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The lost emails

Jun 26th, 2009 by

Re: the “lost” emails in the Virk Basi case.

This travesty is being played up as either a matter of following normal procedure or an error or both.

It’s clear that the government was under no obligation to delete this information.

Here is the sticking point for the government.

The Attorney General is the law officer of the Crown and has a duty to see that the administration of public affairs is in accordance with the law.

Here is what the Act, in part, says:

Duties and powers

2 The Attorney General

(a) is the official legal adviser of the Lieutenant Governor and the legal member of the Executive Council,

(b) must see that the administration of public affairs is in accordance with law,

(d) must advise on the legislative acts and proceedings of the Legislature and generally advise the government on all matters of law referred to the Attorney General by the government,

(f) must advise the heads of the ministries of the government on all matters of law connected with the ministries,

(g) is charged with the settlement of all instruments issued under the Great Seal of British Columbia,

Surely even the most narrow of interpretations of the above would compel the Attorney-General, from the outset to make it clear that all documentary evidence including emails, especially emails, must be retained and made available to Crown Counsel and, upon demand, by defense counsel.

I don’t say that the “fix was in” only that this is an interpretation one might suspect given that the case is an embarrassment to the government, at least one former cabinet minister is under a cloud, and that it would be in the government’s interest to have this case go away.

This simple question must be directed to former Attorney-General Wally Oppal “Did you, upon learning about the Virk/Basi case immediately advise all government ministries and, particularly Premier Campbell that ALL documents in possession of the government concerning this case be retained and made available to Crown Counsel?”

Whatever answer Mr Oppal gives will cast some light on whether or not the Campbell government behaved properly.

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The fish farm legal victory of Alexandra Morton

Jun 25th, 2009 by

I suspect that the fix is in with Alex Morton’s recent victory which I reported to you. In essence what happened is that the Province decided not to appeal the part of the decision saying that the federal government, not the provincial government, had exclusive jurisdiction over fish farms. They clearly did this because they didn’t want to appear the bullies they are during the last election.

Now we have Marine Harvest, the huge fish farming company from Norway deciding not to appeal the “constitutional” issue either. This has given great joy to Alex Morton and the thousands of her supporters very much including me.

Here is the “flies in the ointment” I see.

What if the Campbell government and/or Market Harvest made a deal with the federal government where the government and Marine Harvest would not fight the constitutional argument if the Federal Government agreed not to bother Marine Harvest’s fish farming interests on the west coast and assured them that they could expand their licenses and get new one’s?

What if we see a reply of the Delgamuuk case where then Premier Harcourt changed lawyers on the appeal telling their new ones to abandon a constitutional position the government of BC had initially raised? In that case the Court of Appeal, regardless of the fact that this constitutional argument had been withdrawn called upon the government’s previous lawyers nevertheless to argue this point. In short, what if the BC Court of Appeal says “we don’t care that this issue has been withdrawn we want to hear argument anyway?

I smell a rat.

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Thoughts on the end of the Cold War

Jun 22nd, 2009 by

Today, in 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union less than two years after the world shocking Ribbentrop-Molotov agreement in August of 1939, and just days before France and Britain declared war on Germany. Despite warnings from Churchill who was picking up German messages through the Ultra Machine the Brits had, Stalin was taken by surprise and the Wermacht made huge gains in the early going. Indeed it took Stalin two weeks before he could get himself together again and rally the nation – and rally them he did.

Communism does not work except when the only customer is the state and there it works very well. To see this picture clearly, I recommend Hedrick Smith’s The New Russians, Random House, 1990 (it has been updated to include the fall of Gorbachev.) Because Communism has no marketplace demand is created by supply, not the other way around. When demand is by a government at war the marketplace are the armed forces. By war’s end. Soviet tanks and fighter aircraft were considered by many who know about these things, to be the best in the world.

What is little remembered is that in 1938 and 1939 Soviet and Japanese armies tested each other in two full-scale battles along the border of Manchukuo. Ironically, a neutrality pact was signed in April 1941 – two months before Germany invaded the USSR with Germany acted as intermediary!

The war deaths in the USSR are estimated to be over 26 million.

Fast forward to April 1945 when the so-called “Big Three”, Prime Minister Churchill, American President Franklin Roosevelt and Stalin met at Yalta in the Crimea. It has been said that the Churchill, weakened by a crumbling empire, and a dying Roosevelt lay down before the Soviet dictator and let him get away with what he wanted in Eastern Europe. This just wasn’t so. Stalin simply refused to pay any attention to the agreement once the Soviet army had Eastern Europe and much of Germany under its control and as Churchill observed, there was nothing anyone could do about it.

Stalin’s objective was what had always been “Mother Russia’s desire – to have its borders buffeted by neutral and friendly countries. Once Czechoslovakia went communist in 1948 and Mao’s Peoples’ Liberation army had secured Russia’s western extremity in 1949 the buffer had been completed. (It should be borne in mind that the USSR had already neutralized Finland while nations to her south hated the west as much as it feared the Soviet Union. Continue Reading »

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A Federal election in the Fall?

Jun 15th, 2009 by

The election is dead! Long live the election!

I believe that Prime Minister Stephen Harper will go to the people this Fall mainly because he doesn’t want to have to bring down a budget in early 2010 knowing that it will be chock-a-block full of bad news. We in BC always think that our votes are critical but that’s not always so. If a party can get either Ontario with a reasonable number of MPs from Quebec or vice versa it’s a slam dunk. I don’t believe that Mr. Harper can get that combo so will be heavily reliant on the Atlantic Provinces, the Prairies and BC.

Likewise Mr. Ignatieff will need votes outside the “golden triangle” if he’s to become Prime Minister and he knows it.

High on Mr. Harper’s never-to-be-mentioned concerns is that Mr. Ignatieff is already is and will be more popular than he. A good part of this is because the PM has the personality of a discarded Barbie Doll and really is a hard person to like much less love. Unloved politicians can win – as Bill Bennett showed Dave Barrett in their times at each others’ throats – but it’s better to be liked. It’s sort of like Damon Runyan’s statement that “the race is not always to the swift, nor the contest to the strong – but that’s the way to bet”.

Mr. Ignatieff has that “something” that Pierre Trudeau had. Hard to define, some people can, through force of intellect, or perhaps a better way of connecting with people, develop charisma. A good example is the speeches at Gettysburg on November 19, 1863 where two men spoke, long time Senator and Harvard president, the respected Edward Everett, and Abraham Lincoln. Continue Reading »

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Let Lennikov Stay

Jun 8th, 2009 by

Mikhail Lennikov and his family. Photo by CBC.

Mikhail Lennikov and his family. Photo by CBC.

In this nation of second chances, he’s earned one.

We’re a province of wimps as the recent election demonstrated. Where was the anger at the Campbell government forcing BC Hydro to contract with private power companies for power they don’t need, these contracts now at $31 Billion and climbing? Where was the swell of public anger at the Campbell government setting BC Hydro on a course to bankruptcy? Where indeed the outrage is over the recent approval of the Glacier Howser project in the East Kootenays, which project doesn’t even put the rivers back into the river bed after their diversion but dumps them into a lake?

The NDP version of outrage came from Norm Macdonald, MLA for Columbia River-Revelstoke suggests that since the projects are put in the hands of private companies like AXOR, questions need to be asked about motives when considering the studies they publish. He prattles on about a number of concerns with nary a word about how Hydro doesn’t need the power nor the huge additional burden Hydro will bear when it must give the developer, Axos, its share of the lolly to be added to the $31 Billion.

We are at least one half a province of wimps since half of us, who could have saved BC Hydro didn’t even get off our asses to vote the Campbell government out because they would rather see their environment and BC Hydro killed than vote NDP.

It will be like a four year movie you can watch scene by scene that chronicles the death of our rivers and of BC Hydro. For those who voted Liberal or didn’t vote at all, enjoy.

There is one non wimp in this province, Pastor Richard Hergesheimer of First Lutheran Church who had given the Russian deportee Mikhail Lennikov sanctuary in his church.

The legal right of a church to provide sanctuary in cases like this is questionable but in admittedly limited research I could find no Canadian legal authority on the subject.

I did, however, come across a revlew of a book called Sanctary, Sovereignty, Sacrifice by Dr. R. Lippert of The University of Windsor with this quote from the University’s review.
“Facing immediate deportation, a lone Guatemalan migrant entered sanctuary in a Montreal church in December 1983. Thus began the practice of sanctuary in Canada. By 2003, thirty-six incidents involving 261 migrants had occurred nationwide.

[In] Sanctuary, Sovereignty, Sacrifice  … Randy Lippert suggests that, far from being a coherent social movement, sanctuary practice is a localized and isolated phenomenon, and often not primarily religious in orientation. It is also remarkably successful – in every documented incident, state authorities were kept at bay and providers avoided arrest. In most cases, migrants also ultimately received legal status.

Many of you will, at this moment, be well to take a nip of Grandma’s brandy before continuing. Continue Reading »

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Can the NDP Reinvent Itself?

Jun 2nd, 2009 by

Vicki Huntington rode Delta anger.

Vicki Huntington rode Delta anger.

Notes on Huntington’s win, James’s loss, Campbell’s heir.

First, heartiest congratulations to Vicki Huntington in Delta.

Liberal Attorney-General Wally Oppal said he didn’t realize how angry people were at the government. If the previous MLA, Val Roddick, had bothered to turn up to any of the rallies against overhead transmission lines or the new highway and passed those concerns on to cabinet, they would have known, just as I and my colleagues did, that this Liberal bastion was in deep, deep, trouble.

NDP missed its chance

And what was the message, province-wide, for the NDP? The party has some serious stock-taking ahead. They lost the election more than the Liberals won. I say that because with half the electorate staying away, you have to conclude that a lot of these people didn’t want to support Campbell but were unsure about the NDP. And it’s understandable.

Consider, for example, how they missed their chance to campaign strongly on saving BC Hydro.

From the start, a couple of facts. You cannot store electricity in bulk, so it must be used as it is made. BC Hydro “stores” electricity by storing the water needed to make it. Private power plants — which don’t have storage reservoirs and are proud to boast that — are dependent on the flow of water to be high enough to turn the turbines. That only happens at spring run-off and a while after that.

What if a truthful government had told the voters with ads to suit, “BC Hydro owes $31 BILLION to private power producers for power that they can’t use because it’s produced when Hydro’s reservoirs are full? Hydro must, then, sell that power to the U.S. at a huge loss. Every time another private power scheme gets a license, Hydro must make the same deal with them so they go further in the hole. This will bankrupt BC Hydro.” Continue Reading »

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Where Was the Media?

May 19th, 2009 by

Tzeporah Berman, Rafe Mair: Who's message got airplay?

Tzeporah Berman, Rafe Mair: Who's message got airplay?

I tried to raise key election issues. Some big enviro groups, and most reporters, looked away.

As the provincial election unfolded, we saw serious rifts exposed in the environmental movement. Where does it go now after the massive Campbell win, ratifying his plans to ravage our seas and rivers?

In the vacuum created by that rift, the news media of B.C. utterly failed in its duty to inform the voters about critical environmental issues.

As a result, Campbell will assume a mandate to bring in more fish farms, increase the capacity of those in existence and continue a massive destruction of our rivers.

Premier Campbell was able to campaign without having to meet these issues head on and this strategy was clear to me as I taunted his ministers to debate with me.

Where was the energy minister? There is no doubt in my mind that an integral part of Campbell’s strategy was to get rid of Richard Neufeld, the former energy minister, so that he would not be seen to be avoiding debate. Instead, a new minister could duck a fight because he was so recent an appointment.

Movement divided, media muted

If there is an environmental movement it was sent asunder by the defection of Tzeporah Berman and David Suzuki, who seemed to tell us that destruction of rivers for power was helpful to the cause of lowering carbon emissions into the atmosphere. Indeed there seemed to be an inference, if not a direct statement, that they alone represented environmental legitimacy, an arrogant assumption of leadership. Continue Reading »

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The Final Edition of “The Flow”

May 11th, 2009 by

As we are in the last few meters of the finish line permit me put the position of Save Our Rivers Society.

You the taxpayer, through your own company BC Hydro, are financing (to date $30 BILLION) private power producers to ruin our rivers to create energy we don’t need1 to export that power to the US with all the profits going to the shareholders. For this huge outlay BC Hydro doesn’t get even a scrap of paper as security!

In the bargain, the annual dividend of hundreds of millions of dollars, up to a Billion, will not be going to the provincial treasury for hospitals, schools etc but into the hands of companies like General Electric and their largest shareholder, Warren Buffett.

As anyone can see, BC Hydro, shorn of its transmission lines, unable by government edict to produce any new power, saddled with a $3O BILLION dollar debt to private power companies (which rises with each new private power agreement), still carrying their capital debt of $7 BILLION, is technically bankrupt now which will become official if, God forbid, Campbell is re-elected.

If Campbell is elected, the Bute Inlet project, far bigger in scope than Site “C” (Site “C” could produce more power but that’s because they can produce all year while Bute Inlet can only produce for a few months) will be approved meaning that no government will be able to turn down smaller projects. We will then be into the US market big time and at the tender mercies of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

In closing, we at SORS say that this and the fish farm issue are by far the biggest issues in this election because a continuation of the Campbell policy will wreak permanent damage to our salmon, our precious rivers and will break BC Hydro and demolish our public power system.

My thanks to you all for bearing with us and may I take this moment to ask you to take serious account of the above when voting.

Our website is www.saveourrivers.ca.
—–

1This is because they can only produce electricity in the spring and early summer runoff when BC Hydro’s reservoirs are full.

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The Watershed Election Summary

May 7th, 2009 by

I’ve been fighting injustice my entire life. I have long looked with considerable skepticism at those in charge feeling strongly that they must have the closest possible scrutiny.

I’ve been in government and know how the spin is administered to issues so that evils in government policies are disguised. I’ve long been guided by what I call Mair’s Axiom I, namely, “one makes a serious mistake in assuming that people in charge know what the hell they’re doing”.

During my time practicing law I took many cases “pro bono” because I sensed an injustice.

As Consumer Minister I battled hard for consumers passing 33 pieces of legislation in two sittings, a record before or since. In the Ministry of Environment I stopped government killing wolves, stopped exploration for and mining of uranium and negotiated the saving of the Skagit River from being made into a lake by Seattle raising the Ross Dam.

In radio I fought against two disastrous constitutional exercises, Meech Lake and Charlottetown, the Kemano Completion Project, a gravel pit on the Pitt River, the fish farm issue and recently the private river swindle.

I’m now in my 78th year and though I’m pretty fit, the time comes when you have to consider that your place in the front line trenches should be taken by younger people. I’ve greatly enjoyed speaking all around the province and meeting so many of you on the “rivers” issue but being away from home on the road for many days at a time takes a toll While I have no intention to stop speaking out and writing on environmental concerns perhaps it’s time I started supporting causes but not being its torch bearer.

In short, I have to face reality.

The “rivers” issue I’m now fighting is one of the most important I’ve ever been involved in and in this fight I include the government’s appalling record on the fish farm issue. What’s at stake here is the essence, or you might say the very soul, of British Columbia. The return of Gordon Campbell will mean the sale, for money we’ll never even see, the British Columbia we love so dearly. Indeed the money will be paid by us through BC Hydro to the very people who will destroy our province! Continue Reading »

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No sleaze, please

May 4th, 2009 by

Premier's 2003 drunk driving press conference.

Premier's 2003 drunk driving press conference.

Campbell set the bar so low, no wonder his team stoops.

The “sleaze” factor is now near the top of the election agenda as it should have been from the outset.

For John van Dongen’s most recent cabinet departure (he had to resign a few years back amidst a different scandal) simply is the rash indicating a serious disease.

This disease, a moral indifference to personal misbehaviour by government members, began during the last years of the NDP reign, when its ministers were getting into trouble. No one was more vociferous on the side of parliamentary probity and cabinet morality than Gordon Campbell. He was practically Churchillian in his declarations about the duties of ministers under a cloud to resign until their name had been cleared.

Campbell made the point that it wasn’t a matter of presumption of innocence but the strict rule that if one of Her Majesty’s ministers appeared to be compromised, he or she must stand down. At the time, Opposition Leader Campbell was dead on the money. Any member of his caucus of that day would have been able to point with pride to the code of honour adopted by their leader.

The trouble was, of course, that when now-Premier Campbell got hammered in Honolulu, he paid no political forfeit. He had disgraced his office, his office and himself, yet, after carefully judging his own conduct, decided that no political forfeit was called for. Continue Reading »

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