If This Crap Is Even Remotely True, It Is No Laughing Matter

WeAreNOTABananaRepublic
Lotusland

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Update: I have heard back from the matriarch of the 'B' family who lives in Tsawwassen. This is for real. Film at 11.
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Earlier today we commented, with some snark, about the news reports that a crown corporation, the British Columbia Transmission Corporation, feels that it has both a right and an obligation (?!) to spy on law abiding citizens who do not agree with their policies about running high tension wires through populated neighbourhoods.

Well, in response to that we received the following, absolutely snark free comment:

We live on 53a street and we have been followed by BCTC who are in unmarked cars with cameras pointed at us continually. I personally confronted them with my own camera and have close ups of their faces and their license plate.

One morning when I opened my living room curtains they were parked directly across the street and a camera lense was pointed at my home. My husband was followed when he got in his truck drove down highway 17 and after driving through the Massey Tunnel the car disappeared.

We are not paranoid, but we are very aware of being followed and our moves are being recorded. BCTC has been using bully and intimidation with regards to all the homeowners residing on the ROW.

It is very interesting to us, as tax payers, that this corporation does not have to follow laws, municiple laws, and we have no rights.

NO, we do not plan on voting for the Liberals in the next election.

The 'Bee' Family| 06.13.08 - 3:49 pm | #



Now, at this point I cannot confirm that the comment from 'The Bee Family' is 100% accurate (I am awaiting an Email response).

However, if only half of it turns out to be true* the BCTC and all concerned should be ashamed of themselves. And, in my opinion, they should also be shamed into repudiating their currentd policies on 'information gathering' and apologizing for their actions.

Profusely.

OK?

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*And remember, the BCTC has already publicly admitted, through spokesthingies, that they did, indeed, put people under surveillance.
Double Secret Probation Update: Since hearing from Ms. 'Bee' I have removed her full family name from this post and her original comment. This was my idea, not hers, I just want to give her and hers a little cloak of protective anononymity given the way this thing has gone so far.


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Is The Ghost Of George Orwell Haunting Lotusland?

Surveillances'RUs
EverywhereVille


Well, whaddya know.

The crown corporation known as the "British Columbia Transmission Corporation" has been spying on law abiding citizens who have been protesting the construction of high tension wires in their backyards:

Some Tsawwassen residents fighting the construction of power lines through their yards have discovered they were put under surveillance by the B.C. Transmission Corporation....

{snippety-doo-dah}

Days before the (Supreme Court) hearing (about a possible injunction to halt protests), an unidentified man gave several residents large packages of documents containing newspaper articles, transcriptions of conversations involving the residents and BCTC employees, e-mails, photographs, and video recordings of resident involvement in protests to oppose the transmission lines.......

{snippety-doodle-dandy}

(Protestor Tina) Ryan thinks the package was meant to intimidate her....


Hmmmmmm.......

Could it be that the good folks of Tsawwassen are just a little paranoid?

Maybe.

Then again.

Maybe not.

But the British Columbia Transmission Corporation says it isn't breaking the law by watching and documenting the actions of residents opposing the Tsawwassen power line project.

Thoren Hudyma, a BCTC public affairs officer, said the files were from the Crown corporation, but denied the corporation was attempting to frighten anyone.

"We have a legal right and we have a legal obligation to record this as evidence," said Hudyma.

The surveillance was all being collected as evidence to be used if there was ever a court case, said Hudyma, and was delivered to the residents as part of the legal proceedings.

She said the main concern for the corporation was meeting the completion date for the project.....

All of which proves at least two things.

First, spokesthingy's will say anything to justify their paymasters ends no matter how mean, be they White House press secretaries or low level Crown Corporation flunkies*.

Second, as Hunter Thompson always used to say:

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you."

OK?


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*Gosh, wonder how Ms. Hudyma would feel if somebody started following her around taking pictures of her and her family and then told her to relax because all they were doing was collecting evidence that would be presented to the court of public opinion to demonstrate how the culpability of spokesthingies is turning our public discourse to codswallop (or some such thing).

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RailGate Heads-Up....

SometimesEvenWaterCarriers
ComeInOutOfTheRainVille


It's late Thursday night/early Friday morning, I'm struggling with an online submission of the lab's latest manuscript and....

I just heard a Bill Good promo for the 'Cutting Edge of The Ledge' segment with Vaughn Palmer and Keith Baldrey on his radio show tomorrow morning.

And guess what the the teaser was?

The Cavalcade of Closure by the Campbellerians?

Nope.

The Devious Deeds of the Dobranos Deconstructed?

Nope.

The Progressivization'of all the Previously Public Assets of British Columbia that can be Possibly Be Plundered?

Nope.

Give up?

Well, how about this.....

The Secret Witness In the BC Rail Trial?

Bingo.



(and would'a thunk it)


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The Ledgie Boys come on after the 9:00am News on the (nolongerso)Giant '98 which can be streamed here.



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Why I Hate The Fraser Institute

AllTheTestsThatFit
HighSchoolNon-ConfidentialVille


Our oldest daughter, Bigger E. is now in Grade 9.

And classes are over for her this year.

But school is most definitely NOT yet out for summer.

Why?

Because there is a huge 'exam period' for finals.

Again, this is Grade 9, not University.

So.

Just what the heckfire is the real purpose of all this cramming anyway?

****

Last weekend E. was working on one of her final class projects and she composed a poem so powerful that it almost made me weep with joy.

So much so that I came running out of the Subterranean Blues Room (where I do my own homework/science geek stuff) hollering.....

"This is a thousand times better than homework!"

And it was.

As for stupid regurg-o-matic exams, the results of which are not even worth the spreadsheet pixels the Fraser Institute prints them on, well, I'd up that thousand by about six orders of magnitude.

Times negative 1.

OK?

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What's Scarier, The Government Of British Columbia Or......

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....Really, Really, Really Bad Guys?

AllThePrivilegeThatFits
InformerVille

So.

It looks like the "Go/No Go" decision regarding the real start of the BC RailGate Trial might come down to whether or not a top secret, cone-of-silence, presumably fearing-for-life-and-limb informant can remain so, from everyone, including the defense attorneys for David Basi and Robert Virk.

By way of explanation, the following is an exchange between Mr. Basi's lawyer and a judge overseeing a hearing yesterday that attempted to settle the issue, with interpretation and clarification from the The Globe's Mark Hume:

Michael Bolton, representing Dave Basi, has argued that defence attorneys must be present at the hearing if the accused are to get a fair trial.

He asked how defence lawyers could challenge the assertion of informer privilege, for example, if they weren't allowed to ask any questions about the police source.

"If the witness they wish to cloak with privilege is ... someone with material evidence, such as one of the [government's] political operatives ... the defence will have no opportunity to consider pursuing that evidence," he said.

Mr. Bolton said the defence doesn't want to know the informant's identity, just the circumstance under which the police agreed to grant privileged informer status.

Mr. Justice Ian Donald cautioned, however, that the identity of an informer could inadvertently be leaked through a line of questioning.

"What if a review of the informant would put you on a line of inquiry which would make it obvious [who the informant was] to anyone in the know ... in other words connect the dots," he said......


Which on the surface of it seems just fine and dandy, I guess.

But let's look at that last line from the judge one more time:

"What if a review of the informant would put you on a line of inquiry which would make it obvious [who the informant was] to anyone in the know ... in other words connect the dots," he said.

Is there not something bizarre about this argument?

After all, what, exactly, is the informant so scared of in a case that the public has been repeatedly told only involves a railway company, a group of formerly well-connected lobbyists and, just maybe, some fast-fading former figures in the provincial government of Mr. Gordon Campbell.

Now, why is the identity of the folks involved important here?

Because, apparently, the RailGate special prosecutor is invoking the Air India case as a precedent where a witness was so scared of other really, really, really bad guys and/or bad guy governments that they sought complete secrecy.

So, does that mean that the secret informant in the RailGate case is really, really, really scared of rail companies, lobbyists, or the government of Mr. Gordon Campbell?

I guess that's possible, especially if you figure that the latter is, indeed, scary.

Or does it mean something else?

Like, maybe, there actually were some really, really, really scary bad guys involved in project "Every Which Way" , the original RCMP investigation that got the whole LedgeRaid/RailGate ball rolling in the first place way back when.

And if there were such really scary bad guys involved, wouldn't that change the whole tenor of this investigation/trial?

Not to mention the public's (and maybe even the media's) perception of it and many of the folks involved?

Just askin'*

OK?



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*After all, what else can you do but ask when after more than four years, everything is still a secret.


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RailGate De-Railed

AllTheDelaysThatFit
WheelsOfJusticeBarelyGrindingVille


Finally, after the 3,567,243rd delay in the B.C. Rail trial, even the normally unflappable Paul Willcocks has had enough of the 'special' prosecutors' antics:

"....The Crown is fighting to keep the defence lawyers from hearing the evidence of informant. The B.C. Supreme Court justice hearing the case ruled the defence lawyers had a right to be present; the Crown prosecutor has challenged the ruling in the B.C. Appeal Court and has vowed to continue to the Supreme Court of Canada. (Money is no object, when taxpayers are signing the cheques.)

The case has long past the point at which it is bringing the entire justice system into disrepute, with much of the responsibility falling on the prosecutors."


Mr. Willcocks then points us towards Bill Tieleman's place as the 'go to' source for RailGate info. And it is too, especially given the relative dearth of on-the-ground reporting that is anywhere close to real time from most of our fair Province's major media outlets*.


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*And where is the CBC on this one, anyway. I mean heckfire!, why don't they, at the very least, send Fred Lee down there to give us a fashion report on all the lawyers' fancy threads or something (ie. we, the people of British Columbia, will take just about anything at this point).


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RailGate Redux - Is Mr. T. Messin' With Us?

AllTheOpsThatFit
WitlessProtectionVille

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Update: Mr. T'.s full report is now in, and there is a name, but it looks like it may take some Anon-O-Mice with insider knowledge to shed some light on the subject.
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Bill Tieleman has a note up on his blog that he's in court today following the Basi-Virk hearing.

And he's got a pretty darned explosive teaser up there:

For those who can't wait - the defence has raised a new name of a witness who requested anonymity in this case but did not receive it and also revealed that several "political operatives" have sought to keep their names out of the public and media eye......


Political operatives?

Would'a thunk it!

The only thing I know for sure is that my index finger is developing a blister from banging the refresh button over at Mr. T.'s. place.

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Tranquility Base Here......The Eagle Has Landed

AllTheGoodCitizensThatFit
CanuckistanmikitaVille


And so have our good friends David, Jo-Jo and Bob.....

Please join us in welcoming them to Canada.

And may the West End of Lotusland be the place where all their hopes and dreams come true.

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Ya, But Is It 'Restricted'?

AllTheJinglesThatFit
CanuckistanmikitaVille


Amazingly, there is a story that has nothing whastoever to do with cleavage or Biker gangs that managed to knock the plight of poor Max 'My Head Is NOT An Empty Suitcase' Bernier off the front pages the last couple of days.

Which is that there has been a change in ownership of a jingle that fronts hockey games on the TeeVee in Canuckistan.

Essentially the CBC didn't want to pony-up for the rights to the song so BellGlobeCTVCHUMTSNMedia swooped in and snapped them up for a reported $3,000,000.00.

Which, of course, is about half what a decent hockey player costs these days.

Now, there has been all kinds of discussion and bombast on the subject - most of it ridiculous in the extreme.

But there was one great line.

And it came from sportswriter Jim Kelley while he was kibbitzing with Dan Russell on the latter's sports talk show last night:

'The song was a free agent. And I'm sure it just did what was right for its family.'

No word yet whether another local Lotuslandian sports talk host named David Pratt plans to 'recycle' the line.

Stay tuned......

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Abstination For A Fundified Nation

AllTheStupidThatFits
WingnuttiaWorldVille


Doesn't work?

Doesn't matter.

Why?

Because you can always invoke a fanciful bit of self-delusional flim-flammery known as 'Second Virginity'.

All of which is fully explained in a new, shiny-smooth abstinence-only magazine called 'Just For Girls' from the very fine folks at the 'Human Life Alliance'.

Now, most of the time stupid is just that.

But sometimes it is downright dangerous, like when it makes the following statement:

"There is also an increased risk of breast cancer in women who have an abortion."

Why dangerous?

Because this is crap.

As in 'total crap', as explained by a slightly more reliable source than the Human Life Alliance, which is the U.S National Cancer Institute. I am going to reprint an entire paragraph from them here which is long, I realize, for some who want to most fervently to believe in stupid, dangerous stuff, but it is important to do so as it gives true context before the final unequivocal kicker.

So here goes.....

The relationship between induced and spontaneous abortion and breast cancer risk has been the subject of extensive research beginning in the late 1950s. Until the mid-1990s, the evidence was inconsistent. Findings from some studies suggested there was no increase in risk of breast cancer among women who had had an abortion, while findings from other studies suggested there was an increased risk. Most of these studies, however, were flawed in a number of ways that can lead to unreliable results. Only a small number of women were included in many of these studies, and for most, the data were collected only after breast cancer had been diagnosed, and women’s histories of miscarriage and abortion were based on their “self-report” rather than on their medical records. Since then, better-designed studies have been conducted. These newer studies examined large numbers of women, collected data before breast cancer was found, and gathered medical history information from medical records rather than simply from self-reports, thereby generating more reliable findings. The newer studies consistently showed no association between induced and spontaneous abortions and breast cancer risk.


I will now repeat that last phrase one more time for those who have a problem with the disavowing of demonstrable falsehoods. Specifically, all the best new fully complete, large cohort studies have consistently showed...

...no association between induced and spontaneous abortions and breast cancer risk.

As in none.

Otherwise known as zero.

Therefore, given that this is public knowledge one can only conclude that the fine folks at the 'Human Life Alliance' have no concerns about burdening young women with a lifetime of guilt that could actually do them real psychological harm.

Because fears of being diagnosed with breast cancer because of something you did as a kid can last a lifetime.

But who cares about all that.

After all, the health and well being of the very kids you are trying to 'save' mean nothing when there are ideological battles to be won.

Right?

Wrong.


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Thanks to Dave, by way of Jezebel, for bringing this story to our attention.
There's also a 'Just For Guys' version. They both go by the cool, hip, moniker 'J4G' (do ya' get it?).
The 'abortion causes cancer' crap was found in a cute little bit called 'Dr. Mary Paquette anwers (sic) your questions'. Apparently, Dr. Paquette can neither spell nor keep up with the medical literature. Below is a screen shot of her craptacularly crappy answer to a supposed 'question' from a newly knocked-up kid (click on the image for a larger view):

RailGate Goin'Down - Prosecutor Has Cake And Eats It Too

TheWheelsOfJustice
SinkingLikeStonesVille

And now the very full and satisfied prosecutor is threatening to blame the judge as he prepares to abandon ship.

Details (as always) at Mary's.

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'Cake and Eat It Too' line swiped from one of Mary's Anon-O-Mice.

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Looks Like We Don't Have Smilin' Sammy's....

Don'tCryForHe
SammytinaVille

.....Website To Kick Around Anymore.

Because he's wiped it, clean and shiny-toothed.

Gosh, maybe the War Chest really is empty.

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Update: Well, well, well....... Looks like even the abysmal YouTube Channel that we reported on yesterday has received a scrubbing too. Still only six (count 'em 6!) subscribers, but the number of videos has dropped from ten down to one slick little 78 second Sammymercial.

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Is All Of British Columbia Now 'Progressive'?

Corrective Update:
Originally we had the wrong 'Arthur' attributed to the accounting firm now known as 'Accenture'. We apologize for that, and thank 'R.B.' in the comment threads for pointing out our mistake.

AllTheLobbyingThatFits
BestPlaceOnEarthForGood-TimesVille

Last week Sean Holman spilled the beans on the 'Progressive Group's non-lobby lobbying south of the 49th parallel.

It was an interesting and very important story given the extremely close ties between two of Progressive's principals, Mr. Patrick Kinsella and Mr. Mark Jiles, with the current 'built for good-times' government of British Columbia that is being run by Mr. Gordon Campbell.

At the time we noted three things about Progressive's long history of facilitating the fancies of their good friends:

One - Mr. Kinsella has a long history of working with Casinos which have had very, very good times indeed during the reign of Mr. Campbell, so much so that they rarely even bother to report suspicious activity anymore.

Two - Mr. Jiles has had a very up close and personal relationship with Mr. Campbell. After all, Mr. Jiles was the Premier's constituency manager in his home riding of Pt. Grey during the 2005 election cycle. Of course, such local campaigns should be snoozefests for a sitting Premier who is also sitting on a huge pile of good-times green from rising resource revenues. Interestingly, however, Mr. Campbell actually came reasonably close to losing (12,498 total votes), and indeed might of if a cardboard cut-out known as Gordon v2.0 hadn't sucked away the margin of victory vote from the NDP's Mel Lehan (10,248 total) and handed it to greenie Damian Kettlewell (4,111 total).

Three - The Progressive Group also 'helped' really, really, really good-times accounting conglomerate, Arthur Anderson/Accenture take over B.C. Hydro's accounts for a cool $1,450,000,000.00*.


And yes, you read that last number correctly.

That was 1.45 billion with a 'B' given to an American conglomerate to run our utility company, a conglomerate that looked the other way when Enron made up so much stuff that it ruined the lives of thousands of little people beause it made up all sorts of 'good-times' numbers for the fortunate few and their good friends.

Oh, ya, and just so you know, it is also Arthur Anderson/Accenture is also a conglomerate that must conform to the vagararies of US Patriot Act.

****

Anyway, it turns out that that one of the good-times guys from the Progressive Group, Mr. Jiles, also had a hand in helping the 'New Car Dealers Association Of British Columbia' educate the government of his former boss about the importance of putting money into the new 'Scrap-It' fund, proving once again that spending/consuming/buying more cars really is good for the environment (especially, when all those hunks of glass, metal and plastic sit idling their engines on the newly-twinned Port Mann bridge).

How do we know this for sure - about this 'environmental educating' business I mean?

Well, we were originally pointed in the right direction by the Anon-O-Maestro himself, 'Express Collision Shop', over at Mary's place.

Which sent us scurrying to the Provincial Lobbyist's Registry**.

And here is what we found (click on image for a bigger version)......


Which means, of course, that at least this time (ie. as compared to last time), Mr. Jiles registered to help the local good-times boys that sell cars make a whole pile of money***.

OK?

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*This is an aspect of the story that Vancouver Province columnist Mr. Michael Smyth picked up on after the fact (and did a very nice job on), not that we are in any way suggesting that Mr. Smyth is stealing our stuff. After all, that would put him in the company of a very different type of columnist, one of whom was recently fired by the Province for doing just that.
**You know, the registry that another good-times insider, Mr. Kenneth Dobell, originally ignored after he helped set it up until he was convicted of doing so when he shouldn't have because he too was, well, lobbying his former boss, who also just happens to be Mr. Gordon Campbell.
***Which, of course, is ironic in the extreme given that Mr. Campbell's good-times coalition is really nothing more than a cleverly re-packaged version of the old Socred car salesmen's coalition gone wild.


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RailGate Relapsing - The 'Cancer Of Privilege' Resurfaces

AllThePrivilegeThatFits
Ledge(notyet)TrialVille


This time it's not cabinet, solicitor, client, or banker privilege.

Insteat it's 'informer' privilege that being invoked to help keep everything ultra-super secret in the starchamber machinery.

Mary and the Anon-O-Mice have the story.

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What's The Real Reason Sammy Lost?

Don'tCryForHe
SammytinaVille


Maybe because nobody watched the stuff on his slickly craptacular YouTube Channel.

It has ten videos - all with production values that likely cost the War Chest a pretty penny.

And yet nine of those ten haven't even been watched two hundred times.

And you can bet that half of those views were by Sammyworkers and/or the people that made the eerily empty ciphers that, in the end, weren't worth the pixels they were printed on.

As for subscribers?

A lousy six.

Yes that's right - 6!

Which is just slightly fewer than, say, the kid who likes to periodically film his dirty socks.

Just goes to show that once the bought-and-paid-for hype was stripped away Sammy had, well, pretty much.....

Nothing.

OK?

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