This Day In Clarkland...In Which The Dean Chooses To Ignore The (Slightly Stinky) Elephant In His Own Front Room.

QuickWinsIsNotTheBCLiberalLeadershipRace
PretzilianIllogicalSongVille


The Dean of the Lotuslandian Legislative Press Gallery, Mr. Vaughn Palmer, published a column in the pixellated version of the VSun last night that attempted to explain why he and his fellow club members are justified in not doing any digging to find out where, exactly, the stench of pay-to-play money-grubbing and/or voter manipulation clinging to the rotting carcass of Clarklandian ethics is actually coming from.

The following is an excerpt from said column to that is being presented to you, dear reader/cult member in an attempt to prove that point:

...“How did the premier get to become the premier in what was a controversial process involving Mr. Kevin Falcon, who was apparently the front-runner until they counted the vote, which was part of the submission I think Mr. Butcher was reviewing as well,” (opposition leader John) Horgan alleged.

I emphasize the “alleged.” Although a senior member of Horgan’s staff briefed me some time ago on the NDP’s reading of the Dix submission as it related to the Liberal leadership, I saw only unproven allegations that relied heavily on the claims of a single informant. Other journalists also received advance confidential briefings about the supposed implications for the Liberal leadership.

But as anyone could see from reaching the charge sheet this week, Bonney was accused of breach of trust in connection with a train of events that unfolded starting Oct. 16, 2011, six months after the conclusion of the leadership race.

While the special prosecutor concluded there was enough evidence to lay a serious criminal charge in connection with the quick wins scandal, there’s no indication from what has been presented in court that he made anything of the allegations involving the Liberal leadership...


So.

Mr. Palmer doesn't believe, based on what he has been shown, that there is anything to the matter of how Ms. Clark came to be BCL Party leader.

Which is fair enough, I suppose, as far as it goes, particularly given that it would appear that Mr. Palmer is loathe to do any further digging on his own.

But seriously...

Why wave away the potential seriousness that the criminal charge to Mr. Bonney could have on Clarklandian fortunes (as Darth Vader did elsewhere today) because he, Mr. Palmer, cannot see how this can possibly be connected to the above-mentioned leadership race?

Especially given that previously published reports and the work of  the premier's own scullery maid (who does a great job with the white's, by the way) indicate that at least part of what Mr. Bonney was up to related to plans that were being hatched inside the Premier's office.

And while we're talking about all things premier...

Why, also, is Mr. Palmer ignoring the matter of that $150,000 cheque that was given out by the premier just prior to a local election in a far-flung (and windy!) corner of the province that, by the premier's own admission, occurred because she, herself, responded to a direct request from a candidate in said far-flung local election?

I mean, it's almost as if there is a pact among Lotuslandian Legislative proMedia club members to immediately stop digging whenever they get a whiff of the stench clinging to the premier and/or seeping out from under her office door.

Gosh.

Maybe it paralyzes them or something.


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Cults 'n members 'n all that? (for actually caring about the stench)...Darn tootin'. 

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Artfully Dodging The Tax Scofflawallory Of The Rich...

...And Not Yet (In)Famous.

Given the history of this particular Made-In-Canada thing, particularly the 'secret amnesty' aspect of it, it's hard avoid thinking that the current artful dodging, based on the following by Harvey Cashore and Kimberley Ivany of the CBC, is being done on purpose:

The Canada Revenue Agency routinely failed to meet deadlines under the Access to Information Act after receiving requests for documents about the KPMG offshore tax scandal and private lobbying meetings with the accounting industry, according to a summary provided by the agency itself.

CBC News began making requests to the federal agency more than a year ago for information about compliance officials and their meetings with KPMG executives, Department of Justice officials, and industry lobbyists — yet deadlines to produce those records have repeatedly not been met...

And how, exactly, you might be asking yourself can the CRA get away with this egregiousity?

Well.

It turns out that there are no consequences whatsoever:

...As for when the bulk of the documents might be produced, (the CBC's Dean) Beeby says there is no way of knowing when CRA might finally comply. Beeby says the act contains no penalties, so there is no incentive to provide documents in a timely fashion...


But when Josephine Q. Citizen gets a letter from the CRA demanding information and documentation in a timely manner...


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#QuickWins In Clarkland: Three Things You May Have Missed.

It'sLikeDejaVu
AllOverAgainVille


From Bob Mackin's excellent, context-laden piece in today's Tyee...

Number 1: 'The Publication Ban' (a.k.a. Railgate pre-trial days re-visited):

"...On Tuesday afternoon, Election Act charges against (former Christy Clark Gov't staffer Brian) Bonney and former Liberal party official Mark Robertson over payments to a 2012 byelection worker were dropped. The charges were from the same investigation. Their numbered company, which does business as Mainland Communications, pleaded guilty and was fined $5,000. 

Bonney's offence is alleged to have happened between Oct. 16, 2011, and Dec. 31, 2012 in Vancouver. Details are covered under a temporary publication ban..."

****

Number 2: 'Seventy Thousand Is Less Than A Tenth Of It' (a.k.a. How to spend seven figures of public money without ever 'implementing' the plan):

"...The (QuickWins) documents also showed almost $1 million was siphoned from the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Innovation to increase the nearly $2.5 million budget for the multiculturalism portfolio a year before the provincial election campaign..."

****

Number 3: Disappearing The Documents With Deniability (a.k.a. Hiding in plain Google-free sight):

"...Bonney's charge came eight days after the B.C. government's Open Information website was redesigned and the Quick Wins documents removed from the home page. Since June 11, 2013, the three links to the Quick Wins document dump were displayed under the heading Special Information Release. The documents are not available in the new search engine database.

After a Tyee query, Cindy Kukucska, an Information Access Operations manager, sent a link to the March 14, 2013 announcement about the Dyble report where the three missing links had been added to the bottom of the archived news release. "Their current location is appropriate," Kukucska said..."

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That last one really bugs me because, given this government's track record, it is hard to see the 'timing' of the latest legal developments and the very recent deniable disappearing of the documents as being entirely coincidental.
Bob Mackin has provided us with the link to the disappeared docs via the Twittmachine (please note his most interesting comment about the deniable hidification).


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This Day NOT In Clarkland...Something The Cronies Would Be Loath To Get Behind.

Affordable!WeDon'tNeedNoStinkingAffordability!
LotuslandianDeveloperVille


This just in, from Ontario:

Groundbreaking provincial legislation being introduced Wednesday will give Toronto and other Ontario municipalities long-awaited tools to force builders to include affordable housing as part of new residential developments, the Star has learned.

But municipalities will also be required to contribute to the cause by offering development charge rebates, density bonuses and property tax waivers, according to sources familiar with the legislation.

If passed and used by Ontario municipalities, it would be a first in Canada...


Heckfire!

Not only would Clarklandia's biggest big money devoper donors very likely not get behind such an initiative, I would be willing to bet that that they would (will?) actively work (not by asking Darth Vader to do so 'directly', of course) to stop it.

So.

Given all the money those developer donors are donating, some of which passes through the BC Liberal money laundering machinery before it lands, grease-laden, the Premier's palm, how can we possibly stop them from using their big money to kill such an initiative if it turns out this is something that we, the people actcually, want?

I think we all know the answer to that.

(and I think we all know why such an initiative is being initiated in Ontario now rather than, say, this time last year).


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The Keef Report...In Which Our Hero Gets Full-Metal Pouty-McPout-Faced.

AllTheLotuslandianWorld'sA
KeefVille


...All because he lost his full-on insider scoop-a-holic access with the climate team folks.

Or some such thing.

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Kudos to 'Always Vote'  for the facial description of the Keef on the Twittmachine.
Thanks to reader Lew E. for the heads-up...Lew also notes that 'Hell hath no fury like a Keef scorned!'
Previous Keef Reports can be found....Here (scroll on down).


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This Day In Clarkland...The Quick Wins After, After, After Party..

SubJudice
This!Ville


A most curious add-on to the statement from the provincial criminal justice branch (CJB), as noted by Rattan Mall in The Voice Online (who has the most complete proMedia coverage so far, with true context and everything, by the way):

...As all charges arising out of this matter are currently before the court, the CJB and the special prosecutor will not be making further comment on the details of the files. The CJB said that it is important that the integrity of the court process be respected and the matters be allowed to unfold in the ordinary course.

If, at the end of all related court proceedings, the special prosecutor determines it to be in the public interest that further information about this matter should be provided to the public, including information about other charges that may have been considered during the course of the RCMP investigation and not approved, the special prosecutor will issue a Clear Statement in consultation with the CJB...


Gosh, who'd-a-thunk-it...

It's all before the courts for the duration.

And not only does this provide cover on the specifics of the single breach-of-trust unveiled today, it ensures that there will be no discussion of anything else that the Horseman brought to the special prosecutor until 'after' the fact (if ever).

Heckfire!

This is even better than the 'forgetting' and the Dyble report for limiting the hangout!

****

So...

Anybody willing to lay odds on whether this matter is dealt with before next May's election?

After all, it's not as if the matter didn't come to light five years, and one general election and a few bye-byes ago already.


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Cassidy Olivier of the Province also noted the passage quoted above on the Twittmachine. 
And, for those cult members who still stop by here occasionally...My favourite 'It's before the courts!' of Railgate, as captured by the then intrepid, but now professorial, Sean Holman.


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This Day In Clarkland...PAB-Bots On Parade.

AllYourContracts                                                                                                                                Link
'RUsVille


Gosh.

Who knew that the lowly PAB-Bots working the Clarklandian happy-talk threads would be so proud to be 'non-union' government workers.

Which has me wondering....

Contracted-out?

Or...

OIC-Bots?

Meanwhile, as we and others have noted previously, no money for park rangers.

Etcetera.


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Interestingly, as IntegrityBC has noted this little exchange disappeared from the gov't happytalk site soon after it was posted...Gosh, can they delete stuff like this if it is 'official' government business?
What's a 'PAB-Bot' you ask?...Well it's our affectionate name for lurkers and media/blog monitors from the old GordCo days when 'PAB' stood for 'Public Affairs Bureau'...Now it's 'Communication Geniuses Inc.', or some such thing...'OIC' = 'Order-In-Council' which is, essentially, a political appointment wherein the appointee serves at the pleasure of the regime leader...


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My Morning Ride...

This morning I learned that it really is the end of the world as we know it.

And, no, I'm not talking about REM.

****

I stopped in at the Sobey's New Empire Foodworld Emporium, or Safeway, or whatever the heck they will ultimately call it, on my ride in to work because I needed lunch-type supplies and I didn't have time to make the bend all the way down to South Campus to that place that Jimmy built (and one of our readers nominally helps run).

Anyway...

After I had explained, for the fourth time, that I didn't need a plastic bag and was getting ready to plug my card into the machine, the four dead guys came on the sound system.

And it wasn't even the tune you hear in every hockey arena everywhere now days.

Instead it was 'I Wanna Be Sedated'.

Somehow, somewhere, I reckon Mr. Spector really is firing that pop-gun at Mr. Colvin in a gleeful, wigged-out, crazy-trained, end-of-the-centurious celebration.

Or some such thing.


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And, just in case my brother is reading this....I know, I know, I know... It was Marky, not Tommy, on the drums for Road to Ruin...


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Choosing A Chief Councillor In Old Massett...A Tale of Two Elections.

Forty-TwoIsNotJustJackieRobinson's
NumberVille


Back in 2013, Mr. Ken Rea, the Chief Councillor of the Old Massett Village Council on Haida Gwaii, was re-elected easily:

Residents of Old Massett went to the polls on Dec. 2, overwhelmingly returning incumbent Chief Councillor Ken Rea to the community's top spot.

Rea was running against three other candidates for the position and received 184 of the 363 votes, giving him just over 50 per cent of the popular vote. The next closest challenger was Roger Smith, who finished with 88 votes....


Then, in 2015, Mr. Rea was re-elected again, but things were much closer this time around when he beat rival Mr. Kimball Davidson by just 42 votes.

Which might have reasonable folks wondering if there might have been some doubt about the outcome of the recent 2015 election in the last week campaign (i.e. in late November of 2015.

Interestingly, as was explained in a Globe piece written by Mark Hume just after the 2015 election, the winner, Mr. Rea, supported a wind farm project backed by Mr. Bruce Clark, the brother of premier Christy Clark, while Mr. Davidson, the loser, did not.

****

So.

Which election was preceded, by just one week, by the out-of-the-blue arrival of a private jet containing Premier Christy Clark bearing a $150,000 cheque for Mr. Rea and the Old Massett Village Council to explore the expansion of the village school?

Hmmmm....

Hang on a second while we go have a look at the photo-op laden records of Ms. Clark's government...

Ah, yes - here we are:

Now.

The following, in my opinion at least, is a very important question....

Where, precisely, is the written record of discussions within Ms. Clark's Ministry of Education that resulted in the executing of that cheque (that could not be unearthed by the BCNDP's FOIR)?

And why, exactly, is that a very important question?

Because if there really is no such record, and if Ms. Clark really did decide to do this on her own because she was asked to do so 'directly' by one of the people running in said closely contested local election...

Well...

Would it not be reasonable for reasonable British Columbians to wonder if, by not waiting until AFTER the closely contested local election was over to make a big splash and handout $150,000 to one of the people running, that, at the very least, Ms. Clark created the perception that she was trying to influence said election?

And with public money no less.


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And, lest you think I am being overzealous in my request to see the record of what (if anything) went down in the Ministry of Education, do not forget that, when he was contacted by Mr. Hume about all of this last December, Mr. Bruce Clark said that he told Mr. Rea who to contact in the Ministry of Education, which is something that Mr. Rea confirmed...Additionally, Ms. Clark's spokesperson, Mr. Ben Chin told CKNW's Matt Lee that the government had been working on the issue for more than a year.


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Your Sunday Morning Read....On BC Liberal Government 'Spin'.

IDoNotReallyLikeThat
EuphemismVille


It's an Op-Ed in the VTC from Integrity BC's Dermod Travis.

It takes apart recent lies (my word, not Mr. Travis') from the Ol' Turdstormer, Cookie Dough Mike (there's a rap there, I'm pretty sure) and Darth Vader.

Read it.


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Next up....A tale of two elections (on Haida Gwaii).


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Sometimes At The End Of The Day...

...All you need is five minutes with the only band that mattered* when they were at the very top of their game.

On Tom Snyder's old middle o' the night show no less!

 
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*At very particular times and places across oceans in a pre-interwebzian world...During a very short-lived Lotuslandian epoch you could glean specific shade of the mattering by the colour of the first album in an acquaintenance's record collectification.


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If No One Uses An Overpriced Ice Bomb Bridge In The Summer...

...Will It Melt Away?

And why might folks not be using the bridge in droves as the weather heats up?

Well...

In addition to the toll itself, there is that egregious userious overcharge if you don't cough up the dough right away:

The B.C. Supreme Court will hear arguments related to a lawsuit alleging illegal “late-payment charges” for tolls on the Port Mann Bridge at a class action application hearing before the end of 2016.

Jasper Lui had claimed that he missed paying $26.25 in toll charges in 2014, and said Transportation Investment Corporation — which oversees the bridge — billed him another $20 on top of the overdue payment.

Lawyer Nathaniel Hartney, who represents Lui, said on Thursday that the additional processing fee is illegal in Canada, since the law caps maximum interest per year at 60%...



But as for the melting away?

Likely not gonna happen, at least from a public payment point of view, given that Dermod Travis and Integrity BC have determined that the fixed price thing was a complete fiction from the get-go.

Because, in reality (i.e. not Dean-approved BC Liberal 'grocery list land'), it would appear that the IBB was at least $400 million over budget:

The original fixed price contract with Kiewit/Flatiron General Partnership to build the bridge was for $2.398-billion, documents obtained by Integrity BC show.

However the total amount paid to the Kiewit/Flatiron General Partnership is now $2.821-billion, according to research by Integrity BC.

“That’s more than $400-million. And it could get higher,” Travis said...



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Laila is on this one also.
We await the good Mr. Bateman of the CTF's comments on the ice balmy nine digit overrun given that... Well...You know.
Finally, if you care about how this province is being run (into the ground) and you are not following Integrity BC on the Twittmachine you are really missing out.



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The Republicans Savantian Spinnerama..The Racist Misogynist Nativist Carnival Barker They Can Suddenly Work With.

AsLongAsHeMakesADealToKeepTheTrainsRunOnTimeAndWallStreetRunnin'Wild
They'llSendALimousineAnywayVille


Apparently, making yourself swallow the Foxian spin-cycle induced throw-up in your mouth while you make nice with Donald Trump is not just for Paul Ryan anymore.

Case in point, here was Ann Coulter two month short months ago):

“Our candidate is mental,” Coulter told Breitbart’s Milo Yiannopoulos during the inaugural episode of his new podcast on Monday. “Do you realize our candidate is mental?” Coulter asked...


And this is what Ms. Coulter is up to now:

...Coulter will release a new book praising the candidate, "In Trump We Trust: The New American Revolution," this summer, her publisher Sentinel announced...

{snip}

...Sentinel describes "In Trump We Trust" as a "short but powerful book" that "explains why conservatives, moderates, and even disgruntled Democrats should set aside their doubts and embrace Trump."


Then again, I suppose there is no actual evidence that very finest of the fine folks like Mr. Ryan and Ms. Coulter actually dislike voluntarily engaging their pharyngeal muscles to send their own regurgitate southward when it is required for their self-preservation (and/or monetary reward).


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Second line of subheader bringing in the earworm?....This ought to help.


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The $150,000 Paperless Gift...Does The Premier's Spokesperson Know Something That The Premier Does Not?

TheirConversationsWereShortAnd
SweetVille


This week our fine premier responded to questions in the legislature from the leader of the Opposition about $150,000 of provincial money that was given to do a feasibility study to expand a school on Haida Gwaii that does not fall under provincial jurisdiction thusly:

J. Horgan: When you met with chiefs in September (2015), did they identify this school as a priority, and is that why you ended up in Haida Gwaii on November 26 (2015)?

Hon. C. Clark: I met with a lot of chiefs that day, and a lot of chiefs met with a lot of different ministers. I can’t give the member a full accounting of what all of them and all of their elected representatives talked to ministers and deputies about.


Interestingly, however, our fine premier's spokesperson said something slightly different to CKNW's Matt Lee back in December after the story first broke back in December of 2015 thanks to the work of the Globe's Mark Hume:

"...Spokesperson Ben Chin says the province has been discussing expanding the local school in Old Massett for more than a year, and that Premier Christy Clark was not aware of any wind farm proposal tied to her brother Bruce Clark..."


Gosh.

Do you see what I see (re: dates 'n stuff)?

And as for that wind farm proposal thingy backed by the premier's brother that the premier knew absolutely nothing about according to the good Mr. Chin?

Well...

It turns out that the Premier did receive a direct conversational/paperless request for the money from someone who does.

Know about the wind farm proposal from the premier's brother I mean.

OK?


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Blogger Merv Adey reported first on the re-emergence of this story....Here.
Laila follows up ....Here.
I have my say...Here.
As for the local proMedia?....Absolute crickets so far....



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This Day In Clarkland... A New Job For Our Fine Premier.

We'reSoakingInIt
LaunderThis!Ville


Mining compliance officer?

Link

After all.

I hear, according to the Auditor General at least, that we might need a few.



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Alternatively....I guess it is possible, based on what we have learned in past couple of weeks, that our fine premier may have just stopped by to pick up a cheque (and to demonstrate how big it is) freshly laundered through the BC Liberal party machinery.
And, while she's in Princeton, maybe our fine premier could hop in the private jet chartered for all our mining compliance officers and see if she can deal with a small problem that seems to brewing in Kamloops...



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