Obfuscated Thoughtlessness Inversed

It wasn't guilt or astonishment I felt, as I biked home after the bar, past the Emergency Shelter.

Shame? Angst? Fear? These don't quite describe the feeling either. Just a flicker in my gut as I saw the half dozen folks within a block, in sleeping bags outside and under doorways. It isn't a lack of compassion just a numbness from seeing it every day in downtown Victoria. Two of these people were camped in separate doorways of the shelter itself.

It wasn't until after I stopped at the Canadian branded Wendy's, ate a rainbow glazed donut and after I cycled past the hockey rink at CFB Esquimalt and saw all the activity (keep reading) that my pilot light of feeling grew to an all out flame I recognized.

The feeling by then was unmistakable. It was anger. I was downright mad. I took it easy then, road slowly up the railway tracks (for those of you not from the island, don't worry, even in my semi-sober state it would be hard to get hit by a train that only runs because the Canadian constitution says it must and even then it only comes by once in each direction per day during the busy season). I'd never been up this section of the tracks. I really haven't spent that much time in my parent's home in View Royal, where I moved back to, two days after quitting my Aussie job and leaving that country for what I thought would be a short period of unemployment and eating the parental cooking. Maybe that's what people think when they move on to the street in the first place. "I won't be here long." I am very lucky I have my parents to stay with.

You see, I live in a city where the regular shelter is so full we built an Emergency Shelter 10 years ago down the block. This shelter has been so full since before it even opened, that when I worked on databases around the place, 8 years ago, one of the most important projects was on how to individually identify the homeless in a way that determined who was staying in the emergency shelter beyond the maximum 3 nights per month.

My friend who is doing a social work practicum at a day drop-in centre writes that there have been six deaths amongst the street community since he started in early-January. That's about a death a week.

I started Jack Layton's book Homelessness last weekend. I read half of it in a single night, but then I didn't pick it up again. I just haven't finished it and it is this inaction that makes me the most angry. It isn't that I haven't tried to help. I lived on the lawn of the legislature in a camp of the homeless, dubbed Camp Campbell, for nearly a month in February 2002. But, like the camp's name sake and his latest budget yesterday, I am too much talk and not enough action:

"Rather than making a long-term investment in housing for the homeless, this government’s solution is to create more shelter beds – temporary beds that do not provide the homeless with a place to call their own."

In front of me on the screen are postings for jobs working at the Cool Aid shelter. I'm not working and I haven't been for a couple of months. Its been a peaceful and healthy time in my life. I've had time for much reflection and stoking of the burning fire in my belly (and the creation of this blog). I don't know why I haven't applied yet, I've known about these postings for almost as long as I've been unemployed. It isn't like I'm collecting some kind of benefits -- just temporarily retired on credit.

That anger though, it kept growing. The burning in my belly is unbearable as I write this. The knowledge that it takes more money to house people in substandard emergency shelters than a real home. That the federal government is giving you the chance to rate your top five budget priorities:

a) Debt
b) Spending
c) Personal Tax
d) Corporate Tax
e) Other

Ok, so that wasn't the order I chose, but did it matter? I realized when I filled it out it probably didn't. What I meant by spending was more. When Flaherty reads the statistical summary of my submission he isn't going to be motivated to raise taxes and spend more. When I put Corporate tax anywhere in the list he is going to take that as a vote to cut them, despite my comments.

While the military is buying laser guided killing devices for $40 million and 80 new tanks the social deficit in this country is growing crazily. As I cycled by CFB Esquimalt up the tracks, bumpy bump, the military port was running full steam ahead. It was past three am and there were lights, dry-docked ships, workers and a helicopter. This is where our federal taxes our going and I'm pissed about it.

We need more than just emergency shelters, we need the kind of thinking that realizes that money spent killing people in Afghanistan doesn't make it safer for the people dieing on the streets of Victoria.

Labels: alternatives, bc ndp, bcmedia, leftist content creation, ndp, opinion, personal story, shilling

With a speech from the throne and the crack of an enabling act, the BC Legislature is back. It only took three seasons, made up of the normal two month hiatus for winter, a four month "cancellation" because democracy makes the Liberals look bad often called autumn, and the regularly scheduled four months off for summer before that. Finally, we have a democratic legislature in session once again.

And, fancy that, it looks like Gordon Campbell has gone from being a drunk driver to a hybrid driver. No idling limousine outside for Campbell, I guess no one told the Lieutenant Governor about the contents of the speech she was about to read. She still idled her limo outside the legislature while she read it.

My favourite quote in response to the throne speech has to be:

"I'm pleased that the speech mentions climate change, but one has to wonder why the premier is suddenly embracing his Inner Eco-Warrior when his government has paid virtually no attention to this area," says CUPE BC president Barry O'Neill.

That comes from this press release. Here's another gem from the CUPE BC release and O'Neill:

"Once again, like last year, there are platitudes about 'unacceptable' homelessness, but no recognition that it's the government's own policies and cutbacks that have led to the crisis in Vancouver and other cities. They talk about 'sunshine legislation' for school district companies' business practices. Maybe they should consider 'sunshine legislation' for their own public-private partnership agenda, which is notorious for its secrecy."

Meanwhile, talk of the future of BC was the hot criticism of Campbell's hot air filled throne speech. After cutting $50 million from Child-Care the question had to be asked, why is Gordon Campbell seriously jeopardizing the future of BC by putting the lives of BC's youngest last on the priority list. Items like this from today's headlines really bring the point home: For today's family, time's not on their side [as] hectic schedules, longer work weeks contribute to less togetherness than in 80s and Canada mediocre about child welfare.

This BCGEU press release hammers the point home so many times you could have built it into a house:

"Gordon Campbell has done nothing to restore the cuts to child care let alone provide funds to improve the system," said George Heyman, BCGEU president. While the government talks about communities being caring places for children, the government says nothing about improving our child care system. They have the money to improve and expand child care. The premier’s own Progress Board, parents, and others have all said that the improvements are necessary."

Now, I don't want to hear any whining about how it was the federal Liberal government that didn't get re-elected that resulted in the $50 million not being available either. Dion had 10 years and his Liberal buddies had 3 more to deliver on the child-care promise they made in 1993. The money never arrived. period. end of story. You lost the election and you never delivered on the child-care promise. Let's refresh, in 1993 that promise was:

"Quality, accessible child care is an economic advantage for Canada...The objective of the Liberal policy on child care is to create genuine choices for parents. A Liberal government, working with the provinces, will implement a realistic and fiscally responsible program to increase the number of child care spaces in Canada." - from The Red Book, 1993 via Voices for child care Canada

And, when those same Red Book Liberals presided over the largest cuts to social programs in Canadian history the BC NDP government protected those same social programs by cutting elsewhere. The Campbell Liberals instead are running a surplus and cutting the $50 million.

So this leaves it up to the NDP to hold the government accountable and get results. It looks like they are up to the challenge:

“It’s clear that Gordon Campbell read the climate change plan put forward by B.C.’s New Democrats,” said James. “The question now for British Columbians is can they trust Gordon Campbell to deliver. Every year, Gordon Campbell picks a new priority for his Throne Speech and every year he fails to deliver. Last year, Gordon Campbell’s priority was health care, but 12 months later all B.C. saw was more cuts, longer ER waits, and hallway medicine.

Stay tuned to your local parliamentary channel, for the full response to the throne speech, by the NDP official opposition, later, today.

Labels: alternatives, bc ndp, bcmedia, democracy, environment, green isn't just a colour it's an imperative, health, leftist content creation, ndp, opinion, union

It isn't that the provincial police used in Ontario, Newfoundland and Quebec are any better than the RCMP. However, the enforcement of the criminal code is jurisdictionally a provincial matter in Canada. Why is it that the BC Attorney General continues to pretend he has no control over the policing of our province.

The BC office of the Police Complaints Commissioner has had a rocky ride since its inception nearly ten years ago. A limiting budget and a more limited mandate from the start got much worse when the courts over ruled the first significant Public Hearing into the riot at the Hyatt. I remember the police's actions that night vividly and a public hearing was absolutely warranted. The courts however, stated that the commissioner acted without jurisdiction in calling for a hearing. Although Commissioner Morrison was eventually successful in overturning this ruling, 4 years had now passed since the incident. Morrison himself was finished as commissioner long before there was a final outcome. Now, a series of suggestions for improving the complaints process have been brought forward by Justice Wood.

From Opininon 250:

• Strengthening the oversight powers of the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner (OPCC) to ensure that serious complaints are properly investigated and resolved.
• Shifting from the current model where the OPCC oversees a complaint after police have investigated it, to contemporaneous oversight where the OPCC can be involved throughout the handling of a complaint. This would involve the use of new software to track complaints across all municipal police departments.
• Increasing the police complaint commissioner's powers to include the ability to provide advice or direction to a police department during an investigation; the power to issue guidelines that are binding on police; and statutory responsibility to monitor non-lodged or oral complaints (complaints made by a member of the public who does not want to commit the complaint to writing).
• Compelling police by law to co-operate both with internal and external investigators, including providing a statement and submitting to an interview. Failure to co-operate would constitute a new category of discreditable conduct under the Code of Professional Conduct regulation.

Of course, no Canadian can forget how much worse the RCMP's Public Complaints Commission is. Their handling of the complaints related to the injured protesters at APEC will go down in history as a massive blunder almost as bad as the actions of the RCMP in the first place.

For those of you who don't live in British Columbia, or who do and don't follow policing jurisdiction closely, I should give some background. The RCMP is a federal police force reporting to the federal government. The BC Government and all but a few BC municipalities contract the RCMP to provide policing. This arrangement is used instead of provincial police forces in much of Canada. Cities like Surrey, Kamloops and Kelowna don't have their own police forces. Many smaller cities, districts and municipalities do, like Central Saanich and the District of Oak Bay. It gets weirder though, districts like the UBC endowment lands and the Naval Base at Esquimalt are policed by the RCMP on contract but surrounding areas like the Esquimalt municipality and the City of Vancouver have their own policing arrangements that don't include the RCMP. Federal legislation stops any kind of real oversite of the RCMP by the provincial governments, civilians or municipalities. However, the option exists to negotiate a new policing regime or simply do away with municipal and provincial policing duties by contract with the RCMP.

Today's call from the BC NDP Opposition that all communities should benefit from improvements to police complaints requires extending a new kind of civilian over-site to the majority of the province is one I hardily support. The RCMP can no longer operate by a different set of rules than the rest of the police in BC.

If Stockwell Day and the RCMP continue to insist they should have their own set of rules; then we should simply call their bluff and stop using the RCMP in BC.

Labels: alternatives, bc blogs, bc ndp, cons, copwatch, day, democracy, human rights abuse, link, ndp, opinion, rcmp