No News is good news

If it is true that the former police commissioner would never order an investigation into his own police fores unless they were on the six o'clock news....!!!!

So the Sun reports today.

Good grief.

Can anyone say, "Malfeasance?"

Quote of the Day

A senior doctor ot Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster has said the they are in crisis mode due to shotages of resources.

But Health Minister and Chairman of the Rose-Colored Glasses Committee, George Abbott&Costello says...

"IT'S NOT THAT BAD."

Later, at lunch when asked how the lamb was, he repeated, "NOT BAAAAAAAD...."

Les is Becoming Way More with every passing Day

To fully appreciate the complexities and near-nicities of the John Les melodrama, you must read the first-rate coverage by the Sun's team in today's paper.

Suffice it to say that a number of farm properties were subdivided and re-sold as private residential properties under Les' watch, and the stink is palpable.

Simple question:

If and when you are an elected official a government, should you not be suspending all business transactions that could in any way be under the eye of the very body to which you have been elected?

Duh? You think?

One Man's Freedom's are....

Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.

Doug Christie, the Victoria lawyer who has made a career of defending neo-Nazis and other well-meaning dears (Zundel, Seifert, Keegstra), has been found guilty of misconduct and fined by the usually moribund Law Society of BC.

Of course, Mr, Christie has always claimed - and so many righteous people support this farce - that he is defending free speech.

That assertion probably has an ounce or two of mini-truth in it.

But, hey, why not a little Jew hating while we're at it.

Van Dongen to the Rescue

John van Dongen has been making a favorable impression as our new 3-day Solicitor-General.

With respect to ICBC, he has called for a meeting with the full bard of directors. He has hinted that there may be a look at the corporation's shenanigans by the RCMP.

Perhaps Wally On-theSidelines could take a lesson.

Annie Lennox- Why

why, indeed?

Martin Luther King Junior's Historic Last Speech

40 years ago today, Dr. KIng was murdered. So soon after, Robert Kennedy was murdered. What a time. What great loss.

Weekend Announcement

I'm off to a family event in Winnipeg tomorrow.

I will be blogging, but emailing may be a problem.

PLease Bookmark this page if you want to be sure to follow the musings of Mr. Nervous and Senor Kvetch.

ICBC Exempt From Scrutiny

There's the Sun headline and it says it all.

How can the biggest car dealer and a government agency at that not be required to register under the Motor Vehicle Act?

Perhaps between Olympic lunches, the Premier might think about working on that.

To make matters worse, "ICBC has refused to reveal whether any employees have been disciplined as a result of the scandal."

So reassuring to know that a crown corporation need have no sense of responsibility to the public it alleges to serve.

Also fun to learn that the in-house repair shop has been fixing employees cars. This is much like the way some employees in Richmond government regularly gas up for free and have their cars washed at Richmond City Works Yard. Or so we are told....of course, everyone concerned denies such spurious allegations.

Gulag, anyone?

Who's Protecting Whom?

It is not encouraging to learn that "former police complaint commissioner Don Morrison refused to order a public hearing into the death of Frank Paul because he wanted to save the career of a young police officer..."

Isn't that making a number of judgements and reaching several conclusions without and before asking any questions?

The implications are, among other things, that Constable Instant was guilty of something and that his career was more important than the death of Mr.Paul or the public's need to know and the Paul family's need to know the truth.

All of those conclusions are suspect without a full enquiry and more than suspect in moral and ethical values.

What can we expect of our police when their own watchdog doesn't know his own job?

Read the Vancouver Sun coverage here.

J.S.Bach 'Sinfonia' Swingle Singers

I have had this record form over 30 years and I still isten to it regularly. Now it has come to say to me, "Sunnny morning, Vancouver..."

Ice Shock! River Freezes!

Oh, great.

Another shocking revelation from another academic.

Look, drug use is skyrocketing!

Really?

Yes, we needed another University study to tell us what is common knowledge.

Glad the good professor had an income for the last two years.

Now...

How about some money for treatment?

Have I ever mentioned that we should spend some money on treatment?

ICBC peaking through the Ice

And ICBC employees cheated to buy rebuiklt cars.

Is anybody going to investigate this "arms length" government body that is showing clear signs of rot?

Anybody home in Wally's house?

Les is More

The John Les story gets worse, not better.

The Sun has dug through the records and found that Mr. Les was involved in several real estate plays while serving on Chilliwack City council, including while he was mayor.

Mr. Les seems to have followed all expected procedures, but already a strong whiff of favoritism and special consideration is tainting this story.

One former councillor voted in favor of a rezoning of a property in which Les was involved and then bought one of the subdivided lots. Cute.

Mr. Les may or may not be exonerated of any and all charges. But for the moment this is not looking good.

Poor Dears

The Toronto School Board says that a "culture of homework," - i.e., too much homework for kids - is ruining family life.

Who are these people?

I'll tell you what is ruining family life - families.

Families who build and buy homes with a so-called "family room," which means a place to watch TV and not talk to each other.

Families who don't have a nightly ritual called "eating dinner together."

So-called "nuclear" families who think that grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins are unimportant. That used to be called the extended family.

Homework?

I'll let you know when I think Canadian kids are overworked academically. Don't hold your breath.

Not One, But Two Good News Stories - What a Day

It's rare the we find any good news; rarer still that we have two good news stories in one day.

1. The Surrey Homelessness & Housing Society is offering $1 Million to a group that comes up with an innovative way to reduce homelessness.

I think that's great. Let's see what people - profit, not-for-profit, churches, anybody - can come up with.

Start with building housing.

2. Capilano College is putting course material on the web and anybody can access it for free.. I think that is brilliant.

You might think at first blush that they will be giving away their franchise. But that's not the case. People who want the deerskin on their walls will go to school and graduate. The rest of us who might be life-long learners will be able to access information in a wonderful new way.

Congrats.

Steve on This Morning's Fatuous Drug Report

This is what harm reduction gets you, at least when it's the primary focus of a drug program.
Street kids using crystal meth at 'alarming' rate from today's Vancouver Sun
Several things strike me about this article:
1) 75% of street kids are using Meth, compared with 15% of DTES addicts (who use mostly crack)
2) The study "spanned September 2005 to October 2006." What took them so long to publish? Maybe it was because
3) "we adjusted for all kinds of variables" - looking for a bright side?
4) a strong link between Meth usage and injection, which increases with use.
5) "most were sober when they used it." This is a primary drug of choice.
6) "25 per cent of first-time crystal meth users injected the drug." Wow. That's a lot.
7) "Eighty per cent of first-time crystal meth users said they were given the drug as a "gift" at a party with friends" Only two things can curb this; prevention and enforcement.
8) "...researchers continue to probe the issue over the next five years..." That's what we need. More research. For another half a decade.
9) "I do think we need to really start to consider where we are putting our efforts and our resources," Dr. Evan Wood said. "Given what we are facing with drugs in society, we really need to start looking at the scientific evidence and modifying what we are doing to address these issues."
This last could possibly indicate a shift in opinion at the BCCFE, and with all my heart, I hope so. But I'm really not that optimistic about those guys. Judging by their past efforts, they're more likely to lobby for a way of getting street kids into an enlarged "Safe" Injection Site.

Liz Takes Up The Hat

'Morning David...and good on you for asking the question about the ICBC chops shops. It'll be interesting to see if there's any, believable, response.

On the matter of hards hats, though, I'm afraid I disagree. While there's no doubt Sikhs have been working without them for decades, I don't think that's a good reason for continuing to allow that to happen. To bolster my argument...

- We used to drive without seat bellts
- We were used to people smoking us out of the restaurants
- We used to ride bikes and ski slopes without helmets
- We used to allow one person to enter a closed space
- We used not to conduct lightning-strike truck inspections
- We used to have plenty of money, beds and staff in our hospital emergency rooms
- And we used to expect people to take [financial] responsibility for their own actions...
... well you get my drift.

Fact is, times have changed. We've learned a heck of a lot over the years and, personally, I support those who believe we should require a hard hat be worn by all workers in risky industries...

Cheers,
Liz

Hard Hats & Hard Heads

Turbaned Sikhs and hard hats.

Seems like a natural headline.

Gets the blood boiling right away.

Are they going to pay the insurance and health costs when one of "them" gets bonked on the head? And so on.

The only problem is that's not the story.

The story is that these guys have been working in that mill and in the industry for years. All of a sudden, the company changes the policy and demands hard hats where they never demanded them before.

As we say in bad sit-coms, "What's up with that?"

Sikhs have been working in the forestry industry here in BC in large and significant numbers for over a hundred years.

Interfor needs to more fully explain the rationale for this change in policy.

The ICBC Iceberg

Two managers and one board member - and this includes a Vice-President - of ICBC have resigned in the wake of the news that the corp was running its own little chop shop.

Selling rebuilt wrecks as perfectly sound cars seems to be OK.

Some have resigned, but where ae the criminal charges? And where is the thorough investigation of this untouchable crown corruptation?

Have these three fallen on their swords to spare others? Who?