Ethically challenged plutocrat
SNC-Lavalin CEO resigns after review, Globe and Mail Report on Business, March 26, 2012 SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. has announced the departure of chief executive officer Pierre Duhaime amid allegations he…
Norman Farrell
Obama now leader of the not-free world
Chris Hedges writes: “The NDAA implodes our most cherished constitutional protections. It permits the military to function on U.S. soil as a civilian law enforcement agency. It authorizes the executive…
Something is rotten in the state of PavCo
The government’s fiscal year ends in a few days so here’s a suggestion for more accurate financial reports in BC. Add a separate line item for “Fraud, Theft & Abuse.”…
OK to shoot a disarmed and badly injured man in the head
Paul Boyd August 13 2007, 39-year-old Paul Boyd, a successful animator who suffered bipolar disorder, created a disturbance on Granville Street. When police arrived, he struggled with them, reportedly armed…
Winners win, losers lose
The Age of Double Standards, Robert Kuttner, The American Prospect, March 19, 2012 “…Petty felons and 200,000 small-time drug users do prison time, while corporate criminals whose frauds cost the…
Premier Photo Op is a compulsive liar
Premier Christy Clark calls for an audit of TransLink over Evergreen Line, Mike Raptis, The Province, March 22, 2012 “Premier Christy Clark is calling for an audit to TransLink to…
Lewis Black & Co. – funny stuff !
The BBC News Quiz gets a US makeover with an all-American panel. With the US election this year, turmoil in the Middle East, financial insecurity all around – not to…
White racism alive and well in USA
Overt racism that disgusted so many of us in the fifties and sixties is not tolerated in most circles today. An exception though involves the American world of right wing…
Toothless media accommodates political fraud
In 2006, Rafe Mair wrote News Media, Defanged for The Tyee. It included the headline: “Politicians, not too long ago, feared the press.” Of course misreants particularly feared Rafe Mair…
Read The Real Story, then get mad, stay mad
Stay mad until every single BC Liberal politician is sent home in disgrace. If any single situation demonstrates conclusively that BC Liberals continue to hide from the truth, this is…
Get mad, then get involved
From John Macfarlane’s Editor’s Note at The Walrus Magazine: THE SOLILOQUY Paddy Chayefsky wrote for the character Howard Beale in the 1976 film Network still resonates today: “…I want you…
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose
I grew up informed and amused by Vancouver’s great editorial cartoonists Len Norris and Roy Peterson. At home, there is an original Norris on the wall, purchased at a 1981…
Canadians: too polite, too passive?
One more example of price gouging that faces Canadians every day. Live in Point Roberts WA, pay Amazon $76.39. Live two kilometres north in Tsawwassen BC, pay Amazon $149.99 for…
OHWTO
Phil Hochstein and his Independent Contractors and Businesses Association have had a symbiotic relationship with British Columbia’s governing party for more than a decade. ICBA provides financing and political support;…
Did BC taxpayers finance American TV ?
American cable TV producers moved taping of three of 18 episodes of Bravo’s Top Chef: Texas to British Columbia. That may seem unlikely because of the high costs of transporting…
Smile
Henning Wehn, German Comedy Ambassador to the United Kingdom, on Britain’s social classes: “Life in Britain is all about knowing your place. The lower class has a lot in common…
Open, accountable government, BC Liberal style
B.C. Lottery Corp. seeks reversal of document order, CBC News, March 15, 2011 “The Financial Transactions Reports Analysis Centre (Fintrac), the federal money laundering watchdog, hit BCLC in 2010 with…
Deep down, she is shockingly shallow
Game Change, an HBO movie about the 2008 McCain / Palin campaign is more about éminence grise Steve Schmidt than the Senator or his running mate. A central element is…
Might makes right
Far right commentators tell us that government should remove itself from every possible sector of the country’s economy. For example, the Fraser Institute, an organization that cares for interests of…
How much have Wall Street and banks changed?
Not much, according to Greg Smith, a London based Goldman Sachs’ executive director who is leaving with a loud message to the public. He contributed an Op-Ed to the New…