Now… Let Us All Savage Mike Duffy By Robin Mathews Dec. 22, 2015

A long, long road of sleaze, near criminal, and criminal attacks on Canadian democracy … and much more of ugly behaviour … marked the Stephen Harper Conservative years from 2006 to 2015. Almost numberless were the violations of the trust that Canadians place in their national government.

A part of the aftermath of that orgy of sleaze is the attempt by what I call the neo-fascist Big Media, now, to paper over – even to praise – the behaviour of those years. The (literal) “papering over” of the Harper years is in full swing by those major newspapers that supported him in the 2015 election even despite Conservative last-campaign-days devoted to strident racism and fear-mongering. During the long years up to that time, sleaze was everywhere a person looked ….

Even in the last days of Conservative power, dirty tricks were the name of the game.

Elizabeth Thompson and then Michael Harris (ipolitics) remind us that before the 2015 Election was even called, the PMO and Stephen Harper re-appointed top civil servant favourites when they weren’t anywhere near normal re-appointment date. To move them out will cost taxpayers millions of dollars if those faux-appointees don’t agree to slip away quietly. Every fake re-appointment bears Stephen Harper’s mark. As does the $90,000.00 Nigel Wright handed to Mike Duffy as a personal cheque.

Duffy testified in trial that Harper told him he had to pay back money even though he didn’t really owe it!

All of that is to say again that the Mike Duffy trial looks like a sham from start to finish. For instance -

Why was Duffy alone charged? With a ridiculous 31 charges? And an apparently fake bribery charge for headline purposes? Where are the other “bad” senators?

How is it - THE QUESTION again – that Nigel Wright could hand Mike Duffy a bribery cheque of $90,000.00 which facilitated Duffy being charged with receiving that cheque as a bribe – but Wright is not charged with paying a bribe for writing it and handing it to Duffy?

How is it that on October 20, 2015, finding that Stephen Harper was merely an MP, Defence lawyer Donald Bayne didn’t immediately apply to have citizen Harper testify at the Mike Duffy trial?

And how did the bribery charge continue when prosecution lawyer Joseph Neuberger told the CBC ”a conviction on the bribery charge may be unlikely”. (Advocate Daily.com) And how could Defence lawyer Donald Bayne let Nigel Wright slip away without pushing him very hard on the cheque he paid Mike Duffy as a bribe – pushing until it was all over the front pages of Canadian newspapers and forced into editorials questioning the credibility of the trial?

Something stinks.

If the bribery charge against Mike Duffy was rigged by RCMP and Prosecution at the instancing of the Harper/PMO gaggle, then all in the know at the trial would want to soft-peddle the issue … hoping it would somehow go away almost unseen.

Who has accepted all the absurdity of what seems to be a staged trial? The RCMP investigators. RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson. The judge and the Crown Prosecutor on the case. The Defence lawyer Donald Bayne. Mike Duffy himself… as well as all, all, all the conventional press and media. Something stinks.

The “something” that stinks might just be said to concentrate itself in the Christie Blatchford writing on the Duffy case. Apparently looking for an active ‘cleaning agent’ in the careful attempts to erase the record of Conservative crime from 2006 to 2015, Ms. Blatchford and her employers appear to have found what she needs. She hasn’t merely filled columns of print, but pages of it (obviously called for by Postmedia power brokers who then spread her “dispatches” across Canada).

What better way to take attention away from the Conservative Party led by Stephen Harper which actively crippled and exploited the Canadian Senate for dirty use than by concentrating on Mike Duffy (probably among the lowest ten per cent of Conservative bad actors)? MAKE HIM the big story of Conservative wrong-doing from 2006 to 2015.

What does this apparent across-the-board chicanery mean – with all the apparent across-the-board savaging of Mike Duffy? It constitutes such a stupendously large set of apparent acts of cooperation to shield the Conservative wrecking action in the Senate, in the PMO, in the House of Commons, in the Conservative Party of Canada that one can scarcely believe what is there in front of us all….

Readers who say “none of what has been written in this column so far is anything but sheer nonsense” might seem very clear-headed. Except … except there is just too much evidence of trial chicanery to say outright that it isn’t there.

Can we predict the outcome of the Mike Duffy trial? Mr. Justice Charles Vaillancourt might send Mike Duffy to jail for several years for – as a public servant (a senator) accepting a bribe in order to (a) do a favour to Stephen Harper and his cabinet, and (b) to seek to wipe out or disguise his own petty wrong-doing. Then Mr. Justice Vaillancourt could pile on censure (and perhaps more jail time) for all the other violations of trust that Mike Duffy (along with many, many other senators) is alleged to have engaged in over expense account infractions … and other misdeeds.

The betting – from the information in this column – all goes the other way.

Mr. Justice Vaillancourt will decide that the acceptance of a bribe cannot be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt. (Mike Duffy will sigh in relief, and Nigel Wright will be able to come out of hiding overseas and return to Canada.)

The judge will decide that trust practice and lax expense spending rules make it impossible to attach judicial blame to what Mike Duffy did in expenditure. (Duffy will sigh with relief, as will the Honourable Pamela Wallin and many, many other senators.)

The judge will decide that since Stephen Harper appointed Mike Duffy as senator for Prince Edward Island, Duffy’s claims for residence expenses in Ottawa are not clear enough as violations for a judge to rule upon….

Mr. Justice Charles Vaillancourt may find a wrong-doing or two (unique to Duffy) – such as perhaps the Ottawa living expenses - that he can censure and punish with a suspended sentence, house-arrest, and time spent doing constructive community work (the judge showing grand human generosity - in the light of Mr. Duffy’s ill-health).

And so millions and millions of taxpayers’ dollars have been spent in Harper and PMO-directed Senate chicanery, in (what became faux) RCMP investigation and reporting, in Prosecution Office time and expertise shaping a dubious case, in Nigel Wright’s improper activity, and in all the other many, many activities related to other Conservative wrong-doings carefully hidden from Canadians. And now we can look forward to the outcome - the trial outcome (costing a huge amount) doing nothing but covering-up the truth, with Mike Duffy fronting for the innumerable crimes that will never be faced.

That is why the almost unanimous cry has gone up – Far Right Media inspired and Conservative Party approved. It’s a huge smokescreen that’s working wonderfully well:

“Now’s the time… Now, Now. NOW… Let us all savage Mike Duffy!”


Contact: Robin Mathews

Ken Dobell deciples; George Gretes; Laura Miller; Triple Delete 'media fishing trips'

Irony eh, Ken Dobell, the Father of Triple Deleting in British Columbia, a former Deputy Minister to Premier Gordon Campbell, the man who vetted all of the document from the Executive Council, the Cabinet, for the BC Rail trial judges to view, ..... is he still triple deleting his current employers' and clients correspondence?

As columnist Bill Tielman wrote back in 2008:

...... let's not forget that Dobell has a history of thumbing his nose at government regulations intended to protect and inform the public.

Dobell told a 2003 freedom of information conference that he rarely takes meeting notes and deletes most e-mails to avoid their disclosure through FOIs, as required by law.  Snip 

Bill's link to 'Dobell 2003' is no longer valid at The Dogwood Initiative, it is at the WayBackMachine.  Original author is journalist Judith Lavoie of the Victoria Times Colonist from September 26, 2003:

Freedom of information law kills civil service note-taking

Civil servants avoid writing things down because they fear they will become the subject of a freedom of information request, Ken Dobell, deputy minister to Premier Gordon Campbell, acknowledged Thursday.

Dobell, a former Vancouver city manager, was a panel member at a conference in Victoria marking the 10th anniversary of B.C.'s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Dobell said he now rarely writes working notes of meetings and rapidly deletes most of his e-mails.

However, he said, the intent is not to hide necessary information from the media and public, but to avoid having internal e-mails caught up in media fishing expeditions. 

Must be mighty difficult to separate media fishing trips from the public's right to know.

Panel member Norman Spector, a media commentator and columnist who served as deputy minister to former premier Bill Bennett and chief of staff to former prime minister Brian Mulroney, criticized media fishing expeditions and suggested that reporters should be severely restricted in their FOI requests.

Newspapers should nominate several journalists who they believe should have the right to FOI information and, if the information is not used for developing better public policy, the journalist should be deregistered, Spector said.

Snipped

Bloggers, media (Bob Mackin,    Laila Yuile,   Norman Farrell ) ARE severely restricted and as to Spector's theory on Newspapers should nominate several chosen journalists to have access to the information? ... the agents for the government are already in place, have been for eleven years eg. Keith Baldrey et al and they just sit on their hands with the information.

A rebuttal from the floor of the conference:

Still, the idea of limiting access caused some disquiet.

"I do have trouble when I hear people talking about registering journalists -- the first thing that comes to mind is Zimbabwe," said one audience member.

Is there a training school for future Order in Council appointees, deleter delinquents like George Gretes and/or the BC Liberal Party's Laura Miller?   A local chapter of the Local Government Management Association of British Columbia?

You betcha, Dobell, the FOI panel member, set up a scholarship in his name in 2010 through to 2013:

The Ken Dobell Public Service Education Fund Scholarship has been established to encourage students with an interest in federal, provincial, local government or First Nations administration and policy studies to pursue post-secondary opportunities. The Fund recognizes the career and public service contributions of Ken Dobell, former Vancouver City Manager, British Columbia Deputy Minister to the Premier, Secretary to Cabinet and Head of BC Public Service.  Snip 

Previous LGMA Scholarship Winners   2010 to 2013. The winners might want to prepare some answers to possible questions on the topic of not triple deleting emails.

Left out of the LGMA program bio is the reason that Bill Tielman brought it to the public's attention in 2008:

"Who said he's under a cloud?"

- Attorney General Wally Oppal after Ken Dobell charged

Only in British Columbia would a guilty man continue to advise a guilty government, with neither showing an ounce of shame.

Ken Dobell was Premier Gordon Campbell's senior deputy minister for years. Last week, Dobell pleaded guilty to breaking the Lobbyists Registration Act and repaid the $7,000 he received for lobbying while in violation.

That Act was introduced, debated and passed while Dobell himself held the most powerful government staff position.  Snip

A slightly different form of practicing 'triple delete' are the Main Stream Media press who have total access to all of what generates their breaking news headline material, the reports, paid for by the Public and NEVER produce links to the sources.  They quote from the reports with streams of 'facts', sift through the documents and then never, never give the link.

Crossword Puzzle Creator BC Speaker Linda Reid's 2015

UPDATE: December 19, 2015 Linda Reid's  Crib sheet

Across
1. Type of wood in the Reading Room. _________________________

3. Found on a ship and in the Library dome. ____________________

4. A library service named after a fruit.  _____________________

6. Contains titles, authors and subjects.  _____________________

8. Has 140 characters.   ____________________

10. Italian marble on the Rotunda columns.  _____________________

11. Creature who lives in the dome.  ____________________

12. Printed media located in the Reading Room.  __________________

13. First female speaker.  ____________________

Down
1. First BC premier.  ____________________


2. Contains as many pages as a printed book.   ____________________


5. These are set up independent from government and can be either special or royal.   ______________

7. A structured set of data.  ____________________

9. Where the first Legislative Library was housed  _______________

Where Power Really Lies In Climate Change By Robin Mathews Dec. 12th 2015

As we watch , huge criminal corporations, governments, and their lemming environmentalists race to the cliff edge in Paris, refusing to grapple with the reason they are racing….  They refuse – in any meaningful way – to challenge The One Per Cent head on, which is where effective solutions to climate change begin.

While a flood of information pours out of Paris about poor nations and rich nations and island nations drowning … and the undeniable fact of Global Warming, The One Per Cent grows richer and takes more of planetary wealth as a function of misusing populations, wasting raw materials, selfishly exploiting technology, destroying the biosphere and buying governments like picking up so many stock options.

The One Per Cent make up the people behind “Free Trade Treaties” that, in fact, remove national sovereignty, erase conditions for middle nation independence and climate viability, and lash huge populations – like galley slaves – to the profit machines of imperial nations owned by The One Per Cent and working (‘as if ‘democratic and/or “fair” societies) to funnel more and more of the world’s wealth into the pockets of a very few.

Behind all the (sometimes really intense and well-meant) negotiations and trade-offs in Paris operates the mafiosa hand of The One Per Cent.  And until it is addressed as what it is with a demand that (to use the language of Pope Francis) “the downtrodden  change the world economic order” the game of make-believe will go on.

One of the few truth-tellers, Pope Francis has spoken of “savage capitalism” and called money and modern capitalism “dung of the devil”.  He doesn’t pretend the present world order is, somehow, unrelated to the descent of huge populations into poverty and the globe moving ever-closer to climate Break Down.

In all the flood of information from Paris, The One Per Cent is never named as the Central Issue to be dealt with – for that would mean, as the Pope suggests, a reconstruction of power relations in the world.  And so, sad as it is to say, the nice, caring people in Paris (from Canada, too) are living in a land of make-believe. They refuse to ‘grasp the nettle’, to name the Elephant in the Room, to set out positions that demand the redistribution of wealth (and power).

They refuse to speak of a global reorganization of work and of production for use rather than for profit in a process that completely removes the employment of destructive climate pollutants.  By ignoring the broad papal hints, the Paris negotiators bring two inevitable things closer: (1) crisis in climate conditions and (2) the absolute certainty of major, wide-spread wars of “revolutionary” and “repressive” kinds: of social chaos amidst a crumbling and humanly destructive ecosystem.

 

The corrective doesn’t need (or want) name.  Because the general road is clear.  The Ninety-Nine Per Cent can quite easily eliminate The One Per Cent in its character as a grossly wealthy force putting human existence at risk.  Liberated from The One Per Cent burden, many of its members might become useful agents in constructing a new society.  The language has to be about human survival and the absolutely necessary reconstructions of human work, human creativity, human administrative talent, the meaning of wealth, and the human power necessary to effect what is, in fact, revolutionary change in the modes of administering publicly responsible power in the world.

What They Don’t Talk About In Paris

How much, just for instance, has the horrendous, unnecessary, lunatic-driven war in the Middle East – since 1980, contributed to climate change?      Thousands of polluting aircraft, millions of polluting weapons and explosives, numberless polluting fires raging without letup, millions of polluting corpses lying in the desert sun.  The U.S.- backed Iraq invasion of Iran is said – alone – to have cost a million lives.  And then there was the U.S.-instigated demolition of Iraq… and then Libya … and now Syria…. (“Bomb them some more”, says the morally challenged British prime minister, David Cameron, while his representatives in Paris negotiate to prevent climate change.)

Do the Paris environmental experts have a way of computing the number of human murders and increases of warfare created climate pollution in direct relation to the increase in Capitalist wealth? In direct relation to the growing wealth of The One Per Cent? 

Plainly, The One Per Cent –  made up of acceptable environmentalists,  co-operating governments, and Capitalists masquerading as concerned ‘leaders’ – are going to have to be confronted as never before on Climate Change. They are going to have to be moved over by the people… as a start, if anything meaningful is going to get done. They are going to have to be moved over to make room for brilliantly staged reconstructions of power and wealth by peaceful means.  If that doesn’t happen … welcome CHAOS.

There is a lesson here, ‘Writ Large’, as they say. And it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see it.  Canadians must really challenge the present inaction (called “action” and “new targets” and “hopeful goals” and “real assessments”).  Canadians must move “acceptable” environmental “experts” right out of the picture.  Canadians must insist governments act upon solutions that directly address, directly seize, redirect, and put to constructive environmental use the wealth of The One Per Cent – wealth that has, heretofore, been gained cruelly and often brutally through demonic instruments of human and ecological destruction operated on massive scales. That is wealth which, now, must have a completely different character and function.

If Canadians don’t face that reality, if they don’t face The One Per Cent, and act, directly, for change, then it’s all over. Then it’s Cultural Suicide without a good aspect to be found anywhere in the process. 

Contact: Robin Mathews 

BC Premiers Bill Bennett and Bill Vander Zalm have similarities but.....siblings? Posted September 23, 2012

Bill Bennett  August 18, 1932 - December 3, 2015
  In office as Premier on  December 22, 1975 – August 6, 1986

Bill Vander Zalm was born on  May 29, 1934 - 
          In office as Premier on August 6, 1986 – April 2, 1991

Their similarities would end there, except for the merest of coincidences because they were both members of the same political Party.

• Bill Bennett is older than Bill Vander Zalm by almost two years
• Bill Bennett joined the BC Social Credit Party before Bill Vander Zalm
• Bill Bennett was Premier of BC before Bill Vander Zalm
• Bill Bennett was Premier longer than Bill Vander Zalm
• Bill Bennett left Office before Bill Vander Zalm assumed Office
• Bill Bennett Kelowna bridge named after him, Bill Vander Zalm anti-HST, anti-BC Liberal

While researching down at the Vancouver Public Library, and reading specifically the BC Report magazine (covered earlier in the BBC) we came across something that made us all go Hmmmmmmmm!!!

If some postage stamps can be so rare, because of an error in their printing that they are now worth millions, if not Billions of dollars, why not a magazine?    One Postage stamp is printed in a far greater number for the use of a Country's citizens than one magazine publishing for it's readership in one Province, therefore the value of a printing error in a magazine could be more valuable, depending largely on the topic, of course.

A postage stamp that has an image upside down and the printing right side up, is rare!

Famous Stamps

Once a magazine or book is published, in hard copy, how can they possibly be clawed back from the public domain?    The online version can be removed or "modified" except for the cache version.


In the case of the BC Report magazine, what would be the value of their limited copies, from a once upon a time, robust, four issues per month publication,  now reduced to a state of non-existence?



To the best of our knowledge there are only TWO known copies in existence of this typo:

SNIP                                     Steve MacNaull

Who knows, maybe the typo was what brought about the sudden end to the BC Report magazine.

Exon-Mobil-Valdez Prince Rupert LNG Processor floated from Asia: No Jobs for British Columbians

No jobs made in Canada for Canadians by Premier Christy Clark on LNG.

The Washington Group Seaspan has been building Barges for 50 years, so why is Exon Mobil building the Barges overseas when YES WE CAN DO IT.

BC Government Information Index for WCC LNG

Exon-Mobil Prince Rupert LNG
Project Summary

1422575427073_74zhJKBTT0H3shh2Gw8ykyfQ9yV3x2CnPT1HwssvChXxNsvv3vc3!1378338455!1422573902847.pdf

WCC LNG Project Ltd. (WCC LNG Project) (we have to write it twice without and explaination of just what the acronym WCC) is proposing the development and operation of the WCC LNG project (the "Project" at Tuck Inlet , within the city limits of Prince Rupert, BC.  The proposed Project will include production, storage, transfer, and loading of LNG vessels fo rmarine transportaion to offshore markets.

Natural gas will be delivered to the facility through a third party (yet to be determined) pipeline connected up to 15 million metric tonnes  per annum (MTA) and utlimately a maximum production of up to 30 MTA, or approximately 180,000 cubic metres per DAY.  It is anticipated that LNG vessels, with an approximate capacity of 125,000 to 266,000 cubic metres, will be used to transport the LNG, resulting in approximate 330 to 430 carrier loadings per year at full 30 MTA capacity.

WCC LNG Project is currently investigating the geotechnical and environmnetal site characteristics and evaluating concepts for its proposed LNG plant at Tuck Inlet.   Development options under consideration include a marine-based barge-mounted concept and onshore concept (Fiqures 2A and 2B, Fiqures 3A and 3B, and Figures 4 and 5 of Appendix A).  These development options are discussed within the Project components and activities of Section 2.1 and 2.2.

A Single lane bridge and utility corridor????  a short sighted design not addressing the 'what if' scenario if an emergency requires first responders to get to the Far end of the dock.

Or look at if from the other end.  Workers are on the last barge and they have to get off NOW, but have to ramble past the other high risk barges and ships tied to them.  Why not five double lane bridges?

 A barge-mounted LNG facility will consist of up to five loading  barges with production capacity of approximately 6 MTA each or higher pending results of process optimisation studies. ...... It is expected that the LNG liquification process and compression facilities will be powered using the inlet natural gas as the fuel source.  Onshore support facilities for the barge-mounted concept would be located entirely within District Lot (DL) 444, property currently owned by Prince Rupert Legacy Inc., within the limits of the City of Prince Rupert.

 Prince Rupert Anchorages, marinas facilities, and navigation aids.

BC Hydro Capilano Substation: Surrounded by Trees: No Surprise electricity knocked out, businesses closed; homes left cold

The tree broke the top off a BC Hydro transmission structure

The brain trust that looks after BC Hydro customers has decided to commission another report looking at 40 species of trees, across Metro Vancouver, that might be of concern to the Public Corporation's bottom line, Smart Grid or not.  The Report request, from the Minutes of the Climate Action Committee Agenda November 4, 2015, is on page 88 of 126 being prepared by Diamond Head Consulting. 

Vancouver Sun

The regional district has commissioned a report looking at 40 species of trees across the region to determine whether they are resilient enough to withstand issues such as pests and droughts.

The move follows two windstorms, one on Tuesday and another in August, which saw trees falling on BC Hydro transmission wires, plunging thousands of homes into darkness, some of them for days.

On Tuesday, electricity was cut to about 110,000 B.C. homes after winds gusting up to 70 km/h toppled trees and snapped power lines. A tree broke the top off a BC Hydro transmission structure in the Capilano substation, sending flashes of blue light streaking across the skies, .....

Putting it in perspective:

BC Hydro already has a 61 page guide book on how to handle vegetation, trees too but they prefer to wait until a tree falls knowing that they do make a sound, but the wind drowns the background noise out.

 Noting and recommending for removal any hazard trees (defective trees that may fall into the site), or storm-damaged or vandalized trees and shrubs. Herbicides may be applied to the stumps to prevent resprouting.

 Vancouver's Knight and 49th Avenue Substation is the right way, eh

In a Post that we did in 2014 on a West Vancouver waterfront BC Hydro Substation they finally took the hint and cut down all their trees between the Emergency generating station and the Substation AND chain linked the area so pedestrians (children) wouldn't be able to fall into the six foot deep canal (no way to claw oneself out)

 

1972 to 2014

  

2015

 Google Search criteria: bc hydro 80 20 debt limit

HBC: The Fifty-two pounds ten shillings sterling deal between Christy Clark and Hookoowitz's 20 others.

If 'white people' are the only ones who may own Hudson Bay Company's 'land', secured by James Douglas for Fifty-two pounds ten shillings Sterling  ..... 'Vancouver Island' ... how are the land claims going to be resolved with that Sick Culture of Victoria still being occupied by Premier Christy Clark.

KOSAMPSOM TRIBE—ESQUIMALT PENINSULA AND COLQUITZ VALLEY.

Know all men, we, the chiefs and people of the Kosampsom Tribe, who have signed our names and made our marks to this deed on the thirtieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, do consent to surrender, entirely and  for ever, to James Douglas, the agent of the Hudson's Bay Company in Vancouver Island, that is to say, for the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Committee of the same, the whole of the lands situate and lying between the Island of the Dead, in the Arm or Inlet of Camoson, and the head of the said Inlet, embracing the lands on the west side and north of that line to Esquimalt, beyond the Inlet three miles of the Colquitz Valley, and the land on the east side of the arm, enclosing Christmas Hill and Lake and the lands west of those objects.

The condition of or understanding of this sale is this, that our village sites and enclosed fields are to be kept for our own use, for the use of our children, and for those who may follow after us; and the land shall be properly surveyed hereafter.   It is understood, however, that the land itself, with these small exceptions, becomes the entire property of the white people for ever; it is also understood that we are at liberty to hunt over the unoccupied lands, and to carry on our fisheries as formerly. We have received, as payment, Fifty-two pounds ten shillings sterling.

In token whereof, we have signed our names and made our marks, at Fort Victoria, on the thirtieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty.

(Signed) HOOKOOWITZ his x mark,
and 20 others.

SWENGWHUNG TRIBE—VICTORIA PENINSULA, SOUTH OF COLQUITZ.

Know all men, we, the chiefs and people of the family of Swengwhung, who have signed our names and made our marks to this deed on the thirtieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty, do consent to surrender, entirely and for ever, to James Douglas, the agent of the Hudson's Bay Company in Vancouver Island, that is to say, for the Governor, Deputy Governor, and Committee of the same, the whole of the lands situate and lying between the Island of the Dead, in the Arm or Inlet of Camoson, where the Kosampsom lands terminate, extending east to the Fountain Ridge, and following it to its termination on the Straits of De Fuca, in the Bay immediately east of Clover Point, including all the country between that line and the Inlet of Camoson.

The condition of or understanding of this sale is this, that our village sites and enclosed fields are to be kept for our own use, for the use of our children, and for those who may follow after us; and the land shall be properly surveyed hereafter. It is understood, however, that the land itself, with these small exceptions, becomes the entire property of the white people for ever; it is also understood that we are at liberty to hunt over the unoccupied lands, and to carry on our fisheries as formerly.

We have received, as payment, Seventy-five pounds sterling.  In token whereof, we have signed our names and made our marks, at Fort Victoria, on the thirtieth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty. (1850)


(Signed) SNAW-NUCK his x mark,
and 29 others.
Done before us,
(Signed) ALFRED ROBSON BENSON, M.R.C.S.L.
JOSEPH WILLIAM

 ***************************

*********** 

Of course there was that small detail that James Douglas didn't include in the signing regarding the clause on 'OUR CHILDREN' and 'WHO MAY FOLLOW US'
 

 The Impact of the White Man

 
 SmallPox

Page 42 of 116

The most terrible single calamity to befall the Indians of British Columbia was the smallpox epidemic which started in Victoria in 1862.  Unique circumstances caused it to spread faster and farther than any previous outbreak could possibly have done, and within two years it had reached practically all parts of the Province, and killed about one-third of the native people.

***************************

****************

the dwindling Kitsilano Indian Reserve

 ****************************

****************

********

or how about renaming Semlin Drive in Vancouver .... along with Trutch


increase to $500

Respecting the proposed increase of the per capita Tax on Chinese immigrants. By Command. C. A. SEMLIN,

 Respecting the desirability of increasing the capitation tax on Chinese entering the
Dominion, and submitting that British Columbia is entitled to three-fourths ofsuch revenue.

Justice In Chains. Jessica Ernst and Andrew Nikiforuk's 'Slick Water'. by Robin Mathews Nov. 14, 2015

Andrew Nikiforuk Books, Books, Books

“Slick Water”, of course, is the feel of good water when changed by Fracking poisons.  It is good water invaded by (Corporation-imposed secret) human-and-plant-destroying poisons pumped underground during “Fracking” (hydraulic fracturing of natural underground strata) to “retrieve” oil and/or natural gas.  Those poisons then find their way into the agricultural and drinking water of unsuspecting people who reside (usually) not far from the work of those giant, care less, private Corporations which – all too often – have bought-and-paid-for government regulators and politicians in power.  The poisons … then make ill, maim, and even kill plants, animals, and human beings.

The enormity of the damage to land and water and creatures, the outrageous invasion of the sanctity of innocent people, and the permanent tragedies created could only be possible in a world where Big Corporations have become, in fact, law-makers and enforcers in a world where corporate crime is accepted as normal behaviour.

Slick Water is, too, the name of the latest book (on theabove subject) written by excellent writer, Andrew Nikiforuk.  He was one of the first to tear the Angel Wings from the Tar Sands operations in a book of that name in 2008: Tar Sands, Dirty Oil and the Future of aContinent.

Readers of this review could do no better as a beginning of their read through winter-books than to read Slick Water, centering on Canada’s Fracking Fighter extraordinaire, Jessica Ernst, of Rosebud, Alberta.  The book links her, appropriately, to the long, horrific historical tale of Hydraulic Fracturing which she has been one of the most indomitable in bringing to Canadian (and global) public attention.

The beauty of Nikiforuk’s book is that it brings the marvellous Jessica Ernst to life for readers to come to know … at the same time as it illuminates the slow (150 year) development of a “greed process”, Fracking, begun (of course) in the U.S.A., and spread to … wherever on the globe greed can elbow its way in and gas or oil can be – earth-shatteringly and poisonously - forced to the surface.  Some enlightened countries outlaw Fracking completely.

Readers will find in this book a hundred aspects of the Slick Water story that catch and hold their attention.  A commanding aspect, linking widely disparate events and occasions, is caught in one of the most sparkling (if it may be called that) chapters entitled “The Police Come Calling”.

In the face of allegations of Encana Corporation violations of the law, Alberta regulator violations of the law, Alberta lawyers rejecting their obligation and refusing to represent Jessica Ernst, and shameless misreporting by the Alberta Research Council … and, I add, an Alberta government pretending to know nothing about anything relevant – a strange event occurred.

Calling themselves members of the National Security Enforcement Team (?), RCMP officers first called Jessica Ernst by telephone and were told by her not to visit her property. Days later, they arrived at her home unannounced and without any kind of Warrant.  The visit – one may speculate – had a number of purposes.  To frighten and coerce Jessica Ernst. To urge her into naming sympathizers.  To please the federal government led by Stephen Harper, and to please the (then Eternal) Conservative government of Alberta, and the Encana Corporation, and the cowardly lawyers of Alberta who would have been pleased to see Ernst frightened away from legal action.

Without intending to be controversial or extreme, I would say that the RCMP officers, Dennis De Franceschi and Dave Bibeau, who confronted Jessica Ernst would not be unique as examples of what I suggest may be called lawless uniformed officers supporting crime in Canada.

One only has to raise one’s eyes to see extravagant examples.  When the murder of Robert Dziekanski (2007) by RCMP officers occurred in Vancouver International Airport  (the act was renamed for convenience), it was supported by all levels of the RCMP from the Vancouver offices to the desk in Ottawa of the national Commissioner of the RCMP.  Then, a little later, the fraudulent misuse of RCMP investigations to “manage” the Mike Duffy case in favour of Stephen Harper and his close, wealthy ally Nigel Wright is there for all to see.  By sleight-of-hand too despicable for words, the evidence was jimmied to claim Mike Duffy received a bribe of just over $90,000.00 handed to him as a signed cheque by Nigel Wright.  But Nigel Wright did not pay a bribe, it is claimed.  Before the entire population of Canada the RCMP went along with that complete sham. There is not the slightest doubt that Commissioner of the RCMP, Bob Paulson, signed off on the spectacular (and insulting to all Canadians) boondoggle.

Those are national scandals of gigantic proportion.  But all over Canada the RCMP bends, breaks, and boldly finds ways to violate the law in large and small ways to serve criminal interests.  (Will the new Liberal government examine that file?)

Let’s put it simply.  The whole, cruel torture - through the Fracking process - of Jessica Ernst and hundreds of others in Canada … and thousands around the world – is made possible by the sell-out to giant, largely private Corporations by police, lawyers, the law, the courts, and governments elected to serve and protect the people.

To this day, the new People’s Government of Alberta [NDP] has not lifted a finger to lessen the injustice under which Jessica Ernst staggers. 

Indeed, the Alberta NDP government has approved the continuing role of Gerard Protti, former vp of Encana Corporation and former president of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers as top man at the Alberta Energy Regulator. Both Encana and the AER are named as delinquent in Jessica Ernst’s case.

If the new government in Ottawa sees fit to take a harrower through the RCMP – a long overdue undertaking – it should do the same through the process of appointments to higher courts in all the provinces.  Indeed, it needs to sit with provincial governments and work slowly and certainly to reconstruct higher court processes – which are opaque, needlessly bureaucratic, elitist, high-handed, grossly expensive, purposefully procrastinating, and systemically punitive to ordinary members of the population seeking remedy for injustices done to them.

Andrew Nikiforuk’s presentation in Slick Water of the negotiation between Jessica Ernst and the law firm conducting her case – Klippensteins – is deeply disturbing.  Sincerity unforced on both sides leads to the information that the case might well take twelve years…or more. (That, I say, is because of the ability of rich corporations to bring legal proceedings almost to a standstill with – clearly – the assent of the courts.) The firm’s spokesperson tells Ernst the “case could cost her more than a million dollars even with the firm’s discounted rates” (p.199) And lawyer Murray Klippenstein informs her that even if she wins legally, because she won’t “settle” (agree to a secret award) “you may have to pay the legal fees and costs of the defendants.” (p. 201)

Ernst replies to him completely in character.  Three things matter. One is groundwater. The second is the integrity of the democracy she lives in, and the third is breaking the cycle of abuse. What she does not say (and perhaps doesn’t know at that early date) is that the cycle of abuse by the poisoners of water, land, and health is only possible because of the corporation/lawyer/police/court/media participation in the cycle of abuse quietly smiled upon by corrupt governments. How to end that cycle and to restore the integrity of the democracy she lives in is … for all the rest of us to take on.

Andrew Nikiforuk is – to my mind – very gentle in his treatment of the Alberta higher court in the case being fought by Jessica Ernst.  Nevertheless, he hints at what I believe is a shameless intention in the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench to delay the trial, to increase Jessica Ernst’s costs alarmingly, and to force her into bankruptcy.  I will leave it to the reader to decide for herself or himself the role of the Alberta court in Jessica Ernst’s trial … and Andrew Nikiforuk’s assessment of it.

Rejuvenation of the Canadian legal system might start at the top.  What to my mind is the most useless and the most irresponsible higher court instrument in Canada is the Canadian Judicial Council – the top regulator of higher court behaviour in Canada.  Presently, to my mind, it is a sham and a protector of wrong-doing in the higher courts.  When an egregious action of sexual misconduct by a judge is revealed, the CJC might move to careful action. But in all other cases of serious misconduct (in my experience with it) the CJC will even cover for (what in other structures would be called) the frankly criminal activity of judges. (When three higher court judges, one after the other, are publicly removed from the bench by the CJC for misconduct in their trust positions, judges across Canada will suddenly become visibly more upright and … just.)

Justice is in chains in the Jessica Ernst case against Encana Corporation for fouling her farm, her water, her life, her hopes for the future.  Justice is in chains in Ernst’s attempts to have the “regulator” of Oil Patch behaviour judged for failing to do its job of “regulating” (throughout the province).  Justice is in chains in the Jessica Ernst case before the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench (Alberta’s Supreme Court) because – among other (hugely important) things - the court is not insisting upon prompt responses from those complained against, not insisting upon prompt and clean submissions of evidentiary materials requested by the plaintiff. etc.,etc.

The spotlight is upon Chief Justice NeilWittmann who “volunteered” to take over the case when (surprise!) the judge on the case was suddenly promoted off it to the Appeals Court. (Her promotion had to involve Stephen Harper’s cabinet and the senior operatives of the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench… and who else?)  The case is momentous – calling into question the activities of a huge private Oil Patch operator and the government of Alberta’s regulator.  The action of Chief Justice Neil Wittmann to force a Supreme Court of Canada appeal about his ruling that the Alberta regulator is “beyond” the reach of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in the Canadian Constitution is seen by some as a vexatious and obnoxious action to delay the trial – and cause Jessica Ernst enormously increased costs.

If the Honourable Neil Wittmann’s action has been, in fact, a move to show sympathy for the bodies Jessica Ernst is acting against … then justice in Alberta is truly in chains.  But Jessica Ernst has been a major person in forcing the unshackling of truth about “Fracking”. She has been major in forcing the unshackling of truth about the abuse of land and people by Big Oil and Gas in Alberta – and its “buy-off” techniques. She has been major in exposing the Alberta Regulator as a friend of the violators. She may well prove to be instrumental in unshackling a truth about large-scale corruption in the Court of Queen’s Bench, Alberta. Then the chains will begin to come off - even off the legal system in Canada.

 Contact: Robin Mathews

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Jessica Ernst can be contacted at contact@jessicaernst.ca.
This website is maintained by Jessica Ernst’s legal counsel for the purpose of providing information to the public on what our client believes are important issues of public interest.

Klippensteins, Barristers and Solicitors
160 John Street, Suite 300
Toronto, Ontario   M5V 2E5
Canada

Ernst v. Fracking et al  Links & Resources

Tim Duncan revelations May 18th; George Gretes exhonerated 8 days later by Virk's Loop-Hole Act: NO OFFENCE

May 18, 2015

Ms. Elizabeth Denham
Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner
PO Box 9038, Stn. Prov. Govt
Victoria B.C. V8W 9A4

RE: Destruction of Freedom of Information records

Dear Ms. Denham:

I am a former Executive Assistant to the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure. I am concerned with how requests for email under the Freedom of Information Act are being administered in Ministerial offices.

When Freedom of Information (FOI) requests are made for ministerial staff emails, it concems me that political appointees are allowed to self-report their response. This allows for misconduct to occur, and often a "No records" response to be reported.

Such an incident happened to me in November 2014- The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure received a FOI request for records relating to meetings held by officials in the ministry relating to missing women on the Highway of Tears.  

SNIP

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BC Offence Act:    1996

General offence

5  A person who contravenes an enactment by doing an act that it forbids, or omitting to do an act that it requires to be done, commits an offence against the enactment.

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Virk's Loop-Hole Act

Certified correct as passed Third Reading on the 26th day of May, 2015
Craig James, Clerk of the House

Information Management Act

Section 5 of Offence Act

20  Section 5 of the Offence Act does not apply to this Act. (Gretes / Virk)

Application to Supreme Court for return of information

21  (1) If government information is held without legal authority by a person other than a government body, the head of a government body required to hold the government information may apply to the Supreme Court for an order that the person return that government information to the government body.

(2) This section does not limit any remedy otherwise available to a government body or other person by law.  (Loukidelis)

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Part 6 – General Provisions
	19	Responsibility of head of government body
	20	Section 5 of Offence Act
	21	Application to Supreme Court for return of information
	22	Power to make regulations

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The kicker to the Information Management Act is that there wasn't a mention of offenders being absolved of Triple-O-Delete, only a slap on the wrist, if there was Perjury eg. George Gretes.

In a Letter of praise to Amrik Virk from Elizabeth Denham without her knowledge of an impending Loop-Hole of exoneration of any BC Liberal government perps:

February 13, 2015 Honourable Amrik Virk
Minister of Technology, Innovation
and Citizens' Services
Room 346, Parliament Buildings
Victoria BC V8V 1X4

Dear Minister Virk:

Re: Bill 5 – Government Information Act; OIPC File F14-60070

I am writing to comment on Bill 5, the Government Information Act, tabled in the Legislative Assembly on February 12, 2015. I am encouraged that government is proposing legislation that will provide a framework for modern records management within government.... etc.