BC Law didn't Fail to pay Heed

BC politics has become stranger than fiction over the last few years. It use to be Wacky, then his son Bill took over proving wacky can be mean as well.

Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals have taken things to new levels of deceit and utter disregard to democratic principles. The latest involves Kash Heed, Liberal star candidate in the 2009 election. Heed a former Vancouver Police Officer was named to cabinet as the Solicitor General. He resigned in April over an RCMP investigation into campaign illegalities done in Heed's name during the 2009 provincial election.

The whole story is here and here. It turns out the guy appointed by the government to investigate, works for a firm that has donated $17,000 to the BC Liberal Party over the last three years, including $1,000 to Mr. Heed himself. The Special prosecutor, Terrence Robertson knew this before he started yet still felt he could clear Heed of any wrong doing. Now perhaps Robertson was being honest here and did in fact find no evidence to implicate Mr. Heed. Then again, just what was he able to overlook and what was he unable to see.

Clearly this man should never have accepted the job. The BC Liberals and Gordon Campbell should have been aware of the connections between Mr. Robertson's firm and the BC Liberals financial successes. If they were aware of the financial largess from Mr. Robertson's firm, then it would appear they were asking, albeit indirectly, for someone that would be less harsh on Mr. Heed. Say it isn't so...

Now we here The Law Society of BC has announced it will investigate lawyer Terry Robertson. You can't make this up. As Red Rose would say "Pity, Only in BC you say."

I think I will start telling people here in Ontario, I am from Saskatchewan.

BC headed to 3 billion plus deficit!

BC headed to 3 billion plus deficit!

Yeppers, you read that right. Colin Hansen, BC's Robber Minister went into an election knowing the Province's projected deficit of $495 million was way out to lunch, yet he repeatedly said that the number was good.

Seems the deficit number was good for one thing only, the re-election of Gordon Campbell and his team of con artists. We don't have all the numbers yet but it won't be long before we do. A new budget is coming down in a few weeks.

We know now that Hansen must have known the budget target was not going to be met because Welfare numbers were soaring. In fact welfare numbers were going so high, the public relations Bureau (read govt PR hacks) told Social Services it could not post welfare numbers until after the election. That's bad news on two fronts. First the province is paying out more money and second the province is not getting any tax revenue from the people it is paying welfare too.

Next we have The Robber Minister telling the media today that income tax revenue is down a billion and royalties and stumpage are down another billion give or take a couple 100 million. Add to that the 400 million spent on Forest fires and we easily have a 3 billion plus deficit.

Then there are the Olympic costs that we haven't seen yet. Surely they will come in way over budget. The Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre expansion has come in at double the original cost estimates. All I can say is that its a good thing these Liberals can mange money so well. Imagine what it would be like if they were worse at it than they tell us they are?

Now the fun stuff. It seems Robber Minister got a call from the big Robber Minister in Ottawa right after the election. The Ottawa Robber Minister had the BC Robber Minister over the barrel. See, Ottawa knew BC was in big financial doo-doo. So according to Gordon Campbell Ottawa said, "Hey BC, here is 1.5 billion buckaroos (that's what Harper calls dollars), bet you can use that right now." Harper was right of course and the deal was so easy, all BC had to do was sign onto a new tax.

You know most of the story after that. The HST is coming as a result of either a quick urgent decision that would not allow for public consultations and or the result of outright lying during the election. The BC Campbell Libcons in their effort to "Keep BC Strong" brought in a big new tax on the spur of the moment or they negotiated it for some time and felt voters didn't need to bother with it until after they voted.

BC, guess what?
You have been
Hoodwinked, Sucker-punched and Tattooed.

see also...

NO BC HST

Raphael Alexander: The dog ate my reason for introducing the HST

One Way We Can Say 'No!' to the HST

Ontario sleeps, BC Boils

Biggest Tax Shift in BC History: Why Did Campbell Do It?

HST opponents launch campaign to stop the tax

Critic says Tourism BC's closure a matter of control

What would a BC Liberal do?

Its so blatant, even the mainstream media in BC had to point it out...

What would a convicted drunk Premier tell you before an election and do after the election?

h/t to Red Tory

Trail of Fears

Trail of Fears

Where will Gordo be today on the Trail Of Fears...

Beer, sex and fast cars in BC

Beer, sex and fast cars in BC

The BC election is on and the Liberals have an interesting variety of folks that make up its Candidate list. The list includes speeders, drunk drivers and gay - homo hating crusaders.

Mary Polack out in Langley is running quietly as a model of perfection, yet holds views widely felt to be outside the mainstream on gay rights. Polak who is infamous for her book banning days as chair of the Surrey School board also banned such groups as Planned parenthood from schools in her efforts to ensure high school kids would know nothing about condoms, preventing teenage pregnancies and safer sex.





Then there is John van Dongen, BC's solicitor-general, the top Cop in BC who recently said in media releases that there is no excuse for excessive speeding. His driver's licence was suspended for guess what, excessive speeding. As The province newspaper columnist Michael Smyth points out, these same Liberals demanded NDP cabinet minister Moe Sihota resign for excessive speeding tickets he incurred back in 1993.



Now to add to the speeding Liberal Cabinet woes, Bill Bennett, in the Kootenays was going to host a free beer party for one all. Free beer? That hasn't been allowed since it was determined to be a means of "buying" votes. It was canceled as soon as the media got wind of it. Seems the Liberals just can't buy a vote like they want too.





It gets worse, Liberal candidate Jesse McClinton admitted to a drunk driving charge in 2006. The charges were reduced after McClinton made a plea bargain and was convicted of driving without reasonable care and attention. Liberal leader Campbell also refused to resign several years ago when he was convicted of drunk driving in Hawaii and spent a night in jail as a result.


Finally, just to ensure that Mary Polack has more company in the homo hating caucus, the BC Liberals have chosen Marc Dalton in Maple Ridge. Dalton made his views on homosexuality known in an email. His views must have been well known to the federal Conservatives (who are experts at weeding out those that have said stuff about gay rights these days) as they rejected him as a candidate.

Perhaps Polak has friends in the provincial BC Liberal candidate selection committee.

“He’s a faggot. He deserved it,”

“He’s a faggot. He deserved it.”

It happens more often than society admits. A gay man gets bashed by a straight guy because the gay man is at the wrong place at the wrong time. The latest occurring in Vancouver in a popular gay bar.

A gay man was assaulted in the bar by a construction worker who apparently had come into the pub a few times to have a drink and lunch while working on a project near the bar. That gay man is now in hospital, clinging to life and survival likely meaning a severely diminished mental state.

"He’s a faggot. He deserved it," Lindsay Wincherauk alleges the man accused of punching 62-year-old Ritchie Dowrey in the face at The Fountainhead Pub Mar 13 told him after the alleged assault. - Xtra West

The crown still does not take these things seriously. The Attorney General for BC, Libcon Wally Oppal has so far refused to direct the crown to lay hate charges. The end result is the crown has decided to treat this as common assualt. An assualt that likely would not have happened had the victim not been gay.

Its pretty clear to me this event is a bashing motivated by hate. Its time the BC Libcon goverment took a good look at this and did the right thing. Its easy for the BC to pass hate crime laws, for the federal government to pass hate crime laws. Its another matter when we have to hold them accountable for enforcing those laws.

If you are in Vancouver on Synday, tomorrow, whatever your sexual orientation, step out and march in the west end and demand the government enforce the law as they said they would do when they poassed it.

Rally to take back OUR West End
Sunday, April 5
2pm, gather at east end of Nelson Park
March down Davie to Davie and Denman

The violence has to end! Gaybashings need to be treated as hate crimes.

Vancouver courts have heard five gaybashing trials in the last eight years. But the Crown has only sought a hate crime designation in one.

Come out to the rally. Spread the word. Call on the attorney general to seek hate crime designations for gaybashings.

It's time to stop the cycle of anti-gay violence. Enough is enough.

BC Rail Scandal

BC Rail Scandal

or is it the corruption of Gordon Campbell...

In 1996, the Liberals lost the election in BC. It was seen by many as theirs to lose. The drummed up scandal around Bingo and Premier Harcourt, a good honourable man that had nothing to do with the Bingo stuff, was forced to resign.

In 1996 the Gordon Campbell Libcons were promising to sell BC Rail. This did them in as the NDP held onto enough seats in the interior of BC to squeak out a majority government. The Liberals, having seen victory stolen from them, ran in 2001 against a further scandalized NDP government promised many things. First was that they would not sell BC Rail and second that they would honour contracts with health care workers.

In both cases the Liberals lied to voters. Most folks in BC are aware of the promises to honour workers contracts with government. That all ended soon. Rapid de-unionization of health care took place. The second broken promise saw BC Rail was turned over to CN Rail for a pittance, one billion dollars.

The LIBcons tried to tell us they were selling the rolling stock and operations, keeping the right of way so they were not in fact selling BC Rail. Well, it was a sale of the railway and although British Columbia remains the owner of the land and tracks that BC Rail uses, CN Rail has a 900 plus year lease on its use.

No British Columbian could be faulted for feeling they had been had. The Libcons had in fact taken great effort to deceive us.

So much for trusting the Libcons. It turns out that the Libcons were planning the sale of BC Rail prior to the 2003 and likely entered the 2001 election understanding they would sell BC rail.

Read more at Bill Tieleman's blog. He has been following this scandal for several years now and has the latest.

You will also find much more from Libcon exposer, The Gazetteer.

Gordon Campbell's broken promises

Gordon Campbell's broken promises

The BC Health Coalition needs your help in sending 5000 letters to Premier Campbell by April 14 - the day the provincial election campaign begins - demanding quality and accessible health care for seniors and people with disabilities!

The BC government has broken its promise to build 5,000 new not-for-profit residential care beds by 2006 and continues its drive towards private for-profit care despite clear evidence that for-profit facilities maintain lower patient-to-staff ratios and quality of care.

No more broken promises! Click here to send your letter NOW!

Another BC Liberal gets out

Another BC Liberal gets out

Liberal MLA Dan Jarvis (North Vancouver-Seymour) has announced he's not seeking re-election.

Late last year he had announced he wanted a 5th term prior to undergoing major heart surgery, if his health permitted it.

You may remember in 2005 Jarvis faced a nomination battle, seemingly encouraged by the Liberal party, from Cindy Silver who was the executive director of the Christian Legal Fellowship for two years in the 1990s and on staff at Focus on the Family.

Wishing him well in retirement and Carol James a new MLA on the North Shore.