One of the crime scenes

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

"Paroxysms of
Moral Outrage!"



The Electorate (according to the Elite!)


Even though Wikileaks has been releasing info about things like the Iraq war and the Afghanistan situation for awhile now, the governing elite is especially cheesed this week as heretofore assumed "secret' diplomatic cables are being released daily this week. Today is Tuesday and the apparently one quarter million embarrassing communications are only beginning to become public knowledge but already folks like Hillary Clinton and the Canadian government are beginning to respond like it was the end of civilization. Also even though Canada's involvement hasn't been a focus yet, already stuff has surfaced that shows us that those who claim to be working for us, the people of Canada, have a whole 'nuther agenda. The most shameful exposure to date is Jim Judd, former head of CIS, the useless organization that teamed up with that other useless organization the RCMP to ensure that no one important would ever be convicted of having anything to do with the Air India Tragedy. No matter how often Mounties/CIS agents with unlimited overtime can convince stoooopid young middle eastern men to buy fertilizer from them, rather than actually doing a terrorist attack, these people deserve no respect. As the Montreal Gazette succinctly put it:

Wikileaks: Canada’s spy chief spent his days mocking Canada

The torrent of gossipy revelations from Wikileaks’ latest outpouring—this time, classified diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies all over the world—has mostly left Canada untouched (so far). The big exception to this is the one and only cable to have been leaked from the Ottawa embassy, in which Canada’s then-CSIS chief Jim Judd had some choice words about, well, us.

From Wikileaks:

Director Judd ascribed an “Alice in Wonderland” worldview to Canadians and their courts, whose judges have tied CSIS “in knots,” making it ever more difficult to detect and prevent terror attacks in Canada and abroad.

And:

He observed that the images [of interrogations] would no doubt trigger “knee-jerk anti-Americanism” and “paroxysms of moral outrage, a Canadian specialty,” as well as lead to a new round of heightened pressure on the government to press for [Omar] Khadr’s return to Canada.

It’s always nice to know that federal employees are putting down their fellow citizens to foreign governments. There’s something so Canadian about the fact that so far, the Canadian bombshell from Wikileaks has been that a high-placed government official was trying to ingratiate himself to Washington by making fun of us.

For his excellent service in mocking to the Canadian people, Judd was given the Outstanding Achievement Award of the Public Service. Try not to think of this when reading that .

But the thing is there are many reasons to go into "paroxysms of moral outrage" presented to us daily in British Columbia. To start with there is Craig James, the improperly appointed "acting" head of Elections BC. He has only, in his few months of sitting in his LIEberal appointed position done a few things against the interests of the people of BC, the people for who he is supposed to work, such as:

1. Refused to challenge the LIEberal Party on their website and other anti-HST promotional material, improper since the LIEberals hadn't bothered to register as a proponent, in spite of a recommendation by the RCMP (usually the LIEberal's handmaidens themselves).

2. Refused to forward the signed and completed anti-HST petition, forcing the proponents to take him to court, where they won.

3. As a "temp" head fired the second in command at Elections BC (with 28 years seniority) almost assuredly because she had approved the refusal to allow the LIEberal Party to act as an opposing proponent, since they hadn't bothered to comply with the regulations in order to comply. This resulted in the LIEerals having to destroy 3/4 million dollars worth of tax-payer funded glossy brochures!

4. Threaten a miniscule number of signees of the anti-HST petition with jail time and fines for possible duplicate signings of the petition and trying to lay charges against seven canvassers who had accidentally or otherwise accepted same.

5. Is now playing semantic games about word count to force everyone to resubmitt recall petitions even if it is necessary to CHANGE the rules after the application was submitted. But then when you realize how petty he wants to be about this you find out that he apparently hasn't paid much attention to definition of his OWN JOB or Section 5(3) of the British Columbia Elections Act which says:

The chief electoral officer must not
(a) hold another office or engage in other employment,


Thanks to that alert and sane commentator Norman Farrell we find out that:
Craig James, Acting Chief Electoral Officer, in a letter dated October 7, 2010 to MLA John Horgan, boasts:

* "[I perform work] for the World Bank and Canadian Comprehensive Auditing Foundation (CCAF, Inc.)
* "I have been engaged with the Bank in a variety of tasks. . . It has taken me to places such as Bhutan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, India and El Salvador, to name a few. . .
* "The Turkish Government has asked me to assist them with a strategic plan . . .
* "The World Bank continues to rely upon me for assistance. . .
* "As for the CCAF, the Advisory Board meets regularly in Ottawa to discuss matters of financial import . . . and corporate structures generally. Again, this is very rewarding work.
* "The World Bank has asked me to lead a seminar in Bangladesh in December, while the CCAF has asked me to attend a planning session in Ottawa in November.
* "I am also the Executive Director of the Canadian Council of Public Accounts Committees and have been since 1985.
* "I occupy a number of other positions, such as the Deputy Chair of the Editorial Board of the Canadian Parliamentary Review."

Being as busy as he is, doing "very rewarding work" outside his role as Acting Chief Electoral Officer, Mr. James apparently has not had time to read the Act of the BC Legislature that defines his job.


Repugnantly outrageous also is the 200-300 well-paid "communication" experts (SPIN DOCTORS and propagandists) we are forced to pay to lie to us AND monitor our own communications and any media mention of God Gordo and his Apostles of Greed.

Then there is the reorganization of the so-called "dirt ministries" or the resource oriented ministries, like mining, forestry, gas and oil and such that Gordon Campbell, without even having the Legislature sit is trying to turn into a ONE STOP STRIP MALL with no or minimal environmental evaluations required, so that he can EVEN MORE RAPIDLY dispose of the assets of British Columbians to his mostly offshore corporate friends. See BC Mary here for more on this.

There are lots of reasons to have "paroxysms of moral outrage," but for a resident of British Columbia there is no reason to look beyond our own borders to find more than we can even deal with in our own minds thanks to the ongoing crime spree of the so called government of Gordo "Capo" Campbell."

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Thursday, November 25, 2010

BobbleHead
in his own pathetic words


As Good as it Gets

Finally a serious contender for the booby prize of leader of the BC LIEberal Party (or replacement capo of the Campbell Crime Family) has stepped forward. Moira Stillwell, MLA for little more than a year, has announced her intentions, for whatever bizzare reason, but she would be well advised to go back to her medical career where she might actually contribute to society in a positive manner. Gordon Campbell's personal flack (former tone deaf music critic) Vaughn Palmer has today invited us to Meet George Abbott, would-be B.C. premier, in his own words. The unfortunate thing about this is that old bobblehead is probably as good as it gets for the party of corruption and insider dealing, he just looks stupid, rather than outright evil and greedy.

After some opening comments that highlight George's strong points, like the fact that he comes from the hurtland (that he has contributed to the hurt of) and used to deal with fertilizer and strawberries, rather than just fertilizer from the mouth, George addresses some serious issues, such as:
On relations across the floor: "As legislators we need to find some ways that we can bridge the partisan gap that I think too often characterizes our discussions."

On opposition members who get carried away in question period: "Cue the spontaneous outrage ... time to get off the grassy knoll."

This is rich coming from a member of a party that set new levels in disrespect in opposition and acted like Genghis Khan once in government. And the grassy knoll comment got me attacked when I mentioned on someone else's blog comment thread that we might not really ever get rid of Gordo until he passed a grassy knoll.

This one will serve him well if he is the leader in the next election, and it would be excerpted in a campaign video by any opposition other than the wet noodle NDP.
From a speech not likely to be excerpted in the campaign video: "I strongly support the harmonization of sales taxes because it is good public policy, and I will continue to support it for that reason."

I can't even imagine what bobblehead is thinking, with the following, I mean does Abbott carry Mao's Little Red Book in his vest pocket? Very unusual for a right wing free enterpriser!
On the government's conversation on health: "We are going to welcome a range of views ... To paraphrase Chairman Mao: Let a thousand flowers blossom."

Then Campbell's goto guy can't resist a little self promotion (maybe he should run for the leadership). According to George:
"When I want to find out what the government is doing, I read Vaughn Palmer. Now, it is not every morning I want to know what the government is doing, and on those occasions, I don't read him."

That from a front bench cabinet minister is simply stunning! But now we get into territory where one has to ask if Mr. Abbott is on drugs, with:
What he hoped people would say about the Liberals at the end of their first term: "We may not have liked everything they did, but by God, they kept their word."

As I recall their WORD included things like WE WON' SELL BC RAIL, WE WON"T TEAR UP CONTRACTS and that they would be the most open and transparent government in the history of the universe.
On the future as he saw it, circa 2003: "I know that I'm much closer to the end of my political career than I am to the beginning of it. There is a life beyond politics, and someday I hope to explore some of the opportunities in the private sector and elsewhere -- perhaps not too soon."

Maybe Vaughn hasn't had a chance to talk with George for the last seven years, as perhaps George hasn't shown up under Gordo's desk where Vaughn is curled up crowded up against Lara. But I would think that Mr. Abbott's days as a member of government are numbered, and they may end before 2013. The really unfortunate thing is compared to the rest of the bunch he seems like a nice and reasonable guy - the options are Rich "the Shank" Coleman, Birdbrain Falcon and the second most habitual liar in BC Colonoscopy Hansen.

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Monday, November 22, 2010

What's with the
CBC?


Canadian Beirut Coverage?

As I awakened this morning to the Mother Corp Radio, as is my normal practice, the big news was all about the great and gigantic investigation that the CBC has been devoting to solving the assassination of Lebanon's Rafik Hariri almost six years ago with the SPECIAL REPORT Neil Macdonald CBC Investigation: Who killed Lebanon's Rafik Hariri?
A months-long CBC investigation, relying on interviews with multiple sources from inside the UN inquiry and some of the commission's own records, found examples of timidity, bureaucratic inertia and incompetence bordering on gross negligence.

I find it convenient how well their findings play into the pro-Israel policies of our great Leder Stevie Harper and the pro-Israel/anti-Iran (anti everybody in the ME that isn't Israel or other client states like Saudi Arabia, the source of the alleged 9/11 hi-jackers) stance of the United States of looking after the interests of Israel. Perhaps now the CBC could devote it's resources to solving the JFK assassination - heaven forbid that they devote any resources to investigating troubling events transpiring in CANADA.

This is the same network of the Canadian people that has studiously almost entirely IGNORED the ongoing assault on Parliament and democracy emanating from the PMO in Ottawa through disruption of committees, prorogation when necessary and general avoidance of Parliament as much as possible.

Then there is the can of nasty worms that is British Columbia and the ongoing crime spree emanating from Victoria as Gordon Campbell and his henchmen have systematically raped the assets of the people of B.C. to benefit a select group. If the CBC was my only news source I would hardly be aware of the Raid on the Legislature and the ensuing legal farce that ended a few weeks ago. I still haven't even heard the issue of the possible destruction of evidence that was to be used in that trial MENTIONED on the CBC, though I don't listen/watch 24/7/365. The CBC also has had little to say about the Rape of the River IPP scams, the LIEberal promotion of fish farms at the expense of native salmon, the Kemano giveaway, the shenanigans going on at supposedly non-partisan Elections BC and the tricky way the LIEberals have seen to it that we in the hurtland pay the tolls for the Beamers blasting up to Whistler while paying our own freight to get over the bridge into the Big Smoke, or Vancouver the Pit down by the coast where all our money goes.

With right wing privatizers running the agenda in both Ottawa and Victoria, perhaps the CBC is afraid to offend folks like Gordo the Greedy and not so slim Stevie Harper. But as time goes by, the radio station I miss when I leave the country becomes more and more like the rest of the right wing media like Faux, CKNW and the rest of them with only the lack of irritating DeeJays and toxic commercials. The CeeB still on occasion is a breath of fresh air among a forest of media clones, but I would like the old CBC back, which was while cognizant of the world at large, really focused on Canadian issues that affected Canadians daily.

Almost I'm Persuaded, by Grant

I've been pondering how to express my disappointment with what is going on with the NDP lately. This is important, as they appear to be the only option for governance in this province ever since W.A.C. Bennett managed to corral everyone to the right of FDR into a co-alition of free enterprise (though he himself aside from his rhetoric was virtually a Hugo Chavez of the North). The whole issue of leadership of basically ineffectual parties on both sides at the moment that has galvanized the media and allowed them to ignore more important issues has really bothered me of late. Carole James' behaviour and tenacity and dedication to keeping her big chair and lack of exercise of her junior bully pulpit as leader of what is supposed to be an OPPOSITION, has been perplexing, but my colleague from the (liquid) Sunshine Coast nailed it in Carole James puts up a Fight, a Fight for her Position, Too bad she never fought for the Province! The Powell River Persuader begins with:
So Carole James lashes out in anger, lashes out at party dissidents,.....I have never seen or heard that kind of anger expressed by Carole James once in the last decade......

So what spawned this anger, was it the ministry of children and family development erring and causing the death of an innocent child, was the anger over a $600 million and growing tax indemnity we owe to BC Rail over the illegal theft of our railway...

Was this extraordinary anger over Campbell not raising the minimum wage in a decade, did she express this rage over Jane Thornthwaite`s drunk driving during the Olympics, did she become infuriated over once again B.C. leading Canada with child poverty, was the outburst over a massive spike in food bank use, did Carole scream to the rafters about 5000 additional long term care beds promised by Campbell in 2001 that have yet to be delivered on, did she rage about the treatment of seniors and hospital closures, the dismantling of public education, has she demanded the Premier resign over habitual lies, over lying about our fiscal books, gag laws, the slashing of legal aid, the closure of 10 prisons and 25 courthouses since Campbell`s reign of terror began........



No friends, Carole`s new found anger and scathing critiques, her bravado, her drawing a line in the sand, her putting her foot down and saying...Saying she`s furious and won`t take it anymore, the new Carole James only learned to fight for herself.

Grant, I feel violated, you've been reading my mail, or my mind! I can't really say it much better than that. Democracy isn't something exercised once every few years, but it should happen at the local level, in the riding associations, during the convocations like occurred this past weekend. A healthy airing of ideas and the occasional vote to define policy and choose or illustrate support for a leader is how democracy SHOULD work. No body elected Carole James to tell the rest of the party that it is her way or the highway, that's Gordo's way and it works for awhile, but eventually dictators wear out their welcome. All I heard from Carole is "I'm the Leader and like it or lump it," what I haven't heard is where she wants to lead and on the issues mentioned above all I've heard is DEAFENING SILENCE!!!!!

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Friday, November 19, 2010

A Cesspool in
Cyberspace!

Click on Image to Enlarge

Would you like to learn what results when ignorance and arrogance simultaneously intersect at the click of a mouse? Then Rubbish without a Pause is the blog for you. Established and run by the self-proclaimed "King of the Bloggers," this place demonstrates that private schools don't necessrily guarantee much in the way of an education and tailors can't really make a pig look good. But if you like name dropping, self-promotion and really worship complete assholes then you too should become a regular at Rubbish without a Pause and become another fawning and simpering sycophant of A(wful) G(oddamnawful) TsuckmyAss.

When I first became aware of this excuse for a human I was mildly dazzled by his writing - well, entertained or somewhat amused. His invective was colourful and his vocabulary apparently one of the few things he managed to acquire as a result of his expensive "private" school education. Once you get familiar with his schtick it becomes clear that he didn't learn much about spelling or grammar. His avoidance of knowledge of the tools of writing go well with his apparent total absenteeism from any classes dealing with subjects like history, science and/or logic!

When I inquired of some colleagues as to what rock this trogladyte may have crawled out from under among the replies I received was this, which has proven to be very accurate then and now.
Alex 'TsukmyAss' is an annoying little prat from St George's the private school who got his start penning screeds to the editors of various Vancouver papers, and got invited as a guest columnist somehow - not because of originailty or writing ability I assure you. Very much in the mould (sp?) of Lord Conrad of Crossdressing. Controversy sells papers, and Alex was pretty controversial, as low-forehead ranters generally are. I think he's independent of means through property investment though only a bit player. Hews to the BC Fiberal party line pretty closely though.

Generally (and even now), I have more relevant things to do with my time and merely read his drivel on occasion for laughs and to see what the stooopid and maudlin reich-wing elitists think today. However lately he seems to be taking time and energy away from his attacks on Gregor Robertson, his unrequited lust for Penny Ballem and his idol worship of such as Laura Bush, Glenn Beck and Brian Mulroney/Steve Harper to do drive by attacks on myself, Laila Yuile, BC Mary and Grant the Powell River Persuader. I guess we represent everything that puts lie to his claim to be the King of Bloggers. This is all I have to say about the Cesspool of Cyberspace for today - but with provocation I could be inspired to start a regular feature, featuring the idiocy, ignorance and arrogance of the ugliest man (inside and out) in the Lower Mainland!

Even if this excuse for man didn't regularly insult any commentators that not only don't praise him for being alive but have the temerity to differ from his stated lies he should apologize for referring to Laila Yuile and BC Mary (who saner commentators think deserves an Order of Canada) as DOUCHEBAGS!


The Intersection of Ignorance and Arrogance


Perhaps this blast from the past from the man who always knows everything, and who makes it clear that only idiots ever disagree with his pronouncements would be entertaining:
The Basi-Virk Trial: A 2010 Update

Contrary to some other reporters and bloggers, let me help in dispelling the persistent rumours about the most important trial in this province’s history.

There will be NO plea bargain. I do not know why this continues to circulate. It started with some speculation by a Globe and Mail reporter some weeks back. Then it spread to other equally legitimate sources.

But there is NOTHING to it.

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Monday, November 15, 2010

Victoria's Colonial
WaterCarrier

DROPS THE BUCKET!


Perhaps things are changing in the post media, PostMedia universe or maybe one of Lucinda Chodan's charges has just strayed from the reservation. But the home of the less than honest Les Leyne, and infamous paper that could avoid mentioning the trial and conviction of the South Island's biggest drug load for MONTHS, apparently because he was related to Gordon Campbell's personal choice for top aide to the Finance Ministry yesterday published a piece very critical of the ways of the Campbell Crime Family and the omerta deal with Basi and Virk.

In Without answers, B.C. Rail smell lingers, Iain Hunter departs from the normal nothing to see here position and points out that something is very rotten in James Bay! After listing some of the "shiney objects" that have been dangled in the public's face, like Gordo's resignation, HST anger, Diane Watts and the race of lame horses to take over Gordo's soiled throne Mr. Hunter gets right to the point:

But we're in danger of being distracted from something of far more significance -- the suspected, almost accepted, moral rot in government. We are told that a couple of minions in ministerial offices breached our trust and accepted benefits for leaking confidential information.

We're expected to accept the word of these disgraced individuals that they didn't obtain "the consent of their superiors" for what they did. We're expected to accept the word of the premier that they acted alone.

But we don't really know who in the upper echelons of the government or the Liberal party knew what, because the court proceedings that were supposed to reveal these things, and perhaps settle our suspicions, were cut short by a deal.

This is the link between something that really matters, morality in our public life, and where the courts fail. A case put into the hands of a special prosecutor was not so special after all......./snip


But when cases arise that touch on the conduct of government, tangled court proceedings that end in a tawdry deal are not enough.

If this government doesn't see a public inquiry is necessary because the B.C. Rail "case" collapsed, someone else must seek the truth.

Reporters embedded with politicians can't have become inured to slime in the corridors of power. They could at least watch out for the constabulary returning those boxes of documents and keep an ear out for the shredders whirring and the slap of asses being covered.

The honesty of governments can't be assumed, or vigilance casually distracted.



Unfortunately in the PABlum infested media universe of BC, where the largest newsroom is paid by the taxpayers to LIE to the taxpayers, an article like Iain's above is refreshing to say the least. In a world not dominated by greed, corruption and complete and regular betrayal of the public trust by both media and the politicians, an article like Mr. Hunters would be the NORM!




A Battle Maybe Won in the Kootenays

It appears that either BC Hydro has decided that the AXOR (of Montreal) Glacier/Howser Pirate Power Project is flawed or AXOR has despaired of meeting the laughable (usually) Evironmental Assessment Process, but the news in in the Kootenays is that the extremely unpopular project is dead. According to Nelson-Creston MLA Michelle Mungall:

“I can only speculate what it means, but for AXOR to lose its energy purchase agreement is a significant development in terms of whether they’ll go forward and whether the project continues to be viable for them.”

“To me this is showing that AXOR might be pulling away from the Glacier-Howser project,” says Mungall. “Or that BC Hydro is recognizing that this is not a viable project for the people of British Columbia and the people of the Kootenay region.”

More can be found about this at thenelsonpost.ca. For more on today's news or the background and history of this project and the resistance to it (and why it is a bad idea) go to WaterWalk and/or eloisecharet.ca

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Thursday, November 11, 2010


Lest We Forget



In Flanders Field


Today at the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month we commemorate the end of the Great War to End All Wars. Of course as it turned out it didn't end all wars, and still today we have wars all over, some of which are difficult to even explain, understand or justify.

But we take this moment to think of those who have served and in too many cases sacrificed so much - even life itself, in the hope that their heirs could enjoy freedom and peace.

To help put this day in perspective I would recommend reading The state of things Remembrance Day at the Galloping Beaver.

We lost our last Great War veteran this past year. We are losing veterans of the Second World War at an exponential rate. Very soon there will be none. There are peacetime veterans scattered about and even though Afghanistan is a major conflict, it is dwarfed by the scale of those conflicts before it. It is, if I might say this, our first peacetime war..../snip

....On 11 November 2008, a former fighter pilot turned Conservative member of parliament recited not a line from the McCrae's wrenching call for peace or some careful words about the danger of war, but a tasteless barrack ballad by a USMC padre glorifying the military and chastising those who did not bow at its altar. This man publicly fantasized that the Russian air force posed a threat the Olympics. This man was from a party whose leader so recently declared in the House of Commons that his was the only party for the troops. There was sulphur in the air that day and it weren't from the gun salute.

Over the past several years too, we've seen members of the governing party don military uniform and rank as habit.

Nevermind that they hide OUR wounded from us and pass bills that slash their benefits. Nevermind that the prime minister suspended parliament rather than answer hard and justified questions about the conduct of the war.

Nevermind that his government put Air Canada's whinge ahead of the logistical needs of the Canadian Forces at war.

Nevermind that this government maintains our - optional - committment to this - optional - war that produces this current generation of veterans. The prime minister's word and we stop making new combat veterans. It is that simple.

We've watched this government deploy the armed services against the Canadian public whilst we were exercising the very freedom that the fading generation bled and died to defend. We've seen those Canadians questioned for their actions there by a member of this government also seen in unearned rank and uniform.


But today is the day to remember those who have sacrificed. Tommorrow we can again think of dealing with those who would exploit people's love of country for their own phoney objectives or greed or power.

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Thursday, November 04, 2010

Omar Khadr,
Basi, Virk and Basi!


Two Courtrooms - Same Injustice

A Comparison by Robin Mathews

Omar Khadr, Basi, Virk, and Basi.

At fifteen years old Omar Khadr may have thrown a grenade. If he did, it
may have killed a U.S. soldier/medic in Afghanistan. A death is important, even though Canadian-born Omar Khadr may have believed he was fighting for Afghanistan … even though he was a child soldier as defined by United Nations convention, and was badly wounded. A death matters. But it pales as we think ….

Dave Basi, Bob Virk, and Aneal Basi may have engaged in all the activities alleged in the original accusations against them. Two were charged with fraud and breach of trust, leaking confidential government information, bribery - one with money laundering - in the BC Rail Scandal. That matters in the conduct of public business which must be kept clean …. But the accusations against the men pale as we think ….

As we think of the nightmare called Guantanamo Prison, of the rape of international law (by two U.S. presidents) that it stands for, of the denial of U.S. law it broadcasts, of the desecration of centuries of struggle to establish the rule of law it demonstrates – Omar Khadr’s alleged crime almost disappears out of sight.

Nor may we forget for a second that Stephen Harper and his Canadian government rejected all claims arising from the rule of law, and turned their backs on Omar Khadr. A CanWest columnist – of all people – writes that the “handling of Khadr’s case more closely resembles justice in China or Iran than it does justice in Canada or any nation whose judicial procedures deserve our respect”. [dgardner@thecitizen.canwest.com]

Stop. That was yesterday. Since the Khadr detention at Guantanamo and the wrongful appointment of the Special Prosecutor in the BC Rail Scandal trials – nearly ten years – justice in North America is visibly a plaything of organized crime. That means a plaything of crime organized at the highest levels. It means we live in a culture of corruption that extends everywhere throughout the government and bureaucracy.

That is the central fact. Upon it hangs all the rest. The creators of Guantanamo Prison undertook that action as a piece … as a small piece of a large program of what must be called organized crime.

By the same token, the creators of the BC Rail Scandal and the secret/semi-secret, covert break-up of BC Hydro, sell-out of river energy, manufacture of huge transportation contracts – all under veils of secrecy, covert negotiations, and disinformation point to highest level organized crime. That activity extends through government, law firms at home and off shore, contracting networks, regulators, financiers … you name them – all feeding off B.C. public wealth invisibly forfeited into the indefinite future….

Until all of that is investigated, exposed, and remedied through criminal action, the BC Rail Scandal will not be put to rest.

None of that is said lightly.

We are talking about the collapse before our eyes of civil society in North America – with the courts and the major press and media consenting … and participating.

Omar Khadr was taken into custody only months after Gordon Campbell won power in B.C. and began, with the approval of his cabinet and caucus, the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR (among other betrayals of public trust). Omar Khadr was not permitted to speak to a lawyer until 2004, when he had been in custody for two years. Even that was a waste of time since he would live in a Concentration Camp and would face the biggest Kangaroo Court in the Western World in 2010.

Basi, Virk, and Basi were fingered before December 2003 when the legislature offices of Dave Basi and Bob Virk were (search warrant) raided by RCMP. The Force also raided other addresses, found incriminating evidence – with which nothing whatever was done. The three men were charged in December 2004. The investigation and charges have the appearance of strategic fakery. Especially since no major actors were investigated or charged and those others found with incriminating evidence in the original raids were ignored!

The Special Prosecutor appointed to work with the RCMP and to lay charges against the three men was appointed in violation of the legislation covering the appointment of Special Prosecutors … in flagrant violation of the legislation. Such was the violation connecting him to the cabinet intimately involved in the corrupt transfer of BC Rail that his every action in the years of pre-trial and in the months of trial must be deeply suspect. His conduct at the close of the trial served to deepen any suspicion present.

His improper appointment made the charges he framed improper, invalid, in fact…null and void. It made illegitimate the years of pre-trial hearings and the months of trial.

The court, from the beginning, was a Kangaroo Court. I wrote the judge presiding at the pre-trial hearings, asking what check the court runs on appointed Special Prosecutors.

She wouldn’t answer the question.

When I laid out the full report of the improper appointment of William Berardino QC as Special Prosecutor, the Chief Justice and Associate Chief Justice and the trial judge twice reported that they would do … nothing. The Gage Canadian Dictionary calls a Kangaroo Court “an unauthorized or irregular court in which the law is deliberately disregarded or misinterpreted”. Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie presided over a Kangaroo Court.

Guantanamo Bay and B.C. Supreme Court.

The endings of the two “trials” in the same month, October 2010, were shockingly similar. They were both Public Relations disasters operated by governments pretending some kind of ‘rule of law’ exists … where it doesn’t.

Whatever the alleged “crimes” of Omar Khadr, Basi, Virk, and Basi – they were men played like puppets for years in the sleaziest, dirtiest political games employed to defeat the rule of law.

If Omar Khadr had been tried fairly, he’d have been out of Guantanamo in weeks … out, very likely, of jail altogether.

If Basi, Virk, and Basi had been tried fairly, they would (at the very least) have stood in court with top politicians and private corporate actors in the province. The trial - and the government of Gordon Campbell - would have been over in a few short months. Instead, to keep the Liberal government in power a fake set of pre-trial hearings was conducted through two elections.

The trial itself was conducted until the amnesiac fumbling, wallowing, and posturing of the first two witnesses, Gordon Campbell’s longtime Chief of Staff and one of cabinet’s top-level corporate appointees, was so revealing of the political sewer they inhabit that the Prosecution, the Court, the Attorney General, the RCMP, and the Cabinet became desperate.

They couldn’t let nearly thirty more Crown Witnesses reveal the stinking hole B.C. government has become. It’s ugly link with the RCMP. It’s fake Office of the Attorney General. Its compliant courtiers in the B.C. Supreme Court.

In the Omar Khadr and the BC Rail Scandal cases the trials ended with a “deal”, a plea bargain, an “agreement” between accused and (real) accusers. In both cases the “deal” stank to high heaven. In both cases governments desperate to hide their lawlessness (in fact, their criminal behaviour) patched and covered and postured in an attempt to make stinking injustice have the look of order and decency.

The treatment of Omar Khadr was so inhuman, so unjust, so sadistic that even law-denying Stephen Harper had to get in line with the U.S. government cover-up. His present position does him no credit. It simply shows that when his thug masters tell him to jump – he asks “how high?”

The Khadr trial end couldn’t be completely controlled by the U.S. government. And so the fake “jury” of military personnel in a travesty of a court recommended a 40 year sentence for Omar Khadr. Since the whole Guantanamo structure is demonic, sadistic, and inhuman, the jury was decoration … wonderful, fanciful, mean-minded, perverse decoration.

It was ignored. The Defence and the Accusers decided on an eight year term for Omar Khadr, most to be served (possibly) in Canada. Of course, the “Defence” really had little to do with the “deal”. For years Omar Khadr’s revolving Defence lawyers have been describing the process as sham, contrived, rotten….

What occurred, almost certainly, is the U.S. government wanted to dump Omar Khadr. “The fifteen year old terrorist-in-the-flesh” was becoming a sick, embarrassing joke. So Defence received its instructions. “Accept several guilty pleas, help dump Omar Khadr in Canada, make him see ‘reality’, or we’ll show him what lawless, sadistic, fascist courtroom savagery can deal out. Take your pick”.

By the same token “deal making”, “plea bargaining” was secondary in the Basi, Virk, and Basi BC Rail Scandal “trial”. The primary thing was to close down the trial, to slam the door on it. Fast. To stop the outpouring of evidence that the Liberal government of B.C. is, in fact, a major part of “organized crime”.

The plea bargaining had one goal only – to decorate the charges enough so they’d look reasonable to anyone not paying attention. And to assure the accused that if they refused a bargain, they would pay and pay and pay….

A little thing like the six million dollars in Defence lawyers’ charges were absorbed quickly by the Liberal government. “Standard” practice rules that convicted accused must pay. But they won’t. The taxpayer will.

The gravity of the allegation of crimes against the three men was watered down as much as the Special Prosecutor and Cabinet dared to water. If they could have freed the men completely, they would have done so. But the closing down of the trial had to be decorated.

Reporters close (?) to the Prosecution reported that Dave Basi insisted all charges against his younger cousin be dropped. And they were.

Discussion of Aneal Basi’s position is very difficult – as it must be in a corrupt trial. RCMP appear to have found evidence of wrong-doing against all three men. But since the Special Prosecutor is without credibility, having been wrongly appointed, we cannot accept the accusations against Aneal Basi – or any of the accusations against the three men put in place by an illegitimate Special Prosecutor.

That having been said, the Aneal Basi “removal” from all charges, all accusations whatever, may prove very, very much. From December 2004 until October 2010 the Crown (William Berardino QC) was certain of its charges against Aneal Basi – during six, long, much debated, pre-trial and trial years. And then, at the insistence of Dave Basi – reporters close (?) to the Prosecution wrote – Aneal Basi was washed of all charges against him.

The end of the Basi, Virk, and Basi trial was, in that way, a little different from the Omar Khadr trial ending.

The three men in B.C. had many, many more chips to play than Omar Khadr had. Bob Virk, for instance, sat on the scandalous “Evaluation Committee”, a cabinet-created sleaze operation to shoe-horn BC Rail into CNR. In that Committee secrets were received, secrets were spawned and shared, and ‘directions’ were given about how to ‘evaluate’.

Dave Basi was praised by Gordon Campbell for his behaviour pretending to be someone else when phoning a call-in show. The cabinet, one may guess, knew all Dave Basi was doing in his ‘media monitoring’ job, in alleged counter farmed-salmon protests … and more … reaching into the federal Liberal Party. (Remember cabinet members Geoff Plant, Gary Collins, Judith Reid, and Christie Clark all found it convenient to retire from politics at the 2005 election.)

If the trial continued – quite apart from the blood and gore Crown Witnesses close to the cabinet would leave on the floor in their days of cross-examination – there were the accused. Two of them were joined at the hip with the major actors in the corrupt (perhaps criminal) transfer of BC Rail to CNR.

Those accused had much to say – and they had to be stopped from saying it. The trial had to be closed down, the door slammed shut. Fast. And it was.

When Martyn Brown, Gordon Campbell’s long-time Chief of Staff, left the courtroom at each break during his cross-examination, he looked self-possessed though shaken. But when second Crown Witness Brian Kenning – who sat on the Evaluation Committee with Bob Virk – left the courtroom, he looked as if he might explode, his eyes angry and afire as he passed me going out.

Then he disappeared from B.C. to a birthday party in Toronto (it was reported)…and two jurors had medical problems…and Dave Basi fell sick.
Maybe planned events coincided with accidental ones. Maybe Mr. Kenning said: “I won’t step back into that court room. It’s a slaughterhouse. Do something”.

Whatever the case, when Brian Kenning was found to be in Toronto in the middle of giving testimony under cross-examination in Vancouver, Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie might well have ordered him back – immediately. Instead – as I recall her response – she was perfectly happy with Mr. Kenning’s actions, smiled … and accepted, almost as if she knew about his departure well in advance. (But of course she couldn’t have.)

Maybe Gordon Campbell, the Attorney General and other members of cabinet, and William Berardino QC, Special Prosecutor, were already at work to kill the trial. That is highly likely.

At the close of the trial, in scrum, William Berardino announced, without modification, that the plea bargain decision to have government pay all costs was his alone. That little piece of theatre was blown off the stage within hours, and the fooling with truth passed to the Attorney General who stated the ridiculous, that the decisions were made by Deputy Ministers (implying they weren’t at least approved by full cabinet before being announced).

No more need be said about that.

Except that the twenty million dollar farce involving the cabinet, the RCMP, the top judges of the B.C. Supreme Court, the Canadian Judicial Council, the Stephen Owen Special Prosecutor Review, the ever-subservient and fawning Mainstream Press and Media, and the wrongfully appointed Special Prosecutor says everything at a glance.

The trial was not stopped because the Special Prosecutor was wrongly appointed, in violation of the legislation governing the appointment of Special Prosecutors. No one in authority would deal with that undeniable truth – in fact all supported his illegitimate role in the case, when approached - by kinds of silence or obfuscation or statements of inaction.

The trial was stopped to protect organized crime operated from the highest levels of government in B.C. Just as the trial at Guantanamo Bay was also stopped to protect U.S. organized crime.

The B.C. Supreme Court is now, quite simply, a place where injustice rules and expensive games are played with taxpayers’ money to shield organized crime.

China and Iran should send observers. There is much they can learn from watching the operation of the British Columbia Supreme Court.

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Monday, November 01, 2010

Total Eclipse of
The Vancouver Sun




The Vancouver Sun of the New Millennium


First, I must make a disclosure or confession. Undoubtably due to some inner masochism or unconscious atonement for sins I won't admit to myself, I PURCHASED both the Friday and the Saturday issues of the once eminent newspaper turned advertising broadsheet for real estate, automobiles and the BC LIEberal Criminal Organization. Living in the Hurtland, this means I've lost not only the time I've wasted reading their drivel, but also almost four dollars that could have been more constructively spent on alcohol or poppies. This Monday morning the only part that is still legible, due to involuntary crumpling as I read the usual crap from the usual crap distributors (Fowlie, Palmer, Cayo, etc.)is the New York Times Crossword, perhaps the most valuable feature in the entire waste of wood fibre that could perhaps stand a better chance of winning a Pulitzer for Fiction than any awards for journalism.

The thing that struck me about these two editions was the fact that though I've read much more egregious drivel in the Sun and the sister publications the Times-Colonial Watercarrier and the pro-liaR Province, the mundane acceptance of a priori falsehoods that is regularly taken for granted and asserted as gospel is stunning once noticed. Even when they aren't spending years ignoring the Basi-Virk Trial (because as Lucinda Chodan and Kirk LaPointe pointed out - it wasn't newsworthy) or like now spilling barrels of ink to convince the regular folks its all over and it was just the two brown guys so move along, they continually promote the agenda of their masters so subtly that one has to pay attention to even notice. For example in Saturdays not surprisingly unsigned editorial (who would admit to such crap?) Income tax cut creates perspective for HST debate*, the same old pro-Campbell fluff is presented as dispassionate rational analysis (sic).
The net result of the latest cut is that by the beginning of next year, most British Columbians will be better off in the HST era than they were before as a result of the combination of income tax cuts and HST tax credits that cover the entire income range. While the earlier measures benefited lower income brackets more, the latest cuts spreads more benefits through average households....../snip

In fact, personal after-tax income has increased on average by 2.4 per cent each year since 2001. In other words, British Columbians are better off financially since the Liberals took office.

That is really cute, un-named liars. Most of the British Columbians I know here in the hurtland aren't better off. Those without jobs because their sawmill moved to China aren't better off. Those who are making the minimum wage or worse the sub-minimum wage and living in their parents' basement or their old room at 28 aren't better off. The kids who have to ride a bus two or three hours a day to school aren't better off. Of course if my friends were folks like Paul Taylor, Brian Kenning, Admiral Vlad Hahn, and that ilk, I too would assume most British Columbians were better off too!

But then the un-named dispensers of wisdom really swing for the fences with:
When Campbell cut taxes by 25 per cent in 2001, the economy responded and the net result over time was that revenues increased, pulling the government out of the red.

That sounds pretty impressive as long as you forget that the government was only in the red because of the 25% tax cut to reward the BC liaR supporters and provide a reason for drastic cuts to education, health and social service as well as forestry, environmental regulation and so on.

In Saturday's Issues and Ideas section Harvey Enchin takes a break from attacking the NDP and all other non-Fraser Stink Tank economic theories to assess the situation in the insane asylum to our south with QE2 (quantitative expansion (or printing even more worthless money for the non-accountants)sails in the wrong direction. Speaking of the tough spot in which Obama finds himself facing tomorrow's predicted romp of the fringe candidates like Rand Paul, Angle, O'Donnell and the rest of the tea-bags he sez:
All this puts U.S. President Barrack Obama in a tough spot........../snip

His approval rating has slipped to 46 percent (jealous Gord?)largely because his $787-billion stimulus package failed to spur growth and job creation, while racking up total debt of $13 trillion.

I guess Harvey Inchworm considers irrelevant the fact that the US was shedding MILLIONS of jobs when Obama took over - in spite of the THREE QUARTER TRILLION TARP initiated by DUBYA and while the stimulus may not have spurred much growth, there has been small modest job growth and so far (but not much longer in my view) has avoided the second REALLY GREAT DEPRESSION which was imminent back in 2008 and still atalking across Europe and North America.

And then there is the casual way in which Inchworm leaves the implication that it was the "stimulus" that racked up "total debt of $13 trillion - which is the total debt of the United States after forty four presidents, number 43 (DUBYA) being responsible for as much alone as the first 42.

There was more disgusting stuff in that waste of almost four dollars, like Don Cayo slurring (Slurs trump substance in what passes for political debate) readers for calling scum like Campbell names, and implying that that is the real problem, but that is in today's paper and I'm tired of even thinking about it for the moment. Hopefully we'll have some cold weather soon and the Friday and Saturday Sun can actually contribute something constructive by helping me start some fires in the woodstove.

* as per my new policy I'm refusing to link to crap, anyone feeling masochistic enough to read the whole articles is hopefully smart enough to use the info I've provided to google the articles fetid entiriety. You may want to wait an hour or two after eating though to avoid either vomitus or heartburn!

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