An eagle eye Beatles fan is being credited with breaking up a robbery in progress along the world famous Matthew Street in Liverpool, England.
It seems that man from Dallas, Texas doing a little Beatles related web surfing, came across the Matthew Street web cam, clicked on it and watched a number of societies miscreants go about breaking into a Sporting goods store.
Being a good web citizen he called the Liverpool police, who after probably shaking their heads a bit, dispatched a patrol unit to the store and caught the young ooligans red handed.
The Liverpool police were no doubt singing a verse from A Little Help from My Friends as they slapped on the cuffs and hauled the three off to jail.
Friday, August 25, 2006
The Slow boats to Rupert
The quest by B. C. Ferries to replace the sunken Queen of the North is progressing on at a seemingly glacial speed, as discussions to acquire the Sonia to be the next coastal connector gets down to the fine print and possibly that fine art of playing one bid up against the other. According to the front page story in the Daily News on Friday, some sources are suggesting that another company is bidding to purchase the Sonia, possibly driving up the price in the process.
Regardless of what is really the reason, the grand announcement by B. C. Ferries of a replacement acquisition has been pushed back at least a week. In addition to the possible purchase of the Sonia, the Ferry Corporation is working on a plan B, possibly The Atlantic Traveller, that will ensure that a vessel is on the coast by the New Year.
The way the Sonia saga has dragged on, Plan B may quickly move into Plan A status.
The Daily News had the latest episode of Everyone loves Sonia, under the masthead in its Friday edition.
SONIA DEAL AFLOAT BUT DELAYED SAYS FERRIES
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Friday August 25, 2006
Page One
On the day that B. C. Ferries was hoping to announce the purchase of a new northern vessel, the company has pushed back its deadline by at least a week and is continuing to tout a ‘Plan B’.
Ferries stakeholders were told yesterday that the company hoped to complete the purchase of the 117-metre Sonia by noon today.
The ship is currently managed by TTT Tomasos Transport and Tourism, part of Italy’s Tomasos Group, and is based in Spain.
“We are still doing final negotiations and just waiting for some paperwork, “ said Deborah Marshall, B. C. Ferries spokesperson this morning.
She said the company hopes to make an announcement within the next week.
Some sources have suggested another company is also bidding to purchase the Sonia, potentially driving up the price. However, Prince Rupert Mayor Herb Pond says he’s been told it has more to do with tracking down the appropriate people.
“My understand is they are very, very close and that their perception of the challenge of closing this deal has far more to do with European approaches to summer vacation.
“The people they are dealing with are in Italy and it’s summer.”
During yesterday’s stakeholder conference call, B. C. Ferries said again that they do have a ‘Plan B’ to provide full service next summer.
“The one thing David Hahn has always stressed is they do have a Plan B. they have a chartered vessel they are going to hold to it … until they have a chartered vessel in hand,” said Pond.
North Coast MLA Gary Coons said the second option that has been discussed would be a lease arrangement.
“Plan B was to go with a vessel that listed in their search report to the B. C. Ferries Commissioner,” said Coons.
“The Atlantic Traveller”
In the report, B. C. Ferries had three top choices listed, the Sonia, as their second choice, the Atlantic Traveller, their third choice, and their first choice, the Nissos Mykonos.
“I don’t know the total plan for Plan B but I would suggest it would require a new build (in the long run,)” said Coons. “The timeline for this is very disturbing for us.”
According to the B. C. Ferry Commissioners report, the Sonia would be more costly to operate over the long term than building a new ship but would cost less initially and solve the immediate need for vessel on the Inside Passage.
“When all costs of putting this (used) vessel into service were considered, including modifications to the vessel and to the terminal facilities, its cost is estimated at $204 million, including $33.4 million for terminal capital expenditures,” wrote Martin Crilly, the B. C. Ferry Commissioner in his report.
“The operating costs were expected to be much higher than for a new vessel.”
The cost to construct a new vessel was estimated to be around $233 million, however over 40 years it would cost $35 million less to operate a new vessel, he said.
Buy Low, Spam High
They pop up in your mailbox about as frequently as the latest offer of offshore Viagra, the chance to help an African widow sneak her husband's bank account out of the country or the latest fake message from eBay asking for account verification.
But for internet spammers there actually is some money to be made in offering up penny stock tips like this example below.
The BBC website provides a fascinating look at how these unsolicited e mailing spammers are collecting dividends on the old principle of buy low, sell high, in this case it’s more like buy low, spam high. Having forced the price of questionable stocks up by touting them unsolicited to the billions of users of the internet world wide, they then sit back and unload their stocks.
These folks typically buy their stocks, then the next day launch their massive bulk mailing of “hot tips” to those foolhardy enough to take a flyer on their folly. The one day burst of activity is good enough to push the stock price up ever so slightly, giving them a chance to cash in, move their stock and then move on to the next big tip and the next school of fish swimming in the internet ocean.
The spammers are making typically 4.9 to 6% gains on their stocks when they sell, while the responder to the mass mailings typically lose 8% of their investment in just two days. On average, those that take the "hot tip" and call up their brokers or click on a day trader website, lose $52.50 for every $1000 that they invest. That of course is the total on the stock, the broker fees to buy and sell tack on some more cost to the faint hopes of getting rich quick.
This on line form of stock phishing accounts for 15% of the 730 million spam e mails sent out weekly, though some observers say that is a rather low estimate of the amount of financial spamming going on these days. Suggesting that there are quite a number of folks out there in internet land willingly handing their money over to quick buck artists who are raking it in at the click of a mouse.
Best defence to keep your money close and your spamming tipsters at more than an arms length is simple. Before you hit reply and then send, hit delete.
But for internet spammers there actually is some money to be made in offering up penny stock tips like this example below.
The BBC website provides a fascinating look at how these unsolicited e mailing spammers are collecting dividends on the old principle of buy low, sell high, in this case it’s more like buy low, spam high. Having forced the price of questionable stocks up by touting them unsolicited to the billions of users of the internet world wide, they then sit back and unload their stocks.
These folks typically buy their stocks, then the next day launch their massive bulk mailing of “hot tips” to those foolhardy enough to take a flyer on their folly. The one day burst of activity is good enough to push the stock price up ever so slightly, giving them a chance to cash in, move their stock and then move on to the next big tip and the next school of fish swimming in the internet ocean.
The spammers are making typically 4.9 to 6% gains on their stocks when they sell, while the responder to the mass mailings typically lose 8% of their investment in just two days. On average, those that take the "hot tip" and call up their brokers or click on a day trader website, lose $52.50 for every $1000 that they invest. That of course is the total on the stock, the broker fees to buy and sell tack on some more cost to the faint hopes of getting rich quick.
This on line form of stock phishing accounts for 15% of the 730 million spam e mails sent out weekly, though some observers say that is a rather low estimate of the amount of financial spamming going on these days. Suggesting that there are quite a number of folks out there in internet land willingly handing their money over to quick buck artists who are raking it in at the click of a mouse.
Best defence to keep your money close and your spamming tipsters at more than an arms length is simple. Before you hit reply and then send, hit delete.
Funding fears raise questions
Urban First Nations are asking questions about a new provincial government initiative, the program called the New Relationship Trust earmarks 100 million dollars to strengthen First Nations communities. The money is expected to be forwarded to the original First Nations communities, which has those living in urban areas concerned that they won’t have their issues addressed in the urban environment.
The Daily News had a page one story on the percolating issue.
URBAN FIRST NATIONS QUESTION NEW FUND
By Sarah Fox
The Daily News
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Pages One and Two
Urban First Nations are concerned they are being left out of the governments $100 million New Relationship.
Their comments were heard yesterday at Nisga’a Hall, during discussions about the fund set aside by the provincial government under the New Relationship Trust, which is meant to strengthen First Nations communities.
Jacob Beaton of Copper Moon, who gave a presentation outlining the objectives of the board currently involved in managing the $100 million trust, did not hesitate to inform the people in attendance that the trust is bound by law to be spent to foster communication and relationship building between reserve-based or original First Nations communities and the provincial government regarding such issues as economic development.
“When you look at the language, it is currently targeted at reserves or I guess other First Nations communities and essentially what they are looking for are places like Masset, New Aiyansh, Kitkatla and places that are, yes, reserves, but the original community sites I suppose,” said Beaton.
This was a major cause of concern for those who attended the meeting because, as Frank Alexcee, elected official of the Nisga’a government said, 60 per cent of First Nations peoples live off reserves.
“I expected that there would be a lot of concerns from this community about the lack of support or lack of language to support urban First Nations… from what I understand the direction of the board is that (the trust) is for rural communities, this is for reserves … but what happened today is people had a lot to say about what’s going on in urban communities, but we’re listening and that’s our job,” said Beaton.
Alexcee was quick to point out the hardships that urban First Nations face one they leave the reservations for education or jobs.
“Once you leave the reserve or up there, there’s a line there, and everything stops there,” said Alexcee.
“What we get here in (Prince Rupert), we have to fight for, everything we have, including this building, we have to fight for by ourselves.
“Sixty per cent of our people live off reserve … why is that … we’re leaving because of education and work.
“Now, when you talk about $100 million for the reserve people … what about $1000 million for the urban people? It should be $200 million because 60 per cent of us are off and I don’t think we’re ever going back … so we need to look at, seriously, how can you accommodate people off reserves as much as what you’re doing for the ones that are on reserves.”
Alexcee said that urban First Nations have extreme barriers to education and training due to a lack of funds.
Eddie Gladstone, a concerned First Nations Rupertite agreed with Alexcee saying:” We don’t get anything once we’re off the reserve.”
May Nichols, another concerned Prince Rupert citizen, said that First Nations people need good health care for seniors whether they are on or off reserve.
“You can’t live beside a hospital on every reserve but if you come to Prince Rupert or an area that’s not on reserve, senior citizens need to have a place to stay,” said Nichols.
“There’s nothing for First Nations senior citizens in the way of a First Nations senior citizen’s nursing home or care.
“Another thing that might be needed in this area if you aren’t close to a hospital is for the mentally handicapped or disabled people on reservations to get help that is not necessarily available to them on the reservation.”
During the rest of the meeting the group came up with challenges and barriers within their community – Prince Rupert – that the board governing the trust fund should be concerned with.
Some of the challenges that came up were: a lack of an urban voice; money for urban First Nations peoples; lack of a voice from this region; lack of care for elders and youth; a high poverty level, especially for single moms and not enough funds allocated to help First Nations entrepreneurs start their businesses.
Some of the barriers identified were: money: too many bureaucratic layers in the government leading to people falling through the cracks; trying to get money for vocational training and getting stuck in the welfare cycle where as long as you are collecting welfare there are difficulties in finishing high school as an adult. Beaton closed the consultation session by noting all the concerns that were voiced in his laptop computer and then handing out a comprehensive survey on what participants in the discussion thought should be done with the $100 million New Relationship Trust.
Northcoast MLA Gary Coons will have copies of that survey in his office for anybody who is interested in completing one.
The Daily News had a page one story on the percolating issue.
URBAN FIRST NATIONS QUESTION NEW FUND
By Sarah Fox
The Daily News
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Pages One and Two
Urban First Nations are concerned they are being left out of the governments $100 million New Relationship.
Their comments were heard yesterday at Nisga’a Hall, during discussions about the fund set aside by the provincial government under the New Relationship Trust, which is meant to strengthen First Nations communities.
Jacob Beaton of Copper Moon, who gave a presentation outlining the objectives of the board currently involved in managing the $100 million trust, did not hesitate to inform the people in attendance that the trust is bound by law to be spent to foster communication and relationship building between reserve-based or original First Nations communities and the provincial government regarding such issues as economic development.
“When you look at the language, it is currently targeted at reserves or I guess other First Nations communities and essentially what they are looking for are places like Masset, New Aiyansh, Kitkatla and places that are, yes, reserves, but the original community sites I suppose,” said Beaton.
This was a major cause of concern for those who attended the meeting because, as Frank Alexcee, elected official of the Nisga’a government said, 60 per cent of First Nations peoples live off reserves.
“I expected that there would be a lot of concerns from this community about the lack of support or lack of language to support urban First Nations… from what I understand the direction of the board is that (the trust) is for rural communities, this is for reserves … but what happened today is people had a lot to say about what’s going on in urban communities, but we’re listening and that’s our job,” said Beaton.
Alexcee was quick to point out the hardships that urban First Nations face one they leave the reservations for education or jobs.
“Once you leave the reserve or up there, there’s a line there, and everything stops there,” said Alexcee.
“What we get here in (Prince Rupert), we have to fight for, everything we have, including this building, we have to fight for by ourselves.
“Sixty per cent of our people live off reserve … why is that … we’re leaving because of education and work.
“Now, when you talk about $100 million for the reserve people … what about $1000 million for the urban people? It should be $200 million because 60 per cent of us are off and I don’t think we’re ever going back … so we need to look at, seriously, how can you accommodate people off reserves as much as what you’re doing for the ones that are on reserves.”
Alexcee said that urban First Nations have extreme barriers to education and training due to a lack of funds.
Eddie Gladstone, a concerned First Nations Rupertite agreed with Alexcee saying:” We don’t get anything once we’re off the reserve.”
May Nichols, another concerned Prince Rupert citizen, said that First Nations people need good health care for seniors whether they are on or off reserve.
“You can’t live beside a hospital on every reserve but if you come to Prince Rupert or an area that’s not on reserve, senior citizens need to have a place to stay,” said Nichols.
“There’s nothing for First Nations senior citizens in the way of a First Nations senior citizen’s nursing home or care.
“Another thing that might be needed in this area if you aren’t close to a hospital is for the mentally handicapped or disabled people on reservations to get help that is not necessarily available to them on the reservation.”
During the rest of the meeting the group came up with challenges and barriers within their community – Prince Rupert – that the board governing the trust fund should be concerned with.
Some of the challenges that came up were: a lack of an urban voice; money for urban First Nations peoples; lack of a voice from this region; lack of care for elders and youth; a high poverty level, especially for single moms and not enough funds allocated to help First Nations entrepreneurs start their businesses.
Some of the barriers identified were: money: too many bureaucratic layers in the government leading to people falling through the cracks; trying to get money for vocational training and getting stuck in the welfare cycle where as long as you are collecting welfare there are difficulties in finishing high school as an adult. Beaton closed the consultation session by noting all the concerns that were voiced in his laptop computer and then handing out a comprehensive survey on what participants in the discussion thought should be done with the $100 million New Relationship Trust.
Northcoast MLA Gary Coons will have copies of that survey in his office for anybody who is interested in completing one.
Fish Derby Truck Winner finally announced
They were a couple of days behind schedule, but after going over their records the organizers of the Great Northern Salmon Classic have finally awarded their bright yellow truck.
The mid way prize was originally awarded on Sunday, but after a number of protests were lodged the organizers disqualified their original winner, sending them back to their records to find the next best candidate to drive home the Dodge Dakota.
For the record, an apparently verified and correct, the winner was John Karsten
of Houston, B. C. who won the truck with an 18.56 pound coho.
The Daily News had a full explanation (well everything but why the original fish was disqualified) of the confusion and the announcement of the eventual winner in its Wednesday edition.
DERBY IN HIGH GEAR AS TRUCK WINNER NAMED
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, August 23, 2006.
Pages One and Three
A Houston man’s 18.56 pound coho has won him a Dodge Dakota truck, and if no larger coho is caught, he could exchange that for a $100,000 grand prize at the close of the Great Northern Salmon Classic.
“The person who has won at least the truck is John Karsetn of Houston,” said Bruce Wishart executive director of Tourism Prince Rupert. “His fish is 18.56 dressed.”
Karsten caught his fish in week two of the six-week fishing derby.
The fist largest fish in that category was disqualified from the derby by judges his weekend putting Karsten in the lead.
In the redistribution of prizes, following the disqualification, Karsten also claims the prize for the largest coho of week two, taking home a Getaway vacation package.
“I talked to Karsten last nigh. He was quite pleased. That’s the fun part of this job – telling people they’ve won these prizes,” said Wishart.
Under the derby rules, no great grand prize is awarded until Sept. 16 when the derby closes, said Wishart.
Only one great grand prize is awarded per fish, so if Karsten’s coho keeps its current place, he would then have to decide what prize he wants to claim.
“Technically, if he was largest coho of the derby, he would then have to decide which he would prefer to have - $100,000 or a Dodge Dakota,” said Wishart.
Meanwhile, Tourism Prince Rupert is not releasing the reason the other fish was disqualified.
“I can’t really comment on any fish that has been disqualified other that to say the judges looked at it, investigated it and it was determined it wasn’t an eligible salmon. I honestly don’t know beyond that and I don’t need to,” said Wishart.
The mechanism we have in place is we have witnesses who say they saw the fish caught using the proper gear and in the proper area. We allow fish to be weighed in if those conditions are met. If anyone challenges a fish, and says that the reason it was not caught in that manner – as long a they are willing to put that in writing – the judging panel forms a tribunal and establishes whether or not they feel it’s eligible.”
Prize winners for week one of the derby include Jeff Gladstone, largest Chinook - $500, Stephanie Haddad, largest pink under 18 - $500 and Marie-Ann Malfaire, largest coho – a Getaway vacation package.
In week two Kevin Wiley had the largest Chinook, Kristine West, under 18, the largest pink and John Karsten the largest coho.
In week three, Patrick Reilly had the largest Chinook, Katlyn O’Brien and the largest pink and Dorothy Briere had the largest coho.
The mid way prize was originally awarded on Sunday, but after a number of protests were lodged the organizers disqualified their original winner, sending them back to their records to find the next best candidate to drive home the Dodge Dakota.
For the record, an apparently verified and correct, the winner was John Karsten
of Houston, B. C. who won the truck with an 18.56 pound coho.
The Daily News had a full explanation (well everything but why the original fish was disqualified) of the confusion and the announcement of the eventual winner in its Wednesday edition.
DERBY IN HIGH GEAR AS TRUCK WINNER NAMED
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, August 23, 2006.
Pages One and Three
A Houston man’s 18.56 pound coho has won him a Dodge Dakota truck, and if no larger coho is caught, he could exchange that for a $100,000 grand prize at the close of the Great Northern Salmon Classic.
“The person who has won at least the truck is John Karsetn of Houston,” said Bruce Wishart executive director of Tourism Prince Rupert. “His fish is 18.56 dressed.”
Karsten caught his fish in week two of the six-week fishing derby.
The fist largest fish in that category was disqualified from the derby by judges his weekend putting Karsten in the lead.
In the redistribution of prizes, following the disqualification, Karsten also claims the prize for the largest coho of week two, taking home a Getaway vacation package.
“I talked to Karsten last nigh. He was quite pleased. That’s the fun part of this job – telling people they’ve won these prizes,” said Wishart.
Under the derby rules, no great grand prize is awarded until Sept. 16 when the derby closes, said Wishart.
Only one great grand prize is awarded per fish, so if Karsten’s coho keeps its current place, he would then have to decide what prize he wants to claim.
“Technically, if he was largest coho of the derby, he would then have to decide which he would prefer to have - $100,000 or a Dodge Dakota,” said Wishart.
Meanwhile, Tourism Prince Rupert is not releasing the reason the other fish was disqualified.
“I can’t really comment on any fish that has been disqualified other that to say the judges looked at it, investigated it and it was determined it wasn’t an eligible salmon. I honestly don’t know beyond that and I don’t need to,” said Wishart.
The mechanism we have in place is we have witnesses who say they saw the fish caught using the proper gear and in the proper area. We allow fish to be weighed in if those conditions are met. If anyone challenges a fish, and says that the reason it was not caught in that manner – as long a they are willing to put that in writing – the judging panel forms a tribunal and establishes whether or not they feel it’s eligible.”
Prize winners for week one of the derby include Jeff Gladstone, largest Chinook - $500, Stephanie Haddad, largest pink under 18 - $500 and Marie-Ann Malfaire, largest coho – a Getaway vacation package.
In week two Kevin Wiley had the largest Chinook, Kristine West, under 18, the largest pink and John Karsten the largest coho.
In week three, Patrick Reilly had the largest Chinook, Katlyn O’Brien and the largest pink and Dorothy Briere had the largest coho.
Thursday, August 24, 2006
Many hours of discussion to come before any of Kitimat’s pipelines are turned on.
The proponents of the Enbridge Gateway pipeline from Kitimat to the Athabaska tar sands of Alberta may wish to catch up on their reading.
A story in the latest on line edition of The Tyee, suggests that the approval process for the much touted pipeline is not quite a fait accompli.
From a lack of consultation with First Nations to troubles with foreign markets, not to mention the upcoming battles with environmentalists over the proposal of tanker traffic along the north coast, the net result thus far is that the entire project has already lost some of its competitive time frame advantage.
The Enbridge proposal is but one of three separate proposals to move Alberta’s black gold to a Pacific port at Kitimat, and all are going to run into basically the same problems before one metre of pipe is put into the ground.
One assumes that any similar projects suggested for the Prince Rupert area would also have to be cognizant of the same amount of concerns and obligations that the three Kitimat projects are currently discovering.
Key to any development is the ability to find the funding to make it work and some of the financial lenders are already suggesting that these projects may not ultimately provide their designers with a successful return on their investment and may be more ambitious than financially sensible.
It’s an interesting article that Tyee has put together, one which goes to show that no matter how many grand projects can be announced, unless the proper groundwork is laid, many of them end up as just grand dreams.
A story in the latest on line edition of The Tyee, suggests that the approval process for the much touted pipeline is not quite a fait accompli.
From a lack of consultation with First Nations to troubles with foreign markets, not to mention the upcoming battles with environmentalists over the proposal of tanker traffic along the north coast, the net result thus far is that the entire project has already lost some of its competitive time frame advantage.
The Enbridge proposal is but one of three separate proposals to move Alberta’s black gold to a Pacific port at Kitimat, and all are going to run into basically the same problems before one metre of pipe is put into the ground.
One assumes that any similar projects suggested for the Prince Rupert area would also have to be cognizant of the same amount of concerns and obligations that the three Kitimat projects are currently discovering.
Key to any development is the ability to find the funding to make it work and some of the financial lenders are already suggesting that these projects may not ultimately provide their designers with a successful return on their investment and may be more ambitious than financially sensible.
It’s an interesting article that Tyee has put together, one which goes to show that no matter how many grand projects can be announced, unless the proper groundwork is laid, many of them end up as just grand dreams.
The cult of Colbert
It used to be that Howard Stern thought of himself as the “King of all Media”, but perhaps there is a new contender for the title. Exiled off to satellite radio, Stern may just be yesterday’s golden oldie; the new champion of the media world could very well be Stephen Colbert!
In the last year, his spin off from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show has slowly but surely become something of appointment television for those wishing to not only be in the know, but be entertained while they gain their knowledge.
The Colbert Report, a late night parody of such news staples as the O’Reilly Factor, is quickly taking the world of satire to new elevations.
Colbert is the host of an O’Reilly type inquisition show, taking on the righteousness of Bill himself in his investigations in quest of his trademark truthiness. Following Stewarts Daily Show each night, the fast paced half hour delivers knock out blows to the pompous, the arrogant and the down right dumb assess out there.
On other occasions the simple facts are made quite clear in a humourous and entertaining fashion, which should scare the hell out of anyone in politics, since if you can make them laugh while they’re getting mad, you own their souls.
The best example that I’ve seen of Colbert’s weaving of current affairs and comedy came with a recent appearance by Neil Young on the program (see clip below). Facing the full attack of the Colbert bluster, Young made a simple but powerful point about the current war in Iraq and how it has sidetracked the US from its main goal post 9-11, that of tracking down Osama Bin Laden and his followers. Young followed that up with a rendition of a currently popular protest song in the USA and it was about the best seven minutes of good ole fashioned political satire and free speech seen in a long time, it was something that would have made the Smothers Brothers proud.
It’s that kind of pop culture satire that will do more to awaken the population than all the polls, focus groups and rock the vote ads combined.
Such is Colbert’s power that in the past he has commanded his legions to re-write history by suggesting that there are more elephants in the world than ever. By sending the Colbert crew off to Wikpedia, he used the newest shiny toy of the internet to point out how easy it could be to manipulate information.
His latest conquest is his bid to have a bridge in Bulgaria named after him, it seems the government is holding an internet poll on the naming of the new bridge and the Colbert cult has responded in great numbers. Colbert has topped his old boss in the polls and put the boots to famed television tough guy Chuck Norris, the talking head is far ahead!
Now he turns his attention to the current world wide fascination with YouTube, by trying to have himself enshrined in YouTube lore as a viral warrior. Colbert is hoping to have his visage placed into the highest YouTube rotation fighting a light saber battle. And those fine followers of Colbert have responded in the multitudes, Colbert himself will select the winning YouTube presentation of his heroic deeds.
While his popularity grows and the votes and YouTube presentations roll in, one thing is certain, whether Colbert is either playing the role of Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader will depend on who you are talking to or who has been knocked off their perch by the flick of a verbal Colbert light saber.
In the last year, his spin off from Jon Stewart’s Daily Show has slowly but surely become something of appointment television for those wishing to not only be in the know, but be entertained while they gain their knowledge.
The Colbert Report, a late night parody of such news staples as the O’Reilly Factor, is quickly taking the world of satire to new elevations.
Colbert is the host of an O’Reilly type inquisition show, taking on the righteousness of Bill himself in his investigations in quest of his trademark truthiness. Following Stewarts Daily Show each night, the fast paced half hour delivers knock out blows to the pompous, the arrogant and the down right dumb assess out there.
On other occasions the simple facts are made quite clear in a humourous and entertaining fashion, which should scare the hell out of anyone in politics, since if you can make them laugh while they’re getting mad, you own their souls.
The best example that I’ve seen of Colbert’s weaving of current affairs and comedy came with a recent appearance by Neil Young on the program (see clip below). Facing the full attack of the Colbert bluster, Young made a simple but powerful point about the current war in Iraq and how it has sidetracked the US from its main goal post 9-11, that of tracking down Osama Bin Laden and his followers. Young followed that up with a rendition of a currently popular protest song in the USA and it was about the best seven minutes of good ole fashioned political satire and free speech seen in a long time, it was something that would have made the Smothers Brothers proud.
It’s that kind of pop culture satire that will do more to awaken the population than all the polls, focus groups and rock the vote ads combined.
Such is Colbert’s power that in the past he has commanded his legions to re-write history by suggesting that there are more elephants in the world than ever. By sending the Colbert crew off to Wikpedia, he used the newest shiny toy of the internet to point out how easy it could be to manipulate information.
His latest conquest is his bid to have a bridge in Bulgaria named after him, it seems the government is holding an internet poll on the naming of the new bridge and the Colbert cult has responded in great numbers. Colbert has topped his old boss in the polls and put the boots to famed television tough guy Chuck Norris, the talking head is far ahead!
Now he turns his attention to the current world wide fascination with YouTube, by trying to have himself enshrined in YouTube lore as a viral warrior. Colbert is hoping to have his visage placed into the highest YouTube rotation fighting a light saber battle. And those fine followers of Colbert have responded in the multitudes, Colbert himself will select the winning YouTube presentation of his heroic deeds.
While his popularity grows and the votes and YouTube presentations roll in, one thing is certain, whether Colbert is either playing the role of Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader will depend on who you are talking to or who has been knocked off their perch by the flick of a verbal Colbert light saber.
Is fifty dollars a tipping point?
Tuesday’s decision by Alaskan voters to charge a 50 dollar head tax on tourists arriving by cruise ship could be a “tipping point” according to Tourism officials in Vancouver, the port where the bulk of the cruise ships calling on Prince Rupert originate from.
In a hotly contested plebiscite, Alaskan voters were subjected to multi media blitzes from the cruise line anxious to protect a pot of gold that has served them well over the last twenty five years.
And it’s for a good reason they were fighting the fight since there's more than just fifty bucks a head at stake for the cruise lines. Besides the charge of $46 dollars per passenger and $4 for pollution control monitoring, Alaska wants a share of the take from the gambling operations onboard.
With passage of the measure, Alaska will take in one third of the ships gambling proceeds, require the cruise lines to pay corporate income taxes and purchase pollution discharge permits for their vessels waste water.
They will also be required to come clean on the commissions they receive from all of the on shore activities that they partake in.
All in all, it makes for some tidy profit diversion going to Alaska from the Cruise lines, which has some worried that the Cruise Lines may just cutback on their trips to Alaska, which of course would have an impact on our local industry as well.
The Daily News had a report on the local angle of the tax moves by Alaska, which we provide below, followed up by a story out of Vancouver that suggests that the downward trend of cruise trips out Vancouver could speed up with the new measures in place further up the coast.
CHOPPY WATER AHEAD AFTER CRUISE DECISION
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Page One
Ports of call for cruise ships in B. C. are pondering the impact of a new $50 head tax passed by Alaskans in yesterday’s primary election.
Alaska voters narrowly handed multinational tourism companies a defeat, ignoring a $2 million advertising campaign. With 70 percent of precincts reporting, ‘yes’ votes on Ballot Measure 2 led by nearly 6,800 votes (52.7 percent to 47.3 percent).
Both opponents and proponents of the measure say the result is unlikely to change in the final tally.
The question B. C. ports are now asking is how the new head tax, corporate taxes and pollution regulations will impact B. C.’s developing cruise industry.
“Our concern would be anything that adds to the operational costs for the cruise lines in Alaska could impact the overall theatre, “said Shaun Stevenson, business manager at the Prince Rupert Port Authority.
“We are a player within the Alaska cruise theatre. Our concern would be the impact on future growth because we are positioned to be a participant on future growth.”
The measure will impose an excise tax of $46 per passenger per voyage. Another $4 dollar fee would be charged to independently monitor cruise ship pollution controls.
The measure would tax one-third of the ships’ gambling proceeds, require cruise lines to pay corporate income taxes and require them to get state pollution discharge permits for the ships’ waste water.
The measure also would require ships disclose the commissions they make from onshore businesses, a requirement that is already on the books in state law but is not enforced.
Greg Wirtz, chair of Cruise B. C. and manager of cruise operations and marketing for the Vancouver Port Authority, said it’s really an issue for a foreign country, yet B. C. is intricately linked.
“In B. C., we can’t help but be affected by the impact of the vote although we don’t take a direct position on it because we really have no influence and control of it,” he said.
“We will be responding to it as the details become more known. For us our message is B. C. is a coast that is open for cruise business and is developing its cruise business.”
John Hansen of the Northwest Cruise Ship Association, an organization that lobbied against the measure, described it as a disappointing defeat.
“A lot of individuals and companies and small business, people throughout the state of Alaska who worked so hard on the campaign are disappointed,” he said. He explained there is 90-days for the Alaska legislature to come up with regulations to implement the measure in the bill.
“That means it will take us through the end of this season, so it won’t have any impact this year. Next year, certainly the state of Alaska will have some tasks ahead of it making sense of all this,” he said.
How it will impact the million cruise passengers Alaska currently sees each season will be up for the marketplace to decide, he said, however he has argued all along the industry will take a hit.
However, Gerhon Cohen, one of the authors of the measure, said B. C. shouldn’t see any impact and neither should Alaska.
“Their claim $50 is going to stop people from cruising to Alaska is simply not based on any logic or fact. People are spending three to four thousand dollars on a dream vacation coming to Alaska and there simply is no way the cost of filling up your car with gasoline is going to stop people from making this trip. It’s one and half per cent of the cost of the average week-long cruise to Alaska,” said Cohen.
He said the most remarkable things about the results of the vote is that the measure passed in almost every town where cruise ships stop.
“The industry mounted a campaign of propaganda of the likes that no one has ever seen. Had it not been for a total saturation of TV mailers, phone banks, radio, we probably would have won 80 or 90 per cent of the vote,” he said. “I am proud to be an Alaskan because we have rejected a campaign from a multi-billion-dollar corporation and that’s just something that isn’t often done.
“I am more optimistic today about where we are going as a society that I have been in a long time … aside from the cruise ship issue itself. We beat a three million campaign with seven thousand dollars.”
Cohen expects to see the cruise lines start challenging the measure results in court and going to legislature to modify measure, which they are allowed to do if the change is not considered substantial.
“The industry has been getting a free ride for 25 years on pollution, taxation, on unfair business practices and hurting local business by steering people to their own stores or businesses where they get kickbacks,” he said. “Prince Rupert is now getting into this industry in a bigger way and hopefully they go into it with their eyes open.”
Alaskans slap tax on cruise passengers
$50 cost per person another hit to industry, local tourism official says.
Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun; with files from Reuters and CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, August 24, 2006
Vancouver's struggling cruise ship industry suffered a blow this week from Alaskan voters who passed a package of taxes and environmental regulations on the industry, including a $50 tax on each cruise passenger.
In a state-wide ballot Tuesday, voters passed an initiative that will assess the $50 tax on each cruise passenger and tax cruise lines' corporate earnings and gambling revenues reaped when the ships are in Alaska waters.
The initiative also requires cruise ships to obtain waste-water discharge permits while operating in Alaska and to pay increased fines for any waste-water violations.
In Vancouver -- from which close to one million Alaska-bound passengers set sail annually -- tourism officials reacted with concern.
Tourism Vancouver spokesman Walt Judas said the additional $50 could prove "the tipping point" for an already beleaguered industry.
While the tax isn't much on its own, Judas said, it adds up when combined with rising airline ticket prices, gas prices and the rising Canadian dollar, which closed Wednesday at 89.86 cents US.
"It's just one more thing that could persuade people to stay at home," he said.
Since 2001, Vancouver has seen a steady slide in the number of passengers passing through the port. According to statistics provided by the Port of Vancouver, the numbers have shifted from 1.06 million passengers in 2001 to 910,172 in 2005. As of July, this year, the numbers were down again by another 11 per cent.
Port officials cited an aggressive campaign targeting the cruise industry out of Seattle as the major reason: Post 9/11, Americans prefer to leave from U.S. port and there are more direct flights from U.S. cities to Seattle.
Vancouver port spokesman Duncan Wilson said Wednesday cruise ships are vital to the city.
"Every cruise ship that sails out of the harbour leaves $2 million in our local economy," he said.
Concern over any potential impact of the new tax was less palpable in Victoria, where close to 300,000 cruise ship passengers are expected to visit this summer.
"It will obviously have an impact on the travelling public and it will cost you and I more money to go away, but I think the ships will continue going up to Alaska," said Greg McAllister of King Bros. Ltd. shipping agents.
B.C. Tourism Minister Stan Hagen wouldn't say Wednesday what effect the new tax may have on the province.
"We'll just have to wait and see," he said.
Hagen said it may take until the start of next year's cruise season -- typically launched in May -- before the real impact can be measured.
The new tax comes as companies offering Alaskan cruises, such as Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., already face a slowdown in business in the Caribbean as well as high fuel costs. Alaskan activists on both sides of the issue saw the initiative as a judgment on an industry that takes about one million passengers a year to Alaska.
The effort was not meant to punish the cruise lines but simply to put them under the same type of taxation and regulation that cover other Alaska industries, said environmental activist Gershon Cohen, one of the initiative sponsors.
"Is Alaska still open for business? Absolutely. But is Alaska going to sell its votes? Apparently not anymore," Cohen said.
The $50-a-head tax is expected to bring in about $50 million a year, not including other levies imposed under the initiative, said Mark Edwards, an official at the Alaska Department of Revenue.
One cruise line official said the initiative would weigh on Alaska visitor numbers because of the new costs and regulatory burdens which would be placed on the companies.
"In the end, the only people who pay are the passengers," said John Shively, vice-president of Holland America Line Inc., a unit of Carnival. "So the price is going to go up. And I think Alaska is our most expensive destination now."
But analysts said the impact of additional taxes would likely be minimal because Alaska cruises tend to be more expensive than those to the Caribbean.
"Adding $50 to a multi-thousand-dollar cruise is probably not a deal-killer for most people," Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Robert LaFleur said.
Those opinions were echoed by residents of Vancouver who were at Canada Place Wednesday night to bid bon voyage to family and friends aboard the Carnival Spirit cruise ship as it pulled away from the dock.
"If you can pay the thousands of dollars for the cruise, you can afford it," said Ron Pathman of Vancouver.
Lynette Goodwin, also of Vancouver, said she's going on an Alaskan cruise next week. She said she probably wouldn't notice if the price went up.
"We wouldn't know if we were paying an extra $50," she said.
In a hotly contested plebiscite, Alaskan voters were subjected to multi media blitzes from the cruise line anxious to protect a pot of gold that has served them well over the last twenty five years.
And it’s for a good reason they were fighting the fight since there's more than just fifty bucks a head at stake for the cruise lines. Besides the charge of $46 dollars per passenger and $4 for pollution control monitoring, Alaska wants a share of the take from the gambling operations onboard.
With passage of the measure, Alaska will take in one third of the ships gambling proceeds, require the cruise lines to pay corporate income taxes and purchase pollution discharge permits for their vessels waste water.
They will also be required to come clean on the commissions they receive from all of the on shore activities that they partake in.
All in all, it makes for some tidy profit diversion going to Alaska from the Cruise lines, which has some worried that the Cruise Lines may just cutback on their trips to Alaska, which of course would have an impact on our local industry as well.
The Daily News had a report on the local angle of the tax moves by Alaska, which we provide below, followed up by a story out of Vancouver that suggests that the downward trend of cruise trips out Vancouver could speed up with the new measures in place further up the coast.
CHOPPY WATER AHEAD AFTER CRUISE DECISION
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Page One
Ports of call for cruise ships in B. C. are pondering the impact of a new $50 head tax passed by Alaskans in yesterday’s primary election.
Alaska voters narrowly handed multinational tourism companies a defeat, ignoring a $2 million advertising campaign. With 70 percent of precincts reporting, ‘yes’ votes on Ballot Measure 2 led by nearly 6,800 votes (52.7 percent to 47.3 percent).
Both opponents and proponents of the measure say the result is unlikely to change in the final tally.
The question B. C. ports are now asking is how the new head tax, corporate taxes and pollution regulations will impact B. C.’s developing cruise industry.
“Our concern would be anything that adds to the operational costs for the cruise lines in Alaska could impact the overall theatre, “said Shaun Stevenson, business manager at the Prince Rupert Port Authority.
“We are a player within the Alaska cruise theatre. Our concern would be the impact on future growth because we are positioned to be a participant on future growth.”
The measure will impose an excise tax of $46 per passenger per voyage. Another $4 dollar fee would be charged to independently monitor cruise ship pollution controls.
The measure would tax one-third of the ships’ gambling proceeds, require cruise lines to pay corporate income taxes and require them to get state pollution discharge permits for the ships’ waste water.
The measure also would require ships disclose the commissions they make from onshore businesses, a requirement that is already on the books in state law but is not enforced.
Greg Wirtz, chair of Cruise B. C. and manager of cruise operations and marketing for the Vancouver Port Authority, said it’s really an issue for a foreign country, yet B. C. is intricately linked.
“In B. C., we can’t help but be affected by the impact of the vote although we don’t take a direct position on it because we really have no influence and control of it,” he said.
“We will be responding to it as the details become more known. For us our message is B. C. is a coast that is open for cruise business and is developing its cruise business.”
John Hansen of the Northwest Cruise Ship Association, an organization that lobbied against the measure, described it as a disappointing defeat.
“A lot of individuals and companies and small business, people throughout the state of Alaska who worked so hard on the campaign are disappointed,” he said. He explained there is 90-days for the Alaska legislature to come up with regulations to implement the measure in the bill.
“That means it will take us through the end of this season, so it won’t have any impact this year. Next year, certainly the state of Alaska will have some tasks ahead of it making sense of all this,” he said.
How it will impact the million cruise passengers Alaska currently sees each season will be up for the marketplace to decide, he said, however he has argued all along the industry will take a hit.
However, Gerhon Cohen, one of the authors of the measure, said B. C. shouldn’t see any impact and neither should Alaska.
“Their claim $50 is going to stop people from cruising to Alaska is simply not based on any logic or fact. People are spending three to four thousand dollars on a dream vacation coming to Alaska and there simply is no way the cost of filling up your car with gasoline is going to stop people from making this trip. It’s one and half per cent of the cost of the average week-long cruise to Alaska,” said Cohen.
He said the most remarkable things about the results of the vote is that the measure passed in almost every town where cruise ships stop.
“The industry mounted a campaign of propaganda of the likes that no one has ever seen. Had it not been for a total saturation of TV mailers, phone banks, radio, we probably would have won 80 or 90 per cent of the vote,” he said. “I am proud to be an Alaskan because we have rejected a campaign from a multi-billion-dollar corporation and that’s just something that isn’t often done.
“I am more optimistic today about where we are going as a society that I have been in a long time … aside from the cruise ship issue itself. We beat a three million campaign with seven thousand dollars.”
Cohen expects to see the cruise lines start challenging the measure results in court and going to legislature to modify measure, which they are allowed to do if the change is not considered substantial.
“The industry has been getting a free ride for 25 years on pollution, taxation, on unfair business practices and hurting local business by steering people to their own stores or businesses where they get kickbacks,” he said. “Prince Rupert is now getting into this industry in a bigger way and hopefully they go into it with their eyes open.”
Alaskans slap tax on cruise passengers
$50 cost per person another hit to industry, local tourism official says.
Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun; with files from Reuters and CanWest News Service
Published: Thursday, August 24, 2006
Vancouver's struggling cruise ship industry suffered a blow this week from Alaskan voters who passed a package of taxes and environmental regulations on the industry, including a $50 tax on each cruise passenger.
In a state-wide ballot Tuesday, voters passed an initiative that will assess the $50 tax on each cruise passenger and tax cruise lines' corporate earnings and gambling revenues reaped when the ships are in Alaska waters.
The initiative also requires cruise ships to obtain waste-water discharge permits while operating in Alaska and to pay increased fines for any waste-water violations.
In Vancouver -- from which close to one million Alaska-bound passengers set sail annually -- tourism officials reacted with concern.
Tourism Vancouver spokesman Walt Judas said the additional $50 could prove "the tipping point" for an already beleaguered industry.
While the tax isn't much on its own, Judas said, it adds up when combined with rising airline ticket prices, gas prices and the rising Canadian dollar, which closed Wednesday at 89.86 cents US.
"It's just one more thing that could persuade people to stay at home," he said.
Since 2001, Vancouver has seen a steady slide in the number of passengers passing through the port. According to statistics provided by the Port of Vancouver, the numbers have shifted from 1.06 million passengers in 2001 to 910,172 in 2005. As of July, this year, the numbers were down again by another 11 per cent.
Port officials cited an aggressive campaign targeting the cruise industry out of Seattle as the major reason: Post 9/11, Americans prefer to leave from U.S. port and there are more direct flights from U.S. cities to Seattle.
Vancouver port spokesman Duncan Wilson said Wednesday cruise ships are vital to the city.
"Every cruise ship that sails out of the harbour leaves $2 million in our local economy," he said.
Concern over any potential impact of the new tax was less palpable in Victoria, where close to 300,000 cruise ship passengers are expected to visit this summer.
"It will obviously have an impact on the travelling public and it will cost you and I more money to go away, but I think the ships will continue going up to Alaska," said Greg McAllister of King Bros. Ltd. shipping agents.
B.C. Tourism Minister Stan Hagen wouldn't say Wednesday what effect the new tax may have on the province.
"We'll just have to wait and see," he said.
Hagen said it may take until the start of next year's cruise season -- typically launched in May -- before the real impact can be measured.
The new tax comes as companies offering Alaskan cruises, such as Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd., already face a slowdown in business in the Caribbean as well as high fuel costs. Alaskan activists on both sides of the issue saw the initiative as a judgment on an industry that takes about one million passengers a year to Alaska.
The effort was not meant to punish the cruise lines but simply to put them under the same type of taxation and regulation that cover other Alaska industries, said environmental activist Gershon Cohen, one of the initiative sponsors.
"Is Alaska still open for business? Absolutely. But is Alaska going to sell its votes? Apparently not anymore," Cohen said.
The $50-a-head tax is expected to bring in about $50 million a year, not including other levies imposed under the initiative, said Mark Edwards, an official at the Alaska Department of Revenue.
One cruise line official said the initiative would weigh on Alaska visitor numbers because of the new costs and regulatory burdens which would be placed on the companies.
"In the end, the only people who pay are the passengers," said John Shively, vice-president of Holland America Line Inc., a unit of Carnival. "So the price is going to go up. And I think Alaska is our most expensive destination now."
But analysts said the impact of additional taxes would likely be minimal because Alaska cruises tend to be more expensive than those to the Caribbean.
"Adding $50 to a multi-thousand-dollar cruise is probably not a deal-killer for most people," Susquehanna Financial Group analyst Robert LaFleur said.
Those opinions were echoed by residents of Vancouver who were at Canada Place Wednesday night to bid bon voyage to family and friends aboard the Carnival Spirit cruise ship as it pulled away from the dock.
"If you can pay the thousands of dollars for the cruise, you can afford it," said Ron Pathman of Vancouver.
Lynette Goodwin, also of Vancouver, said she's going on an Alaskan cruise next week. She said she probably wouldn't notice if the price went up.
"We wouldn't know if we were paying an extra $50," she said.
Well, well company for Dell!
From the misery loves company file news out of the USA that Apple Computers is recalling 1.8 million computers for faulty batteries.
Once again the Sony battery seems to be the troublesome power source, as a number of bloggers pointed out earlier today, before the announcement from Apple.
Last week Dell went through a week of hell as the story broke about its computer battery problems, coinciding with a particularly bad quarterly report for the computer maker added on to the weeks news a story of an investigation by the US governement over "accounting issues" (hmm we've heard that term before someplace).
While we’re sure that they don’t wish their competitors ill will, they’re probably rather happy to have the company in the headlines!
Once again the Sony battery seems to be the troublesome power source, as a number of bloggers pointed out earlier today, before the announcement from Apple.
Last week Dell went through a week of hell as the story broke about its computer battery problems, coinciding with a particularly bad quarterly report for the computer maker added on to the weeks news a story of an investigation by the US governement over "accounting issues" (hmm we've heard that term before someplace).
While we’re sure that they don’t wish their competitors ill will, they’re probably rather happy to have the company in the headlines!
Pay to Park coming to Podunk?
Is this just the thin wedge of what’s to come?
The Northern View has an interesting story about a plan by the city to create pay parking at Rushbrook Floats in time for next year. You have to ask yourself if this is just the thin wedge of what’s to come for other city areas.
Currently it’s a first come first park situation at the east end lot close to the boat launch, but next year there could be a few extra spots open as visitors and locals alike balk at the idea of paying for what was once free.
The only problem with the pay for parking plan at Rushbrook is the reality that many folks will just park further up George Hills way and Drydock road, already crowded pieces of roadway that on a Saturday or Sunday resembles your average Canadian Tire parking lot, complete with boats and campers.
Any monies received from the parking lot will be placed into a reserve fund, for what is described as “future upgrades”. More ticket dispensers for other areas perhaps?
However back to the present over at Rushbrook, you have to wonder that unless the city has plans for the stretches of road in the immediate area, just how much revenue they’ll haul in from the soon to be Rushbrook pay parking lot.
CITY UPDATES RUSHBROOK PARKING PLAN
By Shaun Thomas
The Northern View
August 23, 2006
Page 5
Major changes to the parking lot at Rushbrook Docks are in the works, according to city administrators at the August 14 council meeting.
“We are almost done with the plans. The plan is to upgrade the area to be able to monitor it and maybe create some revenue,” said City Manager Gord Howie.
One of the major changes would be a fee to use the parking lot, and the city has done a lot of research into this particular venture.
“We have looked at the cost to put in a ticket dispenser in, we have talked to the telephone company to maybe get a line going to the dispenser to allow people to use their bank cards or credit cards, we have looked at what we should charge people for the month, the day and hour, and we have looked at where we should place the dispenser so people don’t have to drive or walk all the way to the end of the lot and back to get a ticket,” said Acting Chief Jim Bruce, noting that the city has met with a number of equipment suppliers to bring in the ticket dispenser.
“As we collect the parking money and if we want to pursue a launch fee, the money will go into a reserve fund to go towards future upgrades.”
In terms of facility upgrades, Howie said the city is looking into infrastructure grants to upgrade the tourist services, including a weigh station that would allow anglers to take a picture with their prized catch.
The Northern View has an interesting story about a plan by the city to create pay parking at Rushbrook Floats in time for next year. You have to ask yourself if this is just the thin wedge of what’s to come for other city areas.
Currently it’s a first come first park situation at the east end lot close to the boat launch, but next year there could be a few extra spots open as visitors and locals alike balk at the idea of paying for what was once free.
The only problem with the pay for parking plan at Rushbrook is the reality that many folks will just park further up George Hills way and Drydock road, already crowded pieces of roadway that on a Saturday or Sunday resembles your average Canadian Tire parking lot, complete with boats and campers.
Any monies received from the parking lot will be placed into a reserve fund, for what is described as “future upgrades”. More ticket dispensers for other areas perhaps?
However back to the present over at Rushbrook, you have to wonder that unless the city has plans for the stretches of road in the immediate area, just how much revenue they’ll haul in from the soon to be Rushbrook pay parking lot.
CITY UPDATES RUSHBROOK PARKING PLAN
By Shaun Thomas
The Northern View
August 23, 2006
Page 5
Major changes to the parking lot at Rushbrook Docks are in the works, according to city administrators at the August 14 council meeting.
“We are almost done with the plans. The plan is to upgrade the area to be able to monitor it and maybe create some revenue,” said City Manager Gord Howie.
One of the major changes would be a fee to use the parking lot, and the city has done a lot of research into this particular venture.
“We have looked at the cost to put in a ticket dispenser in, we have talked to the telephone company to maybe get a line going to the dispenser to allow people to use their bank cards or credit cards, we have looked at what we should charge people for the month, the day and hour, and we have looked at where we should place the dispenser so people don’t have to drive or walk all the way to the end of the lot and back to get a ticket,” said Acting Chief Jim Bruce, noting that the city has met with a number of equipment suppliers to bring in the ticket dispenser.
“As we collect the parking money and if we want to pursue a launch fee, the money will go into a reserve fund to go towards future upgrades.”
In terms of facility upgrades, Howie said the city is looking into infrastructure grants to upgrade the tourist services, including a weigh station that would allow anglers to take a picture with their prized catch.
Just call them the gang of eight! Sorry Pluto, you just don’t rate.
Just as school is set to return, science teachers can revamp their teaching plans, there’s now one less planet to worry about on that science test.
Planet Pluto got the punt today, after the International Astronomical Union spent the last two days at their convention in Prague debating the merits of the ninth former planet, and when it came time to do the counting, the dealers won.
The farthest away hunk of space rock that once held planetary title has now been relegated to the status of a dwarf planet, complete with two fellow travelers in the dwarf planet sphere.
It was a heated and emotional debate according to reports, with many scientists quite upset that Pluto was stripped of its title and turned into nothing more than a mass of floating rock with no discernible character.
Two other space bodies, Ceres and Xena which up until today were floating towards planetary status themselves, now find their status significantly downsized as well, lumped in with the newly demoted Pluto into the dwarf planet world.
To give students the world over a heads up on a possible new question in your mid-term science class, here’s the IAU’s new definition of what makes up a planet: “a celestial body that is in orbit around the sun, has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a ... nearly round shape, and has cleared the neighborhood around its orbit.”
Planets affiliated with Disney characters need not apply!
Sales down, optimism up in Rupert real estate market
2006 may actually be a slower year in real estate transactions in Prince Rupert, but local real estate agents see much better times in the near future.
Statistics gathered ending in May show that there have been 57 less houses sold in the city this year compared to last, in 2005, 151 homes had been sold in the local market while by May of this year only 94 had been sold.
Ted Shepard of the Northern Realty Board attributes the decline in this year’s numbers, to last year’s explosion of investment real estate. Last year as the Port project was being announced properties were gobbled up by investment speculators anticipating a jump in the population and a need for housing.
That excitement has leveled off to a degree in 2006 as the project moves along its timeline, but with completion anticipated for next year, it’s expected that 2007 will be another good year for real estate locally.
The Northern View had a look at the statistics and the interpretation of them, in its August 23rd edition.
REALTY BOARD “OPMTIMISTIC”
By Shaun Thomas
The Northern View
Wednesday. August 23, 2006
Page 4
While real estate sales to date in 2006 are below the 2005 levels, with 151 houses sold to the end of May in 2005 compared to 94 this year, things are looking good for the market in the future according to local real estate agent and Northern Realty Board President Ted Shephard.
“From here on I expect it will continue to have steady prices and, as the container port comes on stream and there is an increase in permanent workers coming to Prince Rupert for work, the market will get more active and there will be more demand,” he said.
“I suspect next summer will be especially busy as people look to move their families to the city to get their kids ready for school.”
Following the closing of the mill, Shepard said the real estate market lost approximately 50 per cent in both sales and housing prices up until the announcement of the container port last spring. That announcement caused a jump in the price of housing and the number of houses sold, which has since leveled off resulting in a “slow buy steady” market in 2006. And while people moving to town will be a big part of the expected increase next year, Shephard said the number of people looking to Prince Rupert’s real estate market as an investment opportunity still accounts for a number of sales in the community.
“Investment is what drove the realty market in 2005, and that leveled off, but in the past few days I have seen more small investors in town and large investors inquiring about housing as well.”
“We’re pretty optimistic about the future here in Prince Rupert.”
Statistics gathered ending in May show that there have been 57 less houses sold in the city this year compared to last, in 2005, 151 homes had been sold in the local market while by May of this year only 94 had been sold.
Ted Shepard of the Northern Realty Board attributes the decline in this year’s numbers, to last year’s explosion of investment real estate. Last year as the Port project was being announced properties were gobbled up by investment speculators anticipating a jump in the population and a need for housing.
That excitement has leveled off to a degree in 2006 as the project moves along its timeline, but with completion anticipated for next year, it’s expected that 2007 will be another good year for real estate locally.
The Northern View had a look at the statistics and the interpretation of them, in its August 23rd edition.
REALTY BOARD “OPMTIMISTIC”
By Shaun Thomas
The Northern View
Wednesday. August 23, 2006
Page 4
While real estate sales to date in 2006 are below the 2005 levels, with 151 houses sold to the end of May in 2005 compared to 94 this year, things are looking good for the market in the future according to local real estate agent and Northern Realty Board President Ted Shephard.
“From here on I expect it will continue to have steady prices and, as the container port comes on stream and there is an increase in permanent workers coming to Prince Rupert for work, the market will get more active and there will be more demand,” he said.
“I suspect next summer will be especially busy as people look to move their families to the city to get their kids ready for school.”
Following the closing of the mill, Shepard said the real estate market lost approximately 50 per cent in both sales and housing prices up until the announcement of the container port last spring. That announcement caused a jump in the price of housing and the number of houses sold, which has since leveled off resulting in a “slow buy steady” market in 2006. And while people moving to town will be a big part of the expected increase next year, Shephard said the number of people looking to Prince Rupert’s real estate market as an investment opportunity still accounts for a number of sales in the community.
“Investment is what drove the realty market in 2005, and that leveled off, but in the past few days I have seen more small investors in town and large investors inquiring about housing as well.”
“We’re pretty optimistic about the future here in Prince Rupert.”
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Tillman takes control in Saskatchewan
It’s not quite Howdy Doody replacing Darth Vader, but the change over from Roy Shivers to Eric Tillman, will certainly send a message that the focus will be on community and football again in Saskatchewan.
David Naylor nails it correctly in his Globe and Mail column today, in which he calls Tillman and the Riders a natural fit. In fact with Tillman now in charge there will be a comprehensive image change in Regina.
A team that was becoming known more for its off field legal troubles than for its on field statistics, will possibly be able to return the focus onto football and the long held dream of a playoff game in Regina. In an eight team and occasionally nine team league, you wouldn’t think that would be too much to deliver on, but for far too many years it has been one disappointment after another.
Shivers is not a bad football man, in fact his contacts and football savvy helped to build not only the Riders, but the Stamps and Lions before them. However, he had his chances to deliver in Saskatchewan and they came up short each time. His experiments in football engineering provided some entertaining teams, but troubled ones as well; in a small province with a big football following everyone takes note.
Last year perhaps was the most disappointing of the lot of them, as the Riders came close but failed to take that final step. Fearing that the Riders may not even make the playoffs, let alone claim a playoff spot, the board made their decision.
It was a choice made that was possibly more for the longer term benefit of the team than for a short term hope for that playoff date. The expectations have been high in Saskatchewan for a couple of years, this year suggested steps backward were being taken. So it’s not surprising that a change of direction has come, even if it is in the most unusual period of time of being in the middle of a season.
Tillman has had some pretty good success in the CFL on his own, he very well may be just what is needed in a football mad province, a leveling force to steer the team back on track.
The Riders have always been about community and football, the last few years they came close in the football but seemed to become more distant in the community. That works if you have a Grey Cup to show for it, Shivers didn’t and now someone else takes the lead in finding the Promised Land.
Tillman, 'Riders a natural fit
CFL team about to sign new GM, DAVID NAYLOR reports
DAVID NAYLOR
Globe and Mail
August 23, 2006
No doubt there will be a warm welcome in Regina this week when Eric Tillman is introduced as the new general manager of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, the Canadian Football League's most beloved team.
Tillman's hiring was a virtual certainty yesterday, less than 24 hours after the team fired Roy Shivers. Tillman will receive a four-year, $1-million contract.
The timing suggests Tillman had been in Saskatchewan's sights for some time, which is no surprise since this marriage is of two parties that need each other.
Besides a résumé that includes two Grey Cup championships, Tillman brings Saskatchewan something it could really use -- an image change.
Shivers, whose teams failed to win as many games as they lost during his six-plus seasons in Regina, had to deal with players who regularly made headlines for what they did off the field. The most significant of these was Trevis Smith, the linebacker whose CFL career was cut short last season when he was charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault. He was charged under a section of the Criminal Code that is used to prosecute people who have unprotected sex without informing their partners of their HIV status.
Shivers may not have condoned the behaviour of his players, but he rarely, if ever, condemned it, instead often blaming it on their profile in the community. That kind of thing never plays well with fans, but it runs especially hollow in a place that likes to think of its players as the kind of people who could be your neighbours, just like George Reed and Ronnie Lancaster used to be. Enter Tillman, who has cultivated a squeaky clean image during his years in the CFL as an executive and a television personality.
Anyone who has followed his previous CFL stops is aware of his strong stand against hiring players who may present a risk to the community or put the football club in a bad light.
That may sound old-fashioned and it probably cost Tillman's teams a few wins over the years, but it's something from which he's never deviated. And it will play big in Saskatchewan, given the franchise's recent history.
While the Roughriders may need Tillman, he also needs them. The fact his last two jobs ended on sour notes has been more than a little unsettling to him.
The first of those, in Toronto, didn't reflect badly on him because of what followed his dismissal from the Argonauts before the 1998 season. New owner Sherwood Schwarz replaced him with J.I. Albrecht, whose stint with the Argos lasted less than half a disastrous season.
In Ottawa, however, Tillman's exit was considerably murkier and harder to interpret. The first football employee secured by the expansion Renegades, Tillman hired his good friend, Joe Paopao, as head coach and they embarked on building a team that they expected to be playoff bound by the third year.
All that went awry after their second season when, with financial losses mounting, ownership pulled back significantly on the flow of money to the football side of the business, leaving Tillman enraged that his project was being undermined. A management scuffle ensued, and when the dust had settled, Tillman was on the outside looking in while Paopao emerged with virtually full control over football matters before the 2004 season.
That year and the next turned out to be disastrous for the Renegades, which in some eyes vindicated Tillman. But he was never comfortable with how things played out in Ottawa and what it did to his reputation and job prospects.
In Saskatchewan, Tillman will be a large personality in a small community, which should suit him well. He'll bring in his own staff after this season, perhaps with close friend Kent Austin walking the sidelines as head coach, and make the Roughriders the model of good behaviour in the CFL.
And he'll get a chance to try to prove that what happened in Toronto and Ottawa was a mistake, that had they stuck with his plan, everything would have played out just fine. For both the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Tillman, this week is about fresh starts.
The above item first appeared on my Twelve Men on the Field blog, a look at Canadian football, check it out for more coverage of the CFL.
Perhaps they made a little “boo-boo”
Well I’m not a lawyer, but somehow I get the feeling that if you admit to the Supreme Court that you may have overlooked something in your situation, then oopsie, it’s probably not going to end in your favour.
That being said both the Federal Government and the Coast Tsimshian have appeared in front of the Supreme Court pleading their respective cases over the Fairview Container Port project, and if the Daily News is correct with its coverage, it seems to have been a pretty good day for the Coast Tsimshian.
Wayne Drury, the business development manager for Lax Kw’alaams claims that in Tuesday’s proceedings the lawyer for Transport Canada acknowledged that clearly the Crown made an error. The Daily doesn’t actually gather those words from a Government official, so third party confirmation is missing on the interpretation. But if taken at face value, then it would pose a slight problem one would think for the government side of the ongoing debate.
The impression from the various articles of late, is that the one day of appearance is all that the issue will receive at the Supreme Court, with a judgment to follow shortly. Still to come is a second case in front of the Supreme Court, one which has yet to be scheduled. It will detail the Coast Tsimshian's belief that the Ministry of Western Diversification is in violation of the Environmental Assessment act, by incorrectly advancing 30 million dollars in funding without a proper evnvironmental assessment.
With their first appearance behind them, the Coast Tsimshian stated that at the moment they would prefer having a statutory declaration instead of a declaration and an injunction. That would probably result in the government returning to consult and accommodate the Coast Tsimshian. If an injunction was put in place, it could very well result in a stoppage of work on the giant waterfront project.
If things proceed on to that second hearing and your Transport Canada, you probably are hoping you have your ducks a little better lined up for the next appearance. Taking a hard line in your approach, generally works when you have something to back it up. Suggesting that you were wrong or made a mistake is not quite the thing of an iron clad case.
The Daily News had its full coverage of the developments on its front page.
GOVERNMENT CONCILIATORY DURING PORT COURT DATE
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Page One
The federal government reportedly admitted it had made a “boo-boo” in its consultations with Coast Tsimshian about the development of the Fairview Container Terminal in federal court yesterday.
Wayne Drury, business development manager for Lax Kw’alaams, said the lawyer for Transport Canada acknowledged that clearly the Crown made an error.
“Those were their words.
They made a ‘boo-boo’ with respect to the question of the land. So we are hoping that the courts will issue a statutory declaration that will bind the honour of the Crown to come back and consult with the Coast Tsimshian.”
While the original application by Metlakatla and Lax Kw’ alaams had sought an injunction against construction, Drury said that they simply hope at this point that the courts will order the government back to the table.
“We took a very honourable position in court yesterday by suggesting at this time we would rather have a statutory declaration rather than a statutory declaration and an injunction,” he said.
The Coast Tsimshian and federal government were in court in regards to the first of two court cases the bands have launched in regards to consultation and accommodation on the container terminal.
It took 10 months for the first case to get a hearing and the second has yet to be scheduled.
In this case, the bands were arguing that the government was wrong in its position that it only has to consult with the two bands on the .72 hectare portion of the terminal which will be new construction.
Government was arguing it did not have to consult on the existing terminal, which was built in the 1960’s. The Coast Tsimshian say this position has a huge and significantly negative impact upon the ability to hold meaningful consultations.
Yesterday, despite government’s admission they made a mistake, the government still argued that there has been adequate consultation.
However, the Coast Tsimshian strongly disagree.
They say the basis for the original Haida vs. Weyerhaeuser decision is that there must be agreement of the strength and breadth of aboriginal rights and title claims prior to the commencement of consultations.
By admitting their “Boo-Boo”, the federal government is admitting that there was no agreement of basis for undertaking negotiations as established in law, explained Drury.
“We are hoping the Crown will come back and deal with this honourably.
“But the bottom line is we are bound and determined that if we don not have an adequate consultation and accommodation that this project will not go ahead, but we are hoping we don’t have to go there,” said Drury.
“We have to stand up for what is right.”
It was announced in April 2005 that the federal government would contribute 30 million, the province $30 million, CN Rail $30 million, Maher Terminals (one of the East Coast’s premier container terminal operators) $60 million and the port $20 million to build phase one of the container terminal.
Construction has been underway since last year.
Phase one is scheduled to provide the terminal with capacity to handle 500,000 containers annually. The second phase would increase the capacity to two million containers by 2009.
That being said both the Federal Government and the Coast Tsimshian have appeared in front of the Supreme Court pleading their respective cases over the Fairview Container Port project, and if the Daily News is correct with its coverage, it seems to have been a pretty good day for the Coast Tsimshian.
Wayne Drury, the business development manager for Lax Kw’alaams claims that in Tuesday’s proceedings the lawyer for Transport Canada acknowledged that clearly the Crown made an error. The Daily doesn’t actually gather those words from a Government official, so third party confirmation is missing on the interpretation. But if taken at face value, then it would pose a slight problem one would think for the government side of the ongoing debate.
The impression from the various articles of late, is that the one day of appearance is all that the issue will receive at the Supreme Court, with a judgment to follow shortly. Still to come is a second case in front of the Supreme Court, one which has yet to be scheduled. It will detail the Coast Tsimshian's belief that the Ministry of Western Diversification is in violation of the Environmental Assessment act, by incorrectly advancing 30 million dollars in funding without a proper evnvironmental assessment.
With their first appearance behind them, the Coast Tsimshian stated that at the moment they would prefer having a statutory declaration instead of a declaration and an injunction. That would probably result in the government returning to consult and accommodate the Coast Tsimshian. If an injunction was put in place, it could very well result in a stoppage of work on the giant waterfront project.
If things proceed on to that second hearing and your Transport Canada, you probably are hoping you have your ducks a little better lined up for the next appearance. Taking a hard line in your approach, generally works when you have something to back it up. Suggesting that you were wrong or made a mistake is not quite the thing of an iron clad case.
The Daily News had its full coverage of the developments on its front page.
GOVERNMENT CONCILIATORY DURING PORT COURT DATE
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Page One
The federal government reportedly admitted it had made a “boo-boo” in its consultations with Coast Tsimshian about the development of the Fairview Container Terminal in federal court yesterday.
Wayne Drury, business development manager for Lax Kw’alaams, said the lawyer for Transport Canada acknowledged that clearly the Crown made an error.
“Those were their words.
They made a ‘boo-boo’ with respect to the question of the land. So we are hoping that the courts will issue a statutory declaration that will bind the honour of the Crown to come back and consult with the Coast Tsimshian.”
While the original application by Metlakatla and Lax Kw’ alaams had sought an injunction against construction, Drury said that they simply hope at this point that the courts will order the government back to the table.
“We took a very honourable position in court yesterday by suggesting at this time we would rather have a statutory declaration rather than a statutory declaration and an injunction,” he said.
The Coast Tsimshian and federal government were in court in regards to the first of two court cases the bands have launched in regards to consultation and accommodation on the container terminal.
It took 10 months for the first case to get a hearing and the second has yet to be scheduled.
In this case, the bands were arguing that the government was wrong in its position that it only has to consult with the two bands on the .72 hectare portion of the terminal which will be new construction.
Government was arguing it did not have to consult on the existing terminal, which was built in the 1960’s. The Coast Tsimshian say this position has a huge and significantly negative impact upon the ability to hold meaningful consultations.
Yesterday, despite government’s admission they made a mistake, the government still argued that there has been adequate consultation.
However, the Coast Tsimshian strongly disagree.
They say the basis for the original Haida vs. Weyerhaeuser decision is that there must be agreement of the strength and breadth of aboriginal rights and title claims prior to the commencement of consultations.
By admitting their “Boo-Boo”, the federal government is admitting that there was no agreement of basis for undertaking negotiations as established in law, explained Drury.
“We are hoping the Crown will come back and deal with this honourably.
“But the bottom line is we are bound and determined that if we don not have an adequate consultation and accommodation that this project will not go ahead, but we are hoping we don’t have to go there,” said Drury.
“We have to stand up for what is right.”
It was announced in April 2005 that the federal government would contribute 30 million, the province $30 million, CN Rail $30 million, Maher Terminals (one of the East Coast’s premier container terminal operators) $60 million and the port $20 million to build phase one of the container terminal.
Construction has been underway since last year.
Phase one is scheduled to provide the terminal with capacity to handle 500,000 containers annually. The second phase would increase the capacity to two million containers by 2009.
You need to cook while the water is boiling!
Spurred on by their success last week at shutting down the Prince Rupert SPCA's crab boil fundraiser, animal rights activists are keeping up the heat on the various SPCA's across the province.
Sinikka Crosland, who was one of the main organizers of the call to action against the Rupert SPCA's fundraising plans, says its time for the provincial SPCA's to revisit their fundraising policies.
So your beef BBQ's, Salmon bakes, and such are all now on the activist agenda to be shut down, in their world not a nickel nor a dime should come from any form of sale of meat.
We gather that they would most likely suggest that a vegetarian option might make for a more palatable option. Leaves and shoots no doubt make for a wonderful banquet, but somehow I doubt that they'll provide the same kind of fundraising success that your average burger sale might.
The Vancouver Sun had the latest salvo in the great fundraising debate in its Wednesday edition.
Activists want SPCA to stop serving meat at fundraisers
CanWest News Service;
Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, August 23, 2006
VANCOUVER - Energized by their success in Prince Rupert last week, where they convinced the local SPCA to cancel a fundraising event that involved boiling live crabs, animal rights activists now want the B.C. SPCA to ban the serving of meat at their fundraisers.
"This is prime time to ask the SPCA to revisit their own policies to do with fundraisers, and to roll out a new policy that would work towards events that would not involve the killing of animals,'' said Sinikka Crosland, president of the Responsible Animal Care Society, an Okanagan-based animal-protection group.
Crosland, who was instrumental in the campaign against the Prince Rupert crab cookoff, said it was hypocritical of the SPCA to serve meat at fundraisers.
"The SPCA does a lot of good work,'' she said. "However, I think they need to go beyond that. This is not just about dogs and cats; it's about factory farmed animals, too.''
The Canadian Voice for Animals has posted an online petition demanding an end to all SPCA fundraising events that involve the serving and consuming of meat.
Craig Naherniak, general manager of humane education for the B.C. SPCA, said vegetarian choices are often available at SPCA fundraising events, and that branches "are moving in that direction.''
However, he said it was not B.C. SPCA policy to force branches to discontinue cooking and serving meat. That was a matter for individual branches to decide on their own.
Vancouver Sun
© CanWest News Service 2006
Sinikka Crosland, who was one of the main organizers of the call to action against the Rupert SPCA's fundraising plans, says its time for the provincial SPCA's to revisit their fundraising policies.
So your beef BBQ's, Salmon bakes, and such are all now on the activist agenda to be shut down, in their world not a nickel nor a dime should come from any form of sale of meat.
We gather that they would most likely suggest that a vegetarian option might make for a more palatable option. Leaves and shoots no doubt make for a wonderful banquet, but somehow I doubt that they'll provide the same kind of fundraising success that your average burger sale might.
The Vancouver Sun had the latest salvo in the great fundraising debate in its Wednesday edition.
Activists want SPCA to stop serving meat at fundraisers
CanWest News Service;
Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, August 23, 2006
VANCOUVER - Energized by their success in Prince Rupert last week, where they convinced the local SPCA to cancel a fundraising event that involved boiling live crabs, animal rights activists now want the B.C. SPCA to ban the serving of meat at their fundraisers.
"This is prime time to ask the SPCA to revisit their own policies to do with fundraisers, and to roll out a new policy that would work towards events that would not involve the killing of animals,'' said Sinikka Crosland, president of the Responsible Animal Care Society, an Okanagan-based animal-protection group.
Crosland, who was instrumental in the campaign against the Prince Rupert crab cookoff, said it was hypocritical of the SPCA to serve meat at fundraisers.
"The SPCA does a lot of good work,'' she said. "However, I think they need to go beyond that. This is not just about dogs and cats; it's about factory farmed animals, too.''
The Canadian Voice for Animals has posted an online petition demanding an end to all SPCA fundraising events that involve the serving and consuming of meat.
Craig Naherniak, general manager of humane education for the B.C. SPCA, said vegetarian choices are often available at SPCA fundraising events, and that branches "are moving in that direction.''
However, he said it was not B.C. SPCA policy to force branches to discontinue cooking and serving meat. That was a matter for individual branches to decide on their own.
Vancouver Sun
© CanWest News Service 2006
A most anticipated decision
Legal counsel for Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla began their day in court on Tuesday, as the arguments over the Fairview Terminal project got under way in Ottawa. The court case stems from the belief by the Coast Tsmishian nations that the federal government was required to fully consult and accommodate them over the development of the container port project, a process that they say did not happen in a proper and timely manner.
The possibility of legal action first became public back in January and since then has been the proverbial elephant in the room. It is an issue that has been bubbling under the surface around town for a number of months now, occasionally flaring into heated debate and then retiring to the shadows biding its time.
As of yesterday it would seem it’s time had come, the Daily News had the full story on day one of the process provided below.
You have to hope that the Court moves quickly on this, the uncertainty and divisiveness of it all does not make for the best of climates around the city.
COAST BANDS IN COURT TODAY OVER NEW PORT
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Page One
The Coast Tsmishian are in federal court today arguing that the government failed to fully consult and accommodate them regarding the conversion of Fairview Terminal into a container port.
Greg McDade of Ratcliff and Company, legal counsel for Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla, said the hearing for the first of two legal challenges should take all day.
“This is a case about whether the position about Lax Kw’alaams title is right,” he said.
The Coast Tsmishian have two cases, each of which seeks an injunction over terminal construction that has been underway since last November.
The case being heard today was the second case brought to the court and McDade described it as fairly straight forward.
“The other case involving the funding and the environmental assessment is still to be booked,” he said.
According to the application filed in Canadian Federal Court by the Coast Tsmishian, government’s position is that it only has to consult with the two bands about the .72 hectare portion of the terminal that will be new construction. It argues it does not have to consult about the existing terminal, which was built in the 1960’s.
In their application, the two bans say the site, which is being converted to handle 500,000 containers per year, lies over the top of “several important sites which were permanent winter villages, campsites and traditional use sites.”
However, Transport Canada argues Metlakatla surrendered its rights in 1906, and Lax Kw’alaams under a Settlement Agreement in 2003.
“Accordingly, it is our view that the legal obligations of the Crown to consult do not extend to asserted claims of title, interests or rights as against the Land Component,” wrote a Transport Canada official back in October 2005.
The Coast Tsmishian argue they should not only be consulted on the whole footprint but also on the impacts of the new terminal on the surrounding area and say that they never surrendered their title.
McDade said he expects a ruling in the near future.
“Federal courts tend to be quicker than provincial Supreme Courts. Sometimes, they issue judgments right from the bench. It’s a possibility,” he said.
The federal Department of Justice could not be reached for comment on the case.
The second case before the Federal Court, which has yet to be scheduled, argues that the Minister of Western Economic Diversification is in violation of the Environmental Assessment Act by granting $30 million in funding to the Prince Rupert Port Authority before completing the environmental assessment.
In addition to seeking an injunction against construction, this case seeks to have the court order a comprehensive environmental assessment.
The port only had to complete a less comprehensive screening assessment for Phase One of the project because it was conversion with no new construction.
An agreement has been presented to the First Nations by the government and is understood to include employment opportunities, financial support for jobs and skills training, the creation of an Aboriginal employment coordinator to help band members realize these opportunities, and “significant funding” for Aboriginal businesses that would benefit from the port expansion.
It was announced in April 2005 that the federal government would contribute $30 million, the province #30 million, CN Rail $30 million, Maher Terminals (one of the East Coast’s premier container terminal operators) $60 million and the port $20 million to build phase one of the container terminal.
The second phase would increase the capacity from 500,000 to two million containers by 2009.
The possibility of legal action first became public back in January and since then has been the proverbial elephant in the room. It is an issue that has been bubbling under the surface around town for a number of months now, occasionally flaring into heated debate and then retiring to the shadows biding its time.
As of yesterday it would seem it’s time had come, the Daily News had the full story on day one of the process provided below.
You have to hope that the Court moves quickly on this, the uncertainty and divisiveness of it all does not make for the best of climates around the city.
COAST BANDS IN COURT TODAY OVER NEW PORT
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Page One
The Coast Tsmishian are in federal court today arguing that the government failed to fully consult and accommodate them regarding the conversion of Fairview Terminal into a container port.
Greg McDade of Ratcliff and Company, legal counsel for Lax Kw’alaams and Metlakatla, said the hearing for the first of two legal challenges should take all day.
“This is a case about whether the position about Lax Kw’alaams title is right,” he said.
The Coast Tsmishian have two cases, each of which seeks an injunction over terminal construction that has been underway since last November.
The case being heard today was the second case brought to the court and McDade described it as fairly straight forward.
“The other case involving the funding and the environmental assessment is still to be booked,” he said.
According to the application filed in Canadian Federal Court by the Coast Tsmishian, government’s position is that it only has to consult with the two bands about the .72 hectare portion of the terminal that will be new construction. It argues it does not have to consult about the existing terminal, which was built in the 1960’s.
In their application, the two bans say the site, which is being converted to handle 500,000 containers per year, lies over the top of “several important sites which were permanent winter villages, campsites and traditional use sites.”
However, Transport Canada argues Metlakatla surrendered its rights in 1906, and Lax Kw’alaams under a Settlement Agreement in 2003.
“Accordingly, it is our view that the legal obligations of the Crown to consult do not extend to asserted claims of title, interests or rights as against the Land Component,” wrote a Transport Canada official back in October 2005.
The Coast Tsmishian argue they should not only be consulted on the whole footprint but also on the impacts of the new terminal on the surrounding area and say that they never surrendered their title.
McDade said he expects a ruling in the near future.
“Federal courts tend to be quicker than provincial Supreme Courts. Sometimes, they issue judgments right from the bench. It’s a possibility,” he said.
The federal Department of Justice could not be reached for comment on the case.
The second case before the Federal Court, which has yet to be scheduled, argues that the Minister of Western Economic Diversification is in violation of the Environmental Assessment Act by granting $30 million in funding to the Prince Rupert Port Authority before completing the environmental assessment.
In addition to seeking an injunction against construction, this case seeks to have the court order a comprehensive environmental assessment.
The port only had to complete a less comprehensive screening assessment for Phase One of the project because it was conversion with no new construction.
An agreement has been presented to the First Nations by the government and is understood to include employment opportunities, financial support for jobs and skills training, the creation of an Aboriginal employment coordinator to help band members realize these opportunities, and “significant funding” for Aboriginal businesses that would benefit from the port expansion.
It was announced in April 2005 that the federal government would contribute $30 million, the province #30 million, CN Rail $30 million, Maher Terminals (one of the East Coast’s premier container terminal operators) $60 million and the port $20 million to build phase one of the container terminal.
The second phase would increase the capacity from 500,000 to two million containers by 2009.
A product recall worthy of Boris Karloff
Uh, I'm not sure I'd be waiting for your dealer's recall letter on this one.
News Item from Associated Press: "A leading medical firm has quietly recalled hundreds of human tissue products destined for transplants around the nation that were supplied by a North Carolina body parts broker believed to have a tainted history."
The booming tissue transplant industry has been rocked by the scandal of a body broker who used an unsterile environment to carve up dozens of corpses to procure tissue.
Yikes, shades of old Law and Order Episodes are flashing through my mind now.
Not sure what is more distressing, the concept of something called a "booming" body parts broker industry or the fact that they don't seem to take particular care in the way they go about their business.
News Item from Associated Press: "A leading medical firm has quietly recalled hundreds of human tissue products destined for transplants around the nation that were supplied by a North Carolina body parts broker believed to have a tainted history."
The booming tissue transplant industry has been rocked by the scandal of a body broker who used an unsterile environment to carve up dozens of corpses to procure tissue.
Yikes, shades of old Law and Order Episodes are flashing through my mind now.
Not sure what is more distressing, the concept of something called a "booming" body parts broker industry or the fact that they don't seem to take particular care in the way they go about their business.
Fewer and fewer throwing out a line
While Tourism Prince Rupert does its best to lure the sport fisherman to the North Coast, a troubling statistic is haunting the provincial government. Sport fishing has dropped in popularity by 20% in the last ten years, giving the Government cause to wonder why less and less people wish to drop a line and spend their dollars on an angling licence.
Reasons ranging from confusing regulations (and trying to go through one of those thick fishing in BC guides or the website for that matter is a challenge!), to cumbersome licensing requirements and just less free time for families all factored into the anecdotal evidence gathered by the various fishing societies of B. C.
In order to get to the bottom of the situation the government has just allocated 90,000 dollars into for a study to find out why many of us just don’t want to go fish.
Perhaps they should list the best spots and provide the best bait, that might help get the numbers up in quick order!
The Daily News provided details of the Government concerns in a story from Monday’s newspaper.
PROVINCE ASKS WHY SO FEW HOOKED ON FISHING
By Sarah Fox
The Daily News
Monday, August 21, 2006.
Page Three
The province is spending $90,000 to find out why sport fishermen are no longer going fishing.
The $90,000 grant to the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B. C. will go toward planning a market research study to find out why the number of B. C. residents buying freshwater angling licences has dropped by almost 20 per cent during the past 10 years, from 320,000 in 1995 to 260,000 last year.
“We don’t want to see the number of anglers decline,” said David Ranson of the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B. C.
“Much of the revenues derived from licence sales goes back into our conservation programs, our stocking programs as well as fish habitat restoration and the economic impact of angling are tremendous throughout the province.
“We don’t want to see that decline because that means the tourism benefits from the sport fishing industry will decline for the province and rural communities and we want to make sure that we continue to have healthy and vibrant fisheries.”
B.C. Tourism Minister Olga Ilich said angling generates about $1.2 billion annually in related spending – mostly in rural areas.
According to a 2002 B. C. government report, the tidal recreational fishery alone in B. C. generated an estimated $550 million in sales, $120 million of that going to lodges, $30 million to charter operators and $400 million to boat and equipment dealers.
“The $90,000 grant is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of dollars generated by the sport,” said Frank Kwak, president of the Fraser Valley Salmon Society.
Brian Chan, Freshwater Fisheries Society vice-president, said the decline the number of B. C, anglers could be attributed to reports about on-going disputes over fisheries, the uncertainty over recreational fishing times, and to the hectic pace of modern living that prevents families from enjoying a day of fishing.
“Anecdotally we’ve heard from a number of anglers and they’d like to be able to buy licences electronically,” said Ranson.
“Electronic sales of licences would help; it would make things a little quicker, more efficient, instead of the paper transaction.
“The other thing we hear anecdotally is that many people find the freshwater and the tidal fishing regulations too complicated.
“They’re lengthy and difficult to read and so I think one of the outcomes that you could probably recollect from this market study is that they need to simplify those.”
As part of the market research study a survey will be conducted asking anglers about the changes they would like to see in the licencing and regulations to make the sport more attractive. A report of the survey results, plus recommendations and implementation plan, is expected by the spring of 2007.
Reasons ranging from confusing regulations (and trying to go through one of those thick fishing in BC guides or the website for that matter is a challenge!), to cumbersome licensing requirements and just less free time for families all factored into the anecdotal evidence gathered by the various fishing societies of B. C.
In order to get to the bottom of the situation the government has just allocated 90,000 dollars into for a study to find out why many of us just don’t want to go fish.
Perhaps they should list the best spots and provide the best bait, that might help get the numbers up in quick order!
The Daily News provided details of the Government concerns in a story from Monday’s newspaper.
PROVINCE ASKS WHY SO FEW HOOKED ON FISHING
By Sarah Fox
The Daily News
Monday, August 21, 2006.
Page Three
The province is spending $90,000 to find out why sport fishermen are no longer going fishing.
The $90,000 grant to the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B. C. will go toward planning a market research study to find out why the number of B. C. residents buying freshwater angling licences has dropped by almost 20 per cent during the past 10 years, from 320,000 in 1995 to 260,000 last year.
“We don’t want to see the number of anglers decline,” said David Ranson of the Freshwater Fisheries Society of B. C.
“Much of the revenues derived from licence sales goes back into our conservation programs, our stocking programs as well as fish habitat restoration and the economic impact of angling are tremendous throughout the province.
“We don’t want to see that decline because that means the tourism benefits from the sport fishing industry will decline for the province and rural communities and we want to make sure that we continue to have healthy and vibrant fisheries.”
B.C. Tourism Minister Olga Ilich said angling generates about $1.2 billion annually in related spending – mostly in rural areas.
According to a 2002 B. C. government report, the tidal recreational fishery alone in B. C. generated an estimated $550 million in sales, $120 million of that going to lodges, $30 million to charter operators and $400 million to boat and equipment dealers.
“The $90,000 grant is a drop in the bucket compared to the millions of dollars generated by the sport,” said Frank Kwak, president of the Fraser Valley Salmon Society.
Brian Chan, Freshwater Fisheries Society vice-president, said the decline the number of B. C, anglers could be attributed to reports about on-going disputes over fisheries, the uncertainty over recreational fishing times, and to the hectic pace of modern living that prevents families from enjoying a day of fishing.
“Anecdotally we’ve heard from a number of anglers and they’d like to be able to buy licences electronically,” said Ranson.
“Electronic sales of licences would help; it would make things a little quicker, more efficient, instead of the paper transaction.
“The other thing we hear anecdotally is that many people find the freshwater and the tidal fishing regulations too complicated.
“They’re lengthy and difficult to read and so I think one of the outcomes that you could probably recollect from this market study is that they need to simplify those.”
As part of the market research study a survey will be conducted asking anglers about the changes they would like to see in the licencing and regulations to make the sport more attractive. A report of the survey results, plus recommendations and implementation plan, is expected by the spring of 2007.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
Minor hockey once again to find itself under a micro-scope
It’s a hockey horror story with seemingly no hope for a happy ending. Today’s announcement that Dave Frost is facing numerous charges in an Ontario court; one of sexual assault and twelve of exploitation will send shivers though minor hockey associations across the country. The headlines today just the latest twist in a decidedly unseemly story.
The details of his alleged misbehavior of course are a closely guarded Crown secret, some will be made clear on Wednesday when he faces a judge in Napanee, Ontario, a court date will be set and the next chapter in the controversial life Dave Frost will begin.
But as the justice system in Ontario prepares its case and seeks punishment for what will no doubt be categorized as heinous offences, the old stories of Frost’s past will once again come to the forefront.
The former minor hockey coach and player agent most recently made headlines as the target of a murder for hire plan by a former client, Mike Danton, a client that looked to Frost as a father figure, turning his back on his family and becoming so despondent that he sought to have someone kill Frost.
Then as with everything that seems to revolve around Frost, things are never quite as they seem. Danton, who used to be known as Mike Jefferson had a falling out with his family while playing for Frost in Mississauga. The family as would be expected has blamed Frost for the change in their son’s demeanor and his abandonment of his blood relations.
Yet as the Ottawa Citizen has shown in a published story today, the Jefferson family homestead may not have been quite as nurturing as one would like or as they might wish to suggest. It’s a fascinating tale though in a sad way, one which does not paint the culture of minor hockey well, and which perhaps sets the tone for how this one family unit became such an unraveled mess.
Danton for his part provided a 36 page letter to the paper, outlining his memories of his family life and they make for depressing reading, Frost it seems in Danton’s mind filled a void that his blood family couldn’t provide. Yet, in the end, Danton wished for Frost to be dead, he obviously was a troubled young man, who nobody it seems was really looking out for. Instead his eventual celebrity as an NHL player seemed to be more of a meal ticket for far too many people.
Currently serving a 7 ½ year sentence in an American jail for his murderous plot, Danton is attempting to be transferred to a Canadian prison, where a parole possibility would kick in and remove him from incarceration. Because of that, he was vague in his correspondence with the Citizen about his dealings with Frost.
Key portions of their time together have been kept unrecorded, providing gaps that are hard to piece together and leaving far more questions than providing answers as to what went through his head to wish to have his agent and surrogate father killed.
With today’s charges against Frost, there will be many who will retrace his steps over his many years of involvement in hockey, both minor and professional. His contacts reach deep into the NHL stratosphere, from a close friendship with Bob Goodenow to marrying the daughter of a famous NHL referee, Frost has been a part of many levels of the game. His connections no doubt provided him with an entry into the lives of many a young hockey player and their families.
Surely there must have been warning signs or concerns over the many years. So one has to wonder just what the organizations he had business with during his years were doing in the way of background checking and investigation for the good of the game.
Results tend to gloss over concerns, and Frost did have results with his minor hockey teams and in preparing players for an NHL career. But one has to wonder at what ultimate cost.
As the charges play out in an Ontario court room over the next months, perhaps some questions should be asked of those in authority wherever Mr. Frost traveled. There seems to be far too many red flags that have been run up the pole over the years, flags that were either ignored or not taken as seriously as they should have been. Sure he was banned from some associations and suspended by others, but somehow he managed to keep on finding ways to stay involved in the game, and you have to wonder how?
Far too many lives seem to have been negatively impacted over the years not just in this story but in many others, hockey as a sport needs to take a close look at how the culture of the sport in this country is getting out of control. It seems that the image of the sport was always of more concern than those that were playing the games and became victims because of it.
The television commercials and talking heads of the media always tell us it’s supposed to be about the kids. But by reading the stories of the twists and turns with this one story, it seems that nobody, not one person was thinking about the kids. And that’s a criminal shame.
The above post first appeared on my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out.
The details of his alleged misbehavior of course are a closely guarded Crown secret, some will be made clear on Wednesday when he faces a judge in Napanee, Ontario, a court date will be set and the next chapter in the controversial life Dave Frost will begin.
But as the justice system in Ontario prepares its case and seeks punishment for what will no doubt be categorized as heinous offences, the old stories of Frost’s past will once again come to the forefront.
The former minor hockey coach and player agent most recently made headlines as the target of a murder for hire plan by a former client, Mike Danton, a client that looked to Frost as a father figure, turning his back on his family and becoming so despondent that he sought to have someone kill Frost.
Then as with everything that seems to revolve around Frost, things are never quite as they seem. Danton, who used to be known as Mike Jefferson had a falling out with his family while playing for Frost in Mississauga. The family as would be expected has blamed Frost for the change in their son’s demeanor and his abandonment of his blood relations.
Yet as the Ottawa Citizen has shown in a published story today, the Jefferson family homestead may not have been quite as nurturing as one would like or as they might wish to suggest. It’s a fascinating tale though in a sad way, one which does not paint the culture of minor hockey well, and which perhaps sets the tone for how this one family unit became such an unraveled mess.
Danton for his part provided a 36 page letter to the paper, outlining his memories of his family life and they make for depressing reading, Frost it seems in Danton’s mind filled a void that his blood family couldn’t provide. Yet, in the end, Danton wished for Frost to be dead, he obviously was a troubled young man, who nobody it seems was really looking out for. Instead his eventual celebrity as an NHL player seemed to be more of a meal ticket for far too many people.
Currently serving a 7 ½ year sentence in an American jail for his murderous plot, Danton is attempting to be transferred to a Canadian prison, where a parole possibility would kick in and remove him from incarceration. Because of that, he was vague in his correspondence with the Citizen about his dealings with Frost.
Key portions of their time together have been kept unrecorded, providing gaps that are hard to piece together and leaving far more questions than providing answers as to what went through his head to wish to have his agent and surrogate father killed.
With today’s charges against Frost, there will be many who will retrace his steps over his many years of involvement in hockey, both minor and professional. His contacts reach deep into the NHL stratosphere, from a close friendship with Bob Goodenow to marrying the daughter of a famous NHL referee, Frost has been a part of many levels of the game. His connections no doubt provided him with an entry into the lives of many a young hockey player and their families.
Surely there must have been warning signs or concerns over the many years. So one has to wonder just what the organizations he had business with during his years were doing in the way of background checking and investigation for the good of the game.
Results tend to gloss over concerns, and Frost did have results with his minor hockey teams and in preparing players for an NHL career. But one has to wonder at what ultimate cost.
As the charges play out in an Ontario court room over the next months, perhaps some questions should be asked of those in authority wherever Mr. Frost traveled. There seems to be far too many red flags that have been run up the pole over the years, flags that were either ignored or not taken as seriously as they should have been. Sure he was banned from some associations and suspended by others, but somehow he managed to keep on finding ways to stay involved in the game, and you have to wonder how?
Far too many lives seem to have been negatively impacted over the years not just in this story but in many others, hockey as a sport needs to take a close look at how the culture of the sport in this country is getting out of control. It seems that the image of the sport was always of more concern than those that were playing the games and became victims because of it.
The television commercials and talking heads of the media always tell us it’s supposed to be about the kids. But by reading the stories of the twists and turns with this one story, it seems that nobody, not one person was thinking about the kids. And that’s a criminal shame.
The above post first appeared on my HockeyNation blog, for more items about hockey check it out.
Those Battlin’ Blue Jays
Well you can't say that the Jays aren't going down without a fight, it's just too bad that they can't find the same emotion on the ball field.
Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons and starting pitcher Ted Lilly got into a pushing match in the tunnel leading to the Blue Jays dressing room on Monday night.
Lilly annoyed that Gibbons had pulled him from the game in the third inning after surrendering 7 runs, didn't stick around the dug out area to finish a heated discussion with his manager, instead he stormed off down the tunnel taking his leave of the situation.
Only problem it seems is that Gibbons wasn't finished talking yet, as he followed his starter down the tunnel where the real action began, from all accounts the two got into a pushing and shoving match, eventually becoming separated by the Jays bench which had abandoned the dugout to follow the action off field and off camera.
By the end of it all Gibbons had a bloody nose, Lilly had an embarrassed feeling and the Blue Jays had yet another loss to tack up on the board, this time a 12-10 defeat (the Jays leaving behind an eight run lead!), helping them fall further and further off the post season radar.
It's the second time in a month that Gibbons has become involved in an incident with one of his players, he previously challenged Blue Jay Shea Hillenbrand to a fight when he wrote a nasty message on the Blue Jay bulletin board, comparing the Blue Jays to a sinking ship.
For his troubles Hillenbrand got traded to San Francisco (ironically one month ago Monday) and ever since then has suggested that he wasn't the real problem in TO, after Monday there may be a few more people ready to listen to his side of the story.
With the Blue Jays' chances of making the playoffs getting more remote with each passing game, the tensions and cracks on the Blue Jay roster have been becoming more pronounced.
On the up side, once the Jays are officially eliminated from the post season hunt they can get a head start on those much needed anger management classes.
We can probably change the lyrics to that famous Blue Jay song from the ball park too!
Come along and sing with Ace the Blue Jay who apparently took the job from B J Birdy, no doubt in a cage match at centre field!!
"Ok (ok), Blue Jays (blue jays), let's all brawl!
Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons and starting pitcher Ted Lilly got into a pushing match in the tunnel leading to the Blue Jays dressing room on Monday night.
Lilly annoyed that Gibbons had pulled him from the game in the third inning after surrendering 7 runs, didn't stick around the dug out area to finish a heated discussion with his manager, instead he stormed off down the tunnel taking his leave of the situation.
Only problem it seems is that Gibbons wasn't finished talking yet, as he followed his starter down the tunnel where the real action began, from all accounts the two got into a pushing and shoving match, eventually becoming separated by the Jays bench which had abandoned the dugout to follow the action off field and off camera.
By the end of it all Gibbons had a bloody nose, Lilly had an embarrassed feeling and the Blue Jays had yet another loss to tack up on the board, this time a 12-10 defeat (the Jays leaving behind an eight run lead!), helping them fall further and further off the post season radar.
It's the second time in a month that Gibbons has become involved in an incident with one of his players, he previously challenged Blue Jay Shea Hillenbrand to a fight when he wrote a nasty message on the Blue Jay bulletin board, comparing the Blue Jays to a sinking ship.
For his troubles Hillenbrand got traded to San Francisco (ironically one month ago Monday) and ever since then has suggested that he wasn't the real problem in TO, after Monday there may be a few more people ready to listen to his side of the story.
With the Blue Jays' chances of making the playoffs getting more remote with each passing game, the tensions and cracks on the Blue Jay roster have been becoming more pronounced.
On the up side, once the Jays are officially eliminated from the post season hunt they can get a head start on those much needed anger management classes.
We can probably change the lyrics to that famous Blue Jay song from the ball park too!
Come along and sing with Ace the Blue Jay who apparently took the job from B J Birdy, no doubt in a cage match at centre field!!
"Ok (ok), Blue Jays (blue jays), let's all brawl!
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