
maybe she could do it.
'The status quo would like you to believe that it is immutable.' Rebecca Solnit
"....The matter played out one day last month in front of Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie, with a lawyer from the office of the special prosecutor facing off against one representing (NDP Justice Critic Leonard) Krog.
The special prosecutor's arguments against Krog's application ranged from the merely technical to the mildly insulting. The former involved readings of various court rules, the latter ... well here's the judge's summation of the key argument from lawyer Janet Winteringham for the special prosecutor:
"The Crown opposes Mr. Krog's application for unrestricted access to the materials because Mr. Krog has not identified what he intends to do with the materials.
"Instead, the Crown proposes a two-stage process. In the first stage, Mr. Krog would be able to view the materials. The second stage would require Mr. Krog to make a second application in which he would advise of his proposed use of the materials. The Crown would then consider its position on release of the materials including whether conditions should be attached to Mr. Krog's use of the materials."...
".....At this stage in the review, the New Democrats are scratching their heads over why the special prosecutor fought to withhold this material in the first place. One can only note that it is not the first time someone has had to go to court to gain access to information regarding this case.
Nor was it the last. Krog's experience in some ways resembles that of Auditor-General John Doyle, which will be the subject of a column later this week...."
The Jacqueline is, of course, the former west coast ferry Queen of Esquimalt, sold by BC Ferries in mid-2008 to a Chinese company for a reported $1.7 million. She was one of four older ferries being turfed as part of the company’s replacement program, and the sale drew much attention — and raised many eyebrows abroad — for the high price paid for the 45-year-old ferry. She contained asbestos, didn’t conform international standards and was unlikely to be usable as a passenger ferry elsewhere without considerable work. BC Ferries CEO David Hahn said after the sale that she was destined for use as a cargo ship “off the coast of China”.
At the time, I thought the price was unbelievably high. So did a number of business folks who work in the maritime industry outside of BC, some of them outside of Canada. Their emails to me in 2008 and 2009 all boiled down to the same essential question: “What the heck?”
In the words of one writer, it “smelled bad.”.....
{snippety doo-dah}
....Then late last week, I ran across an intriguing Associated Press news article that might have connected some of the mysterious dots surrounding the Princess J, I thought. The Globe and Mail, the BBC and assorted international news outlets featured the article fairly prominently.
The story says that China’s central bank was reporting that officials have stolen as much as $120 billion US in assorted crooked deals over the past decade, and then fled the country — mainly to the United States. (The study was initially posted on the People’s Bank of China website this week but has since been removed, the story says.)....
{snippety doodle dandy}
The company has asked for tax incentives similar to the film industry, but not everyone agrees it should be given subsidies. B.C.'s eventual decision on support will be included in Seaspan's final bid."
VICTORIA -- Premier Christy Clark has hired former CTV news anchor Pamela Martin to be her new director of outreach.
Martin, who started the job on Wednesday, will make an annual salary of $130,000.
A job description for the role says Martin will develop Clark's "vision of creating open government by reaching out to British Columbians."
It also says Martin will "improve public awareness and engagement and ensure communication is a two-way conversation," and that she will "help the public's concerns be translated into action by sharing with the Premier the challenge British Columbians face navigating government."
Martin will also be expected to co-ordinate events such as town hall meetings for Clark......
“If you were a part of this, and I’m speaking to people who may have been responsible last night, I promise you this. You won’t be able to live in anonymity, you won’t be behind your bandana or under your hoodie.
“We are going to do everything we can to make sure the public understands who you were. Your family, your friends, your employer will know you were a part of it......
David Basi: "So basically, um, what we have is the draft RFP."
Bruce Clark: "Okay."
Basi: "Um, that uh, we have t' make changes and y'know, uh, um, we can draft it anyway we want now, right: so..."
Clark: "Whose, wh', whose hands is it in?"
Basi: "It's, it's in our hands right now."
Clark: "Okay."
Basi: "Uh, and then it'll go back to transportation. And then they'll look at it and then they'll uh, um, issue the official RFP."
Clark: "Okay. What are the time lines like?"
Basi: "Uh, two weeks."
Basi: "So, I can sit on this thing for two weeks. So if you come back next week then you can take it and look at it, show it to them. They can, they can, y'know, change some of the words around, that's obviously, some buzz words they wanna see in there, right?"
Clark: "Yeah."
Basi: "And these, these companies know how to, how to, y'know, get the fluff out of this shit and how to tailor it to themselves, right?"
Clark: "Of course."
....{snippety doo-dah}....
Clark: "Wonder, wonder if it would be better if you got it couriered from here or not?"
Basi: "I don't care. Whatever you want. I don't care."
Clark: "Okay, well maybe I'll get you to courier it to Europe for me, or something."
Basi: "You want me to courier it to Europe?"
Clark: "Sure, you could do that."
.....{snippety doodle-dandy}....
Clark: "Or uh, or, or can it be faxed or something or?"
Basi: "Oh it can be faxed, yeah. Do you wanna give me a fax, secure fax number?"
Clark: "Yeah, I'll get you a secure fax number and we can do it that way."
Basi: "Yeah, you get me a fax number and I'll fax it to you.
Clark: "Sounds great my friend."
...(Kantagaran) spent early 2009 assisting his good friend Glen Hansard in the production of The Swell Season’s record Strict Joy.
His own debut album, written and recorded in Ireland during the summer of 2010 was a dark lyrical affair dealing with the rage and nostalgia of heartbreak, offset by joyful arrangements of brass and percussion.
He arrived in Los Angeles later that summer without knowing anyone and began assembling a group of musicians. They have played shows in Molly Malones, Room5, Silverlake Lounge, Viper Room and Bootleg Theater.
He met a girl at his first show in Los Angeles. They got married four weeks later in Las Vegas. They now live downtown and have a pet rabbit. This means he’ll probably be sticking around for a while....
Putative Pollster: "Hello, I am _______________ and I'm calling from Campaign Support on behalf of the Smart Tax Alliance to get your opinion about the upcoming referendum on tax harmonization."
Putative Pollster: "Are you in favour of extinguishing the HST and reinstating the PST along with the GST?"
Potential Response: Yes/Undecided/No/Refused/Hostile/
Business Number/
Add to DNC list/
Caller Hungup/
Voter Not Available
Out of Riding/
Language Barrier
Potential Response: (to 'qualifier' above): Yes/ No / Refused/ Caller Hung Up
Putative Pollster: If they say yes (to the qualifier above)..... End /Complete..... "Thank you again, and have a great day/evening." [Close survey and set disposition as Do Not Call.]
Putative Pollster:: If they say no (to the qualifier above)......"I would just like to confirm (who I am speaking with)"..... And do you know if other members of your household are in favour of extinguishing the HST and reinstating the PST along with the GST?"
Pollster: "Thank you. Keep an eye on your mail as your mail-in referendum ballots will start arriving between June 13 and June 24. If by June 24 you don’t have your ballot, please do not hesitate to contact us"
"Riots" in Vancouver.
Very good live radio, helicopter and on the ground reporting tonight, when the Vancouver team played for the Stanley Cup.
Tens of thousands who came to view outdoor screens of the game were caught up in a scene of a few square blocks of chaos.
Vancouver lost the game and as that became clear, protests began. A teddy bear was set on fire, a police car was overturned and set on fire and over the next three hours four or five prominent buildings had their windows broken and some bold souls, mostly twenty year old males, entered and looted boxes of makeup.
As of now they have not gained entry to the Future Shop where the stereos and TVs are.
I think it is finished, the people who came into town to celebrate the Canuck victory tonight, hyped by the excellent marketing of hockey in Vancouver have hopefully found somewhere to spend the night. The drunk ones might have a more difficult time.
This police confrontation with the people turns my thoughts to why this is the chosen outlet for those hockey fans -- is it simply that the system allows no other form of expression?
It will be a difficult morning for people who work in the downtown core, but again that is four square blocks. They will see broken windows and vomit on the street.
I hope that they will also see that this is a successful use of police to keep the peace, and that things did not get out of hand.
Successful deployment of hundreds of police, a dozen mounted police, a few police dogs and perhaps twenty riot cops with shields, and some smoke bombs, flash-bangs and pepper spray bombs were able to turn away the crowd of some thousand or so onlookers and photo opportunists and vandals.
So there should be no call for police escalation.
Posted by: jonku | Jun 16, 2011 4:10:13 AM | 67
__________
Now compare that with what I heard Don Cherry tell the puffmaster flash, Rick Cluff, this morning on the local CBC, which was that it was all the fault of left-wing pinko governments and their left-wing pinko media enablers that won't let the police break heads and take care of everything. Cluff, of course, let it all go and instead extolled the virtues of Cherry's suit jacket from last night which just gave the latter an excuse to take a shot at gays.... Seriously.
_________
The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Coal Association of Canada, the Council of Forest Industries, the New Car Dealers Association of British Columbia and the Railway Association of Canada. What do these organizations have in common? Well, for starters, each of them is a lobby group. That means they're responsible for promoting the best interest of their members. But there's one other thing they have in common.
Each of them - along with 38 other lobby groups - is a member of the Smart Tax Alliance.....