Some Good Signs

For so many years now, I felt that I was one of a handful of voices crying in the wilderness.

When would the Harm Seduction strategies be exposed for the muddle-headed, silver bullet dreaming, uncaring and ineffective mistakes that many of us knew them to be?

When would drug addiction treatment be recognized, funded and welcomed?

Well, perhaps I am suffering from a small and forgivable case of optimism these days, but I am seeing some signs of hope.

1. Susie and Robert Ruttan have worked tirelessly with their group, From Grief to Action, to bring a therapeutic community-styled residential treatment program to BC. Portage, which has been serving the cause for 30 years now in Quebec is on track to open a facility in Keremeos.

That's the good news. The bad news is much more money is needed to bring this important reality to life. Help them.

2. MLA Lorne Mayencourt has been working tirelessly to open a similar program near Prince George, this one modelled on the San Patrignano success.

3. Alex Tsakumis writes with great passion on a regular basis in 24 Hours about the dreadful misguided ideas flowing from City Hall and the office of The Nutty Mayor.

4. Justice Wallace Craig maintains a steady flow of informed and knowledgeable insight on these subjects in his column in the North Shore News.

5. More and more people from every walk of life, wherever I wander these days tell me that they are appalled at the drivel and lies and fake statistics and self-serving spin coming from the Harm Seduction, Free Needles, Free Drugs, Free Substitutes, Clean Shooting Galleries people who are causing immense public harm, growing the problems exponentially and personally profiting from the continuation and expansion of The Misery Biz.

More and more people everywhere in our communities are demanding Prevention, Enforcement and Treatment. Remember those? They were the other 3 pillars in the endlessly promoted - but hardly realized - Four Pillars approach.

The way the official voices speak of the Four Pillars you would think this is Torah handed directly down from God. Philip Owen is God? We're in deep trouble, kids.

Slowly, slowly, ever so slowly the tide is turning.

Do whatever you can as often as you can to convince your friends and neighbours and even those poor blighted souls who have been elected to office that Treatment is crucial, that Treatment is affordable, that Treatment is Now.

"I Only Shoot People To Kill Them"

Well, it's good to see that at least some people in this province take their work seriously.

On the other hand...

The author of this marvelous boast has just pleaded guilty to killing someone.

The Victoria judge sentenced this avowed career hitman (very young and ambitious for a contract killer, nevertheless...) to "the "maximum youth penalty of 10 years with no more than six to be served in custody. With time already spent in custody, his sentence was reduced to four years."

Am I following this correctly?

Hitman, who is also on charges of conspiracy to commit 2 more murders, pleads guilty to a planned murder, gets not more than 6 in custody, reduced to 4 because of time served????

And the judiciary wonder - if in fact they do wonder - why the public and the police are so frustrated with them.

And the cry-babies of the universe scream about Harper's Get Tough on Crime proposals.

True, we don't need little pot smokers crowing up the jails.

But we do need to sentence truly dangerous, antisocial criminal sociopaths to very long, long, long prison terms.

Is it that difficult to distinguish between silly people and dangerous people?

Taser Murder - Chapter 5

Examine the headline:

'MOUNTIES DELAYED CPR FOR DYING MAN."

"Delayed?????"

I didn't know they even considered for a nano-second CPR.

So now we learn that when the paramedics arrived and quickly determined (Have you ever had cause to call on paramedics? I have. Twice. They are the most amazing, efficient,competent and caring people I have ever met! If you or someone near you ever has am emergent health issue, do NOT drive or call a taxi...call 911 and call it right smart.) that Robert Dziekanski had no breath and no pulse.

The paramedics asked the cop/thugs to take off the handcuffs. At first they refused.

Why are these disgraces still in uniform?

Fail My Kid??? Oh no you don't...

What has Education Minister Shirley Bond been smoking?

Someone check her meds quick. Maybe it's too much chalk dust.

Bond has had the temerity to ask BC teachers to consider not actually passing some illiterate kid onto the next grade if he or she can't read.

Imagine!

Failing someone! Shocking. How wounding to the little dear's self esteem.

Only yesterday at work we were having this exact conversation. I was recalling that in high school I was in something called "the A class." Others, with less academic achievement were in the B class and C class and D class. How wounding, how permanently damaging.

Of course, you could always work a little harder and aspire to join the A class.

Oh...but then, you would have to write and pass tests, just like in the real world.

But the BCTF won't let you write and pass tests. You might feel bad about something.

Minister Bond is clearly out of step with the times.

And for that, in this rare instance, we can be mildly thankful.

Numbering Our Ills, Part I

Whether you believe in the current numbers being offered about child poverty in BC or not, there is is no qeustion that we are failing far too many in our province today.

There is also no question about where the buck stops.

Daphne Bramham's excellent editorial in today's Sun brings clear focus to the issue.

The piece also brought some new information and small enlightenment. I was not aware until this morning of what has been called "Jordan's Principle."

"Jordan's Principle is named for a first nations child with multiple medical needs who died while federal and provincial agencies debated over who should pay for his care. Jordan's Principle, which is advocated by more than 600 service agencies across the country, puts the onus on the government of first contact to provide help without delay."

This principle is, of course, observed more often in its avoidance than its fulfillment.

When the Premier returns from his latest Asia carpetbagging, perhaps someone might ask him to attend to the needs of local children.

Numbering Our Ills, Part II

It's all a numbers game.

Apparently.

First, there is the argument, raging in some circles, about whether the number of people with HIV/AIDS is 33 Million or 40 Million.

No doubt that will be important to the 7 Million human beings who may be unaccounted for.

But for the rest of us, this disaster remains an overwhelming shame and heartache.

Ignorance and selfishness hold the day.

In thousands of African villages, women have a "Sophie's Choice." Either take a beating or take a rape from an undoubtedly infected man.

Like the snail and the border collie, we are programmed to reproduce. Unlike invertebrates and others, we do have the power to reason and on occasion we actually employ this gift. Unfortunately, the occasions are not nearly frequent enough.

We also have the capability to provide antiretroviral drugs at affordable costs. Unfortunately, we are a greedy lot and we often lack the willingness to perform this small act of charity.

The problem is this - providing such medicines is NOT an act of charity. It is an act of necessity, not just for the women and men and children infected and at risk, but for all of us who dare to call ourselves human.

Write Your Own Dark Comedy

The BC Government is hiring more Child Protection Workers.

How do I know?

I saw their ad this morning in the Sun on page H4.

It's under the banner "Britsh Columbia/ BC Public Service: WHERE IDEAS WORK."

Hahahahaha...

Wait...I forgot.

The provincial logo tells me: "British Columbia: The Best Place on Earth."

Hahahahaha...

West Side Story - America

Rita Moreno, who almost committed suicide when Brando threw her aside, has won an Oscar (for this role as Anita in West Side Story), an Emmy, a Grammy and a Tony. What an amazing performer.

Bing Crosby

Written by a Russian Jew from poorest neighbourhoods of New York City while playing amongst the palm trees of Los Angeles, this Irving Berlin classic plays havoc with the adage, "Write what you know." Ha!

Child Poverty - The Other Side of the Argument

Walter Schulz has a completely different take on the subect of Child Poverty in BC than I. He posted the following the day before I posted my item on the subject, which you can read here.

I don't agree with him, but I think his points are well made and that his opposing position is worth seeing. I thank him for letting me reproduce this from his blog.

Monday, November 26, 2007

Exaggerating child poverty.

The BC Child and Youth Advocacy Coalition is calling on the BC government to do something now to reduce child poverty, with almost 21 percent of kids in the province living in poverty. The national anti poverty group, Campaign 2000 set the poverty line at $21,000 for two people living in a city of 500,000 or more, and $32,000 for a family of four living in such a community. The Tyee has also commented suggesting that one in five B.C. children is poor, making the province’s child poverty rate the highest in Canada for the fourth consecutive year.Hold on for just one darn minute.One in five B.C. children living in poverty???$21,000 for two people or $32,000 for a family of four is poverty????What these three news items are trying to described isn't poverty; they're describing instead income inequality. When they use Stats Canada's low income cut off as the measurement for poverty what they are really doing is comparing how people are living relative to other Canadians. The low income cut off method has never been considered a poverty line by Statistics Canada. "Statistics Canada has clearly and consistently emphasized, since their publication began over 25 years ago, that the LICOs are quite different from measures of poverty". If a family doesn't have a colour television or a cell phone are they now considered poor?

These social activists need to give their heads a shake.To say that one in every five children is living in poverty in British Columbia, is quite frankly - bullshit!And what are they calling on the BC government to do to reduce this so called "child poverty"?They want the minimum wage raised to $10.50/hour, eliminate the $6.00/hour training wage and to increase BC's welfare rates.Well of course they do.

The BC Government in its 2007 budget already increased welfare rates for all those on assistance.

British Columbia already has the lowest income tax rates in Canada for low-income earners. In fact, those earning under $16,000 a year pay no provincial income tax.

Since 2001 the B.C. economy has created over new 370,000 jobs and we have the lowest unemployment rate in almost 40 years! (4.4% in BC and 4.1% in Vancouver)

British Columbia already has the highest general minimum wage rate of all the provinces.

BC's 2006 budget pledged $421 million over four years to strengthen supports for children.

For social activists to be constantly overstating the problem of poverty rates amongst children in British Columbia does a disservice to those who are most in need. Despite all the rhetoric and political posturing from these groups, (and when haven't these groups called on the BC liberal government to give more money to social causes?) - BC has done an excellent job of helping those who are most in need.

From 24 Hours - Alex Nails The Drug Charlatans

Get Ready, They're Coming: DRUGS!

Mayor Sullivan's drug initiative panned!

By A. G. Tsakumis
'Rebel With A Clause'

Of all the spin-doctored proposals Sam Sullivan has hatched, none is as ultimately off base as CAST, his drug replacement baby, which he has asked the federal Conservative government to fund.
CAST is, simply, part and parcel of His Worship's distorted effort to show heart through hubristic populism, and no less banal than any of his other numberless (non)triumphs.

The quest for enlightenment begins with a read of its website (www.castvancouver.org).
It is as stupefying as it is embarrassing.
The notion of replacing street drugs with a drug substitute - although somewhat new - is nothing more than placing addicts at the trough of the perpetual drug need, all in the name of (false) compassion.
These science fiction proponents hail studies as a case made. However, not one study shows with any supremacy that this hogwash works.

In fact, once past the outer layers of fluff, it is abundantly evident that not only the findings from such studies are massaged by CAST proponents, but further, that the mayor and his cadre are wanting of our tax dollars to study studies which are inconclusive at best, and, at least, utter failures in proving CAST or any related initiative worthy of being funded.

But the doctors and retired politicians backing these reports claim success, which begs the question: if the evidence proves that such lunacy is indeed effective, why further studies?

They argue that studies needn't be endlessly repeated to be valid.

Then why are they arguing for the CAST study? The contradiction is obscene.
When Mayor Sullivan, or the city's drug czar Don MacPherson, state that drug replacement is 'harm reduction', the cacophony is amplified.

It is hardly medical treatment to permanently burden an addict with yet another dependency. Instead, the studies expound the social good in all this. Rather than trumpet the recovery of addicts, which would support the mayor's misstatements, the hypothesis runs in the opposite direction. Fringe replacement efforts will make for much “social justice”, but all without saying how.

This CAST nonsense is not about anything else except sanitizing the streets of the DTES, so that Japanese and German tourists won't have to refocus their camera lenses in 2010.

This is about using a social construct, and not a very good one, to aid the mayor's re-election agenda.

Would you put a loved one suffering from skin cancer in a tanning bed as treatment? Would you offer lower tar cigarettes to a lung cancer patient? Highly questionable social good trumps individual recovery in Sam's world. This program will hurt people. Addicts will have no chance for a normal life.

Moreover, how ethical is it to start on a drug protocol with no chance of continuing?
The drug replacement must persist forever, notwithstanding that most addicts, particularly on the DTES, are not last-chance, no-hope candidates.

Why are we offering palliative care to people who are not terminal? Besides, which federal or provincial government wants to become the drug dealer? All the drug legalization obliviots aside, the street dealers would have a field day in competition.

Troubling still, that the scholarship purportedly in support of CAST having been misrepresented on the website, the Mayor has company, plump with controversy. Among Mr. Sullivan's CAST inner sanctum is Dr. David Marsh, the chief officiating guru at Vancouver Coastal Health, who is an expatriate of Toronto country, where he failed to convince his colleagues into putting the Taranah Corridor's first NAOMI heroin trial next to a methadone recovery clinic - a no-no of monumental proportions to any addiction Doc - since it's considered a 'trigger' to have a recovering addict anywhere near drugs or drug use.

Dr. Marsh has the ear of our Mayor. He often will advise Sobriety Sam on how to sell CAST.
Don't believe me?

Earlier this year, on the day our Mayor hinted that CAST might replace Insite/Four Pillars, Dr. Marsh raced down to the mayor's office and spent the Friday afternoon trying to undo the media firestorm that young Sammy had created.

To clean up the DTES we need: treatment beds, in the hundreds; adequate housing (but not necessarily just Downtown); and the re-opening of Riverview's full facilities with a state-of-the-art mental health/drug treatment facility - not Yaletown redux at Riverview.

And if the Four Pillars is finally going to really work, then fund all FOUR pillars. Enforcement, Treatment and Education are a must. We have to get into schools and talk to our children about what's killing us.

But alas, Mayor Sullivan won't listen to the Drug Prevention Network; Al Arsenault, Exec. Director of the Odd Squad Society; Vancouver addiction specialists Dr. Colin Mangham, Doug Coleman, Donald Hedges; David Berner, former addiction counselor and local pundit or former Justice Wally Craig and countless addictionologists, who know the DTES well.
He would rather beg, profusely, at failure's open door.

On the issue of dealing with drug issues in Vancouver, Sam Sullivan has created a culture ethical frivolity. He and his sycophants subvert any hope for genuine help for the addicted downtrodden, preferring, alternatively, to mid-wife extended tyranny on the DTES.
Unbelievably, through all of this, there are people who still believe that Sam Sullivan is entirely palatable as Mayor for 2008.

Equalities in The Military?

It may be startling to realize that the Warriors have a more comprehensive appreciation of Democracy than the Legislators.

A group of retired American Generals & Admirals - 28 in all - have joined forces to repeal the idiot "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" compromise that Bill Clinton accepted on gays in the military.

“We respectfully urge Congress to repeal the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy,” the letter says. “Those of us signing this letter have dedicated our lives to defending the rights of our citizens to believe whatever they wish.”

Read the full story from this morning's NY Times here.

BITS 'N BITES

For, and from, the man in a morning flurry:

- Carol Taylor's not running again provincially so that she can glide into the mayor's chair is the worst kept gossip of the last 8 months. I cannot tell you how many hundreds of people have sworn me to secrecy on this scoop.

Fine. Carol will make an excellent City Mayor. She won't bring any particularly enlightened policy to the table, but she won't have to. First, she will rid us of the That Pest, The Nutty One, and second, she is a first rate manager, former city councillor and the wife of a former mayor. She knows how the machine works.

The sooner, the better.

- I have avoided the Ian Bush story from the beginning, because I felt I just wasn't there to witness what really happened. However....the result of the commission investigating this death somehow doesn't quite feel right. Perhaps we are being influenced in our reactions to this conclusion by the YVR Taser Murder. It just seems so improbable.

- The Mulroney -Schreiber story is so sordid and unseemly. Insiders have told us that M's wife, Mila, was and is a "money pit," and that M was always worried about paying the bills. Nevertheless, how could a man this smart and this experienced on the world stage take $100,000 in cash from anyone under any circumstances? Stupid, stupid, stupid.

- Kudos to the Sun Editorial this morning for 2 pieces: 1)They remind us that the Premier, when Mayor of the City, launched a suit against the province for Expo Line insults and hardships to citizens. Now, on the other side of the Line, he sings a different cracked tune. 2) They add to our often expressed outrage at the total dysfunction of this administration with regard to Children & Families. To see this tepid little furry toys for the Olympics gathering all that misplaced adoration and press coverage, while Children at Risk are ignored is sickening and the best barometer of Campbell's focus.

Dear Friends

Dear Friends,

I am swamped and behind the 8-ball this morning. And there is something very exciting brewing, which I will tell you about as soon as it's a go.

For today, please enjoy one of my favorite entertainers, Michael Feinstein, and my favorite retired judge, Wallace Craig, who has nailed the case for a BC provincial police force.

A presto!

Michael Feinstein - Old Friend

Musicologist, singer, pianist, historian, comedian, Michael Feinstein is a very New York performer. These days he has his own room at the Loews Regency. He is most;lt associated with Berlin and the Gershwins, but as you can hear, he can sing almost anything...beautifully.

Justice Wallace Craig Calls for the Return of a BC Provincial Police Force - Essential Reading

In his best North Shore News editorial to date, our good friend, Justice Wallace Craig, retraces the shameful history of the disbanding of the BC Police Force and explains exactly why it is more important than ever to re-constitute the same.

IT’S TIME TO BRING BACK PROVINCIAL POLICE
November 28, 2007

SUDDENLY disbanded in 1950, our historic British Columbia Provincial Police was no more.

Though stunned and dismayed, a vast majority of rank and file members of the BCPP simply switched uniforms and continued to maintain law and order as members of a force leased from the federal government: a somewhat hybridized “E” division of the RCMP, answerable only to Ottawa.

Cost-cutting was supposedly at the heart of this unprincipled act of political expediency. In the purity of hindsight, it was politics at its most despicable.

Since 1950 British Columbia has relied on a succession of 20-year contracts with this inharmonious federal force. Each renewal period brings increasing involvement of “E” division in urban policing, something it was never intended to do. This deepening entrenchment in urban policing, bringing with it the bureaucratic persona and command structure of the RCMP, impedes formation of civilian regional police.

When our provincial politicians rejected civilian provincial police under direct control, and embraced what would soon become and remain to this day a federal paramilitary police force, they knew full well that the force was completely unaccountable under our Police Act. Today’s provincial politicians are tarred, too, with the same brush.

If our provincial government continues this aberrant and tunnel vision approach to the administration of justice and hangs onto “E” division for 20 more years beyond 2012 – when RCMP contracts are up for renewal – then the misadventure of 1950 will be revisited and worsened.

Beware of things happening in the shadows of government, out of sight and untouched by the light of public scrutiny and debate. Take-charge bureaucrats, once civil servants, are already stirring the pot of renewal under the auspicious cover of the Union of British Columbia Municipalities.

Either the UBCM is filling a vacuum of inactivity on the part of the Solicitor General or acting on his instructions as it fusses along in a self-fulfilling process intended to bring about renewal of contracts with the RCMP.

I say this because a memorandum dated Oct. 9, boldly titled RCMP Contract Mandate, produced by a grandiosely styled UBCM Secretariat is a blueprint for the status quo. It includes the suggestion that the federal government and our provincial government “are in the early stages of the contract renewal process” and certain guiding principles have been adopted; the most telling of which is that “Continuation of the RCMP is beneficial to all.”

I have questions for the secretariat.

1. Who is the exponent of the notion that “Continuation of the RCMP is beneficial to all”?

2. How can renewal of the contract be “…beneficial to all” when “E” division is already sapping away too many new recruits, thus having a deleterious effect on the national strength and federal duties of the RCMP; a force so troubled in the senior ranks that it is being administered by a civilian commissioner?

3. Have you considered that it may be best for the RCMP to be told by its masters in Ottawa to prepare for the end of contracting out approximately one quarter of RCMP national strength?

Let us not forget the facts of 1950 when a too-crafty Attorney General Gordon Wismer disbanded our historic, down-home and effective civilian provincial police. Wismer sacrificed our provincial police on the altar of ingratiation solely to prove his mettle amongst his Conservative/Liberal coalition bed-fellows. It was a callous political expedient.

In my opinion the coalition government of 1950 committed an act of constitutional malfeasance when it opted out of provincial policing, the bedrock of its constitutional duty to administer justice. It was wrong to hand over policing of this vast province to Ottawa’s RCMP and that wrong will continue so long as we contract with “E” division in a manner that nullifies the efficacy of our Police Act.

In order to deal with the constitutional malfeasance of 1950, Premier Gordon Campbell must first take policing out of the solicitor generals ministry and put it back where it belongs, constitutionally, with the ministry of the attorney general.

And by a most delightful quirk of fate, or providence, Attorney General Wallace Oppal is eminently qualified to right the wrong of 1950 and thereby avoid its repetition in 2012.

In June 1992, Mr. Justice Oppal was appointed as a Commissioner to conduct an Inquiry into Policing in British Columbia. On July 31, 1994, he handed the government a voluminous report: Closing the Gap – Policing in British Columbia; detailing the urgency to deal with a mixed-bag of policing problems including the question of 2012.

Mr. Premier, Oppal is the man for the moment. Return policing to the ministry of the attorney general; let him do the job of charting a course to civilian policing. To deny him the opportunity to take charge of policing matters in this time of urgency will be a sign of disrespect that may force the attorney to consider whether he has any place in your government.

Keep in mind that the rest of Canada looks at us in disbelief wondering why we don’t have the gumption and common sense to begin again. We British Columbians must be loud, clear and relentless in demanding our constitutional right under the division of powers in the British North America Act, specifically the provincial right to administer justice: to begin again with our own civilian British Columbia Constabulary.

On Nov 19, just after this column was written, the provincial government announced an inquiry into the Oct 14 death of Robert Dziekanski. He died while being subdued by officers of the RCMP at the Vancouver International Airport.

The truth of the matter: The inquiry commissioner will have no authority to deal with the RCMP and this avoidable and regrettable death.Our government sold its jurisdictional soul in 1950. Will it be déjà vu in 2012?

Bah, Humbug

What can one say about "The Mascots?"

Except that they violate every rule of marketing. Like 4 items rather than 1 on which to focus.

Like forgettable names.

And what is with this painful farce of putting aboriginal symbols before the world as if we can take great pride in our "partnerships" with natives?

Is this yet another sad attempt by guilt-ridden governments to buy friendship with a most legitimately aggrieved group?

Where can I hide until this damn frat party is over? New Zealand?

Call Me Madam - You're Just In Love

Donald O'Connor-Vera Ellen 'It's a Lovely Day Today'

Victor See Through Kim Capripants

There is a well-known governance principle that defines the relationship between elected bodies and staff.

It states " Elected officials should keep their noses in and their fingers out".

Translated, it means elected officials should not be giving staff direct assignments. They should define the broad goals for the business plan, let staff execute, and then evaluate their performance.

Apparently, nobody on Vancouver City Council is aware of this principle. Our councilors think they are staff managers.

The latest example is Kim Capri's direction to staff to do a "study" on eliminating plastic bags. Apparently Ms. Capri saw an Internet report about a similar initiative in San Francisco and felt it required a special staff study.

Other recent demands for staff studies by councilors cover items ranging from free bicycles to organic food in city-owned establishments. The Mayor is good for one of these bathtub ideas every week resulting in yet more unplanned staff studies.

Here is the problem with these requests. Vancouver City Hall employs some very expensive people, with salaries reaching $300,000 a year. Presumably these people are busy. If so , they don't have time to drop everything because Ms. Capri saw something on the web. If they do have enough slack time to write position papers on every lunatic idea from councilors, then we have too many highly paid, under-worked people on city payroll. Pick one.

The other problem is one of legal liability. If staff are getting direct assignments from elected officials instead of their managers, it throws performance appraisal out the window. Any employee receiving a poor review for failing to meet goals can rightfully complain that they were pulled off their work by interfering councilors.

Note to City Council. Staff is not a toy you get to play with upon being elected. .