Category Archives: Politics

DFO's Dr. Kristi Miller - recently muzzled from discussing her bombshell salmon disease findings, published in the prestigious journal Science earlier this year

Latest DFO Scientist Muzzling Part of Bigger Pattern Ignored by Media

Canada, Fisheries, Politics, Western Canada, ,
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The revelation by the Sun and the Province that a scientist in DFO, Dr. Kristi Miller, has been muzzled by the DFO and the Privy Council (which supports the Prime Minister’s Office) simply underscores how badly they have covered environmental matters in general and salmon concerns specifically.
 
For example, back in the mid-nineties there was a hell of a row over the Kemano Completion Project which involved taking some 90% of the Nechako River (near Prince George) which would have seriously impeded the large Sockeye runs into the Stuart River system. The permission for Alcan to do this was given, over the objections of fish scientists who had done a large study on the project and pointed out the folly it was. These scientists were hushed up by DFO and Tom Siddon, Fisheries Minister, who called it an “acceptable risk”. Several of these scientists were given early retirement or had their lives made so miserable that they got out. During this war, for war is what it was, these former DFO scientists were branded the “dissident scientists” by Alcan, a sobriquet they bore with great pride. They had been true to the public of Canada and to themselves.
 
The report to which I referred was buried by DFO and it came to me, 7 years later, in the height of the fray, in the traditional brown envelope.
 
None of this was explored by the media except Ben Meisner of CJPG in Prince George and me on CKNW – “explored” is hardly the term for we fought like cornered Tigers.
 
This leaked report had considerable influence on the BC Utilities Commission whose findings prompted then Premier Harcourt to tube KCP.
 
One of my treasured possessions is a poster showing a salmon jumping up a waterfall which all the “dissident” scientists signed in my honour. They were wonderful men. One of them, Gordon Hartman, was my constant adviser during the fight.
 
Please forgive me if I sound egocentric but what I’m telling you is the truth. Amongst the media I was first and perhaps only member supporting Alexandra Morton from the beginning. I reported DFO threats to arrest Ms Morton for “illegal testing” Pink Salmon smolts and their own fake testing in the wrong place, at the wrong time and with the wrong tools. I helped expose the ridiculous DFO denial of escaping farmed fish and its idiotic advice to the Provincial government.
 
Editorial after editorial I pointed out that the same government department mandated to protect our salmon (DFO) were official shills for the fish farm industry.
 
The story is a long one but I simply emphasize that the media, especially the then Canwest (now in drag as Postmedia) and the Black Press were silent throughout.
 
I despair for the pressure Alexandra Morton has gone through and continues to suffer, more now, perhaps, than at any time. As she bears this terrific load on her back the media either doesn’t report what she and her allies are doing or misreport and belittle them.
 
A case in point – a couple of weeks ago a memo from a well respected DFO scientist, Dr. Brent Hargreaves, emerged from the documents revealed through the Cohen Commission into collapsing Fraser sockeye stocks. This from The Common Sense Canadian:
 
The 2003 memo recently made public via the Cohen Commission on collapsing Fraser sockeye stocks contains some truly shocking passages for their candour and for how clearly they vindicate those who have been critical of DFO’s salmon farm science. (emphasis mine) Written by a respected DFO scientist, Dr. Brent Hargreaves, the memo severely attacks the credibility of a colleague, key salmon farm apologist Dr. Dick Beamish, whose science Hargreaves labels as “shoddy” and “unethical”, among other pejoratives. Here are a couple of choice passages:
 
“The research on sea lice that has been conducted by Beamish has been strongly and widely criticized in both the scientific community and the public media…I think to a large degree it was the inadequacies of Beamish’s research and conclusions that led to the lack of public confidence in DFO science…

…I also do not want to be directly associated, either professionally or personally, with either Beamish or his research…He always does exactly as he pleases, regardless of the (often negative) impacts on DFO staff and research programs.“
 
And what did the media do with this? Zilch!
 
Here we have the scientist responsible for the Campbell/Clark government’s policy on fish farms exposed as “shoddy science” and Beamish as a shill for the Fish Farmers, and the print media does not consider this of any interest to the great unwashed! Imagine the millions of fish that died because the provincial government followed Beamish not Hargreaves!
 
The Vancouver Sun is “Seriously Westcoast”???
 
Better late than never, I suppose, but the media owes the public big time and that debt must be paid by full coverage of environmental issues even when to do so upsets advertisers.
 
Postmedia using Freedom of Information, did, to their credit, expose the egregious silencing of Kristi Miller. Are they, then, making amends?
 
Let’s hope so, although I’m bound to say that the environmentalist community has found ways around the “see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil” monkey business of the mainstream media.
 
But it could do with all the help it can get, including a media that may finally have found its tongue.
 
 
 

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BREAKING: More Evidence of DFO Science Cover-up – this time linked to Harper’s Privy Council

Canada, Politics,
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Read this bombshell report from the Vancouver Sun about leaked documents showing the Privy Council – which supports Stephen Harper’s PMO – ordered the muzzling of a high-level DFO scientist regarding her dramatic findings on the collapse of Fraser River sockeye, published in the world’s most prestigious journal, Science in January. (July 26, 2011)

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UBCM “Best Practice” and “Excellence awards” are for CAO’s

Canada, Politics, WATER, Western Canada,
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The Union of BC Municipalities is a powerful bureaucracy, forging education, political policies, directives and awards for excellence.  Good intentions have resulted in unintended consequences because ‘best practices’ and ‘excellence awards’ are not community based decision making, and the benefactors are not the communities, but chief administrators. 

How?  Can you imagine how much prestige and awe you would accrue, if you could format or implement ‘best management practices’ and obtain a $10 Million grant for your community?  You might be in demand to obtain millions for other small towns all over BC and possibly across Canada, find yourself receiving ‘excellence awards’ and happily implementing more ‘best practices’ elsewhere. 

But wait a minute… ‘Best management practices’ are in the Request for Decision regarding Cayoosh Creek campground in 2011.  Would anyone put that parched brown and almost empty campsite into the ‘best practice’ in any category?  The treatment of the previous campsite operators with a promise of a new lease for over a year?  Putting forth District plans to the Chamber of Commerce prior to alerting the operators of their loss of home and livelihood?  The LRA find nothing excellent in this. 

The $10,127,000 ‘water’ tax grant?  We have already published details for everyone’s scrutiny in ‘Not One Thin Dime’, Lillooet News, July 6, 2011. 

The 2010 tax assessment comparisons (available online) show per capita costs for Ashcroft $293, Barriere $256, Cache Creek $112, 100 Mile $281, Oliver $184, Pemberton $284 and Lillooet at $336.  Lillooet  proposes (per the $10,127,000 grant) to increase $250 per year, along with water metering charges.  What is ‘best practice’ when it chases gardeners away from their growing paradise?  What is ‘best practice’ when increasing our carbon footprint with more pumps for water delivery?

The intention of the UBCM ‘best practices’ and ‘awards for excellence’ with respect to certain matters fall far short of beneficial to Lillooet.  

On another note, the Premier’s office is contemplating a new bureaucrat or bureaucracy called ‘Municipal Auditor General’ and ‘best practices’ were referenced in conversations.  One comment stated emphatically ‘the new municipal auditor general should be at arms length from the UBCM.’  Those on the feedback side seemed to be in accord on that point.

The only way to work for change in any community is by voting in councilors with the entire community at heart.  

Anne-Marie Anderson
Secretary/Treasurer
Lillooet Ratepayers Association

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Campbell/Clark Libs Have No Credibility – HST Promises Meaningless

Canada, Politics, WATER, Western Canada, , , , ,
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I commented here last week upon Premier Clark’s silence on all the great issues she faces and questioned what her policies will be. I expect no answer because she wants to put all Gordon Campbell did into the darkest corner of the cupboard. The strategy is “that was then and now is now”; I am Premier Clark and my responsibility started last March 14 when I was sworn in.

This, as I will show, is not so. It started the day she became a Campbell cabinet minister in May 2001.

Let’s take a trip down memory lane but start with a current issue – what does the HST have in common with the environment? The answer to this will weave an unbroken and unbreakable thread back to 2001.

Both the HST end the environment ask public acceptance based upon the credibility of the Campbell/Clark government – a government that has lied through its teeth for the seemingly endless decade-plus they have been in power.

Surely no one, not even the Fraser Institute, believes that the Liberal government will drop the HST to 10% in 2014!

First of all, God’s mercy will see that they’re no longer in power so they won’t be around to keep a pledge they never intended to keep on the first place. If God is just and not merciful, there isn’t a chance that a future Liberal government will keep that promise. In short, Ms. Clark has made a pledge she will never redeem and may never be required to.
 
All government policy depends upon credibility. Unfortunately, the public has learned to expect some government deceit but usually it’s deceit by way of exaggeration – rather like the gilding of the lily practiced in most societies in order to stay at peace with one another. We learn how to discount the statements made – political statements are expected to have a measure of barnyard droppings mixed in. As former New York governor Mario Cuomo said, “You campaign in poetry and govern in prose.”
 
But this is different. Big time. We’re talking about major league falsehoods.
 
I call this government the “Campbell/Clark” government for that’s what it is. Premier Clark participated in the deceit when she was in government, accepted it uncritically when she was a talk show host, and perpetuates it in office by not dealing with it.
 
It started when Campbell, after holding the NDP to the highest standards of probity, somehow forgot that idealism when he was thrown into jail for drunk driving. Christy Clark, Education Minister, offered not a whisper of criticism. Like all good Liberal toadies, she went along.
 
He lied about BC Rail, Fish Farms and private power.
 
With BC Rail, he pledged in two elections including the one that made him premier that he would not privatize BC Rail (as did Ms. Clark, as co-author of the Liberals’ 2001 campaign platform). Of course, he did and Clark went along with him at the time, during her radio career and to this date.
 
Not a peep out of Clark, on air or in office, as Campbell settled the Basi-Virk case just before he, former Finance Minister Gary Collins, and Sir Hiss, Patrick Kinsella, were to give evidence.
 
Premier Campbell let fish farms expand exponentially saying that he was following the best science available. The public now knows what opponents of fish farms have always known – the scientist he was listening to was a disgrace to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and a fish farm industry suck. He was out of synch with every fish biologist in the world that deals with this issue. Christy Clark has been silent since the beginning and is silent now.
 
With private power companies (IPPS) the Campbell/Clark government has uttered nothing but falsehoods. I hate to dwell on poor old former Finance Minister Colin Hansen because he seems to be such a nice guy, but in a video blog the Liberals have now erased, he made half a dozen statements about so-called “run of river” policy that were plainly and simply falsehoods. These falsehoods were not minor little errors – they went to the root of the matter. Ms. Clark has not uttered a word of criticism – or strangely support – of this disastrous policy which even the Vancouver Province called “folly” and which a recent op-ed in the Vancouver Sun, published under the aegis of former Fraser Institute “fellow”, Fazil Milhar, roundly criticized.
 
This policy forces BC Hydro to buy from IPPs power they don’t need and must thus export at a 50%+ loss or use it at double or more what they can make it for themselves. This cost Hydro $600,000,000 last year and this is just the beginning of the reckoning. Not a word from our premier.
 
We have seen this policy drive BC Hydro to where they would be, if in the private sector, in bankruptcy protection with much worse to come. Not a squeak of criticism or concern from Ms. Clark.

We’ve seen this policy destroy one river, and its ecology, after another yet not a word from the premier at the time the policy was made when she was a cabinet member, later as a talk show host, or now as premier. Premier Clark, a supporter of the Prosperity Mine proposal at Fish Lake, now in charge of energy and the demise of BC Hydro, acts as if nothing was happening. And now she has pipelines and tankers to deal with.
 
It is critical to understand that pipeline leaks and tanker accidents are not risks but certainties. The Liberal government told the Federal government, in writing, some years ago that it did not oppose super tankers on the coast. In the recent Premiers Conference Ms. Clark hedged on the pipeline issue; she refused to take a stand.
 
This issue, like the private power issue, has no middle ground as in “you can’t be a little bit pregnant.” All the evidence she ever needs is there in logic – an unfettered risk is a calamity in waiting – and evidence of the colossal negligence of pipeline operators generally and Enbridge specifically. The decision is “yes” or “no” and there will never be more information needed than the premier presently possesses.

Silence implies consent. One of the penalties of consenting to the Liberal record is that no credibility remains.
 
As it is with the HST, as it is with the disgraceful deceit by this government from the outset, so it must be predicted for the future – an utter lack of credibility.
 
It is a millstone around Premier Clark’s neck she consented to.

It’s a millstone she can never be rid of.

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Christy Clark’s Silence on the Big Questions

Canada, Politics, WATER, Western Canada,
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I worry a lot when politicians are talking – usually double or even triple talk. Did I do that when I was in government?…Well it takes one to know one.
 
I worry even more when they say nothing, something that Premier Christy Clark finds impossible when fudging on motherhood “issues” and tossing out the usual barnyard droppings. What Premier Clark is very good at is deathly silence on matters of great consequence.
 
What is the premier’s stance on Independent Power Projects (IPPS) in the environmental sense?
 
Does she care about the enormous environmental impact they have? Has she considered the clouding of the river during construction? Is she concerned that the main river goes down to a trickle when it’s diverted into a tunnel? Does she concern herself with the clear-cutting for roads and transmission lines? It would be good to know.
 
Her only environmental pronouncement I know of is her support of the Fish Lake project which is not, to say the least, encouraging.
 
Does the premier care that because her government has forced BC Hydro to take IPP power when it doesn’t need it, Hydro must either sell it at a loss or use it instead its own much less expensive power? Does she even understand this? I ask because her spokesperson on the political panel on CBC at 7:40AM on Mondays clearly doesn’t.
 
Does the premier know that BC Hydro is carrying over $50 BILLION dollars in obligations to IPPs and that this increases with every new contract?
 
Surely Ms. Clark understands that this is the prescription for bankruptcy – or does she? Maybe she’s never had to balance a home budget and doesn’t comprehend these things.
 
Does the premier know that early in the Campbell regime – when she was deputy leader – her government told the federal government that it had no objection to oil tanker traffic on our coast? Do we take from her silence that even though a spill (and there are no good ones) is a certainty she doesn’t understand this or just couldn’t care less?
 
Moreover, if she and her government support these issues, why aren’t they boasting about them as good politicians always do when, like Jack Horner, they pull out a plum?
 
And what about pipelines? The Enbridge and Kinder Morgan lines will crisscross the province, over its most sensitive terrain and again, a spill is not a risk but a certainty – does that concern her?
 
Come to think on it, does the premier understand and does she care that BC hardly makes a dime out of these catastrophic oil transport deals?
 
What’s the premier’s attitude to the Highways Ministry paving agricultural land? Threatening sensitive wildlife preserves (in the case of Eagleridge they just paved it) and wildlife sanctuaries?
 
Does Christy Clark care that the Ministry of Environment – the resident eunuch in her harem – has virtually nothing to say on these matters because, thanks to her government, it’s a mere shell of its former self?
 
Does she care about anything except money?
 
Ah, Rafe, you must be fair here for she does say she cares for the family, although you’d never know it by the record of her government.

I think that the voters of BC are entitled to specific answers to these specific questions.
 
I also think that the best we can expect is platitudinous bullshit.
 
When Premier Clark flouts the fixed election term legislation passed by her and her government accompanied by passionate concern for democracy and fair play and calls a snap election, she will be asked these questions.
 
The Liberals were spared these questions in 2009 during an appalling campaign by the NDP – I don’t think they’ll be so lucky next time.
 
In the meantime, Damien Gillis and I of the Common Sense Canadian will be taking these issues by the internet and in person to every corner of the province and she should know that.
 

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