There'sNoCultLikeA
CultFullOfAllKindsOfCitizensVille
As we noted a few days ago, the Dean of the British Columbia Parliamentary Press Gallery recently lost his mind and made like an old Railgate Cult Member when he started assembling a list of possible witnesses for a 'potential' Health Care Worker Firing Inquiry.
And now Integrity BC's Dermod Travis has started to flesh the list out a little in the GStraight:
...When it comes to the health ministry firings, five names spring to mind, but former health minister Margaret MacDiarmid isn't one of them.
She pulled the trigger and takes the rap for it, but sworn in as health minister only the day before, it's doubtful she was involved in the process. At that point her knowledge would be limited to briefing notes and what might have been said around the cabinet table.
Finance minister Mike de Jong was health minister from March 2011 until September 4, 2012. The suspensions happened under his watch.
Graham Whitmarsh, deputy minister of health until June 2013, played a key role.
John Dyble, deputy minister of health (June 2009 to March 2011) and today deputy minister to the premier and head of the public service was clearly involved.
The premier's communications director at the time, Sara MacIntyre, was no wallflower. It's a pretty safe bet she had something to say about something related to the firings.
And then there was the premier's chief of staff, Ken Boessenkool.
Given his position Boessenkool can't have been a mere bystander through the whole affair, particularly with an election a year away. He was either part of the decision-making process or was focused with MacIntyre on preparing for any fallout...
{snippety doo-dah}
...Boessenkool was brought in from Alberta to be Premier Christy Clark's new chief of staff.
According to his biography, Boessenkool was a "senior policy advisor and strategist to Conservative Party of Canada Leader Stephen Harper" and "played senior strategic roles in the 2004 and 2006 Conservative campaigns."
He was also a registered lobbyist for three pharmaceutical firms in Ottawa between 2004 and 2010, including Pfizer Canada...
Hmmmmmm....
Government mixing with corporatism to screw people over with dictatorial decrees (and actions and deeds).
Gosh.
Isn't that the definition of something or other?
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Railgate 'Top 40'?....Well, you know....This.
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8 comments:
The usual suspects.
http://theprovincepodcasts.com/inthehouse/fired-health-care-researcher-ron-mattson/?utm_source=Vancouver+Province&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=bcpoli
an inquiry, surely they jest. we know what happens, we know what gets said, we know what happens in court. It is up to the citizens of the province to settle the problem and they don't appear to care. Until they do, we just keep on going. Wait until Harper and his herd cut $30 BILLION from health care transfer payments in 2017, if he is returned to office.
Mike Dejong treating people like subhumans? The people of Abbotsford repeatedly electing that ass makes us all look bad, which we aren't.
I'd like to see the briefing notes of Wendy Taylor and her gang of interrogators plus any notes relating to the questions they'd be asking in the interrogations of the researchers. These notes would tell us what the main points of the interrogation were and what her handlers were directing her to focus on. The fact that most of the interviewees were exonerated shows to me that the interrogations were extremely flawed and their motives were more in the realm of a witchhunt.
But, as most emails and other records in Clarkland are transitory in nature and therefore deletable, fat chance they'll ever see the light of day. I'm hoping that one of the participants has an attack of conscience (or prosecution), however unlikely that may be, and starts blowing that old whistle.
sd--
Indeed.
And yet, notice who is not on the list....
At least not yet.
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e.a.f.--
I could be wrong (as I have been many times before in this regard), but I really do think that there has been a bit of a sea change in the way the local proMedia punditry is following up on this particular story...And I sense even the selective leaking to a select one of them is starting to piss the others off.
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Beer--
But....
What about that tractor- and manure-assisted piece of puff-fluffery on the good Mr. de Jong from a couple of weeks back in the VSun penned by none other than Mr. Rob Shaw?
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mark--
Ya.
I actually thought that Mr. Palmer's follow-up column on this was really good (which means I need to put together a true 'credit-where-credit-is-due' - type post.
Essentially, he said that if they're going to release a little in an attempt to (falsely) try to justify their actions there can be no justification now for not showing us all of it.
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On October 20, 2014 Graham Whitmarsh’s lawyer wrote Christy Clark, Mike de Jong, Terry Lake, John Dyble, and Lynda Tarras to say the pending review of the health ministry firings was designed to pin the tail on the donkey, and his client was concerned he was the intended donkey. He contended that since Dyble and Tarras had written the terms of reference for the review but had also been involved every step of the way in the investigations and firings, they were in a serious conflict of interest. Deputy Attorney General Richard Fyfe responded on behalf of the government in an attempt to assuage his fears, essentially saying that since the review wouldn’t be looking at much, he had nothing to worry about.
It’s interesting to note that while Whitmarsh (who signed the dismissal letters as deputy minister) took umbrage at the thought his rump was being eyed for the pinning, at no time did he ever say there was no tail to be pinned. In fact he expressed concern the review wasn’t examining more senior equine posteriors. In any case, Whitmarsh refused to participate in the review, and as Fyfe suggested the review didn’t amount to anything anyway. Nor did a subsequent review by the Comptroller General, who complained of staffing shortages and legal stonewalling in an e-mail response to the RCMP’s query about his investigation. Since the review was supposed to be an internal examination of government contracting practices, one wonders who was doing the legal stonewalling.
So seven government employees are wrongfully fired, ruining their lives and reputations, and one of them commits suicide as a result. In response we have two feeble government investigations that went nowhere, the deputy minister who signed the dismissal letters lawyering up and saying there is blame to be laid but it should be higher up, and a premier who offers a vague, “Sorry about that.” If there was ever a case for a public inquiry, we’re looking at it.
I can’t help but mention another case that cried out for a public inquiry that hasn’t happened (yet). It involved the same key players as this one. A minister named de Jong lurking in the background, a deputy named Whitmarsh signing the key documents, and an assistant deputy (soon to be deputy) attorney general named Fyfe providing the legal advice. There’s a donkey running around without a tail in that BC Rail payoff too.
like RCMP at Vancouver airport tasering death
this also needs a public inquiry
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