In recent days, even unobservant citizens came to know the extent of improper acts committed in government to facilitate crimes and other wrongful acts. Inappropriate behaviours were at best, tolerated by public officials or, at worst, committed by them.
We learned that senior managers of the RCMP in British Columbia protected and assisted BC Liberals when the politicians decided that money laundering and other criminal acts in gambling establishments should be ignored. In doing so, commissioned officers broke this Oath of Office:
I swear that I will faithfully, diligently and impartially execute and perform the duties required of me as a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and will well and truly obey and perform all lawful orders and instructions that I receive as such, without fear, favour or affection of or toward any person.
The following item, a reader’s response, was published here three years ago. It is even more relevant today:
It’s time to put the fear of consequence back in governance. Since it is obvious that the current checks and balances mean little or nothing, to political organizations, bent on malfeasance while in power.
A more structured form of political or legal retribution is now required.
Corruption comes in many forms, many of which have surfaced in this country and province, within the past 15 years.
I submit that terrorism as described by all levels of government, is not this country’s greatest threat. The greatest threat to us is the “creeping cancer” known as corruption within political parties and governments at all levels, in this country.
This message has become very clear with the results of the Quebec Corruption Commission, the Senate scandal, the Robo Call Elections fiasco, BC Rail, the Healthcare Firing/ Big Pharma scandal and now the above judges ruling into the Social Services Ministry.
The whole concept of democracy and responsible, ethical governance in this country, is under serious threat.
The solution, will be a long painful, expensive exploration, into the values and ethics of political partisanship, malfeasance and manipulation of our democratic system.
That would be just a start…
Categories: Corruption, RCMP
in-sights.ca 
A few thoughts from Voltaire ….
“In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.”
“The best government is a benevolent tyranny tempered by an occasional assassination.”
“Democracy is just a filler for textbooks . Do you actually believe that public opinion influences the government ?”
This goes back a little further than 16 years ………
LikeLike
Thomas, I burst out laughing when I read your post quoting Voltaire. I recently finished reading a book titled “How Not to Be Wrong – The Power of Mathematical Thinking”, by Jordan Ellenberg. Lottery schemes and odds are examined at various points and as gambling is the subject of interest hereabouts lately one passage including Voltaire might be of interest. With Norm’s indulgence I’ll repeat it:
“In the early eighteenth century, France financed government spending by selling bonds, but the interest rate they offered wasn’t enticing enough to drive sales. To spice the pot, the government attached a lottery to the bond sales. Every bond gave its holder the right to buy a ticket for a lottery with a 500,000-livre prize, enough money to live on comfortably for decades. But Michel Le Peletier des Forts, the deputy finance minister who conceived the lottery plan, had botched the computations; the prizes to be disbursed substantially exceeded the money to be gained in ticket receipts. In other words, the lottery, like Cash WinFall on roll-down days, had a positive expected value for the players and anyone who bought enough tickets was due for a big score.
One person who figured this out was the mathematician and explorer Charles-Marie de La Condamine; just as Harvey would do almost three centuries later, he gathered his friends into a ticket-buying cartel.
One of these was the young writer Francois-Marie Arouet, better known as Voltaire. While he might not have contributed to the mathematics of the scheme, Voltaire placed his stamp on it. Lottery players were to write a motto on their ticket, to be read aloud when a ticket won the jackpot; Voltaire, characteristically, saw this as a perfect opportunity to epigrammatize, writing cheeky slogans like ‘All men are equal!’ and ‘Long live M. Peletier des Forts!’ on his tickets for public consumption when the cartel won the prize.
Eventually, the state caught on and cancelled the program, but not before La Condamine and Voltaire had taken the government for enough money to be rich men for the rest of their lives. What – you thought Voltaire made a living writing perfectly realized essays and sketches? Then, as now, that’s no way to get rich.”
So as you say, this has been going on for a while. But that is not an excuse for the last 16 years. Or the next 16…
LikeLike
Just watched the President of the United States stand before the world beside the President of Russia and attack the national security organizations of the United States. Something I never expected to witness. Having said that, events over the past two years have informed me of the probable self-interest motives of the American president for doing so and of the likelihood of his cowardice in the face of a present danger.
We have a similar threat to democracy in this province, and although it may not pose an imminent threat to world order on the scale of Trump’s betrayal, it is evidence of the malignant erosion described by the title of this post. I wasn’t as prepared however for the betrayal committed by our current provincial leader.
He stands before us in full possession of documentation demonstrating serious contravention of the law by officials under the previous government to end the BC Rail trial, and where the evidence is clear; he doesn’t even need further investigation to act. He also stands before us with a report in hand that his government commissioned and that indicates serious criminal activity must have occurred under the watch of the previous government. But he refuses to pursue that criminal activity. These inactions threaten our democracy.
His motivations are unclear. But unless he’s aware of major ongoing criminal investigations into these matters that are hidden from us, his cowardice is not.
LikeLike
I can’t understand Horgan’s reluctance to release those documents and create a full public inquiry. If there are legit legal reasons for his reluctance then he needs to up front in stating those reasons. I suspect though that the reasons aren’t legal but political.
LikeLike
The problem is that the media have allowed the BC Liberals to skate by for 16 long years with nary a scratch. It doesn’t matter that the BC Liberals were the most incompetent government BC has ever had, as long as they served the interests of their paymasters and benefactors. We need a full public inquiry with the widest possible terms of reference and with subpoena powers. Yes it will be a long and painful process but, like Norm said, it’s necessesary so we can root out corruption and restore some semblance of faith in the democratic process and in our institutions which have failed for far too long.
LikeLike
And in three years, things have only gotten worse.
Who is not afraid to bell the cat?
Certainly Horgan is scared stiff.
LikeLike
Good point. It is even more valid when you consider that neo-liberals in Ottawa have been inflicting serious injury to the CBC, turning it into an obedient servant of one-percenters. Turning media's news celebrities to entertainers for sale to the highest bidder is just part of a larger scheme to marginalize people who would care for the public interest.
LikeLike
It also helps to have a complacent media to assist you, as did Gordo and Christy.
LikeLike
Gangsters and organized crime. Pretty much sums it up, Evil Eye.
I discovered this “gem” this morning. In the Tyee, dated, July 16th.
I'm paraphrasing here. (It appears that the manipulation of the Attorney Generals office has occurred). The provinces top solicitor, has recently been quoted, “as not willing to interfere with the proposed upcoming investigation into the Healthcare firings”. This would make sense, in order to preserve the supposed “non bias nature” of the office.
However, the Attorney General has since written a letter, to indicate that a change in the Ombudsman's mandate would be amended, as soon as possible, move the debate as expeditiously as possible, and to proceed as quickly as possible to Royal proclamation.
Why the sudden reversal? Very suspicious indeed.
It is not the cost or the time it would take for a Judicial Public enquiry. It is becoming obvious, that the manipulation of the legislature and it's offices, is being done, by a political party, to facilitate the hiding of what really went on. This to prevent the “real truth”, political fallout, and keeping the level of malfeasance hidden. Something is really wrong here.
I do not believe for one minute these people give a damn about the people of this province or the victims of this scandal. It is their
belief that their malfeasance can and will be facilitated, no matter what the outcome.
This is pure corruption, no matter what “they” think.
.
LikeLike
The most recent financial statements of Postmedia show they've accumulated losses of $555 million since 2010. This year, they took over the money losing Sun newspapers (english language). One of the investor reports disclosed these Sun properties lost about $300 million in the last two years.
Postmedia, which has been selling off its own parts to stay alive, financed the Sun takeover with more proceeds from junk bond predators. The people and corporations behind these “investors” are largely unknown. It does not take a conspiracy theorist to understand that gaining control of one of the country’s largest media outlets, provides unprecedented opportunity for the rich and powerful to become richer and more powerful.
LikeLike
This is an accurate portrayal of the problem. The solution is to fix what is allowing this cancer to metastasize. As the poster writes, “The solution will be a long painful, expensive exploration, into the values and ethics of political partisanship, malfeasance and manipulation of our democratic system.”
The exploration in our democratic system would normally be conducted and presented to the public for consideration by a vigorous, curious, courageous, free, and ethical journalistic community. Unfortunately the present day journalistic community is involved up to its neck in the political partisanship, malfeasance and manipulation of our democratic system that is the cancer we are facing. So what to do?
Two recent columns by senior members of our journalistic community deserve condemnation, and we must seek out these cancer facilitators and condemn them widely and publicly whenever and wherever they appear. That is a necessary beginning to curing what ails our governance.
They are linked here with comments on their veracity:
http://www.bcveritas.com/index.php/2015/07/19/very-little-return-from-lng/
LikeLike
In my little berg, corruption is rampant everywhere, from the lowest of municipal worker, right to the mayor's office.
Want anything done like dump extra garbage or a mattress in a muni dumpster, a plain brown manilla envelope with a $20 will suffice.
Want the inspector to pass your reno, well a plain brown manilla envelope with several of those brown bills is a must. The “Eye” found out when a plumbing inspector said; “Your plumber doesn't know how to do business in……….”. A quick to the bank and a plain brown manilla envelope latter and indeed my plumber leaned how to do business in……..
Politicians are the example to all, with all the freebies and gifts they get. A box in Rogers Arena for Cunuck playoffs or soccer or lions, it doesn't matter because it is paid for. And for friends of government who provide the gifts, an almost free ride for their developments, rezoning and exemption from bylaws are dead easy for those who get gifts. At election time, which has been extended to every 4 years because they were getting too expensive for friends of government, is where those plain bromw manilla envelopes, stuffed with brown and pink bills, literally fly under the door. In some municipalities, no one runs for the office of mayor because the incumbent has goon friends will will put a hurt on, if one dares to challenges their investment.
For provincial and federal politicians it is exponentially worse!
And you wonder why gangsters have almost taken over the city, province, or country,because we have gangsters running the show.
LikeLike
Until the populous stops rewarding bad political behavior and severely punishes it, nothing will change.
We reelected Gorgon after his Maui Owie. PhotoOp Queen won an election in spite of the “quick wins” and other scandals. If I were them, this demonstrates that as long as you dangle sparkle ponies in front of the MonkeyMass, you don't have to worry.
LikeLike
The cost of corruption to the peoples of the world exceeds the costs expected to be spent as a result of global warming.
In fact, despite any of the good works or programs by any politicians or groups, corruption is actually responsible accelerating global warming.
LikeLike
There is an easy answer to this….i don't believe it's as much the politicians being bought(although thats going on also)but the people directly below them are the biggest problem and we have absolutely no control over that…..friends of friends with brown envelopes….untill we do away with lobbyists that have almost unlimited money to spend this will not stop
LikeLike
Flooding political parties with new blood, new membership, would be a start to diluting the iron fist grip of the 2,000 members who run the eg. BC Liberal Party
Privacy Policy http://bcliberals.invokemedia.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/BCL-Privacy-Policy1.pdf
LikeLike
In the last item, Lew commented, “When the government fears the people there is liberty; when the people fear the government there is tyranny.”
On an individual level, Justice Walker demonstrated that this one family had a great deal to fear from government.
On the provincial level, people displaced by Site C and those who depend on coastal waters have much to fear from government sponsors like Imperial Metals, Kinder Morgan and Enbridge as well as the industry's wolves in sheep's clothing like National Energy Board.
On the federal level, Harper's Conservatives aim to win an election by provoking fear of people who are not white and not fundamentalist Christians.
Tyranny has arrived. It just has not affected everyone… yet.
LikeLike