Liberal Party.

[flamingfingers]

well, you know what they say... you get what you deserve

No. We do NOT deserve this travesty of a governing party!

[Nebula]

When's the last time there was a good governing party in BC?

[Logitack]

hate to say it, but was it "WACKY" Bennett days, neb??

[Nebula]

Oh, dunno. Before my time. I've only been here 15 years. Been a circus the whole time.

[NAB]

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Boess ... story.html

[flamingfingers]

Did you read his disclaimer Nab? Les Leyne was actually out golfing with Bossenkool and attended the wet after.

What chafes my cheeks is the Leg reporters that openly and often socialize and schmooze with the people (Liberal government MLAs and supporters) that they are SUPPOSED to be reporting on!!

How could you objectively report on your golfing partner, your drinking bud, the guy/gal who hosted you at home for birthday parties and intimate dinners when they (in this case) openly grope a woman who is his workmate?

Disgusting ethics on the part of Leyne, Baldrey, etc....

Edit to add: But of course, and not to excuse them, they or their editors have been bought and paid for by the money backers known as big business.

[Logitack]

I love this quote from some liberal caucus member that is in Tksakumis blog....LOL. Now we know why the Liberals and in particular the Premier isnt going to have a fall legislative session! Where is the outrage from the liberals on this scandal?

http://alexgtsakumis.com/2012/09/24/exc ... a-scandal/

Regardless, the unsettling–as much as unsettled, and capricious behaviour by Boessenkool was a source of growing concern. As one caucus source put it: “I was honestly worried more for him than anything else. Guys like these are always arrogant, but the self-destructiveness looked like a cry for help. Mind you, working for Christy would drive the best of men nutty. I’m not sure what was his problem, but I think it was pretty clear; he missed home and wasn’t dealing with it well at all. And he privately moaned about her staff, particularly Kim, and he was disappointed in Christy’s total inability to think on her feet. He was left embarrassed most of the time.”

[Urbane]

I take everything on Alex T's blog with a huge grain of salt. He obviously has an ax to grind with the Liberals and likes to spread rumours about them.

[Logitack]

of course YOU would... no real surprise there, urb.

dont you find it a little strange that the premier and her chief of staff waited TWO weeks before decided they couldnt ignore this indiscretion any longer and keep the lid on yet another liberal scandal before deciding to do the "right thing"?

[Urbane]

of course YOU would... no real surprise there, urb.

dont you find it a little strange that the premier and her chief of staff waited TWO weeks before decided they couldnt ignore this indiscretion any longer and keep the lid on yet another liberal scandal before deciding to do the "right thing"?

I believe in due process be it for teachers, doctors, nurses, candlestick makers, or even for those who work in the premier's office. Imagine that.

[flamingfingers]

'Due process' be dam*ed when the perpetrator has admitted the wrongdoing:

....stated that he had immediately owned up to his inappropriate behaviour. “I was wrong, regretted my behaviour very much and immediately and unconditionally apologized.”

Ms. Clark left with Mr. Boessenkool for a trade mission to China the day after the incident

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/bri ... le4568542/

At the very least he should have been suspended and not allowed to return to work where he was the immediate supervisor of the woman involved!!

[Urbane]

At the very least he should have been suspended and not allowed to return to work where he was the immediate supervisor of the woman involved!!

Sorry flaming but even BC Liberals get due process. You don't know exactly what happened and an admission of having done something wrong isn't an automatic reason to suspend or dismiss. The premier did exactly the right thing in this case. A review of the incident took place, the premier met with her chief of staff, and his resignation was accepted. Due process is a good thing and not a bad thing.

[flamingfingers]

Bosenkool admitted right away that he had done a very wrong thing and Christy did not do the right thing which would have been to suspend him, send him home UNTIL the investigation had been done, if in fact it even needed to have taken 2 weeks to do it!

Listening to Jas Johal on the Bill 'Good' show from yesterday it seemed that the take from Good and Johal was that Christie only acted on this incident when it was clear that Johal was going to run the story Monday evening. So she called a media event for 11 that morning. Have a listen to it yourself.

[Logitack]

Sorry flaming but even BC Liberals get due process. You don't know exactly what happened and an admission of having done something wrong isn't an automatic reason to suspend or dismiss. The premier did exactly the right thing in this case. A review of the incident took place, the premier met with her chief of staff, and his resignation was accepted. Due process is a good thing and not a bad thing.

what utter nonsense. due process is for the underlings, those in low/middle management or those low lifes in the union. The chief of staff to the premier is right at the top of the chain of command in government. The chief of staff and the premier should and could have done the right thing by resigning on the spot or fired immediately. They did not do that for political reasons. They hoped it would just go away and they would not have to deal with it. They did nothing for TWO WEEKS under the guise of an "investigation". The fact that the chief of staff knew he did something wrong AT THE TIME of the incident means he should have done the right thing and submit his resignation that day. The premier failed to do her job, again, by not firing her chief of staff when he admitted wrong doing!

[maple leaf]

If only the Liberals would be honest and upfront instead of the duck and weave,hide and coverup ,they probably wouldn't have as many problems as they do.It is sounding more and more to me that Clark only did what she did once they figured out that they couldn't hide it any longer with the hopes it wouldn't become public.Once Johal threatened to break the story the Liberals realizes the gig was up and time to make up some cover stories as to why they new about it for two weeks and did nothing about it.



One law for regular employees, another for the Premier’s #1 guy
Posted on September 24, 2012 by Ian
Today the Premier refused to provide any details about the incident involving her Chief of Staff.

Nothing can be revealed about Ken Boessenkool’s alleged offences because of privacy laws, the scrambling Premier told reporters today. ”It’s important to respect the privacy of the individuals involved, and you know every employer is bound by those laws, not just government,” said Clark outlining her rapidly developing views about privacy.

Why call them rapidly developing? Because that wasn’t the story a few weeks ago when 4 BC Health employees were fired and 7 suspended without pay pending a police investigation of privacy breaches.

Three weeks ago, contrary to the “privacy laws” the Premier follows, the Health minister provided a significant amount of information about the fired and suspended staff in her ministry.

“What we believe has happened is that individuals have gone outside the rules around taking data and using data with respect to research in the area of drugs,” Health minister MacDairmid told reporters about the alleged offences.

MacDiarmid went on to provide detail about how the private information was alleged to have been used. “As far as we can understand it was used for research where it wasn’t initially given for that purpose.”

MacDiarmid then chose to raise a further undisclosed aspect of the investigation.

“It would appear that some of the people that were involved had relationships wit others that would put them into a conflict that wasn’t declared,” she told reporters. MacDiarmid went on to reveal that one of the conflicts involved a familial relationship.

That’s a lot of info about the allegations, you have to admit. But if the Premier is to be believed providing that info violates privacy laws.

But only if they aren’t your friends and allies it seems. In that case mums the word.

***

Another thing that struck me about today’s dive into the Premier’s Office cesspool: Global news had this story over a week ago and didn’t go with it? They held it so they could get comment from the Premier’s office and didn’t run it when the PO told them to hold off? Instead on Friday they ran as a serious story the planted one about the crazy as *bleep* John McMartin, just by the by helping to crush the hapless BCCP as they went into their crazy *bleep* convention?

That’s just too helpful to be coincidental. Here’s the short version as I see it: Hold the much bigger bad story and run the lame, orchestrated good story – good in the sense that it’s the Premier’s office bidding.

But I’m just guessing.

Oh, and why did Jas Johal do the Boessenkool story and not Baldrey? Weird.

***

Update: A helpful comment from Ottawa clarifies the Global coverage and the Baldrey/Johal division of labour. I still think holding it over the weekend – given the BCCP convention – was awful convenient for the government message on the BCCP.

But here’s the real reason for the update. A commenter on Alexgtsakumis.com raises the very interesting point about the timing of the incident, it’s investigation and the government’s decision to call off the fall sitting.

The incident seems to have occurred Sept 7, in a drunken haze following the BC Liberal Annual Golf Tournament. The investigation began, according to the Premier, within a couple of days or pretty much the same day the government announced no fall session of the Legislature.

Was that announcement entirely coincidental? Or was the latest scandal just one too many things to answer for in QP? Vaughn Palmer has already raised a number of questions that go to the heart of the Premier’s competence, questions that would be entirely in order and appropriate in Question Period.

http://therealstory.ca