B.C. Ferriesin The Hands Of Gordon Campbell, David Hahn, And Kevin Falcon - A Si

In his suit against B.C. Ferries in the Supreme Court of B.C. Bowland alleges that B.C. Ferries management resisted his “advice, directions, recommendations, and warnings”. Ferries management “was unwilling to recognize and address the safety problems associated with the fleet”. And notice this allegation – B.C. Ferries management “was unwilling to take urgent action necessary to ensure the safety of its employees and the public as a whole, action that could well have prevented the sinking of the Queen of the North”. In addition, Bowland alleges that “following the sinking of the Queen of the North on March 22, 2006” [which resulted in the death of two passengers], his authority “was significantly undermined”, key functions of his position “were removed”, and then he was prevented “from conducting an inquiry into the sinking at all”. And so Darin Bowland resigned. B.C. Ferries, then, issued a press release on his resignation that he alleges “was false and misleading in that [he] did not resign for ‘personal reasons’”. The B.C. Ferries press release, he alleges, sullied his reputation, making it seem as if he had some responsibility in the sinking of the Queen of the North. A B.C. Ferries watcher, I remember wondering why Bowland left so suddenly, what the “personal reasons” in the press release meant, thinking there might well be something odious in the story. With a few friends I mused about the “personal reasons” and Bowland’s hasty retreat. Bowland insists the reasons for his leaving were professional. If that is the case, I was misled and confused by the B.C. Ferries news release. Safety has long been a concern of the Ferries Union and its supporters. In a run-up to the last election, just for instance, the friends of B.C. Ferries published a widely distributed newspaper. Not nearly strong enough in its advocacy, still it had a column by Nelle Maxey – an expert on B.C. Ferries financial (and other) manipulations and magic tricks – in which she lampooned so-called safety improvements. In the latest conflict arising from the sinking of the Queen of the North, Jackie Miller, Ferry Union head, held a press conference (before the launching of the Darin Bowland suit) to underscore management’s consistent failure on matters of safety and its persecution of Ferry workers who have complained of safety inadequacies. Only a part of the reason for her press conference was the appearance that could be conveyed of a management which might be seen as wanting to kangaroo-court a few crewmen. Quite properly, their legal advice was not to cooperate with a management conducting an “inquiry” that might well serve its own (perhaps questionable) ends. If B.C. Ferries top management is at fault in the sinking of the Queen of the North, David Hahn’s internal investigation might possibly be judged a case of the wrong-doers trying to shift the blame. That wouldn’t benefit anyone. The legal expression for the reason crew members will not subject themselves to the internal investigation is that the corporation’s internal inquiry doesn’t provide solicitor-client confidentiality. I believe we are facing – with B.C. Ferries and the sinking of the Queen of the North – a concerted set of actions to disguise government policy aimed at reducing and removing safety structures throughout the Province, at whatever cost to life and security. Government wants the Ferry scandal limited and particularized. Of course, B.C. Ferries has its own story, worthy – more and more – of tragic Gilbert and Sullivan treatment. But the scandal at B.C. Ferries has arisen because of what I allege is a Gordon Campbell, province-wide attack on British Columbians. First, B.C. Ferries. It’s best to list Campbell government barbarities (to save space). (1) Hating all public ownership, Campbell’s cabinet erected a wholly idiotic, sham, “private” B.C. Ferries operation – which is not private at all. (2) Campbell has hidden B.C. Ferries from Access to Information, from the B.C. Ombudsman, from the Auditor General, and from the B.C. Labour Relations Board. (3) With David Emerson’s help, Campbell hired for CEO a man from a bankrupt, Enron-style, U.S. corporation. Yankee David Hahn knew relatively nothing about ferries or ferry systems. (4) The David Hahn management has employed U.S. corporate-style labour relations, first contributing to an unnecessary strike, allegedly attempting to import scab labour, and – as BCMFWU has recorded – “disciplining” members speaking out about safety concerns. Management’s own recently appointed safety Czar, Darin Bowland, seems to be the most celebrated example of an employee whose concern for safety called down extraordinary action from top management. (5) As the Nelle Maxey/BCMFWU presentation to (until recently) B.C. Auditor General Wayne Strelioff makes clear the B.C. Ferries financial picture is persistently very different from what the B.C. public is told. Debt has quadrupled. Cost of German-built ships in process is going unrecorded. Replacement cost for the Queen of the North is not mentioned. Interest costs have risen as a result of the sham mess purported to be a privatization of the fleet. In short, British Columbians have no idea of the real (and bad) financial state of B.C. Ferries – for which B.C. taxpayers are responsible. When, a few months ago, the Nelle Maxey/BCMFWU presentation was made to (then) Auditor General of B.C., Wayne Strelioff, I wrote to him. BCMFWU asked Strelioff for a complete financial audit of B.C. Ferries on the grounds that B.C. taxpayers are responsible for all its debts and costs. I asked Strelioff if he was going to conduct the audit requested. He replied he was looking into the matter. Then he left the job. The Auditor General’s office is seriously underfunded – as are almost all key agents and institutions mandated to overview Gordon Campbell government actions. That is public knowledge. Wayne Strelioff, it would seem, went quietly into the fog. He certainly never communicated with me again about the BCMFWU request. Darin Bowland, it would seem, is not going quietly into the fog. His allegations, moreover, set out in a publicly examinable “writ” (statement of claim) filed with the B.C. Supreme Court, focus upon claims related to the already astonishing betrayal of public trust by the Gordon Campbell government.in matters relating to B.C. Ferries. Evidence of a structural, managerial, and financial disaster at B.C. Ferries is piling up, though the press and media hacks (especially those employed by the monopoly CanWest media giant) do what they can to place the blame anywhere than on David Hahn and the Gordon Campbell government. Take, for instance, the Vancouver Sun’s senior political columnist, Vaughn Palmer. I call him Gordon Campbell’s personal representative at the Sun. On June 8, 2006, he weighed in on the press conference war between Ferry Union leader Jackie Miller, and David Hahn, B.C. Ferries CEO. Miller called for a “full and complete [safety] audit of B.C. Ferries”. David Hahn responded that one is already decided upon. But who will do the “full and complete [safety] audit”? It won’t be Darin Bowland, we can be sure. Will it be a cousin of David Hahn or a brother-in-law of Gordon Campbell? Will Campbell call back Ted Hughes to do yet another whitewash? When the Campbell government or its stooges agree to an investigation, you know they have a flunkey lined up who will produce an expensive cover-up. In his wonderfully unsubtle way, Vaughn Palmer supports Hahn and supports Ferry privatization. Without privatization, notes Palmer, “fouling one’s own nest is an easy indulgence”. What he is covering up is that Gordon Campbell’s not-private Ferry operation, shielded from all public examination by special legislation and in financial chaos, hasn’t got anyone with any power to ask what’s going on. What Vaughn Palmer won’t say is that a gigantic betrayal of trust by elected Liberals has turned B.C. Ferries into a disaster. Without meaning to, Palmer admits (and presumably Hahn does, too) that B.C. Ferries has not been privatized. There’s trouble, says Palmer, “especially in monopoly situations …when there’s no opportunity for fed-up customers to take their business elsewhere”. The B.C. Ferry operation that - until Gordon Campbell – served B.C. for many years and gained wide public support is now failing (according to Palmer) because it has no competition. Certainly it has no competition for incompetence, chaos, and opportunism in government and management. For Vaughn Palmer it’s those damned crew members who are at fault. They keep telling David Hahn the days of galley slaves are over. Well, never mind. “Hahn issued a threat … regarding the union members who won’t cooperate in his [witch hunt in which management acts as judge and jury] investigation into the sinking.” Hahn will get them! Perhaps. Or, perhaps, the water is rising in David Hahn’s and Gordon Campbell’s offices, instead. “B.C. Ferries,” I wrote at the start of this column, “is showing signs of being flash-point of the Gordon Campbell government’s across-the-board corrupt policies on human protection, on safety, honesty, and dedication to Private Corporate profit.” The Campbell cabinet is, simply, as I said in the three earlier columns entitled “Killing Canadians for Private Corporate Profit”, pursuing corrupt policies to transfer money from public service to the pockets of Private Corporations. One way is to slash all safety legislation (a) to free corporations to cut costs (and sacrifice lives), (b) to hide mismanagement of Private Corporate operations, (c) to reduce training demands. Another way (in Health Authorities) is to neglect public service and work for Private Health Care profit in clinics and support services. Another way (in government supervision institutions - like the Auditor General’s office) is to slash all budgets used to assure honest government behaviour. The list of Gordon Campbell, B.C. government barbarities outside the Ferry operation are heinous and related. First: Ministry of Children and Families had a major scandal about money, forcing the removal of the minister and deputy minister. Not long after, the Ministry exploded in charges of negligence, incompetence, and the unnecessary deaths of children in its care – because of budget slashing (and contempt for the vulnerable that goes with the Gordon Campbell government). Appointed to investigate was Gordon Campbell lackey, Ted Hughes, who cut short the investigation, suggested “patch-ups”, and both publicly and privately recommended no further investigation into wrong-doing. Then: forestry safety rules were obliterated by a Gordon Campbell/David Emerson love in. As a result in 2005 Canadian Forest Products made its highest profit ever – and forestry deaths rose from 13 in 2004 to 43 in 2005. In the face of criticism Campbell appointed one of his former cabinet colleagues as Forestry Ombudsman to oversee forestry deaths. (Ted Hughes in wilderness garb.) Then: The Worker’s Compensation Board was made into WorkSafeBC in 2002. It is a toothless and tragic farce. While piling up cash, WorkSafeBC was exposed in the legislature as punishing working people for no reason. MLA Chuck Puchmayer pointed out “that injured workers are finding it harder to report injuries, are more likely to have their claims rejected, and when they are accepted they get lower levels of compensation over shorter periods of time”.(The Democrat, June 06 6) Then: the Health Authorities in the Province give the impression of working for the Private Corporations involved in care rather than for the patients and the people of B.C. When the Emergency Room crisis exploded, for instance, it was not headed or helped by the Health Authorities. Doctors raised the issues. The head of the Coastal Health Authority responded with an article in the Victoria Times Colonist saying there is no crisis, relax, nothing’s wrong. In fact, everything is in splendid shape. When our seniors in care homes complain of the rotten food (because of Gordon Campbell privatization to foreign corporations), out pour the underlings at B.C. Coastal Health Authority (for instance) to tell the seniors to shut up, to stop complaining, and to eat the garbage sent frozen from Calgary and heated to luke-warm somewhere in Vancouver. Then: the most recent barbarity is the death of 45 year old Gary Michael Greer from a freak blasting accident on the Whistler Nordic Centre roadway on June 12, 2006. What do we learn about the “accident”? We learn it happened under a contract directly with the Ministry of Transportation. Minister there is Kevin Falcon of the dirty and secret B.C. Rail sell-off as well as the recent Eagle Ridge destruction resisted by West Vancouver residents where 29 demonstrators were arrested and await court appearances. And, of course, Kevin Falcon is the minister responsible for B.C. Ferries. Still, you sigh with relief. If the Ministry of Transportation is paying (outside the 2010 Olympic budget) for the road, it will have the highest standards of work. But you are wrong – as we have come to expect with all Gordon Campbell government activities. Murrin Construction which has the nearly $12 million contract is “special”. “I cannot remember the last time someone was killed in a blasting accident”, said Stan Holtby, a representative for Orica Canada, the largest supplier of explosives. “It doesn’t happen”. (Vanc. Sun June 13 06 A4) And there’s more. “Although blasters require certification in order to handle explosives, Murrin Construction is not certified under a voluntary program that certifies a construction company that follows good health and safety practices.” (A4) Having slashed all safety codes it can in British Columbia, the Gordon Campbell cabinet doesn’t even use a construction company that participates in a voluntary program of safety certification. The accident on the Whistler Nordic Centre roadway may have been impossible to prevent. But that the Minister of Transportation would pay for a construction company that “is not certified under a voluntary program that certifies a construction company that follows good health and safety practices” is a betrayal of public trust. And it opens the door to justifiable suspicions of all kinds. We have to see that the use of Murrin Construction cannot be disconnected from the allegations Darin Bowland makes in his Surpeme Court writ and those that Jackie Miller has repeated tirelessly. Nor can it be disconnected from the unnecessary deaths of children logged in the Children and Families scandal, nor from the staggering number of unnecessary deaths in the forest industry because of the slashing of safety codes. The Campbell government is demented in its hatred of safeguards for working people (and others) in B.C. That is why I allege a Gordon Campbell, province-wide attack on all British Columbians. Who will be the next victims of unnecessary death? I have said, repeatedly, the Gordon Campbell government kills Canadians for Private Corporate profit. If you have a better explanation for the litany of barbarities in this column, let’s hear them. [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on June 20, 2006]