Gross-Misconduct Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 This political maneuver by the BC Liberals was so transparent that I'm quite surprised that they would forge ahead with it. Then again, it's Christy's inept gang of Liberals, so I should never be surprised at what lengths they will go to remain in power. Even if it means staging a phony awards show at the cost of $9.5 million tax dollars. Quick synopsis : BC Liberals could not get the real show till after the election so they made up a phony one for $9.5 million. B.C. government wanted Bollywood awards show held before election, official says Andy Hoffman and Marsha Lederman VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail Published Friday, Mar. 15 2013, 8:00 AM EDT Last updated Friday, Mar. 15 2013, 7:33 PM EDT A government team requested that a multimillion-dollar Bollywood awards show to be held in Vancouver and funded by the province take place before the election, according to an official with the company that owns and operates the event. Sabbas Joseph, a spokesman for the International Indian Film Academy Awards, said provincial government officials made a “request that was almost a demand” that the glitzy awards take place ahead of the provincial election scheduled for May 14. “We were very clear that it wouldn’t happen before the election,” Mr. Joseph, a founding director of Wizcraft International Entertainment, said in an interview from Mumbai. An official with the Premier’s office denied that Ms. Clark or anyone from the Jobs Ministry asked that the International Indian awards take place before the election. The Premier was involved in discussions with academy officials during her 2011 trade mission to India, but did not engage “beyond those initial discussions,” the official said. The province’s International Indian bid was rejected because “it was not in line with the cash requirement,” he added. In Victoria, Thursday, the government released a report conducted by the Premier’s deputy minister, John Dyble, on the ethnic voter outreach scandal. It found that senior officials breached the public service code of conduct and misused up to $70,000 worth of government resources for partisan purposes in a scheme to attract ethnic voters to the B.C. Liberal Party. In response to the report, Ms. Clark said her party was repaying the money to the province and that the former minister for multiculturalism, John Yap, would not return to cabinet. Three officials connected to the scandal have left the government so far. Mr. Joseph said that when the International Indian Film Academy refused to shift the timing of its annual event – which is widely regarded as the world’s premier international Bollywood awards show – from its usual date in June, the province offered just $5-million in funding. When the International Indian Film Academy event was held in Toronto in 2011, the cost to the Ontario government was $12-million. In B.C., the provincial government subsequently agreed to host the inaugural edition of the rival Times of India Film Awards, which will receive $9.5-million in government funding and will be staged in Vancouver during the weekend of April 6. The Times of India group was “responsible for the timeline,” for its awards, according to the Premier’s office and an official with the event. According to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail as well as accounts from Mr. Joseph and provincial government bureaucrats, officials from the Ministry of Jobs held talks with International Indian organizers as early as the summer of 2011, ahead of a trip by the Premier to India in November, 2011. A draft version of a memo of understanding between the province and Wizcraft indicates that the International Indian event would take place in June and the government would provide $15-million in funding. Mr. Joseph said both sides were close to an agreement on most points with the exception of funding, “when the push began for April.” When Wizcraft held firm that the International Indian date would not change, he said “that’s when the funding fell. And then from a high level of interest, it became a low level of interest … It was apparent that they wanted us to reject it.” Mr. Joseph said the government never explicitly said it wanted to hold a Bollywood awards event to gain support from the South Asian community, but “they wanted to clearly celebrate the South Asian community, which is … the same thing as wanting to woo the South Asian community.” However, a government bureaucrat, familiar with the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the Times of India event was chosen over the International Indian event, “because the timing was more applicable for the government’s agenda. They didn’t want to have an event that was after the election.“ The bureaucrat said this “was documented in e-mails. Direction was given from above to the negotiating team that they wanted the IIFA awards moved to a date in April.” Vivek Savkur, the president of the B.C. chapter of the Canada-India Business Council, who helped broker the deal between the province and the Times of India awards, after previously attempting to broker a deal between International Indian and the province, said the government chose the timing of the Times of India event. “We said we can do it any time,“ Mr. Savkur said in an interview. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Common sense Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Oh look another elections thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SterlingArcher Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 ha! Gheeeeeeeeeeeyyyyy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gross-Misconduct Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 Oh look another elections thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Common sense Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 Lol, the truth kinda sucks, dont it? Don't worry. I'm sure your Christy just might make herself available for a photo op that night. Its all good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dion Phaneuf Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 IIFA is the biggie...Christy screwed up (she would've gotten her votes if IIFA was confirmed before the election). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gross-Misconduct Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 So spamming the forum with repetitive threads that could all be condensed into one "BC Elections 2013" thread is ok? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Common sense Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 This story was published in today's Globe And Mail. How is it spam? Because it makes the BC Liberals look bad....again? Is that the criteria? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gross-Misconduct Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 This phony Bollywood awards show is gonna cost the tax payers $9.5 million dollars. The article clearly demonstrates how the BC government threw away their bid for the real awards show because they could not get it before the election. The BC Liberals contend that they spent all this money for the good of BC. But it is becoming clearer every day as more information is gathered, that the BC Liberals wanted this awards show to curry favor with the voters of BC, not for any altruistic purpose. So they created a phony Bollywood awards show to be held before the election. And now the awards show is a few weeks away. You might not like it, I don't think any Liberal supporter will, but it is news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Newsflash Posted March 16, 2013 Share Posted March 16, 2013 This phony Bollywood awards show is gonna cost the tax payers $9.5 million dollars. The article clearly demonstrates how the BC government threw away their bid for the real awards show because they could not get it before the election. The BC Liberals contend that they spent all this money for the good of BC. But it is becoming clearer every day as more information is gathered, that the BC Liberals wanted this awards show to curry favor with the voters of BC, not for any altruistic purpose. So they created a phony Bollywood awards show to be held before the election. And now the awards show is a few weeks away. You might not like it, I don't think any Liberal supporter will, but it is news. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gross-Misconduct Posted March 16, 2013 Author Share Posted March 16, 2013 heh Any Bollywood awards show without Salman Khan IS phony. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gross-Misconduct Posted March 29, 2013 Author Share Posted March 29, 2013 Christy Clark is not good at running the province but I thought campaign propaganda was her thing. Seems like people are clearly seeing through this one. Abbotsford Independent: Awards show a waste of taxpayer money VANCOUVER/CKNW (AM980) Shane Woodford | Email news tips to shane.woodford@corusent.com 3/29/2013 The independent candidate in Abbotsford West is demanding the Liberal government return the taxpayer money used to bring the Times of India Film awards to BC. Moe Gill says the 11 million dollars of taxpayer money used to bring the first ever Indian film awards to BC is ethnic pandering at its worst. "I think that, that is the taxpayers money and I think if they were going to have a show such as that, the film awards, I am sure that the producers of that who are going to bring the movie stars and actresses over they certainly coul d have raised enough to have the show and have the show done privately that the taxpayer putting the money up." Gill says people in the Indo-Canadian community in Abbotsford are simply not buying in to the awards show. "And you know what they said we are not going to go to the show, not going to buy any tickets and go, because this is our taxpayer money and spent wrongly." Gill says the awards show goes hand in hand with the recent ethnic outreach scandal. "Well it certainly it certainly is, look at the timing of it, the timing is the timing of the election." Gill says support for the Liberals in his riding is plummeting. "Well the people are very upset with the Liberals and I don't think the Liberals are going to get strong support in the city of Abbotsford at least." He also took a shot at his former friend and now rival in the riding, Mike de Jong, saying the finance minister is about to go on spending spree in the riding in bid to get re-elected. http://www.cknw.com/news/vancouver/story.aspx?ID=1924174 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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