Category Archives: Uncategorized

Why Cantankerous Rafe Won’t Go Away

Uncategorized
Share

Wendy and I have just returned from a week in London – we try to do that once, hopefully twice a year and it usually happens when Wendy comes up to my computer to which I’m attached by memory stick and says, “Love – time for London so you can take off the 10 years put on since we were there in January”.

This time I was forbidden to bring my laptop or in any way make contact with news from home so that last Friday I came home to just under 500 emails most of which were concerned about my sex life. But I did get three emails that struck home, all three of which dealt with the constant question I hear: Rafe (sometimes the appellation isn’t as polite as that) why don’t you quit?

My stock answer is that I missed 50, 55, 60, 65, 70 and 75 so it’s too late.

But back to the three letters.
#1 asked “Dear bleep, why don’t you (international term for go away) and give yourself and us a permanent break?”

#2 informed me of my new American Express card and # 3 was my new disabled parking card, both of which expire in 2013, forcing me to ask myself what were the odds of me not expiring before they do.

#2 and #3 seemed to me as making the answer to #1 obligatory which I beg leave to make right here.

I was born cantankerous, which I learned as I went was a rejection of accepted wisdom and a lifetime disagreement with the “establishment” – of which my family were definitely a part. For as long as I can remember I questioned things like the Monarchy, racist policies, treatment of the poor, and the unlucky and rejected the notion that the poor were lazy louts looking for a societal hand-out. I was a child of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, when great social upheavals were taking place all over the world. Oddly enough, I never became a CCF/NDP supporter because they always seemed to me to be long on recognizing and reporting societal ills and short on practical solutions.

I grew up in Vancouver when there were still trout streams, dank woods with semi-lakes that held salamanders and oceans full of fish. This made me an easy target for environmentalism though I admit this happened over time – a time when, like everyone else, I threw cigarette packages and the finished cigarettes away where I happened to be when finished, lobbed beer cans out of the car window, and killed far more fish than I could ever use. When now I moan at environmental desecration there’s a healthy dose of uneasy conscience involved.

My epiphany (for want of a better term) as  an environmentalist coincided with a learning curve that exposed an unalterable truth: the establishment, including the business community and the people they bought and paid for, and sometimes even trade unions, will lie through their teeth if it suits them and the older I get, the more obvious that is.

I realize that this is scarcely a new phenomenon but it clearly continues to grow until we’ve reached the state where a Premier and his government lie as a necessary strategy for the way they rule us and a media which, because of the way they conduct themselves, aid and abet this lying by ignoring it.

I think my anger became white-hot and remained so with the Charlottetown Accord, an issue I had been deeply involved with in its spawning years during the Trudeau regime’s patriation of the constitution. (I thoroughly agree with the result but I learned a great deal about government deception as the issue moved along). The Charlottetown Accord was deception practiced by the entire Canadian Establishment en masse. One large media company, MacLean Hunter, even registered on the “Yes” side for God’s sake! Capital, Labour, academics, the artsy-fartsy put their own interests ahead of the national issue and fortunately the public found that out.

I got involved in the Kemano II issue and saw how a conspiracy of industry and government could cover up the hugeness of their calamitous policy which was only thwarted when the DFO scientists, who had been eased out of their positions by a compliant DFO, blew the whistle and Premier Mike Harcourt had the guts to do the right thing.

Then came the issue of a gravel pit in the Pitt River system – which again was industry not giving a damn about the environmental consequences – and was stopped in its tracks by Premier Glen Clark.

This takes us to the fish farm debacle and the courageous fight led by Alexandra Morton in the face of a government that wanted to put her in jail for exposing the rape of our waters by offshore companies which knew, because of their experience elsewhere, that siting fish farms in the path of migrating salmon would spell death to the salmon. We saw and continue to see a government, elected by the people of BC, lying, obfuscating and burying evidence – all of which they continue to do to this day.

Then came the 2002 “Energy Policy” where in each and every manifestation depends upon a coalition of greedy capital and dishonest government to continue to destroy our environment to make multi billions of dollars for the likes of General Electric and Warren Buffett as they sell off our electricity, extorted from BC Hydro by sweetheart deals imposed on it by the Campbell government.

Over the past 2 years it has become obvious that the Energy Policy is a tissue of lies which, far from helping BC get new power, in fact sends that power elsewhere potentially bankrupting BC Hydro, our company, in the process.

The acclaimed filmmaker, Damien Gillis, and I will be travelling around the province this fall informing people of the truth about what Campbell & Co. are doing. What’s as important if not more so, we’ll be telling citizens of BC what alternatives there are for an energy policy for British Columbians, not for Mr. Buffett and friends. Damien will be showing his marvelous videos, many guest speakers will underscore what must be stopped and what must be done, and I will be a principal speaker at them all.

My role will be to synthesize the enormous wealth of information brought to the Common Sense Canadian by its illustrious “Contributors”, outstanding British Columbians whom you will see introduced on our website, www.thecanadian.org.

Back to the main question – why don’t I just retire and go away?

From a personal standpoint, I don’t know what the hell I would do with myself if I did. And as Wendy reminds me, “I married you for better or for worse … but not for lunch!”

I admit the wisdom of Robbie Burns gave us when he observed “O wad some power the giftie gie us, to see oursels as others see us”. And it is as others see me upon which I must make my judgment.

When the time comes for me to quit, I hope I recognize that and, failing that, my comrades-in-arms let me know.

In the meantime my main effort is to make sure that I’m around to get a new disabled parking pass and a fresh Amex card in 2013.

Share

Dick Cheney, Burning Korans, and The Media…

Uncategorized
Share

We’ve all heard about the Florida pastor and the Korans.. it was just about the Number One Story in the world. WHY? Because the Corporate owned media WANTED to make it news – because they want us to focus on stories involving hate and division and the ‘war of civilisations’ they are trying to start … that is what they want us focused on, so that is what they tell us about. Otherwise, the guy could have done this stupid thing and it would have been a ‘nothing event’ that nobody ever knew about… zero!
Continue reading Dick Cheney, Burning Korans, and The Media… →

Share

Canada sees shock salmon glut

Uncategorized
Share

Article by Kate Larkin in Nature News. “Some 34 million fish are thronging the Fraser River as they return from the sea to spawn, federal regulators announced on 31 August. The event, following two decades of decline in salmon-run numbers, is taking fisheries scientists by surprise — and causing frustration across the fishing industry, which is largely unable to access the windfall.” Read article

Share

DFO becoming irrelevant to fisheries management

Uncategorized
Share

Letter to the editor by Alexandra Morton in the Campbell River Courier-Islander.

“Your paper quotes Minister of Fisheries Gail Shea, ‘…it’s my understanding that the new regulations provide for much more transparency within the industry.’

“Well that’s nice, but our concern is not transparency ‘within’ the industry, our concern is reporting outside the industry to the public. Shea blunders on, ‘we may not get it 100 per cent right the first time…'”

Read letter

Share

HST Briefing Memo: Hansen & Campbell Caught Red Handed

Uncategorized
Share

Colin Hansen, our Finance Minister, not only isn’t telling the truth about the HST situation, he is a sniveling, cringing coward to boot. Be a Man, Hansen! Own up, level with people! You look like the kid with chocolate all over his face denying to his Mom that he pinched the chocolate bar as the store keeper alleged. 

If you cannot be honest, at least stand up and admit it! 

I have been saying publicly that the Premier and Hansen telling us that the HST wasn’t even on the “radar screen” was bullshit. And it was demonstrable bullshit before the document proving it was obtained by Freedom of Information request – and I’ll tell you why. 

I’ve been there, folks, and I know how the system works. But first I ask you to look at your own experiences in life. If you want a change in policy in any company…in a union…in your golf club or curling club…it takes time. You must prepare the ground and anticipate the questions that will be raised and deal with them. In government it’s even more time consuming and when you have, as here, two governments involved you’re looking at months. In fact you’re looking at a starting point before March 2, 2009 when, by the document’s own words, Hansen asked for the briefing document that was just released. In fact you can be sure that discussion between the minister and his staff, and in cabinet, predated the March 2 request by weeks if not, more likely, months. Documents like this do not happen spontaneously. 

The issue of the HST was in the news in the early weeks of 2009, you will remember, because it was an issue in Ontario, where Premier McGuinty was up to his ears in static. To assume that Campbell and Hansen weren’t aware and, indeed, in contact with the Ontario government strains credulity to the breaking point. 

Let me give you an example from my own experience in government. In 1979 I, as Minister of Environment, was chair of the Environment and Land Use Committee which, amongst other things, heard appeals from the Land Commission. I went to Premier Bill Bennett and told him that we were getting beaten up every time an appeal came up because the appellant land owner, without doubt, was a Socred supporter and the media would have a picture of a “Vote Socred” sign on the land during the previous election. (This was in the days where the media did its duty). I suggested that we set up an appeal board to hear these appeals and he agreed. 

It took three months and a damned fine lawyer from the Attorney General’s department before we had a presentation ready for cabinet. 

Why did it take this time? 

Amongst other things, several statutes required amendments and one had to assess what impact those amendments would have on other statutes. Numerous regulations had to be dealt with requiring orders-in-council. The unintended consequences of these changes had to be considered. All this to simply set up an appeal body that 95% of the province couldn’t have cared less about. 

This was penny ante stuff compared to the complexities of harmonizing the GST and the PST. 

I want to tell you the real damage this has caused. None of us tells the truth all the time. There is considerable social dissembling that takes place, otherwise we’d all be at each others throats. It’s human to exaggerate, especially when telling a story that, if told straight, would be pretty dull. 

Governments gild the lily. Spin doctors work stories over and bad news is released at times it will get the least publicity – like Friday afternoons. We all know this and discount what governments say accordingly. 

But we don’t expect governments and ministers to lie. That simple. We look up to the offices they hold and expect them not to dishonour them. 

Our image, here at the Common Sense Canadian, of Gordon Campbell as Pinocchio, is an apt one. Whether it’s BC Rail, The Energy Policy, the size of the deficit, the HST and so on, he simply has told us falsehoods, which is as politely as one can put it. I’ve invited you before and do again to watch this 1:51 minute clip of Colin Hansen discussing his government’s private power policy – where he, with his oozing, sincere, avuncular manner, makes 5 basic statements, everyone of them untrue.  

Now we have Mr Hansen – and the Premier – caught out, and do they have the courage to say, “We were wrong and we make that admission because that is the way we were brought up – to be truthful and to take the consequences of our actions like men”? 

Instead we see a whimpering, sniveling Minister of the Crown trying to blame it all on the ministry. 

Folks, the plain truth is this: Colin Hansen asked for the briefing note more than two months before the election and the issue was not only “on the radar screen”, it was well on its way to becoming government policy – a policy that Campbell and Hansen hid from the people during the election. 

We all know what the honourable thing would be for this minister, the premier, and in fact the entire government to do. We need only look at what Campbell, as Leader of the Opposition had to say about the duty of NDP ministers under far, far less disturbing circumstances. In fact, the Premier, back in those days of Glen Clark’s troubles, made speeches which were and remain classic recitations of the duty of Her Majesty’s Ministers when under a cloud. Those speeches do not, of course, apply to Premiers thrown in jail for drunk driving and having their picture on the front pages of the nations’ newspapers and jumping out of TV sets; they don’t apply to premiers who break their promises not to privatize BC Rail, premiers who dissemble on the fish farms issue, or grossly understate the province’s deficit during an election, or privatize power while singing the praises of public power…and on it goes. No siree, these rules apply to the other folks, but not to Gordon Campbell and his lickspittles.

The truly sad part is that it’s tough enough to convince younger people that they should understand and get involved in public life, let alone ask them not to be cynical unto death about the political process, when they see how it’s been so egregiously abused by this bunch of shameful men who don’t even have the decency to be ashamed.

Share