Prime Minister Stephen Harper never lets me down: every time I start thinking he and his government might actually be worthy enough to run a majority government … he/they do something to remind me NO!
The latest? The federal government decided Tuesday it will go to the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn a B.C. Court of Appeal ruling that Vancouver’s safe-injection site is legal and should be allowed to remain open.
Let’s analyse this one decision by Harper and his henchman, Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.
First, I have always felt the federal government’s opposition to the facility shows a complete misunderstanding of the intent of the safe injection site in the first place. It’s existence does NOT represent approval of drug use in any way; it is a bid to improve the health of those who DO use drugs by providing clean needles and facilities to help battle HIV, Hep-C, infections etc etc.
The savings to the health budget and the relief to hospital/emergency/treatment operations like St. Paul’s from just this preventative measure can be measured in the millions.
The opportunity to interact with drug users in a positive atmosphere (as opposed to at police stations or in court) and at least try to get them into treatment is unique and worth funding on its own merits.
The federal government’s actions also spit in the face of a majority of British Columbians, most municipal and provincial politicians in B.C., and even the official position of the rather conservative B.C. provincial government, which supports Vancouver’s safe injection site.
It sure doesn’s seem very “Christian” to me to act in a way that, if the Court did force closure of the safe injection site, would absolutely increase the chances that those using drugs will become infected with terrible life-threatening illnesses and diseases.
And just think how better the millions of dollars in justice lawyers’ time and costs, along with court time and costs pusuing this matter OVER AND OVER AGAIN , could have been used to fund drug treatment or other health programs.
This all proves how out of touch Harper really is with most British Columbians (and I suspect most Canadians) on this issue.
And as we watch, it reminds us why so many Canadians have so many times REFUSED to give Harper and the Conservatives a majority government mandate.
It makes it all the more apparent how we feel about … and fear … a Tory majority, when you consider the shallowness of his Liberal opponents: first Stephane Dione and now Michael Ignatieff.
Harper keeps blowing it!
There ARE some stands the Tories have taken I actually have liked: attempts to ensure stronger sentencing for serious crime, including mandatory sentencing for multiple repeat criminal offenders; and yes, I do like their stronger foreign policy, speaking out boldly against terrorists and the evil countries like Iran and Syria that give them haven and assistance.
As well, Ignatieff and his Liberals just seem so out of touch and patronizing towards British Columbia. Might be his Eastern speech writers and policy makers, but he clearly seems to see us as a far off colony, to be occasionally showered with platitudes but not an integral POWERFUL part of any future national government.
But Harper keeps throwing away his own chances … or should I say, fortuitously reminds us of what he and the Tories would be like if they ever held a majority.
How ironic as well .. that the Prime Minister will address the BC Legislature Thursday.
Apparently, he invited himself … or is Gordon Campbell thanking him in advance for a Senate seat? It’s kind of a grand photo op, no doubt filled with all kinds of platitudes aimed at BC voters, aimed at capturing the political Gold (BC voter support).
But I’ll bet Harper won’t announce any plan to reign in Quebec’s bloated power in Ottawa or Quebec and the Maritimes’ bloated seats and say in the Senate … to give BC our fair share of seats and power in the nation’s capital.
No what we will likelyget will be only feel-good, touchy-touchy hollow platitudes … ironically delivered in OUR Legislature … after he so disgracefully and disrespectfully shut down his own!
Think about that as you watch the Prime Minister stand in our parliament: that he so disrespects what it stands for .. THE place for political debate, questions..and occasionally, even some answers.
So thank you, Stephen Harper, for regularly reminding us what you and your party would really be like with a majority.
Harv Oberfeld
14 responses so far ↓
1 Lynn // Feb 10, 2010 at 9:57 pm
I agree, Harv. Just when I think he handle a majority gov’t he shoots himself in the foot. Really, how many feet does the guy have. Then there is this,
“During the January 2010 World Economic Summit in Davos Switzerland Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the current Chairman of the G-20, presented the upcoming agenda for the G-20 and G-8 meetings to be held in Ontario in June. Many were shocked to hear this Conservative leader declare that “we also know markets need governance. For the new global economy, the G-20 is what we have.” Harper went on to speak as an avowed Keynesian committed to a one world global economy, creating a world “we have been trying to build since 1945”
Nuts I say!
2 Ron // Feb 10, 2010 at 10:24 pm
I have found an interesting website that I think you should check out Harvey. It’s at http://www.waterwarcrimes.com/organized-crime–bc-ministry-of-the-attorney-general.html and it implicates the BC gov’t and Federal gov’t in a conspiracy to commit fraud and perjury and has made numerous accusations that only a wise and sage person as yourself may be able to get to the bottom of or pass on to someone else that may find out the truth to these accusations. If these are true, it’s a HUGE bombshell that will bring down these gov’ts. It says this is the reason Harper prorogued parliament this last time to stop the news of John Sims perjury accusation in court pertaining to this website. I hope it’s not true, but from what I have seen of the criminal element in power in BC right now, if it smells like a skunk….
(Response: Looked at it ..very subjective and opinionated, but raises some interesting points. However I don’t do investigations or deep research anymore now that I’m retired. Maybe try some of the reporters at the Tyee or Globe and Mail who still remain true to the investigatvie craft? h.o.)
3 Glen H // Feb 10, 2010 at 11:02 pm
Harv, Firstly, if Harper gives Campbell a Senate seat and gets him out of Victoria in 2010, let’s all get on our knees and give the PM a well-deserved bow and round of applause.
Although one can argue he’ll lose the next vote in 2013 anyway, a senate seat NOW allows the BC Liberals the chance to rebuild and to keep the NDP honest [if that's actually possible with slimy Moe running the show] during the next election. They need to earn the right to get in, not be given the keys by default.
My guess is that the people of BC don’t ever want to see the NDP running the province again, but we all need time to believe the BC Libs can be something [again] they presently are not under Campbell.
If a senate seat saves a HUGE slugfest within the party over him staying past June of this year, I’m all for it.
As for the Safe Injection site, you may believe Harper is wrong – along with other BC Voters, but who he’s catering to are his base in the prairies who think we’ve all gone mad by allowing such a clinic to exist in the first place.
I for one don’t believe the intent of medicare, Tommy Douglas or whomever, in 1966, was to give drug addicts places to shoot up paid for out of taxpayer money, and call that “healthcare”.
I find it disappointing how 44 years has skewed what the original intent of medicare was to begin with, based on the ideals of whomever is administering the government of the day, all in the name of getting votes.
It deeply offends some people like my elderly aunt, who with a bad back waited 2 years for surgery, the latter months spent flat on her back in terrible pain.
My relatives back in Saskatchewan are furious this was ever allowed in the first place. These are good hard working folks who believe the path to help drug addicts is to get them into rehab, which we are sorely lacking while millions gets gobbled by the grief pimps running Insite.
If you recall, there were supposed to be 4 pillars not one. We keep hearing of all the studies that claim to reduce health care costs of addicts, but yet we’ve never seen one study telling us how many people Insite has helped off drugs.
Insite is just another creep forward of leftwing socialists on their march to a society run without morals and expectations.
Sorry Harv, with all due respect I’m not with you on this one. It’s time for Insite and it’s grief pimps to go.
Next up from the Insite crowd is free heroine and crack in the name of healthcare for addicts. Are you going to support that too? Where do we draw the line?
(Response: Quite a few points: on how many has Insite led to recovery? I agree probably not many ..BUT how many has it saved from diseases through dirty needles.. I’d bet hundreds, even more ..with a HUGE cost saving to our health system. As for BCers never wanting an NDP government again ..I disagree ..they actually come very close in many elections ..and I believe they could take power again, with a more charismatic leader (I hate that but it works!), a better policy program aimed more at THE MIDDLE CLASS and even UPPER MIDDLE CLASS than just seeming to always be concentrating on the poor, seniors, disadvantaged, minorities, etc. …and a better campaign. That’s a lot ..but it could happen. h.o)
4 AJ // Feb 11, 2010 at 4:39 am
Hi Harvey I wonder where the “Clients” who use the “Insite” facility get the several hundred dollars a day it takes to support their habit. I imagine that they all have Mc Jobs or work elsewhere in the service industry at the minimum wage or just above. I believe that $8 an hour for 8 hours a day would provide enough funds to support their habit as well as providing means for them to keep a roof over their heads. I also believe in the Easter Bunny.
I know that some people feel that those of us who do not have the challenges that the “Clients” have are totally responsible for their lot in life; I’m a little tired of paying for it. It is common knowledge that $1,000,000.00 a day goes into the abyss of the downtown eastside of Vancouver. At the end of the day these are tax dollars that could be better used.
I know you may find this hard to believe but I support the Federal Government’s challenge to the Supreme Court of Canada on this issue. If the BC decision stands it will prove once again that BC really is a truly goofy place.
(Response: Actually glad to have someone with opposing view on this one: helps the discussion. However i think it’s a myth that the average habit costs $100/day. But I am not saying Insight SOLVES drug problems or will stop people from using etc. I’m arguing that it is money WELL SPENT …just in terms of saving huge bucks in hospital/health care to treat people who otherwise would get infected and ill… and spread it around through shared needles. Not to mention the humanity of helping people with enough other problems without dealing with dirty needles. How’s that? h.o.)
5 AJ // Feb 11, 2010 at 6:12 am
Hi Harvey, maybe I was too subtle or facetious. Obviously the majority of the “Clients” using the Insite facility do not have legitimate jobs that afford them the financially flexibility to support their drug habit. Harvey when you were working as an employee at the top of your career for whatever news outlet you were a star of, you could not afford such a habit. I would speculate that in reality none of them have legitimate jobs that support their habit. So the “Clients” are already out there ripping off all of you folks who live in the area, driving up the insurance costs, the cost of living and generally driving down the quality of life for those who are directly supporting their habit. To rub salt into the wound, the Insite facility provides some apparent legitimacy to their lifestyle. They are the down trodden with some sort of “excuse” for their existence.
Why should the tax payer be supporting criminal activity? Why should you and I as tax payers (even though we are unemployable now) have to pay to support such criminal activity? I don’t give a darn about the needles, they are there anyhow. All the bad stuff is still there even though Insite is in operation.
(Response: I agree with you that probably almost none of the Insight users have jobs to support their habits ..and probably commit thefts etc to support their habits. And I am, like you, not amused. My own car has been broken into three times (that I could tell) ..and I have had to pay too many deductibles to get it fixed. I wish they would send away revolving door repeaters for long sentences so maybe they could get treatment for their addiction in prison. But how does it help me or you to ADD MILLIONS a year to our financial tax burden by having to treat diseased adicts at emergency or in hospital because of the diseases like HIV or Hep C or God knows that they get/spread from using dirty infected needles. That savings alone makes Insight worth the cost to YOU. h.o)
6 Ron // Feb 11, 2010 at 8:04 am
I read this piece in the Globe and Mail. So hopefully they’ll stay on it.
7 Ron // Feb 11, 2010 at 8:48 am
Sorry if I’m off topic, but I feel this has to be put out there and thank you for letting me do it Harvey, you’re the best. I hope it’s not true, but my gut says it is and we’re screwed if we, the people, don’t do something MAJOR to stop this malfeasance.
An addendum to last post. Here’s the article in the G+M. I just copied and pasted in here what the poster had written.
Basi-Virk trial date set
BC Rail corruption case will begin May 3.
In the comments, there’s John Carten 2/10/2010 8:44:18 PM (who got railroaded presumably and I believe him) who states: The final decision on legal matters in Government of British Columbia rests with the Executive Committee of the Ministry of the Attorney General.
The Executive Committee that has links to BC Rail unregistered lobbyst, Patrick Kinsella, and former CN Rail director, Brian Smith, (also former Attorney General for BC) through Maximus Inc. a gaint American corporation, that owns Themis, a company linked to assistant deputy Minister Gerry McHale and Brian Smith’s son.
Gerry McHale sits on the Executive Committee.
The head prosecutor in charge of criminal prosecutions is assistant deputy minister, Robert Gillen, who is a member of this small but powerful committee that also runs the Court System through assistant deputy minister Rob Wood.
Assistant Deputy Minister Richard Fyfe is oni the committee and is charge of civil litigation.
All leads lead to the Executive Committee -
Gerry McHale, Robert Gillen, Rob Wood, Tara Faganello, Robert Fyfe.
See page entitled Organized Crime Inside the BC Ministry of the Attorney General at
http://www.waterwarcrimes.com
(Response: There have been a lot of allegations in that case… many unproven in court. Can’t wait for the trial to hopefully get to the truth. h.o)
8 Crankypants // Feb 11, 2010 at 9:11 am
I had mixed feelings about Insight when it was first proposed. I saw it as nothing more than an institution that was created to aid and abet drug users. Their clientele had to obtain their drugs from less than reputable sources, and they had to somehow get the funds to feed their habit.
What I failed to realize is that whether Insight was up and running or not, the users would still do what they do to get the financing for their drugs, and still shoot up wherever they could.
I now have come to realize that at least the users have access to a controlled environment in which they can do their thing and in the process be encouraged to take steps to change their ways.
If anything, government has to go to the next level and create facilities in which those that are addicted can enter and eventually kick their habits.
As I see it, Mr. Harper is trying to use drug addicts as a means to bolster his political image as being tough on crime. The problem is that the criminals are the peddlars of the drugs, not the users. It’s time that Harper and Co. moved on to more pressing issues. It’s not as if there is a shortage of them.
(Response; Exactly! The feds should use the Million $$$ they have put into fighting Insight into more/better drug treatment facilities. But that wouldn’t appeal to their right wing nasty base. h..o)
9 MPM // Feb 11, 2010 at 6:55 pm
How right you are Harvey, Harpers true nature always comes out just as he’s about to accend to higher hights. His polical blunders are truly amazing. Say what you want about Cretian, but he was smart enough to have majority governments when the right was divided.
For Harper the list is amazing:
- week 1 pulls over David Emerson (didn’t he have something to say about that when he was in opposition)
- unelected member put in position of power (his name escapes me) – (didn’t he have something to say about that when he was in opposition)
- The truth about budgets (didn’t he have something to say about that when he was in opposition).
- Prorogation of parliament 2008 (didn’t he have something to say about that when he was in opposition).
- Stimulus spending doing nothing for the economy (except for a 19% increase in house prices because of the conservatives lax mortgage laws – which will bite us hard). But of course he sells this is a good thing for me to pay 19% more.
- Avoiding tough question of government foreign policy (didn’t he have something to say about that when he was in opposition).
- Prorogation of parliament 2010.
The lies and deceptions continue. If the canadian public was a little more engaged in politics we might be able to get rid of him…but then the left is looking pretty week these days.
(Response: The un-elected guy was Michel Fortier, a Montreal lawyer, who Harper appointed to cabinet as minister of public works (VERY plum job) in 2006 after not electing any MPs in Quebec. Fortier had been Harper’s leadership campaign manager in 2003 ..but I’m sure that had nothing to do with his elevation to cabinet without being elected becaue, after all, the PM had always said he resented partisan political appointments. LOL!!!!! h.o)
10 Genuine // Feb 11, 2010 at 11:25 pm
harper is like campbell only worse hes’s Canada wide,he”ll do deals Canada wide, come on people he won’t even give questions to the media and they don’t even complain I can’t believe after whats happening to us and see the signs we even give that creep and all his bag men a shot,hes got a minority and he’s pissing on us and just shuts down parliament till we dry off then he’ll piss up another storm.
11 AJ // Feb 12, 2010 at 3:56 am
Is there any documented evidence that “Insite” has actually prevented or mitigated the transmission of anything? If the millions of dollars that is currently being spent on the DES were spend on something useful like the facility in Coquitlam that Dave Barrett closed down I think many more people would support it. But I guess it isn’t politically correct to have some people in a secure facility for their own safety, much less the safety of the general public.
(Response: I agree that the millions spent on DES could fund a great treatment facility somewhere. But it’s not as simple as that. The daily spending there includes ambulance calls to the area; would you just not go? (yea, well what if it was your mother who had a heart attack while just driving through the area?). More of the cost goes to plicing? Would you not police the area? etc etc. Or check out the flea bag hotels? It’s not as simple as just cutting the money off. As for Insight effectiveness… in 2008…there were 222 people whose lives were saved there after drug overdoses … and provided first aid and medical care to more than 2,000 people ..many of whom otherwise would likely have ended up at St Paul’s Emergency .. for really BIG bucks. And by the way, the estimated cost of treating ONE HIV patient over the course of their illness of about $350,000 … the secret to avoiding that: new clean needles, which they get FREE at Insight. h.o)
12 AJ // Feb 12, 2010 at 6:19 am
Well Harvey if the people that are the “Clients” were somewhere safe it would cut down on the daily ambulance calls, it would also cut down on the policing costs. Thanks for the concern about my mother, she doesn’t drive any more. As for the 222 people’s lives that were saved from overdoses, well if they weren’t down there shooting up there would not have been any need to save them from anything. Having been saved, what have they gone on to accomplish? Are they making a difference in the lives of others or even themselves or their families? It is the field of dreams for drug users, we kind of built it and they have shown up! I understand that there is a problem with HIV, I just don’t see that what is happening there is anything positive.
It is rather interesting that you were very aghast that the BC Government has as you implied spent millions on tickets to the Olympic Games. In reality BC has spend somewhere around 900,000 on tickets. Yet ever DAY a million bucks goes down the drain in the DES.
I hope the “Insite” is shut down.
(Response: on this one, clearly we disagree. h..o)
13 Crankypants // Feb 12, 2010 at 9:40 am
AJ
First of all, if Incite was shuttered, the government would still be ploughing $1 million a day into the DTES. Incite did not create the drug culture in the area. It became a result of what preceeded it.
It is obvious that you are against it continuing to provide the services it does at present. My question to you is, what is your solution? Do we have an all-out blitz and incarcerate every drug dealer and user carte blanche? Do we just incarcerate the users and hope the dealers move on? Do we incarcerate the dealers and hope the users venture elsewhere for their fix? Maybe we should just send in a group of mercenaries and exterminate the druggies and all their suppliers.
Your objections to Insite have been noted, but what do you propose as a solution to the DTES?
14 Leah // Feb 12, 2010 at 5:09 pm
AJ: “In reality BC has spend somewhere around 900,000 on tickets.”
Correction please:
Games tickets for BC politicians and their guests by the Liberal government: $940,680.
Broken down…$449,200 for executive suites at various Olympic venues, and $491,480 on 2,192 individual tickets to Olympic events.
B.C. Hydro $616,000
ICBC $405,000
B.C. Lotteries $396,000
City of Vancouver $340,000
City of Richmond $200,000
City of Whistler $37,000
Federal Government $447,000
Total: $3,381,680.00 of taxpayers’ money spent by politicians for their own personal amusement. Now take into account that through artistic accounting principles (certainly not GAAP of Canada), these liabilities were recorded as an asset! In reality, that means these ticket purchases are actually a $6,763,360.00 liability. There is no “asset” category for this waste except in feeble liberal minds, no doubt whilst patting one another on the back amid great gusts of laughter, being certain no one would catch or understand the sleight of hand just used.
As for how those “Clients” on the DTES have spent their time since being returned from death’s door – who are we to judge? They’re alive. They’re human. That means they deserve to be treated with respect. There but for the grace of God… .
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