A Thing of Beauty

Important Piece of Jourrnalism found, NOT in your local press, but in a Comment to our Blog

This came in today as a comment, which I have published, to our post of Monday, called "The Polite Pushers." I am posting it here as a stand alone piece because I think it is important and revealing and because I feel a number of personal connections with the material. I have more than a passing interest in places that are ironically called "care homes," and while there are some good people doing some good work, the systemic abuses to the elderly continue to be horrifying. As for the Sharon Home in Winnipeg, my mother - may she rest in peace - had the last word on that fine institution. When she was encouraged to move in to the Sharon Home and wisely refused, I asked her what she thought of the place. Here is her unforgettable reply (I am but a pale imitation of an original.): "The Sharon Home, David? It's a coffin with a kitchen."

The following is from Stan W.

Do people know that Allan Seckel (former head of the BC Public Service, and former deputy Attorney General) was just appointed as CEO of the BC Medical Association?

Seckel comes from the same law firm as Geoff Plant and Bill Bernardino (Russell & Dumoulin, later known as Fasken Martineau). Seckel worked with Bernardino on the Basi-Virk/BC Rail scandal, to decide what documents could be revealed. Old boys club indeed.

Seckel is also "noted" for having denied Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, the BC Children's & Youth Commissioner, access to documents in 2010 which Ms. Turpel-Lafond successfully fought in the courts. Nice going BCMA, you sure know how to pick the guy to head your organization.

If anyone mistakes the BCMA for anything but an industry lobby group, here's the blurb from the BCMA announcement in the Globe and Mail from Oct 12th:

"The mission of the BCMA is to promote a social, economic and political climate in which members can provide the citizens of British Columbia with the highest standard of health care while achieving maximum professional satisfaction and fair economic reward."

That BCMA mission statement sure is revealing, and now we can anticipate even closer ties between the medical-legal dominions -- to the public's detriment.

By the way, hands up, how many people know that doctors' medical malpractice insurance in BC is heavily subsidized by taxpayers? That would be the Canadian Medical Protective Association (CMPA). Yes indeed, we pay for the lawyers hired by the CMPA that doctors and health authorities use to pummel ordinary citizens, patients and families, into submission and silence whenever the health care system screws up, accidentally or deliberately, even in criminal matters. Yup, that's ensuring the "highest standard of health care" alright.

Meanwhile have a look at these two stories where the health “care” system and the justice (sic) system intersect:

From Victoria, BC:

http://www.focusonline.ca/?q=node/249
and
http://ctwatchdog.com/2011/03/30/granny-snatching-narcotic-poisoning-a-bitter-prescription

From Winnipeg, Manitoba:

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Charges-laid-against-Sharon-Home-over-residents-death-132267883.html?device=mobile&c=y
and
http://www.winnipegjewishreview.com/article_detail.cfm?id=1639&sec=2&title=EDITOR’S_SPECIAL_

REPORT:WHAT_IS_HARVEY_BERKAL’S_STRATEGY_IN_INITIATING_PRIVATE_CRIMINAL_CHARGES_AGAINST_THE_SIMKIN_CENTRE__ANALYSIS

This is the highest standard of health care??? This is a justice system???

What has Canada become? Especially BC, jailing and drugging elderly people on a whim - for fun? for profit? Because they can?

Meanwhile Harper's ordering fighter jets, battle ships and armoured vehicles???

WHERE HAS ALL THE MUSIC GONE?

"OCCUPY" our own back yards

Some still don't get the message of the"Occupy" phenomenon. The movement may or may not ever bring any real solutions or actions to the table, but the story line is clear and it is important. Justice and equality is missing in societies in which the disparities between rich and poor are obscene and ever increasing. We need go no further than our own backyard for a glaring, familiar and infuriating example - Susan Heyes versus the Big Guys and the Supreme Court of Canada. Here is Susan's latest dispatch. Read it and weep for your own country.
Please also note that if this story appeared in our local press, I could not find it. Apparently, our rights are not news worthy.

Today, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed my application for leave to appeal (see attached)

This is a dark day for democracy in Canada. By refusing to hear this case, Canada’s highest court has decided that corporations have more rights than small businesses and citizens.

Small businesses are the economic backbone of our country and are the heart of our communities. The Supreme Court of Canada has decided that we don’t matter.

With this ruling, the Supreme Court has given corporations a blank cheque. It has ruled that corporations undertaking megaprojects in Canada are not legally compelled to tell the truth, even when the consequences for citizens and small businesses are as severe as they were with the Canada Line project.

This decision allows corporations to profit at the expense of citizens and small businesses.

The ruling calls into question the integrity of our judicial system including the ruling of the BC Appeals Court. Cut and cover construction for the Canada Line had been ruled out in the Cambie Village in all the materials made available to the public. Yet the case was overturned, with the project claiming that even though they caused a nuisance, they were authorized by statute to do so.

Under the law, this defence of Statutory Authority can only be used when no other less disruptive option is available, and cost cannot be a factor.

We all know that not only was there a less disruptive option, that of a bored underground tunnel, but it was the project, until the secret switch to cut and cover. A bored underground tunnel was the only option presented to the public for the Cambie Village area.

Corporations should be compelled to tell the whole truth, but the Supreme Court of Canada has determined that small businesses and citizens have no legal right to expect truthful information that would allow them to take measures to protect themselves from harm.

For 6 years, rectifying this colossal injustice has been my priority, in the public domain and through the courts.

The legal system has let us down. This is not the Canada I know and love.

This case personifies the worldwide outrage at corporate greed, and abuse of government power.

We as citizens, must continue to demand that our rights are upheld, against all odds.

Susan Heyes

Email: hazelmay@shaw.ca

THE POLITE PUSHERS

Drug pushers are everywhere.

They don't all bare fangs or wear funny clothes.

Some are fine upstanding people and leaders of our community.

Take the American Academy of Pediatrics...please.

Now, you might think that folks who put the word "pediatrics" in front of their name would have as their primary interest the health and safety of children.

Wrong again, Bunkie.

Not when you have such a close working relationship with the pharmaceutical industry.

You see, the American Academy of Pediatrics has just released its latest decree from on high (HA!) that you are now free to give Ritalin to children as young as 4.

This is for the ever--increasing population of (mostly) boys who have Attention Deficit Disorder.

Now, I went to school for far too many years and I cannot recall even one kid in any of our classes who might have had ADHD.

Of course, this "disease" is a modern construct - created almost simultaneously with the "discovery" of Ritalin, but even so, I don't remember one kid in our school who would have fit the description.

Only a few years ago, "science" announced that, lo, there were now adults who suffered from ADHD and they they too should be blessed with a steady supply of Ritalin.

But I carry on needlessly, because unless you yourself are suffering from some peculiar form of attention disorder, I am sure you are getting the picture.

Drug pushers push drugs.

More and more of them these days wear striped shirts and bow-ties.

"Occupy" explained in plain English

In case the "Occupy" movement is somehow escaping either your attention or understanding, this piece from Nicholas Kristof in the New York Times should help clarify the issues.

It was sent to us from our friend Susan Heyes who knows a thing or two about inequalities. Susan successfully sued the eco-criminals who dug up Cambie Street, only to have that decision reversed.

BRUNO MARS RULES! This kid can do anything...Thanks MO!

This Kid is some kind of GENIUS

IMPORTANT SPEECH

ideacity on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

Or This Version

Only 100,000, 000 hits so far

The City - Take Another Look

HAPPENING

Occupy Vancouver.

Occupy Seattle.

Wall Street protests.

HST.

Smart Meters.

Something's happening over here.

Everybody in the western world could readily understand the riots and revolutions in Cairo and Tehran, but many of the same people are mystified by the wave of discontent spreading across North American communities.

I am not an anti-capitalist or anti-materialist. I appreciate the crucial role of business and I love my stupid toys as much as the next sucker. (These days I am obsessive about my Android phone. I love it. I can't live without it. I want to marry it and have its children.)

But.

The unemployment rate in the USA is not 9.7% - which would be alarming enough.

The true unemployment rate in the country self-announced to be the greatest in the world is 20%.

Productivity and jobs are the urgent priorities in both America and Canada, and except for Obama, who is getting nowhere fast on these issues, no known political leaders on ether sides of the border is even talking about these essentials, let alone doing anything remotely useful or encouraging.

Meanwhile, back at the 500,000 acre ranch and the Park Avenue penthouse, hedge fund managers, whose products are losing 45% of their value, are stealing billions in personal bonuses yearly.

The iniquities have always been here before our eyes. But rarely before have these economic divides been so stark, so disparate and so ugly.

Bank foreclosures on private dwelling places called HOMES are practically sinful. Where was the oversight? Where were the rules?

When people are simply walking out the front door and heading into the scrub, you know something is terribly wrong with the status quo.

The protestors are making an important point, whether you like it or not.

They cannot be easily dismissed. The message is significant.

Government and business that turns away, orders another drink and laughs does so not only at its own peril, but at mine and yours.

Attention must be paid.

PLAIN TALK

Cameron Ward may or may not be your favorite Vancouver lawyer, but he certainly got it right in his comments at the dreadful Opaque Inquiry into the Missing Women.

Representing the families of the victims of serial killer Robert Pickton, Ward blasted police Tuesday for their failures to catch the killer sooner.

Here are a just a few of his clear bald statements:

Ward suggested the Vancouver police gave families the "brush off" when they tried to report their loved ones missing.

He said the VPD, and later the RCMP, treated the missing-women case with indifference and incompetence by failing to assign enough resources.

That was because the missing women were poverty-stricken, poorly educated and largely were drug-addicted sex-trade workers, with a large proportion being first-nations women, Ward said.

Police "couldn't have cared less what happened to these women," Ward told the inquiry.

"The pervasive problem was the Vancouver police department and the RCMP simply had a bad attitude," said the lawyer.

Ward pointed out that the RCMP, tipped that Pickton was a possible suspect, failed to conduct surveillance on the serial killer before he was caught in 2002.

And the Mounties failed to act on Pickton's offer to police in 2000 that they could search his farm.

"Mr. Commissioner, the facts in the public domain are shocking, and led our clients to the conclusion that both the Vancouver police department and the RCMP completely botched the handling of the missing-women investigation," Ward said during his opening address at the start of the inquiry Tuesday.

"The conduct of both police forces was inexcusable and egregious," the lawyer added.

"They [the families of Pickton's victims] believe that the authorities are culpable in the deaths of over a dozen women because the authorities enabled Pickton to literally get away with murder for five more years," Ward said.

"Our clients believe the VPD, the RCMP and the Criminal Justice Branch have the blood of their loved ones on their hands," he said.

* * *

Add to these simple truths, the ongoing insult and outrage of the government's unwillingness to fund a number of important groups who have since walked away in disgust.

What a sorry mess.

REEL RECOVERY FILM FEST - A CANADIAN FIRST

Doors 7pm, Friday October 21st @ District 319

Join us at stylish District 319 for an evening of gourmet cuisine, comedy and cinema,
as we kick-off an exciting three days of enlightening and entertaining films
about addiction and recovery. Opening the festival is the 2010 documentary
I Am Comic, a revealing look at the serious side of hilarity,
PLUS a performance by our special guest, comic Pat Dixon.

Tickets $75, call the Orchard at 604-947-0420 or purchase online at orchardrecovery.com/filmfest

Gala Location: District 319 319 Main Street, Vancouver, BC
filmfest@orchardrecovery.com

Please note: venue's regulations require minimum age of 19. Dress is semi-formal.

One of the two or three greatest songs ever written played by a Master

Overheated, perhaps, but Important and Real, Nevertheless

Warning Signs

Don Cayo has written a compelling piece in today's Sun.

Social and environmental ills worry world's CEOs

Book by Harvard professors sheds light on what the top business leaders of the world think are our biggest concerns

By Don Cayo, Vancouver SunOctober 8, 2011

Mike Segar-Reut Growing inequality can breed discontent and threaten our financial system and trade, a new book warns. In New York City, people are taking to the streets during the Occupy Wall Street series of protests.

Photograph by: Mike Segar, Reuters, Vancouver Sun

Leaders of some of the world's most successful companies say the whole system of capitalism is at risk and only capitalists themselves can save it, according to a new book by three faculty members at Harvard Business School.

And many of the threats on their list - fast-growing global inequality looming large among them - could be copied straight from a social activists' handbook.

Inequality breeds discontent, as any CEO with a window overlooking Wall Street might notice these days. It invites a backlash from those who don't share in capitalism's benefits. Sooner or later, some politicians will come on board with policies aimed at short-term popularity, though not necessarily coherence or effectiveness.

Other kinds of threats like global pandemics or natural disasters, can decimate the human capital needed to make the system run, and/or disrupt both markets and the institutional checks and balances that capitalism relies on.

The book, Capitalism at Risk: Rethinking the Role of Business, is written by Harvard profs Joseph L. Bower, Herman B. Leonard and Lynn S. Paine. It draws on discussions by major business leaders at forums that, using the clout of Harvard Business School, they were able to convene in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. This format gives the book added depth and substance - as well as, at times, diversity, as the participants don't always agree. Yet it can also be an irritation for readers as the authors keep the speakers' names confidential, so we never know who's saying what.

But there does seem to be consensus on what the big problems are. In addition to the broad threat of growing inequality and the populist - and often business-hostile - political movements it leads to, threats to the financial system and to healthy global trade include:

. Unrestrained migration - whether within developing countries or from the poor world to the rich - in numbers that overwhelm capacity to productively absorb the newcomers.

. Environmental degradation of food and water supplies, and many other aspects of quality of life.

. Failure of the rule of law, which is an essential underpinning for a successful market economy.

. Low levels of education, which limit worker productivity.

. The rise of state capitalism in response to free market shortcomings, real or perceived.

. Radical movements, terrorism and war which destroy the stability that markets need.

. Pandemics that disrupt trade and decimate labour.

. Inadequacy of existing institutions - just a matter of resources and competence, but also jurisdictions as nation-based institutions face global issues.

Some of these concerns sound as if they have less to do with North Americans and are of more concern in the parts of the world affected by movements like the Arab Spring or the class warfare burgeoning in Latin America. And this may well be true.

But it's hard to look at this year's riots in the U.K., the growing desperation of people falling out of the middle class in the U.S., or rising child poverty in B.C., and then say, "It can never happen here."

Still, the business leaders are less united on what they should do about these threats.

A significant minority - the authors don't tell us the number, but I take it to be well under a third - worry, yet are still content to be bystanders. They say finding solutions is "beyond their pay grade" and should be left to government.

A smaller group think they can also stand by and wait it out - that existing institutions and practices will work things out over time.

The rest are either activists who want to shape and promote solutions, or innovators who want to address the challenges directly.

This article appears on the same day as an item about a Wall Street-type protest on its way to Vancouver.

IMMIGRATION, DIVERSITY & LANGUAGE

GUEST EDITORIAL - INSITE

Gerry Verrier is a friend. He is former addict, who for 25 years now has been involved with the Behavioural Health Foundation in Manitoba. He is currently the Program Director.

This piece is also posted as a comment on my blog item of several days ago, called "Stranger in a Strange Land," but it is so darn good and so important, I wanted you to read it as a stand-alone editorial.


I am a former addict that will stand up and say that I do not support Insite or needle exchange programs. If there had been safe injection sites back in the 70s, I would be dead. All the brick walls I ran into that said "Gerry, you need to stop using drugs or you will kill yourself, Gerry you need to stop committing crimes to feed your addiction because you are hurting a lot of people and you will rot in jail, Gerry you contribute nothing to your own community and are a free loader" made me think about who I was, what I was doing and where I was heading in life. It caused cognitive dissonance for me. It made me consider whether my mother brought me into this world to shame her and become a drug-addled train wreck. It made me consider that my new condo would in fact be a prison cell in Stony Mountain Penitentiary and that my "better half" was probably going to be called Bubba. I was judged and I was deemed to be deficient in appropriate and anti-addiction social and coping skills by a group of former addicts. I was expected to change and I was expected to contribute to this beautiful country in a meaningful way. I was also consequenced for my bad behaviour. I actually welcomed the criticism. I welcomed the idea that I could stop using life destroying drugs. I needed to hear that so badly. I welcomed the idea that people thought enough of me to expect me to start to be a positive member of society. I felt good and I felt accepted. I felt like I could accomplish something meaningful and could enjoy some success in my life.
Had Insite existed, I would have heard something like "Here, Gerry, now now, it's okay that you're addicted to morphine, here let me help you stick that needle in your vein and don't worry about overdosing because I won't let you. Don't you worry about me telling you to quit IV drugs, because you can quit whenever you want. I don't expect you to though, because you have a sickness just like cancer and diabetes and you're an addict for life, you poor hapless misunderstood defenseless creature. And don't worry about the big bad police, they can't come in here and they can't bother you outside either while you go on the nod on the sidewalk. In fact, we have doctors who want to give you free heroin. Isn't that wonderful news? You see, the people who want you to quit don't understand you like we do. We know that if we give you a free rig and a place to shoot up and make sure you don't overdose, you won't go out and have unsafe sex and we know for sure that you won't use or share dirty needles."
I would have moved into that clinic. I would have laughed all the way to my dealer's corner and back. No consequences for bad, harmful and antisocial behaviour? No consequence for spreading fatal and life threatening disease? Drug injecting paraphernalia that I don't have to pay for? No expectation to contribute to my community to balance out my constant freeloading? No consideration given to the fact that I stole 15 purses and robbed an old lady for her grocery money so I could score on the way to Insite? An addicts heaven. I would have happily cranked so much junk, my eyes would have bulged. Malnutrition? No biggie. I'll get free and expensive Boost supplements from my doctor. Organ failure after a dozen years of injecting poison into my body? No problem in our free medicare system. Heck, I bet I could get a nurse to come inject my heroin while I wait for an organ transplant. Work for a living and pay taxes? I have a disease, I can't work. In fact, I'll take some disability cash over and above my regular welfare payments. I'll also need some taxi chits so I can get to Insite. I have a disease, don't you know. And be quick about it, or else I will sic the harm reduction people on you.

And with all that, do you really think I'm going to start wearing condoms? Do you really think that at 3 in the morning, when I need a fix, I'm going to wait until the clinic opens at 10 am so I can shoot up with a clean rig? I AM going to have sex with this person and I am not going to wear a condom and we are going to share this rig because we don't give a fuck about nothing but getting off. I don't need to care because, really no one else does. No one expects any better of me, no one believes in my potential ability to contribute in a meaningful way and no one seems to care that I'm slowly killing myself. After all, I have a disease and I will always be an addict so I might as well be a really good addict. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go steal so I can buy more heroin. I sure wish they would hurry up with that free heroin program....

I know some addicts and homeless people are struggling with mental health issues. I know some addicts are messed up because of trauma in their life. They need medical treatment. They need support. They need the right kind of medication. Heroin is a painkiller, and a mind number. It and other addictive illicit drugs exasperate mental health issues and certainly does nothing for trauma victims. Addiction does not promote self esteem or self confidence. There is no success or accomplishment or education in a needle filled with junk. Addiction does not provide hope. Addiction kills, Addiction sucks the life out of our communities. Addiction shortchanges our children. Addiction enslaves our brothers and our sisters and our grandchildren. Addiction adds costs to our already expensive health care system that need not be.

Providing for addicts to continue to be addicted is anti-social. Not expecting our addicted brothers and sisters to contribute to the betterment of our society and community is anti-social. Helping an addict stick a needle in his or her arm is anti social. Harm Reduction as it is applied to addiction is anti social.

I had to laugh but felt like crying when I read on the International Harm Reduction Association website how the Reductionists were upset that abstention-based treatment programs were using the term "Harm Reduction" and that expecting addicts to quit using is not Harm Reduction. The Reductionists wanted to reiterate that Harm Reduction means working with people who do not want to change. How twisted is that?