Farce At The Evergreen Theatre

The audience members at the Evergreen Theatre were perfect. They knew the whole presentation and response to questions on the future of the B.C. coastal ferry system was rubbish, farce, an edifice constructed in corporate fantasy-land. David C. Hahn ruined the evening. He kept showing he didn’t believe his own lines. He kept falling out of character. His "Canadian concern" didn’t work, ever. Most especially it failed when he claimed to know nothing about Gordon Campbell Liberal government lies, about the ravaging of B.C.’s humane services, about inland ferry operation in B.C., or the manipulation of the ferry reservations structure to (in fact) raise the cost of fares, or, in fact, anything else he didn’t want to come clean about. All that was bad enough. But he did it in a yankee accent, repeating phrases like “Ah caint say”, and “Ah caint answer that question”. “Be fair,” you might say; “a person can’t help his accent.” Except a strange feeling hung over the audience, and it solidified during the evening. This wasn’t a U.S. general saying, “Iraq will have U.S.-style capitalist democracy even if we have to kill everyone in Iraq to make it happen.” No. It was another kind of U.S. general saying: “British Columbia will have a U.S.-style, market economy, privatized ferry system that doesn’t work even if we have to destroy coastal communities to make it happen. ” That’s where all the humour, fun, and comedy of the farce disappeared. That’s where Hahn’s accent meant and mattered. He wasn’t hired because he was an expert on ferry operation. He wasn’t and isn’t. He wasn’t hired because he came from a five-star corporation with top integrity and results. No way. He was hired from a dubious, bankrupt U.S. corporation. He was hired for the reasons colonial-minded people (like Gordon Campbell – who really hired Hahn) act the way they do. They avoid qualified local experts so they can hire unqualified or less qualified imperial foreigners who, in fact, are “qualified” to wreck Canadian institutions. The Gordon Campbells of Canada hire the David C. Hahns of the U.S.A. for reasons: (1) Imperial foreigners don’t know anyone in the Canadian community and never have to worry what they think. (2) They usually believe Canadians are a bunch of peasant savages who have no identity or traditions. (3) Imperial foreigners are perfectly willing to wreck Canadian enterprise and make it over. (4) They are very often paid to introduce a “superior” system, to “Americanize,” which means, in fact, to “bring culture to the savages.” All through the performance, indeed, David C. Hahn gave himself away. You might say he blew his own cover. That’s how the farce at the Evergreen Theatre played out. 300 to 400 Canadians who know what Canada is came to the performance. They know the B.C. Ferry system was constructed as a Crown Corporation because private enterprise couldn’t do it properly. Most of them don’t hate private enterprise – they just know it can’t give sensible, responsible, dependable, safe ferry service at reasonable cost. They know that fact sensibly, because they are Canadians. They know, as well, that they’re witnessing the theft of B.C. Ferries from their ownership and control to make it a private system for the rich. David C. Hahn, a U.S. free enterprise corporate operator, knows very different things. He knows U.S. corporations hate public ownership – and he shares the emotion, being himself a yankee. He knows that only backward people (like Canadians) think a publicly owned ferry system is best. He knows that he wasn’t at the Evergreen Theatre to consult with British Columbians from the Powell River area, but to do a private, corporate snow-job on them. He was there to tell them that they are going to get, like it or not, a privatized, comfortable-for-the-rich-and-to-hell-with-the-others market economy ferry system that won’t work. That’s why he wouldn’t talk about the ferry system as part of the highway system. That’s why he wasn’t interested when told that the cost of the only way to travel for coast people is too expensive for ordinary British Columbians. He doesn’t care about ordinary British Columbians. They didn’t hire him, and he doesn’t work for them. Everyone in the room heard David C. Hahn’s insistence that safety is a top priority for the people involved in the theft of B.C. Ferries. He can’t be believed. It just happens that there was a bomb threat to B.C. Ferries on November 17, 2004, and it was looked into by Walter Cordery, columnist for the Daily News of Nanaimo. Though Nanaimo was implicated in the bomb threat, none of the RCMP, members of the Nanaimo Emergency Program, or Nanaimo’s mayor were told about it. (Walter Cordery, “Opinion,” Daily News, Dec. 18, 2004) Ferry union members informed Walter Cordery that “they weren’t told of the threat.” As Cordery writes: “Local emergency officials should have been alerted. The Nanaimo RCMP detachment should have been notified and the public should have been warned.” Cordery says more – a very significant more: "It’s reprehensible but not surprising they tried to keep this quiet. "Remember this is the same company that just scant weeks ago did not disclose the fact that water aboard its vessels was contaminated. "Let’s face it, the ferry service is trying so hard to fit into the private mould the provincial government has it destined for it’s concentrating too much on how to maximize profit." That’s why David C. Hahn couldn’t be believed when he told the Evergreen Theatre audience that “B.C. Ferries would never do anything to endanger safety.” According to Walter Cordery, endangering passenger and crew safety is now a part of CEO David C. Hahn’s policy for B.C. Ferries. Let’s look at reality. David C. Hahn wasn’t at the Evergreen Theatre on January 26 because he wanted to consult British Columbians. He’s never shown he’s the least bit interested in consulting the people B.C. Ferries are being stolen from. He had to be in the Evergreen Theatre because the mayor and council of Powell River asked him to a town meeting about the ferry system and he couldn’t refuse to go. He didn’t suggest the meeting any more than Gordon Campbell suggested consultation with the people of B.C. before passing Bill 18 to steal B.C. Ferries from them. In fact, David C. Hahn’s attitude to the audience was so imperial, so patronizing, and so impatient with the "dumb locals" that one young man at a microphone told Hahn that his "condescension" was doing nothing to make the consultation process work. David C. Hahn’s contempt for the audience in Powell River kept showing: (1) He attempted to disguise privatization, admitting he was seeking “alternative service delivery,” then saying ferry routes are not for sale, and then saying he is continuously seeking and welcoming inquiries from people who want to take up “contract out” routes. If that sounds unclear, it is, and probably was meant to be. (2) He told the audience that “it shouldn’t matter to you who supplies the service.” That’s a way of saying it shouldn’t matter to B.C. people that their ferry system is being stolen from their ownership, or that it could end up using non-union workers running profit-driven, foreign built and unsafe vessels. (3) Asked what it would cost to return B.C. Ferries to Crown Corporation status, David C. Hahn replied (with contempt in his voice) that he wouldn’t “waste” his time working that out. (4) When confronted with the fact that the legislation to privatize B.C. Ferries (Bill 18) shields the operation from B.C.’s Freedom of Information legislation, Hahn remarked that he doesn’t believe in Freedom of Information legislation! That’s perhaps not surprising from someone who left a bankrupt U.S. company to become CEO of B.C. Ferries. What’s more, as I’ve said elsewhere, private corporation leaders very often don’t believe in democracy – it gets in their way. Freedom of Information legislation is, of course, intended to make democracy work. (5) It was then Hahn referred (as he did frequently) to Martin Crilly, the B.C. Ferries Commissioner, as being better than Freedom of Information legislation. More than once Hahn used reference to Martin Crilly, Commissioner, to cut off embarrassing questions or to pass the buck – as if Crilly is a powerful, objective source of last appeal on B.C. Ferries operation. Indeed, at one point, David C. Hahn said of Crilly: “He works for you.” Nothing Hahn said during the evening is further from the truth than that. Crilly, like Hahn, was carefully chosen as a Campbell Liberal government stooge, and he acts his part. In addition, he is specifically and legislatively set up NOT to work for the people, like those in the audience at the Evergreen Theatre. Crilly’s instructions are to push for privatization, and in his latest (annual) report he said privatization is not going fast enough! The legislation, moreover, doesn’t let Crilly supervise safety or working conditions or fares or the reservations fiasco or passenger well-being. (“He works for you,” David C. Hahn said.) (6) Finally, Hahn showed his true colours when he referred (more than once) to the glitzy, expensive, over-extended, rich-man’s service provided by the B.C. Airport Authority. Hahn offered it as a grand example of what he wants B.C. Ferries to be and do. The privatization of Vancouver Airport (and the others) was set in motion by the Brian Mulroney government. One audience member reminded Hahn that Doug Young, Mulroney federal cabinet minister and architect of the airport privatizations, has completely reversed his position on airport privatization. Only a few months ago, Young went public to declare that airport privatizations have been a disaster, in order to constitute an uncontrolled rip-off. That, of course, doesn’t deter David C. Hahn. Paid to make B.C. Ferries a disaster and an uncontrolled rip-off, he will work to those ends until he is stopped. Perhaps a lady who stepped from the audience to the microphone had the last word on the evening. She said her name was Nelle Maxey. She revealed that B.C. Ferries is using more tax dollars now than before it was ‘privatized,’ that it now has fewer employees, and now carries fewer passengers. The solution is simple, she said: “Rescind Bill 18.” She said it to an ovation of support from the rest of the audience – something that David C. Hahn and his straight man Rob Clarke didn’t receive once all night. (And they were supposed to have the leading roles.) At the Evergreen Theatre in Powell River on January 26 the farce scripted by David C. Hahn was so bad it pointed to a looming tragedy for B.C. Ferries – something to think about for all the members of the audience, all British Columbians, and all Canadians concerned about the robot-Right race to "privatizations." The looming tragedy shaping up at B.C. Ferries will only be averted by wiping David C. Hahn, Rob Clarke, and the Gordon Campbell government off the map of British Columbia. [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on February 5, 2005]