Premier Christy Clark apologizes

[Wetcoaster]

Much ado about nothing in respect of the ethnic vote memo scandal... all parties do it.

And who would know better than former BC NDP Premier (and former federal Liberal cabinet minister) Ujjal Dosanjh.

I have known Ujjal since the mid-1970's and he is one of the the guys who tells it like it is. When he was Attorney General he refused to provide legal cover for Glen Clark during Casinogate and basically told him resign or else. That earned him the undying enmity of the Clarkites like Dix, Lalli and Sihota.

Former New Democrat premier Ujjal Dosanjh says the ethnic vote-winning debate that has hammered the B.C. Liberals and forced them to issue numerous apologies is nauseating, sanctimonious and holier-than-thou.

Dosanjh, who was also a former federal Liberal cabinet minister, says the only real problem with the leaked B.C. Liberal ethnic strategy is its calls to co-ordinate operations between taxpayer funded government workers and B.C. Liberal Party operatives when it comes to courting ethnic voters.

Otherwise, Dosanjh says the scandal that has forced Clark’s former deputy chief of staff and her multiculturalism minister to resign and prompted an internal review is much ado about nothing.

Dosanjh says all political parties — the Liberals, New Democrats and federal Conservatives — engage in what he calls pandering for votes, and this pandering heats up as elections near.

In 1999, Dosanjh, known for his strong views in B.C.’s politically active Sikh community, became Canada’s first Indo-Canadian politician to lead a political party when he succeeded former NDP premier Glen Clark.

Dosanjh says he completely opposes political parties issuing apologies to multicultural groups for historical injustices, calling them phoney.

http://www.theprovince.com/life/Ujjal+Dosanjh+calls+debate+around+ethnic+vote+scandal+nauseating/8071360/story.html#ixzz2N0xdeg00

But hey what would Ujjal Dosanjh know about such things, eh?

[Gross-Misconduct]

Great article by Vaugh Palmer. It clearly demonstrates the smoke and mirrors show the BC Liberals are performing in the BC legislature.

click the link for the full article

http://www.vancouver...4016/story.html

Vaughn Palmer: Time for a deeper look into why Premier Christy Clark’s office has no records to produce

Haakstad proceeded to justify the lack of written record on the Boessenkool departure by insisting that was standard operating procedure.

“The general practice within the office of the premier is to communicate verbally in person,” she told investigators, according to the information commissioner’s report on that and other matters released Monday.

“Email communications usually consist of requests to make telephone calls or meet in person. Generally, staff members in the office of the premier do not make substantive communication relating to business matters via email.”

Even where they do resort to electronic communication, “most of the emails are transitory in nature and are deleted once a permanent record, such as a calendar entry, is created.”

Did the deputy chief of staff have any email exchange with Boessenkool on this matter? “Ms. Haakstad believes that there would have been email communications between her and the former chief of staff during the relevant period, but these emails would have been transitory in nature and were deleted before the access request was received.”

As to what constitutes “transitory” communications, those were said to include missives of “temporary usefulness” such as: “Drafts. Phone messages. A meeting request. Copy of an incoming letter to the premier. Only required for a limited time or for preparation for an ongoing record. Not required to meet statutory obligations or to sustain administrative functions.”

“In general, the office of the premier possesses very little non-transitory information, particularly email,” the investigators were assured: “The office of the premier is a small public body whose functions are administrative in nature. It does not deliver programs, develop legislation or write briefing notes. Therefore, it does not create most of the categories of records that ministries create.”

So, to recap: Nothing of a substantive nature gets written down in the premier’s office in the first place. Business is conducted orally and in person. Email is used only for minor matters and those are sent to the electronic dumpster straightaway.

Such was the story told by Haakstad to the investigators on Feb. 6. Now contrast that with the way of doing business in the premier’s office that was on display three weeks later, when the New Democrats tabled the multicultural strategy.

The 17-page strategy was distributed by Haakstad herself to a number of government insiders via email. It laid out how public servants and Liberal political staff should work together to reach out to various ethnic communities, then bend those efforts to boost the re-election chances of the Liberal party.

In short, it was a detailed and ambitious set of marching orders on a major matter of public policy — precisely the sort of thing that was supposedly never produced in written form in the premier’s office, according to what the investigators were told by Clark’s official representative.

But the strategy does exist, along with a covering note that explains how the inner circle tried to escape public scrutiny for their efforts on behalf of the premier and party. It was distributed outside the government email server via a network of personal accounts maintained by everyone on the premier’s distribution list.

The practice of using personal emails for surreptitious public policy-making has occasionally been revealed through earlier leaks. But the ethnic outreach emails provide the most extensive documentation of the practice in a case linked directly to the office of the premier. They also directly contradict the “nothing in writing” assurances provided by Clark’s office just weeks before the leak.

One can only hope Denham seizes this opportunity to reopen her investigation, this time focusing on the use and abuse of the back channel as a way of making public policy while avoiding public scrutiny.

[Common sense]

That pretty much sums up the space between Christy Clark's ears.

[Common sense]

Conservative policies: Canada's wealthiest province cuts deep as Alberta embraces austerity.

Do you really believe the things you say sometimes? Like this time?

[Lockout Casualty]

Occupy

Maple Spring

Idle No More

That realm of stupidity is just within the last 1.5 years.

I could cite even more local examples like Mayor Moonbeam, the BCCLA getting butthurt over everything in life, and whatever's going on with the career protesters outside Pidgin. Further back, think UBC's KnollAid 2.0 incident in April 2008.

It's the left that whines and cries for "equality" at the expense of everyone else.

[Harbinger]

Much ado about nothing in respect of the ethnic vote memo scandal... all parties do it.

And who would know better than former BC NDP Premier (and former federal Liberal cabinet minister) Ujjal Dosanjh.

I have known Ujjal since the mid-1970's and he is one of the the guys who tells it like it is. When he was Attorney General he refused to provide legal cover for Glen Clark during Casinogate and basically told him resign or else. That earned him the undying enmity of the Clarkites like Dix, Lalli and Sihota.

Former New Democrat premier Ujjal Dosanjh says the ethnic vote-winning debate that has hammered the B.C. Liberals and forced them to issue numerous apologies is nauseating, sanctimonious and holier-than-thou.

Dosanjh, who was also a former federal Liberal cabinet minister, says the only

real problem with the leaked B.C. Liberal ethnic strategy is its calls to co-ordinate operations between taxpayer funded government workers and B.C. Liberal Party operatives when it comes to courting ethnic voters.

Otherwise, Dosanjh says the scandal that has forced Clark’s former deputy chief of staff and her multiculturalism minister to resign and prompted an internal review is much ado about nothing.

Dosanjh says all political parties — the Liberals, New Democrats and federal Conservatives — engage in what he calls pandering for votes, and this pandering heats up as elections near.

In 1999, Dosanjh, known for his strong views in B.C.’s politically active Sikh community, became Canada’s first Indo-Canadian politician to lead a political party when he succeeded former NDP premier Glen Clark.

Dosanjh says he completely opposes political parties issuing apologies to multicultural groups for historical injustices, calling them phoney.

http://www.theprovin...l#ixzz2N0xdeg00

But hey what would Ujjal Dosanjh know about such things, eh?

[Wetcoaster]

That's exactly the problem as I stated from the beginning. That and trying to hide this by using private emails to try and avoid the FOIA. Those are the issues. Who cares if they were trying to court ethnic groups. The fact that they ran their campaign strategy using public money is a huge issue.

[Harbinger]

And as Dosanjh says... much ado about nothing.

[Wetcoaster]

As for the ethnic part, that's a big yes. The rest not so much. Her people aren't resigning and going against her because of the courting. They are backing away from her because of the look of impropriety and what seems to be just the beginning of what could be something much larger. A strategy to misuse public funds. Even the foxes know when it's time to get the heck out of the chicken coop for fear of getting stuck in the farmers crosshairs.

[Harbinger]

You are familiar how Adrian Dix ran the illegal operation against recall actually using government resources and denied any involvment unti outed by an NDP filed operative. Note the difference between proposed and actual.

[Wetcoaster]

I'm not talking about Adrian Dix. I'm talking about Christy Clark and the Liberals. She and her scandal plagued party created the issue we are talking about. No one is mentioning Adrian Dix in this scandal because he had no part in it. This was all Christy Clark and her party.

[Harbinger]

Of course you are not talking about Dix because he did actually did what the BC Liberals MIGHT have done so it is most inconvenient for NDP supporters. What Dix did was not only unethical it was also illegal.

And as Ujjal says, the same thing goes on across party lines.

[Wetcoaster]

Everyone knows what Dix did. It was scrutinized and deliberated against over a decade ago. This is a new issue that has come to light and it has new authors. I don't know where the difficulty is in understanding this issue is present day. That is unless rather than trying to discuss this topic you are just trying to campaign with your responses. Anyone can find out what happened with Dix, it's all out there for public consumption. This problem with the liberals has just come to light and the facts are only now becoming known to the public which is why the thread was created.

If Ujjal wants to offer up some information he is free to do that. Perhaps he can open up a can of worms for the NDP and a new topic could be started for that when it happens. Till then it's just talk on his part.

[Harbinger]

Talk from someone who actually knows what goes on.

The whole point of these threads is to persuade people to vote for the NDP. I provide balance, facts, insight and a historical perspective having actually lived through the past NDP debacles.

And BTW I have never been a member of the BC Liberal Party.

In politics you do not have to be great just better than the other guy and based upon past history of the BC NDP, the BC LIberals in terms of lack of ethics, scandal, corruption and illegality trail the BC NDP by a wide margin.

IMHO the historical record of the BC NDP (and Adrian Dix in particular) in such matters is highly relevant.

[Wetcoaster]

Strange, I'm pretty sure I read the topic title and the topic and nowhere in it did it sound like a campaign speech but rather it sounded like it was pointing out the discretion of a particular leader and its party. That isn't campaigning. That's breaking News.

The whole point of this thread is not to vote anything. I am much more for liberals voting for conservatives in their ridings. I think that would be a much better situation for NDP'ers. But that's just my opinion of how I would prefer the voting to go which is not what this thread is about so I must digress and move onto it's actual topic.

Is there going to be a point where Pamela Martin is going to come out in front of the cameras and speak to what she knew and why it was all done? Any hopes of her returning to News reporting seem to be behind her now. But Since Bill Good is her husband what kind of fiery response will be waiting for him after his return from his vacation on CKNW?

[Sapper]

Then we have differing interpretations.

I go with mine.

[Wetcoaster]

As you have stated - you have your own interpretation and will stick with it - fantastic. Now would you please provide other posters with the same right?

[nucklehead]

Just wanted to bump this cause there's not enough Christy threads at the top of the page.

[Gross-Misconduct]

Just wanted to bump this cause there's not enough Christy threads at the top of the page.

[Wetcoaster]

As Jon Ferry writes making the same point as Ujjal Dosanjh - such strategies to target the ethnic vote cut across party lines at both the federal and provincial levels.

Unlike some B.C. commentators, I'm not shocked at all by the leaked "multicultural-strategy" document that's tearing apart what remains of the B.C. Liberal Party.

In fact, I'd be surprised if the office of a natural-born politician like Premier Christy Clark were not involved in blurring the lines between Liberal Party business and that of the B.C. government — especially over covert schemes to court ethnic groups.

The same could be said about opposition leader Adrian Dix and the NDP. Politicians of all stripes have been bending the rules to toady up to "ethnic minorities" for years.

It's all done under the leaky umbrella of multiculturalism, the theory that people of different races and backgrounds live best together by being encouraged — and even bribed — by government to retain their distinct ethnic heritages.

I don't think it works. And the main reason is that it pigeonholes people into racial boxes, viewing them through an "ethnic lens," rather than in terms of their common humanity, common needs and common responsibilities.

As government policy, multiculturalism dates to the Trudeau era of the early 1970s. But it has always seemed to me something that divides Canadians rather than unites them — inflaming rather than defusing racism.

Certainly, government multicultural propaganda tends to be sickeningly patronizing. And I'm one immigrant who finds it offensive to be asked about my ethnic identity on my government's census form.

But then the spectacle of taxpayer-funded politicians sucking up to ethnic communities at "multicultural events" — as outlined in the Liberals' Multicultural Strategic Outreach Plan — has always seemed phoney.

So does watching mainstream political leaders apologize for ethnic "historical wrongs" that happened years before they were even born.

Indeed, I heartily concur with a suggestion by former Kwantlen instructor Ray Arnold that we stop calling ourselves Chinese-Canadian, Japanese-Canadian or Italian-Canadian ... and just call ourselves Canadian.

And if we must use a hyphenated label, let's at least reverse it and talk of Canadian-Chinese, Canadian-Japanese or Canadian-Italian.

"Even such a simple adjustment might have a profound effect on not only the ways in which we view and interact with each other, but also on the manner in which we participate in the culture-building experiment we are all part of," Arnold said in a letter to the Richmond News.

Award-winning Richmond community leader Balwant Sanghera told me Thursday that immigrants should, of course, be proud of their heritage. But they should be equally or even more proud to be Canadians — and should learn at least one of Canada's official languages.

This doesn't, in my view, mean that we have to become a U.S.-style "melting pot." But we need to stop drooling over the supposed virtues of the "cultural mosaic." After all, what's important about a mosaic isn't the small coloured pieces that make it up, but how well they fit together.

No, the good thing about "Ethnic-Gate," the Liberals' multicultural document scandal, is that it's finally exposed ethnocentric B.C. politicking for what it really is — a particularly virulent form of pandering.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Phoney+cultural+focus+limited+Liberals/8067548/story.html#ixzz2N6gJWg00