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OAK BAYNEWS
Wednesday, June 19, 2013 - OAK
EDITORIAL
BAY NEWS
Penny Sakamoto Group Publisher Kevin Laird Editorial Director Laura Lavin Editor Oliver Sommer Advertising Director
The OAK BAY NEWS is published by Black Press Ltd. | 818 Broughton St., Victoria, B.C. V8W 1E4 | Phone: 250-480-3239 • Fax: 250-386-2624 • Web: www.vicnews.com
OUR VIEW
Media photo-op just not enough When police and B.C’s anti-gang squad busted two of Greater Victoria’s “top-level” suspected drug traffickers recently, they held a press conference and laid out a large quantity of drugs and paraphernalia for photographers and news media to record. Public safety Police were proud to at risk with drug display their bounty, suspects at large saying it “dismantled (the suspect’s) ability to make money and create crime.” But much like a fishing expedition, the suspects were caught and released, like large trophy fish, back to society. The reason, police say, is to allow investigators time to establish a maximum number of criminal charges. Police further stated they are “concerned” that both ammunition and gun holsters were found, but no weapons. Can we surmise from this then, that these two “highest priority targets on Vancouver Island,” who supposedly operated their growop-come-drug storage operations in heavily populated neighbourhoods filled with families and children, are now out and about with weapons? Police admit the two suspects have a history of violent crime, drug trafficking and connections to organized drug crime in the Lower Mainland. How can the public have any confidence in our justice system, if, after the arrest of suspected criminals police say “represent the top of the food chain for the Greater Victoria area,” they are allowed to walk away – even if only temporarily and under a close watch? The police may have made a dent in their operations, but there is no doubt that these two highly organized, apparently successful drug dealers will be able to pick up where they left off with the help of lesser-known and lesswatched associates. The arrest of suspects at that level needs to be more than simply a photo-op for police. The public deserves to know that along with taking the drugs off the street, the people behind the drugs are off the street as well. What do you think? Give us your comments by e-mail: editor@oakbaynews.com or fax 250-386-2624. All letters must have a name and a telephone number for verification. The OAK BAY NEWS is a member of the British Columbia Press Council, a self-regulatory body governing the province’s newspaper industry. The council considers complaints from the public about the conduct of member newspapers. If talking with the editor or publisher does not resolve your complaint about coverage or story treatment, you may contact the B.C. Press Council. Your written concern, with documentation, should be sent to B.C. Press Council, 201 Selby St., Nanaimo, B.C. V9R 2R2. For information, phone 888-687-2213 or go to www.bcpresscouncil.org.
2009
What is ailing the B.C. NDP? Plenty After 34 NDP MLAs were sworn in into the open. While 13 caucus members were knifing their leader to continue a stretch of opposition for reasons they still can’t or won’t that will reach at least 16 years, articulate in public – a leader Adrian Dix took a glaring problem in itself few questions about his – the back room policy future. brainstorm revealed a The party’s provincial deeper malaise. council will meet June Among the “dream 21 to set the terms of tree” notions put forward reference for a review of in the workshop was the party’s dismal election “free” post-secondary performance, Dix told tuition and public transit, reporters. He repeated along with raising wages that his performance and lowering fees for won’t be spared, Tom Fletcher daycare. This isn’t a and ticked off some B.C. Views dream tree, it’s a money conventional wisdom tree. about the NDP campaign. Remember, this is the NDP’s Dix mentioned the alleged ruling body, not a high school lack of “negative” ads, the local “social justice” class or an Occupy campaigns (read candidates), the Vancouver squat. decreasing reliability of polls and, Showing a glimmer of adult when pressed, his surprise decision supervision, the workshop table to come out against the proposed on “equitable tax policy” even twinning of the TransMountain oil identified the problem. Its first pipeline. recommendation: “Increase our Like last week’s hysteria over economic and financial literacy to a tiny leak in that pipeline, these gain credibility.” are great sound bites for the short The “public ownership” table attention spans of the modern media. But they don’t explain much. really got radical. Scrap publicprivate partnerships, the basis of This all-powerful NDP provincial most government construction council is a case in point. A today. “Nationalize” independent glimpse into its inner workings power projects, in the Venezuelan was provided by a summary of an style of state seizure of private NDP policy development workshop assets. And perhaps most called “Imagine Our Future” that incredibly, tear up the trade was leaked by the B.C. Liberals in agreement between Saskatchewan, the final days of the campaign. Alberta and B.C. that harmonizes The workshop took place in transport truck regulations and so November 2010, coincidentally at the same provincial council meeting forth. In the real world, the four western where the revolt against former premiers met this week in Winnipeg. leader Carole James tumbled
And the three-province project now called “New West Partnership” will continue to dismantle archaic interprovincial barriers. Why would the NDP be secretly against that? Because it’s also a “labour mobility” agreement. This harkens back to a supposed golden age in Canada, when two corporate titans shared the beer business, producing identical bland lager from identical factories in identical stubby bottles. Inter-provincial trade in these stubbies was strictly forbidden, requiring each province to have a big unionized brewery to make uniformly bad beer for the proletariat. This is the power of a monopoly union. And because of it, this was how governments tried to “create jobs.” It’s a bygone era to which many core NDP supporters stubbornly cling. This explains the party’s revival of a “job protection commissioner” for forestry. Which brings us to the proverbial root cause of the B.C. NDP’s woes. Its largest financial donor is the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union, which donated $1.4 million to the party in the past eight years, nosing out the Canadian Union of Public Employees and the Hospital Employees’ Union. Former HEU and BCGEU presidents now sit in the NDP caucus, critics for health and “green” jobs respectively. Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press and BCLocalnews.com
‘The back room policy brainstorm revealed a deeper malaise.’