Keeping it Real…

26 responses so far ↓

• 1 PG // Jun 26, 2009 at 7:14 pm

  Harv,

  You are bang on. We need more questions and more digging on this issue regarding missing emails. What concerns me is that the RCMP were offered 2000 emails from a witness in the case and they didn’t bother to do anything! Talk about incompetence.

  I wonder if you could be enticed to spend some time in BC Supreme Court and ruffle some feathers….

  (Response: No, thanks. I’m retired! LOL! h.o.)

• 2 darla // Jun 26, 2009 at 7:16 pm

  2001.the office of BC’s, AG, gave a complaint to sol/gen,because of on-going crime.Dec ’02,a middle age white woman victimed.Police MADE and gave the media THIER news clip, of a young black girl,last name White.???So, if anyone reported a white woman, the police could say,’we know about the white girl???!Dec.’03. Raid on BC’s legislature. Plus,thirty US agents in BC tracking terrorist.April’04.M10$ seized from O/C.Oct.’04. BC government closed a file(?) for fear of a public back lash! Nov.’05.Senior south-east Asian gangsters arrested…. ’06. Harper shelves the Gomery report!?!’Jan.27th.07. An indo-cnd/BC police officer arrested for being INVOLVED in child porn! Not down loading or,like the Vanc.cop suspended for viewing child porn on a police computer.

• 3 blaffergassted // Jun 26, 2009 at 8:59 pm

  I loved Copley’s statement that the emails weren’t saved because they were “transitory” in nature.

  (Response: Everything in life is transitory to some degree. That’s why we need those questions asked and asked and asked, until we get the answers. h.o.)

• 4 genuine // Jun 26, 2009 at 9:28 pm

  Thank you Harvey that was great,you sure call e’m as you see e’m,and that my fellow bcer’s, is whats been going on for almost seven years! Word to the incompetent ,please get on with it ,this is distressing a lot of people and that’s why everyone thinks it’s ok to lie ,cheat,and, steal ! Do you hear what the word is on the street and what people who only needed a little push to be dishonest?Hey the govt. does it so it’s ok!

• 5 Ron // Jun 26, 2009 at 10:10 pm

  With (EDITED for legal reasons h.o.) Bennett’s plum position given to her by Scampbell), nothing will come out of this, or it already would. Yet, all these snoring taxpayers in BC just let this scam go free. Why else is Campbell’s plan of privatizing everything so he can truck the barrels of cash out the back door working so well? And just look at who’s running those IPP’s (all former Libs). They’re all cashing in, and we taxpayers are gonna be hurtin’ big time in the backside when they’re finished.

• 6 DMJ // Jun 26, 2009 at 11:08 pm

  God help us Harvey, our media has their collective heads stuck in the sand. All we have is a cadre of reporters, all waiting for their nod for an Order of Canada, so they say nothing and ruffle no feathers.

  It’s like the three monkeys – see no scandal; hear no scandal; speak no scandal.

  Campbell is getting a free ride and one must ask; “has the mainstream media been bought off?”

• 7 Leah // Jun 26, 2009 at 11:38 pm

  Excellent piece Harvey, a great start!! I know you’re retired, but can you come play long enough to show how journalism is “supposed” to work? We need you more now than we ever have!

  I’d like to bounce an idea for your input. There are a number of extremely concerned citizens trying to light a fire under the official opposition to request an injunction against any further transfer of assets (the waterfront from North Van to Squamish, 28 miles worth) from BC Rail to CN (for $1) on July 14th, 2009. We haven’t seen the deal, 5 years later!! Who knows what else is involved in it?

  Would an injunction be workable? Were the letters we’ve sent to the opposition leader, the right way to go? (There has been no answer of any kind on either one I’ve sent.) If not, where to from here. Time is critical now…we still have a chance to change this, though time grows short.

  As for the emails, who in the legislature has the most to gain from their destruction? And who has been chosen to take the fall for it? I find it incredible that not a single soul in that building had the guts to say “No, Sir”…and no one had the foresight to see how desperately they’re needed and preserve them somehow, somewhere. In short, no one in that building related to this debacle from Ministers to clerks, deserves to remain in their job.

  What a scam, what a sham, our shame if we allow them to remain in office.

  (Response: Of course, to seek a successful injunction, you must have a legitimate legal grievance of some sort, not just that you don’t like the deal. Of course just seeking one does garner you media publicity .and maybe even a little more attention from the Opposition (not likely from the government. h.o.)

• 8 Norman Farrell // Jun 27, 2009 at 2:08 am

  If you want to erase emails completely from a sophisticated network and from each of the multiple generations in the backup system, you have to work at it. A blanket statement that nothing can be found is not believable unless the system was designed for that outcome.

  Friday morning on NW, Michael Smyth brought up the subject of missing emails. Vaughan Palmer and Keith Baldry did their routine of “Move along now, no story here.” Apparently, Smyth didn’t know the routine because he kept asking questions about what this means and how did it happen. Bill Good would be wincing if he heard his replacement host.

  Anticipating the coming Global cutbacks, Baldry (EDITED by h.o.) fits just about any subject into a template of mildly lauding the Opposition for almost doing something right, then following that with an extended description of how, in the end, they really screwed up on that subject.

• 9 Skookum1 // Jun 27, 2009 at 2:54 am

  Harvey, retired though you may be, it’s time to come in out of the rain and stoke the fire……the public needs you, Canadian democracy needs you. Your reputation and stature might pry open the lid of silence that’s been kept on this case beyond the Rockies. The Globe’s Neal Hall at least has taken up the banner of truth, putting BC’s newspapers to shame – just as the Globe did in 1983, giving reporters free rein to report the truth instead of advertorials for the government and bizarre distortions of truth and juxtapositions of content. And darla, above, has pointed out to a noxious practice of focussing on lurid criminal and sex-crime stories when there is important news breaking in this case, and in BC politics in general; in fact, as I write this just now, CTV News nightly national had a blurb on Robert Pickton losing his appeal bid – which is, literally, yesterday’s news. Nothing about the BC government wiping out thousands of emails pertaining to “the most important political scandal in the country”, as it’s been called. It’s too similar to how the opening of the Basi-Virk hearings were overwhelmed by the ongoing, sordid coverage of the Pickton case. The big news today, of course, is the sad death of the King of Pop, just as this last week before that it was the crisis in Iran. It seems like what goes on in BC is often upstaged by synchronicities the larger world, BUT when it isn’t, it also seems like the media will find something tabloidesque to keep the public mesmerized with. But really, how relevant to Canadians is Sandy Rinaldo interviewing a doctor about Jackson’s taking of demerol? Is democracy and political honesty less important than the eBay price of Jackson’s fedora? I suggest it might be worth reviewing news stories carried on the days when seminal information and events broke on this case; something went down when Justice Bennett’s elevation to the Court of Appeal was announced, of the same kind as this non-story about Pickton getting airtime over the story about destruction of evidence/emails and the fake claim that they can’t be recovered (my bet is they’re out there somewhere for those who know how to look, or have the digital forensics skill to recover them….)

  Pandering to the shallow taste of the hoi polloi is nothing new in journalism, it sells papers and boost ratings. But so does dirty money, corrupt politicians, and apparently illegal and still-secret billion-dollar contracts…..

  Here’s a thought – could it be that the reason the BC Rail contract isn’t being produced for public view is that it, too, has been deleted? Not likely, but it’s quite likely that a lot of “transitory” research and discussions relating to BC Rail’s value and assets, and of offer, counter-offer, favour and counter-favour, have been duly vaporized. Along with the mysterious contents of that warehouse of data that Rich Coleman was so unconcerned about. No big deal huh?

  Lazy, cynical, bored are indeed traits of the press gallery and I’d add to that moral turpitude and, as you note, they’ve become “friends” with the politicians, not likely to upset their dinner parties. And some of them pander to eventual appointments or tasty lobbying contracts a la Brian Kieran….but the fault is on the editors and publishers for viewing decency in politics either so slackly, or more to the point so sacrificeable for partisan motives, that their usefulness as institutions is not just suspect, it is outrageous. “Mercenary” would be the most appropriate term than lazy or cynical, not just for the reporters, but for their bosses and their cozy advertising contracts-for-campaign donations relationship.

  Cynicism is not a good thing in journalism; it SHOULD be reason for a firing. Instead it’s become a rationale for a determined shrug and an often overt effort to distort the truth and to not ask questions that need asking – including the list you’ve specified above, which are standard fare in US press scrums…..imagine if this were a US governor what the American press would be doing with this; 24×7 coverage, and more investigative reporting than has probably gone in BC in the whole of the last thirty years….(or more). Congressional and Senate hearings would also be in play, as well as the courtrooms of judges and prosecutors chosen by the people, not appointed by the politicians they’re investigating (or should be investigating). You even have competition by law enforcement agencies down there; if state police or city police don’t investigate, the FBI or another body WILL.

  Please don’t let this go, and don’t treat retirement as an abdication of the public interest. Canadians need to know what’s been done in BC, and by whom, and the transfer of waterfront lands to CN Rail has to be stopped and a full investigation into the contract and to the conspiratorial behaviour surrounding it, and now the cover-up and mounting questions about Mountie irresponsibilities and/or slackness and the intimate ties between the Force and the BC Liberals….about illegal lobbying by the Liberal campaign manager, and about cabinet leaks to other lobbyists, corrupt lobbyists who’ve apparently plea-bargained their way out of being charged, leaving the Basi-Virk crew as fall guys. Even now, the Public Affairs Bureau drones on the blogs are trying to launch character assassination against them, trying to turn this back into a “drug and money laundering” story….doesn’t it strike you as weird that the same government that’s been hiding behind “privilege” themselves were leaking cabinet-confidential information to their friends and….clients?

  Last Thursday CBC National’s “year in review panel” – Andrew Coyne, Rex Murphy, Allan Gregg and Chantal Hebert, sat there extolling Campbell as among the most underestimated politicians in the country, about what a great leader he is, and at least two of them, plus the anchor, were happily speculating on when he might take the national stage. Not just talking heads, talking bobble-heads…..

  I know retirement must be nice, but you’re one of the few name journalists who’s spoken honestly about this travesty of democracy and unfolding miscarriage of justice that’s taking place in BC Supreme Court. Somebody has to step up to bat who already knows how the pitcher plays and isn’t about to take a fake call from the umpire…..

  Canadians need to know, and British Columbians need to wake up before these bandits have given away the WHOLE store. This case strikes to the core a host of serious problem with Canadian democracy; just as the Restraint budget of ’83 paved the way for the hatchet-work of the Mulroney Tories. This usurpation of the law in the name of advantage for partisan investors has got to be exposed before it is used as a successful precedent and becomes a standard in Canadian politics. Since it can’t be done through the major papers or networks in BC, somebody’s got to take it national….I’m nominating YOU…..time for a documentary expose Puh-LEEZE…

  With respect, and hoping to encourage you off the back porch and away from the barbeque and the golf course and back into the fray. Somebody’s got to show up those turkeys in the Press Gallery and inspire the younger reporters to actually do their jobs, instead of their assignments…

  (Response: Many thanks for your kind words and those of so many others on this topic. But I worked 38 years in the business ..did my best … won lots of awards … skewed a few polticians (LOL!) and maybe even kept a few more honest and open than they would have liked. I have no doubt there are lots of good reporters still out there … I read many in the newspapers … and I really believe TV will rediscover them too ..once new management decides to get back to real political reporting ..and not concentrate on the miore easily done daily crime, fires, shallow people stories for which they can just hire the cheapest, easily pushed around youngsters, with almost no knowledge of history or politics, but who just want to, oh my my, be stars on t.v. ( h.o.)

• 10 BC Mary // Jun 27, 2009 at 3:52 am

  Excellent discussion, nice to see the growing appreciation for credible journalism as an arm of a democratic society.

  About that injunction, it seems to me that the very fact that one party to the BCRail deal (that would be us, the people of BC) have never seen the deal is one very large complaint capable of winning the attention of the court.

  But there are other rumours: the BCR lands which will slide into private CN pockets if we don’t cry “Halt!” The failure to buy the 600 new railcars. The rumoured trespass where CN now travels across First Nations lands without permission. All deal-breakers, we hear.

  Which means that we, the people, could exercise the option of re=possessing our railway …

  which brings us back to the basic complaint: how do we decide these things if we have never seen the agreement(s)? Is that even legal?

• 11 Bill Tieleman // Jun 27, 2009 at 5:57 am

  Good post Harvey! But imagine this – instead of three beleaguered former BC Liberal government aides -what if Canadian Pacific were suing the provincial government for not conducting an open and fair bidding process for BC Rail?

  CP has long ago said – back in 2003 – that it believed the bidding was “tainted” and withdrew from participating. We discovered this year that Burlington Northern Santa Fe – see my blog – also privately withdraw as partner of OmniTRAX.

  What if this were a commercial damages lawsuit instead of a criminal trial?

  What would happen if all the email evidence that would prove what CP and BNSF have already alleged went missing before the trial?

  Would the judge award full damages to CP and BNSF because the accused – the BC Liberal government – had not kept adequate records?

  Pretty good bet in my opinion.

  Bring on the investigation!

• 12 Robert // Jun 27, 2009 at 6:58 am

  Our collective media is too busy promoting the privatization of our health system. They are actually cheering him on eg Michael(Cheerleader) Smythe.

• 13 BC Liberals Suck // Jun 27, 2009 at 5:24 pm

  Thanks for this story Harvey, it demonstrates yet again why bloggers, or citizen journalists, are crucial at this stage in our history.

  It’s pretty clear we’re living in a rogue state in BC. It is no coincidence that our government, law enforcement and the judiciary in BC have been so compromised over the last 8 years and perhaps more. As you mention, citizens used to be able to count on the media (to some extent and much greater than now) to act in the public’s interest, we know that this is not encouraged and perhaps even discouraged by the neoCon corporate leaders of major media empires. That too is strategic.

  It’s important for the public to understand the chill of what happens within the current BC government. There isn’t a doubt in my mind someone, somewhere within government questioned the destruction of these e-mails. There are still ethical public servants with integrity. However, once determined to be a whistleblower, or at least someone who knows too much and has one of those nasty things, such as a moral compass and that is shown to those above them, their fates are sealed.

  If the public only knew how many people have been set up, bullied, harassed and removed from government in these last years most civilized people would not believe that these things actually happen. But they do.

  This government has perfected a viciousness in going after their own and ensuring a pervasive culture of fear for those who witness the attacks and removal of their colleagues that would make the Sopranos proud. It’s that chill that ensures others will blindly and silently carry on with their work. They’ve seen the harm done to employees and their families. They’ve been culling the herds for many years now and promoting those who will act with no question and little care for the harm done to their underlings, or the public good.

  I think it would definitely in the public’s interest for an injunction to be filed against the transfer of BC lands to CN on July 14th 2009. This is absolutely involved in the Sale of BC Rail, the raid of the Legislature and since that is all before the courts, an injunction must be filed. If, as suggested, the Opposition is aware of this, why have they not acted in the interests of the citizens of BC? It’s an important question and one that deserves an answer and/or a law suit filed in the next 2 weeks. BC will be watching what the NDP does. I see the opportunity for many public interest groups working together to slow this down, or stop it. Once the land transfer occurs, the citizens of BC will never get these prime lands back. It also begs the question, why do we, as the taxpayers of BC, have no full accounting of all of the lands the BC Liberal government has transferred to CN through the sale of BC rail? Isn’t it time we had that full accounting as well as the rest of the lands promised? Who will step forward to lead this call and act in the public’s interest?

• 14 Norman Farrell // Jun 27, 2009 at 6:23 pm

  I believed from the beginning that the sale of BC Rail was always aimed at benefiting predators who wanted Howe Sound lands for development. The new highway is part of the plan.

  You know the maxim. Buy by the square mile, sell by the square foot. Enormous profit potential, low risk. All you need is time.

• 15 AJ // Jun 28, 2009 at 2:39 am

  Paranoia seems to be running rampant. We probably need to spend many millions of dollars having a public inquiry to determine who clicked “No” instead of “Yes” or was it vice versa on a computer thus deleting who really knows what. Like some others may believe, BC Rail was a money pit. At what cost should we have kept it running? Do we need another Braidwood Commission? Do a google on “Braidwood Commission” and have a look at the importance that holds. In the meantime, don’t forget those Chickens and the Bike Lanes in Vancouver!

  (Response: Don’t simplify it. Whoever clicked to erase did it THOUSANDS OF THOUSANDS of times. It’s not paranoia to want to know what happened. Hear no evil, see no evil can condemn us to corrupt governmen if we’re not careful. h.o.)

• 16 genuine // Jun 28, 2009 at 2:24 pm

  I remember somebody wrote a post that they would test new things in BC and if it worked like the carbon tax it would be introduced nationally,like p3′s just a thought ! If this is true which I think it is this is what is going to happen eventually ,so let’s wake up and not let it happen!Lucky that Harper only has a minority govt. or we would be screwed Baird already said he talks to campbell every night on the phone for advise on how to do things!!!! What things I wonder?Things to the people I bet.!!!!

• 17 genuine // Jun 28, 2009 at 2:37 pm

  AJ: do they pay overtime at the PAB on Saturdays?you sure like to get that silly distraction out !Either your a fool or you work in the PAB! Which is it?

• 18 SharingIsGood // Jun 29, 2009 at 5:58 am

  Such a sad thing when there are so many fewer comments for this huge issue than there are for the bike fees entry. Our very democracy has been and is continuing to be undermined, and it seems most people don’t have anything to say about the subject. Please stay on this, H.O., with all of your energy. Do everything you can to bring important and powerful people into the the fight for what is left of BC. Democracy requires it, and I don’t believe you have spent your life reporting truth as nearly as you see it only to have this upon us. If you have but one fight left in you, Harvey, put it forth now, please. Help us retain the railway and all that is attached to the sale. There can be nothing innocent about the deletion of all government emails related to this sale.

  (Response: It is interesting that more people are concerned about bicycle fees than a possible breakdown of responsibility under our poltical governmental system. h.o.)

• 19 DMJ // Jun 29, 2009 at 3:46 pm

  The cycling lobby is very well organized for blogging and god help anyone nay-saying cyclists on the web.

  I think many people have thrown their hands up in despair over this government and their questionable activities. What can one do if the mainstream media downplays the provincial government’s shredding of emails.

• 20 SharingIsGood // Jun 29, 2009 at 9:13 pm

  DMJ, I think we have a responsibility to take the issue to the streets.

• 21 Patrick Bell (Not the MLA) // Jun 29, 2009 at 10:03 pm

  Sharingisgood.

  If you want to organize a rally of the shredding of gov. documents and the overall arrogance and secrecy of this government, I’m in.

• 22 BC Mary // Jun 30, 2009 at 12:22 am

  The worst thing we can do is whine, wring our hands, whimper that “We’re doomed,” and then do nothing to improve things.

  The best thing we can do right now is to get an injunction to prevent any further benefits flowing for $1. into CN pockets from BCR (that’s us).

  Doesn’t seem a lot to ask, really: let us see the damn agreement, and give us time to decide what we want to do.

  .

• 23 AJ // Jun 30, 2009 at 3:23 am

  Isn’t it odd that this is an issue or a non-issue if you will. Yet that Athletes Village is a big non issue over some apparently non-wrapped pipes. How about the fact that this thing has been so over built after the fact that the foundation likely won’t support what is had been put up there. The city has probably given variance permits to make this all ok. But the place may not stand up to the big shake.

• 24 Laila // Jun 30, 2009 at 1:08 pm

  Perhaps an even bigger non-issue- at least with the vast majority ofpress so far, is as Norman mentions above, the land development aspect of this entire deal. Why is the press not going after that angle- because of the implications with 2010?

  I think most of you have read this already, but I’ll link to it anyways, for those who haven’t.

  Neither the emails, nor the land aspect of this should be ignored. And yet, we continue to watch the press do nothing.

  http://lailayuile.wordpress.com/2009/06/29/the-key-to-the-bc-rail-sale-lays-in-premier-gordon-campbells-beginnings-in-real-estate-and-land-development/

• 25 genuine // Jun 30, 2009 at 9:50 pm

  The press and the talk show circuits are showing there true colors ,just listening to micheal sniff filling in for bill the pill boring is a joke hes lambasting anyone and everyone on the bridge bicycle lane issue and the closier of the shelter and the disrespect he shows with any left wing connection,not that I care but for the love of GOD!!! they keep on it and on it small issues like that !!!! I wish these damn sellouts would just leave, there really sickening ,enough already let’s get on with these serious issues ! His and vaughns come uppins will be out in the open when this and other related stories from this sordid affair come to light ! The question will be where the hell were the main stream media when all this was going down? Maybe they were investigating a sundeck and a camping knife!

• 26 genuine // Jun 30, 2009 at 10:07 pm

  Or was it a hunting knife ? The point is who the f care’s!

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