Aftermath of Minister's resignation
Mar, 31 2008 - 1:10 AM
VICTORIA/CKNW(AM980) - BC's interim Solicitor-General says it's only fair the public wasn't told about the investigation into John Les. Speaking on CKNW's Sean Leslie Show, Attorney General Wally Oppal says its standard practice for police to investigate without informing the public, especially when it comes to the political realm, "Under our system the police are free to operate independently of any political interference or political input and that's the way it should be in any democracy."
Oppal says the potential for an investigation to be prejudiced or compromised becomes a real possibility once it becomes public knowledge.
Les stepped aside as Solicitor-General Friday after learning a special prosecutor had been appointed to look into whether he benefited from land deals while he was Mayor of Chilliwack.
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This has just reached a point of insanity. The Honourable Mr. Oppal was a member of the bar & judiciary. How dare he become chief apologist & spin doctor for the unethical, immoral actions of this government? Mr. Oppal, you are rapidly losing the respect of the electorate as a person of great influence and as a representative of your community. I'm quite sure when you laid down with those old dogs you had no idea that you would end up doing Public Relations for these clowns, or cleaning up their messes, but the time is quickly coming when you are going to have to make some decisions or you are going down with the ship and everything you've built your life & reputation for is going to be smeared & tarnished by all those fleas jumping off the dogs & onto you.
********************************
'I have never been questioned by the RCMP,' says B.C. solicitor general Les
Cabinet minister who is under investigation has stepped down as solicitor general
Last Updated: Saturday, March 29, 2008 2:14 AM ET
CBC News
Excerpt:
After stepping down as B.C.'s solicitor general, John Les said he did not know he was the subject of an RCMP investigation involving allegations of improper conduct during his time as mayor of Chilliwack.
After stepping aside as B.C.'s solicitor general, John Les said Friday night he has no knowledge of any investigative activity targeted at him or anyone connected to him.(CBC)
Les held a press conference in his Chilliwack constituency office Friday night after announcing that he had stepped down as the province's solicitor general while under investigation.
"I'm not sure what the allegations are," he said. "I learned this afternoon that I'm apparently part of an investigation into issues in Chilliwack City Hall apparently dating back to the time when I was mayor." ...
Monday, March 31, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Can We Handle the Truth?
Globalization is Killing Canada: Fight for Your Freedom
by Paul Hellyer. The Canadian.
Is Canada worth saving? Is democracy worth saving? These are the two fundamental questions we must address now - before it is too late. Canadian values are disappearing rapidly as we lose our independence and our sovereignty. The country is being dismantled after more than a century of nation building. We are losing control of our most important industries. As we give up domestic ownership of our assets, we lose the most exciting and challenging jobs, which too often move to the new corporate headquarters outside Canada - and young people who want those jobs must follow. It's part of the brain drain.
In effect, Canada has become a victim of "Globalization". We are told this process is both inevitable and good. It is only inevitable if we let it happen. It is only good for two to five percent of the world's richest and most powerful people. It is bad for the vast majority.
Read the entire article here.
******************************
It's a long read, but one of the best articles I've seen on how globalization is impacting our sovereign nation. As a Canadian patriot, I have long been alarmed and frightened of where we are going. I believe in Canada and what we used to stand for. Our collective beliefs made us a leader on the world stage, not some parboiled spotty younger brother of the bully next door, whose tarnished and truly despised standing around the globe impacts us all.
*****************************
Another one of interest:
New clandestine Civil Assistance Plan opens up Canada to a future legitimated U.S. occupation and endless military entanglements in the Middle EastThe Civil Assistance Plan (CAP) is another example of the subversion of the national independence... Read More
****************************
FRONTLINE http://www.pbs.org/frontline/ - This Week: "Bush's War" (270 minutes),
March 24th and 25th at 9pm on PBS (Check local listings)
Live Discussion: Chat with producer Michael Kirk March. 26, 11am ET
In the Fall of 2001, with the campaign against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in full swing in Afghanistan, veteran producer Michael Kirk walked into FRONTLINE's Boston office with a stunning piece of news: In Washington, he'd learned, a small group of policy insiders had quietly begun planning for what they called "Phase 2" -- the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Over the next six years, Kirk and a handful of other FRONTLINE production teams would pursue every major aspect of the Bush administration's "war on terror."
On the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, inside Pakistan's lawless tribal areas and the radical mosques of Europe, and behind closed doors in Washington, FRONTLINE has conducted some four hundred interviews on the war, often with administration insiders who reveal the anguished decisions, the bitter policy battles and the almost Shakespearean dramas that played out among the conflict's chief actors: Powell and Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, and Bush.
Now, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, FRONTLINE presents "Bush's War," airing Monday and Tuesday night. Drawing on some forty hours of FRONTLINE films and incorporating significant new interviews, this two-part series may well become the definitive documentary analysis of one of the most challenging periods in our country's history.
by Paul Hellyer. The Canadian.
Is Canada worth saving? Is democracy worth saving? These are the two fundamental questions we must address now - before it is too late. Canadian values are disappearing rapidly as we lose our independence and our sovereignty. The country is being dismantled after more than a century of nation building. We are losing control of our most important industries. As we give up domestic ownership of our assets, we lose the most exciting and challenging jobs, which too often move to the new corporate headquarters outside Canada - and young people who want those jobs must follow. It's part of the brain drain.
In effect, Canada has become a victim of "Globalization". We are told this process is both inevitable and good. It is only inevitable if we let it happen. It is only good for two to five percent of the world's richest and most powerful people. It is bad for the vast majority.
Read the entire article here.
******************************
It's a long read, but one of the best articles I've seen on how globalization is impacting our sovereign nation. As a Canadian patriot, I have long been alarmed and frightened of where we are going. I believe in Canada and what we used to stand for. Our collective beliefs made us a leader on the world stage, not some parboiled spotty younger brother of the bully next door, whose tarnished and truly despised standing around the globe impacts us all.
*****************************
Another one of interest:
New clandestine Civil Assistance Plan opens up Canada to a future legitimated U.S. occupation and endless military entanglements in the Middle EastThe Civil Assistance Plan (CAP) is another example of the subversion of the national independence... Read More
****************************
FRONTLINE http://www.pbs.org/frontline/ - This Week: "Bush's War" (270 minutes),
March 24th and 25th at 9pm on PBS (Check local listings)
Live Discussion: Chat with producer Michael Kirk March. 26, 11am ET
In the Fall of 2001, with the campaign against Al Qaeda and the Taliban in full swing in Afghanistan, veteran producer Michael Kirk walked into FRONTLINE's Boston office with a stunning piece of news: In Washington, he'd learned, a small group of policy insiders had quietly begun planning for what they called "Phase 2" -- the invasion of Iraq and the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Over the next six years, Kirk and a handful of other FRONTLINE production teams would pursue every major aspect of the Bush administration's "war on terror."
On the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan, inside Pakistan's lawless tribal areas and the radical mosques of Europe, and behind closed doors in Washington, FRONTLINE has conducted some four hundred interviews on the war, often with administration insiders who reveal the anguished decisions, the bitter policy battles and the almost Shakespearean dramas that played out among the conflict's chief actors: Powell and Rumsfeld, Cheney, Rice, and Bush.
Now, on the fifth anniversary of the Iraq invasion, FRONTLINE presents "Bush's War," airing Monday and Tuesday night. Drawing on some forty hours of FRONTLINE films and incorporating significant new interviews, this two-part series may well become the definitive documentary analysis of one of the most challenging periods in our country's history.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Tent Cities in BC: Real Estate of the Future?
Is this where BC might be heading? Think about it. Since the BC Liberal elites and their friends, the developers etc. have been able to drive ever-increasing prices for real estate. Even modest, older homes are going for almost a million dollars in Vancouver now. Some news reports tell us that some families are spending up to 70% of their income earnings on mortgages. I think most people really underestimate how fast the slide to the bottom can be. Many of us are literally one bad accident, or illness away from defaulting on a mortgage payment, or not being able to pay our rent.
Many of us also know that the strategic destruction of the social safety net and barriers to accessing income assistance, Employment Insurance, medical services and a lack of affordable housing mean that all of us are sitting on an epidemic of homelessness. This is impacting multiple generations now, including Generation X and Y. One of the largest unknown poor populations is that of senior women. I feel a great deal of concern about where these Elders are once they get evicted so landlords can boost their rents. Who is taking care of them, especially those who can't afford to pay upwards of $5000 a month to live in a retirement home, even a crappy one where they might be at-risk. These days, through privatizing services to the developmentally disabled the province isn't even providing respite, or residential care for many who need it. What are the numbers? Community Living BC doesn't keep waitlists for those awaiting any service, so we don't know.
If it does not give you chills and a very bad feeling of foreboding in your belly to read that the state will now be requiring homeless to wear armbands then you have not read up on your World War II history enough. This is what it brings to mind for me:
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out-- because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out-- because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out-- because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me-- and there was no one left to speak out for me.
~ A poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller, Berlin, 1939. He spent 8 1/2 years in a concentration camp.
We are in serious trouble as a society, as a province and a country. I don't know what kind of a wake up call people need that the oligarchy in charge does not recognize, let alone act in our collective best interests. You're not alright Jack, get off your back. We are all connected and we better start realizing that and start getting involved in our communities and as citizens or we're going to be putting on coloured wrist bands and raising children in tent cities, having people with disabilities and our Elders spend their dying days there as well.
Our province and country used to offer something so much better to our citizens than the Americans and it was part of our pride. Can we say that now? Usually the trends hit the States before us. We've already had tent cities in Vancouver. The state removed them. Where did those people go? As far as I'm concerned, governments, certain corporate interests and transnationals are committing collusion in the interests of genocide right here in our own cities, province and country. Think that's far fetched, take a walk in the Downtown Eastside and prove me wrong. Denying all citizens their human rights is a condition of genocide. Wholesale negligence and destruction of the social safety net is a condition of genocide. Exclusion from participation in society and access to the basic conditions necessary for life is a condition of genocide. That is what the BC and Canadian governments are providing to our most vulnerable citizens. And they have more plans for the future.
************************
Tent city highlights US homes crisis
BBC News. March 14, 2008.
By Rajesh Mirchandani.
The meltdown in the US mortgage market has led to record foreclosures and forced thousands from their homes. In few places is it worse than southern California, where the BBC's Rajesh Mirchandani reports on an extreme consequence of the downturn, but one that some observers fear could grow.
The population of Tent City has grown rapidly in less than a year
Forty miles east of Los Angeles, on a patch of waste ground, is the place they call Tent City.
Sandwiched between the local airport and the railway line, this really is the wrong side of the tracks.
We are on the outskirts of Ontario, a functionally pleasant commuter-city in southern California.
Last summer, local officials established this camp as a temporary base for the city's homeless population, then around two dozen.
But word spread and now some 300 people live here. It has an air of scruffy permanence, and indeed, city officials say there are no current plans to close it down.
****************************
Tent City evicting homeless who are not from Ontario: In an effort to limit the size of the refuge and improve conditions, officials will force out residents who can't prove they once lived in the city.
By David Kelly, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer March 14, 2008
Citing health and safety concerns, the city of Ontario next week will dramatically reduce the size of a homeless encampment known as Tent City by expelling those residents who cannot prove clear ties to the city.Starting Monday, anyone who can't provide documents showing they once lived in Ontario will be given a bus or taxi ride back to where they came from.
The homeless will be fitted with color-coded bands around their arms or wrists that will designate their status....
Under the new regulations, Tent City will hold no more than 170 people. Anyone entering will be processed and given a permit to stay up to 90 days. No pets will be allowed and police will be permanently stationed inside. The area will also be fenced.
Many of us also know that the strategic destruction of the social safety net and barriers to accessing income assistance, Employment Insurance, medical services and a lack of affordable housing mean that all of us are sitting on an epidemic of homelessness. This is impacting multiple generations now, including Generation X and Y. One of the largest unknown poor populations is that of senior women. I feel a great deal of concern about where these Elders are once they get evicted so landlords can boost their rents. Who is taking care of them, especially those who can't afford to pay upwards of $5000 a month to live in a retirement home, even a crappy one where they might be at-risk. These days, through privatizing services to the developmentally disabled the province isn't even providing respite, or residential care for many who need it. What are the numbers? Community Living BC doesn't keep waitlists for those awaiting any service, so we don't know.
If it does not give you chills and a very bad feeling of foreboding in your belly to read that the state will now be requiring homeless to wear armbands then you have not read up on your World War II history enough. This is what it brings to mind for me:
First they came for the Jews and I did not speak out-- because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the communists and I did not speak out-- because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak out-- because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me-- and there was no one left to speak out for me.
~ A poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller, Berlin, 1939. He spent 8 1/2 years in a concentration camp.
We are in serious trouble as a society, as a province and a country. I don't know what kind of a wake up call people need that the oligarchy in charge does not recognize, let alone act in our collective best interests. You're not alright Jack, get off your back. We are all connected and we better start realizing that and start getting involved in our communities and as citizens or we're going to be putting on coloured wrist bands and raising children in tent cities, having people with disabilities and our Elders spend their dying days there as well.
Our province and country used to offer something so much better to our citizens than the Americans and it was part of our pride. Can we say that now? Usually the trends hit the States before us. We've already had tent cities in Vancouver. The state removed them. Where did those people go? As far as I'm concerned, governments, certain corporate interests and transnationals are committing collusion in the interests of genocide right here in our own cities, province and country. Think that's far fetched, take a walk in the Downtown Eastside and prove me wrong. Denying all citizens their human rights is a condition of genocide. Wholesale negligence and destruction of the social safety net is a condition of genocide. Exclusion from participation in society and access to the basic conditions necessary for life is a condition of genocide. That is what the BC and Canadian governments are providing to our most vulnerable citizens. And they have more plans for the future.
************************
Tent city highlights US homes crisis
BBC News. March 14, 2008.
By Rajesh Mirchandani.
The meltdown in the US mortgage market has led to record foreclosures and forced thousands from their homes. In few places is it worse than southern California, where the BBC's Rajesh Mirchandani reports on an extreme consequence of the downturn, but one that some observers fear could grow.
The population of Tent City has grown rapidly in less than a year
Forty miles east of Los Angeles, on a patch of waste ground, is the place they call Tent City.
Sandwiched between the local airport and the railway line, this really is the wrong side of the tracks.
We are on the outskirts of Ontario, a functionally pleasant commuter-city in southern California.
Last summer, local officials established this camp as a temporary base for the city's homeless population, then around two dozen.
But word spread and now some 300 people live here. It has an air of scruffy permanence, and indeed, city officials say there are no current plans to close it down.
****************************
Tent City evicting homeless who are not from Ontario: In an effort to limit the size of the refuge and improve conditions, officials will force out residents who can't prove they once lived in the city.
By David Kelly, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer March 14, 2008
Citing health and safety concerns, the city of Ontario next week will dramatically reduce the size of a homeless encampment known as Tent City by expelling those residents who cannot prove clear ties to the city.Starting Monday, anyone who can't provide documents showing they once lived in Ontario will be given a bus or taxi ride back to where they came from.
The homeless will be fitted with color-coded bands around their arms or wrists that will designate their status....
Under the new regulations, Tent City will hold no more than 170 people. Anyone entering will be processed and given a permit to stay up to 90 days. No pets will be allowed and police will be permanently stationed inside. The area will also be fenced.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Translink/BC Liberal cronies aim to pillage more $$$ from Citizens & Businesses
Here is my post to this CBC news story:
TransLink eyes $18M tax hike for Metro Vancouver residents
Last Updated: Monday, March 17, 2008 12:24 PM ET
CBC News
Have any of these clowns heard of a little thing called taxation without representation? So, let's review: the BC Liberal appointed the board of Translink, friends and insiders, none who actually has any experience in transportation. This is eerily similar to the appointment of Doug Hahm as chair of BC Ferries and we see how well that's gone for us all. Then, the Translink Board votes themselves cushy BIG raises, behind closed doors. Wonder what other perks they've set for themselves? Now, they plan to introduce a scheme to tax businesses and citizens when they have no legal right to do so. When did BC become a fascist, anti-democratic oligarchy where unelected, unaccountable elites can tax us throughout the entire Lower Mainland. I presume communities in outlining areas who receive little to no adequate public transportation will also be on the hook here.
Enough is enough. City councils and other organizations must look at passing a vote of non-confidence in the BC Liberal government & Translink, or there won't be much left of our communities once these greedy folks are done pillaging all they can.
TransLink eyes $18M tax hike for Metro Vancouver residents
Last Updated: Monday, March 17, 2008 12:24 PM ET
CBC News
Have any of these clowns heard of a little thing called taxation without representation? So, let's review: the BC Liberal appointed the board of Translink, friends and insiders, none who actually has any experience in transportation. This is eerily similar to the appointment of Doug Hahm as chair of BC Ferries and we see how well that's gone for us all. Then, the Translink Board votes themselves cushy BIG raises, behind closed doors. Wonder what other perks they've set for themselves? Now, they plan to introduce a scheme to tax businesses and citizens when they have no legal right to do so. When did BC become a fascist, anti-democratic oligarchy where unelected, unaccountable elites can tax us throughout the entire Lower Mainland. I presume communities in outlining areas who receive little to no adequate public transportation will also be on the hook here.
Enough is enough. City councils and other organizations must look at passing a vote of non-confidence in the BC Liberal government & Translink, or there won't be much left of our communities once these greedy folks are done pillaging all they can.
Another Legal Precedent in Protection for Whistleblowers
Court overturns Hamilton reporter's contempt charge
Last Updated: Monday, March 17, 2008 12:40 PM ET
CBC News
The Ontario Court of Appeal has overturned a charge of contempt against a journalist for refusing to reveal a source during testimony in a 2004 lawsuit.
In the ruling issued Monday in Toronto, the three-judge panel ruled that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to journalist-informant confidentiality and, as a result, the contempt charge and fine against Hamilton Spectator reporter Ken Peters should be set aside.
In 2004, Peters refused to provide information that could identify a confidential source during a civil trial that stemmed from a series of articles he wrote.
Peters's stories, written in April 1995, focused on issues at a Hamilton nursing home. The allegations prompted the nursing home operators, St. Elizabeth Home Society, to file a lawsuit against the City of Hamilton and Halton Region.
In addition to the contempt charge, Peters was fined $31,600 to cover costs "thrown away" during the proceedings relating to his refusal to answer. The source, former city alderman Henry Merling, eventually came forward.
The Court of Appeal ruled that courts should do their best to obtain evidence from other sources before compelling a journalist to reveal a source. The ruling said that due to the freedom-of-speech rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms "every effort should be made to minimize the impact upon those rights and values."
The ruling also found that the charge of contempt was premature.
"I agree with the appellant's submission that even after it has been determined that the rights of the litigants trump a journalist's claim of confidentiality, it is a mistake to cite the journalist for contempt immediately," the ruling read, adding that contempt power is to be used cautiously and only as a last resort.
"The court should first explore other means of proceeding that would be less intrusive to the journalist-informant relationship of confidentiality."
The ruling also said the judges "can see no justification" for having continued with contempt proceedings after the confidential source had been revealed.With files from the Canadian Press
Last Updated: Monday, March 17, 2008 12:40 PM ET
CBC News
The Ontario Court of Appeal has overturned a charge of contempt against a journalist for refusing to reveal a source during testimony in a 2004 lawsuit.
In the ruling issued Monday in Toronto, the three-judge panel ruled that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms applies to journalist-informant confidentiality and, as a result, the contempt charge and fine against Hamilton Spectator reporter Ken Peters should be set aside.
In 2004, Peters refused to provide information that could identify a confidential source during a civil trial that stemmed from a series of articles he wrote.
Peters's stories, written in April 1995, focused on issues at a Hamilton nursing home. The allegations prompted the nursing home operators, St. Elizabeth Home Society, to file a lawsuit against the City of Hamilton and Halton Region.
In addition to the contempt charge, Peters was fined $31,600 to cover costs "thrown away" during the proceedings relating to his refusal to answer. The source, former city alderman Henry Merling, eventually came forward.
The Court of Appeal ruled that courts should do their best to obtain evidence from other sources before compelling a journalist to reveal a source. The ruling said that due to the freedom-of-speech rights in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms "every effort should be made to minimize the impact upon those rights and values."
The ruling also found that the charge of contempt was premature.
"I agree with the appellant's submission that even after it has been determined that the rights of the litigants trump a journalist's claim of confidentiality, it is a mistake to cite the journalist for contempt immediately," the ruling read, adding that contempt power is to be used cautiously and only as a last resort.
"The court should first explore other means of proceeding that would be less intrusive to the journalist-informant relationship of confidentiality."
The ruling also said the judges "can see no justification" for having continued with contempt proceedings after the confidential source had been revealed.With files from the Canadian Press
Thursday, March 13, 2008
No Justice for Anyone in BC
I'd like someone to tell me when our province got hijacked, and some sort of banana republic was set up? How many other complaints made have been turned down by MLA's and sitting bureaucrats because they might involve human rights violations of citizens. I know of quite a few myself and a look at the decisions on the Human Rights Tribunal website make it clear that human rights are not taken as seriously as they should be in this province as they were in the past, as Mr. Coleman is alleged by Mr. Morrison (no wallflower) provided a clear example to his constituents and every other citizen in the province. And Mr. Paul and many of the marginalized citizens like him are citizens, as are the rest of us, which our elected officials don't seem to be aware of anymore. And the Ken Dobell's of the world don't get that either. The day a judge sitting on the bench in BC remarks that a violation of the law is trivial, especially when influence peddling was also a part of the allegations, is the day justice is dead in BC.
*******************************
Former Commissioner frustrated in Paul case
Mar, 12 2008 - 10:30 PM
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - A former Police Complaints Commissioner says his request for an Inquest into the 1998 death of Frank Paul, a native man, was rejected by the BC Government and he didn't think a public hearing would be an effective option.
Don Morrison says an Inquest was the best way to go because he didn't believe that the two Vancouver Police officers who ended up being disciplined for their roles in the homeless man's death, would agree to testify at an informal public hearing, "I felt that if there would be an Inquest, the evidence of the officers could be tested under cross-examination. I agree it's not to determine fault, but out of that, possibly, truth."
Morrison says then Solicitor-General Rich Coleman said no to an Inquest because he was worried that would raise issues of racial discrimination.
*********************
Dobell gets absolute discharge for lobbying violations
Last Updated: Thursday, March 13, 2008 2:36 PM ET
CBC News
Ken Dobell has been given an absolute discharge in a court case stemming from lobbying work the former deputy minister did for the city of Vancouver.
The former deputy minister to the premier had pleaded guilty of violating the Lobbyist Registration Act, but Judge Joe Galatti said Dobell's violation of the act was trivial.
"I'm very pleased that the judge reached the conclusion that he reached. It's very important to me. I did not want to end my career with a conviction in a related kind of area," said Dobell after the verdict was announced on Thursday morning in Vancouver.
Dobell had already agreed to refund nearly $7,000 in fees he collected for his work on a downtown Eastside housing project, which included lobbying the provincial government for funding.
The former senior adviser to Premier Gordon Campbell decided to plead guilty after a special prosecutor determined he failed to register as a lobbyist within 10 days as required by the provincial Lobbyists Act.
*******************************
Former Commissioner frustrated in Paul case
Mar, 12 2008 - 10:30 PM
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - A former Police Complaints Commissioner says his request for an Inquest into the 1998 death of Frank Paul, a native man, was rejected by the BC Government and he didn't think a public hearing would be an effective option.
Don Morrison says an Inquest was the best way to go because he didn't believe that the two Vancouver Police officers who ended up being disciplined for their roles in the homeless man's death, would agree to testify at an informal public hearing, "I felt that if there would be an Inquest, the evidence of the officers could be tested under cross-examination. I agree it's not to determine fault, but out of that, possibly, truth."
Morrison says then Solicitor-General Rich Coleman said no to an Inquest because he was worried that would raise issues of racial discrimination.
*********************
Dobell gets absolute discharge for lobbying violations
Last Updated: Thursday, March 13, 2008 2:36 PM ET
CBC News
Ken Dobell has been given an absolute discharge in a court case stemming from lobbying work the former deputy minister did for the city of Vancouver.
The former deputy minister to the premier had pleaded guilty of violating the Lobbyist Registration Act, but Judge Joe Galatti said Dobell's violation of the act was trivial.
"I'm very pleased that the judge reached the conclusion that he reached. It's very important to me. I did not want to end my career with a conviction in a related kind of area," said Dobell after the verdict was announced on Thursday morning in Vancouver.
Dobell had already agreed to refund nearly $7,000 in fees he collected for his work on a downtown Eastside housing project, which included lobbying the provincial government for funding.
The former senior adviser to Premier Gordon Campbell decided to plead guilty after a special prosecutor determined he failed to register as a lobbyist within 10 days as required by the provincial Lobbyists Act.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Union Whistleblowing
Mounties to investigate union books
Mar, 05 2008 - 10:10 PM
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - The RCMP's Commercial Crimes Section has been asked to investigate the union representing 75-hundred Vancouver-area hotel workers. This, after an internal audit of Unite Here-Local 40 determined financial records were never filed for both 2006 and 2007.
Katherine Wunderlich, who's been a member of the union since 1976, says she suspected something was wrong more than four years ago and she feels betrayed by union leaders, "People in the hotel industry, we clean toilets for a living. We serve coffee to people. We are the lowest-paid industry in this Province. If somebody has taken money illegally from the union, the police should get involved."
In a report released to union officers last month, the Chief Auditor for Local 40, Chester S. Modzelewski says the missing financial records should have been reported every month.
Union President Jim Pearson has not returned calls from CKNW.
http://www.cknw.com/news/news_local.cfm?cat=7428218912&rem=87267&red=80121823aPBIny&wids=242&gi=1&gm=news_local.cfm
Mar, 05 2008 - 10:10 PM
VANCOUVER/CKNW(AM980) - The RCMP's Commercial Crimes Section has been asked to investigate the union representing 75-hundred Vancouver-area hotel workers. This, after an internal audit of Unite Here-Local 40 determined financial records were never filed for both 2006 and 2007.
Katherine Wunderlich, who's been a member of the union since 1976, says she suspected something was wrong more than four years ago and she feels betrayed by union leaders, "People in the hotel industry, we clean toilets for a living. We serve coffee to people. We are the lowest-paid industry in this Province. If somebody has taken money illegally from the union, the police should get involved."
In a report released to union officers last month, the Chief Auditor for Local 40, Chester S. Modzelewski says the missing financial records should have been reported every month.
Union President Jim Pearson has not returned calls from CKNW.
http://www.cknw.com/news/news_local.cfm?cat=7428218912&rem=87267&red=80121823aPBIny&wids=242&gi=1&gm=news_local.cfm
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Courageous Acts and Justice
Some of us can imagine what Mr. Dunlop, this brave soul and his family have gone through.
As many of us know, power, privilege and money trump human rights, justice and accountability
for the heinous and criminal actions of certain individuals in our communities.
BC had Judge Ramsey, who I'm told was known in the professional, legal and law enforcement community to be sexually abusing young women in Prince George for some time before he was ever caught, only by virtue of the courage of the young women who blew the whistle. They were not only violated and abused by him, but some who also were forced to appear in front of him as a sitting judge in child protection matters.
Ex-officer gets 6 months for refusal to testify at sex-abuse inquiry
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 5, 2008 11:24 AM ET Comments1Recommend16
The Canadian Press
A former police officer has been handed a six-month jail sentence for his refusal to testify at a public inquiry largely of his making.
Perry Dunlop has said he will not appear before the inquiry, which is probing institutional response to allegations of systemic sexual abuse in Cornwall, Ont.
A Toronto court heard Wednesday the 46-year-old father of three can 'purge' his contempt conviction at any time by testifying before the inquiry, and could then apply for immediate release from jail.
Dunlop was a police officer in the eastern Ontario city when he began an off-hours investigation of an alleged pedophile ring.
A provincial police investigation, dubbed Project Truth, laid about 115 charges against 15 men, but failed to uncover any evidence of a ring. Only one person was convicted.
Dunlop, who now lives in Duncan, B.C., has said he doesn't have the heart to face the "barrage" of lawyers at the inquiry.
*********************
Ex-cop Dunlop says he doesn't have the heart to face grilling at sex abuse inquiry
IN DEPTH: Cornwall public inquiry Sorting fact from fiction in the sex abuse scandal
Last Updated Nov. 6, 2007
CBC News
On Feb. 13, 2006, a public inquiry opened in Cornwall, Ont., into a case that has dogged the region for decades. It involved allegations that a ring of pedophiles had operated in the eastern Ontario community since the late 1950s.
There had been sordid tales that the ring passed its victims among its members, which allegedly included members of the region's Roman Catholic clergy, police and probation officers, and other professionals in the community.
Justice Normand Glaude of Sudbury, Ont., is shown in this undated handout photo.
Police investigations, including the high-profile Ontario Provincial Police probe Project Truth, yielded more than 100 charges against more than two dozen men. Only a handful of them were convicted, and police found no evidence of an organized ring of pedophiles.
As many of us know, power, privilege and money trump human rights, justice and accountability
for the heinous and criminal actions of certain individuals in our communities.
BC had Judge Ramsey, who I'm told was known in the professional, legal and law enforcement community to be sexually abusing young women in Prince George for some time before he was ever caught, only by virtue of the courage of the young women who blew the whistle. They were not only violated and abused by him, but some who also were forced to appear in front of him as a sitting judge in child protection matters.
Ex-officer gets 6 months for refusal to testify at sex-abuse inquiry
Last Updated: Wednesday, March 5, 2008 11:24 AM ET Comments1Recommend16
The Canadian Press
A former police officer has been handed a six-month jail sentence for his refusal to testify at a public inquiry largely of his making.
Perry Dunlop has said he will not appear before the inquiry, which is probing institutional response to allegations of systemic sexual abuse in Cornwall, Ont.
A Toronto court heard Wednesday the 46-year-old father of three can 'purge' his contempt conviction at any time by testifying before the inquiry, and could then apply for immediate release from jail.
Dunlop was a police officer in the eastern Ontario city when he began an off-hours investigation of an alleged pedophile ring.
A provincial police investigation, dubbed Project Truth, laid about 115 charges against 15 men, but failed to uncover any evidence of a ring. Only one person was convicted.
Dunlop, who now lives in Duncan, B.C., has said he doesn't have the heart to face the "barrage" of lawyers at the inquiry.
*********************
Ex-cop Dunlop says he doesn't have the heart to face grilling at sex abuse inquiry
IN DEPTH: Cornwall public inquiry Sorting fact from fiction in the sex abuse scandal
Last Updated Nov. 6, 2007
CBC News
On Feb. 13, 2006, a public inquiry opened in Cornwall, Ont., into a case that has dogged the region for decades. It involved allegations that a ring of pedophiles had operated in the eastern Ontario community since the late 1950s.
There had been sordid tales that the ring passed its victims among its members, which allegedly included members of the region's Roman Catholic clergy, police and probation officers, and other professionals in the community.
Justice Normand Glaude of Sudbury, Ont., is shown in this undated handout photo.
Police investigations, including the high-profile Ontario Provincial Police probe Project Truth, yielded more than 100 charges against more than two dozen men. Only a handful of them were convicted, and police found no evidence of an organized ring of pedophiles.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Serious Implications for Whistleblowers
Court ruling a major setback for public's right to know, CAJ says
Excerpt:
OTTAWA, Feb. 29 /CNW/ - The Canadian Association of Journalists is gravely dismayed by a regressive appeal court ruling that requires the National Post to surrender leaked secret documents in the Shawinigate affair to police.
Today's Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that the right to protect confidential sources is superseded by the police need to investigate alleged crimes overturns a landmark Ontario Superior Court decision that struck down an RCMP warrant against the National Post and reporter Andrew McIntosh in September 2002. Police allege leaked documents detailing a controversial loan to a Quebec hotelier in former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's riding are
forged and seek to analyze them for fingerprints and DNA to identify the
source.
"Today's decision is a major setback for press freedom and the public's right to know," said CAJ president Mary Agnes Welch. "It would effectively require journalists to become agents of the state, which will put a chill on whistleblowers and other people of conscience who would bring matters of profound public importance to light." The ruling is the latest in a series of attacks on the use of confidential sources in Canada, Welch said.
"The legal standard in Canada should allow any journalist to protect the identity of their confidential sources, period. This is woefully absent from our laws and jurisprudence, which is what can lead to rulings like this one," Welch said....
"The physical materials in this case go to the core principle ofprotecting confidential sources," Welch said. "Police are on a witch-hunt to root out a whistleblower who exposed important and embarrassing information, and they are trying to use forensic tests to do it. If that isn't an attemptto subvert the relationship between journalists and confidential sources, Idon't know what is."
Welch noted that whistleblowers who do reveal information often do so at great personal and professional risk.
Excerpt:
OTTAWA, Feb. 29 /CNW/ - The Canadian Association of Journalists is gravely dismayed by a regressive appeal court ruling that requires the National Post to surrender leaked secret documents in the Shawinigate affair to police.
Today's Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that the right to protect confidential sources is superseded by the police need to investigate alleged crimes overturns a landmark Ontario Superior Court decision that struck down an RCMP warrant against the National Post and reporter Andrew McIntosh in September 2002. Police allege leaked documents detailing a controversial loan to a Quebec hotelier in former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien's riding are
forged and seek to analyze them for fingerprints and DNA to identify the
source.
"Today's decision is a major setback for press freedom and the public's right to know," said CAJ president Mary Agnes Welch. "It would effectively require journalists to become agents of the state, which will put a chill on whistleblowers and other people of conscience who would bring matters of profound public importance to light." The ruling is the latest in a series of attacks on the use of confidential sources in Canada, Welch said.
"The legal standard in Canada should allow any journalist to protect the identity of their confidential sources, period. This is woefully absent from our laws and jurisprudence, which is what can lead to rulings like this one," Welch said....
"The physical materials in this case go to the core principle ofprotecting confidential sources," Welch said. "Police are on a witch-hunt to root out a whistleblower who exposed important and embarrassing information, and they are trying to use forensic tests to do it. If that isn't an attemptto subvert the relationship between journalists and confidential sources, Idon't know what is."
Welch noted that whistleblowers who do reveal information often do so at great personal and professional risk.
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