Before being elected government in 2001, BC Liberals promised to appoint an independent inquiry into the “mismanagement of BC Ferries.” That promise, like many others made by Gordon Campbell, fell by the wayside. The primary reason was that the claim of mismanagement was myth not reality. The corporation had been
Continue readingAuthor: Norman Farrell
Northern Insight: Recognizing real radicals
Britt’s Patterns of national behavior and abuse of power #3: “Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause…” Bill C-38, Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist, May 9, 2012 “…Over the past few months, the environmental laws that protect our nation’s extraordinary natural legacy have been gutted,” [Peter] Robinson [CEO of the David
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Need we say more?
Link to The Michigan Messenger Be sure to read: Dare we trust Enbridge with BC coast?
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Chapter from Heller’s Catch-22 ?
A comment that speaks for itself from the article Kleptocracy – rule by thieves: “I installed a 10 kW wind turbine on my Okanagan property 3 years ago, buying into the BC government’s Live Smart/Green program. Imagine my surprise–as an independent power producer–when I was ineligible for the B.C. “incentive”
Continue readingNorthern Insight: American dichotomy
Mitt Romney is preparing for next week’s commencement speech at Liberty University. Appearance at an anti-evolution, anti-gay school rated America’s 535th best college by Forbes seems fitting for the GOP candidate since Washington Post is reporting that as a high school senior, Romney led a group that swarmed and assaulted
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Foreign leader compliments Canadians
Admiral General Aladeen of the North African nation of Wadiya speaking to CBC interviewer George Stroumboulopoulos: “I commend your leaders on silencing your media. For the last 10 years, I have not even heard a single noteworthy event happening in Canada. The people in Wadiya, they are very similar to
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Hypocrisy revealed
Federal Conservatives complain that environmental charities use money from outside Canada to campaign for effective regulation of energy industries. Contradicting the rhetoric, CRA records show that environmental groups are not the leading recipients of foreign sourced funding. Tories have been silent about the biggest recipients of alien contributions. However, egregious
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Kleptocracy: rule by thieves
BC Liberals claim to be the “free enterprise” party of British Columbia but scams in play at BC Hydro are not examples of free enterprise. These are old fashion economic frauds committed by amoral thieves who have been enabled and protected by docile and dishonest politicians. There have been a
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Jason Alexander considers joining the 99%
Jason Alexander Joins the 99% from Jason Alexander h/t Monica S.
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Demonstrating empty headed desperation
Yesterday, I noticed a small gem in Rod Smelser’s informative twitter stream: “BC Govt Communications & Public Engagement has budget of $26M for spin, Environmental Assessment Office, $9M. Sierra Club: B.C. Budget Risks Water, Environment“ Of course, Liberals spend much more on self promotion by tapping the budgets of individual
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Growing discomfort
This week, we learned that Stephen Harper, in Nixonian tradition, is using federal tax authorities to harass political opponents. From The Globe and Mail: “Tides Canada is having its charitable status audited by the Canada Revenue Agency in the midst of an attack by Conservative politicians who have branded it
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Krueger not near the worst
MLA Kevin Krueger’s unprompted outburst in the legislative hallway Wednesday lasted 10 minutes before Liberal Party staffers dragged him away from delighted reporters. Acting tired and emotional, Krueger may have been using the wrong glasses Wednesday morning. Certainly the ones he did use gave an extraordinarily wide angled image of the westcoast
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Record of lethargic indifference
Considering amounts extracted from taxpayers for BC Ferries brilliant management team, imagine the tab if they’d been competent and successful. David Hahn departed to enjoy one of the most costly pensions ever given a public servant in British Columbia. Behind, he left a faltering operation with declining ridership, mounting financial
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Message to Adrian Dix and all opposition MLA’s
I repeat the comment by scotty on Denman left this afternoon at BC Liberal closing out sale. It deserves to be featured and we must demand that Adrian Dix, John Horgan and every NDP opposition member, as well as independents Bob Simpson, John Van Dongen and Vicki Huntingdon, stand in
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Spread this story and these links
Ian Reid adroitly captures the question to be answered about BC Rail: “Why did the BC Liberals want to shut the trial down? What were they so afraid of that they would compromise the civil service, the administration of justice and maybe even the law to keep it out of
Continue readingNorthern Insight: BC Liberal closing out sale
Monday, I linked to Guardian columnist George Monbiot, a writer whose work I often find compelling. He said: “Since the 1980s, in Britain, the US and other nations, the primary mission of governments has been to grant their sponsors in the private sector ever greater access to public money and
Continue readingNorthern Insight: A false notion of the purpose and end of law
A replay from June 2010 that seemed to me worth repeating because, after almost two years, Vaughn Palmer, the Vancouver Sun’s main pundit, finally noticed the BCR scandal keeps BC Liberals mired in rough and unpredictable terrain. Weekend is a time to reflect on broad issues and to search for
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Keeping corporate tyrants at bay
Freedom of information…, George Monbiot, The Guardian “Modern government could be interpreted as a device for projecting corporate power. Since the 1980s, in Britain, the US and other nations, the primary mission of governments has been to grant their sponsors in the private sector ever greater access to public money
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Not a story to be ignored, after all
The following conversation between the three voices of NW’s Trailing Edge from the Ledge was first reported at Northern Insight in October 2009. Today, the boys got to say what they really think about the blog world: Keith: “Vaughn called them nut cases in the past . . .” Vaughn:
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Verbal gymnastics? Maybe not
Fascism Anyone?, Dr. Laurence W. Britt, Free Inquiry Magazine, Council for Secular Humanism, Spring 2003 “…fascism’s principles are wafting in the air today, surreptitiously masquerading as something else, challenging everything we stand for. The cliché that people and nations learn from history is not only overused, but also overestimated; often
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