THE WRONG PRIORITIES

Major congratulations to the Vancouver Police Department for their report on how we are failing the mentally ill, and to the Sun for covering this story thoroughly today.

The document is called "Lost in Transition: How a Lack of Capacity in the Mental health System is Failing Vancouver's mentally Ill and Draining Police Resources."

This is a shocking and much-needed document. It is a wake-up call that will fall, unfortunately, on deaf ears.

The Page 11 piece by Lori Culbert says it all: "Police becoming de facto mental health workers of our society. Closing of mental health institutions, funding cutbacks for social housing, inadequate
welfare rates and abundance of drugs causing crisis in Dowtown east side."

But police and others have been telling us this for a decade now. Who in Victoria or Ottawa or at the Bug House at 12th and Cambie is listening?

And nothing better illustrates this monstrosity than the nightmare of the O'Brien family as told by Cuthbert and Pete McMartin.

There are key moments in this horrifying tale of a beautiful young man descending into schizophrenia and ending in suicide.

Corey O'Brien was admitted into a psychitric unit in December 2003 and released one month later because some of his symptons had decreased. This is outrageous. These incompetents are murderers.

In February 2005, the boy's mother was alarmed at his state, "but mental health professionals thoguht he was fine. " PROFESSIONALS???

This sovereign state - British Columbia - has other priorities. Olympics, convention centres, domed stadiums, RAV lines.

This premier - Gordon Campbell - has never shown an ounce of interest in the elderly, children or mentally ill and addicted.

He even has highly refined and duplicitous tastes when it comes to free enterprise. No doubt somehwhere in his socks or his desk drawer there is a secret number that reveals at what point he thinks a business venture is of any interest to him and to the province. Clearly the mom and pop folks who have been rendered bankrupt by the cut-and-cover of the Cambie Line don't qualify.

Read the Sun stories today about the mentally ill and our public policy of wilful disregard and tell me what kind of man is in charge?

I'd like to see the official list of THE DISPOSABLES: Mentally ill, small business owners near subway lines, addicts, old couples, children at risk...

We No Have-Um Fire

First we had The Nutty Mayor asking fire trucks to tip-toe softly through the night lest they disturb his nappie-poo.

Now, we've got the Almost-As-Nutty Mayor of We$t Vancouver, Pamela Hyphen-Drivel, wanting to cut fire crews down from the WorkSafeBC-mandated 4 persons to 3 to $ave a buck...in the richest postal code in the nation.

PHD is so clever she's send a QUESTIONAIRRE around to her taxpayers asking if they'd be willing to pay an extra $15 to cover another 3 firefighters.

News flash Pam - Your job is to govern and make decisions, not fund polls.

Let's see if I understand this. Homes in We$t Van start at a million five and top out around $45 million.

But, you have to ask the triple mortgagees if they'd put down their gin long enough to consider horking out 15 bucks to cover a fire???

Too many chai lattes, baby.

There is Evil and it is Real

Evil exists.

Believe me, I've seen it. I've been near it. You can smell it from fifty paces.

OK, moral relativists and America-bashers, tell me again that US policy brought 911 on itself.

Tell me as we witness one of today's headlines:

"Terrorists use mentally imparied women to carry deadly bombs.

64 people killed.

Vision Party Press Release on Plastic Sam

MAYOR, NPA NIX PLASTIC BAG BAN IN VANCOUVERMore empty rhetoric from governing party, says Councillor

(VANCOUVER) A Vision Vancouver motion to phase out plastic bags in Vancouver was opposed by the NPA in council today, despite past promises from Mayor Sullivan to make Vancouver a leader in environmental sustainability.

"Mayor Sullivan and the NPA refuse to take action when it comes to sustainability," said Vision Vancouver Councillor Tim Stevenson. "After more than two years in power, all they can do is spout empty rhetoric while trying to green-wash their programs."

"It's not working, it's not believable, and the people of Vancouver are smart enough to see through the NPA's green spin."

Vision Vancouver introduced a motion in November to have staff identify ways to phase out plastic bags in Vancouver. At today's council debate, which was to merely ask city staff to identify options for phasing out plastic bags, the NPA refused to support Vision's motion.
In the past, Mayor Sullivan and the NPA have gone to great lengths to speak about their dedication to environmental causes. In his 2007 State of the City address, Mayor Sullivan declared that one of his five goals was to make Vancouver a "world leader" in environmental practices and sustainable transportation. (January 16, 2007)

"You would think that with all the talk the NPA have spewed out about caring for the environment, that this would be a no-brainer," said Stevenson. "But even for something as simple as working to eliminate wasteful plastic bags, the NPA still find a way to say no.""What we saw today was the same old story with the NPA: Vision brings forward new ideas to council, and Sam Sullivan and the NPA say no."

Bettye LaVette: Close As I'll Get To Heaven

Anton is Kimmie's Mother - The SHOP MORE Solution

David!

Madame CapriPants is one thing but, by this one, you have to wonder if some of these people are in need of some serious counselling. Can you believe Anton would say such a thing? How in heck do they get themselves elected?

Elizabeth

Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:42:44 -0800From: Obsessions Subject: Coun. Anton says" shop your financial woes away"To: cmontgomery@png.canwest.comCC: mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca, clranton@vancouver.ca
I felt sick to my stomach when I read Suzanne Anton's suggestions in the Province Wednesday, January 30, 2008 that "people should have simply shopped more" to save the plight of the merchants affected by the Canada Line construction. It must be 'just heavenly' living in those fluffy clouds, as this Councillor surely does!

You clearly have NO IDEA what struggles we have had to contend with - and continue to contend with long after closing our defenceless businesses due to Canada Line construction. Get your head out of your ass and give us 'self-employed risk-takers' and 'employers of Vancouver workers a break'! THINK about your idealistic and hurtful comments before you make them and save yourself your embarrassment and shame.

From a business owner who was 'forced' to close his Davie Street business because of the Canada Line construction: All of the merchants who have suffered under this project have been betrayed by this Government, and the unbelievable lack of social responsibility this project has shown is a disgrace to the City, Government and all Provincial leaders who have done nothing to help. Compensation now!

Alex Barker
Co-owner & Director
OBSESSIONS

FRIDAY'S PROVINCE COLUM

will be published in the paper on Sunday...go explain...

Massaging and Messaging Science- The New Canadian Sport

Note to your right our in-house Blog Credo: All Official Stories are Lies.

Note this morning's mildly terrifying fronte pager in the Sun : "Muzzle Placed on Federal Scientists."

Environment Canada - no doubt as efficient and helpful as Canada POst, Canada Revenue, Canada Geese and the CBC - has told all and sundry that they must never talk to the press. First call us, then we'll get the reporters to submit their questions in writing, then we'll collect your thoughts, then we'll put them through the washing machine, then we might say something in public.

WHAT MOTHER-HARMING GULAG ARE WE IN???

A local climatologist says, "The concept of free speech is non-existent at Environment Canada. They are manufacturing the message of science."

Think about this.

What does an Ottawa PR flack know about science of any kind in any detail?

What does a politician?

This is truly sick.

The Prime Minister need cut this off at the pass as soon as possible.

He won't, but he ought to.

Alex Tsakumis on Sam in Today's 24 Hours

SULLIVAN’S TOMATO CAN CAMPAIGN

By Alex G. Tsakumis ‘Rebel With A Clause’

The year continues to promise more of the re-telling of Mayor Sam Sullivan’s wretched tenure as Mayor. Revisionist history will be about the only path for his return and nonsense will abound as it did with last week’s State of the City fiction. So, step right up, the Sullivan re-election caravan, resplendent with crates of maximum strength snake oil, rolls through the City, in the brazen hope that you will be drawn into the mystic for a bottle, or thirty. After His Worship’s gypsy-warriors dispatched venomous story tellers to the shadows, maligning a Carole Taylor run that ended her great think, they are now driving said caravan at a fevered gallop, screaming limitless purpose in a city that has been marred by his non-existent leadership. All’s well, they’ll claim, in the remaking of the now long evaporated Slammin’ Sammy. Of course, you might believe them, too, were it not for the shamelessly transparent makeover plan oozing out from under their very own door. Out of this January’s media chute, we were met with the item that His Worship does, apparently, have a heart and is now engaged to his long-time sweetie, florist Lynn Zanatta. It raised the interest of the local chattering classes, considering it being an election year, and, most remarkably, that it was prominently plastered across the front page of the once venerable Vancouver Sun. Sir Spam’s betrothment was trumpeted before all local scribes, expertly, by the Mayor’s press secretary ‘Super Dave’ Hurlforth, whose typically exhausted, but perpetually rancorous PR machine was, as per usual, blowing, er, I meant, billowing smoke. Funny that, not a sniff about any new policies yet, the previous set, of course, sitting firmly in the dust-bin, having miserably failed. If His Worship’s poll numbers continue to circumnavigate the nearest toilet rim, look for a wedding by Election Day—with all the privacy of a Pamela Anderson swimsuit. Thus, it will be, until this fall’s municipal election, one grand silly season, on extended play, where Sam Sullivan will seek to have the grime scrubbed off his self-soiled soapbox, thereby providing his handlers one last attempt to coax you away from your disgust at the nothingness the Mayor and his tutors have delivered. The neuron flagellation, I’m told, will reach new heights with a “movie”, that will extol the “greatness” of His Touchiness since becoming Chief Operating Jester just over two years ago. Presumably, this will be the longest political commercial known to man, where we will have re-explained: secret, unaccountable campaign funds; personal copyrights of “city” initiatives, fringe drug treatment fantasies; and, densification carousels. There too, the paradoxical PR hammer of a kinder, gentler Sam will emerge, courtesy of his endless minions, whose incompetence has all but guaranteed, at least, a majority council for Vision Vancouver (without the mindlessly garrulous COPE obliviots). Among the leading choices for a movie title, you ask? “Hero”. And, no, I kid you not. One former Sullivan insider, since banished for the crime of level-headedness, begged me to stop repeating the possible title for fear of a coronary spurred on by riotous, eventually breathless, laughter. Never to be forgotten, Mr. Sullivan’s local Conservative cabal, having manipulated the NPA Board, and the mostly fools there seated, into an embarrassing hybrid of incumbency protection that will ensure the return of stellar talents like Clrs. Kimbo Capripants and Elizabethan Ball, is hard at work, also. The tainted Tory troop is in the midst of, please remain seated, pressuring the powers that be in Ottawa, to have a Sullivan postage stamp issued—just in time for the election. Would you lick that? Didn’t think so. A. G. Tsakumis is our bi-monthly editorial writer.

Sam Needs His Sushy-Bye-Byes

Think about this story next time you're walking away from your favourite Yaletown eatery or night spot. Worse yet, think about any of your kids crossing some intersection or street after a few bevvies.....no sirens so the Mayor can get some sleep. Splat. The man has no shame.

Vancouver firefighters refuse to mute their sirens late at night

The Vancouver Province Fri 01 Feb 2008 Page: A14 Section: News Byline: Cheryl Chan Source: The Province

Mayor Sam Sullivan is in for a few more noisy nights.

Fed up with being awakened by sirens in his Yaletown apartment, he said he asked Premier Gordon Campbell last year to amend the Motor Vehicle Act to give emergency vehicles the discretion to turn off their sirens at night. The amendment was passed, but the Vancouver Fire Department said yesterday the sirens will stay on.

Fire department spokesman Capt. Rob Jones-Cook said the legislation won't affect how firefighters respond to emergency calls. "We are going to continue the way we have," he said. "We need traffic to know we're there. As soon as we come out of the firehall, we're going to come on with lights and sirens." He said it takes fire trucks three to five minutes to get to the scene. "We need the fire sirens to do that," he said. "The longer it takes us to get to the scene, the bigger the fire is going to get." Said Rod MacDonald, president of the Vancouver Fire Fighters Union: "If we get it wrong and we get into an accident or strike a pedestrian, I know who's going to be blamed for it and it won't be the mayor." The amendment gives emergency vehicles such as police cars, ambulances and fire trucks discretion to turn off their sirens late at night in high-density areas and if they are within the speed limit. It came into effect last spring.

Sullivan told CKNW the no-sirens rule is suitable for downtown. "Four o'clock in the morning in the middle of downtown and nobody is on the street and it's green lights all the way . . . there's no need to have a siren on," he said.

Or he could move...or he could shut-up...or he could wear earplugs...or...

I Sustainable, You Sustainable, All God's Chillun Stainable

I received an email this morning from SCORE.

You don't know SCORE?

Good. Neither do I.

SCORE = Safer Crack Use, Outreach, Research and Education.

Were they smokin' when they came up with this cute moniker?

Well...the email was to invite me to a forum.

Here's what will be discussed at the forum: "ideas for sustainability of the safer crack kits."

Sustainability of ???

Next, we'll be getting invitations from hooker groups to discuss the sustainability of sexual organs that have been sold for dimes.

Some days you can just barely believe the world in which you live.

I say come to my conference. It's run by SLOB - Sustainability Lobby of Bank Robbers.

Bettye Lavette - Little Sparrow-Live

Just WOW!!!

Scrooge is Alive & Well. Hs new Name is Terasen

Terasen Gas is running a newspaper ad headlined, "Creating a Safety Zone for Kids."

Apparently the gas company's deep concern for humanity doesn't extend to the elderly.

A 76-year old woman in Victoria has owed Terasen $114.24. OY GEVALT!

They cut off her service and she has been freezing.

Read the disgusting story here.

Justice Craig's Latest on Policing

SHOULD B.C. POLICE ITSELF?

North Shore could set a regional policing example

January 30, 2008

MY Jan 9 column, “Time to decide on policing,” triggered an unexpected invitation to attend a day-long forum on creation of a regional police service for Metro Vancouver.

Organized by Professor Robert Gordon, Director of the school of criminology at Simon Fraser University, this public discussion set for Feb. 6 at the Wosk Centre in Vancouver on regional policing has attracted a blue-ribbon mix of speakers and panellists including West Van’s Chief Const. Kash Heed and the RCMP’s Gary Bass, Deputy Commissioner, “E” Division.

I will be very interested in what Heed and Bass have to say about the future of policing

Solicitor General John Les is to open the forum; Attorney General Wallace Oppal will speak at closing.

Gordon says the forum will be of particular interest to police managers, serving police officers, mayors, municipal councillors, administrators, provincial and federal politicians, and other key policy makers involved in policing issues.

I hope attendees will be given ample opportunity to query panellists and speakers when any need for clarification arises. One question that comes to mind: Why are British Columbia’s eleven independent police departments governed by police boards controlled by a majority of persons appointed by our solicitor general? It is an unacceptable and undemocratic process. It was rejected in 1994 by then inquiry-commissioner Wallace Oppal who recommended that municipal councillors be given control of the appointment process and that it be a public and open process.

Oppal also recommended that mayors be limited to an ex officio presence at police board meetings.

In municipalities served by RCMP detachments an even greater anachronism exists: as national police officers they are outside the scope of the Police Act of B.C. That rules out governance by police board. And most difficult for me to accept: the attorney general, the chief law officer of the Crown in the right of our province has no actual control over RCMP detachments.

For almost 60 years we have meekly relied on Ottawa for policing in most of our municipalities. We absurdly cling to the belief that a no-control contract with the RCMP is a money-saver and at the same time complain about rising property crime and violence. I expect there may be willingness among attendees at the Feb 6 forum on regional policing to speak forthrightly about the fact that our province seems incapable of policing itself.

However, any real discussion on police board governance will likely be swept aside by the main debate over the efficacy of Greater Vancouver regional policing in place of a moribund status quo that can do no more that primp itself up with integrated task forces of RCMP members and municipal police officers.

Attorney General Oppal may have pangs of embarrassment as he rises to speak at the end of this gathering of movers and shakers. Think about it: Fourteen years ago commissioner Oppal penned a remarkable 20-page letter of transmittal and delivered it, with his report Closing the Gap, to then attorney general Colin Gabellmann.

Oppal’s recommendations dealt mainly with governance, public complaints, discipline and community-based policing. He recognized that the last major structural change in policing was in 1950 when the province contracted with the RCMP to replace the BC Provincial Police.
In his letter of transmittal Oppal said: “The subject of governance may be the most important issue examined by this Inquiry. …

“The role of a (police) board is very important in the governance of police. The board is the employer of the police and collectively represents the community at large. Perhaps the most critical function it performs relates to the hiring of a police chief. Yet board members receive very little guidance and assistance in the performance of this task.

“Police boards must be aware of their community’s needs and priorities in the areas of public safety and policing. They should and must hold the police chief accountable for policing in their communities. They must critically assess the performance of both the chief constable and the department. This is seldom done.”

At the end of the transmittal letter a quite forceful Oppal said “The RCMP must make fundamental changes and be more responsive … more accountable …” He went on to make it very clear that “… in the event that the RCMP is not prepared to undergo the necessary change that is suggested in this report, it will be imperative for the province to consider establishing its own provincial police force. …

Oppal then laid some hickory on local politicians: “… it is disconcerting that our cities and municipalities policed by the RCMP have no power to select their chief constables. It is even more disconcerting that there is little apparent concern in those communities. There appears to be no concern amongst municipal politicians that there are no police committees under the Police Act in RCMP areas.”

Since 1994, succeeding B.C. governments have done nothing to reform policing. Closing the Gap should be re-issued in 2008 with a new title, Failure to Close the Gap, and heads should roll.
Let’s keep it very simple, the magnitude of gang crime in Greater Vancouver with its senseless and seemingly never-ending internecine murders is reason enough to create a regional police service in Greater Vancouver.

Regional policing requires an active and purposeful police board. Membership on the board should be by election. Regional policing with citizen governance would bring police and public closer together on all aspects of management with one exception: absolute independence of a chief constable in commanding and giving orders to his force.

But the first step ought to be taken on the North Shore. Let 2008 be a year in which our three municipalities decide to implement regional municipal policing with a tripartite elected police board. With strength of purpose it can be done and will be an exemplar for others to follow.

Your choice is limited: lead, follow or watch television.

CONFESSION

I've read the Sun, the Province, the NY Times and the Globe this morning...and I've found not a single story that has grabbed my attention.

So...fooey...

Enjoy the great pipes of Bryn Terfel and the wonderful Lerner & Lowe music...

How to Handle a Woman

Sophie Milman - Back Home To Me

Here's a marvelous new singer...

Victor at the Movies

Sir Tom Courtenay, a splendid actor, was complaining about the tendency of some young actors to mumble. Says Sir Tom " Some handsome young actors assume that it's enough 'that I come on and be lovely'.

It says so much about the self importance of so many actors. Time was when we just went to a movie, came out and said, " Boy, can that Cary Grant ever act."

Now, you're more likely to hear movie goers say, " God, George Clooney just made the biggest statement in western thought since Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason'.

Actually no. It's only a movie. George, Brad, Tom, Angelina are just actors. They read stuff other people write for them. It takes a day to get them to recite 2 minutes of memorized script. They are not intellectuals and they do not have any formula for world peace and saving the planet.

And many of them can't act.

Fashion With a Bite

IN their relentless pursuit of the right to bear arms and arm bears, the Americans are now selling tasers to your average dough head consumer.

This will make arguing with the stupid lady with 12 weeks of groceries in the Express Lane at Safeway particularly daunting now.

GLOBAL WARMING?

Welcome to Nanjing.

Have a nice stay.