BC Rail Saga, Gordon Campbell`s Shame

I hadn`t planned writing anymore on BC Rail at this time but I think we need to do an overview and highlight a couple of things that haven`t been explained to our satisfaction.

Before we get rolling, Gordon Campbell, over the last decade we have learned that he is an habitual liar, BC Rail, the HEU contract, the HST, he`s lied about deficits, he wrote no deficits laws only to break them forcing him to bring forth new laws that forgive the laws he broke, Campbell drove drunk in Maui, he`s been having an adulterous affair with Lara for years, Lara travels everywhere the premier goes, she`s on the public payrole and works directly with Campbell, Gordon`s marriage is but a sham, a cardboard wife and cereal box family, the point I am making is...

Gordon Campbell has no moral fiber, he`s a shallow man, ethics and honour mean nothing to him, we did not know that in 2001...But today we know in SPADES about ethics, or in this case, a total lack of any morals or ethics, and it`s important to remember that.

Gordon Campbell in the 2001 election promised not to sell BC Rail and did, the tangled web of lies that follow all stem from Campbell lying his face off.

In 1996, David Maclean, the head of CN Rail was the main money man in Campbell`s 1996 run for power, in that election Campbell said he was going to sell BC Rail, .....David Maclean wanted BC Rail,  David Maclean financed that campaign....Campbell lost that election.

2001, David Maclean(The head of CN Rail) is still with Campbell, Maclean is banking Campbell`s 2001 election campaign, David Maclean still wants BC Rail,  Patrick Kinsella is Campbell`s actual campaign manager in 2001...Campbell campaigns on not selling BC Rail...Campbell wins the election in a land slide.

So we now have a man with no moral fiber or honour in charge of the Province, BC Rail  in actuality is already gone, the mechanisms for disposing of the public`s asset is already turning, David Maclean is aware that BC Rail is coming his way.....Patrick Kinsella is rewarded with employment from CN Rail, Campbell rewards Kinsella as well by arranging a lucrative gig at BC Rail doing a core review for years, Kinsella working for CN Rail and BC Rail at the same time is not only a conflict of interest but highly unethical(Remember the start of this post)....Kinsella was rewarded with money from the commons.

Let`s go to the BC Legislature, Campbell and the Liberals after the 2001 election start beating the drum, day after day they beat the drum on how BC Rail has too much debt, no profit, a huge liability, all three of those assertions have been proven wrong, all was a stage play designed to placate the public, the bottom line was....David Maclean and CN Rail were going to get BC Rail, ....The Liberals beat the drum, 77 Liberals against 2 opposition members, 2 members that the media ignored and ridiculed, so not only did Campbell proceed to break his promise but he also deliberately devalued the worth of BC Rail! .....

Instead of talking up BC Rail and selling it, on mass they ridiculed BC Rail in the legislature, the debt, operating expenses, mis-management....It makes you wonder why Campbell kept the BC Rail executives on the payrole for years and years even after they had no trains and but a few miles of track, considering how(according to Campbell) they ran BC Rail into the ground and lost money year after year?..Yet they were kept on for years and years....More on that aspect a little further down..

Let`s do a quick review, the machinery is already in place to sell BC Rail, the fix is in, friends of the premier are cashing in, David Maclean, Patrick Kinsella, within the small confines of the BC Liberal cabinet BC Rail is all but gone, it was no secret in cabinet that BC Rail will be sold,  the lies and web weaving begin, ....Paul Nettleton speaks up, rings the alarm bell and is so disgusted that he leaves the Liberals, the PAB set out to discredit Nettleton.

Campbell breaks the news to the public that BC Rail will be leased for 990 years, hogwash, that`s a sale...There had to be a bidding process on BC Rail to give the appearance to the public that we were getting the best value possible for BC Rail.....But the bid process was tainted, I am actually surprised that CP Rail and OMNI trax  even bothered bidding, they knew that David Maclean had given a small fortune to elect Campbell in 1996 and 2001, in the back of their minds they had to be able to put two and two together that  CN Rail`s acquisition of BC Rail was a done deal.

Remember folks, Basi/Virk/Bruce Clark, Eric Bornman/Brian Kieran/Peter Armstrong/....Rocky mountain tours, Washington marine group...All the twists and turns of bribes, rigged bids, everything that transpired was a result of Gordon Campbell lying to each and everyone of us and selling BC Rail...All the lies, the court case, the $10s of millions on legal fees, it all started with Gordon Campbell lying in 2001.

"What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive"

What we have are lies layered upon lies, one lie leads to another lie and it grows and grows until it can`t be contained.

The Basi/Virk BC Rail Corruption Trial ....The raid on the Legislature all started with a drug investigation connected with Aneal Basi, drugs, grow-ops, money laundering, it was only after wire taps investigating into drug related issues did it come back to the legislature, this led investigators to  Basi/Virk, the wire taps revealed {talks}] about bribes for information on BC Rail bids, ......The headline immediately after the raid on the Legislature was .......{Organized crime has infiltrated the highest offices in the Province}

So they raid the BC Legislature, remember folks, it all started as a drug investigation, but, there were many search warrants, Pilot house was searched, Bruce Clark`s home and his bank accounts were searched, and as you know from the release of warrants on Monday that at Bruce Clark`s home they found confidential information on the BC Rail Port Subdivision....No charges were laid against Bruce Clark, and according to Eric Bornman, he had been bribing David Basi for years, it was also revealed in the warrants that Basi/Virk/Bornman/Kieran and Bruce Clark were in talks as early as 2001 about joining together and forming a communication/lobbying company....And that is very believable because, Bruce Clark, Patrick Kinsella and Eric Bornman were already connected and on the board of directors of this company

So the Bruce Clark, Patrick Kinsella, Eric Bornman connection is made again early in the 2000s.....Coincidence? I don`t think so..

Let`s stop here.....Something was bothering me and last night it dawned on me what it was.....The search warrant for Bruce Clark`s home, Bruce Clark wasn`t charged with anything but he had top secret information at his home, stuff he had no right to have in his possession, but he wasn`t charged???

What was on the search warrant, what were they looking for, they searched Bruce Clark`s home and bank accounts, there had to be a cause on the actual warrant, for a judge to grant a search warrant he/she must be given compelling evidence of what they are looking for...What was the cause of action on the search warrant, it can`t be the BC Rail Port subdivision or they would have charged him...Were the police looking for cocaine, marijuanna, money, the police had to be specific and the warrant had to suggest more than the BC Rail Port Subdivision information,.... because believe me...The police weren`t looking in Bruce Clark`s bank account for the BC  Rail Port Subdivision data....So what were the police searching for at Christy Clark`s brother`s home?

 That my friends is a very important question, the information would be on the warrant, and or the police themselves would know, someone needs to ask.

Full stop here....Remember, all of the above, the dirty players, the layer upon layer of lies all stems from Gordon Campbell lying and giving BC Rail away to his financing friend David Maclean.

The document dump on Monday also reveals that Basi was taking bribes for years, years and years of Basi taking bribes, Basi was dirty, Virk was dirty, Aneal Basi was a drug dealer and money launderer, all three were dirty before BC Rail, .....The reason I bring this up is because some allege that Basi and Virk were nothing but fall guys for the BC Government....Hogwash, they were dirty for years prior to BC Rail, and....And I have no doubt that Collins, Reid and others in the Campbell Government knew that Basi/Virk were dirty and it is even possible that Basi and Virk were persuaded by their bosses to ask for bribes from the other bidders in an attempt to keep the rigged bid game alive.....It may have went down that way, but let`s be crystal clear, Basi and Virk were dirty well before the BC Rail saga even started, I have yet to see direct evidence saying that Basi and Virk were ordered to ask for bribes and play the game...

Like I said earlier on, CP Rail, Omnitrax had to had to know the fix was in anyway.

And there is no doubt the plea agreement that ended the trial was done to keep the Government from a huge embarrassment over the fact  the fix was in from the moment Gordon Campbell took office in 2001....Remember the start of this post, Campbell has no moral fiber or ethics, the fix was in already, everyone surrounding Gordon Campbell was rewarded for playing along and remaining silent while the theft of BC Rail took place.

None of this whole convoluted story would have ever happened if Campbell didn`t lie and sell BC Rail, the mock trial, the layers of lies, the bribes, the intertwined connections who all fed from the trough, everything goes back to Gordon Campbell.....Were Basi and Virk prodded to ask for bribes in BC Rail bidding process, perhaps, but only because those two were taking bribes on everything else for years and years.

Let`s recap, Campbell wins the 2001 election, David Maclean knows his reward is coming(a free BC Railway)...Patrick Kinsella was rewarded with a profitable gig at CN Rail and BC Rail at the same time...Bruce Clark got rewards for the Washington Marine Group, Clark had confidential inside information, Basi and Virk were rewarding themselves for years...Peter Armstrong, friend of Campbell and one time employer of Campbell`s son was rewarded in the BC Rail deal, everyone who left the Campbell Government in that first term have been rewarded for silence, ....The BC Rail executives were rewarded for years along with a golden handshake for their silence on the going`s on at BC Rail....Even BC Rail executives had no idea why Patrick Kinsella was on the payrole...

And friends of the Premier were rewarded for their silence every step of the way, all the real estate holding`s of BC Rail sold or acquired for pocket change by BC Liberal insiders....

And then there was a failure of the BC Supreme court, for the price of about $30 million dollars for the Province`s prosecution legal fees, the court was overwhelmed with motions, procedure, disclosures, delays, stalls, from the BC Court to the supreme court of Canada, a shell game of stalls, lies, defend, deny, shred, a compliant court that let the charade go on for years spinning its wheels......And throughout this fiasco, this National embarrassment the BC Liberal government, the MLAs, Cabinet, they all hung together and kept their mouth shut, everyone knew the story, the meetings on Savory Island, Patrick Kinsella, Peter Armstrong, everyone was getting their piece of the action, Washington Marine Group got waterfront land and docks in the North Shore, they got the Fast Ferriers for free, Bruce Clark got his rewards......And all through this scandal, the BC Public was played like a piano, we paid for a corrupted court, a tainted trial that neither started or finished, we got hosed by BC Rail executives, by Basi/Virk, Patrick Kinsella hosed us, David Maclean screwed us, Collins, Reid and every BC Liberal screwed us...The lawyers, the system, the prosecutors, the entirety of everything was a scam from the git go......

And none of it would have happened without Gordon Campbell lying in 2001 and giving BC Rail away to his friend David Maclean....Everything in between, the tentacles, the intertwined ivy, all the connected  dots, the layers of lies, the cost to the taxpayer, the sting, the big ruse, Shakespeare would be proud of the extent and layering of  lies.

 And the final insult to the BC Public was Mike De Jong making sad excuses for paying Basi and Virk`s legal fees, ending the trial and claiming there is nothing more to find out, that folks is the icing on the cake, the straw that broke Gordon Campbell`s Government`s back, ....Christy Clark has direct knowledge of BC Rail sham, Bruce Clark is dirty up to his eyeballs, as is Basi/Virk/Pilothouse...Patrick Kinsella is dirty, David Maclean is dirty...The silent BC Liberals are dirty. And yes, there are dozens more who played the game and remained silent...

"The Silence has become deafening"

But....It all starts and ends with Gordon Campbell`s deliberate 2001 lie and betrayal, everything in between was a bunch of BC Liberal rats feeding at the trough, the most corrupt, dirty, tainted Government in Canada...That is this Powell River Persuader`s opinion on the BC Rail Saga.

The Straight Goods

Cheers-Eyes Wide Open

Breaking news...John Von Dongen Quits the BC Liberals(Updated)

Breaking news, John Von Dongen in a rare rebuke of his own Government lambastes the leadership of Christy clark..Von Dongen cites the Basi/Virk $6 million dollar payoff, He cites the naming rights debacle of BC Place...BC Liberal members floored..

Von Dongen has announced he`s now sitting in the house as a BC conservative..

BC Liberals self imploding continues..Christy Clark stunned and is in hiding..


BC Liberals are officially dead....Von Dongen also cited non-existent leadership, he was hoping the party would have found new direction but realizes things are getting worse..Von Dongen claimed many constituents keep asking questions on many issues which he can`t provide a credible answer..

Von Dongen called the BC Liberals a failing entity...I will get the Hansard transcript once it comes available.

Kevin falcon looks like he is ready to cry...BC Liberals are close to complete implosion...Christy Clark will possibly announce resignation as leader this week...Stay tuned for more...

Updated here...

From Hansard..John von Dongen`s own words

"Mr. Speaker, I rise and ask for the attention of the House to make a personal statement.
For almost 17 years I have risen in this chamber to represent the best interests of both my constituents, and the best interests of all British Columbians. I have done so as a member of the Official Opposition for 6 years, a Cabinet Minister for 8 years and as a private member for the last 3 years.

Throughout that time I have been keenly aware of both the privilege and responsibility that comes with being an elected member of this Assembly. I have always tried to conduct myself in a manner consistent with the expectations of those who entrusted me with this office. I am by no means a flawless individual, but have strived for personal and political integrity. I have always taken ownership of my own shortcomings.

Mr. Speaker, I had hoped that there would have been renewal in my party and in government. But, in the past 12 months, that has not happened. Indeed, every week constituents question government actions and issues that I am not able to defend.

What I believe people expect from political leadership are core values that include integrity and a genuine commitment to public service.
Integrity includes honesty, ethics and personal character. Integrity is non-negotiable. It is foundational for a strong organization. Most importantly, integrity includes accountability.

To this day, Mr. Speaker, there are still serious unanswered questions regarding the writing-off of 6 million dollars in legal fees in the BC Rail case contrary to government policy. Questions I have been asking for a year-and-a-half, and questions the Auditor General is seeking answers to through the courts.

{Did you feel that, BC Mary is smiling today} Grant G

Most recently, the unexplainable cancellation of a 35 million dollar naming rights agreement with Telus is another example of failed leadership.
There have been other lapses in proper accountability and I expect more to come. When more and more decisions are being made for the wrong reasons, then you have an organization that is heading for failure.


Today, Mr. Speaker, I rise because I can no longer carry on with my duties as a member of this government. I have decided to resign as a member of the BC Liberal Government Caucus and I am cancelling my membership with the BC Liberal Party.
Mr. Speaker, I believe the people of BC deserve a government that will look in the mirror and honestly contemplate what it sees in the reflection; a government that people have trust and confidence in; a government that models true accountability for its own actions.
To my colleagues in the government caucus, as well as those in opposition and those who sit as independent MLA’s -- I celebrate each of you and your willingness to serve the people of British Columbia. This is not an easy job, and so to all of you who continue to strive for excellence, I applaud your efforts.
To my constituents -- in the coming days and weeks I look forward to speaking with you and further discussing the decision I have made. Indeed, Mr. Speaker, I have much to share -- and will in the coming weeks, make it clear that while this was not an easy decision, it was the only decision I could arrive at in good conscience.
To the government caucus staff, constituency assistants and party staff -- it has been a privilege to work with you. To all those public servants who I have had the honour of working with -- rest assured that my work with you to accomplish the goals and policies that were right for all British Columbians has been one of the most meaningful aspects of my time in public office.
To my family and friends -- thank you for standing by me through some difficult times. In particular, I wish to thank Sherri and Lukas for their continued love and support.
In closing, Mr. Speaker, moving forward I will do what I have done for the past 17 years -- I will put my time, energy and talents to serve my constituents and the party that can best provide British Columbians with a broadly-based, credible, free enterprise option.

Therefore, I am pleased to announce that I will now be sitting in this House as a member of the BC Conservative Party. I look forward to continuing to work hard for my constituents in Abbotsford-South, and for all British Columbians. Thank you Mr. Speaker, and thank you members"

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Dianne Watts, Pathetic Politics

Political sleaze, corporate lobby, paid pundits and false praise, is it just me or are you too getting tired of the same old same old...

Why is there such reluctance to call a spade a spade, the New Port Mann super bridge and its tolls, let`s be perfectly clear, a new bridge wasn`t needed, a twinned bridge at half the cost would have been sufficient, Gordon Campbell doing what he did best gifted his friends with an ultra lucrative contract, road builders and corporate lobby filled the BC Liberals coffers, they filled it year after year for one reason, to buy the wrong decision!

Gordon Campbell never gave a crap about spending taxpayer`s money or making the wrong decision, from outsourcing of hospital cleaning to rip-off IPP private power, money bought leverage and Gordon Campbell was the sleaziest lying bastard to ever hold office in British Columbia, he never made one decision on his own, corporate boardrooms and sacks of paper money influence made the decisions....Gordon Campbell was a bought man, his ethics and morality never existed in reality, all BC Liberals are accountable for his actions for not one ever stood up and said that`s wrong, not a one, not Kevin Falcon, not Rich Coleman, not Shirley Bond, none, they allowed the BC Government to be turned into a personal bank account....

Big lobby criminals, Ian Black was gifted a $400 k per year gig at the Vancouver board of trade....Phil Hocstein gifted a 3 year cushy gig at the Port of Vancouver...Carole Taylor gifted a sweet deal with the TD bank board of directors, that for removing the minimum bank tax..Barry Penner, he too has gone to a group of lawyers, LLP, Barry Penner(Environment minister) is now a paid lobbyist for industrial customers wanting to do business with the BC Government...Barry Penner couldn`t fight his way out of a traffic ticket, he really is that stunned, yet he was gifted a sweet gig because he holds keys to the BC Liberals backroom cash counting room...

Even the great Dianne Watts, Miss popular, she won in a sweep in last year`s civic elections, she is a phony as they come, lately she`s been blathering about the brutal tolls those south of the Fraser will soon be paying to cross the Port Mann tolled bridge, single drivers will be paying $2000 per year, some families will be paying that twice or more, but that`s only the beginning, the $3 dollar one-way toll is only on cars, medium sized trucks will pay more $7 dollars each way, semi trailers will be paying $25 dollars to cross the bridge, all those commercial costs will be passed on to consumers and business, meaning everyone will be paying tolls in one way or another..

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"Dianne Watts is proposing all bridges become toll bridges, smaller tolls of perhaps $1 dollar per crossing,
 She also called for a regional tolling strategy to help defray the costs of a new Pattullo Bridge, saying residents south of the Fraser are being unfairly penalized with tolls on the Golden Ears Bridge, the new Port Mann Bridge and likely the new Pattullo. She maintains tolling all Lower Mainland bridges at 75 cents to $1 would be more fair and equitable to the region, especially as Surrey and Langley are expected to take 70 per cent of the growth in the next 30 years."

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Surrey+mayor+renews+call+light+rail+regional+tolling+strategy/6295557/story.html#ixzz1q9mm8GhD

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 Dianne Watts has proposed that because her email box is filling up with complaints and real fear, fear from residents that are scared they will have to leave BC because of affordability, their fear is justified but..

But where the hell was Dianne Watts when the project was first proposed?..People like me and Stephen Rees warned of this, a simple twinning was all that was needed and the existing Port Mann was upgraded between 1997 and 1999 and is structurally sound for another 60 years or more, the pure hypocrisy of Dianne Watts to fake concern through a gullible media soap box is sad, for the very people who bought Dianne Watts through the same contribution box were developers and builders who wanted the bridge..

Surrey First’s campaign built on construction sector cash

Amy Reid, Surrey Now

"Published: Friday, March 23, 2012

The Surrey First council team received $676,283.41 in financial contributions for its campaign in last fall's election, which resulted in the slate sweeping all nine council seats, including the mayor's chair for Dianne Watts.
A total of $304,310, or 44.99 per cent, came from development, contracting and construction-related businesses, according to the list submitted to the Surrey city clerk's office on March 5. Big contributors in this category included Qualico Developments, which made four donations totalling $11,500, and B&B Contracting, with four donations totalling $17,500.
From real estate and related businesses, the Surrey First team received $54,050, or 7.99 per cent. Colliers International made two donations totalling $8,600. Several companies from this category have crossovers into the development side of business, such as Anthem Properties, which donated $6,000, and describes itself as a real estate investment, development and management company."
 Surrey First’s campaign built on construction sector cash


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Mayors Fastbender and Dianne Watts are pathetic clowns for proposing pain on everyone when they knew full well at the very git-go that there would be tolls of $3 dollars each way or more.

 Surrey and Langley wanted the bridge and they can live with the consequences, those consequences will be $hundreds of millions of dollars sucked out of their economy every year, rat-racing to avoid tolls, other avenues backed up for miles, and what is so sad...Dianne Watts could have won the election without all that construction money, now Watts and Surrey are beholden to these builders...When will the media call out these phony politicians, when will media actually research or think common sense, I fought tooth and nail over the new Port Mann bridge, the deal was done as soon as Gordon Campbell received the cash...

Dianne Watts`s idea of everyone paying a smaller toll and spread the pain is Pathetic and devoid of thought, that would entail putting sensors and cameras on every crossing costing hundreds of millions of dollars just to create a mechanism to track and collect tolls from everyone....

Many people in Vancouver and Burnaby cross 3 or 4 bridges a day to get to work, Dianne Watts wants them to pay $1000`s per year in tolls...Pathetic..

Let me give you another example of pathetic BC Liberal fiscal incompetence, Ken Dobell, BC Liberal insider and lobbyist, Skytrain is spending over $200 million dollars to install fare-gates at skytrain stations, it`s reported that these gates will prevent $5 million dollars per year in fare evasion, when you take in account interest payments they will never pay for themselves and actually cost BCers and local people more than the yearly fare evasion amount, much much more, it may even cost some families their children`s life!..

Let me explain that in a little more detail...Skytrain could have merely hired 1 staff member for each station, $60 k ..$80 k per year for skytrain ticket checkers, one per station would have stopped this fare evasion, even if there were 100 stations(which there isn`t) we are talking about $10 million per year max, it would take over 30 years to add up to the outlay cost of fare gates, but these employees would be spending money, raising families and contributing to a functioning society....Further-more, if those drug addicted, drunks, broke fare evaders can`t sneak on skytrain or can`t afford the ticket do you think these people will walk?....They won`t, there will be a spike in pan-handling, there will be an increase in car thefts, an increase in crime in and around skytrain stations...

And there is more, parents and their teenage girls, let`s be honest, teenagers drink, have sex, go to parties and many time children do stupid things and many times they find themselves broke, if I had a young teenage daughter or son I would hope they could ask a skytrain attendant to please let them get home by train if their pockets are empty, let the kid plead their case, promise not to do it again and arrive home safely, for if you bullet proof skytrain there will be some stupid kids who will stick out their thumb to get home..Your imagination can fill in the blanks..

Yet the corporate bought media and politicians in order to curry favor propagated a sad story of fare evasion driving the costs of transit, not one real practical pragmatic approach was considered, it was always about Ken Dobell and his clients, Fare-gates will cost lives and increase panhandling and local crime and never recoup the money...Sellout BC Liberal politicians knew this but still allowed Gordo to corrupt and confuse the debate.

Back to Dianne Watts and her false flag spread the tolls around argument, where were you when the bridge was first proposed?...You were siding with Gordon Campbell and a corrupt BC Liberal party while soaking up photo-ops...

Now let`s drag in the other photo-op queen, Christy unqualified Clark...She put her foot, make that both feet in her mouth last week when she said there will never be a vehicle levy, she`s wrong and as usual hasn`t thought it through, the toll outrage will build south of the Fraser river and those people will demand that all crossings are tolled but at a lower amount...Wrong wrong wrong..

Putting cameras and sensors on all crossings would be very expensive, the cost of collection, the maintenance, the answer is no bridge tolls, the answer is in a car levy, no cameras, no sensors, no maintenance, nothing but a plain old simple car levy that spreads the pain to all....And to make it fair, if you`re driving a brand new Porsche the car levy will be more than the family that insures a family carrying vehicle...Familes won`t be punished for driving to soccer practice, it won`t cramp commerce by forcing people to stay home, it won`t punish Sunday sight seeing drivers, it won`t take $ thousands and thousand from the working  few while leaving rich West Vancouver unscathed, it eliminates cameras and sensors and billing agents, a simple fee added to your car insurance...And yes, not just in the GVRD but Province wide, perhaps then maybe the ministry of transportation will start fixing the hundred million pot holes on our BC roads..

This is the real problem with Governments, as soon as they start taking money from industry and lobby groups the decisions that are made are not in the best interest of the public...

We can`t undo the new Port Mann or fare-gates, we can`t undo the bribes Dianne Watts and BC Liberals have taken but we can bring in legislation both provincially and federally to prevent this from happening in the future...

For this to happen the NDP must be elected, first here in BC (next year) and Nationally in 2015, for if we don`t take out the bribe money and lobbyist control out of our Governments these blatant errors will happen over and over again.

Too bad a lowly little ol blogger like me has more common sense than the entire BC Liberal Government combined.


The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Air Canada and Aveos, Flying Coffins?

This story has gone National, rumors of shoddy work and tight time-lines are bubbling to the surface...

Let me be clear, my story has spawned a new investigative direction in dire need of close scrutiny...My internal stats are showing that top brass from Air Canada and Aveos are very concerned where this story is leading...

First off, there are two threads winding on this spool, Air Canada and Aveos have colluded to burn union employees and pension liabilities for cheap possibly dangerous outsourcing that one day might be front page news around the world when jets start falling from the skies...When that happens the lawsuits will cost both Air Canada and other carriers more money than wages, it will be the end of Air Canada....

More shocking news...There are other concerned people that have reported on the pending and real already happened disasters....This story is leading back to what Alaska Air  did decades ago...Cut corners, rushed maintenance, forged maintenance reports, sub standard parts, those practices led to hundreds of people dying when a jet crashed and burned, and yes indeed, that led to the demise of Alsaka Air...

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Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Report accuses TACA subsidiary Aeroman of shoddy maintenance

I have written several times before about the growing numbers of US airlines which fly their passenger jets to El Salvador for maintenance work.

 The work is done by Aeroman, the maintenance subsidiary of TACA, and is a source of hundreds of good-paying jobs for the mechanics. I wrote about
Frontier Airlines, Jet Blue and America West sending their planes south.

When Southwest Airlines announced that it too might move maintenance work to El Salvador, my post produced a spirited debate about the possibility that safety might be compromised by using the less-expensive Salvadoran mechanics. There was no proof, and it might have just been put down to the pain of unionized American workers losing their jobs to foreign outsourcing.

But now National Public Radio in the US has run an investigative report including interviews with Aeroman mechanics and instances of faulty work creating unsafe conditions on US Airways passenger jets. From the report:

[T]he mechanics say managers keep pressuring them to fix the planes faster. For instance, if there's rust on a metal beam, but it's just a little over tolerance, "the supervisor says, 'Oh, just leave it like that,' " the mechanic says, through an interpreter. " 'There's no need to repair it.' "

The FAA requires that mechanics fix the planes according to the airline manuals — whether they're in the U.S. or overseas. But the mechanics at Aeroman say their supervisors often say that takes too much time.

Although the FAA periodically inspects at the Aeroman facility, the inspections are always pre-announced, with plenty of time to present a quality appearance, according to the report.

It's a troubling story, if airline passengers are being put at risk. Yet, as the story notes, it has been several years since there was an aircraft crash due to poor maintenance (and it was not Aeroman maintenance). You need to be careful extrapolating from a handful of anecdotes. Perhaps the story's most important lesson is that airlines and the FAA need to step up their level of scrutiny of Aeroman and similar shops.

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But after reading this story it spawned further checking and the more I read the more it seems that Aeroman is following the lead of the murderous company Alaska Airlines, flight 261 crashed and burned, all caused by mechanical short cuts and company scrimping, the lawsuits filed nearly caused the carrier complete bankruptcy, those lost lives can`t be returned...We don`t need to see a repeat....


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Shortly before sunrise on Jan. 23, 2009, passengers on US Airways Flight 518, who were flying from Omaha to Phoenix, were startled by a terrifying shriek.
The pressure seal around the main cabin door was failing, and that shriek was the sound of air leaking through. The plane diverted to Denver. Everybody was safe.
But that and other recent malfunctions affecting US Airways planes, which NPR is reporting for the first time, raise questions about a controversial and growing practice at most U.S. airlines: The industry is sending 1 of every 5 planes to developing countries, from Central America to Asia, when the planes need to be overhauled and repaired. 


In the weeks before the door seal started to fail, US Airways had sent that Boeing 737 to be overhauled at Aeroman, a repair company in El Salvador. And mechanics installed a key part on the door — a "snubber" — backward.
Mechanics at Aeroman first told NPR about the incident. David Seymour, a senior vice president at US Airways, later confirmed the details. He says the plane made the unscheduled landing merely as "a precautionary" measure — but he acknowledges that the Federal Aviation Administration issued violations against both Aeroman and US Airways for lapses in maintenance and oversight. 

 One of the biggest areas airlines can cut costs is maintenance. Consider this: If an airline fixes its own planes in the U.S., it spends up to $100 per hour for every union mechanic, including overhead and other expenses, according to industry analysts. The airline spends roughly half as much at an independent, nonunion shop in America. And it spends only a third as much in a developing country, such as El Salvador. 

Peggy Gilligan, the FAA's associate administrator for aviation safety, says one reason there hasn't been a crash since then is "that there are lots of eyes looking at work that's done on aircraft, and lots of checks and balances to see that the work is being completed properly." When a U.S. airline sends planes to a repair shop, whether in the U.S. or another country, the work is supposed to be supervised by FAA-certified mechanics, and then checked by inspectors with the repair company, the airline and the FAA.
But the inspector general at the Department of Transportation has investigated those checks and balances and has repeatedly warned over the past six years that FAA and industry inspectors are not monitoring the work the way they should. His reports are written in the dry bureaucratic language of Washington, D.C., but they add up to a scathing critique of the way the FAA monitors the foreign repair industry — or fails to. For instance, his 2008 report declared:

"FAA still does not have comprehensive data on how much and where outsourced maintenance is performed."

Translation: The FAA does not require airlines to report exactly where they send their aircraft for which kinds of repairs. So, FAA inspectors are not sure which of the roughly 700 foreign repair shops they should inspect.

"There is no standard for all FAA offices regarding initial inspector visits, which can cause safety issues to go unchecked."

Translation: The FAA's inspectors didn't even show up at some foreign repair stations to monitor their work for as long as three to five years.

"Problems existed [at foreign repair stations that the inspector general investigated], such as untrained mechanics, lack of required tools and unsafe storage of aircraft parts."

FAA officials told the inspector general they would correct those problems. "He has made recommendations that FAA improve its oversight, and we take those recommendations seriously," says Gilligan of the FAA.
But so far, FAA officials have not put those changes in place.
"These findings are very, very disturbing," says John Goglia, a former presidential appointee on the National Transportation Safety Board. "We don't know what's going on in those facilities [foreign repair companies]. If we're not monitoring them properly, how do we know it's safe?"
Goglia says the fact that there have been so few crashes in recent years masks a troubling trend that the public can't see as airlines have been slashing costs.
"The margin of safety is getting thinner," he says. "The absence of an accident doesn't mean you're safe. We should be monitoring and doing our job before there's an accident, not after."
 _______________________________________________

Well well well, this does seem to be more than an Air Canada problem, when will people wake up, when planes start falling out of the skies?

With this story now on the record, if Air Canada(god forbid) has one of their jets crash to earth killing people someone will be held responsible, that responsibility will fall on Federal Governments who allow this race to the bottom with aircraft maintenance....Let`s dig a little deeper shall we..

____________________________________________
 Imagine you're a pilot, and you're flying a Boeing 737 filled with more than 100 passengers. Suddenly, the gauges show that Engine No. 2 is in trouble, so you shut it off and start flying the plane on the other engine alone


That's a troubling enough scenario. But what if it's worse than that: What if it turns out that a mechanic mixed up the wires in the cockpit, not long before you took off — so your gauges are reversed and you actually turned off the one good engine?
That scenario could have happened a few weeks ago on a US Airways flight, if an observant employee at the airline hadn't made a discovery: Mechanics who had just repaired the plane at the Aeroman repair company in El Salvador had, in fact, crossed the wires on two engine indicators in the cockpit. NPR obtained internal US Airways documents that describe the incident, and a senior company executive confirmed it.
Mistakes In El Salvador
This is just one of at least three troubling maintenance mistakes that mechanics in El Salvador have made recently while fixing US Airways planes. There could be more. But airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration don't make maintenance problems public. NPR first learned about these incidents from mechanics at Aeroman and at US Airways. 



Executives at Aeroman refused NPR's repeated requests for interviews and a tour of their maintenance facility. But NPR talked with several of Aeroman's mechanics, who asked not to be named on the grounds that they might be fired for talking with a reporter. And they told troubling stories about what happens on Aeroman's shop floor. Their concerns echo problems that the inspector general at the U.S. Department of Transportation has also found at other foreign repair shops.
The Aeroman mechanics, who commonly earn about $5,000 to $10,000 per year, say they're proud of their work.

 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113942431
 ______________________________________________

 there is much more to come on this investigation....Highly skilled Canadian employees now have to compete with workers making $5000 dollars per year...this race to the bottom, Harper`s world of corporate profit, Harper`s world of betraying decent Canadian jobs...

This is a warning to Air Canada and Stephen Harper from your friendly Powell River Persuader....You have been put on notice

When a jet comes crashing down from shoddy maintenance in El Salvador both you Stephen Harper and Air Canada executives will be jailed for aiding abetting in mass murder..

When will these outsourcings stop, we can`t compete with $5000 dollar per year mechanics, Aveos, Air Canada, Caterpillar, the race to the bottom...

Stephen Harper doesn`t care, he`s nothing but an arm of the Chinese Communist Government.

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Big Orange Star

Latest polls have Stephen Treason Harper in complete free-fall, forget the CBC At Issue panel, forget Norman Specter, forget Michael Campbell and especially forget Scara Macintire and Ken Bosenkool...

This poll at the below link has Stephen Harper`s Convicts down 16% percentage points in British Columbia since the May 2nd Federal election..


http://www.justasonmi.com/?p=2533


The Toronto Danforth by-election today, The NDP received 60% of the vote, Federal Liberal candidate received 30% of the vote while Stephen Harper`s candidate received less than 5% of the vote, hovering the toilet bowl with the Green party..Harper`s candidate in today`s by- election lost 80% of the vote they received a mere 10 months ago!

The Conservative vote crashed while the Federal Liberal vote rebounded to historical numbers for that riding...As you can see from the below chart just how far Harper has sunk since winning a majority Government..

The below results were from the May 2nd 2011 election...

Candidate	Party	Votes	Percent
Jack Layton (x)	NDP	28,980	60.7%
Andrew Lang	LIB	8,452	17.7%
Katarina von Koenig	CON	6,840	14.3%
Adriana Mugnatto-Hamu	GRN	3,081	6.5%
Marie Crawford	AAE	386	0.8%

 The last results I saw on today`s by-election has the NDP receiving 60% of the vote(30,000)...The Federal Liberals receiving 30% of the vote(14,000) and the Federal Conservative receiving 4% of the vote(2000)...In other words Stephen Harper`s shine has turned into a black hole, no light escapes a black hole, Harper is a Pariah..

These paid pundits, even the big mouth pundits who are predicting the Federal Liberals are doomed, nothing could be further from the truth, Federal Conservatives are history, the majority they now enjoy is a one shot wonder, caput, nobody ever really trusted Harper, many suspected he was a far right wing reformer and as soon as the Canadian electorate gave Harper his long coveted majority Harper responded with a new radical agenda, Harper didn`t campaign on cutting the Canada pension, cutting healthcare funding, ....

Harper will never recover to majority numbers again, in fact Stephen Harper`s cons are now a third place party...Joe Oliver running roughshot over BCers, calling us radicals and eco-terrorists for protecting our ICONIC northern coast, for protecting our ICONIC Salmon, a clean vibrant ocean being threatened by Communist China and a Wall Street Vulture Government...

Vic Toews, a brutal husband, an adulterer, a man who screwed his paid domestic staff and fathered a baby, a moral cretin, worse than a man paying for sex from a prostitute, a man who used influence and job security to secure sex right under his wife`s nose, and that man(Vic Toews) has the audacity to call those who care about search and seizure rights, those that care about freedom from random illegal searches, those that care about the rights our parents and grandparents fought for...."Child pornographers".....

The politics of hatred and voter suppression and it`s under those recent developments that I question what the hell Christy Clark is doing, Harper is done....Why on earth would Christy Clark be so stunned as to let Harper`s handlers lead her party to extinction.

Yes, the Federal Liberals will return to 75 seats in the next Federal election and either Brian Topp or Thomas Mulcair will lead the Federal NDP to their first ever control of Government, a majority Government...

The blather from big-mouth pundits and bloggers praising the BC Conservatives, they too are a dead party stuck at a mere 15% of the vote, even if the the BC Liberals completely collapsed, the combined BC Conservative vote and BC Liberal vote is less than the BC NDP vote...

Hell yea, we haven`t even got a Federal leader yet, Phil Hocstein`s  Adrian Dix attack ads are a complete failure, no one is listening to you Hocstein, go away and build more leaky condos...John Cummins, a tired old hater who resides in Harper`s reformer village of idiots..

Sorry E.A.F.....BC has indeed swung left, Canada has seen 10 months of the Harper darkside and they don`t like what they see...Federal Liberals have had many chances in charge and across Canada with the exception of Alberta the next Federal election is the era of....

The Big Orange Star...

People, real people don`t trust the Cons, Federal Liberals will rebound, not to lead but to be official opposition.

Workers rights, healthcare funding, Canada pension, a sick n twisted Tar sand possessed Government in bed with a ruthless job stealing slave labour corrupt communist China..

The Michael Campbell`s, the Kevin Oleary`s, ...Slimy bastards worthy of prison...Today Kevin Oleary called all unions "Cancers"...In one 4 minute segment Oleary called Canadian unions "Cancers that needed to be removed"...

A dozen times in one segment Oleary called Aveos`s union a Cancer....

Record corporate profits, corrupt corporations, outsourcing to slave labour lands, wages falling in Canada year after year while oil whores scrape every last dollar from Canadian pockets...

Yes indeed, occupy Canada, occupy the world, Canadians drowning in debt while Stephen Harper`s team of sick n twisted reformers reduce the Canadian standard of living every single day..

If there are any Conservatives with a moral conscious, if there is anyone in Christy Clark`s circle that has a functioning brain this poll, this by-election result should be an alarm ringing wake-up call..

Stephen Treason Harper is a pariah, Conservatism in British Columbia is dead..

And any self proclaimed pundits or kings who think different are spending too much time stroking their egos and believing their own lies..

Welcome to reality..

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Aveos Says Adios

I predicted this was going to happen, not Aveos directly but when Caterpillar left London Ontario for Muncie Indiana I predicted that there would be an exodus of profitable Canadian companies fleeing to the lowest wage countries they can find...

Aveos have asked for insolvency protection today in a Montreal court room...

Now before we get started let`s lay out a few details, Aveos was an Air Canada creation, in 2007 Aveos was actually Air Canada, the company splintered off the maintenance division of Air Canada and presto...Aveos is born

Here is what Wikipedia has to say about Aveos.

___________________________________________________

Aveos was founded as Air Canada Technical Services (ACTS) in 1937. It was created as the in-house maintenance division of Trans-Canada Airlines (TCA), which is the predecessor to Air Canada. In 1968, the company began providing airframe, engine and component solutions to non-Air Canada customers, helping them expand their MRO reach to new carriers. With Air Canada entering bankruptcy protection in 2003, the relation between the airline and others subsidiaries like ACTS was affected and transformed. In 2004, ACE Aviation Holdings became the parent company of Air Canada and with this restructuring, a decision was taken to separate Air Canada Technical Services from Air Canada the airline.^[4] In 2005, ACTS became one of the first members of Airbus MRO Network.^[5]
In February 2007, Air Canada Technical Services reached an agreement to acquire 80% of Aeroman, the MRO affiliate of TACA Airlines, a Central American airline. On October 16, 2007, ACTS officially became independent when US investment firms Sageview Capital and KKR Private Equity Investors acquired a 70% stake in the company.^[6] This made these two US companies were the original investors of ACTS. On September 23, 2008, ACTS was rebranded and formally adopted Aveos Fleet Performance Inc. as their new name, as part of the process of becoming an independent company. The origin of the name Aveos comes from “av” which refers to the company's roots in aviation while “eos” signifies new beginning.^[7]

Aveos hangar in Winnipeg, Canada

[edit] Aveos

Today, Aveos, with its subsidiary Aeroman in El Salvador, provides nose-to-tail maintenance for Boeing, Airbus and Embraer aircrafts. They work with strategic partners such as General Electric, CFM International.,^[8] Hamilton Sundstrand and Honeywell.^[9] In April 2011, some 1,900 Air Canada aircraft mechanics were forced to transfer from the airline to Aveos Fleet Performance Inc. Although the transfer is expected to be completed by Feb 18, 2012, Air Canada will keep about 2,000 employees for their daily checks.^[10] Aveos announced their new president and CEO, Joe Kolshak, on April 27, 2011.^[11]

Aeroman hangar in El Salvador

[edit] Aeroman

Aeroman was established in 1983 to provide maintenance services for Taca Airlines. In 1992, Aeroman was certified by the Federal Aviation Administration(FAA)^[12] and in 2005 became a member of the Airbus MRO Network. As Aveos' subsidiary, Aeroman provides MRO services for narrow-body aircraft and if currently expanding its facilities. Located in San Salvador, its facilities are accessed by carriers from the US, Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America.^[13]

[edit] March 2012 Shutdown

On Sunday, March 18, 2012, Aveos Fleet Performance Inc. padlocked it doors, instructing many of its 1,800 Montreal employees to leave the premises at 5:30 p.m. and take their tools and belongings with them. According to several emails and voicemails to the Montreal Gazette, workers were told to contact the company for further instructions. The firm may file for bankruptcy protection Monday, March 19th.^[14]
Approximately 1,800 of the affected employees are based in Montreal, while 350 are in Winnipeg and 250 are in Vancouver, according to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. "The maintenance component that supplies work to the Air Canada fleet has effectively ceased operations," according to Lorne Hammerberg, the IAMAW's local president in Winnipeg.^{[15]
______________________________________________________________________}
The truth is Aveos was really Air Canada`s maintenance department, a department that has been around since 1937, and as you can see from reading the above that Air Canada, in 2007 they created Aveos, in 2007 Aveos splintered away from Air Canada,...

 And in April 2011Air Canada "forced" 2000 in-house mechanics to transfer  from Air Canada to Aveos Fleet Performance....FULL STOP HERE!

Aveos`s workload (since 2007 when they were created) received 90% of the work they did from their parent company Air Canada, this is no surprise because Aveos was actually part of Air Canada the entire time Air Canada was a company.....

What happened?...What is going on here?...Stephen Harper won the election and has opened the exodus door for companies to slash costs by allowing companies to outsource and go offshore to the cheapest labour markets....Caterpillar was first, now Aveos and this was no accident...

Aveos created a subsidiary company called Areoman, it`s located in El Slalvador in Latin America, wages are 1/2 or less than Aveos`s middle of the road wage scale...

This sellout, the transferring of workers from Air Canada to Aveos was all orchestrated with Stephen Harper`s election, his majority win, when Aveos finishes its bankruptcy claims all pension liabilities will be removed, including the 2000 mechanics Air Canada transferred to Aveos ....2000 workers being transferred to a company that was planning bankruptcy from a way back, they can`t blame the economy because the world has emerged from 2008, Greece got its bailout, the stock markets are up...And when you consider that Aveos received 90% of its work from Air Canada the reason for going into bankruptcy protection today is a bold-faced lie....

Here is what I know, several months ago Aveos approached the union and asked about outsourcing significant volumes of work to American firms and to Aveos`s subsidiary company Aeroman in El Salvador....The company claimed that Aveos didn`t have enough workers to complete this work, this was proven to be false, and then this shocker, a mere 1 month after that company request the company approached the union again with a new request, that request being,  to lay off 97 employees...This request shocked a now very suspicious union, for what is it, one month after Aveos made the claim they didn`t have enough workers and requested large volumes of work to be outsourced out of country and 1 month later Aveos was requesting laying off 97 workers....Well the gig was up, this was collusion between Air Canada, Aveos and the Harper administration, for the writing on the wall was clear, Stephen Harper`s Government was siding with corporate profits and to hell with the workers.....

Flash forward 2 months to today, yesterday actually, Aveos without one word to the workers or the union locked their doors, told the workers to grab their tools and hit the bricks, and today Aveos is in court in Montreal making its case for bankruptcy protection and the language is sickening...

__________________________________________________


MONTREAL – A filing Monday for bankruptcy protection by Aveos Fleet Performance Inc. in Quebec Superior Court’s commercial division details catastrophic corporate finances and abysmal relations with its main client, Air Canada.
Aveos alleges the Montreal-based airline has even refused to deliver planes for long-scheduled maintenance.

Full Stop, catastrophic finances, Aveos was once Air Canada, finances and cash flow came from the parent company, .....Abysmal relations with Air Canada?..Are you kidding me, they are but one of the same peas wedded on the same pod....And there`s more quotes from this court filing that are just as incriminating...

Revenues slumped by $16 million in “less than two calendar months” this year because Air Canada has “reduced, canceled and deferred maintenance work with Aveos” since the start of 2012.
“The loss of such work has been devastating for Aveos’s financial position,” the request states.

 Look what that says, Air Canada stopped sending work to Aveos, the work went somewhere, Air Canada didn`t stop flying, maintenance doesn`t stop, so why at the beginning of 2012 did Air Canada decide to bankrupt its right arm , to bankrupt its own 2000 mechanics they "FORCED to Transfer" to Aveos a mere 11 months ago....

"The loss of such work has been devastating for Aveos’s financial position,” the request states.
In addition, the company’s finances have been hit by “crushingly high labour costs, rising fuel prices and reduced airline traffic.”
That has made it unable to compete with low-cost aircraft MRO (maintenance, repair and overhaul) service providers in Latin America, according to the company."
 http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Aveos+blames+Canada+financial+ills/6323534/story.html
 
Full Stop..Air Canada knew by not sending work to Aveos that they would go under, Air Canada deliberately bankrupted their own people....And Aveos in their court filing use the phrase "Crushingly high labour cost"....Are you kidding me!....Wages haven`t budged upwards for years at Aveos and in some case fallen rather dramatically....The Company also states that they can`t compete with cheap labour costs in Latin America...Let`s cut to the chase, Aveos can`t compete with their own sister company Areoman in El Salvador..

The race to the bottom, Air Canada dumped 2000 workers onto Aveos knowing full-well that Aveos was being led to bankruptcy by Air Canada, along with gutting decent jobs in Canada Aveos will shed most if not all of their pension responsibilities, 


A race to the bottom, a race that Stephen Harper started, these jobs, the top mechanics make $35 dollars per hour, 80 K per year, not exorbitant wages but middle class family raising wages, skytrain police make more money for checking transit tickets!


The bottom line is this, Air Canada has deliberately bankrupted Aveos, Aveos is working in collusion with Air Canada in a race to the bottom, Aeroman was created by Aveos to replace Aveos, wages are but 1/3rd of the Canadian wage, this move breaks labour laws, it`s unethical, it`s immoral, Air Canada hasn`t skipped a beat, this was no shock, Air Canada had contingency plans ready before this happened....


And none of this would have happened if Stephen Harper didn`t have a majority..


Caterpillar, Aveos, who`s next Stephen Harper?


You Stephen Harper are a gutless two-bit dictator, you side with corporate profits, you don`t believe in the law, or human rights, or science, you care about one thing and one thing only, corporate profits and the big spaceship coming to take you and your fellow scorched earth Christian Fundamentalists away...


I hope your ship arrives very soon Stephen Harper for your Canada looks very much like Communist China.


The Straight Goods


Cheers Eyes Wide Open

B.C. Predecessor Party

It absolutely amazes and puzzles my mind, stupidity on a grand scale, cut the nose off of a shark and it swims blind, all senses gone, the shark can`t feed or even see and will soon die of starvation, maybe because Gordon Campbell led all BC Liberal MLAs by their nose, like a bunch of puppies panting and begging for food it seems that without the "predecessor" to lead the BC Liberals are lost, flailing away in all directions hoping to hold all the pieces together when in reality that tactic has had the opposite affect....

Christy Clark has no book smarts, she quit S-F-U- after being caught cheating on student council elections but book smarts aren`t everything, Christy Clark possessed intuitive smarts, they carried her a long way, that and her natural wink, wiggle and gush routine, let me be clear, Christy Clark has(had) natural ability to read public sentiment, let me give you an example,  on one of her cknw radio show episodes, the BC Liberals were under fire for allowing the trophy bear hunt, Christy Clark, who owns no guns, probably never shot a gun, Christy Clark came out in defence of the trophy bear hunt, it was quite obvious that the trophy bear hunt DID NOT appeal to Clark and actually offended her, she did the episode to prop up the BC Liberals, for after the segment she stated on air..

 "I knew my radio listeners would blast me for supporting the hunt..snicker snicker"

The point i`m trying to make is Christy Clark`s natural instincts are usually spot on, she knows how to appeal to the public and she knows the difference between right and wrong and that is indeed what puzzles me..It also begs the question..

Who is the leader, who today is in charge of the BC Liberals, is it former BC Premier G M Predecessor or is it Stephen Harper,  Christy Clark in her bid to be BC Liberal leader promised an early election because as she stated..

"I need a mandate from the people".....Christy Clark also stated...

"I won`t use the people`s money to run a persuasion campaign to save the HST"

Yet after her leadership victory she was quickly talked out of the early election call and went the opposite direction on the HST, she not only used a dishonest persuasion campaign she spent 10$ of millions of taxpayer dollars on pro-hst stickmen ads, yet Christy Clark knew from her radio days that 80% of BCers if not more were strongly opposed to the HST.....Christy Clark on behalf of her advisors squandered most if not all of her political capital and now Christy Clark is doing more aimless flailing around than Elanie Benis dancing..

Yesterday, Friday 16th on cknw Gord Macdonald did a segment, he asked callers this question, should the BC Liberals dump Christy Clark and choose a new leader, possibly Kevin Falcon, the callers almost unanimous said Christy Clark needed to go but....But the callers also stated that they couldn`t stand Kevin Falcon either, in fact several callers called Falcon a minny me, a little Campbell, a little dweeby minny-me Stephen Harper, and last night, on CTV late news they also asked the question, with all of Christy Clark`s gaffe`s and screw-ups should she step-down as leader or be forcefully removed, it`s obvious the real power behind the BC Liberals are running scared, nothing they  can do can stop this slow-motion train wreck...

Today Gary Mason in his column in the Globe n Mail is musing about long-time Federal Liberal supporter Christy Clark embracing Stephen Harper`s conservatism, he talks about Christy Clark surrounding herself with Sara(scara) Macintire, Ken Bosenkool, he mentions the Conservative reunion dinner in Ottawa that Christy attended last week, Vaughn Palmer wrote recently about Christy Clark appointing a Mr. Beedie and Mr. Reynolds as co-chairs of the BC Liberals annual fund raising dinner, those two men both predicted the death of the BC Liberals if Christy Clark won the leadership of the BC Liberals, their prediction is coming true...

Christy`s fatal flaw, she has no book smarts and once she won the BC Liberal leadership she put her own political savvy on the back-burner and ceded ground to those advisors whom claimed to have boatloads of book smarts, that was her critical error...For if Christy Clark once she won the BC Liberal leadership threw Ex BC premier Gordon Muir Predecessor under the bus and stuck a pointed fork into Stephen Harper`s National tax and told Kevin Falcon to go to Ottawa and remove the wretched HST no matter the cost, for if Christy Clark did that she would probably have the numbers to win the next election....

I wrote several months ago that Stephen Harper`s star had turned into a black hole, Harper and his sinisters are now pariahs hated from coast to coast, Harper has radical changes in mind for Canada and like most politicians they do the dirtiest work in the first couple of years of their mandate, so again i`m utterly shocked, not shocked over Stephen Harper`s radical agenda but shocked that after Stephen Harper won the election.......

Harper went on to promise a future assault on baby boomer`s meager Canada pensions, he`s also promised a slashing of healthcare funding when the same boomers are needing more healthcare...His narrow minded Ministers(sinisters) Joe Oliver called BCers radical and eco-terrorists for protecting our Northern coast and fish bearing rivers from dirty Alberta crud oil and Enbridge profiteers, and the verbal assaults continued from Vic Toews calling those concerned with search and seizure rights Child-pornographers, and now the robo-call scandal is really heating up, 100,000 plus calls from both robo and human liars in an attempt to suppress the vote and steal the election...

I also stated several months ago that very near future polling numbers would show that if a Federal election was called that Stephen Harper would not have a majority but in fact would be opposition party to the New Federal NDP Government, that right folks, Bernard Schulmaan(A staunch Federal Conservative) in his latest post has predicted a Federal NDP Government if an election is called today or even this fall...

And there is more, cknw reported yesterday a new survey in BC, this new survey called 611 people in British Columbia and it has the Federal NDP leading Stephen Harper`s Conservatives in BC by a whopping 12% points..

That poll is here, Harper has dropped 16% percentage points of support in BC since the May Federal Election..


 http://www.justasonmi.com/?p=2533


So that begs the question, British Columbia has an older population, Harper has attacked healthcare, attacked pensions, cheated the last election, his ministers have called BCers names over Enbridge opposition, poll after poll has 80% of BCers opposed to tankers on our northern coast, the robo-call voter suppression scandal growing by the day with Harper`s poll numbers in free-fall why on earth would Christy Clark embrace Stephen Harper`s reformers style Conservatism as the last and only hope of winning an election...

Christy Clark has the political savvy to realize all of this which means but one thing....

Gordon Muir Predecessor and Stephen Black Hole Harper are still calling all the shots for the BC Liberal Party.

______________________________________________

Christy Clark will realize in short order when she`s tossed to the curb and or blasted out of Government after the next election and will be regretting and ruing the day that she didn`t go with her own gut instinct rather than listen to those book-smart advisors sent in by Gordon Predecessor and Stephen Harper  to run the party, Christy will be kicking herself for ignoring her own instincts...

With Stephen Harper in complete free-fall, involved with scandal after scandal, with Harper pushing through an agenda that wasn`t discussed during the election for nowhere did Harper mention cutting the meager Canada pension, or making people work to age 67, nowhere did Harper campaign on slashing healthcare just in time for the arrival of baby-boomers...

Because now it`s turned into the hysterical, Christy Clark has surrounded herself with Stephen Harper`s people, she`s burned her Federal Liberal roots and completely embraced Harper and Predecessor`s people and ideology at a time when Harper is hated and the Federal NDP has risen to near majority Government numbers...

You want some advice Christy Clark.....

Throw Harper`s advisors out the door, admonish what Gordon Muir Predecessor has done to this Province, scold all the BC Liberal MLAs for following Gordo like hungry puppies looking for treats, and finally, use your natural political savvy and do the right thing,  ignore Bobby Plecas, ignore Jock Finlayson, ignore Phil Hocstein....Stick a big fat fork into Stephen Harper and Enbridge, it`s your only and last chance to return the party to the middle...

The sea of the left is rising in Canada and rising fastest in British Columbia..

Salmon, Rivers, justice, worker`s rights, the environment and respect, that`s how you win in British Columbia, gimmicks and divisive politics are so 90`s and pre computer days, we, we the people aren`t listening to big media anymore..

For even if the BC Liberals and BC Conservatives joined hands and united as one party they would still lose the election, British Columbia has swung left.

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Christy Clark, Politics of Hate

Pat Bell, another bold-faced lying BC Liberal, yes you Pat Bell..You lie with ease, a quality honed and perfected and taught to all BC Liberals by the masters of lies, those masters being Gordon Campbell and Michael Campbell....

Can you imagine Pat Bell and Christy Clucking Clark telling the voters of BC that the name BC Place was "Iconic"..A brazen lie..of course that lie didn`t last very long before Christy promoted a new lie...

The story on the BC Place naming scandal went down like this...Bell Canada threatened Christy Clark BC Liberals thusly...and I quote...

"If you want photo-ops during the next provincial election with star players of the Vancouver White caps promoting your team Christy Clark you will cancel the Telus stadium naming deal"

That is what was said, there was no mincing words, in fact there was explicit language used by the Whitecaps and Bell Canada`s upper brass that not only would they snub all BC Liberals but actually endorse the NDP and bring up the BC Liberal 2009 election promise where they promised Delta and the Whitecaps an elaborate soccer center, an election promise that was vanquished soon after Campbell won his third term, as one high official of the Whitecaps stated ...

"We haven`t forgot that broken promise"

And just what was that broken promise, and which BC Liberal was promoted by the Whitecaps, well, actually it was all BC Liberals but in particular it was Wally Oppal and a promised soccer center in Delta...But as you know, Wally Oppal lost and the Delta soccer center was scrapped!..

At the below video link is Bobby Lennarduzzi, Wally Oppal, Gordon  Campbell making a multi-million dollars promise to the voters of Delta just days before the 2009 election promising a world-class soccer center in Delta....


http://www.bcdailybuzz.com/media/2805/Liberals_promise_funds_for_soccer_centre/

And guess what, as soon as the 2009 provincial election was over and Wally Oppal wasn`t elected but sent out to the woodshed, the promised multi-million dollar soccer center in Delta was canceled, in other words Bob Lennerduzzi and the Whitecaps were used and abused and tossed aside like dirty ass-wipe tissue!..

The Vancouver Sun and Province have removed all stories related to the 2009 election and Whitecaps scandal involving Delta and the BC Liberals..

These links are dead..

http://www.vancouversun.com/Liberals+promise+million+soccer+centre+Delta/1558230/story.html


 http://www.theprovince.com/news/Plug+pulled+Whitecaps+Delta+training+centre+plans/2491243/story.html

This story is meant to highlight that Christy Clark and the BC Liberals only know  the "Politics of Hate"

Christy Clark pissed away $50 million public tax dollars ($40 million for naming rights and $10  million in wireless technology Telus installed at BC Place) for the soul purpose of securing photo op for the 2013 election featuring her and prominent Whitecap players ....Politics of hate, that is all Christy Clark has left to offer.

All these haters come crawling out of the woodwork, Bob Plecas in his op-ed piece that ran in the Vancouver Sun...What was Bob Plecas`s advice to Christy Clark...Let me remind you of what Plecas advised,

"Can Clark rebuild the centre-right coalition?
The answer is yes. There are three reasons.
1. She is a great communicator. 2. The spotlight has not shone on Cummins, and some of his views, on homosexuality and first nations, appear under close scrutiny to be too extreme right-wing.
3. Dix has past issues and strong ideologies that are also not representative of the majority of British Columbians, and these also have not been widely discussed. More power to Dix's charm offensive - his strategy is working.

What are Clark's options? 1. Continue down the path she is on. That is a sure path to opposition.
2. Go to Cummins and form a coalition. With the egos involved, that is unlikely.
3. Implement policy initiatives to rebuild the centre-right coalition.
What are examples of policy options that lend themselves to rebuilding the coalition?
1. The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. Demand Alberta share the revenue from the pipeline between the oilsands and Kitimat as a condition for B.C.'s support. As proposed, Alberta would gain all the benefits, while B.C. takes all the risk. Royalty splitting would have B.C. dedicate its share towards safety, first nations and com-munities in the north. The NDP will have to oppose, or split their party.

2. Legislate a two-year tax freeze on the province and municipalities. The NDP can announce targeted tax increases all it wants.

3. Legislate to end the teachers' dispute. Stand on the side of students and parents, let the NDP stand with the teachers' union.

4. Legislate the end to the current public sector pension plan for MLAs and staff, and create a new plan, based on a private-sector model, for new hires and newly elected.

5. Terminate all bonuses for senior executives in the entire public sector. This analysis points a clear direction for Clark to remain in power. Move to the right; provide voters with a choice, through aggressive, controversial policy and legislative action - basically, attracting Conservatives back to the centre-right coalition. None of these ideas is so right-wing as to lose the centre.
Clark could win again, but bold action is required.
Bob Plecas is a former deputy minister in several previous B.C. governments and ministries."

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/winning+game+plan+Clark/6155070/story.html#ixzz1p8UgCZme
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Bob Plecas advised Christy Clark to be a hater, create wedge issues, to highlight Adrian Dix`s past, specifically Memo-gate.....

Cue Phil Hocstein, can anyone tell me why Phil Hocstein is spending members monies in the political arena?..I can, Phil Hocstein is a bought man, Hocstein is against real wages, against raising the minimum wage, against worker`s right, Phil Hocstein is the lowest piece of slimy shit to ever inhabit British Columbia, a weak gutless puke who was gifted a $80 K per year gig at the Port of Vancouver as a reward for fighting the Ida Chong recall campaign..

INFORMATION BULLETIN

2011TRAN0008-000064 Jan. 28, 2011

Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure

NEW MEMBER APPOINTED TO PORT METRO VANCOUVER BOARD

VICTORIA - The Province has filled the vacancy on the Port Metro Vancouver Board created by the departure of the outgoing provincial appointee, whose term of office expires Feb. 28, 2011. The term for a new member on the board of directors is three years.

Philip Hochstein has been chosen to replace current appointee, Sarah Morgan-Silvester. Hochstein is president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C. (ICBA). He has extensive governance and board experience as well as knowledge of the Asia Pacific Gateway, primarily through this experience serving on the board of directors of the Asia Pacific Gateway Skills Table.

In addition, Hochstein chairs the Construction Industry’s Benefit Plan board of trustees; is on the board of directors for the SHARE Family and Community Services Society and ICBA Benefit Services Ltd. Former chair of the Coalition of BC Businesses, Hochstein earned a masters degree in public administration from the University of Victoria in 1984 and an honours degree in history from McGill University in Montreal.

Prior to joining the ICBA in 1986, Hochstein was manager of membership services for the Mechanical Contractors Association of B.C. and also worked for the Canada Employment and Immigration Commission as well as the provincial Ministry of Finance.

The board of directors for Port Metro Vancouver is composed of 11 members: one federal appointee, one B.C. provincial appointee, one appointee for the Prairie Provinces (Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba), one municipal appointee and seven port-user appointees.

Port Metro Vancouver is responsible for the operation and development of the assets and jurisdictions of the combined former Fraser River Port Authority, North Fraser Port Authority and Vancouver Port Authority.

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 So Hocstein runs an ad to remind people of Memo-gate from the 90`s...Adrian Dix has been elected twice since then, you see folks this is all the BC Liberals have...Hate, divide, wedge issues and blatant lies, blatant lies that BC`s media lets slide....

It doesn`t matter, Christy Clark is finished,. the BC Liberals are dead and no amount of dirty politics will work....

The teachers debate and Bill 22......Propaganda unleashed, let me be perfectly clear, the teachers and the BCTF came into their new agreement talks with outlandish demands, however, the BCTF shot for the moon hoping in reality to receive a few crumbs, CKNW, Bill Good, and others like Jon Ferry really did a real hatchet job on the teachers and unfortunately there are so many stunned idiots who believe the propaganda, people without brains, people who need to be led around on a leash, people like....BC Liberal voters and Conservatives, uneducated non-thinkers...

The teachers won a supreme court battle over classroom sizes and composition..The court ruled that Christy Clark`s Bill 28 and 29 were illegal, the courts agreed..

Last year the court finally ruled against Christy Clark`s hatred of teachers bills..

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"VICTORIA – The B.C. government will work with the B.C. Teachers' Federation rather than continue a court battle over control of class size and special needs support in public schools, Education Minister George Abbott said Thursday.

The government has been studying a ruling two weeks ago from the B.C. Supreme Court, which said the government infringed on teachers' constitutional right to bargain with its 2002 legislation that removed class size and special needs support levels from the union contract.
Abbott said the government's legal advice was not to appeal the ruling, because of a landmark 2007 decision by the Supreme Court of Canada that struck down similar legislation altering health care support workers' union contracts.

In the health care case, Canada's highest court extended the constitutional right to freedom of association to include collective bargaining for the first time.

In the school case, Justice Susan Griffin of the B.C. Supreme Court gave the B.C. government a year to work out an alternative to the 2002 legislation.
The BCTF has filed thousands of union grievances over class sizes and the number of students with special needs in classrooms around the province, as well as pursuing the issue in court.

Abbott said he called BCTF president Susan Lambert and B.C. School Trustees Association president Michael McEvoy to tell them he wants to see a negotiated solution.

But Abbott acknowledged that the government could end up legislating new rules if negotiations don't produce a deal.


After Griffin's court decision, the BCTF estimated that the government would have to add $275 million to the education ministry budget to reduce class sizes and provide support staff to restore conditions from 2002."

 Richmond Review - B.C. won't appeal class size ruling - Mobile Edition

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Now, here`s the deal, Christy Clark hated her father who was a teacher,  she quit S-F-U after being caught cheating on student council elections, Christy Clark screamed and yelled and threatened law suits against S-F-U but after realizing her antics were falling on deaf ears she up and quit, but to this day her hatred of her father and all teachers has never abated, she took great pleasure in writing illegal bills 28 and 29 that stripped out worker`s right and classroom size and composition..

So when the Supreme court ruled against the BC Liberal Government and struck down Christy`s illegal bills the teachers celebrated as if they won....

But what did they win, WCB(Worksafe BC)....Gordon Campbell corrupted that agency in 2002 as well, WCB has screwed over 1000`s of seriously injured workers, workers with life-changing injuries, these workers take their grievances to the Appeal board or WCAT....And many workers win their appeals at WCAT, but they never really win, for what WCAT(Workers Compensation Appeal`s Tribune) does is this...They(WCAT) send the ruling back to the injured worker`s case manager and that is when the games begin, the case manager tweaks his/her decision and screw the injured worker all over again, each round of the flawed decision made by case managers take roughly 3 years to play out,  they eventually wear down and bankrupt injured workers, with no money coming in.......Playing this criminal decision, appeal, tweak and re-do game until either the injured worker dies, commits suicide or gives up broke...Delay, Deny, Defend, that is WCB`s motto....

What I`m trying to say is this, the teachers thought they won in the Supreme court but, but they`re dealing with a corrupt Government that takes all it`s advice, both legal and political from tired old Socred hacks like Bobby Plecas or from the Fraser institute editorial board that hides behind the Vancouver Sun moniker.....

For after the Supreme court ruling the teachers thought they had won Fazil Mihlar wrote an editorial in the Vancouver Sun that did 2 things, Fazil Mihlar wrote that the BCTF and the teachers didn`t win anything, they didn`t win a say in classroom size or composition, .....

Infact I was so outraged I wrote a post about Fazil Mihlar`s editorial, I read the editorial and it spoke in clear terms, what the Vancouver Sun told the Christy Clark Government through the editorial was this....

You did not break the law BC Liberals....You DO NOT have to change classroom size...you DO NOT have to change classroom composition...You don`t have to do anything but.....

"But consult", the Vancouver Sun editorial made the legal argument which Christy Clark has followed to the tee....Vancouver Sun told the BC Government that the supreme court ruling had nothing to do with with classroom size or composition ...Fazil Kihlar advised the BC Government that all they have to do is consult!!!!!!...Meaning the BC Government can impose any class size or composition it see`s fit as long as they do one thing...Consult...

Bill 22 has the exact same language as bills 28 and 29 that were ruled illegal, in other words the BC Liberals will ram through bill 22 knowing full well the bill will be tossed out AGAIN in the Supreme court...

Christy Clark only knows the politics of hate, CKNW is bleeding listeners, listeners are leaving in droves for one reason...CKNW is controlled by BC Liberal insiders...Bill Good has sunk to levels so low, Sean Leslie has had a BC Liberal brand stamped on his ass...2 weeks ago Bill Good and the cutting ledge show, the entire show Billy Good only attacked teachers, there was no other subject, only teachers, it`s the first time in CKNW history where the cutting edge of the ledge show only touched one item...I phoned up Bill Good`s producer and told her to tell Bill Good to move on, for the last month Billy Good has sounded like Christy Clark when she was on air railing against teachers every single day....Christy Clark, Phil Hocstein, Bill Good and his fellow BC Liberal stooges are so desperate they are prepared to throw their last bit of credibility out the window to save their place at the public trough..

CKNW are about to lose John Macolm over his refusal to pimp Christy Clark...Simi Sara has been called into her bosses office as well, pressure is being put on Simi Sara to get on board or be prepared to be unemployed...

Such a shame that these quality people are being asked to dumb it down to Christy Clark`s level or be removed from the airwaves..

Anyway....Here are some highlights from that Fazil Mihlar editorial that I wrote about...My post was called..
______________________________________________

Vancouver Sun, Home of yellow Journalism II "

I would like to show you a couple of the key lines and paragraphs in the garbage Vancouver Sun editorial.
__________________________________

"It should be noted that this ruling was based on a Supreme Court of Canada decision that did not exist at the time the offending legislation was enacted. The legislation was part of a restructuring of government and of provincial labour laws that the Liberals undertook when then premier Gordon Campbell took power in 2001"

"In 2007, in response to a challenge by the Hospital Employees' Union to Bill 29, similar legislation that negated the contract provisions, the Supreme Court of Canada made a 180-degree turn on its own earlier rulings and recognized that collective bargaining is protected as a charter right under freedom of association"

"That said, the government made a mistake in refusing to discuss what it was planning with teachers before bringing in the legislation, which Judge Griffin ruled was much more sweeping than needed to accomplish the province's stated goal of optimum allocation of resources to schools."

"That omission, the judge noted, was taken by teachers as evidence of a lack of respect by the government for their contribution to the education system".

And the next paragraph in that pathetic editorial goes right too the meat of the author`s intent, trouble making!


"  Looking ahead, it's important to recognize what the ruling does and does not do. It does not give teachers the right to impose their collective view on class size and other workplace issues. What it does is restore their right to bring such issues to the bargaining table. What emerges is still up to negotiation. This ruling is about process, not outcome"

And I have a couple more juicy lines from the bullcrap editorial to share with you.

" So the government should and will still have the right and responsibility to set the curriculum, set standards and to control costs in the public school system"

Well well well, the Vancouver Sun editorial board has given both Christy Clark and the BC Government some crappy legal advice, the gist of what this asshole is saying is....The Government can do whatever the hell it wants as long as they consult stakeholders first, it`s not about the outcome it`s about the "Process" snip.

That is one sick and twisted editorial, beware teachers, Christy Clark`s bosses have again given her and the BC Liberals their marching orders.

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

_______________________________________________
I was the only one in the Province who wrote about that Vancouver Sun editorial and what it meant to the teachers, it meant more worker hating games being employed by Christy Clark....

I would let you read the editorial itself but like so-many Vancouver Sun stories, they produce such biased garbage they are too ashamed to leave the story intact, ..Here`s the dead link to Fazil Mihlars now deleted legal advice to school drop-out Christy Clark.



http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Court+ruling+opportunity+Victoria+teachers+serve+children/4620065/story.html

_________________________________________________________

Christy Clark never had any intention of lowering class sizes or changing class composition for the better, this battle has always been about destroying public education and promoting private for profit schooling, ...

Christy Clark never completed any of her education, she quit S-F-U, she gave up after producing failing grades from every school she ever attended, her father gave up trying to educate Christy..

Now we have the Queen of hatred pretending to be premier and unless the BC Government puts up lights and a brass pole in the BC Legislature we will never see Christy Clark again after May/2013..

You want hatred Christy, you are about to see 85 riding of hatred!

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open