Not Such Fools, This April 1
Posted on Tuesday, March 29 at 08:35 by BC Mary
Well, we were April fooled. All three anointed candidates went quietly on to be elected, the Liberals formed a minority government, and Mr Martin's old campaign workers who had Martinized so many ridings were eventually charged with taking bribes, fraud, breach of trust, drug trafficking and money laundering.
Life went on as usual. We almost forgot that those 3 ambitious workers had been aides to the Minister of Finance and Minister of Transportation in Gordon Campbell's government -- not Paul Martin's government.
As another April Fool's Day approaches, each of those cabinet ministers has faded away into the sunset and British Columbians are left gawp-jawed again, wondering why.
Vaughn Palmer wrote in the Vancouver Sun on 4 Jan. 2005, "With so many unanswered questions, can the citizens [of B.C.] be confident in the government's ability to function effectively?"
Hardly. We can't even be confident that organized crime isn't strolling the corridors of the B.C. Legislature or sitting in comfortably at meetings of Cabinet.
All we can do, apparently, is wait for April Fool's Day 2005 ... and if that doesn't help ... wait for May 17, 2005 and -- where it will do the most good -- boldly mark our "X" .
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If you get my drift.
Is there anyone or a group of people nagging the RCMP to do their job that I can nag a long with? Who would you recommend I contact to help out here? We get very little information in the interior of BC about anything going on in the legislature. (Does anyone?) We have about a 4 page weekly that comes out in my town which you read to confirm the gossip and any of the other newspapers are CanWest crap.
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"And those who were seen dancing were though to be insane by those who could not hear the music." Frederick Neitsche
The Tyee right now ... and I posted the following
comment on it today:
commentor: BC Maryposted: Today
The $6 billion cash which Sgt Ward said is wafting in
and out of the B.C. economy each year ...
To become a candidate in an election campaign
requires money. To win a seat in the Legislature or
House of Commons requires big money.
The more money, the better the chances of winning an
election. Sadly, we all recognize this as an accepted
fact.
What we don't like to think about is that large chunks of
cash might be available for candidates willing to accept
tainted funds. In cash. Laundered.
So what about that influence? that accountability? Are
we to assume that organized crime is acting
altruistically, expecting nothing in return? I think not.
I'm convinced by Terry Gould's book (Paper Fan, the
hunt for Triad gangster Steven Wong) about bigtime
crime in Vancouver ... that organized crime now mimics
global corporations in sophistication and management.
It probably has the same expectations of future benefits
as any other global corporations. And the same (or
more) influence.
The RCMP raids on the B.C. Legislature 15 months
ago, gave us (collectively) the opportunity to resolve
what could be the most dangerous problem in our
history.
If it proves to be true, for example, that organized crime
has played any part in government affairs, such as the
sale of B.C. Rail, it means that crime is embedded in
our entire structure of society (as Sgt Ward said). It
removes the word "democracy" from the meaning of our
lives.
Anyone in government, in media, in election
campaigning who pretends that those RCMP raids on
the B.C. Legislature weren't important, or that organized
crime doesn't happen here, must hide the reality no
longer ... or, can you imagine what's at stake?
---
Mary