Time to exercise your franchise

And so, we are now just a week and a half away from the October 26 by-election to elect two new members to Coquitlam Council. Today is marked by two firsts: the first of four advance polls. And the first of two all-candidates meetings.
The advance poll is at the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex, and runs from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. The next one is Oct. 19 at the Pinetree Community Centre, followed by one on Oct. 23 back at Poirier, and then the final one on Oct. 25 at Pinetree once again. Click here to see all the times and addresses.
On election day proper, you'll be able to cast your vote at any one of 11 polling stations. Click here to see the complete list.
Tonight's all-candidates meeting is at 7 p.m. at the David Lam campus of Douglas College. The second and final all-candidates meeting is tomorrow night at Banting Middle School. Click here for the details.
A healthy voter-turnout is important for many reasons, not the least of which is because it has the positive effect of diluting the impact of the left-wing CUPE electoral machine, which has shown it can deliver a sufficient number of voters to take control of a by-election in which there is a low overall voter turnout. On the other hand, CUPE's impact in a general election is diluted because of the greater voter turnout.

Doug Macdonell and MLA Linda Reimer

And why is keeping the CUPE machine in check important? Simply because I believe that voters should be concerned that an organization with a direct and ongoing financial link to the city (which CUPE has, because it represents more than a thousand workers who are paid by the city) also fields a slate of carefully selected candidates.
Can you imagine the uproar if any other organization with a direct financial link to the city (such as Smithrite, which has a contract to deliver garbage-collection and recycling services to the city) were to field a similar slate of candidates?
For the record, the two CUPE-backed candidates in this election are Chris Wilson and Bonita Zarrillo. Both appear to be strong candidates on their own right, but when Zarrillo asked me if I would endorse her, I said that, on principle, I could not.
On the other hand, I have made public the fact that I have endorsed Doug Macdonell, whose website you can visit by clicking here. I believe that his record of accomplishment during his previous time on council warrants his return.

Some thoughts on modern morality

The Tri-Cities Now is asking its readers why they think there are so many hit-and-run crimes these days. The choices that readers can select range from "I don't know, but it's scary," to "Drivers don't want to face the consequences." I chose the latter.
The poll appears to have been sparked by the recent hit-and-run death of Annie Leung and the current trial into the hit-and-run deaths on Lougheed Highway two years ago of Lorraine Cruz and Charlene Reaveley, in which Cory Slater is facing 10 charges.
I wrote an essay at the time of the Cruz and Reaveley deaths in which I explored some of the issues surrounding the tragedy. I can't remember where the essay was published, but I do recall I read it for an Internet webcast public-affairs program, Roadkill Radio, with which I was then associated. And, so, here's the text of that essay. I'd be interested in reading what you think of it.

Does anyone other than a dwindling minority of procrustean traditionalists recognize evil anymore—personal evil, that is? Oh, sure, there’s plenty of the geopolitical variety to go around these days, especially in North Africa. And there’s more than enough being identified on the national stage by perpetually outraged critics within this country too, most notably by those on the political left, who eagerly attach the E word to everything from corporate profits and free trade to the oil sands and Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s piano playing.

But we rarely hear about individual Canadians doing “bad” things, exhibiting sinister behavior, acting wickedly, or carrying on immorally, let alone sinning.

Instead, there’s always some sort of exculpating explanation for bad behaviour. Shoplifters suffer from kleptomania; corrupt officials have succumbed to stress or have manifested a previously undiagnosed psychiatric disorder; prostitutes are victims of the patriarchy, poverty or both; juvenile delinquents are the recipients of inadequate parenting; inner-city gangsters are victims of racial discrimination; and thieves are impoverished or addicted, and, if the latter, are surely not responsible for the burden of the illness under which they are labouring. You get the picture.

Look at the website promoting the recent Pink Shirt Day/anti-bullying campaign—a cause that should easily give rise to descriptions of bullies acting wickedly, etc.—and you’ll see therapeutic twaddle aplenty along with much vigorous exhortation to get to the root of the problem, etc., but nothing about the plain and simple fact bullies are acting immorally.

Which brings me to Exhibit A, otherwise known as the spark that gave life to this particular column. You might have heard of a horrible hit-and-run accident in Coquitlam, B.C., two weeks ago which left two young women dead. In covering the aftermath of the crash, which included the laying of several charges against a suspect, including two counts of impaired driving causing death, a local newspaper turned to a clinical psychologist from Simon Fraser University for some “insight” into “what might lead someone to flee the scene” of a serious accident without giving help.

Dr. Joti Samra is quoted thusly: “Assuming that it’s a true accident, the reality is… even from the perspective of the person that caused the accident, it can be quite traumatic and cause an acute stress reaction.” Got that? Acute stress reaction.

The good doctor goes on to explain that the brain could be flooded with information and emotion that would cause a person to act unusually. “The fight or flight response is something we’re exposed to when we are faced with extreme traumatic events,” Dr. Samra concludes. “Our body kind of goes into a shock, it doesn’t know what to do.”

Notice the focus on the culprit’s body and not his mind? I suppose it’s true that this human-as-hormonal-machine answer is what you’d expect from a clinical psychologist, whose business, of course, is to produce exactly this sort of pseudo-scientific analysis. But there’s no excuse for the news media to limit their probing into human behaviour to “experts” such as Dr. Samra. Why not someone with some grasp of the profundity of human existence, someone like a novelist, a moral philosopher or a religious leader-- someone who recognizes we’re more than just pre-programmed biological machines?

To my mind, it would be a welcome relief—and far more enlightening—to hear some real  insights into moral character, the dark origins of personal cowardice, or the nature of evil in circumstances such as these. And so, for example, when asked why a driver might flee the scene of an accident in which he had struck two innocent people, a priest might comment that such a person had become alienated from God, had too easily succumbed to temptation, and had become a sinner in need of redemption.

This would be really useful information as far as I’m concerned, and might also help many readers reflect more deeply on their responsibility—indeed, their duty—to act in a moral fashion.

But, of course, in this secular, humanistic era of ours, we see very little serious discussion about evil in the public square. Perversely, one is more likely to find scintillatingly descriptive words, purring about the concept of evil, in advertisements attempting to induce a consumer to indulge in some sort of deliciously sinful wickedness for an affordable price. Moral inversion to sell chocolate pudding.

A recent full-page newspaper advertisement for Volvo is a perfect example of this lamentable trend. Emblazoned above an image of a shiny red S60 model, the ad copy informs us, “There’s more to life than a Volvo. Like raising a little hell with 300 horses, spanking corners with your all-new sport-tuned chassis. And feeling a little dangerous in a car tricked out with safety technology. That’s why you drive the all-new naughty Volvo S60.” (Emphasis added.)

A 16^th-Century proverb holds, “Evil doers are evil dreaders.” Today, however, evil doers are either the next patient for the couch or a target market.

Riverview visioning launched

I placed a note on my Facebook page yesterday about a major announcement re the future of the Riverview lands. Here is the text of the official BC government press release on the issue:

October 7th, 2013

Lace-like leaves at Riverview. (Photo by Terry O'Neill)

VICTORIA- The B.C. Government introduced a visioning process today for consulting the public and stakeholders on the future use of the Riverview lands.

The Province will work with stakeholders to establish a shared vision to guide the broader public consultations that begin in 2014.

The visioning process will be inclusive of all stakeholders and be guided by a number of over-arching principles including:

All costs associated with future use such as heritage building restoration, infrastructure upgrades and improvements, community amenities etc. must come from revenue generated from the property; a commitment to maintain as much open space as exists now; an accommodation of First Nation aspirations.

Riverview is not part of the Province’s Release of Surplus Assets for Economic Generation program. The long-term objective is to develop a master development plan for the land that balances community interests, government requirements and economic sustainability.

Media Contact:
Elaine McKay
BC Housing
778 452-6476

A resolute search for justice

In the summer of 2006, I wrote a story for the Western Standard magazine about a Vancouver dentist's attempt to win the right to launch civil suits against terrorist groups. The dentist, Sherri Wise, had special motivation: she was a victim of a terrorist bomb in 1997 while volunteering at a Jerusalem dental clinic for underprivileged children.
Today, I was pleased to read in a story on the front page of the National Post that Dr. Wise has launched a suit against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, which supported the terrorist group (Hamas) that was responsible for the attack. The notice of claim was filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday. It is the first case to be filed in Canada under this country's new anti-terrorism legislation. I sincerely hope Dr. Wise is successful.

Dr. Sherri Wise. (Photo by Terry O'Neill)

Here's the text of my 2006 story. The photo to the right is one I took of Dr. Wise during our meeting seven years ago.

A new arrow in the quiver                 

Canadian victims push for a law to allow civil suits against terrorist groups

By TERRY O’NEILL

It’s a typical tourist snapshot. Three friends, sitting around a table at an outdoor restaurant, pose for a photographer, their broad smiles filling the frame. Three friends: oblivious to the fact that, as their happy moment in Jerusalem was being captured for posterity, three Palestinian suicide bombers were on their way to the Beth Yehuda pedestrian mall in which they were sitting. Within an hour, all three would be injured, their lives scarred by the memory of that afternoon nine years ago.

The blasts, which took place at 2 p.m., September 4, 1997, killed five innocent victims as well as the bombers, and injured a total of 181 people. Sherri Wise, posing in the middle of the picture, was one of the survivors. Today, the smile still seems to come easily to the face of the Vancouver dentist, who was celebrating the successful end of a month’s volunteer work in the Israeli city when the attack took place. Wise, now 36, suffered terrible injuries—second- and third-degree burns to 40 per cent of her body, shrapnel wounds to her foot and legs, temporary hearing impairment, and the loss most of her hair—but she’s fully recovered now, save the scars she bears, both physical and emotional. “I tend to be a little sad around the anniversary, but with time, time does heal all wounds to a degree,” she says. “And the memories of it tend to fade.”

But while memories may fade, Wise’s determination to do something in response to the terror attack continues to grow. Wise is part of a small but resolute group of Canadians trying to persuade the federal government to enact legislation allowing terror survivors and the families of terror victims to launch civil suits against foreign states or domestic groups that have supported terrorist organizations responsible for killing or injuring Canadians. While in opposition last year, Conservative MP Stockwell Day introduced a private-member’s bill to allow such suits, but the bill died before being voted on. Day is now minister of public safety. He did not respond to several requests for an interview on the issue.

Three new private-member’s bills on the same subject are currently before Parliament, one in the Senate and two in the House of Commons. Of the three, the one introduced by Sen. David Tkachuk, a Conservative from Saskatchewan, has proceeded the furthest, to second-reading debate, which took place in late June. The two bills introduced into the House of Commons, by Liberal MP Susan Kadis of Ontario and Tory MP Nina Grewal of B.C., have yet to be debated.

“There’s very active lobbying on my part and on other victims of terrorism for the proposed law to get the attention that it deserves,” says Maureen Basnicki of Toronto, a founding member of the Canadian Coalition Against Terror, the main group pushing for the law. Basnicki, whose husband Ken was killed in the World Trade Center attack of September 11, 2001, is passionate about the cause. “You know, our general [Rick] Hillier once said that Canadian troops were in Afghanistan to kill scum bags,” she says. “I would like to see the ability to sue some scum bags. And that’s my description of them, really. I’m not offended by that at all.”

The U.S. amended its laws in 1996 and 1997 to allow such suits in that country, but there are two impediments to similar actions in Canada: first, the State Immunity Act protects foreign states from lawsuits; second, legal experts say no clear procedure exists for litigants to sue terrorists or their organizations. The bills currently before Parliament would level those roadblocks, but it’s not known if the government will throw its weight behind the legislation. That doesn’t mean the government is standing still in the fight against terrorism, though. On July 7, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty announced that Ottawa would spend $5 million over the next five years to establish a new permanent headquarters in Toronto for the Egmont Group, the world’s anti-money-laundering agency whose work is increasingly aimed at fighting terrorist organizations.

Speaking at a conference in New York in January, international defence expert Peter Leitner said there’s ample justification for the federal government to amend its laws to support the civil suits against terrorists. “There is something fundamentally absurd with the current legal arrangements in Canada that allows lawsuits against Iran for selling you rotten pistachios, but bars legal action against them for sponsoring terrorist acts which kill Canadian citizens abroad,” he said.

Similarly, Toronto’s Alastair Gordon, president of the Canadian Coalition for Democracies, believes the civil-suit legislation would be of great value in the fight against terrorism. “There is no single tool which will deal with the worldwide phenomenon of Islamist terrorism,” he says. “The criminal justice system is one tool, the civil courts are another tool, and of course, the armed forces are yet another tool. It is a crime of omission to deny Canadians that second tool.” Wise, for one, hopes Parliament is quick to give Canadians this tool. “I think that Canadian citizens need to know their government is behind them,” she says.

Parliament resumes sitting September 18, just a week after the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attack. To victims of terror and their families, there could be few more apt tributes to those who died on that day than for Parliament to pass the civil-suit legislation before year’s end.  

Mr. Gore, are you there?

If you're the typical Canadian, the news today, that there has been very little temperature rise over the past two decades despite increased CO2 levels in the atmosphere and despite every major climate-change model predicting big increases, will no doubt come as a shock.

But even the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has delivered highly-torqued reports (see, especially, the "Climategate" scandal) that fanned the alarmist flames in years gone by, has now, essentially, had to admit that it was wrong. Here's a link to the big story. And here's a link to an excellent story about how the IPCC's supporters tied themselves up in knots over the possibility that the new, inconvenient fact might have to be covered up to as not to give succor to climate-change skeptics.

More links: here's a link to a very revealing story about how the alarmists try to mislead the public by puffing up their credentials.

Finally, the graph here (from The National Post FP Opinion Page this morning) shows predicted temperature gains compared to actual observed temperature (from balloon and satellite recorders) over the past two decades.

And so, we must ask ourselves: If the all temperature-rise predictions have proven completely inaccurate, what else about global-warming, climate-change theory is also wrong? Mr. Gore, are you there?

Coquitlam should be rewarded for shouldering population growth

I don't have enough information to comment on whether or not Vision Vancouver is mishandling the way the City of Vancouver is proceeding with rezoning plans for several neighbourhoods--rezoning that would lead to higher densities.
However, I think it is obvious that the public pushback, which was once again in view last night (see this story) is not simply about concerns over inadequate consultation, but is also reflective of deep concerns about densification.
Coincidentally, I attended a meeting this morning, staged by Metro Vancouver and MC'd by Mayor Richard Stewart, that looked at the importance of well-planned densification and, specifically, its relationship to transit. Coquitlam is getting it right, for the most part.
Nevertheless, a major issue is that, while Coquitlam is shouldering its fair share of regional population growth by proceeding with such multi-family-centric projects as the Partington Creek neighbourhood on Burke Mountain, the ultimate success of such projects depends on getting frequent, reliable public transit into the area. And the fact is, this sort of service is lagging in areas such as Burke Mountain.

Compare that with Vancouver's situation. As the map to the right shows (and if you can't see it clearly, you can click here to see the web version), Vancouver is extremely well served by the region's Frequent Transit Network, aka FTN (the orange lines).
So here's my point: I think that if Vancouver ends up backing down on the densification rezoning and, thereby, fails to take its proper role in shouldering population growth, then Translink must seriously look at downgrading the FTN in the City of Vancouver and improving it in cities like Coquitlam that are living up to their commitments.
Vancouver shouldn't be able to have its cake and eat it too--to have a rich FTN while refusing to proceed with rezoning to allow increased densities in selected neighbourhoods. Period.

Something missing from a $2-coin

One of the bits of trivia that I enjoy sharing with friends is the fact that every Canadian coin (or so I thought) carries the inscription "D.G. Regina" around the image of the Queen. The vast majority of people have not noticed it and, even if they had, they have no idea what it means.

I'm always happy to explain that it is a shortened form of the Latin expression, "Dei Gratia Regina" which in turn means, "By the Grace of God, Queen."

I quite like the little saying, for the simple reason that it places things in perspective by telling us that even the head of state, Queen Elizabeth, is in her position only by the grace of God. By extension, it helps each and every one of us to keep our pride in check by reminding us of the nature of creation.

The coin in question. Guess what's missing.
(From mintnewsblog.com)

And so it came as a surprise earlier this summer when I noticed that a commemorative tooney I briefly had in my possession did not carry the inscription. I wondered if this was the result of a deliberate policy to start phasing out the expression--a move that, if reflective of modernization or secularization, would have been a great shame.

I therefore sent a few emails to the Canada mint, seeking an explanation. This morning, I received a satisfactory answer, from Alex Reeves, senior manager of communications. Here it is, in its entirety.:

Good morning Terry.  I believe you are referring to the 2012 $2 circulation coin commemorating the 200^th anniversary of the War of 1812.  The coin features HMS Shannon on the reverse, with the inscription The War of/La guerre de 1812 and the date 1812.  Normally, this side of the coin features the denomination and the word “CANADA”.  As these elements are mandatory on all Canadian legal tender coins, we had to move them to the obverse of the coin (around the effigy of the Queen), which meant that “D.G. Regina” had to be removed to create space.  Note that D.G. Regina is not a mandatory element of Canadian coins and that it is sometimes removed for this type of design considerations.  This was also the case with our 25-cent coins  commemorating the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games, where we had to make room for the Olympic and Paralympic logos.

Shining a light on campaign financing

I just received this press release from the BC government, re new rules for municipal elections. Interesting and important stuff. I am in agreement with the proposed rules re disclosure. In fact, I believe the rules around disclosure should go even further. For instance, anyone receiving a contribution from a person or organization with a DIRECT financial relationship with the city -- such as a garbage-collection contractor of a trade union that represents municipal workers -- should report that donation immediately, while the campaign is still underway. The public has a right to know this information before the votes are cast, not after.

NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
2013CSCD0056-001269
Aug. 21, 2013 

Ministry of Community, Sport and Cultural Development 

Modernization of local government elections 

VICTORIA - The Province is moving ahead with making changes to the rules regarding local government elections, Coralee Oakes, Minister of Community, Sport and Culural Development, announced today. 

The intended changes are the most significant to local elections legislation in nearly two decades and are a reflection of the recommendations of the joint Provincial and Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) Local Government Elections Task Force. 

Local government election rules apply to municipalities, regional districts, parks boards, the Islands Trust and boards of education. 
Local election rules will be modernized in two phases: 

* A white paper outlining government's intentions will be released in early September and legislation is scheduled to be introduced in Spring 2014 to implement task force recommendations, except expense limits, for the 2014 local elections.

 
* Consultation with key stakeholders on expense limits will be undertaken 
starting in November. This consultation will inform further legislative 
changes for the 2017 elections. 

The rules for next year's November elections will be consolidated in a proposed new act for campaign finance in local elections. Details of these changes will be included in the white paper to be released early this fall. Some highlights include: 

* Disclosure and registration by third-party advertisers. 
* Sponsorship information to be required on all election advertising. 
* All campaign finance disclosure statements to be filed 90 days after the election rather than 120 days. 
* Banning anonymous contributions. 

The proposed legislation also will enable a key role for Elections BC in compliance and enforcement of campaign finance rules in local elections. 

Quotes: 

Coralee Oakes, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development - 

"We are committed to ensuring that election participants are fully aware of any changes well in advance of the Nov. 15, 2014, local elections. These changes are about enhancing transparency and accountability." 

"UBCM was a significant partner in developing the recommendations that have informed our legislative process. We appreciate UBCM's continued advice and support as we move forward." 

Mary Sjostrom, president, Union of BC Municipalities - 

"UBCM is pleased to see that the Province is moving forward on elections legislation. The phased approach they are adopting will help ensure the changes will work for the full range of communities in B.C. All candidates will look forward to learning what the rules will be for the 2014 
campaign." 

Quick Facts: 

* Local government elections are held every three years in British Columbia. The next election is scheduled for Nov. 15, 2014. 
* The purpose of a white paper is to indicate government's direction prior to the introduction of legislation. White papers also can serve as educational tools. 
* The campaign finance rules apply to election participants including candidates, elector organizations, and third party advertisers in local elections. 
* The deadline for public comment on the white paper is Oct. 23, 2013. 
* A website link and email address will be provided when the white paper is released. 
* The Local Government Elections Task Force received well over 10,000 written indications of opinion on the topics it reviewed and on other aspects of local elections. 

Contact:

Communications
Community, Sport and Cultural Development
250 387-4089 

Connect with the Province of B.C. at: www.gov.bc.ca/connect

Yes, you can protect a neighbourhood and foster business too

I don't believe I've written a letter to the editor of any newspaper since I was elected a year-and-a-half ago. But the Tri-Cities Now's otherwise-excellent coverage of a zoning issue from Monday's council meeting left out a key element of the story, prompting me to write the following missive to the editor. (The Now's story follows my letter.)

I must congratulate the Tri-Cities Now for its detailed coverage of an important zoning decision made by Coquitlam Council on Monday ("Coquitlam upholds OCP", July 31). The depth of the coverage you provided reflects the importance of the issue with which my colleagues and I wrestled for quite some time.However, your story left out an important element: that the vote, in favour of rezoning a residential property to allow a car wash in an area designated commercial-service in the Official Community Plan, was passed only after council, acting on my suggestion, stipulated that the carwash exit would not disgourge cars into the heart of the neighbourhood. Instead, the cars will have to exit back onto Lougheed Highway.With this proviso, I believe that we accomplished two important goals: protecting the residential quality of the neighbourhood and fostering the development of business. Who says you can't have your cake and eat it too?

Coquitlam upholds OCP

City council sticks with plan, despite opposition

By Sam Smith, Coquitlam Now July 31, 2013 10:06 AM

After almost two hours of public input and another hour of council debate, a new car wash facility off Lougheed Highway is one step closer to being a reality, despite the majority of neighbours at a public hearing speaking against it.

Photo by Lisa King/NOW

While the decision affects only those near the proposed business, which would be attached to an existing Husky gas station, it's important for all Coquitlam homeowners - as several council members suggested - since it sends a clear message that the city plans to uphold its Official Community Plan (OCP), even in cases where residential development is encroaching and homeowners are against the expansion of business and commercial interests.
Council voted in a split decision to change the zoning of the lot at 801 Henderson Ave. off Lougheed Highway from residential to commercial-service, essentially approving the developer's desire to build a car wash. A final development permit has yet to be approved, but the rezoning approved the car wash in principle, despite neighbours' complaints that it will increase traffic, cause noise and lower property values.
The co-owner of the lot, Sukhjit Gill, is proposing to develop the site to include three manual washes and one automatic wash off the existing Husky gas station, to be open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tony Class, a resident at 727 Henderson Ave. next to the proposed site, said a car wash there isn't a good plan.
"From my living room window, my bedroom window, I can look down and I'll be looking right into a car wash," he said. "Put the wash behind the gas station and no one is [going to] care."
He, along with many other speakers, is also concerned about the direction the neighbourhood is taking.
"I'm worried about kids in the neighbourhood, about traffic getting backed up, and property values going down," he said.
If the car wash is approved, he added, he would like enough time to sell his home before development.
Jim Allen, the applicant working on behalf of Gill,
spoke to council about the proposed business.
Allen and others handdelivered 75 invitations and advertised in the paper, and about 25 people came to a public open house on Jan. 10, he said.
"Of the 15 who commented, nine were in favour and six opposed," he said.
From the comments, those against the car wash said it would increase traffic too much, the lot is too steep to safely build on, the wash will be too loud and it won't be profitable since another car wash is already in the area.
Commenting on those concerns, Allen said traffic flow will not drastically increase and only a 12-metre (40-foot) stretch of road on Henderson Avenue, which the wash would exit on to, will be affected.
He also said he hired an acoustic engineer who noted the noise generated will not be any louder than traffic noise already present.
Allen pointed to the city's Official Community Plan (OCP) and said this proposal is in line with Coquitlam's desire to build business, especially in this area.
The proposal is in accordance with the existing OCP, which has planned for the site to be commercial-service since at least 1990, according to city staff.

Joanne Erickson, another resident living near the proposed site, said her biggest
concern is not with property values.
"My biggest concern is I've got children," she said, stating she uses the crosswalk next to the station often. "If you've got increased traffic there I think you've got a real safety concern." After the public hearing, council debated the proposal.
Coun. Terry O'Neill said he was torn, as he believes the rezoning is a good idea in the long-term, but understands the safety concerns.
Coun. Neal Nicholson did not support the proposal, despite the OCP designating that area as commercial-service more than 20 years ago. "People have told us what they want in that neighbourhood - they want houses," he said. "I think we have to respect that and give them the neighbourhood that they're building for themselves."
Coun. Craig Hodge said the neighbourhood has to move forward with what's happening, but he doesn't like the idea of traffic exiting off to Henderson Avenue. Coun. O'Neill agreed.
Coun. Lou Sekora was less sympathetic to the residents' concerns.
"If I was to buy a house in that area, I would go to the planning department and ask them what is the community plan for that area," he said. "What would I have been told?" He would have been told it is commercial-service, city staff said.
"If I go to City Hall and it says service/commercial, I would not buy a residential house in that spot," he said. He finished by saying the development is a good idea.
Mayor Richard Stewart said he was torn, as he feels this business is in line with the city's OCP, but he knows times have changed and the area has been transforming into a residential-type neighbourhood.
"I think this is a pretty good project, and I think it's entirely consistent with the plan that was put forward 20 years ago," he said.
In the future if residents want to change the plan for the area they live in, they should bring their ideas to council, he said.
But, that still didn't change his mind that the neighbourhood is moving in a residential direction.
In the end, Couns. Nicholson, Brent Asmundson and Mayor Stewart opposed the rezoning, with the majority voting in favour.
The developer now needs to put forward a permit and have council approve it in a fourth and final reading, expected in September.

Why I support the by-election

Robinson and Reimer at their final council meeting earlier this year.

The late US president Woodrow Wilson once said, “Democracy is not so much a form of government as a set of principles.” I believe he was correct, and this is why I voted last night in favour of staging a by-election to replace Coquitlam’s two departed City Councillors, Linda Reimer and Selina Robinson, who now sit in the BC Legislature. (Happily, my vote was part of a 4-2 majority to accept Reimer and Robinson’s resignations and set in motion the process to hold a by-election, which is likely to be held in October.)

Yes, there were practical reasons—most of which involved the saving of money—for not holding the by-election. But I believe the importance of the principles that are involved in the question far outweigh issues involving the city’s finances.

I am reminded that the world “democracy” comes from the Greek word, “demos,” meaning, “people.”  And a democratic system of government is one in which a country’s political leaders are chosen by the people in regular, free, and fair elections. Thus, the holding of elections is of paramount importance in a functioning democracy.

Furthermore, the key role of citizens in a democracy is participation. It is significant that two of the more-publicized initiatives I have undertaken in my first 18 months on council involved citizen engagement. One initiative—the publishing of the names of those who voted in an election—did not receive council support; the other—the staging of electronic Town Hall Meetings—met with overwhelming success. It doesn’t really make sense, then, for me to be in favour of increased citizen engagement but opposed to a by-election.

A democracy also involves government by the rule of law. I believe the Community Charter, which governs the City’s actions here, does not intend to allow the type of gymnastics—going on an unpaid leave for six months and then resigning early in 2014 so as not to trigger a by-election—in which the opponents of the by-election would have had us engage.

After all, any definition of “leave of absence” with which I am familiar suggests that the person taking a leave has the intention of eventually returning to work. Neither Robinson nor Reimer has any intention to return to City Hall.

Those who keep focusing on the money that could be saved by not staging a by-election remind me of something Oscar Wilde said many years ago: “Nowadays,” he quipped, “people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.”

Yes, democracy's price can be high, but its value is far greater.

Public art project nears completion

Illustration of how Blake Williams' work (affixed to column) will look. 

You might remember that, almost 10 months ago now, I raised some concerns about what sort of art might come from a community-engagement project designed to promote multiculturalism while also producing a work of art for display in the new City Centre branch of the Coquitlam Public Library. Here's a link to one of the stories about my concerns. Well, on Monday evening, council will be receiving a report about the completion of the project, carried out by artist Blake Williams after extensive community collaboration, and will be asked to approve its installation. And, so, you might be wondering what I think about the work? Specifically, will I be voting to approve the installation of The Welcome Project - Migration in the library. My answer: Yes.

I've made some notes about my reason for doing so, and I'll share them with you here:

Lenses through which The Welcome Project – Migration might be judged.

Does it meet the goals of 2007 Multiculturalism Strategic Plan? That is, does it promote and communicate Coquitlam’s cultural diversity to the public, and connect with the city's diverse community to bridge the gap between individual ethnic communities and the community at large? YES. See last paragraph on page two of report for how good it made the community participants feel.

Is it Art? The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture. Meet this description? YES

Is it decorative? Serving to make something look more attractive; ornamental. Meet this description? YES.

Does it demonstrate skill and craftmanship? YES.

Is it offensive? That is, harmful or injurious. 2. likely to irritate or offend. Meet this description? NO.

Is it inspired, groundbreaking, breathtakingly original? Not really.

on the other hand....

Is it banal or pap? That is, so lacking in originality as to be obvious and boring. Meet this description? NO. It’s actually somewhat clever.

Is it propaganda? Information, esp. of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view. Meet this description? Somewhat YES, insofar as it is, by definition, being used to celebrate multiculturalism and bring people together. But it is not “biased or misleading.”

Ultimate question:

Is it great art of the sort that tourists will go out of their way to view? NO.

Did it fulfill the project’s community-engagement and multiculturalism-enhancing intentions, while adding a decorative and topical work of art to our new City Centre Library? YES 

Some perspective on the FCM

One of my colleagues on Coquitlam Council is in the news today, complaining that he was the only Coquitlam Councillor, who attended the big Federation of Canadian Municipalities conference in Vancouver that has just wrapped up, who chose to commute to the event rather than stay in a hotel downtown.
His complaint is getting a lot of traction, judging by the comments that follow this story on CKNW's website.

Since I am one of the five Council members who chose to stay downtown for three nights, I feel I must get several things on the record and provide some context.

First: this is the second such conference I have attended in a month. A few weeks ago, I travelled to Harrison to attend the Lower Mainland Local Government Association's annual convention. As well, I did not attend last year's FCM conference in Saskatchewan, and so this was my first FCM convention.

Second: Since it was taking place in Vancouver, I considered it my public duty to attend this conference, to attend the speeches, to study the resolutions, to vote on the resolutions, to attend as many of the seminars as I could, to vote for delegates and representatives, and to attend the many evening receptions that are hosted by industry representatives and other cities.

Third: Given that attendance at these conventions is not mandatory, I suppose I could have acted selfishly and or lazily and chosen not to attend--spending my time at home to work on my own personal business, visit friends and family, or simply relax and recreate. This past weekend would have been a great one for a walk in Mundy Park or a ride along the PoCo trail, but I spent it indoors, instead, at the FCM.
I could have also chosen not to stay for the evenings, but I was told (correctly, as it turned out) that these evening gatherings were important. My colleague who is complaining has been in public life for 40 years, and so most likely has all the political insights and acquaintances he will ever need, but this is just my second year in office, so I am still attempting to soak in as much information as I can.
Again, as I said above, I considered it my duty to fully participate in this conference. I will share, below, some of my notes from the FCM.

Fourth: As Mayor Richard Stewart has suggested in the CKNW story, it is next to impossible, from a physical stamina point of view, to attend all aspects of conference and also commute early in the morning and late at night. The agenda is simply exhausting. The official, working part of the events at the FCM typically started at 8 a.m. and concluded in the late afternoon. The receptions, social, and formal dinners took up the evenings well into the night. I found the networking and casual, unplanned discussions to be very important to the whole experience, providing new contacts, new insights and fresh ideas.

(Incidentally, while many out-of-town delegates took advantage of "study tours" throughout the convention, it is my understanding that our Coquitlam delegation did not enroll in any of the tours--such as "New Urbanism Bike Tour;" "Vancouver Heritage Tour;" "Housing Tour," "Port Metro Operations Centre Tour," etc.--but chose instead to attend the less-exciting my substantially more important working sessions.)

On Sunday, for example, I was at the convention hall at 7:45 a.m. for Green Party leader Elizabeth May's speech at 8:05 a.m. (on which I commented on my Facebook page). The day continued with a speech by Liberal leader Justin Trudeau, an award ceremony, the AGM (I lost count of the speeches) and election of officers of the FCM, then election of regional chairs; these tedious but necessary elections (complete with speeches from eight candidates and then a long delay because of a mechanical problem with a voting machine) lasted until well in the afternoon. I was very happy to have a hotel room to repair to, to allow me to refresh myself, change my clothes, and get ready to attend the final dinner, at which Councillor Craig Hodge played formal hosts to a table that attracted representatives from Winnipeg, Nakusp, and Saanich.

Yes, it was a lovely night, but it was yet another extremely long day that ended at 11 p.m. If I had started the day with a commute from Coquitlam, I don't think an exhausted, grumpy Terry O'Neill would have made a very good impression on my new acquaintances from the three aforementioned communities.

So, what benefit did my attendance at the FCM have? I will conclude this posting by sharing some of my rough notes from Friday and Saturday's events:

Friday
Extractive industries workshop
First presenter is from Teck, David Parker.
Mining operations have to earn and maintain a Social Licence, not just a legal permit
Issues of trust and Transparency .
Have to plan for end of project.
Six key sustainability focus areas: materials stewardship, water, biodiversity, energy, people at centre, community overall.
Re community: focus on community benefit.

Corporate sponsorship presentation
Www.sponsorshipcongress.ca is October in Calgary. Also look to sponsorshipgroup.ca which specializes in linking  up minis and sponsors. Brent@sponsorshipgroup.ca.

Munis account for one third of their business now. They are consultants. Not doing the sale.
In one building there can be hundreds of assets to sell rights to. U can raise money without selling outright naming rights. Have to show value to the buyers.

New stats: since 2006, the industry has grown 43percent. Even thru recession.
A$1.6 billion industry in Canada. 20percent is spent locally.  The big boys may have one thousand properties. 70percent is cash. 30percent of brand marketing is in sponsorship or experiential marketing.
Greatest growth has been in fairs festivals and annual events. Sports is declining.
Don't do it ad hoc. Go All the way or not. Make sure you know what constituents want. In Edmonton, eg, they were not OK with selling naming rights to exterior of park or building, but OK with selling off inside bits and pieces... Procurement can be integrated with sponsorship
U have to be in true partnership...be concerned that the companies make their money.
The centre for excellence for public sector marketing, exists.

One. Build case external and internal
Two. Develop policy
Three. Asset I'd and valuation
Four. Procurement policy
Five. Sales team external or internal? External to start, then internal... All professionally

Rick Hansen speech
Check into Planat app to rate facilities for accessibility.

James Moore speech
 95percent of Nat Museum material is not on display. Moore wants to allow local museums to borrow and get access! Maybe Coquitlam can get fed help for an actual museum!

Saturday

Delivering Smart Services session
Services and citizen interaction seminar sponsored by CISCO. Ned is speaker, from Cisco.
How to put technology to use to achieve public policy objectives.
two big ideas: a. the Internet of everything; b. ubiquity of video
A. 99percent of things still aren't connected. But people, process, data and things can be. IE process, delivering the right info to make right decisions.
Even connecting tree to Internet so u can monitor output of oxygen, need for water..
B. video changes the game re how we interact with each other. Can we add Skype to town hall meetings?
Cisco sponsors the video networking index. In Canada there will be 33million Internet users in four years.
We are using video at home. People are going to start to expect same video in city services.
It's no longer going to be enough to simply set up a website without a face to face video.
There's no reason our staff can't meet with citizens, etc, using video, if quality is outstanding and the security has to be outstanding.
Cisco has remote site box that can be set up to provide face to face video. Printer sign dox. Scan it and send it back. "you can consume a govt service without having to go to a govt office."

Mayor of Newmarket
The city tweets.
They have produced several videos, avlb on Internet website, to explain and promote the city. (Coquitlam could do more or this). They reached out and communicated on budget. Feedback from 1000 people thru social media.
Problem is how to many multiple points of entry.
Also, customers are expecting 24 hr service.

Info officer from Newmarket appears be video linkup
They have a centralized customer service call centre. Service requests can be sent to crews in the field, and they can msj back. System allows for a full start to finish tracking. The original call receiver owns the call start to finish. Thru this customer service initiative, front counter positions were eliminated-shifted to customer service centre.

Idea for Coquitlam: A direct one line connection to a city number, from which caller could select numbers one to eight to select one councillor. It will connect directly to the councillors cell phone.

Christy Clark's secret weapon

Christy Clark: A woman's edge? (Photo by Terry O'Neill)

It's taken until this long weekend for some of the best post-BC-election analysis to emerge, but I'm wondering if there's still something missing.
First, though, Brian Hutchinson in Saturday's National Post and Michael Smyth in Sunday's Province have provided extremely interesting insights into how the Liberals' superior polling told them that their dual focus, on Adrian Dix's doubtful leadership abilities and the NDP's potentially harmful economic and environmental policies, was working.
Indeed, both writers report that chief pollster Dimitri Pantazopoulos told party leaders four days before the election that the BC Liberals were on track to win 48 seats; currently, their total stands at 50. Just a few hours ago, a piece by the Canadian Press's Dirk Meissner shows how oblivious the NDP were to their looming electoral catastrophe.
Apparently, the NDP's own polling data had them winning--and winning big. The party did not realize that Dix's campaign was falling flat on its face and that Dix's mid-campaign reversal, in which he announced his opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion, was a big vote loser. (Smyth dubs Dix's announcement as the "Kinder surprise." Nice!)
I was pleasantly surprised when I heard, on election night, from a construction-industry acquaintance of mine that the shop steward at his operation had urged his fellow blue-collar union member not to vote for the NDP because their policies would kill economic growth in the province. This is something I've long believed, but had not appreciated the fact the message had gotten through to workers.
I have to think that some of this must be credited to Barbara Yaffe's tremendous mid-campaign Vancouver Sun column, "All green economy would bleed red,"  in which she itemized, in what the NDP must have considered excruciating detail, the many resource-related and other development projects the party opposed.
It's also emerging that voters didn't think Dix projected a leadership-type aura. Personally, I've seen him speak several times and was always impressed by his grasp of policy, the ease with which he can recall facts and figures, and the eloquent way he speaks.  However, he also comes across as rather goofy sometimes; this never bothered me, but it apparently bothered a great many voters, especially those who saw him during the campaign's lone televised debate, in which he was slouching and looked rather shabby.
And much has also been made about what a campaign-trail trooper Christy Clark was: about her charisma, her energy and her ability to connect with people. The lone time I saw her in person over the past month was at a late-in-the-campaign, early-morning stop at the office of Coquitlam-Maillardville B.C. Liberal candidate Steve Kim.
Clark was on message and on fire, taking time not only to rally the troops and deliver key election messages, but also to warmly greet some moms and school kids who showed up for the event. At the time, I wondered why the Liberals were bothering to deploy their leader in a riding that was "obviously" and "clearly" one they had no chance of winning. Ha! How wrong I was! (Actually, the end-of-month final count, in which absentee ballots will finally be counted, could reverse the outcome in Coquitlam-Maillardville. I'm predicting that Kim's lead over the NDP's Selina Robinson will, at the least, be cut. A full recount is likely.)
This last anecdote about Clark's ability to connect with people leads me to an observation about the BC Liberals' win that no one that I am aware of has yet to express, and that's that another factor in the victory might have been Clark's gender. It's not something I'm necessarily proposing myself, but it must be noted that recent political research in the U.S. shows that, essentially, voters are more likely to support a woman than a man.
The May edition of The Atlantic has an interesting item about this subject. Here are a few of the most pertinent sections:
"Evidence suggests that [anti-female] double standards may have once applied but don't any longer.... [Voters] tend to assume women are more trustworthy, less corruptible, and more in touch with everyday concerns... [Women] are harder to criticize than men. Sharp-edged attacks, particularly by male rivals, risk running afoul of the societal bias against, essentially, hitting a girl."
The latter declaration suggests that, even if the NDP had decided to launch attack ads against Clark, to counter the BC Liberals' attack ads against the NDP and Dix, those ads might very well have backfired.
And so, it may well be that the NDP was a "dead party walking" even as the campaign began.

The truth about taxes

Graphic from FraserInstitute.org

It's only natural for people to "want to have it all." Looking at it from the viewpoint of city government, wanting it all would mean providing more and better services to the public while also cutting taxes. The problem, of course, is that the circle cannot be squared.
The mayor noted at last weekend's E-Town Hall meeting that an equal number of participants seemed to be calling for more expenditures as were calling for cuts to spending. He did not express surprise.
Indeed, my colleagues on council and I often find ourselves performing a balancing act, trying to figure out how much we can control spending before the  "we want more services" public gets restless, and/or trying to determine how many new services we can provide before the "we want lower taxes" sector makes its concerns known.
Often when these issues arise, I find myself going back to the basic issue of affordability; that is, whether a cash-strapped, mortgaged family really can afford what is being proposed. I keep reminding my colleagues and the public that the government does not necessarily have to play such a large role in everyone's life.
This is why I have decided to share with you recent news from the Fraser Institute--news about the large percentage of people's income that goes to government. It's important stuff, and I would urge readers to click here to visit the FI site to access to the full report.
Here's the summary, as recently released by the FI (the bold-faced emphasis, below, is mine):

The Canadian Consumer Tax Index 2013

The Canadian tax system is complex and no single number can give us a complete idea of who pays how much tax. This Alert examines what has happened to the tax bill of the average Canadian family over the past 51 years. To do this, we have constructed an index of the tax bill, the Canadian Consumer Tax Index, for the period 1961 to 2012.
The Canadian Consumer Tax Index reveals that there has been a dramatic increase in the average family’s tax bill from 1961 to 2012. Among those factors is a sizeable increase in incomes over the period: 1,382 percent since 1961. Even with no changes in tax rates, the family’s tax bill would have increased substantially; growth in family income alone would have produced an increase in the tax bill from $1,675 in 1961 to $24,828 in 2012. Second, the average family faced a tax rate increase from 33.5 percent in 1961 to 42.7 percent in 2012. It is clear that taxes have become the most significant item in family budgets, and that taxes have grown more rapidly than any other single item.
In 1961, the average family spent 56.5 percent of its cash income to pay for shelter, food, and clothing. In the same year, 33.5 percent of the family’s income went to governments as tax. By 2012, the situation was reversed: the average family spent 36.9 percent of its income on the necessities of life while 42.7 percent of its income went to taxes.
The results show that the tax burden faced by the average Canadian family has risen compared with 51 years earlier. The total tax bill, which includes all types of taxes, has increased by 1,787 percent since 1961, and the tax bill has grown more rapidly than any other single expenditure item.

Coquitlam Happy with E-Town Hall Turnout

The City has issued a news release about Saturday's successful E-Town Hall meeting,  Here's the full text, below:

COQUITLAM, BC, Monday, April 22, 2013 – Coquitlam's first E-Town Hall Meeting went off without a hitch over the weekend. The meeting, which went an extra half hour to answer all the questions, saw about half its inquiries come from online participants.
"By all accounts, the E-Town Hall went very well," said Coquitlam Mayor Richard Stewart. "Engaging the public is a challenge in every city. By adding electronic and internet-based outreach, we can engage more residents, and can get higher levels of public input into important issues. People have busy lives, and we need to adapt to make sure that we can engage them where they are, and on their schedules."
The initiative, which was brought forward by Councillor Terry O'Neill, allowed Coquitlam residents to submit questions through email, Twitter or Facebook. The answers were then presented to Council in the meeting and answered via the webcast online.
"I am very pleased the public responded so positively to Council’s E-Town Hall meeting. As our population grows and becomes increasingly diverse, it is vital that we continue to seek new and better ways to facilitate such two-way communication with voters," said Councillor O'Neill. "We all want a healthy democracy, but democracy cannot thrive without the nourishment of meaningful citizen engagement."
Coquitlam residents who were unable to watch or attend the meeting on Saturday can watch the archived footage from the webcast online at coquitlam.ca/webcasts. Moving forward, City staff will be reviewing the process to determine whether additional changes or adjustments could be made to the process for future Town Hall Meetings.
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For more information, contact:
Dan McDonald
Manager Corporate Communications
604-927-3019
dmcdonald@coquitlam.ca

E-Town Hall Meeting on Saturday

Staff at City Hall are in the final stages of preparing for this weekend's E-Town Hall meeting at City Hall, and have just issued a detailed note reminding Coquitlam residents how they can participate. Here's the full text, following. I hope to see you there -- or at least hear from you on Saturday.

E-Town Hall Meeting

Your Views Are Important To Us

The City of Coquitlam is hosting its first ever E-Town Hall Meeting!

Setting priorities in the ever-changing municipal environment presents both opportunities and challenges - making it more important than ever that we hear from members of the community regarding the changes taking place in our city.
With this in mind, Mayor and Council invite interested Coquitlam residents to share their ideas and views and provide input at a Town Hall Meeting to be held on:
Date: Saturday, April 20, 2013
Time: 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Place: Council Chambers, Coquitlam City Hall, 3000 Guildford Way
How to Participate
In Person
You can attend the meeting in person and pose your questions to Council at a microphone set up in Council Chambers.
Online
Watch the Town Hall meeting online and submit your questions through one of these online methods. The online webcast of the meeting can be accessed on the City’s website at coquitlam.ca/webcasts, but the live webcast will not be accessible until 15 minutes prior to the meeting.
Note: Council will be responding to questions on the live webcast, not in direct response via Twitter, Facebook or Email.

·         Email - submit questions for Council via email (townhall@coquitlam.ca), Council will answer questions via the web broadcast for those submitting questions online.

·         Facebook - Residents can submit questions via Facebook. A Facebook event will be set up, residents can register with the event to participate. 15 minutes before the meeting begins, the wall will open for comments to be submitted. Council will answer these questions via the web broadcast (not directly on the Facebook page).

·         Twitter - Residents can submit questions via Twitter using a hashtag that will be posted one hour before the event. Council will answer these questions via the web broadcast (not directly in response to Twitter postings).

More information on this new Town Hall Meeting format and guidelines regarding creating a respectful conversation may be found online at coquitlam.ca/townhall or by contacting the City Clerks Office at 604-927-3010 or email clerks@coquitlam.ca.

Coffee, Tea, Milk Bone?

I was especially interested when I noticed a few hours ago that Maclean's had just published a big story on how Canada has quietly become a world-leading destination for unwanted dogs. The reason for my interest was twofold: 

First, while the story's headline, "How Canada became a haven for the world's unwanted dogs," is rather straightforward, the web address for the story, "macleans.ca/2013/03/28/give-us-your-mangy-masses/," is quite comical; and

Second, the Maclean's piece provides a nice bookend to an op-ed I wrote in January 2011 for the National Post after I noticed the first ripples of news coverage regarding this doggie-rescue phenomenon. The Post published my column, which I'm reproducing below, under the headline "Coffee, Tea, Milk Bone?," and provided a memorable graphic, also reproduced below, to illustrate the piece.

Brace yourself. A newspaper in Colombo, Sri Lanka recently reported that two smuggling syndicates in that

Andrew Barr's brilliant illustration for my National Post op-ed.

country are organizing a couple of boatloads of Tamils planning to set sail for Canada in order to claim refugee status. Canadians can look forward to another round of immigration debate similar to that sparked by the MV Sun Sea's arrival on Vancouver Island last summer.

Not to take anything away from these Sri Lankans, but there's another migration issue -- this one involving the sponsored transportation of alleged persecution victims from Taiwan -- which raises even more vexing questions about the duty that prosperous Westerners owe to less-fortunate inhabitants of far-away nations.

According to a little-noticed news report published late last year, volunteer workers "rescued" more than a dozen sick and abandoned youngsters from Kaohsiung City in December, took them by train to Taipei and then flew them and their escorts to Seattle. Kindred Souls Foundation, an organization based in Washington State, claims to have found loving homes for over 60 of these specimens in just one year.

North of the border, a trans-Pacific "rescue" organization in Richmond, B.C., is involved in similar work. All in all, volunteers have saved some 1,470 suffering souls from Taiwan since 2004 and placed them in new homes in Canada and the United States. Many of those rescued were in such poor condition that they needed specialized psychological and medical treatment.

Did I mention that the Richmond organization is called Ocean Dog Rescue and that, as with the Kindred Souls group, all the "individuals" it rescues are stray dogs? Bet you didn't see that coming. (You did? Oh well, I guess the illustration gave it away.)

I've got nothing against dogs and their owners, but devoting thousands of hours and spending tens of thousands of dollars on transportation, medical and other services to fly some mutts half way around the world strikes me as a massive misuse of resources. And just think of the global-warming paw-print!

Yes, it does appear that Taiwan very poorly enforces its relatively new animal-protection laws, with one result being that the average lifespan of a stray is just two years. And, yes, dogs there are routinely slaughtered for their meat -- all of which gives PR-savvy dog-protection groups, including PETA, plenty of grist for their rescue campaigns.

But, at a time when there is still so much human misery in the world, this strikes me as a blatant example of misplaced priorities.

Humane treatment of animals is one thing, but it is another to take extravagant measures to save the lives of homeless dogs so they can "regain a sense of self," as the Kindred Souls folks would have it.

Somewhat disturbingly, I find myself in agreement with otherwise unhinged Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who made a valid point when he declared -- in reaction to news that West Germans were feting an octopus that correctly predicted the outcome of last summer's World Cup games -- that the clamour over such a creature was a symbol of cultural decadence and decay.

The transoceanic canine airlift might not be so disconcerting were it not for other recent instances of squishiness in our thinking about animals, especially the cute kind. We learned a few days ago, for example, that a Vancouver outfit called A Better Life Dog Rescue is on the receiving end of an undoubtedly expensive bi-monthly shipment of unwanted dogs from California.

And who in B.C. can forget the interminable debate over how best to rid the campus of the University of Victoria of a plague of feral rabbits? In that case, protesters succeeded in preventing the use of traditional pest-eradication measures, leading to the deployment of several relocation efforts. According to one report late last month, the final 75 of the rabbits to be "rescued" were being held in a livestock barn in Vancouver, awaiting shipment to an outfit called "the Precious Life Animal Sanctuary" in Washington State, where they will presumably pass the rest of their lives in hare heaven.

To which my only response is to quote the great G.K. Chesterton. "There are some desires," he wrote, "that are not desirable."

Maximize freedom of expression

Korean and English signs, North Road/Austin.

This afternoon, my council colleagues and I received an email from a Coquitlam resident who is upset with the growing number of non-English signs in the Austin-North Road area. The resident called on City Council to take immediate action to ensure that signage is in English. The note declared, "...something needs to be done now before it gets any worse." Here is my response:

Thanks for your note re foreign-language signage. We read about language issues most often in relation to Quebec's stringent pro-French laws. Whenever I think about the situation there, I recall the fundamental principle of freedom of expression that is embedded in our Charter. Quebec has skirted the Charter, however, by invoking the notwithstanding clause, which is any province's right.

Here in BC, I think we have a greater respect for free speech, free expression and free thought, and we are not so threatened by "other" languages. Personally, I also like to see free markets at work, and do not want to micromanage people's businesses. I therefore would view any attempt to force business operators to advertise in English as an unjustifiable assault on some of the basic freedoms that we so cherish in Canada.

UPDATE (March 15): Some Richmond residents are in the news this morning, complaining there's too much Chinese-language signage in that community. They will be appearing before Richmond council next week, armed with a 1,000-name petition, calling for mandatory English or French content.

Horne stands with Clark

You might have seen a story in yesterday's Coquitlam Now, headlined with the declaration that BC Liberal MLA Doug Horne was refusing to support Premier Christy Clark. The exact words were, "Horne won't back premier." I was quite surprised to see those words, and in carefully reading through the text of the story, I concluded that there was a strong possibly Horne had been misunderstood.

Today, Horne, who represents the riding in which I live, made it clear that he continues to support Premier Clark. He has now released the text of a letter he has sent to the editor of the Now, setting the record straight. Given the import of this issue, I have concluded that it would be in the public interest for me to share the full text with readers of this blog, so here goes:

Horne released this photo today to show his support for Clark

I feel that it is important for me to set the record straight and clarify my position. The headline that appeared on the front page of Wednesday’s NOW is misleading and simply not true. I do support Premier Christy Clark and our Party. I am and will be the BC Liberal Candidate for Coquitlam – Burke Mountain. Based upon my record of service to our community, including the Evergreen Line, new and expanded schools, more beds at Eagle Ridge Hospital and funding for local arts, sports and community organizations , I hope to be re-elected May 14^th and have the privilege to continue to serve as your MLA in Victoria.

Douglas Horne, MLA Coquitlam – Burke Mountain

Celebrate Coquitlam River success

Page from the City's Coquitlam River Water Quality Monitoring Report

Ponderous, doom-and-gloom predictions from the sky-is-falling eco-hysterical crowd are routine fare in the mainstream media, even as increasing scientific evidence shows that we have reason for optimism. I’ve been chronicling many of the good-news reports over the past year on my Facebook page.  And I certainly hope to add another link to this list of good-news stories tomorrow, when our two local newspapers publish. [Yup, here's a link to the Tri-City News' story. And here's a link to the Now's story.]

That’s because the City of Coquitlam has just released a report finding that, contrary to the impression left by the annual ritual of naming the Coquitlam River to the list of the province’s “most endangered rivers,” the river is actually exceedingly healthy.

I personally am gratified with this finding because, as chair of the Coquitlam River Aggregate Committee (which seeks to balance the needs of the important gravel-extraction operations along the river, with those of the environment), I stuck my neck out last spring when Mark Angelo, Rivers Chair of the Outdoor Recreation Council, once again slapped the “endangered” label on the river.

I responded by saying that everything I was hearing at the committee—from groups as diverse as our own environmental experts to the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans—had led me to conclude that the river was not, in fact, endangered. My decision to speak up, for the good work that had been done by the committee and many others, led to no small bit of controversy.

It also led directly to my decision to press the City to conduct its own, unique water-quality tests. After all,  the City has a great many storm-sewer outfalls that pour water directly into the river; it only made sense that we should know what’s coming out of them.

Yesterday, we found out.  The Coquitlam River Water Quality Monitoring Update report declares that “sampling results for the 2012 Coquitlam River water quality monitoring program indicate overall positive watershed health, with the majority of parameters being achieved at all locations during both dry and wet weather conditions.”  Significantly, the few problems that were identified (slightly low dissolved oxygen levels throughout the river and an elevated dissolved-copper level in the Riverbend area) cannot be attributed to the aggregate operators.

Let there be no misunderstanding: this is great news! It shows that the gravel operators are acting responsibly; it shows that committed, focused efforts by government workers, environmentalists, nature lovers and ordinary volunteers can make a difference; and it shows that the Coquitlam River is alive, vibrant and healthy. Truly, this is something to celebrate.