All posts by kevin harding

Kevin is a cooperator, an always-student, and passionate about the arts. As a principal of the Incipe Cooperative, Kevin works with colleagues in a workers' co-op offering services for advocacy and nonprofit organizations. He's passionate about education policy, having been through twenty some-odd years of schooling and still thinking it changes the world. He also thinks that art changes the world, and he works with Art for Impact to celebrate art's power for social change. A Vancouver born and raised resident who is exiled from Toronto, he constantly loses umbrellas and probably rants too much.
British Columbia, China, Colonialism, Equality, Imperialism, Neoliberal Economics, Politics, Racism, Society, Vancouver

Rising rhetoric of a new “yellow peril”

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1921's Yellow Peril
The 1921 “Ethnic Outreach” Campaign
(Courtesy Past Tense Vancouver)

The complaints are familiar – “Asian immigrants are taking our jobs,” “Asian immigrants are buying our property and keeping us out.”

Instead of being complaints found in the Richmond Review’s letters-to-the-editor section, however, these are the complaints that were found in a Liberal Party advertisement in 1921 that was posted on a Vancouver history site.

Our history – the history of Vancouver, BC, and Canada – especially that of Asian immigration is one fraught with historical wrongs. The Chinese head tax, the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Japanese internment, the Komagata Maru, all are racially-based historical wrongs that we continue to live with today.

While we don’t quite have an Asiatic Exclusion League actively campaigning today against Asian immigration today, the complaints that prompted the Liberal Party of 1921 to pledge to keep British Columbia “white” are still around, and they seem to keep rising in strength. Indeed, it appears that there is a rise of a new rhetoric of “yellow peril.”

Property speculation: They’re taking our land!

The new yellow peril rhetoric is immediately observable in Vancouver’s perennial hot-topic debate: the housing crisis and property speculation. It has almost become vogue to enter the debate on the housing crisis with the argument that one of the primary reasons that people cannot afford to live in the Lower Mainland is because our market has been distorted by foreign buyers – property speculators from places like Hong Kong, from China, from places that are Asian and have Asian people living in them.

Continue reading Rising rhetoric of a new “yellow peril” →

Politics

Breaking Spin Alert: Dyble Report finds mis-use of govt funds in #QuickWins

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Breaking Spin Alert: The Dyble review has found that there has been mis-use of government funds through Christy Clark’s government’s Quick Wins ethnic outreach plan, including up to $70,000.

Unsurprisingly, it appears that the blame is being pinned on Kim Haakstad and Brian Bonney, but not Clark herself, who appears to govern without information of what her staff are doing and without any background records to inform herself.  I would argue that this could be described as willing ignorance.

Stephen Smart reports that Dyble found no knowledge about the Ethnic Outreach Strategy on the part of Clark, Bloy, or Yap.

Via Twitter, here are some highlights:

  • Mis-use of government funds is alleged in a $6,800 payment authorized by John Yap.
  • Up to half of Government Communications Director Brian Bonney’s time was spent on party/partisan work while on public salary. (He received a Diamond Jubilee Medal from Harry Bloy.)
  • Bonney made $124,000 as a public employee. Up to half of that has apparently been spent on partisan activities.
  • Big issue: Sean Leslie reports that Bonney sent 1,100 emails from government email accounts to  personal email accounts including names, addresses, and phone numbers from multicultural events.
  • Shirley Bond’s staffer Mike Lee and Premier’s staffer Dave Ritchie drafted the original Ethnic Outreach plan using government resources.
  • CKNW has reported something about John Yap being cited in the report about using personal emails to avoid FOI. Unsure the specifics.
  • Quote from the report via Vaughan Palmer: Mike Lee to John Yap: “It’s critical we don’t leave any evidence.” Yap: “Good job.”
  • Per Palmer: John Yap admitted they used personal emails to avoid FOI laws.
  • Bob Mackin makes an interesting point – we may not see the background docs into this report until after the election.

Question period today should be intriguing. Starts at about 1:45pm.

More info as it becomes available. Refresh for the newest part.

Politics

Spin Alert: BC NDP Scheming with Public Funds? Not quite.

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Spin alert! So, BC political news is all a-twitter this morning with rumours that the BC NDP has been scheming around with legislative funds, to the tune of $200k a year.  Particularly shocking after the Liberals have been in so much trouble for something similar, no?

Here’s iPolitic’s write-through of this supposed scandal:

Leaked portions of a draft report from auditor general John Doyle said by March 2009 the NDP amassed $260,000 from monthly constituency office payments and most of the money was used to fund partisan activities.

(Paywall link)

What’s the truth?

Well, the truth lies in the fact that that the report mentions a “draft report.”  Ask yourself this question: if it’s a “draft report,” did this problem arise in the Auditor General’s full and final report? Would you want to find out before publishing such a story?

Well, as to the first question, the answer is no, it didn’t.  As to the second question, it seems none of the media reporting this bothered to ask themselves the simple fact-checking story.

Blogger Alex G. Tsakumis wrote about this story some time ago.  According to Alex, the NDP did indeed use legislative funds for caucus purposes – exactly as the Comptroller of the Legislature had told them they could. (Again, an aside. The Legislature provides funds for political party caucuses. Whether we like it or not, it is, at present, perfectly proper.)

Tsakumis reports that the Auditor General reviewed the information from the NDP and removed this complaint from the full and final report, as there wasn’t, in the end, a problem.

Tsakumis reports that this “leak” was being shopped to him weeks ago, and he alleges it was shopped by the BC Liberals.

Vancouver Sun columnist Vaughan Palmer wrote about the story in January. He explained more:

An early version of Doyle’s report appeared to suggest that those moves could amount to outright fraud. New Democrats John Horgan and Shane Simpson protested directly to Doyle that there was nothing criminal about an admittedly debatable practice.

Doyle then moved the critique to another part of his report, eliminating any implication that the New Democrats were guilty of fraud.

[…]

The auditor general routinely circulates preliminary drafts of his reports to affected agencies and he routinely makes revisions in response to the feedback from the government end.

Today, iPolitics and CBC are running with the story. Spin successful? Well, only to people whose bullshit meter wasn’t thrown by the term “draft report.“

Seriously, iPolitics. If you read “draft,” ask for “final.”

Update: CKNW is effectively frothing at the mouth this morning, breathlessly reporting the AG’s draft report as a “secret report.” Journalistic integrity takes a hit here.  Draft =/= secret, no matter how you look at it.

Politics

Send your questions about government science funding to #pmhadfield

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Stephen Harper will apparently be chatting with Commander Chris Hadfield later this month, and he’s asking people to contribute their questions via the #pmhadfield hashtag on Twitter.

What better a time to ask Harper about his government’s de-funding of scientific research, policies towards funding only ‘marketable research’ and muzzling of government scientists?

Have at it, Twitter.

Read some of the initial queries after the jump.
Continue reading Send your questions about government science funding to #pmhadfield →

Politics

With a majority of 4, will the BC Liberal budget pass?

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The BC legislature is debating the pre-election budget proposed by the governing BC Liberal party today, and will vote on it at around 11.45am Vancouver time.

The Liberals have a razor-slim majority in the Legislature – a total of 4 MLAs, including the Speaker who doesn’t normally vote.  Given the recent turmoil in the party, while it’s likely the budget will pass, there are still open questions about whether all the Liberals will support the Premier.

We will try to provide updates here as they happen.

(Our liveblog is being funky, so please refresh!)

12.00

The budget passes 45-38 and the house has adjourned for the afternoon.

The government lives for another day!

11.59

Two independents – Slater and Hungtington – voted in favour of the budget, passing it.

11.53

The Division Bells are ringing. Incoming vote!

11.46

DeJong says he wanted to take a moment to consider what the opposition said, but couldn’t really find a constructive alternative.

11.43

The Minister of Finance is up as the last speaker before the budget vote.

11.42

Sounds like Dix is warming up an election speech.

11.37

Dix says that this budget is tough on students, seniors, and so much more, but the BC Libs ad budget. 

11.33

I don’t anticipate the government falling on this vote.

Dix is explaining how he feels the budget is unbalanced.

11.31

Dix makes a point of thanking department MLAs for their service.

He also gives us a ten-minute warning on the budget vote.

11.30

Adrian Dix is now up on his budget speech.

11.28

Foster seems to be reminiscing about everything that’s ever happened to him. Schools now!

11.23

Eric Foster, the BC Liberal MLA who chaired the Auditor General hiring committee (remember that scandal, about three scandals ago?), is chastising the NDP for not offering enough “positive” suggestions.

11.19

A number of MLAs who are leaving politics (seems to be mostly on the Liberal side) have taken the chance through the budget debate to make ‘farewell’ speeches.

11.08

At this time, the legislature is still debating the budget. The vote is expected just before noon today, but it may shift around.

Christy Clark

“None of my staff were involved in this, aside from creating it.”

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From the Legislature today:

On the ethnic outreach memo controversy:

The Premier has made a categorical assertion, not weeks ago, days ago, that this was not the case. Now, I appreciate that new information may come forward, and the Premier may feel she was incorrect a number of days ago. But that information clearly was wrong.

So what we need from the Premier today, I think, is at least an acceptance, an understanding that what was said, that the assertion that was made by the Premier that this did not involve her staff — it involved somebody else, but not the Premier’s office — was incorrect. Will the Premier confirm that today?

–– Adrian Dix, 2:03pm.

The Premier:

“I would ask the member to be careful to characterize what I said, which was that there is no evidence that I’m aware of that my staff was involved in this. As far as I know, my staff were only involved in creating it. That is what I said, and that remains true.”

–– Premier Christy Clark, March 4, 2:05pm.

Christy Clark, Politics

Spin Alert: John Yap out of Cabinet and Under the Bus, What about Bloy? (Updated)

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Spin alert!

In the quiet part of the legislative day before question period called Statements by Members, normally reserved for constituency updates, Premier Christy Clark rose and announced that Minister John Yap, Minister for Advanced Education and Multiculturalism, will step aside pending the investigation into the “ethnic outreach” memo that has been shaking up the BC political scene as of late.

In his stead, Ralph Sultan, Minister of State for Seniors, will be Minister of Advanced Education as well.

But why?

John Yap was not Minister of Advanced Education and Multiculturalism when this memo was written, in late 2011.  Forcing him to step aside now is questionable, as he had no direct involvement in its development or the hiring of the outreach component of the plan.  However, he didn’t deal with it – obviously.

The Minister of Multiculturalism at the time? None other than Christy Clark’s only caucus supporter during the leadership contest – Harry Bloy.

 

 

Could it be that Clark’s spin plan here is to step the Minister aside, and then announce that he (and thus the government) had nothing to do with it?

There are other reports showing “multicultural strategy” on the daily agendas of Premier’s Office staff. Perhaps there’s someone else who should be stepping aside.

Here’s an update:

Clark says that according to the information that she had, none of her staff were involved in the ethnic outreach document, aside from creating it.

Clark also says that there is “no evidence that public money was spent” but that “it is possible.” She further says that most of the actions contemplated in the document were not implemented.

Further update:

The spin on Haakstad’s resignation, per Clark’s statements in the legislature today, is that she resigned “without severance.”

Anticipate swipes and spin following the line that when Dix was involved in a scandal under Glen Clark, he received severance.

British Columbia, Christy Clark, Politics

Spin Alert: Just what is Christy Clark apologizing for, exactly?

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The BC cabinet has finished its non-emergency emergency meeting this evening, meeting with Premier Christy Clark, whom the media are now openly calling the “embattled premier.”

Speaking to reporters, Clark has apparently “apologized” for the “language used” in the ethnic Quick Wins document, saying that she had to “make it right.”

A few questions remain in my mind.

If Clark is apologizing for the “language used” in this document, is she not apologizing for using government funds to hire outreach staff to do work directly for the BC Liberal party?

Is she not apologizing for what appears to be using government databases to build up BC Liberal campaign databases?

Is she not apologizing for what appears to be a strategy of using personal e-mail addresses to avoid the Freedom of Information Act and keep these memos hidden?

And:

Would Christy Clark have apologized if this secret memo hadn’t been leaked?

I think there’s a hint in that this memo was written in 2011.