Vancouver Sun, Home of Yellow Journalism

I am actually being too kind to the Vancouver Sun, the word journalism doesn`t apply to most of their articles, a better description would be spin, distortion and or repeating lies, lies from the Campbell public affairs bureau. I had planned on writing this story last week but I was delayed as everyday there was another nail to hammer in Gordon Campbell`s political coffin, now that Campbell`s coffin has been hermetically sealed and lowered to the three foot mark .........

Fazil Mihlar....The head of the Vancouver Sun editorial board, a little background is required, Fazil was a writer for the Fraser institute and is still a high regarded member of the right wing red neck stink tank, in fact I wouldn`t be surprised if the latest article from the Fraser institute was co-written by Niels Veldhuis and Fazil Mihlar...

In the latest Fraser institute spinfest they gave Gordon Campbell a generous mark of 90 out of 100 and rated Gordon Muir Campbell as the best premier and fiscal manager....The methodology on how they arrived at their numbers is a mystery.....

But from what I read the marking`s and scoring went as such.

1. Gordon Campbell recieved 20 points for lowering the minimum wage to $6 dollars per hour.
2. Campbell received another 10 points for not raising the minimum wage in 10 years and agreeing to never raise it as premier.
3. 10 points for giving massive subsidies to the highly profitable oil n gas sector.
4. 5 points for eliminating the minimum tax on highly profitable banks.
5. 5 points for lying about our last record setting B.C. deficit.
6. 5 points for the excellence and efficiency of the BC Government document shredders.
7. 5 points for appointing Liberal insiders and big business friends in positions of power.
8. 5 points for devouring and licking clean every last drop of money from the public trough, thus eliminating the need for a trough cleaner.
9. 20 points for lying to win the election.
10. The HST was not part of this years rankings, the HST will be part of next year`s rankings, so Campbell`s score is at 90, if the HST was taken into consideration Campbell`s score would be 110

You can read Fazil Mihlar`s and Niels Veldhuis co-written story here

But what I really wanted to talk about is.....Fazil Milhar`s story on the Millennium boondoggle athlete`s village, because according to Fazil the problems at the athletes village was all caused by Gregor Robertson, Mihlar`s story is a classic example of yellow journalism, the title of the story, the premise of the story would lead the uninformed reader to blame Gregor Robertson, and only in the second to last line of the spin does Fazil state.

"Vancouver's successive city councils created a crisis from the outset and the current council continues to make it worse."

Let me be clear, Gregor is a flake and I am not a fan but the blame for Millennium development boondoggle doesn`t sit with juice boy.

The Fazil Mihlar story is really sad and it`s actually a prelude to a law suit that will be launched by Millennium Development against the city of Vancouver.

According to the Vancouver Sun editorial board(Fazil Mihlar)

1. According to the story, the city of Vancouver left Millennium development to pay for the clean up of the polluted false creek property.
2. The city changed the scope of the project from leed silver to leed gold standards mid-stream, thus raising the cost per unit by a factor of 50%.
3. Millennium Development ...Because of irregular development procedures thrust on them by the city prevented Millennium development from going to a "regular bank for financing".
4. After the city paid off the Fortress loan sharks and took over financing the city of Vancouver didn`t pass on any savings to Millennium.
5. The city didn`t award the project early enough thus forcing Millennium to pay thousands of hours in overtime pay to workers.

And the last line of the story Fazil Mihlar states....

"Now the city should back away, far away, and leave the marketing experts to sell the units -- all the units -- at the highest prices they can command."

Ok folks, so according to the Vancouver Sun(friends of Mellenium Development).....The units should be sold for what the market will bear and if that means a huge loss for the City of Vancouver so what, because, according to the drivel story disguised as something else, it`s all Vancouver`s fault that Millenium development is having trouble.

Really Fazil Mihlar, was it not Peter Ladner and Sammy Sullivan who picked Millenium over Concord Pacific orWall development, 2 companies that were well financed, with assets, 2 companies that needed no help from loan sharks for financing.

Was it not the NPA insider Paul Barbeau who was the only name on Millenium`s board of directors.

Did Estele Lo not resign over the NPA picking Millenium development over reputable well financed companies?

Did the city of Vancouver put a gun to Millenium development, were Millenium negotiators forced by way of death threat to build leed gold or else?.....Was it up to the city to stop Millenium development from doing business with the Fortress loan sharks?

The Fazil/Vancouver sun editorial board story states that Millenium was forced to pay thousands of overtime hours because of delays caused by the city,......Is that why the units aren`t selling?....Even if Millenium had 1 million overtime hours, 1 million times $30 dollars is a mere $30 million dollars, $30 million divided by 1000 units is $30 thousand dollars extra per unit.

Read the whole story here folks, the Vancouver Sun wrote that story as a favour to their friends at Millenium development. Hey Fazil Mihlar, you forgot to blame the Gregor for Millenium development being forced TO GIVE VANOC $1 million dollars to be a sponsor of the 2010 Olympics.

Classic yellow Journalism folks, designed to cast blame at Gregor Robertson, but what Fazil Mihlar has done is help Millenium development in its future law suit against the city of Vancouver when they default on their loan, a law suit that Millenium will lose but ....The law suit will takes years to resolve.

Poor old Millenium development, the shysters at City hall took advantage of the "pure as driven snow" Millenium development.

Perhaps the Vancouver Sun or a investigative journalist might be interested in writing about the Millenium development escapades from here to Iran!

Put the blame where it belongs, Sam Sullivan/Peter Ladner, NPA council and Millenium development.

The Straight Goods

Cheers-Eyes Wide Open