ClubVille
From the Twittmachine feed of Mr. John O'Dowd, a 'senior' producer at the Corus/Global/CKNW 'lectronic media hydra-head:
Now.
If you hadn't been paying attention you might think that that the reason we didn't know what was going on way back when was entirely due to the machinations of super-secretive BC Liberal government politicians who bamboozled everyone until very, very recently.
But here's the thing.
Those who were paying attention, and we assume that local proMedia members who are paid to do so can be included that category, knew all about by 2010 at the latest.
How do we know this?
Because enterprising independents like Sean Holman left a record of what went down in 2009/10.
Some of it in pixel form.
And...
Some of it in video form.
In other words, there can be no excuses here because the evidence was out there and yet the great majority of proMedia Club members chose to ignore it.
Heckfire.
I would even go so far as to suggest that many of those same club members are still ignoring it.
OK?
.
10 comments:
Imagine that. Imagine that...
It’s possible (dare I say the evidence shows likely) that politicians were hiding the true extent of the problem.
It’s obvious that the proMedia Club chose to ignore it because it didn’t report until events became uncomfortable even for that intransigent institution. Sam Cooper is now doing a sterling job of rectifying that, but he may not have been and certainly now never will be a full-fledged member of the Club.
What should be of very great concern to the citizens of this province however is the role of the RCMP in this.
If there was widespread ongoing illegal activity on the scale that now seems evident from numerous historical and contemporary reports, and RCMP members were aware of it (as is evident from public statements and the IIGET report to Rich Coleman), why after all this time have only two individuals been charged, and just recently at that? Are we to believe that only two individuals and only one casino were involved in all of this?
We should expect that in the face of serious ongoing criminal activity, the RCMP (or any other police force) would vigorously enforce the law and raise the alarm very loudly should political action of any kind be taken to thwart that enforcement. That doesn’t seem to have happened, and we should be asking why.
But that brings us back to the politicians and the promedia Club doesn’t it?
Lew great question about the RCMP. Here is my answer: the RCMP and the B.C. Lieberals were negotiating a 20 year deal to police B.C. If that deal had not been signed, the RCMP would have had several thousand officers which surplus to the organization. Then of course you have to consider Poulson was in charge for some of that time and lord knows what that man was thinking or doing. The casino was in Richmond, RCMP. Burnaby, RCMP. Surrey, RCMP. the only large municipal entity in B.C. which has its own police force is Vancouver and then Abbotsford.
The press wasn't going to report what many of us were reading on blogs because they wanted all that advertising they were getting from the B.C. Lieberals, either as government or party advertising. I don't know how much money was spent but it must have been in the millions. PostMedia wasn't making a lot of other money at the time.
it wasn't the individual reporters who decide what is printed, that would be a "corporate" decision. So the real question now is: Why is it suddenly O.K. for the Vancouver Sun to print all of this news by Sam Cooper. Cooper would not have done all this work if the paper wasn't going to print it.
In my opinion money laundering was essential to the economy of B.C. and specific groups of developers, real estate types, and politicians. If all these houses, condo buildings weren't being built just what would all those workers be doing? Not much and a lot would still be in Alberta.
"Saturday, hundreds of protesters took to the waters of Burrard Inlet to continue the campaign against Kinder Morgan’s plans to expand their Burnaby bitumen export facility.
Postmedia chose not to cover this story."
https://in-sights.ca/2017/10/29/postmedias-colours/
Selective engagement.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/no-name-atms-a-tool-for-money-launderers-rcmp-say-1.2538162
Lots of interesting stuff going on about that time. IIGET report was dated Jan 29, 2009. Coleman apparently killed IIGET Feb 18, 2009. Kash Heed unexpectedly quit as Chief of the West Vancouver Police Department that week and then became Solicitor General a few months later. Lots of speculation about why he quit, but speculation C in this article relates to e.a.f.’s comment:
https://www.straight.com/article-202913/west-vancouver-police-chief-kash-heed-resigns-why
This article also relates to e.a.f.’s comment and is troubling:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/kash-heed-questions-rcmp-contract-talks-1.871809
I’ve always wondered why the proMedia Club didn’t seize on and investigate the statement by Kash Heed that the RCMP was out to get him. The key piece here is not that the RCMP brass might have been displeased with Heed, but the fact that as a 30-year career law officer who had risen to Superintendent with the Vancouver Police Department, Chief of the West Vancouver Police Department, and Solicitor General of BC, Heed thought it was perfectly plausible that the RCMP would pursue criminal charges against him because of some personal vendetta.
Think about it. Why would he make that statement if, in his long career working closely with the RCMP and watching how they operate, he had not seen it happen before? He was openly saying that’s how our national police force operates. They will go after people (even in high places) who cross them. And he was in a special position to know that.
That issue should have been steadfastly pursued by our pro journalists, especially Mike Smyth, who received the text. I don’t recall him or any of his peers doing that.
Baldry is on the job tonite folks, he just tweeted a donation box has been stolen.... when it comes to “gut feeling” journalism, where is John Daly’s intuition after he intuited to stake out glen Clark’s house lo these many years ago, he either has lost his prescient bowels or he doesn’t know the river rock casino address
Bruce, that made me laugh.
A. 3:57 p.m. typed it in. interesting. One is an article from 2008 where some one was told to back off on an "inquiry". The other is an article dated Sept. 2017. Now they have interest, at the national level. Of course for all we know it will simply be buried again.
Back in the day, in Vancouver, money laundering wasn't a big necessity. there was a vault in downtown Vancouver where every one and anyone could put their "goods", including wacks of cash, diamonds, etc. Then it got hit. they never did find out who did it or where all the stuff went. it was so full of stuff, that one cop had to remove something which was stuck in the sole of his shoe, a big diamond. Anyhow I digress. Following that heist new methods were required in B.C. and we were growing.
By the 1980s money laundering was up and running. it became more mainstream in my opinion in this century but that may have been because there was a lot more cash to be dealt with a much of it coming from overseas.
It is so easy to establish a company in Canada. Not all banks are created equally nor are their ethics.
If Canada is not careful we will become an even greater place to launder money. One does have to question why some group of "investors" want to purchase Canada's largest construction corporation.
Now that we have a new government in office we can only hope Mr. Eby takes care of business and the money laundering business for good. it would be in the NDP's best interest to deal with the issue because in the long run, it will be in their political interests. A really good investigation might be the end of the B.C. Lieberals and Diane Watts will have to find another job,
The problem,in BC,is that lady justice may have money in one of the weigh scales and to fend off and defend the sword is made of rubber?
money on one end of the weigh scales and the other a rubber sword? that works. On the other hand they have removed her and they just do what they do because it has been done so long in this province many don't see the problem. its just taking care of your friends. its like how do we expect journalists to report on politicians if they're all friends. how do we expect newspapers to be independent when their biggest single advertiser is the party and government?
Quebec and Ontario had organized crime. B.C., there was nothing organized about it. Then as the province grew various factions started to fight for market share and really B.C. has always been the end of the road in Canada.
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