Category Archives: Caveat emptor

Media: Public Myth Versus Bottom Line Reality Part I

”Why is the hard-headed Clark suddenly morphing into a soft-hearted mushball?”

There is a widely held public belief that the media’s job is to provide the information that the public needs to be informed on issues

As is the case with the majority of widely held public beliefs, especially the beliefs/myths we base the governance of Canada on, the myth is untrue.

Myth_versus_Reality

Continue reading Media: Public Myth Versus Bottom Line Reality Part I

Death by Bureaucracy

Did you ever wonder how many people die a year from bureaucracy?

bureaucrat_2Crop

Of course, the last thing politicians and bureaucrats want is anything that smacks of accountability for the human cost of their actions. And since the politicians and bureaucrats make the rules, you don’t die of bureaucracy but of ‘complications of diabetes’ even though the complications result from or are worsened by bureaucracy.

Continue reading Death by Bureaucracy

BC Hydro’s Choice

BC Hydro’s newly appointed [July 2014] President and CEO Jessica McDonald,  BC Hydro’s Board of Directors [Appendix 1 below] and BC Hydro – a Crown Corporation – have chosen to become directly, personally involved in/with homelessness in Abbotsford.

They have chosen to pre-empt a question currently before the BC Courts – if not Jubilee, if not Gladys then where do the homeless go?

They have chosen to ignore questions raised by a BC Crown Corporation, an instrument of the BC Government and the citizens of BC, acting to pre-empt a matter currently before the BC Courts; not next year or at some indefinite point in the future but before the Courts NOW.

They have chosen to become involved directly with homelessness in Abbotsford and to pre-empt the question of the Charter Rights of homeless Canadians currently before the BC Courts, without a clear, demonstrable, imminent risk that required or demanded they act now and prevented them from waiting another month or two [or three] for the BC Courts to adjudicate the question of: Where do the homeless go?

In choosing to pre-empt the BC Courts on the question of the Charter Rights of Canadians  CEO Jessica McDonald, Stephen Bellringer [Chair of the board], Bill Adsit, W.J. Brad Bennett, O.B.C., Larry Blain, James M. Brown, James P. Hatton, Q.C., John Knappett, Tracey L. McVicar, Janine North, ICD.D, John Ritchie, Jack Weisgerber and the Crown Corporation  BC Hydro have, in addition to the disturbing precedent of a Crown Corporation usurping a matter before the Courts, taken on personal responsibility for answering the question Abbotsford City Council has never answered: Where do the Homeless Go?

Since, by their own choice and of their own free will, CEO Jessica McDonald, the Board, employees of BC Hydro and the Crown Corporation BC Hydro have chosen to become involved in homelessness in Abbotsford and pre-empt the BC Courts on the question of the Rights of Canadians and where are the homeless to go they have, as a consequence, made themselves responsible for – and to – the homeless in Abbotsford for answering where the homeless are to go………

“When you choose an action, you choose the consequences of that action.”
Lois McMaster Bujold, Memory

“A responsible choice is a choice that creates consequences that you are willing to assume responsibility for.”     Gary Zukav

……We [I, the homeless, citizens of Abbotsford] await the unveiling of BC Hydro’s plans for the relocation of the homeless from Gladys, and BC Hydro’s answer – and plans – to the thorny question of where the homeless are suppose to relocate to.

 

 

Appendix 1

BC Hydro Board of Directors: 

Stephen Bellringer, Chair of the board

Bill Adsit

W.J. Brad Bennett, O.B.C.

Larry Blain

James M. Brown

James P. Hatton, Q.C.

John Knappett

Tracey L. McVicar

Janine North, ICD.D

John Ritchie

Jack Weisgerber