Friday, August 28, 2015

This Day In Clarkland...Mr. Casavant And The Two Bears.

SuspendedAndThenDrummedOutOfTheService
ForAJobWellDoneVille


First, in a report from the MoCo's Sharon Lindores, the good news regarding those two bear cubs that provincial conservation officer Bryce Casavant saved from the bureaucracy's hasty and, it would appear, unwarranted death sentence:

...The bear cubs' mother was killed by Casavant after it repeatedly raided a freezer full of meat and salmon, but despite an order to kill the cubs too, Casavant took them to a veterinary hospital instead, believing they could be rehabilitated.

They were later transferred to a recovery centre run by the North Island Wildlife Recovery Association in Errington, also on Vancouver Island.

Subsequently the cubs were approved for the orphaned bear cub rearing and release program, said Vivian Thomas, communications director for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations. They'll stay at the centre until 2016 when they'll be released...


Now, the bad news:

...Bryce Casavant, the B.C. conservation officer who was suspended after he refused to kill two black bear cubs near Port Hardy in July, is being transferred out of the Conservation Officer Service...


But so what....

After all, the Clarklandian government spokesthingy/media line dispenser concerned who, presumably,  knows absolutely nothing whatsoever about whether or not a bear cub in custody should be destroyed says to have no fear, because...

..."No employee involved in this case has been subjected to any discipline."...



Are these people insane?


.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

taxation without proper representation.

Anonymous said...

Thumbs up to BCGEU president Stephanie Smith and her Union for standing by their member and fighting for his reinstatement.

A few more little bits of info here
http://www.northislandgazette.com/breaking_news/323233431.html


RossK said...

Thanks for the link Anon--

It's amazing to me how often things are flipped these days with the folks at the little local papers doing the in-depth stuff.

Case in point, that kid Jonny Wakefield up north is doing great stuff....So much so that I've taken to following him on the Twittmachine.

.

Anonymous said...

unbearable

http://www.vancourier.com/opinion/editorial-cartoon-aug-24-2015-1.2039318

Unknown said...

I don't think this issue is about bear cub rehabilitation, but rather about punishing an employee who had the effrontery to disobey his chair-bound supervisor. Suspension without pay rarely occurs in the private sector because it is so difficult to justify. When this government agency was compelled to rescind the suspension, they retaliated against Casavantes by removing him from a position he was particularly good at. Where have I seen this arrogant, heavy-handed behaviour before? Why of course, that would be the matter of the firing of the health ministry researchers.

Anonymous said...

And UBC and BC Liberal appointed controversy

e.a.f. said...

Its called a disciplinary transfer and most collective agreements don't provide for them. as usual someone from the Christy crunch bunch was talking through their arsehole. Now the b.c. lieberals will spend a bunch of money only to loose the case in arbitration.

Sort of like the federal scientist who was suspended for writing and singing a song. that song is great! Harpercon

Anonymous said...

SH:

This is not the first time the BCGEU stood between truth and tryanny:

"Gord McAdams, a career civil servant fired for turning whistleblower, said Tuesday he learned something along the way from rare painted turtles he helped to save near Nelson.

"What have I learned from the turtles?" McAdams said after receiving a 2007 whistleblower award in Vancouver. "To move forward, you have to stick your neck out, but it's nice to have a hard shell."
McAdams was fired as a resource officer in the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management in April 2005 after 34 years with the B.C. government...

"I had my retirement party that afternoon," he said in an interview. "They changed the locks, and told people not to associate with me. But most everybody came to my retirement party, anyways."

He caught the government's ire for providing confidential documents to the West Kootenay Community Ecosociety, which was trying to thwart plans by Bill Barisoff, then Liberal minister of Water, Land, and Air Protection, to move a road in Grohman Narrows Provincial Park.

The new road would have allowed developer Dan Bayoff to access his property for the purpose of developing a truck service maintenance yard, but it was also regarded as a threat to the painted turtles.
McAdams's documents were instrumental in B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janet Sinclair-Prowse ruling in May 2005 that the minister had made an "unauthorized exercise of his statutory power."

... With the help of the B.C. Government Employees' Union, he subsequently reached a settlement with the B.C. government. ..
Such disparate groups as the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, both present at the news conference, are in favour of such legislation.

"Corruption thrives in an environment of secrecy," said federation director Maureen Bader. "Whistleblowers are the last line of defence for the taxpayer and those acting in the public interest where the government isn't."
In the absence of such legislation, McAdams urged other civil servants who might consider following his lead to be "very careful" but that "if you look inside your soul, I think you'll know."...

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/westcoastnews/story.html?id=f4958162-8e2b-4c83-8e37-bb7f5e13a240

Anonymous said...

How bad is it for the BC Liberals on this file?

My hometown "Pave the Parks" corporate media branch of Friends of Fascists - The Penticton Herald - put a pro union article on the FRONT page (albeit, below the fold and carefully never mentioned Polak by name) supporting the BCGEU's actions defending their 'insubordinate' member.

Maybe Bob Plecas can craft a face saving solution to this one between lining up scapegoats on the MCFD case.