B.C. political scandals

[flamingfingers]

This could prove interesting:

Charges in delete scandal
The Canadian Press - Mar 11, 2016 / 12:41 pm | Story: 160558

Photo: Thinkstock.com
Charges of wilfully making false statements to mislead or attempting to mislead British Columbia's privacy commissioner have been laid against a former provincial government employee.

A special prosecutor approved two charges against George Gretes, who worked as a ministerial assistant in the Transportation Ministry, under the province's Freedom of Information and Privacy Act.

The charges follow a report by privacy commissioner Elizabeth Denham who examined a whistleblower's allegations that his supervisor deleted emails connected to a freedom-of-information request about the Highway of Tears investigation into missing and murdered women in northern B.C.

Read the rest:
http://www.castanet.net/news/BC/160558/ ... te-scandal

[frazdog]

I am a BC liberal supporter, but please tell me that we are not paying Gordon Wilson to be a cheerleader for LNG. I live in West Kelowna and it was a foregone conclusion that Christy was going to win the byelection. Then Gordon, Judy and their son show up to do some door knocking and he gets a job where he does what? The major LNG players already have teams of well skilled public relations personnel. Again I hope this is not true!

[flamingfingers]

Vaughn Palmer: Gordon Wilson defends his job as B.C. LNG advocate

It’s a lucrative assignment for the former B.C. Liberal Party leader, former NDP cabinet minister and now reborn B.C. Liberal

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/vaughn ... z42e5sSDHD

[Urbane]

^^ I understand why British Columbia needs to stay in the queue when it comes LNG. The opportunities will be there and we need to be organized. Vaughn Palmer raises a legitimate issue but I see the need for someone like Gordon Wilson to make the contacts, work with First Nations, and continue to lay the groundwork.

It's funny to see the NDP criticize the current government for appointing people who support the Liberals. We're to believe that if they were elected they would appoint Liberals to positions and not NDP'ers. Anyone on here seriously believe that? No, of course not.

[flamingfingers]

^^No comment about George Gretes?
What about a comment to do with the Quick Wins scandal that involved Clark's office that a Special Prosecutor is investigating?
What about the Health Care firings that ruined 8 people and caused the death of Roderick McIsaac? (and cost us taxpayers millions of $$$$ to settle out of court?)

Or are they simply "someone criticizing everything that Christy Clark does'??

[Urbane]

^^No comment about George Gretes?
If he's guilty it's good that he was caught and charged. He'll have his day in court.
What about a comment to do with the Quick Wins scandal that involved Clark's office that a Special Prosecutor is investigating?
That goes back to 2013. Is the special prosecutor still looking or is this something new?
What about the Health Care firings that ruined 8 people and caused the death of Roderick McIsaac? (and cost us taxpayers millions of $$$$ to settle out of court?)
Nothing good about that. The government deserves to be criticized roundly.
Or are they simply "someone criticizing everything that Christy Clark does'??
No, but some of us know the difference between the trivial and the serious. We know the difference between the faux-scandals and the real ones too.

[flamingfingers]

Urb wrote:

No, but some of us know the difference between the trivial and the serious. We know the difference between the faux-scandals and the real ones too.

Doesn't appear so.

'Every government does it.'
'It's just a drop in the bucket.'
'Back in the 90s...'
'But the economy is good!'
'She has to get around somehow.'
'It's more fair.."
"It's nothing but a left wing opinion piece."
'I don't read this kind of stuff.'

[Urbane]

Doesn't appear so.

'Every government does it.'
'It's just a drop in the bucket.'
'Back in the 90s...'
'But the economy is good!'
'She has to get around somehow.'
'It's more fair.."
"It's nothing but a left wing opinion piece."
'I don't read this kind of stuff.'

The real partisans often defend their party no matter what. You may find this hard to believe but when I chastised Adrian Dix for backdating that memo one of the posters on here replied, "That's just what a good employee does for his boss." Now that's sickeningly partisan!

As to your examples, for some things we can say that "every government does it depending on what 'it' is". For example, appointing people who support them rather than people who support the opposition is generally what governments do.

For "It's just a drop in the bucket" I'd say that sometimes that's true, particularly if the money spent at least has some merit.

As to the economy being good that's just saying that people tend to vote with their pocketbooks. Scandals, the real ones or the faux ones, can be forgiven by voters if the economy is strong.

As to the left-wing opinion pieces or people saying that a particular opinion piece is garbage I'll remind you that we hear that from the left and from the right. What? It's something from the Tyee? What? It's something from the Fraser Institute?

As for "back in the 90's . . ." there probably is too much of that but looking at history does help us keep things in perspective.

[flamingfingers]

Shane Woodford interviewing whistleblower Tim Duncan on Gretes charges:

https://soundcloud.com/shane-woodford/w ... te-scandal

[Urbane]

^^ Good interview. As he says, the process is working but that process must also result in at least "a slap on the wrist," as he puts it, for those who were creating the culture. Gretes was charged with lying under oath but those who allowed what Gretes was lying about to actually happen need to have some consequence as well. Clearly this has been hard on Tim Duncan but good for him.

[Madtaxi]

Worked for BC Rail so why not try it again. The sheeple are so blind.

[flamingfingers]

Worked for BC Rail so why not try it again. The sheeple are so blind.

It 'worked' for the majority of people who were uninformed by the so-called media who failed to do their damned jobs!!

There is still a large contingent of people (me for one) who have read independent sources that provide considerable insight from government documents and emails to understand how the MSM (working with government) failed to provide the general public with information on 'how it was done'.

Instead, we taxpayers got stuck with a $6 MILLION bill for legal services for Basi/Virk who were 'induced' to plead 'guilty.'

(The government had stipulated that legal fees were NOT to be paid for a 'guilty' ruling in the case of government employees.)

Note that these 'settlements' are made with government requiring a gag order.

[Urbane]

Flaming, you say that Basi and Virk were 'induced' to plead 'guilty' so do you have evidence that they were not guilty? I also see this in the Wikipedia article on the subject:

The RCMP made it very clear that no elected officials were implicated in their investigation, and also provided a letter to Marissen (Paul Martin's BC Campaign Chair) confirming that he was also not implicated in any way and that they came to his house without a search warrant to seek his help because they thought he might be the "innocent recipient" of emails related to Virk's and Basi's resumes, because it was alleged that they were seeking job recommendations for federal political employment in Ottawa.[8] Basi was an active volunteer for the Paul Martin campaign in British Columbia, who recruited many members of the Indo-Canadian community to the Liberal Party to vote in the leadership process. This has led to rampant speculation and innuendo as government critics attempt to link Basi's activities to federal and provincial politicians and operatives, and spread "guilt by association". Part of this speculation is fuelled by comments made to the media at the time of the raids by the officer in charge, that organized crime and corruption were present in "the highest levels of the government".

Full article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BC_Legislature_Raids

Yes, there has been "rampant speculation and innuendo" and attempts at "guilt by association." For a long time we were told time and again that Christy Clark was guilty of a conflict of interest until she was investigated and cleared. That's really quite a smear you make against the media as well. Any proof? No, I didn't think so. No proof either that any elected officials were guilty of any crime.

[flamingfingers]

^Thought you would come back with something like this Urb... You clearly have not read what involvement Loukadlis and Whitmarsh had in 'closing the Basi-Virk deal'.

But have a quick read through this as a 'refresher' or even new information for you:

http://northerninsights.blogspot.ca/201 ... i-and.html

[Urbane]

^Thought you would come back with something like this Urb... You clearly have not read what involvement Loukadlis and Whitmarsh had in 'closing the Basi-Virk deal'.

But have a quick read through this as a 'refresher' or even new information for you:

http://northerninsights.blogspot.ca/201 ... i-and.html

Yeah, yeah, yeah . . . a five-year-old blog post and this is all I really needed to read:

People who formerly had faith in Canada's police and judicial system and British Columbian taxpayers are the losers in this whole affair.

The police and the judicial system are all corrupt and in bed with the Liberals as well as the "bought and paid for MSM." Got it.