MY FRIDAY PROVINCE COLUMN

will appear on Monday.

Don't ask...

HERE IS REAL COMMUNITY ACTION AT ITS BEST

What follows is not a new idea, but it is a GREAT idea. We were the first to do exactly this in 1970 when The X-Kalay Foundation (residential treatment centre for addicts, alcoholics, ex-cons & others) ran restaurants in vancouver, Winnipeg and Salt Spring Island. Then, for years there was a wonderful and similar program running a restaurant at Broadway and Fir, training and employing addicts and street kids. That program was starved out of business by government funders. David: Daughter Sara has just bought a new cookbook, by Jamie Oliver. She drew my attention to the author's short page about his community project, Fifteen, which you may well have heard about. In case you have not, though, you might like to read the article which I'll type below, in the hope you might like to post it on your blog...with credit to source, which I'll include. Why that suggestion? Because it might just persuade some of our political blockheads that there really are better options than Insite...so here goes -- A little chat about Fifteen Many people still talk about Fifteen as though it was just a part of the Jamie's Kitchen television series from a few years ago. But Fifteen is going from strength to strength! So let me tell you what's been going on since the TV cameras left. We are on our fifth intake of students in London, our third intake of students in Amsterdam and, as I write this, we've just opened a restaurant in Cornwall and are about to open one in Melbourne. So pretty soon there will be four amazing restaurants offering thousands of customers a great experience, and offering hundreds of young people the chance of a lifetime. The idea behind Fifteen is pretty simple - every year we give a unique opportunity to a group of young people to become professional chefs. The kids we take on have had a bit of a hard time and could do with a break. Many of them are homeless, have been raised in difficult circumstances, have spent time in prison or gone off the rails and got into drink and drugs. But at Fifteen we believe that we can inspire them to break habits and believe in themselves to become incredibly passionate chefs. All our students attend catering college before working in the restaurant kitchen, where they learn what it takes to cook in a high-pressure environment. They're taken on regular sourcing trips, to see some of the amazing things that our suppliers are up to, and to give them a first-hand experience of where the incredible fresh ingredients used in the Fifteen kitchen come from. To me, making that connection between the food they cook, and the inspirational people that produce it, is a real part of the magic of Fifteen. But that's not all. It may sound a bit corny but I see Fifteen as a family - a place for students to feel safe and appreciated. Students get all the support they need when it comes to their housing issues, debt and other personal problems. So when they're in the kitchen, cooking for the guests or learning from the professionals, they can focus on that 100 per cent. The students do work at some of the best restaurants in the world, alongside exceptional chefs. When they graduate and go on to work in the industry, we are always there to offer them help when they need it. This is why we have recently set up Fifteen Ventures, to provide help with the financial and business side of things for graduates who want to run their own restaurants. I believe that pretty soon our students' presence in the restaurant industry will make a real difference, and there will be more professional kitchens that are run like a family, not a military boot camp. I want to finish by thanking you for buying this book. Every penny of my profit from it is going back to Fifteen and will, without a doubt, benefit the students for years and years to come. The proceeds will get more disadvantaged young people, in cities all over the world, out of their rut and into cooking. So thanks, guys, for buying this book and making that happen. If you want to find out more about what we do, are interested in being a students, would like to come to any of our restaurants, or even feel inspired to trust us with a donation, go to www.fifteenrestaurant.com So there you have it, David. It occurs to me that a project like this would be a natural for the North Vancouver Youth Centre - a project that. after it had helped about 75 kids to climb back on the right track, had its funding cut by the Campbell government. To its credit, Council of the District of North Vancouver took up the slack for one year, to allow the Centre time to find other sources of funding. I'm not sure of the current status. All of that said, you don't need me to tell you that it doesn't need to be cooking that helps these kids, nor does it even need to be kids. It could be construction, writing or medicine, and it could be not kids but adults that are helped. What it does take is a government that gives a damn, so that people like Jamie Oliver stand a chance of getting this type of project off the ground...and a government that doesn't waste our money on dopey ideas like Insite - pun intended. Regards, Elizabeth

Who's Counting, Part One?

Top Psychiatrist Didn’t Report Drug Makers’ Pay

Now, doesn't that just say it all.

Here's the first paragraph from this morning's NY Times.

One of the nation’s most influential psychiatrists earned more than $2.8 million in consulting arrangements with drug makers from 2000 to 2007, failed to report at least $1.2 million of that income to his university and violated federal research rules, according to documents provided to Congressional investigators.

Read the rest of this sordid tale here.

And then consider what tip of what iceberg this signals.

How many shrinks have prescribed how many millions of useless, harmful pills to how many unsuspecting patients because they were paid - BRIBED - how many millions of dollars to do so.

Once all the geniuses figure out how to dismantle the illegal drug trade (like, not in the known next 180 billion light years), they can go to work on these licensed immoral pushers.

Who's Counting, Part Two?

Let me see if I've got this.

The country is rife with ecological saviours, including 4,200 departments of various governments that are monitoring our climate change behaviour.

Suzuki and friends are on every street corner, in every dumpster bin, atop every oil derrick making sure we mind our P's and Q's.

There are Green Parties and Green Party candidates coming out of the old forest growth woodwork.

And yet...

AND YET...

OTTAWA -- The City of Ottawa could be fined tens of millions of dollars next week after pleading guilty to dumping close to one billion litres of raw sewage into the Ottawa River and failing to report it. At a court hearing Friday, lawyers for the city and the Ontario Environment Ministry agreed to a statement of facts on the August 2006 spill. But the two sides are continuing a discussion on the appropriate punishment and could make a sentencing submission to the court Oct. 10. The fines for the spill range from $25,000 a day to $6 million a day. For the 12-day period of the spill, the city faces a fine of between $300,000 and $72 million.

This is the capital of the country. This is the home of parliament.

What? Nobody noticed?

Nobody was keeping track?

Oy....

O.J. Guilty

That is, of this new crime.

LAS VEGAS — O. J. Simpson was found guilty late Friday on all 12 counts stemming from a confrontation in a hotel room last year, including armed robbery and kidnapping.

The verdict, which comes 13 years to the day after Mr. Simpson was acquitted in the highly publicized murders of his ex-wife and her friend, concluded a four-week trial that many have seen as a proxy for those unsatisfied by that 1995 outcome.

Mr. Simpson now faces 15 years to life for the kidnapping charge as well as a minimum of at least an additional 10 years in prison on the other charges. His attorney, Yale Galanter, said he would appeal.


Read the rest of this sorry tale here.

Take my wife, Please...

What was all this fuss about the Bailout?

All they had to do was demand a refund from my dentist for all the caps and crowns he's given me over the years.

Ketcha-boom!

Progress

Gangland shooting in Oakridge parking lot at High Noon???

Oakridge?

Oh, yes, everyone has done a fine job on the crime file.

Civics

I gave the Canadian debate about a minute. Here's what I saw.

Harper came across as the Prime Minister. Reasoned and confident.

Dion was shrew-like. What were the Liberals thinking when they chose this man? Has he ever smiled? Has he ever looked less than worried?

Jack and Liz didn't even register. Oh, yah, then there's The Other Guy.

Game, set, match.

Impaled by Paling

Stop!

I cannot take another minute of the corn-fed, corn-pone, Main Street, golley-gosh-darn, Hockey Mom bullshit.

Next she'll be starring on Broadway in an "Anne git Yer Gun" Revival.

Was her name originally Paling, with a "g?"

She has dropped so many of the other "g's" in her verbs (goin', talkin', teachin'...) that I thought it might have been a contagion starting with her very namin'.

OK.

She is smart. She is sharp. No question.

And she has stood her ground admirably this evening in the debate with Senator Biden. She was well briefed and she is a quick study. Full marks.

But Eye-raq? Eye-ran?

"The surge is workin'?"

And "your good wife has been a teacher for 33 years, her reward will be in heaven..."

Puleeeeese!

Miss Wide-Eyed Bumble-Bee scares the bejaysus out of me.

Can you imagine someone this simple in charge?

This misinformed? This doctrinaire?

McCain's choice of this woman is enough to dismiss him as a worthy candidate.

Happy Lift-Off!

It is not often enough that we hear of something truly exciting happening in local business.

But that was the case this morning when the Sun featured a major story on Viking Air's New Twin Otter aircraft.

The Victoria company already has orders for 41 units, each costing $4Million to start.

Read the item here, and then email Viking your congratulations.

It is Hard to believe this..but it is so...

Texting confirmed

Reuters

Published: Thursday, October 02, 2008

LOS ANGELES -- The train driver blamed for the worst U.S. train crash in 15 years was sending and receiving text messages seconds before his crowded commuter train skipped a red light and collided head-on with a freight train, killing 25 and injuring 135, federal investigators confirmed yesterday.

Sure, that's what we needed, Gord - Another Election

Three elections in 33 days

Two B.C. byelections between federal, local votes

Jack Keating

The Province

Thursday, October 02, 2008

Premier Gordon Campbell served up an election sandwich yesterday, announcing that two byelections will be held on Oct. 29.

The byelections in Vancouver-Burrard and Vancouver-Fairview will be sandwiched between the federal election on Oct. 14 and the Vancouver civic election Nov. 15.

That's three elections in 33 days for residents of the two ridings.

Liberal MLA Lorne Mayencourt resigned the Vancouver-Burrard seat to run for the Conservatives in the federal election. The NDP's Gregor Robertson resigned the Vancouver-Fairview seat to run as Vision Vancouver's mayoral candidate.

Businessman Arthur Griffiths is the Liberal candidate in Vancouver-Burrard. COPE park board commissioner Spencer Herbert is the NDP candidate.

The NDP candidate in Fairview is Jenn McGinn, an account manager with Vancity and former vice-president of Little Mountain Neighbourhood House. The Liberal is Margaret MacDiarmid, a family doctor for more than 20 years and former president of the B.C. Medical Association.

"Fairview residents are concerned about homelessness and the plight of the mentally ill and addicted," said MacDiarmid.

Said McGinn: "People are telling me they are tired of being ignored by a government that turned a deaf ear when local business owners lost their livelihoods thanks to botched planning on the RAV line."

Griffiths and Herbert both list homelessness as a big issue.

"People in my neighbourhood have had it with a government that gives its top advisers massive pay hikes while refusing to raise the minimum wage," said Herbert.

Vancouver-Burrard will become two new ridings -- Vancouver-West End and Vancouver-False Creek -- for the provincial election next May 12.

Griffiths said he will seek the Liberal nomination for Vancouver-West End, regardless of the byelection outcome.

© The Vancouver Province 2008

Suzuki needs a wake-up call

"I am ashamed of Carole James and the NDP for using 'axe the tax' as a political opportunity," David Suzuki said recently. "I know the people advising her know better."

Well, spread the shame, David, because many, including me, think much less of you for automatically endorsing this horsefeathers scheme.

We have long since reached the point where all anyone has to do is say something "ecological" and you will support it.

The carbon tax idea is bankrupt and the fact that you support it says way too much about your current efforts.

Drive fast - you might be caught in THE VORTEX!!!

"School officials said they weren't sure the course -- which deals with sexual orientation and gender identity -- was appropriate for high school students."

OK. Then what are these rubes sure of, exactly?

That the world is flat, and that if you drive too fast past Alderbush, you'll fall off into an eternity of hell-demons?

The course also tackles animal rights for the first time -- under the title speciesism -- as well as ableism, ageism, anthropocentrism, consumerism, cultural imperialism, extremism, feminism, fundamentalism, heterosexism, humanism, racism and sexism.

So, if high school students can't handle all these shocking modern ideas, what can they handle? and Who can handle these ideas?

Social Justice 12 is OPTIONAL, it's an elective and it's a forum for rational discussion, not a platform for preaching "lifestyles."

It's wonderful the faith these faith-based folks put in the intelligence and good judgement of their own children.

Worst Headline of the Year Contest Winner

Streetcar of Sam's desire on track

Sue is choked too

'Best Place on Earth' brings out that catch in Campbell's throat - SUN Sept
30/08

Really Vaughn?

Here's a guy who has undermined the democracy in our Province by being the
most arrogant and secretive, closed door decision making, perks to his
friends "leader" we've seen - maybe ever - and you are taken in by a wee
show of....what did you call it - sentimentality ??

Perhaps he's regretting his impaired decisions that have placed so many in
this province in harms way, with cuts to health care, long waits for
treatment, the failure to respond to crisis after social crisis .....and -
oh yeah - the preventable death of scores of once successful small
independant businesses along his toy train the Canada Line....?

Nah. He probably got choked up because he looked at all those investments
the government made in sub-prime backed paper that are now not worth
...well - the paper they are printed on. These are the pension funds of hard
working Canadians, too.
And in the case of the Canada Line, he even topped up their tank with $56
million more taxpayer funds upon request! What a guy.

Good grief. There is nothing that this Provincial government does that is
not self-serving. Tolls off the highway? It's election time boys and girls.
Just waiting for the next bauble/bribe for the weary tax paying masses.
Perhaps a seismic upgrade of this Provincial government at the polls?

Do I sound a bit choked up? I've suffered through 3 years of unimaginable
hardship - have nearly lost all I've worked hard to build up over 25 years.
Out of desperation I am taking my own government to court to find justice
for this abuse of power called Canada Line. It is no small point that as
Mayor, Campbell was prepared to take legal action against the Province in
SUPPORT of compensation for Expo/Millenium Line construction. What a
hypocrite.

I continue to fight as hard as I can for my desperate neighbours - and if I
were speaking to you right now there would most certainly be a CATCH in my
voice.

Standing tall - and loud on Cambie Street,

Susan Heyes
Hazel&Co
Cambie Street
604 687-0721

Dr. STrangelove Lives (& works in the 'hood)

The St. Paul's Hospital Foundation has published an impressive, glossy multi-page insert in today's Vancouver Sun newspaper.

There is one small problem.

An article titled "Developing New Tools to treat Addiction" extols the work - most of it future boasts and promises - of Dr. Michael Krausz.

The good Dr. doesn't come cheap. Millions have been invested in departments and "chairs" for his glorification.

But listen carefully to who he is and what he proposes.

This is the man behind Mayor Sam Sullivan's CAST project.

Let's give addicts pills.

The man is a "world-renowned expert on drug addiction and mental illness" and he claims everything he will do is "science based." He is a German-born psychiatrist.

He will give addicts pills.

He is going to fix the DTES.

He will give addicts pills.

This is his science. This is his expertise. These are his new tools.

The greatest single positive response to addiction is treatment based entirely on abstinence. Millions have succeeded.

And millions have failed.

A reasonable estimate of the success rate for treatment is 25%.

If you bat .250, you're in Cooperstown.

The success rate for methadone, pills, free needles, safe injection sites, free crack kits?

There are no numbers available.

And you know why.

But the good Dr. Stangelove will continue to be hailed as the next messiah.

Have I mentioned that the world is quite mad?

No Contest

Who is going to watch the English language snooze fest of Harper et al tomorrow night when we are presented with Palin being demolished by Joe Biden?

Bring it on!

When Do You Become a Man?

Of course, it's gay bashing.

Of course, it's a hate crime.

Duh?

And who is this genius?

This is what he has to do on a Saturday night?

Leave his rat hole in Surrey or whatever rock from under which he has slithered to beat up people who are walking down the street?

The new Poster Boy for Stupidity, Ugliness and lack of Substance.

Somebody please help this unrepentant punk become a citizen.

The Courts are Worse Every Day

-- "I am not satisfied that the plaintiffs have proven the defendants were in breach of the standard of care required of them."

With these words, BC Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Barrow has once again thrown a spear deep into the heart of our confidence in the law.

Two men enter a hospital for hernia operations. They are served by the same team in the same room.

Both emerge with flesh-eating disease that near kills them.

Yet, this paragon of common sense and concern for the common weal says they have no right to sue.

Then, pray tell, what rights do they have? What recourse?