Has Occupy Vancouver Become The Dominant Force In Next Week's Civic Election?

ThisElectionHasSevenDays

LeftVille

It's always tough for the average voter to gauge what is really going down as election day in Lotusland approaches, internal party polls that are immediately splashed across the front pages of local CorpMedia print organs notwithstanding.

For all kinds of reasons, including the lack a ward system 'round here.

But the thing to remember is that sometimes the issues that matter least, at least with respect to how the city will actually be run by the next administration, can make a big difference in the closing days of the campaign.

The 2008 example, which was the Olympic Village financing debacle that Mr Robertson and friends used to great advantage, is an easy one to recall.

But what about 2005?

Well, there was, of course, that Big Green Bus, but I think it would be a mistake not to also remember how he who would come to rule Spam-A-Lot before it went all Caucusy also sat down and broke bread for a rump-roast dinner with those who were too progressive for the real Mr. Green in a perhaps just successful enough manner to bleed enough uber-Classic COPE votes from the Alliance.

And now?

Well, Bob Mackin makes a reasonable case that the game changer could be Occupy Vancouver.

And I know Ian Reid, who thinks of these things in both progressive as well as real-politick, nut-cutting terms is worried about the bamboozlement factor, aided and abetted by the local corpMedia mouthpieces, that could help float the nonsensical, anti-sensical Fantasy Island-destined party boat that is allegedly being steered by Ms. Always Campaigning.

But I have another thought.

Which is that the Independents sure are getting a lot more play around here this time around in the midst of all the Occupy talk.

And that seems to be especially true for those independents who are able to articulate a reasonable message that reasonates with 99.99% of the people in Vancouver who are not developers getting rich off of things like the 'revitalization' of the Cambie St. corridor*.

So.

Here's a question to ponder....

Is it possible for a couple of Independents to breakthrough without bleeding so many votes from the Alliance that it allows the nonsensical Fantasy Island party to start closing libraries again?

_________

*And if anybody wants to see an example of the 0.01% at work, just keep your eyes open as you travel South on Cambie and cross 29th (by the entrance to the Park)....There are two signs that you will pass on your right just past that intersection, on the same piece of property in that block where all the houses have been bought up and are now up for auction....One is a 'For Sale' sign, and another is a civic election 'Campaign' sign....And guess what?....They both have the same last name on them.

Frances Bula, who had some issues with the actual mechanics of internal poll that the VSun trumpeted goes out of her way to not chide the guy whose byline is on the piece, Jeff Lee....But I've gotta wonder why, exactly, that poll was the dominant part of Mr. Lee's lede...I mean, it would seem to me that stuff like this is worth reporting, perhaps, as part of a discussion on where the various camps 'think' they are and what buttons they are likely to push in the last days of an election campaign....But to make a questionable internal poll the dominant aspect of a front page story's lede one week before the election?...Well, I'm sorry, but it is very hard for me to conclude that that is not a bit of a 'push' intentional or otherwise....

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RailGate Double-Down...Mike Smyth Is Shocked To Learn There Is Gambling Going On.

WhyWon'tThePunditsTellUsWhat

TheyReallyThinkVille

So.

Mike Smyth, following up on stuff the RailGate Cultists have had nailed down for months, wants to know (or at least I think he wants to know) why (yes that's right, 'why'!) Mdme. (not)Premier, unlike Ms. Talk Show Titillator before her, no longer wants to know (what she knows we know) why (there's that word again) we paid Mess'rs Basi and Virk a cool six million dollars to get up from the craps table and walk away just as the heavy hitters were getting set to roll their dice for reals.

I mean, come on Mr. Smyth.

Do you really have to stare into the glycerin-laced eyes of Ingrid Bergman, and/or get whacked-up the side of the head by Claude Rains, to come up with the answer to that one?

_______

Speaking of Ms. Bergman, here's a hell of a tune from our Woody, translated by the irrepressible Billy Bragg, that oughta air things out a little given the stink of this thing....

Oh, and in case you were wondering....Ya, I just might keep turning over this rotting carcass that was dumped on our collective lawn yesterday all long weekend long....

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The RailGate Double-Down Shuffle...

AllThePay-OffsThatFit

(not)PremierVille

So.

Why wasn't the report written by the (not)Premier's hand-picked man that was supposed to be about the Basi-Virk Double-Down not actually about the Basi-Virk Double-Down?

Norman Farrell has an excellent post up that explores this subject to devastating effect.

Here is Norman's kicker:

"...The report only helps the Liberal Government change the subject and that will only be successful if mainstream media mouthpieces allow the switch in focus. As Dix pointed out, citizen discomfort was never with policy (regarding indemnification government officials facing trial), it was with failure to follow policy..."

That is a critical point because the report from the good Dr. Toope who, it should be noted in the interest of full disclosure is also nominally my boss, is all about 'the policy' rather than the failure to follow it.

OK?

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Who Really Commissioned the BC Gov't Employee Legal Fee Report?

TakeOutTheTrashDay

RailGateStillRustingVille

The Campbell-Clark government released the Toope report today, right before everyone took off for the Remembrance Day long weekend.

And it most definitely does NOT deal with the Basi-Virk double-down in any detail.

How do we know this?

Because it is stated, up front, by the author himself, on page 2:

"...I was well aware in conducting this review that the concern to reconsider the indemnity policy was prompted in some considerable measure by public interest in the indemnities granted to Messrs. Basi and Virk in criminal proceedings against them. However, my mandate did not focus on those cases alone. Although I consider them, I do so only in the context of fifteen or so years of practice involving many other cases....."

****

Now.

When Dr. Toope was asked to conduct his review back in the late spring of this year, the ask was designed, in my opinion, to mollify a riled-up electorate that was extremely angry about the $6 million that was paid out to Mess'rs Basi and Virk that facilitate the abrupt end of the Railgate trial just as all manner of Campbell-Clark government functionaries and associates were set to take the stand to answer questions, under oath, with no Sub-Judice Priests to protect them....

So.

Who was it, exactly, that commissioned this review that did not review the thing that the public most wanted reviewed?

Well, conventional wisdom has it that it was then (but now no longer) Attorney General Barry Penner.

But...

I seem to recall another possibility.

One that was raised by Les Leyne in a little smidgeon of a 'Day-In-The-Life' story in the VT-C from back in June that goes like this:

"....There's also a hint the premier may have been involved in naming UBC's Stephen Toope to review the $6-million Basi-Virk legal payout.

Attorney General Barry Penner told the legislature about it in May, but Clark met with Toope for an hour on April 15, when unspecified issues were discussed...."

Interesting that, especially given the fact that Ms. Clark is now nowhere to be found given that she is far, far away in China on this, the latest BC Government, 'Take Out The Trash Day'.

OK?

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The Best Vancouver Civic Election Analysis I Have Read So Far.

TheForgottenQuadrant

SouthBySouthEastVille

After the 2008 Civic Election results came in we were struck by how the City of Vancouver has come to vote not East-West but rather diagonally from NorthWest to SouthEast (see map above, which shows the GreenGregor vs. RedPeter poll-by-poll splits).

Given all that you would think that the major civic parties would do their best to field candidates from all four corners of Lotusland this time around.

But it turns out that is not the case.

How do we know this?

Because a blogger, a fellow named Chris from 'Canadian Veggie', has done the digging and built the maps which demonstrate that the NPA and Vision/COPE have, essentially, nobody from the SouthEast quadrant running.

Head on over to Chris' place and have a look.

It's great stuff.

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Is Public Eye Online More Famous Now That It Is....

AllTheW'sThatFit

HolmanVille

.....Offline?

Looks like it just might be, based on the response of the slightly less 'independent' media.

The proprietor himself, S.M. Holman, has the story:

"It's been just over a week since I announced I was suspending Public Eye's daily investigative coverage of provincial politics. Since then, I've been overwhelmed and appreciative of everyone who has expressed their support for the work I've done over the past eight years, as well the coverage of that announcement - which included interviews on CBC Radio, CFAX 1070 and Shaw TV, as well as a news storyand an op-ed in The Tyee. That resulted in Public Eye being Canada's top trending twitter topic - which gives me hope for the future of investigative journalism in this country, a future that I will be part of...."

****

Meanwhile, so far, the entire Public Eye archive remains intact.

Which means that you can punch in just about any Lotuslandian name and/or topic matters into Mr. Holman's search box and come up with all kinds of interesting raw material that you can then use as a jumping off point to do a wee bit of 'investigating' of your own.

So.....

Wanna give it a try right now?

Now.....

What might you be interested in if you are visiting this particular little F-Troop listed Blogsite?

I know!

How about we look for potential connections between folks that were either involved in or were impacted by the sudden end of the BC Rail trial last fall?

Are you ready?

Step One....Head over to Mr. Holman's archives......

(Insert 'Jeopardy' music here..............................................................)

Are you back?

Good.

Now, wanna see how you can jump off from that starting point into a little bit o' investigation for a RailGate Cultish Nation?

Well.....Here you go......

(Insert another round of Jeopardy music here for a thousand Alex.............................................)

See how easy it is?

And absolutely no unnamed sources, secret or otherwise, were required to complete this exercise in short attention span investigative journalism.

OK?

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Occupy.....RailGate?

SometimesTheWheelsOfJusticeGrind

WeirdlyVille

Does Bob Mackin never sleep?

Apparently he stayed up late last night combing the BC Supreme Court Registry and discovered the following:

...[the]..."Vancouver Supreme Court List" shows the city application [to dismantle the tent city] is to be heard by Associate Chief Justice Anne MacKenzie in room 55 at 2 p.m. (MacKenzie was the judge who presided over the Basi-Virk B.C. Rail corruption trial, which occupiers might call a case of 1% crony capitalism.)...."

[stuff in square brackets mine]

****

So....

What's next?

J. Keithly doing duets with E. Bennett to raise funds for a labour-backed Casino-bid atop the Flying Carpet?

(with C. Biscuits, repatriated to Canuckistan, banging the crap out of the Devil Horns, of course)

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Those French...They Have A Different Word For Everything.

AllTheF-WordsThatFit

BCPlaceVille

....Including 'Fraud'.

At least when it comes to those cables that work a certain retractable roof in Lotusland.

Allegedly.

Bob Mackin has the story:

"....The French headquartered cable erection company hired by a Quebec steel subcontractor is suing for almost $6.5 million. B.C. Pavilion Corporation, the taxpayer-owned stadium’s operator, is named as a defendant.

Freyssinet filed a lawsuit in British Columbia Supreme Court on Oct. 31, charging Canam with breach of contract, breach of statutory trust and equitable fraud....."

Once again....

Please recall that the decision to go ahead with the $600 million dollar roof/restoration was made by the Campbell/Clark government AFTER the 2008 recession.

Thus, every single dollar spent on the devil-horned flying carpet is money we do not have for crazy stuff we are told we cannot afford like, say, residential housing for the adult disabled that the current (not)Premier told us recently costs quite a lot*.

OK?

______

*The price that Ms. Clark put on the heads of each adult disabled, on the floor of the legislature, was $50,000 per year....Put another way, that means the BC Place roof has cost us 12,000 adult disabled person years so far....And if the French cable guys are successful with their lawsuit?....Well, that will be an additional 130....Adult disabled years, I mean...Oh, and just in case you forgot, when Ms. Clark put the price on the heads of those fellow citizens that require our help most, she quipped that those who are concerned for their welfare are just playing a 'game'....

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Mr. Beer 'N Hockey's Saturday Afternoon Story

He'sTryingToTellUsSomethingAboutOurLives

ToGiveUsInsightBetweenBlackAndWhiteVille

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Update: Sunday @ noon: Beer has written letters to both Mayor Robertson and the Occupiers.... The sentiments and the words are very wise, indeed....Please read them.

______

Over the next few days and weeks there will be all kinds of derision, finger-pointing and calls for recriminations over what has happened at Occupy Vancouver.

But I am willing to bet that very few, if any, of those 'reports' will get to the heart of the matter the way Mr. Beer 'N Hockey did last night.

In case you do not know Beer well there are a few things you need to know about him before you read his story, which is not an easy thing to get through precisely because it matters so much....

****

First, Beer is an old punk rocker.

Second, Beer is a professional first-aid attendant.

Third, Beer knows what is what with the world and he speaks his mind freely. This means that he does not censor either his thoughts or his language when he writes.

And fourth, Beer can flat-out write.

Here is his prelude:

....Had lunch, had a couple cold ones, loaded the Hammer into the car, kissed Sonja good-bye and headed into Dope City for an afternoon at the Occupation. After listening to the traffic report I put (Lou Reed's latest) "Lulu" in the cd player. F*ck that a**hole at the CBC, my rock 'n' roll animal sounds just f*cking fine with Metallica as his band. The two cd set had reached its second to last track, "Dragon," as we entered the east side. Always the sh*tf*cking heroin. I always go into Dope City along Hastings. I refuse to avert my eyes from the real fucking world. As we rolled ever so slowly along I saw a young Indian woman standing in her pyjama bottoms at the entrance to the Chelsea Inn. Of course she had a cell phone in her hand. I did not know what it was but I got the feeling something creepy or something worse than creepy was going, or about to go, down....

And here's the rest of the story:

"....Nobody who wants to make a better world should ever, ever walk alone.

Not long after making that observation I was feet away from where the sh*t went down. As I predicted, and feared, a few days ago, somebody died. I backed off to what I thought was a respectful distance from where I watched the paramedics do their work and saw a few Occupants tussle with some press who were not as respectful with their unwanted presence as I. Tried to revive her for twenty minutes before they gave up, though radio reports I heard later on said she did not die until after she had reached hospital.

All this happened minutes before DOA were scheduled to play on the old courthouse steps. Does Death, that most inevitable motherf*cker of all, follow around those punk rock motherf*ckers like a hungry dog follows a man carrying around a bag of rotten meat, or what? In time the assembled crowd were asked if they would prefer if DOA did not play as we mourned our dead comrade.

In the finest of punk rock traditions, we danced on her motherf*cking grave. "

So.

When you see, read and hear all the self-righteous statements from people who should know better in the coming days and weeks please remember that none of that blather really matters because, in the end, as Beer makes crystal clear, we are all in this together.

OK?

______

And, ya, I did miss one where I should have inserted the star at the top the '8' key on the board, above....I may not be able to write as well, or speak my mind as freely, as Beer but I can darn well try....At least a little.

.

What Fresh Hell Is This?

BangingEveryLever

InAFluorescentHazeVille

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Update Saturday @ 11pm: What I have to say below means nothing. I was off the grid most of the day because of what I had to do earlier which was essentially a meaningless errand (as noted below) and then what I had to do later (which was the usual science-geek junk) which also means nothing, really....In contrast, what Mr. Beer 'N Hockey has to say this evening means pretty much everything...Beer was downtown today, just a few feet from where the tragedy at Occupy Vancouver happened, and his report has all the humanity that just about every single proMedia report does not...

______

Normally, I would rather poke myself in the eyes with sharp sticks than go there.

But today I had to.

Go there, I mean.

And I did not buy a bloody thing.

You see, because the DMV office closest to where I work is out of commission, I had to go all the way out to the office located off just off Kingsway, at Metrotown, to renew my drivers' license on Saturday.

And once I got into the office it was a piece of cake. In fact, the folks working there were efficient and polite to all concerned.

Including me.

But Mein Gott in the Himalayas, the getting in and out that office was nothing short of a nightmare dipped in a million tiny amygdala-homing needles laced with spongiform encephalitic string-warts dipped in tabasco sauce mixed with nine million molar phosphoric acid.

Thus, I really have only one thing to say about the place which, to first sample, and then mangle, the good Docktor, is the following:

"Metrotown is what the whole hep world would be doing on Saturday afternoons if the Nazis had won the war."

___________

For those non-Lotuslandians out there, Metrotown is our own perversely anti-private Idahoan fishnet and toddler toy emporium that is actually a replicant-laced version of the set of Blade Runner that also houses a near-suburban mall teeming with hundreds of shops disguised as Pachinko Palaces that sell nothing but crap to thousands upon thousands of lever bangers that have been convinced that they need all of it....One really has to wonder if the Sixth Reich is truly upon us given that..... 'The madness goes on and on and nobody seems to notice.'

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The Eighteen Percent Solution...

EvenABlindTweet

FindsAnAlbatross-ShapedAcornInTheGrassSometimesVille

So.

It would appear that the object of the BC Liberal Party's recent smear campaign is rising faster than Ed Asner's helium balloon-assisted animatronic abode constructed from nothing but ones and zeros by the House of Pixar.

At least that's the story according to the pollsters over at Angus-Reid:

"Across British Columbia, 40 per cent of decided voters and leaners (+2 since March) say they will support the NDP candidate in their constituency in the next provincial election. The New Democrats had not been completely alone in first place since a survey conducted exactly one year ago, before the announcement of Gordon Campbell’s resignation as premier.

The governing BC Liberals are now second wit

h 31 per cent (-12). The BC Conservatives have clearly benefitted from the drop in support for the incumbent party, and have reached the highest level ever recorded in an Angus Reid Public Opinion poll (18%, +13). The BC Greens are fourth with eight per cent (-2)....

{snippety doo-dah}

....The BC Conservatives have increased their standing dramatically, particularly in the Southern Interior and the North. The Tories have attracted a large proportion of former BC Liberal supporters, effectively splitting the centre-right vote, despite the fact that many British Columbians either do not know John Cummins, or have not made up their minds about him..."

All of which says a whole lot about how flat-out wrong the pundits were when they kept telling us, over and over and over again, that the act of 'The Smear' itself was nothing more than a silly 'mistake' that just kept on keeping on after the (not)Premier decided to run away from the electorate earlier in the fall (all the way to Nixon's China?).

Thus, the landed gentry that makes up the majority* of our puffed-up pro-punditry just laughed it all off as dumb and dumber. As a result, they did not feel the need to make the BC Liberal Party braintrust pay for what was clearly an orchestrated, atrocious, duplicitous and misleading character assassination committed with malice aforethought.

Which, in my opinion at least, is no laughing matter because it is corrosive crap like that, especially when it is not called out for what it truly is, that is turning our public square into a place where cynicism, negativity and the politics of destruction reign supreme.

And then, of course, that same ostrich-plumed pro-punditry will, as they do after just about every election these days, chastise we the people for not engaging and voting in 2013.

****

Look.

Despite my diatribe above, I am not trying to say that 'The Smear' did not backfire and actually fill at least one of those tanks of helium that are now inflating all the pockets of John Cummins' hairshirt sweater-vest.

But I am saying that the lead-fingered Wizards behind the LINO's tattered curtain clearly had the trends and numbers to know that they were in big, big trouble on their far rightside weeks, if not months, ago.

Which means that most of the puffed-up pro-pundits that walk amongst us (and/or sit in the semi-private, hoi polloi-free SeaWest Lounge when they are forced to take the ferry instead of the Helijet across the waters) have long known about those numbers too, given what we know about how things really work 'round here.

And while I warily respect, and can see the reasoning/strategic POV, behind Ian Reid's analysis that Mr. Cummins' most excellent high-altitude adventure is grabbing votes from both the right and the left sides of the discontented voter spectrum, I do have to say that, maybe for the very first time ever, I actually kinda/sorta agree with one of the glibbest of the glib of the local 'lectronic media's Horshackian acolytes trying his best to make the Dean's list (far-west, junior-jumping-jack flash 'Pick-Me!' division) on this one....

OK?

______

*There was one way outside media club outlier who did call out the Wizards at the time, and that was Mr. Willcocks....Also, Eleanor Gregory, speaking on Sean Holman's Public Eye radio show, undercut the blather of the Rabble-Rousing panel on the matter when she said, almost under her breath, that "sometimes dumb works"....

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Did The Good People of Motor City Take The Night Train...

WhatFreshHellIsThis

HannaBananaVille

....Out To The CrossRoads To Make A Deal With The Devil?

Why do I ask?

Well....

Now that they actually have a decent football team that even George Plimpton would be proud to play for (again), it would appear that their end of the bargain is to take Nickleback off the rest of the world's hands for a good three or four hours on American Thanksgiving Day.

It is, of course, something we who do not live in Detroit should be most thankful for.

Unfortunately, not everyone both inside and outside the 8 Mile is, apparently, willing to make their ears bleed for Lucifer.

In fact, as of 11pm Thursday evening more than 20,000 Lions fans are just saying No to Chad and Friends.

Imagine that.

Gertrude Stein Was Wrong.

Photo by Angela Bacca

SometimesASayingIs

JustThatVille

"There is no there there..."

Gertrude Stein,

Speaking of Oakland California in the '30's

****

C. and I used to live on the fringes of Oakland.

And as a whiter-than-whitebread boy who grew up in the wilds of Far Left Coast Canuckistan, I can tell you, from personal experience, that Oakland often gets a bad rap.

And that bad wrap re-emerged last week when all kinds of people who should know better snickered into their sleeves about how it was no wonder that the Occupy movement went sideways there last week.

****

Look.

Oakland has its bad bits, especially in West Oakland.

But even there, when we ran into car trouble once just off the Bay Bridge, folks were only too eager to help us out.

And the thing that I find most interesting, and hopeful, about Oakland is that there are real pockets of true integration there.

Which is not something you often, if ever, see in any other decent-sized American city, including Bagdad right across the Bay.

As a result, when the Rodney King riots broke out all over the place just after we first moved down there all was quiet in downtown Oakland.

So, given all that....

I was not at all surprised that the good folks of Oakland (and ya, there did look to be lots of kids from that campus up at the other end of Telegraph Avenue involved as well, but so what?) have now responded to the bizarre police brutality of last week with an eruption of real protest, almost all of it as peaceful as what you see above*.

OK?

________

Apparently, initially, Ms. Stein was actually referring to the fact her childhood house was no longer there when she came back to visit from Paris on a book tour.

Bigger E, who was born tiny e. in Oakland's Kaiser Hospital, first lived in a house that is most definitely is still there. It is also a house we visit every couple of years for all kinds of reasons, including going to visit that campus at the top of Telegraph where I once toiled.

Image at the top of the post was taken by a young Bay Area freelancer named Angela Bacca yesterday.

*Update: Of course, that changed overnight when things got out of hand due to, it would appear, fringe elements provoked another pushback from police...Solid, level, non-hyperbolic coverage looks to be coming, once again, from overseas (i.e. The Guardian).

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Ms. Always Campaigning Successfully Plays To The One Percent...

AllTheTwittsThatFit

Re-TweetVille

....And wants everyone to know it.

To wit:

But here's the thing.....

Does the CoV evn have a 905 Belt that Ms. AC can buy from the Refryers of the Re-Heated RobbFo so that she can wear it for awhile before she attempts to hang it on the Juice Boy?

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This Much I Know...

AllTheMuckThatFit

Shake'NRakeVille

....If I was a young kid interested in investigative journalism I would move to Victoria immediately.

Why?

So I could learn from a master who has proven, in spades, that one person with little more than a laptop, a phone line and a whole lot of tenacity and smarts really can make a difference.

****

Sadly, for the rest of us it appears that S.M. Holman will now have a little more time to teach the tricks of his trade to the young whipper snappers:

Since 2003, I've been honoured to be your eyes and ears in British Columbia's capital city, providing daily investigative coverage of provincial politics. That coverage now amounts to an archive of more than 6,000 stories - many of which have had a substantial impact on public policy and governance. But all good things must come to an end. So today I'm announcing the suspension of the site's daily reporting...

{snippety doo-dah}

...I have not made this difficult decision lightly. I founded Public Eye because I deeply believe journalism - the reporting of "something that somebody somewhere wants to suppress" - is an essential part of civic society. It informs and engages the public and, in doing so, safeguards democracy...

{snippety doodle-dandy}

...Unfortunately, Public Eye is unsustainable so long as it's principally me, a computer, a camera and a telephone line. So what's next? Well, Public Eye and its syndicated column may return in another form should a sustainable business model be found. In the meantime, I'll continue hosting Public Eye Radio on CFAX 1070, providing a weekly political commentary on News 1130, as well as teaching aspiring journalists at the University of Victoria. I'll also be filming a documentary and exploring, as is oft said, other opportunities.

So thank you for being part of Public Eye's success - whether it was as a reader, a donor, a source, a colleague or a mentor. These eight years couldn't have happened without you. These stories couldn't have happened if you hadn't cared.

Sincerely

Sean Michael Holman
Publisher and Editor, Public Eye

Mr. Holman's independent, in-depth muck-raking will be greatly missed.

Heckfire - I'm missing it already, given that it is very likely that only S.M. Holman would have done the digging to do this story, a story he first unearthed, justice.

Which is something we could use a little more of 'round here I reckon.

Evidence-based justifying, I mean.

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