SONYA CHANDLER PULLS A PALIN: Both betrayed those who voted for them

DID HER PHILISTINISM ON THE BLUE BRIDGE

KILL THE POLITICAL CAREER

OF THE GREEN PARTY’S

FIRST FEMALE VICTORIA CITY COUNCILLOR?

 

Thank God she is quitting, although her careering caprices will cost Victoria taxpayers.

 Instead of finishing her second three year term for which she was strangely re-elected by a minority of Victoria’s eligible voters in the last municipal election, not long after being returned to office, Sonya Chandler became an even more fanatic proponent of the ‘replacement’ option for the heritage Johnson Street Bridge, despite overwhelming public opposition to that foolish position by those who signed the petition for a referendum on the future of the bridge.

That group actually dwarfed the number of people who voted for her and her philistine cohort, which undeniable fact must surely have had some bearing on her decision to follow in the footsteps of Alaska’s notorious career celebrity posing as a serious politician.

She is very likely the first of a number of lame duck spendthrift Victoria City Councillors who will either quit while they are ahead, or will certainly not stand to be re-elected in the next election, or will certainly not get re-elected if they do.

My hope is that whoever replaces Sonya Chandler will be more concerned with housing the homeless, helping the addicted get off hard drugs and booze by supporting their abstinence in recovery (not giving them needles, crack pipe ‘kits’ or ‘wet houses’), opposing the replacement of the Joseph Strauss-designed bridge near Victoria’s Chinatown, favouring its refurbishment, freezing residential property taxes, freezing City of Victoria hiring, freezing salaries and wages of City of Victoria employees, protecting existing City of Victoria public service jobs, supporting improvements to stormwater drainage systems in Victoria, but opposing unnecessary costly land-based sewage treatment.

 

Gregory Hartnell, President

Concerned Citizens’ Coalition

 

[For a link to a Vancouver Sun article on this issue, please refer to the Comments section below.]

PEACE, LOVE + RUKUS ROCK THE UNION CLUB: Vic High Class of 1970 psychedelic poster by ‘Goyo de la Rosa’

 

RUKUS ROCK + ROLL: VICHIGH70 PEACE POSTER BY 'GOYO DE LA ROSA'

 

I’ve just delivered a new psychedelic poster design to Brian Dunn, auction organizer for the 40th Reunion celebration of the Victoria High School Class of 1970, to be auctioned for a minimum bid of $200.10 tomorrow night (Friday, May 28, 2010) at the Union Club of B. C.

The Rukus Rock + Roll Dance Band will play after the dinner.

Eight recycled t-shirts of various sizes, colours and design (four for women, four for men) with transfers of the design on the front or back will be available at the event, for a minimum donation of $15.00 each.

97 signed and numbered golden yellow handbills with the design were printed at FedEx’s Broadway location in Vancouver for inclusion in guests’ tote bags.

For more information about this design, please refer to the Comments section below for a link to LA ROSA.

 ‘Goyo de la Rosa’, Editor

(Gregory Paul Michael Hartnell)

LA ROSA and CCC BLOG

 

LA ROSA TRANSCULTURAL PEACE + LOVE PROPAGANDA 1970 – 2010

Gregory Hartnell on Government House wildlife: ‘In the Rockland neighbourhood we have a growing problem with roaming deer’

CCC PRESIDENT SAYS LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR STEPHEN POINT

IS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR ‘UNSUSTAINABLE SITUATION’

 

Re: Slow and unsteady wins this race (Victoria News, May 4)

 

The dereliction of duty by University of Victoria officials has resulted in a very real problem with the growing feral rabbit population on campus, as reported by Kyle Slavin.

UVic is not the only local institution that has been negligent in controlling pesky critters.

In the Rockland neighbourhood we have a growing problem with roaming deer.

Every day I take a walk up Rockland, and down Lotbiniere.

As I head down that enchanted pathway, I often see deer grazing or resting in the beautiful Garry oak groves.

Rockland gardeners such as myself have had to incur added expenses in recent years to protect our flowers and vegetables.

A number of solutions come to mind, including sedation and removal of these creatures to CRD park property in Sooke, a complete cull, or perhaps even a fancy high wrought iron fence around the Government House woods to protect the formal gardens of that property and adjacent private properties.

Whichever solution is tried, it will cost money.

Perhaps the Monarchist Society would like to help out with these costs.

I call upon Lieutenant-Governor Stephen Point, the present resident of Government House, to explain to his long-suffering neighbours what he is prepared to do about this unsustainable situation for which he is directly responsible.

 

Gregory Hartnell, President

Concerned Citizens’ Coalition

 

CCC BLOG reprint:

Victoria News: http://www.vicnews.com

Pesky animals not unique to UVic

Friday, May 21, 2010

Page A11

CCC

 

Gemma Karstens-Smith: ‘The B. C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA)… put YPY [Youth Protecting Youth] in contact with Vancouver lawyer Joseph Arvay, who will represent the club in [B. C. Supreme] Court’

YPY DEBATE HEADS TO COURT

Pro-life club launches lawsuit against

University of Victoria Students’ Society

over status and funding

 

After years of battling the UVic Students’ Society (UVSS) for club status and funding, pro-life group Youth Protecting Youth (YPY) is taking the fight off campus and into court.

YPY filed a petition with the B. C. Supreme Court against the UVSS on May 3.

“What we’re asking for is that we’re treated like any other club and that means being granted status and funding and being allowed to share our beliefs with students on campus,” said YPY President Anastasia Pearse.

“The UVSS has acted unlawfully in denying us.

“They need to know they cannot practice this censorship against the group.

“So, if it takes a court case to show them that what they have done is wrong, so be it.”

The B. C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) is supporting YPY and seeking intervenor status in the lawsuit.

BCCLA also put YPY in contact with Vancouver lawyer Joseph Arvay, who will represent the club in court.

“The lawsuit seeks relief from a protracted campaign of censorship and discrimination against the club, in which the [UVSS] has deprived YPY of official club status and withdrawn its funding to punish it for expressing pro-life views,” said a BCLLA press release regarding the lawsuit.

“The position of the [UVSS] has deprived YPY of official club status and withdrawn its funding to punish it for expressing pro-life views,” said a BCLLA press release regarding the lawsuit.

“The position of the [UVSS] seems to be that all pro-life advocacy is inherently a form of harassment and discrimination against women, and hence YPY is appropriately denied the status and privileges of an official student club.”

In the lawsuit, YPY asks that their status and funding be restored, as well as funding they have been denied since Oct. 2008.

They are also seeking a declaration that “past and current refusals to fund and/or ratify [YPY] were and are unlawful,” and an order saying that YPY can be a club with status and funding as long as they operate the same way they have in the past and do in the present.

As well, the lawsuit asks that the amendments pertaining to pro-life groups in the UVSS’ recently revised harassment policy be eliminated.

Pearse says that the group has “exhausted multiple means of appeal” through the UVSS, but the situation has only deteriorated further.

YPY’s club status was questioned in September 2008 after the group put up Feminists for Life posters at UVic.

From 2008 to 2010 the UVSS board received several complaints that YPY’s tactics constituted harassment.

As a result, YPY’s status and funding were revoked several times between 2008 and 2010.

“We think it’s time we had a more official authority decide the matter and we hope this establishes a stronger precedent so, in the future, the UVSS will treat YPY fairly,” said Pearse.

In February 2010, the UVSS board revoked YPY’s funding until December 2010 and said the club would not be eligible for status until it signed onto a revised version of the UVSS harassment policy for clubs.

The revised policy was to be developed by the UVSS Organizational Development Committee in consultation with several concerned groups, including YPY.

Pearse says YPY was against the policy amendments from the beginning because they initially targeted pro-life clubs.

She says that members of YPY attended the first two or three meetings of the committee, but eventually decided not to participate.

“We felt it would be a waste of our time to join in on the meetings because some people were determined to go ahead with making those policies,” said Pearse.

Ammendments to the harassment policy were passed by the UVSS board on April 21, including a new definition of harassment and a new process for how the board deals with harassment complaints.

The UVSS board also voted to restore YPY’s club status at the April 21 meeting.

Pearse says YPY was shocked by the board’s decision to restore YPY’s status, especially because the club was told that they would not have to sign the new harassment policy right away.

“It seemed like a goodwill thing on their part,” she said.

However, Pearse says the new harassment policy would censor her group when they do have to sign it.

“Really, we can’t sing it in good faith knowing that it prevents us from a lot of pro-life advocacy,” she said.

As of press time, it was unclear how the UVSS will react to the lawsuit.

UVSS Chairperson James Coccola noted that the decisions on YPY’s status and funding had all been made by previous boards.

“This is a new board,” he said.

“The board will be, in the future, given a chance to talk about [the lawsuit].”

 

 

CCC BLOG reprint:

Gemma Karstens-Smith

The Martlet (UVic student newspaper)

YPY debate heads to court

Page 3

May 13, 2010

 

CCC TRANSCULTURAL PRO-LIFE HISTORY 2010

 

HUGH + SUSAN KRUZEL ON PANDORA PROBLEMS: ‘Urine and feces are now a common occurrence both in the green space and nearby properties’

Permanent encampment seems to be developing along the Pandora corridor, and with it associated problems.

Urine and feces are now a common occurrence both in the green space and nearby properties.

The police come in the mornings to move campers along, however, the tent then becomes a groundsheet for continued occupancy of the space.

At this time a circle of waste develops still further.

It is difficult to explain to visitors and our own children how taxpaying citizens can be experiencing such an erosion of this neighbourhood.

For the sake of public health alone, please offer some sense of order along the 800, 900, 1000 and 1100 blocks of Pandora.

Hugh and Susan Kruzel

 

CCC BLOG reprint:

Reclaim Pandora for public health

Victoria Times Colonist: timecolonist.com

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Page A13

 

91% of Quebecois, and 88% of Canadians think Auditor-General Sheila Fraser should audit MPs’ and Senators’ expenses

Two Leger polls show that a whopping 91% of Quebecois and 88% of Canadians think that Auditor-General Sheila Fraser should have free access to do detailed audits on expenses accounts of all Canadian Members of Parliament and Senators.

Only the separatist Bloc Quebecois has the decency and good sense to agree with the people.

One wonders what the other 9% of Quebecois and 12% of Canadians are thinking.

Right, they’re not thinking.

Gregory Hartnell, Editor

CCC BLOG

Gregory Hartnell to Denise Savoie, Victoria MP: Please ask NDP Leader Jack Layton to order all NDP MPs to open their expenses accounts to Auditor General Sheila Fraser

CONCERNED CITIZENS’ COALITION

1357 Rockland Avenue

Victoria, BC

Canada V8S 1v7

 

Denise Savoie, Member of Parliament

Victoria, British Columbia

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

 

Dear Ms Savoie:

I am using the Concerned Citizens’ Coalition Weblog to write you an open letter in the public interest of all Canadian citizens.

As you probably know, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser has asked Canadian Parliamentarians to allow her staff to look at all of their expenses accounts.

New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton has declined the Auditor-General’s request for such auditing.

On behalf of the Concerned Citizens’ Coalition, I implore you to ask your party leader to order all of your fellow Members of Parliament in the New Democratic Party to co-operate fully with Auditor-General Sheila Fraser’s audit of your expenses accounts. 

A recent Leger poll found that 91% of Quebecois citizens polled said they wanted such an audit.

Bearing that in mind, the Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe has said his party’s expenses accounts are available to the AG’s staff’s inspection.

I should also point out to you the very obvious fact that the New Labour government of Gordon Brown just fell, due in large part to an expenses account scandal.

The New Democratic Party should join with the Bloc Quebecois in agreeing to be audited by the Auditor-General.

Should Mr. Layton decline to join Mr. Duceppe in opening up your party’s expenses accounts to such scrutiny, we would hope that you would act on your own, to dissent politely from your leader’s position, and to pro-actively open your own expenses accounts to the Auditor-General’s staff’s inspection.

Thanks for giving this letter the serious consideration that we believe it merits.

Very sincerely yours

 

Gregory Hartnell, President

Concerned Citizens’ Coalition 

 

REX MURPHY: ‘Only Gilles Duceppe, separatist, has no problem with the Auditor General of Canada’

MP’S EXPENSE ACCOUNTS HIDDEN

BY FEDERALIST PARTY LEADERS

 

It’s a strange time when the honour of the Canadian Parliament is receiving solitary support from the one political leader who has no time for the Canadian Parliament.

Yet the leader of the Bloc Quebecois has been the only party leader in the House of Commons who has both the sense and decency to give easy consent to Shiela Fraser‘s request to oversee the parliamentary budgets of MPs and senators.

The Auditor-General can examine expenses in virtually every other domain of government.

She is Parliament’s very own officer for doing so.

But, the MPs who make up that Parliament, and who give her that terrific power over everything else in government, don’t allow her to look into their own spending.

Who would have guessed?

Messing around with office and constituency expenses has been top of mind recently.

In Britain a gigantic scandal emerged after it was revealed that legions of MPs in the mother of Parliaments were claiming expenses for the most outre, even arcane projects – the most famous being the cleaning of the private moat of one aristocrat, Viscount Hogg; close runners up including “bee removal,” the “catching of a mole” and the building of “a house for a family duck.”

In Newfoundland the MHAs of all three provincial parties were embroiled in a horrendous saga of expenses abuse – with claims vastly exceeding what was legitimately allowed – accompanied by an almost hilarious scam of nearly $2.6-million being spent, surreptitously, on “non-existent” key chains, lapel pins and fridge magnets.

Back home where I come from, the traffic in fridge magnets is a wonder.

Nova Scotia has had its own version of an expenses scandal in which MLAs were submitting claims for generators, patio furniture and – I found this one touching – Dance Dance Revolution for an Xbox 360.

In each case the public response was, naturally, outrage and an inevitable tsunami of the wildest cynicism toward politics and politicians.

One would think that with all the barking about “transparency” and “accountability” being done in the Afghan detainee issue – not to mention the ferocious posturing about “influence peddling” and lobbying in the desperate melodrama of the Jaffer-Guergis story – the crowd in Ottawa would be pleading with the Auditor-General to come in and show just how clean and rigorous they are about their own budgets.

But, of course not.

Our MPs are as the driven snow, the swan’s back; and while it is under their authority that the Auditor-General scrutinizes, reviews, investigates and challenges the spending of every other operation of government, it is not to be thought she should be let loose to monitor the spending of those who authorize the spending of everyone else.

Mr. Layton hems and haws, Mr. Ignatieff temporizes and Mr. Harper maintains that charming silence which he applies to nearly every situation that threatens a 1% shift in the polls.

Only Gilles Duceppe, separatist, has no problem with the Auditor-General of Canada.

Gilles Duceppe: Parliamentarian of the Month.

Rex Murphy offers commentary weekly on CBC TV’s The National, and is host of CBC Radio’s Cross Country Checkup. 

 

CCC BLOG reprint: 

Three cheers for Gilles Duceppe

Rex Murphy

National Post

Friday, May 14, 2010

Page A13

 

CCC

MARCHE POUR LA VIE IN OTTAWA ATTRACTS 12,000 PEACEFUL PRO-LIFE PROTESTORS

The National Post‘s John Ivison reports that an estimated 12,ooo pro-life protestors attended the Marche pour la Vie in Ottawa this year.

 The French language daily Le Droit reports the attendance figures at approximately 10,000.

These are impressive numbers and it is gratifying to see the growth in these peaceful pro-life protestors which the mainstream media can no longer ignore.

– Gregory Paul Michael Hartnell, Editor

Concerned Citizens’ Coalition Weblog

BC March for Life 2010 and Salmon are Sacred: A tale of two peaceful ‘pro-life’ protest rallies in Victoria

I somehow managed to get to the tail end of two important protest rallies at the Leg recently, Alexandra Morton and friends’ Salmon are Sacred rally for wild Pacific salmon, and the B. C. March for Life 2010, primarily concerned with abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide.

In my interconnected, holistic world-view, these two rallies are both ‘pro-life,’ although many in the former movement might deny it for fear of negative connotations associated with that label, and being associated with abortion clinic bombers; and many in the latter movement might not recognize their brothers and sisters in the environmental movement as being part of the solution for future life on this coast because of legitimate concern for job losses.

Nevertheless, there are similarities and differences between the two movements that are instructive for critical analysis.

The first thing I noticed at the salmon rally was the sheer size, age and cultural make-up of the crowd.  There were up to 5,000 of us (according to the estimate of one Victoria Police officer), we were predominantly what could only be described as ‘boomers’ (although there were all age groups represented, of course), and most of the crowd were Caucasian, with a few hundred aboriginal people. 

The Salmon are Sacred rally was well publicized by a number of different groups, with different posters and even different names for the same event.  The advance publicity was actually better than the follow-up coverage in the mainstream media, as far as I could tell.

Many passionate speeches were made, some were self-congratulatory, some were self-serving, and others were frankly irrelevant to the issue at hand.

Anger, fault-finding, and a sense of betrayal were all themes of the speeches.

 It is unclear to me how all this negative energy can be transformed into something more positive, conciliatory and co-operative.

The B. C. March for Life 2010 rally was not so well publicized, and had a smaller, younger, but more diverse crowd.  For some reason, the signage at this rally seems curiously controlled by the Knights of Columbus, and there certainly was not as much creativity shown in the signage as could be found at the salmon rally. 

I saw no advance publicity for this event in the mainstream media, nor posters on kiosks downtown prior to the event.

 For the third year in a row, the organizers insisted on staging the event in the middle of the working week, thus depriving working people of the ability to attend.

I recognized  my friend and single fathers’ advocate and reggae singer Rejean, Roland Wauthy, James O’Reilly, Bishop Richard Gagnon of Victoria and Archbishop Miller of Vancouver in the crowd.

Priests with black suits and Roman collars, nuns in traditional garb, Knights in full regalia, and hundreds of young Asian students were everywhere.  

Indeed, the size of the youth contingent in the crowd was very noticable, and provided a sign of hope for old activists like me.

I don’t worry anymore about when the pro-life idea will prevail in our sick society, but I don’t expect my decadent ‘boomer’ generation to be leading the vanguard.

It is clear that the torch has already been passed by the older generation to the next in the pro-life camp, so there is great hope for eventual victory there.

But forty years after Earth Day 1970, and notwithstanding the large crowd at the salmon rally, I see little real evidence that the fervour of my generation for all things environmental is growing in a similar way.

Victoria Earth Day rally attendance is noticeably down from the glory days of the early nineties when crowds of 7,000 to 9,000 were not unusual.

In fact, if we are not vigilant, I see the whole green movement being co-opted and rendered impotent by nuclear energy fanatics selling that dangerous and costly technology as a supposed improvement over coal or petroleum, in terms of so-called ‘greenhouse gas emissions.’

The resurgence of this nuclear salesmanship activity is a very bad sign of the times, and has quite effectively already rendered the green movement asunder.

I pray that there will be a widening of compassion and concern in both movements for fetal and geriatric rights, for bringing Canadian troops home from Afghanistan, for total nuclear disarmament, for continuing the ban on uranium mining and offshore drilling in B. C., for protecting old growth forests, endangered species and wild salmon.

I pray that we may all be united in our mutual loving concern for our own sacred human life and that of all God’s creatures, great and small.

Gregory Paul Michael Hartnell, Editor

Concerned Citizens’ Coalition Weblog

LA ROSA REVUE