shocked and forced to put to rest once and for all the myth of Conservative (BC Liberal) financial competence, the fact is outside the bubble these clowns would be hard pressed to run a popcorn stand.

DARK AGES

There was a time not so long ago that Canada was the envy of the world we had natural resources a highly educated people, we built things the rest of the world were in awe off. 
Those were the days that Canada had a government that believed in Canada and Canadians, they built things like the Avro-Arrow, that was a time when the whole aviation world’s eyes were on Canada the, Arrow was designed and built specifically for Canadian military reqirements and was the most advanced aircraft in the world, as such the Arrow didn’t have a lot of buyers but with Canada’s proven expertise in the aircraft industry Canada should have been a leader in aircraft and areo-space design today, unfortunately Canada elected a Conservative government under John Diefenbaker who did not believe in Canadian ingenuity and place in the world and canceled the Avro-Arrow and the Iroquois engine program. The tragedy for Canadians was though we demonstrated phenomenal success we were never able to reap the benefits thanks to a CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT. 
So instead of a boom in  the aerospace industry Canada suffered the biggest brain drain in it’s history with 50,000 highly skilled workers leaving the country with one going to NASA and helping get them to the moon and another going to Europe and designing the Concord jet to name a couple, subsequently setting Canada’s aero-space and aircraft industry back decades, and costing Canada multi-billions of dollars and thousands of high paying jobs. 

The sad conclusion to this debacle was that Canada ended up buying the Bomarc-B missile which were nothing more than giant paperweights and because we were now totally dependent on America for our military aircraft we ended up with F-101 Voodoos that not only cost more than the Arrow but were a Mack1 aircraft as opposed to the Mack 2 Arrow.

Sadly this whole scenario is playing itself out again with not surprisingly another Conservative Prime Minister only this time it is with the whole scientific field, Canada’s Prime Minister simply does not believe in science and has chosen to fire scientists and cut back funding in every in field of science. Scientists are the very people that the world needs to find the answers to pull us out of this downward spiral mankind finds itself in. What will Canada do after all the scientists have left for greener pastures, do you really think they are just going to take a job flipping hamburgers at MacDonald’s until Canada elects a sane government?
In May 8 2008 the Conservative government thought it would once again deliver a gut shot to the Canadian areo-space industry and let the Americans take over MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates a Richmond BC Canadian aero-space company employing over 3000 people, MDA are the people that built the Canada space arm and the Radar-sat satellite and I would imagine have thousands of important patents not to mention highly skilled workers, it was only after a major public outcry that Commissar Harper grudgingly nixed the sale thus stopping another major brain, technology drain. These people are only interested in exploiting Canadas raw resources and then not even interested in doing any Canadian value adding to these un-renewable resources.  

Canada’s government consistently instead of using the massive brain power this county is blessed with and being on the cutting edge of green technology has thrown all it’s eggs in the dirty oil basket, to the detriment of every other job and occupation in Canada, and just sell the whole country outright. 

Canada’s government has decided to take Canada back to the dark ages.

Corporate Domination

I seems to me the left wing of 2012 have more in  common with the likes of Dwight D.Eisenhower and Ronald Reagan than Karl Marx or Vladimir Lenin, I get so tired of these asinine labels. I would agree that Corporations are not necessarily evil but only what you allow them to be, they have their place in the scheme off things in as much as they are controlled and are not allowed to be in control as is the case now. If certain mega corporations had their way in 1942 we would all be speaking german and doing the goosestep. Corporations are about one thing and one thing only, money and power and they do not care how they get it or who they have to get into bed with to get it. 

Left to their own devices they can be truly evil, as money has no conscience and greed has no limit, and as Richard Gecko preached greed is good for Capitalism. 

The reality is that Corporations have to be controlled by rational strict legislation that takes into consideration not only the people that work for them, but the well being of all a countries citizens and especially the environment that sustains all the beings on this planet anything else is shortsighted folly and the road to ruin. In the present context I could even agree that socialism is the problem in the world today but it is Corporate socialism with the extreme right and greedy, corrupt Corporations and mega banks bringing the world to it’s financial knees and then Corporate controlled governments bailing the Corporations, banks, stock markets out with public tax dollars that is the problem. 

The final injustice is the very victims of these criminal acts are the people that inevitably pay the ultimate price for this corruption by loosing their homes, and all the middle class and poor loosing 40 percent of their total assets, while the masterminds of this crime get to not only keep their ill gotten spoils, but even get fat bonuses of even more public tax money. 

To lay this global financial catastrophe on socialism is so far from the truth that it is not even worth discussion. 

"Fascism should more properly be called Corporatism since it is the merger of state and corporate power."--Benito Mussolini

A step in the RIGHT DIRECTION

Iceland certainly had the right idea in pressing charges against Prime Minister Geir Haarde the Prime Minister of Iceland and CEOs of the banks of Iceland, after being charged with 6 separate charges the PM was convicted on one count of negligence and will more than likely not do the two years in Club Fed the charge comes with, but what do you expect, the first thing these sleaze bags do upon being elected is produce legislation giving themselves a free get out of jail card just in case they get caught in their malfeasance. At the very least Icelanders tried and that was the whole point, public officials should not be able to put themselves above the law and just because Geir Haarde will not be going to jail does not mean he should not be doing time for his gross negligence that literally destroyed his countries economy, and financially ruined many Icelandic families and lives. 

There are many people mostly Conservatives that are quite content that Certain individuals or Corporations can play fast and loose with the life savings, pensions, livelihoods and families homes, by literally stealing billions of dollars and enriching their friends and families but are quite simply above and beyond the reach of the law, because it is just business nothing personal. 

Even Adam Smith would say, after all a free market is not representative of a system where the working class pays for the mistakes of the ruling class, but instead one where the mistakes you make while participating in commerce are the ones you have to live with. 

This whole exercise to exact justice was not a waste of time and money it has revealed an obvious truth and already the State of Massachusetts Attorney General has laid 60 charges on 5 major banks and recovered multi-millions of dollars and saved thousands of homes from foreclosure. I can only hope this is a long overdue wave of the future with many other jurisdictions joining in the rush to punish the guilty instead of the innocent.

I believe all the crooks and con men that masquerade as politicians and corporate CEOs should pay dearly for their crimes and breaches of trust.

In fact, tell me why should a public servant that purposely bankrupts a Crown Corporation not be charged with a crime or how about a Premier that purposely subverts democracy being charged with breaking the public trust. that they swore to uphold upon taking office.

I would bet that if Adam Smith were to see what passes for free enterprise, capitalism and democracy over the last decade or two he would roll over in his grave. 

Jail or not I would bet that the next political leader or bank CEO who thinks to pull something like this will certainly think about it long and hard, especially if their free get out of jail cards are revoked. 

Tax BOMB

So the citizens of Pitt Meadows are disgruntled about their tax increases, 
I wonder how they would feel about say a 2,500 percent tax increase which is just what Pacific Skydiving at Pitt Meadows Airport has just received 
I would call that a little more than mind-blowing I would think it borders on criminal. I have to wonder are they the only business to receive a 2,500 percent tax increase and if so how can the Airport authority justify what appears to be discrimination at best outright criminal at worst, this is a company that has been providing good service to the people of the lower mainland for 23 years and has a staff of 28 people, and as such is an important piece of the commercial tax base in Pitt Meadows.

This is all about the Pitt Meadows Airport Authority attempting to extend the runway to accommodate jets and as such is a major concern for the people of Pitt meadows, Maple ridge, Coquitlam and any other municipality that will be affected by this major change, unlike the Vancouver runway extension which went over water and even so received major opposition for noise, environmental and many other related consequences, this expansion will be going over expensive homes that have been there forever and maybe have not been affected by the smaller quieter propeller aeroplanes. We are talking about 2 acres of grass that will still be grass even if the runway is extended. 

I would imagine there will be a lot of opposition to this particular runway expansion, so with that in mind before you destroy a thriving business that will undoubtedly put a good sized hole in Pitt Meadows commercial tax base I would think Pitt Meadows council which is already under pressure about tax increases would make sure this expansion is even feasible before allowing this outrageous tax increase which is obviously a blatant attempt to evict Pacific Skydiving for no good cause, and put in jeopardy the many other businesses that supply and depend on Pacific Skydiving staying in business.

I have to even wonder if a tax increase this obscene is even legal it occurs to me that the Pitt Meadows Airport Authority has possibly exceeded it’s mandate.

Corporate B.S.

Re: FIPA gives businesses confidence MR Times Nov 15 2012

Like their American Counterpart Mitt Romney and company the Conservatives still don’t get it, it was deregulation that brought  the American house of cards down and as every other country in the world knows Deregulation of the environment is economic as well as environmental suicide and is against all known scientific as well as just good old common sense. 

I have been writing for at least a decade that Canada should not put all it’s eggs in one basket and reach out to the Pacific rim countries to reduce Canada’s reliance on America almost exclusively for trade, but times were good and who is it hurting was the wisdom of the day, now we are seeing the results of that shortsightedness as our main trading partner is sick and consequently we have put ourselves in a vulnerable position, but 

I certainly do not think we have to turn over the keys to our country as well as 
Canada’s sovereignty to secure mutually beneficial trade agreements with any country let alone a Communist dictatorship. Canada has what the rest of the world needs and we don’t have to give up anything to get fair trade for our resources, the oil isn’t going anywhere, in fact it can only become more valuable in the future. 

Randy Kamp makes it quite clear that the Conservative serve the corporations and the Canadian people are little more than an inconvenience, how much confidence does business want they already have been given the lowest corporate taxes in the G7 15 percent or less than half what American business taxes are and that isn’t enough, how about all Canadians pledge a vow of fealty to ask no more for our labour than is acceptable to our masters. 

Good god how much do these Neanderthals want, when is enough enough. I will tell you when enough is enough, when Canadians are working for the same wages as the Chinese or any other third world country, and Canada for all intents and purposes is a third word country, joining all those other unfortunate resource poor countries of the world, but Canadians will still be paying $350,192 for a home, what does that tell you, your children will never own a home.

Great world vision the 1 percent with everything and all the rest of the world living in poverty.

While Corporations pay less and less and contribute less Canadians get less and less and at the same time I am paying thousands of dollars more in taxes (HST) for one, new taxes and user fees, green taxes, electronics taxes, gas taxes, environmental taxes, etc etc and at the same time they are destroying the environment, ever since the Conservatives and the BC Liberals came to power. I now pay $1,392.00 a year for MSP I pay around $50.00 dollars a month for bridge tolls (taxes) and I get to wait 76 weeks on a hospital waiting list for an operation. The unemployment rate in BC is 7.5 and our BC government let’s 70,000 illegal foreign workers earning substandard wages do Canadian jobs.  

So just who is getting all this windfall money Canada is making by selling off all our precious renewable and nonrenewable natural resources, it is a telling fact that the middle class and seniors contrary to all the propaganda are much worse off since Conservatives got power, I have to wonder where is the upside for the Canadian people.

PS

Fascism should more properly be called corporatism since it is the merger of state and corporate power.  Benito Mussolini

Big Oil = Responsible business Practices = Oxymoron

Re: Pipelines key to our economy MRNEWS Nov 14 / 2012

I would agree that pipelines could be a key to Canada's future, the question is whether this is a positive or negative part of the economy in particular BCs economy. Mr. Reicher claims that considering the large volume of product being transported the industry safety record is extremely good I guess a leak every 5.5 days is extremely good to people with vested interests and rose colour glasses, the fact is that even if you accept Mr. Reichers figure of 99.9985 the actual leakage will still be three or four times the present amount just by the increased volume. 

Mr. Reacher acknowledges the fact that Canada and Steven Harper could do more to become less dependent on fossil fuels unfortunately the sad reality is as long as we have Harper the proud recipient of the Colossal Fossil award 5 years running this situation shall only get worse, it is also clear that if it was up to oil companies we would never make that move to clean energy. 

I had to chuckle at Mr. Reichers use of Alberta Innovates - Technology Futures (AITF) an Alberta marketing corporation to legitimize his claim about how dilbit is no different than crude oil and causes no more pipeline breaks than conventional oil  (AITF) was established on January 1, 2010 to LEVERAGE Alberta's established strengths in research innovation, I am sure they could come up with any “FACTS” you required of them but, the reality is dilbit is a corrosive toxic acidic slurry with 5-10 times more sulphur and more chloride salts most resembling grinding compound than oil which literally sandblasts pipe interiors and it’s inconsistency is prone to developing bubbles and subsequently pressure fluctuations it’s very nature requires higher pressures and heat to get it to move at all, which I believe is what caused the Kalamazoo pipeline break, a million gallons of dilbit ($800 million and counting ). 

The fact is Mr. Reicher you do not think about anything but money, the spills, pollution and subsequent environmental damage and the costs that you are sometimes forced to pay are just the cost of doing business and are just passed on to the customer. The utopian statement that pipeline operators would never jeopardize their safety record and reputation must have really made your nose grow, oil companies are in it for the money and they have shown repeatedly all over the world their indifference to the damage they do from Alaska, Brazil, Ecuador, Kalamazoo, Nigeria to Gulf of Mexico and BP who just paid multi-billions in fines,14 criminal charges 11 felony counts, even charges of manslaughter, does this sound like people that care about the consequences of their actions, the environment or the people that work for them or the victims that because of big oils criminal negligence literally destroys peoples livelihood or poisons their children, I don’t think so.

Let the brainwashing begin

For those of you out there that love those long nasty two year election cycles we see in America you are in for a real treat, but it is going to be even worse and just as nasty in Canada, the next Canadian Federal election is Oct 19/2015 and the lies and nasty attack ads have already started, the American election we just witnessed boiled down to, can you actually buy the presidency with Karl Rove and the one-percenters spending billions plugging a man most decent people would not buy a used car from, the gratuitous advertising blitz did nothing more than insure another 4 years of gridlock. 

It appears like the Conservatives are going to try the same tactic in Canada, we are to be bombarded relentlessly with lies and Conservative propaganda for the next three years. I just heard an advertisement that the Conservatives tell Canadians that the NDP platform is to impose carbon taxes and lot’s more tax’s on Canadians, which is a barefaced lie, the NDP have proposed a cap and trade system which was actually campaigned on by Harper in 2008, but no carbon tax. 

I find this most disingenuous coming from a Conservative seeing that I am not a corporation I have seen my taxes and user fees double go up thousands with the Conservatives in power (HST, MSP, passport fees, a vast array of new taxes etc etc) they even tried to make me pay tax on a transit pass that I received from BC Transit when I took my medical severance, they even tried to backdate the tax grab 3 years but the courts did not let them get away with it. 

I find it cynical that the Conservatives claim to know what the NDP platform will be but they don’t seem to have or at least won’t tell the Canadian public what their platform is for the next election, I don’t know about you but I don’t remember the Conservatives telling anyone about C-30 or CISPA the Cyber intelligence sharing and protection act which means the end of Canadian privacy which is a grotesque intrusion into Canadians lives and will turn your cell phone into “electronic prisoners bracelet" or how about C-38 and the radical trashing of environmental regulations or about putting democracy on hold or all-inclusive Omnibus bills or turning Canada’s sovereignty over to a brutal Communist dictatorship exposing Canada to multi billion dollar fines if we do not let China do as they please for 3 plus decades, or making decades long agreements with one of the most corrupt governments in the world India, and all this with no debate no scrutiny, all done in secret dark rooms with other dictators. The one thing I do remember is Steven Harper promising abortion would not be an issue that would be revisited under his administration, so much for Conservative promises.

I intend to complain to the CRTC about this obvious false advertising wherever I see or hear it, and if this is the tone for the next three years Canadians will be either totally brainwashed or totally disgusted by this American stye sleaze electioneering, unfortunately this negative tactic works on a certain segment of the population.

Science versus Stupidity

Commissioner Bruce Cohen’s scathing report castigating the Conservatives for the collapse of the Fraser river sockeye salmon run and the subsequent omnibus C-38 which can only make environmental conditions much worse. Mr Cohen has a big disadvantage, despite 3 years 26 million dollars 3 million documents 100 days of evidence listening to almost 900 public submissions, his 1000 page report is after all only science and we all know how much credence Conservatives have in science, for them it is simply, what does the Bible say about any issue and if it is not covered then it can not be a problem because GOD would have put it in the Bible if there were a problem. 

These people live in a bubble that sees nothing they do not want to see or want you to see, and Canada will be ever the worst for that dangerous simplistic naive view of the world. Everything they do has the same naive simplistic ignorance stamped on it and Canada will pay dearly for this regressive government for decades possibly forever. 

Even if you take just a simple monetary measuring stick such as shutting down an important scientific study like the Experimental Lakes Area, a collection of 58 lakes near Kenora which is considered a scientific “jewel” in northern Ontario that has put Canada at the forefront of global freshwater lake research. 

The project costs 2 million dollars a year and employes 17 scientists and is considered a very important study by the rest of the more enlightened governments of the world, but in their wisdom the Conservatives have decided that it is a waste of money so at a cost of 50 million dollars they are shutting it down, I guess that makes sense  to our economist Prime Minister at least using 

Conservative math. 

The reason no doubt has a more sinister reason such as the fresh water scientists not being able to tell Canadians how much damage Canadian pipe lines, super tankers and oil extraction is damaging the Canadian environment.

If all the economists were laid end to end, they'd never reach a conclusion.  ~George Bernard Shaw

The economy depends about as much on economists as the weather does on weather forecasters.  ~Jean-Paul Kauffmann

A CALL TO ARMS

It has become absolutely clear why The Harper government of Canada needs the F-35 fighters which is more suited for ground attacks than defending Canada from foreign invaders, and with that a bunch of new prisons to put the dissidents in.  

The Harper government is at war, unfortunately for the citizens of Canada a once proud, free, sovereign, democratic progressive, first world country that was without a doubt one of the best and most peaceful, beautiful, desirable places in the world to live is at war with it’s rulers.

All that was Canada is now changing as Harper declares war on the very sovereignty of Canada itself, the trashing of democracy and the mockery and marginalizing of the legal system, electoral system and abuse of the political traditions of Canada. Canadians see the rapid dismantling every day of guaranteed rights and freedoms such as rights of privacy, native rights, provincial rights, woman's rights, etc etc the Harper government has declared total war on the environment and the natural world putting Canada at war with science, and scientific knowledge, in effect literally trying to reverse the rest of the worlds effort to reduce man’s toxic footprint on our home earth. Harper has even declared war on peace turning his back on Canada’s traditional role as peacekeepers into one of aggression and gunboat diplomacy, he wants to be a war Prime Minister but is nothing more than a regressive tin pot dictator. 

Canada used to be one of the most well respected countries in the world, now it doesn’t even rate a seat at the UN anymore, we aren’t even wanted at the table for anything to do with the environment, global warming, or any other issue that has to do with environmental progress or human rights for that matter.

Nov 2 Harper declares war on Canada’s future our very sovereignty, democracy,

with future governments not even being able to implement laws to improve, change or more to the point to return to more sane environmental protection laws without the constant danger of Canada being sued for multi-billions of dollars, and amazingly enough this is all being done behind closed doors with a Communist dictatorship and a Canadian dictator with no debate with our elected MPs. Harper is turning control of Canada over to a Communist dictatorship that he ranted and railed against just a couple years ago as human rights abusers and worse, now he wants to get right into bed with them. 

In Australia smarter more rational leaders have said no to these nation busting all inclusive trade agreements.

Any legitimacy this government ever had is gone and the Governor General should have disolved this government with the outrage that was C-38 but it is obvious if Canadians expect any help from that outdated joke we will be waiting a long time. 

Harpers ominous prediction comes ever closer and November 2/2012 will likely see those words realized YOU WILL NOT RECOGNIZE CANADA WHEN I AM FINISHED WITH IT.

Canadians need to shut this country down until the government is disolved or an election is called and the Canada China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act (FIPA) is a part of the Conservative election platform.

P.S. But that's the whole point of corporatism: to try and remove the public from making decisions over their own fate, to limit the public arena, to control opinion, to make sure that the fundamental decisions that determine how the world is going to be run —which include production, commerce, distribution, thought, social policy, foreign policy, everything—are not in the hands of the public, but rather in the hands of highly concentrated private power. In effect, tyranny unaccountable to the public.— Professor Noam Chomsky

Reality Check

Re: MR Times Oct 23/2012 Free enterprise alive in Iceland

Mr. Banov I reread my letter and sure enough nowhere in it did I criticize Free Enterprise, although you are quite right about the Prime Minister Geir Haarde after being charged with 6 separate charges was convicted on one count of negligence and will more than likely not do the two years in Club Fed the charge comes with, but what do you expect, the first thing these sleaze bags do upon being elected is produce legislation giving themselves a free get out of jail card just in case they get caught in their malfeasance. At the very least Icelanders tried and that was the whole point, public officials should not be able to put themselves above the law and just because Geir Haarde will not be going to jail does not mean he should not be doing time for his gross negligence that literally destroyed his countries economy, and financially ruined many Icelandic families and lives. 

Mr. Banov you are obviously one of the few people quite content that Certain individuals or Corporations can play fast and loose with the life savings, pensions, and families homes, and literally steal billions of dollars and are quite simply above and beyond the reach of the law, because it is just business nothing personal. Even Adam Smith would say, after all a free market is not representative of a system where the working class pays for the mistakes of the ruling class, but instead one where the mistakes you make while participating in commerce are the ones you have to live with..

I on the other hand think the crooks and con men that masquerade as politicians and corporate CEOs should pay dearly for their crimes and breaches of trust, but what do I know being a perpetual anti-Capitalist and all ( I  guess that moniker would have to make me a communist LOL). I would bet that if Adam Smith were to see what passes for free enterprise capitalism over the last decade or two he would roll over in his grave. 

Jail or not I would bet that the next political leader or bank CEO who thinks to pull something like this will certainly think about it long and hard, especially if their free get out of jail cards are revoked. 

NO Mandate

The selling off of Canada’s non-renewable oil resources for the next 3 decades is so typical for this Conservative dictatorship. 
This government has absolutely no mandate to implement  such an important long reaching agreement with China, a Communist dictatorship along with the jobs that go with it is to just rub salt into the wounds. 

The way this travesty is set up it will take all Canadian control away from the tar sands and every aspect of the actual recovery all the way to getting it to China, for instance if the people of BC say absolutely no to the pipeline or supertankers or any other aspect of the whole process China can sue Canada to force Canada to accept any amount of bad environmental policy it sees fit, and the fact that the Conservatives have seen fit to get rid of and fuzzifying any and all environmental regulation makes winning any court battles with the Chinese over environmental issues that arise out of this sham deal a faint hope at best. 

This situation is entirely unacceptable, the Conservative government that represents 16 percent of Canadians at best considering the robocalls court challenge will literally take jurisdiction of oil resources out of the hands of Canadian politicians for at least the next 8 Canadian governments.

This treason is literally the end of Canada as we know it and the fruition of Steven Harpers twisted dream, 
Quote “ You will not recognize Canada when I am through with it ” 
if the Canadian people do not stand together right now Canada will take it’s place as a resource poor third world banana republic only instead of Bananas, oil will be the country’s downfall instead of the blessing it could have been, if it had of been rationally or properly managed using not just the short sighted and flawed monetary considerations.

This untenable resource and Canadian sovereignty deal is without a doubt an election issue and democracy demands that a mandate be obtained from the Canadian people for such a pivotal move.

Homelessness National Disgrace

The human chaos that we see, read and anguish about every day or in other words the homelessness crisis that plagues our streets and minds in one way or another, one week its about closing washrooms to the homeless for whatever reason the next week it’s outrage about homeless people peeing or defecating in the street or performing other such functions that would normally be done in a bathroom in public. Under the present circumstances there is no happy ending for any of us because homeless or not people require certain facilities to satisfy basic body functions, to keep clean, to be out of the elements, to have food in our stomachs, the basics of life at the very least.

The people of BC and maybe Canada have to decide whether the status quo is acceptable or not acceptable for Canadians to be living in the street for whatever reason, sure there probably are some of the homeless who would be there no matter what and there are undoubtedly some who should be in jail but they are a small minority, no one should be living in the wet freezing cold because they were born with a physical or mental handicap, no Canadian should be forced to survive the elements because they are unemployed or even underemployed, no woman or juvenile should be forced to live without shelter because she will be abused at home. 

Canadians should feel shame and feel uncomfortable to see how the homeless live amongst us, I would bet if you saw the same thing in another country you would be disgusted and feel empathy for the poor and destitute of another country.

BC started on this slippery slope to rampant homelessness in 1983 in what a rabid Conservative would call the “Golden Era” under the rabid anti-socialist Bill Bennett otherwise known as Mini-Wac, in 1983 under the banner RESTRAINT, Bennett slashed social services and closed down most of the facilities that took care of the mentally and physically handicapped while simultaneously holding a party for the world, EXPO 86. 


His Golden Era excesses finally generated a general strike in BC. 


The stage was set and we see the result of his anti-people polices every time we leave our homes and see the lost souls living amongst us, and yes it is disturbing, but the trick is to blame the right people not blame the victims. 
The solution to this major social problem is certainly not to ship the homeless back to Vancouver which was a bad policy decision made in an attempt to hide previous bad policy decisions, or just moving them to someone elses back yard is certainly not the answer to anyones problem, and certainly inciting hatred against an identifiable group is most certainly not legal nor the answer, like it or not this is BCs and even Canada’s problem not Vancouver's problem, it has to be seriously dealt with by every level of government and not just swept under the rug or glossed over for some undeserved cynical political photo op.

These people are after all Canadians and deserve at least a basic part of the Canadian dream, is a roof over your head out of the cold, rain, wind and food in your stomach to much to ask and how about some caring supervision, access to medical treatment and counselling is that to much to ask for, or expect in Canada one of the richest countries in the world, I don’t think so?

Wayne Clark
Maple Ridge

WHO do you TRUST

It is a dangerous world out there for you and your credit card, with people having the ability to scan your credit cards and passwords by not even touching you, and illegal card scanners placed on ATM machines gleaning all your personal credit information, never mind the hazards of giving your credit information over the phone or internet to some crook. 
You can protect yourself to one degree or another but still I have been seriously compromised once and caught a couple of mistaken charges on my card over the years but up until now if someone had of told me I couldn’t trust the government enough to give them my credit card information I would have said they were undeservedly paranoid, 
NOT ANYMORE. 

The other day I registered online at TReO for my decal for the new Port Mann bridge, gave a credit card number to pay any tolls I might rack up and thought that would be the end of that. Monday I got a phone call from a friend who had signed up on line also and his credit card company phoned him saying his credit card had been compromised by TReO and was told that 271 people that had registered by phone using their credit cards had their cards compromised and both the RCMP and the Transportation Privacy Commissioner are presently investigating.  Just to be safe I cancelled the credit card I had used to register, I then called TReO and was told that 271 people that had registered by phone had their credit cards compromised, the employee also claimed the security breach only involved one employee and that the RCMP were investigating, since then there have been 275 complaints from other people that signed up on line, I am not sure just what that means. 

I find this particularly disturbing that you can no longer even trust the government with your credit card information, possibly this is the end result of having a government that does not believe in government and is doing everything in it’s power to get rid of government employees, the BC Liberal privatize at any cost agenda.  

TRio is a private company doing government business whose employees no doubt make little better than minimum wages which without a doubt makes for a lot of disgruntled workers and obviously makes for poor performance similar to other privatized government functions such as hospital cleaning and other such dismal failures, 84 dead and counting.  

Time to get a government who actually believes in government and actually endeavors to make government agents and agencies both efficient and cost effective, and does not just screw up government functions so it can justify privatizing them.

Time to pay the piper

Re: All the letters The News Oct/10/2012

This is good, this is very good, this is exactly the conversation we should have had two decades ago when we started down the slippery slop to where we see ourselves today. 
The people of BC and maybe Canada have to decide whether the status quo is acceptable or not acceptable for Canadians to be living in the street for whatever reason, sure there probably are some of the homeless who would be there no matter what and there are undoubtedly some who should be in jail but they are a small minority, no one should be living in the wet freezing cold because they were born with a physical or mental handicap, no Canadian should be forced to survive the elements because they are unemployed or even underemployed, no woman or juvenile should be forced to live without shelter because she will be abused at home. 

Canadians should feel shame and feel uncomfortable to see how the homeless live amongst us, I would bet if you saw the same thing in another country you would be disgusted and feel empathy for the poor and destitute of another country.

BC started on this slippery slope to rampant homelessness in 1983 in what a rabid Conservative would call the “Golden Era” under the rabid anti-socialist Bill Bennett otherwise known as Mini-Wac, in 1983 under the banner RESTRAINT, Bennett slashed social services and closed down most of the facilities that took care of the mentally and physically handicapped while simultaneously holding a party for the world, 
EXPO 86. 
His Golden Era excesses finally generated a general strike in BC. 

The solution to this major social problem is certainly not to ship the homeless back to Vancouver which was a bad policy decision made in an attempt to hide previous bad policy decisions, or for that matter moving them to someone else's back yard, 
inciting hatred against an identifiable group is most certainly not legal nor the answer, like it or not this is BCs and even Canada’s problem not Vancouver's problem, it has to be seriously dealt with by every level of government and not just swept under the rug or glossed over for some undeserved cynical political photo op.

These people are after all Canadians and deserve at least a part of the Canadian dream, is a roof over your head out of the cold, rain and wind and food in your stomach to much to ask and how about some caring supervision, access to medical treatment and counselling is that to much to ask for, or expect in Canada one of the richest countries in the world,
I DON'T THINK SO ?

TReOOHH

Re: The News Oct.12/2012 Collecting tolls is a matter of trust

Mr. Turner it would seem your instincts are firing on all eight cylinders about trusting TReO. 
The other day I registered online at TReO for my decal for the new Port Mann bridge, gave a credit card number to pay any tolls I might rack up and thought that would be the end of that. Monday I got a phone call from a friend who had signed up on line also and his credit card company phoned him saying his credit card had been compromised by TReO and was told that 271 people that had registered by phone using their credit cards had their cards compromised and both the RCMP and the Transportation Privacy Commissioner are presently investigating.  Just to be safe I cancelled the credit card I had used to register, I then called TReO and was told that 271 people that had registered by phone had their credit cards compromised, the employee also claimed the security breach only involved one employee and that the RCMP were investigating, since then there have been 275 complaints from other people that signed up on line, I am not sure just what that means. 

I find this particularly disturbing that you can no longer even trust the government with your credit card information, possibly this is the end result of having a government that does not believe in government and is doing everything in it’s power to get rid of government employees, the BC Liberal privatize at any cost agenda.  TRio is a private company doing government business whose employees no doubt make little better than minimum wages which without a doubt makes for a lot of disgruntled workers and obviously makes for poor performance similar to other privatized government functions such as hospital cleaning etc. etc. 

Time to get a government who actually believes in government and actually endeavors to make government agents and agencies both efficient and cost effective, and does not just screw up government functions so it can justify privatizing them.

Human Compassion

Letters The NEWS Sept 26-28th

Here’s a thought D. Ferguson and Sandy MacDougall and anyone else wanting to get rid of this so called human detritus, why don’t we build large compounds hundreds of miles from civilization and enclose them with barbed wire and we could tattoo numbers on them so we can better keep track of them if they happen to escape. Granted this is nothing new and has been tried before by Hitler and Stalin but we could give the CARE CENTRES less ominous names than Gulags and Death camps because those names have such a negative context.

Seriously if you want to blame someone for this horrible situation do not blame Bob Goos or the Salvation Army Caring place or any other organization that is only trying to help an ever worsening human tragedy that we see or close our eyes too every day. 

There are many reasons for people being homeless forty percent of the homeless are either mentally or physically handicapped the unemployment rate is 7 percent so the real number is closer to 14 percent, about 20 percent are working but don’t make enough to eat and have a roof over their heads also, the average family is 3 weeks away from bankruptcy and if the worst happens the simple fact is that if you aren’t lucky enough to have a family or friends that you can live with until you can turn things around you end up on the street and but for the grace of god there go I. 

In the 1980s there was probably 600 homeless in greater Vancouver and most of them were in Vancouver, by the beginning of the 90s they were everywhere Kerrisdale, Burnaby, Coquitlam and yes Maple Ridge.

In the mid 1980s the BC government was shutting down mental and care homes all over BC, places such as Essondale and smaller facilities all over the province with the promise to open smaller less institution like facilities, a promise they never kept, so all over BC they would take people out of these care homes, take them to the bus depot give them $20 dollars and send them to Vancouver, where they ended up living in the streets or on my bus. I can tell many sad stories about these poor unfortunates who should have been under someones care other than a bus driver, needless to say I have seen many things I would rather not over the years.

A healthy soul can extend itself, put itself in the place of another persons experiences, from that comes wisdom and compassion.

 

If you want to blame someone for this untenable tragedy blame the governments who failed to live up to their promises of positive change and yes blame yourself for letting them get away with their lies, deceptions, and yes outright malfeasance. 

As always It is always about money, but a civilization is judged by how they take care of the sick the old in other words the helpless, less unfortunate of any population and so far we have certainly have not lived up to a very high standard.

Reasonable response

Re: The News August 28/2012 Don’t get offended, just think about helping 

N. Schroder great insightful reasonable human response to an age old profession as well as moral dilemma. I read your letter and other letters and opinions in the paper and can only feel sad at the mostly uncaring selfish hateful and venomous denigrations directed at the unfortunate of this world, only this week I have read letters with hateful derogatory terms such as “ filthy prostitute” “human rubbish, human derritus” Cretins” levelled at the poor unfortunates that make up BCs poor and homeless. 

This denigrated disadvantaged group is undoubtedly almost totally blameless as to their desperate circumstances, I seriously doubt that any one wakes up one morning and says I think being a homeless person or a prostitute will be my chosen career choice. These people are homeless or turn to prostitution mostly because off circumstances beyond their control, and once in that position it is very difficult to escape from without a lot of help, try dressing for a job interview when you are living in the street, unable to wash or shave for maybe weeks and with no mailing address.

I find this unbridled hatred disturbing, with the culprits not trying to understand the underlying problem and not seeming to care why this is happening to these human beings, I don’t hear these people blaming the powers that be and particularly the politicians that have allowed, yes almost purposely caused this situation to grow and fester, in other words the anger is being vented on the wrong people the homeless are the victims here not the villains. 

Just in the last few months a young couple I am aware of had a baby and the husband lost his job the couple fortunately were able to move into her fathers home or they would be on the street, these are not the bad guys. 

In a country as wealthy as Canada this is not only totally immoral but criminal. 

Lastly to the individuals throwing around these hateful slurs, you might want to check out some old Adolph Hitler speeches and you will find he used the same hateful inflammatory rhetoric to justify his monstrous treatment of the Jews.

TIME for an ENEMA

It would seem that after Christy Clark promised a open and accountable government that she has opted to stick with the Gordon Campbell game plan of governing from dark secret rooms with unelected CEOs with vested interests, once again ensuring that all the opposition and most of the Liberal caucus and of course the public is excluded from the decision making process, the same chosen few power elites who hatched the BC Rail scam, HST, the bankrupting of BC Hydro, NERT, EPIC and all the other privatization at any cost we have witnessed over the last decade. 

Campbell broke many of his own laws such as running a deficit budget, not having a spring and fall session of the legislature racking up a record 253 days without our supposed democracy in session. 
So now Christy Clark is going to even outdo her mentor Gordon Campbell in the subjugation of BCs democratic system and it’s citizens, so much for open and accountable government.

Canada traditionally has a parliamentary democracy and one of the supposed safeguards of that system is a Lieutenant Governor, I sincerely believe it would be in this provinces best interests for you the Honourable Steven L. Point to use your powers as Lieutenant Governor of BC to dissolve this sham of a government and call an election as soon as possible. 
The reasons for this are many and all to obvious, we live in perilous times governments and countries rise and fall in less time than the next scheduled election in BC.
1 Christy Clark does not have a mandate to lead this government from the people of BC or it would seem from the members of the Liberal caucus.
2 Christy Clark and the Liberals do not have a mandate to complete Gordon Campbell's privatize at any cost agenda. 
3 Christy Clark and the Liberals definitely do not have a mandate to carry on a dictatorship in BC as they have for the last decade, no more of the peoples business conducted in secret with unelected individuals with vested interests, our democracy from here on has to be conducted in the legislature in the full light of day with all duly elected parties present, with all the questions, ideas, compromise, and finally consensus or what Clark apparently sees as sick but the rest of us recognize as democracy.

 It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried. 

Winston Churchill 

e 

BC can not afford to function one more day without it’s traditional democratic system intact and the practice of ostracizing members of their caucus or the opposition has to stop, not only is this practice disrespectful and undemocratic but it totally disenfranchises all the people that particular MLA represents, It is clear you like to have nothing but yes men around you, but debate=friction is a crucial component of any democracy. 

The citizens of BC demand a proper election now and have a proper accounting to see how much trouble this province is really in without all the sleazy Enron style accounting practices they have been using to hide their mismanagement and incompetence.

We know Christy Clark does not like Victoria but until the capital is moved to Vancouver or Spuzzum that is where the government does it’s business and anyone unable to deal with that fact has no business running for provincial politics let alone Premier.

If the Lieutenant Governor can not do the job we all believe he has the power to do, then it is imperative that the people of BC find that fact out, we most desperately need an election and consequently a new effective government that works for the people of BC instead of the chosen few, and as importantly BC needs a workable recall system so that the voters of BC have a mechanism to make sure this travesty will never happen again.

Michael Sather

Michael Sather has more smarts and more university degrees and integrity than the whole Lieberal caucus put together, if we had a couple dozen more like Mr. Sather we would not be in half the mess this government has imposed on the people of BC, all the way from BC Rail to HST to BC Hydro and NERC, EPIC, etc. etc. and other secret sweetheart back-room deals we don’t even know about yet, never mind the multi-millions of tax dollars squandered on privatizing and trashing our public health care system or the so called failed NEW ERA, and all the other failed ideological disasters this gaggle of incompetents has spawned. 

Christy Clark maybe you could tell us just one issue Randy Hawes or Mark Dalton have been on the right side off or behind, my god the man found out about the HST 2 days before the voters of BC did and he was totally all right with that fact and has generally been nothing more than an empty suit polishing a chair with his mostly useless butt in Victoria for nothing more than a big wage and an even better golden parachute. 
Maple Ridge and the voters of BC need proper effective advocates not some pompous twit imposing his masters ultra right-wing agenda on his constituents. 
An MLAs job is to be the spokesperson or advocate for the people that elected him not just another mouthpiece for the head of the party. These two remind me of the show “Being There” where Chance the Gardener, a moron is given a position of power, neither of these people have been involved or informed about most of the legislation from HST to NERC or EPIC and are quite comfortable with the fact that they are nothing more than talking heads regurgitating the sacred words and polices of the dictator and when things go wrong coming out with comments such as “ Yes that was handled badly or It is just to political to talk about", on the other hand Mr. Sather also an MLA has literally been ostracized and been forced to do all his own research and dig and find out about all these secret sweetheart deals by his own means, Mr. Hawes and Dalton are in fact a personification of the failure of this whole government and all the problems it has produced. 

I think all the Lieberals should have to take a compulsory course in Democracy 101 to learn at least the basics of democracy such as running an election on a particular platform, or getting a mandate for projects you believe in, I don’t know about you but I don’t ever remember voting on privatizing BC Rail, HST, bankrupting BC Hydro, NERC, EPIC, and privatizing the liquor, as a matter of fact I wrote Christy Clark in April of 2011 about privatizing liquor and in Shirley Bonds answering letter there was absolutely no mention of privatizing Liquor, one of the days they might want to pay close attention in Democracy 101 would be when they learn about MANDATES and why you need people like Mr. Sather in a democracy that are not just YES men, but then again how can you run a good dictatorship when you have MLAs  actually doing their jobs. 

The people of BC deserve better and we should only be so lucky to have a government made up of people of Mr. Sathers intelligence, intellect, integrity and courage. 

Once again Mr. Hawes has it all ass backwards a vote for the Lieberals is a vote for Conservatives and more of the same.

Last Straw

A while back I went to an anti-HST celebration and Mr. Bill Vanderzalm was giving a well deserved victory speech about the fight against and subsequent defeat of the HST, then somehow the subject diverted to BC Hydro and the speech became literally a heated rant, Mr. Vanderzalm was clearly agitated and words like criminal activity, corruption and the notion that when the public found out what was being done to BC Hydro the shit would hit the fan or some such words. 

I confess at the time I had little clue about what he was talking about but it was clear there was something going on at BC Hydro that was not good nor common knowledge.

It is finally becoming clear what was behind Mr. Vanderzalms rant, it appears NO does not mean NO to Gordon Campbell, when he tried to privatize BC Hydro and the voters of BC resoundingly said NO WAY he was forced to go in another direction, or plan B which could turn out an even better outcome for him and his rich friends, why not just bankrupt BC Hydro and they could get the whole thing for pennies on the dollar, apparently BC Hydro now owes more than $40 billion dollars and has no way to pay it back. 

Campbell and the Liberals have not only given away BC sovereignty over power, meaning the whole of BC Hydro is now under the control of (NERC) North American Electricity Reliability Corporation a shadowy private American Corporation and it’s Canadian leg (EPIC) Energy Policy Institute of Canada, this is another better idea from the brain trust of George W. Bush and his Sith lord Dick Cheney, you know the morons who gave us Iraq, and almost singlehandedly brought the world to financial ruin.  

Even if our next elections see the end of these corrupt quislings the Lieberals. this undemocratic, un-capitalistic, private energy monopoly has been done in such a way as possibly nobody can even reverse the fraud even if they wanted to. 

NERC is quite simply the total take-over of the North American energy package, electricity, gas, oil by a few private shadowy individuals and literally annihilates free and fair trade in these commodities and creates a virtual private monopoly of energy all the way from Canada, America and including Mexico.

Sad to say but when history is written Campbell will not be remembered for BC Rail, the HST and all the other scams and corruptions he orchestrated, but undoubtedly the treachery of what he did to BC Hydro and the yet unknown consequences of that deception that will be the most reviled and lasting of his treacheries.

W. C. Bennet must be rolling in his grave when he sees what has been done to his greatest gift to the citizens of BC, a legacy that should have given BC a huge economic advantage for hundreds of years at least, and is now just a huge drain on the people of BC.

Ungrateful employer

I am so sick and tired of articles and letters that go on and on about the extravagant pensions of public workers, because it is just not true. 
Having taken a medical severance in 1999 due to a severe case of Fibromyalgia, shortly  after 2001 my meagre public employee medical severance pension has steadily been chopped all the way from, free medical and dental till I died, after 2001 everything changed when the great deceiver was elected and everything I was promised has slowly been taken away, every year promised benefits have been cut and deductibles increased, as well as all costs increased. 
This year I have been hit with a further $768.00 dollars for MSP which is a lot when your whole pension is less than $300.00 dollars a month, the public pension plan used to pay that now it doesn’t and the benefits of our health care plan are now an unbelievable $500.00 a year, well excuse me but I have Fibromyalgia and that does not get me through January and now the income tax will not even let me write off my medical expenses. 

What I get for that money is I have been waiting a year for a hernia operation and what I have been told it will be closer to two years before I get it or I end up in emergency whatever comes first, anyone like to guess which will cost more money.

So stop with the public service pension bashing we now have a worse plan than pretty well anybody, so is everybody happy now except probably us retired public employees who apparently worked for a thankless lying employer.

I signed a medical severance pension contract in good faith and now have a document that is not worth the paper it is written on. 

Government employees you are working for people that literally hate you, you know where all the skeletons are buried please help us get rid of this government that only cares about themselves and their rich friends.

PS I waited 76 weeks for the hernia operation.

Wakeup Call

Just when I think the pendulum has swung to the right as far as it can go I am amazed to see us move yet further to the right, this is an obvious truth, now with the American Patriot act and all the other draconian legislation passed since then, America has literally become a Fascist country and because all these repressive American laws supersede Canada’s national laws now thanks to Her Harper we have become just a sorry reflection of big brother America. 
Europe and the rest of the world seems to finally be trying to reverse this shift to the extreme right, but North America in particular fights this trend back to the centre with all the resources the one percent can throw at it. 

Is anyone seriously going to try to make the argument that it was social programs or social safety nets that has brought the world to the edge of financial ruin. I have puzzled about this phenomena for years for example America is actually in worse financial shape than Greece, Greece per-capita debt $47,664 America $49,000 and what does America do but go yet further to the right, even to the extent of a man who is essentially a junk bond profiteer running for President. When things get bad the answer for Americans always seems to be, move further to the right and then wonder why things do not get better, then of course just move further to the right yet again. 

Federally Canada has a government that continues to rule with all the worse polices of George W. Bush.

In Canada provincially we have the same phenomena where in Alberta we just watched a pitched battle between the right and the ultra-right, Redford head of the wild rose party commented that Albertans have been evolving over the last decade, and she is right they are apparently evolving into Ferengi. 

It occurs to me that when the west won the cold war over the east, America was at the height of it’s power and also in the centre of the political spectrum compared to where it is now.

It is worth noting that if you go far enough right you eventually end up left, and pass through Fascism along the way to your unintended goal. 

Canada's sharp turn to the right away from our traditional values such as democratic peace keepers, thoughtful stewards of the environment, and a respected world leader and the fact that Canada is becoming an obvious right wing dictatorship, is to me and many other Canadians the wrong direction for the Canadian people our civil rights and liberties, democracy, the environment of Canada and the world as a whole and all it’s inhabitants.

Time for Canadians to stand up and be counted, while we still have a country left.

Franken Foods

Mr. Emberly thank you for your well researched, informative articles on genetically modifyed foods, some people reading them will undoubtedly call it bombastic paranoia or some similar drivel, but the reality is even more sinister than pictured and in my opinion is easily one of the most immediate clear and present dangers that humans face at this time. 

If you google just one name from Mr. Emberly’s article Monsanto you will find it reads like a James Bond film complete with giant evil corporations trying to control and corrupt the worlds food supply, completely oblivious to the consequences of their actions on the very earth we grow our food and the effects that has on our food supply and ultimately the people that consume it. The consequences are many innocent deaths and sick, including 125,000 Indian farmers that have committed suicide by swallowing Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide because Monsanto went around India buying up all the traditional seeds and burning them forcing the farmers to buy Monsanto's GM seed's and as a result farmers have been consumed in debt and bankruptcy.
Canadian scientist's were bribed with one and two million dollars each, threats, intimidation, fraud, abuse of the legal and justice system, buying whole governments such as America, India, in Indonesia at least 140 government officials were bribed. 

Monsanto is responsible for 56 super-site highly polluted areas including the worse super-site in America, Anniston Alabama that they had to pay out $700 million in restitution. 

These products or unreasonable food facsimiles are all the way from literally poisons to non to low nutrient fill, empty calories at best, poison at worst.

This is a company that uses the most heavy handed predatory business practices imaginable and states that "our job is not to make sure products are safe but to sell product, it is the FDAs job to make sure the product is safe”, which is very scary when the FDA and many politicians are in your pocket. 

The simple fact is that “YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT" and just because it looks like a potato or a steak or a glass of milk doesn’t mean it will supply your body with the proper nutrients to sustain or grow a healthy body, or not give you some strange new disease or make you sterile, 30 percent of the people that consume GM foods will have an allergic reaction to one degree or another, 30 percent of cattle fed GM feed become sterile. 

Quote from George Wald, Nobel Laureate in Medicine. He said for genetic engineering - "The results will be essentially new organisms, self-perpetuating and hence permanent, once created, they cannot be recalled" and "Up to now, living organisms have evolved very slowly and new forms have had plenty of time to settle in. Now whole proteins will be transposed overnight into A wholly new associations, with consequences no one can foretell, either for the host organism, or their neighbours” unquote.
Powerful words worth pondering.

Thank god that Europe has had the sense to stay away from this biological nightmare, to bad we can’t say the same about Canada.