On Tuesday we learned that Jian Ghomeshi’s last outstanding criminal charge of sexual assault was dropped by the Ontario Crown Counsel. Mr. Ghomeshi entered into a peace bond that will last for a period of one year, and apologized in court to his victim — Kathryn Borel, a former associate producer on CBC Radio’s Q….
Connecting the dots on the Fort McMurray catastrophe
My sincere condolences go to the tens of thousands of people so profoundly affected by the fires in and around Fort McMurray, Alberta. I do not ever recall such a large population evacuated due to fire in Alberta, BC, or anywhere in Canada for that matter. Fort McMurray’s population of 80,000+ is no small hamlet…
City Hall’s secret cash machine
Did you know that our Vision-Vancouver-dominated City Council has a Bid Committee that operates in secret? Council gave it authority to award contracts of any size without going out to tender whenever Council is on summer break. The Bid Committee — composed of City Hall bureaucrats (namely the city manager, director of finance, and voting department heads) — can also award contracts of up to $2 million in value at any time. That added up to 39 contracts…
A true hero’s tale
Tuesday night I had the honour and privilege of speaking at an event celebrating the freedom of one of the “Cuban Five” heroes, Gerardo Hernández. You might ask, who are the Cuban Five heroes? Let me tell you. (And let me give you a heads up. What you’re about to read is a long story,…
Has TransLink turned the corner?
On Wednesday, March 30, a number of HandyDART users spoke to the TransLink board at their monthly meeting in New Westminster. Together with HandyDART drivers, we were lobbying TransLink to bring HandyDART service in-house. Whereas conventional public transit is operated by TransLink through a number of wholly owned subsidiaries — Coast Mountain Bus Company operates…
City council: rewarding inefficiency
City council’s pay was in the news recently — city councillors will receive a whopping $9,000 annual raise, moving their salaries to roughly $80,000 a year. Allowing people to give themselves a raise for taking longer to do the same job doesn’t make much sense. Remember, this raise was approved by the councillors themselves. When…
Lots of cake to go around
The provincial government’s decision to raise income assistance rates for people with disabilities with one hand then reduce those rates with the other has been in the news lately. Before the changes were announced, anybody forced to live on the paltry amount of $906 a month (a rate frozen since 2007) also received a free…