July 2, 2008

Vancouver Sun Civic Affairs Reporter Frances Bula Resigns Her Post

Frances Bula, the Vancouver Sun civic affairs reporter since 1994, abruptly announced her resignation from the newspaper today.

Dear all of my blog-readers,

This will be my last post on this Vancouver Sun blog, as I have resigned from the paper.

As Vancouver-based blogger Rob Cottingham states in his farewell tribute to Ms. Bula today, "Her blog post makes it clear that she thoroughly understands blogging - which makes losing her voice at the Sun doubly painful." Another Vancouver blogger, Bill Tieleman, weighs in on Ms. Bula's departure from the Sun, on Sean Holman's Public Eye Online, writing ...

This is indeed bad news for all of us who either report on municipal politics, follow them or are active in local government.

Frances Bula has done an outstanding job for many years and amazingly maintained her sense of humour despite sitting through endless rounds of pointless Vancouver city council meetings and much more.

Good luck to Frances wherever she goes - she will have many fans who will follow.

The Pivot Legal Society's David Eby writes on his blog, "For her to leave the Sun is, well ... shocking."

In what is shaping up to be the most important Vancouver civic election in almost a half century, Ms. Bula's resignation from the Sun, and rumoured movement to Vancouver Magazine — with its three month advance deadline, and consequent lack of reportorial immediacy — represents the loss of a critical voice, at a critical juncture, on Vancouver's civic scene.

Unless Ms. Bula commences with her new blog (which she promises) by early autumn, Vancouver citizens will find them far less informed on the machinations of the fall civic election than otherwise would be the case.

We are all the lesser for Ms. Bula's departure from the daily journalistic rigours of reporting on the often tempestuous Vancouver civic scene.

   

July 28, 2006

Board of Variance Fired. Story Over. Not By A Long Shot.

Now, you'd think what with Vancouver City Council (not to mention, the Vancouver Courier's Allen Garr) on vacation for the remainder of the summer, and Supreme Court Justice Robert J. Bauman having trampled on the hurt feelings of the recently deposed members of the City of Vancouver Board of Variance, that this 'story that won't die' would be over.

But you'd be wrong. You can take the hint from the latter sentiment expressed in the previous paragraph: the Board of Variance sacking is a story that won't die. And, why not?

Well, just when you thought to yourself, good riddance to that Ray Tomlin fella, and fair thee well to Quincey Kirschner, Terry Martin, Tony Tang and Jan Pierce, it would be too soon if I ever heard any one of their names ever again ... it seems that your cherished opinion in the matter has been overturned by citizens honourable and true, an as yet unidentified band of truth and justice seekers who, when the Board was fired four weeks ago today, filed a complaint with the Office of the BC Ombudsman.

So what, you say? Well, this is what: the office of the City Clerk, City of Vancouver, informed Secretary to the Board of Variance, Louis Ng, on Thursday afternoon that the aforementioned Ombudsman's office has launched a "full and thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding the dismissal of the City of Vancouver Board of Variance." Mr. Ng was instructed to co-operate fully with the investigation.

Justice Robert Bauman ruled that Board of Variance counsel, Derek Creighton, had not proved evidence of "bad faith" by Vancouver City Council in its dismissal of the Board. But now, with a truly independent arm of government conducting an investigation into the firing, perhaps evidence of "bad faith" might finally be proven. We'll wait and see.

Seems that the Office of the Ombudsman will issue a full report on the matter sometime later this year, or as late as next spring.

Board of Variance fired. Story over. Not by a long shot. This is the story that won't die.

   

July 25, 2006

This Just In: Board of Variance Crushed by Supreme Court

This morning, in Courtroom 20, in the British Columbia Supreme Court building at 800 Smithe Street, in the city of Vancouver, during the course of a 45-minute video tele-conference address, Mr. Justice Robert J. Bauman ruled decisively against the recently deposed members of Vancouver's beleaguered Board of Variance. Okay, let's be honest: with one devastating body blow after another, he slammed them to the ground, and crushed their cheery little faces into the dirt multiple times. But who's counting?

Justice Bauman ruled that the decision by Vancouver City Council to rescind the appointments of all five members of the Board of Variance constituted "an institutional change," ruling that Vancouver City Council — as the legislative authority — had the "unfettered right" to fire the Board of Variance, and were not compelled either to give reasons for their decision, nor were they to be concerned about any possible damage to the personal and professional reputations of the deposed Board of Variance members.

Tuesday afternoon at 5 p.m., Council appointed a 'new' Board of Variance, made up of Alex "Sleepy" Lam, Francesca "I used to be an NDPer, but I seen the light, and now I'm a Liberal" Zumpano, Marguerite "I don't know why some people think I'm scary" Ford, and ("what must they have been thinking, jumping into this mess?"), former 1993 - 1999 Board of Variance member Parveen Adrakar, and newcomer, Jagdev Dhillon.

The best part of this whole fiasco? VanRamblings is now free to write any (responsible) thing it wishes on this blog about Council, without fear of retribution by Mayor Sam Sullivan and cohorts. That's the good news.

The bad news: the terrible loss that the 350 families — and all of the other members of the community who approach the Board of Variance, each year, for an appeal of the Director of Planning involving a development decision in their neighbourhood — who will almost certainly suffer an untoward experience at the hands of a Board of Variance whose determinations must surely be seen to be tainted by the recent action of Council to fire the previous Board, in a decision taken with no just and reasonable cause.

In respect of Mr. Justice Robert Bauman, and in fairness to the fulsomeness of his ruling, given the impeccable and compelling presentation of counsel for the City, Mr. George Macintosh QC, to Mr. Justice Bauman's court, there was very little room left for Justice Bauman to rule other than he did (although, one supposes, the door would always be open to a broader interpretation of the matters placed before a Supreme Court Justice).

Mr. Justice Robert Bauman ruled as he felt he must. VanRamblings believes in the rule of law, and all those who believe in civil society must stand by the rightness of a decision of the Court, whatever the negative personal consequences one might experience as a result. That an appeal of Justice Bauman's ruling is under consideration speaks only to points in law counsel for the Board feels may not have been fully explored.

Still and all, VanRamblings would ask: Was it absolutely necessary for Justice Robert Bauman to award costs to the City, risking bankruptcy for the good-hearted, principled volunteer members of the Board of Variance who have worked so hard and well, and so ethically, this past year?

   

July 21, 2006

Board of Variance Fate To Be Decided Tuesday morning, July 25

After three long, miserable weeks of psychic, emotional and other pain for the author of this blog, notice was given Friday afternoon that Justice Robert Bauman, of the BC Supreme Court, will hand down his decision this coming Tuesday morning, at 9 a.m., July 25th, as to whether Vancouver will maintain an independent Board of Variance, or have its members replaced with individuals friendlier to development interests, and the interests of the NPA, the municipal political party currently governing Vancouver City Hall.

For those of you who have not been following the torrid and often heartrending saga of the sacking of Vancouver's Board of Variance (of which VanRamblings is one of the deposed members), there's been a great deal reported in the press on the issue, as there might well have been given the import of the issue for the average Vancouver citizen, and for all of us.

Allen Garr, of the Vancouver Courier, has proved particularly dogged in his coverage of what he has suggested "may be the biggest story of the year," beginning with his July 7th column, Board firing bad for citizenry, continuing on to July 12th with Board firing stretches credulity, July 15th's PR plan followed board firing, and yet another column published this past Wednesday, which (inexplicably) The Courier has yet to post to the 'Net.

The Vancouver Sun's Barbara Yaffe, who in appealing on behalf of her neighbourhood to the Board of Variance in the autumn of 2005, lost in her bid to have overturned what she and her neighbours felt was a "wholly unsuitable" duplex development, has taken a surprising, yet ethical and principled stand in support of an independent Board of Variance.

On July 5th, Ms. Yaffe, in a column titled Citizens need a Board to stand between them and city hall (pdf), and again on July 12th in a column titled, Variance board our last hope to rein in a city hall run amok provided insight and much needed coverage of an issue which should have grabbed the attention of all Vancouver citizens.

So, this coming Tuesday morning, stay tuned to your local radio station for news from the BC Supreme Court.

Justice Robert Bauman has a very difficult ruling to make, given the able presentations of both legal counsels, Derek Creighton for the Petitioner (the fired Board of Variance members), and George Macintosh for the Respondent, the City of Vancouver / Province of British Columbia.

   

February 28, 2006

Provincial Liberals Introduce a Children's Budget. Some Doubt It.

Vancouver Kensington NDP MLA David Chudnovsky in the British Columbia provincial legislature on Monday, February 27th ..

Let’s turn to education, kindergarten-to-grade-12 education, because the people in our schools are children. We’re told by the Minister of Finance that it’s a children’s budget. So what’s in the budget for our public schools? The Premier and the minister are all over the media crowing about the increase in funding, but as usual with this government, it pays to look at the numbers a little bit more closely.

The increase in per-pupil funding that the government is projecting is 2.35 percent over the next three years. Inflation is expected to be 6.5 percent over the same period. Therefore, per-pupil funding in our public schools — that’s children — is to lag more than 4 percent behind inflation for the next three years. There’s a children’s budget for you. There is a commitment to children.

At the same time, funding for private schools is going to go up 10.7 percent. It’s not a big secret where this government is going, not a big secret what their priorities are, not a big secret what their agenda is for public schools and what their agenda is for private schools. The numbers tell the story.

You do have to wonder what’s going on in the corridors of power. Who’s running the ship? Is there anyone over there learning lessons from their own experiences?

Only a couple of months ago this government precipitated a completely unnecessary confrontation with teachers, parents and communities across this province. It was a confrontation precisely about the funding and resources available to public schools. It was about class size problems and class composition problems. Now, we know that after years of denying there was a problem, after years of pretending that the government’s massive cutbacks in services to children had a positive impact on schools and students, finally, last fall, the Premier and the Minister of Education admitted that yes, we do have a problem in our schools when it comes to class size and class composition.

You’d expect to see that realization, late as it was, reflected in the budget. You’d expect to see resources allocated in the budget to deal with the real challenges in our public schools, challenges the Premier and the Minister of Education have finally noticed. But no, there is no allocation for class size improvements and class composition improvements in the budget — not there. They didn’t make it into the children’s budget — no allocation in the budget for the results of the minister’s much ballyhooed round table.

You remember the round table, Madam Speaker. The minister told us that was going to be the solution for class size and composition: get everybody together around a table and abracadabra, the problems would be solved. But of course it takes resources to solve the problems of class size and composition in our schools: 9,000 classes with more than 30 students in them; 11,000 classes in the province with four or more identified students with special needs. You can’t solve those with a discussion, no matter how round the table is and no matter how many folks you invite in for a talk. It takes resources. It takes political will. You’d think it would be there in a children’s budget, but sadly, tragically, it’s not.

You’d think that in the throne speech we would have seen a commitment to class size limits and class composition guarantees in the School Act. That was what the students of this province were promised at the end of the government's dispute with the teachers. The government created a two-week crisis in the schools, and to get out of it, they promised to guarantee services to students and that the guarantee would be enshrined in public policy. Now, as we know, that wasn’t the preference of the teachers. The teachers' position and the teachers' preference was to provide those guarantees in collective bargaining. But the teachers were willing to compromise, and in return for that compromise the government committed to guarantees for class size and class composition in legislation.

You’d think we would have heard about that legislation in the throne speech. You’d think this government, bruised and battered and isolated during the fall because of its disastrous education policies, would have tried to calm the waters by making good on its commitment to B.C.’s children. But no such legislation was announced, at least not yet. So we look forward in this session, in the season of the children’s budget, to the government getting around to keeping its commitment to the children of the province when it comes to class size and class composition.

Thanks to former COPE School Board trustee Noel Herron for passing Mr. Chudnovsky’s speech in the legislature along to VanRamblings’ readers.

   

December 5, 2005

Mayor Sullivan Makes His First Set of Appointments

Mayor Sam Sullivan

Mayor Sam Sullivan was sworn in today as the 44th mayor of the City of Vancouver.

In addition, new NPA councillors Suzanne Anton (formerly a member of the Parks Board), social activist Kim Capri, arts maven Elizabeth Ball (terrible website; was she really counting on being elected), and incumbent and humanitarian Peter Ladner were also sworn in.

Vision Vancouver Council members, and Council incumbents, Raymond Louie (who oughta lose his ‘holier than thou’ smirk ... just a suggestion, if he wants to be Mayor some day) and Tim Stevenson, as well as newly elected Vision Vancouver Council members Heather Deal and George Chow were also sworn in, along with the lone COPE incumbent David Cadman.

Announced today were Mayor Sullivan’s first set of appointments — to the GVRD and Translink Boards (the websites have not been updated as of this writing), as well as a number of other regional bodies, non-profit boards and statutory committees.

Next up, but still a ways away, appointments to the various civic agencies which either carry out or help to develop policy for Council. Applications for the current vacancies (all committees, with the exception of the Board of Variance, dissolve prior to an election, and re-appointment does not take place until well into the new year ... the appointments are often construed as ‘pay-offs’ to supporters of the winning party ... although VanRamblings would suggest that such a construction in relation to these appointments would be ungenerous and wrong-headed in the extreme).

Update, December 6: Announced in his inaugural address yesterday, Mayor Sullivan will institute a Triple R Review (roles, relationships and responsibilities) of the function of existing civic agencies. The results of the review will be announced in the spring. Appointments to what are almost surely to be newly reconstituted advisory committees will likely take place in June 2006. As a first order of business, could Mayor Sullivan have instituted a more anti-democratic policy than his bludgeoning of these very important, democratic advisory civic agencies? VanRamblings thinks not.

Update, December 8: The Council package for December 13th from Mayor Sullivan will recommend that Council approve the re-establishment of the following Advisory Committees for the term December 5, 2005 to December 8, 2008, with current members reinstated until successors are appointed:

• Building Board of Appeal

• Development Permit Board Advisory Panel

• Urban Design Panel

• Vancouver Athletic Commission

The following civic agencies are established by federal or provincial legislation, and will also be continuing "business as usual":

• Board of Variance

• Family Court-Youth Justice Committee

• Vancouver Public Library Board

• Vancouver Economic Development Commission

• Vancouver Heritage Foundation

To be fair, here's Mayor Sullivan in his own words on the Triple R Review ...

I would like Council to determine how best to get input from citizens. The contribution of community voices to Council is a vital part of being informed and responsive. We have many dedicated citizens who contribute to our city on advisory committees. We owe them the respect of Council by enabling their advice to be heard through the most effective mechanisms of involvement.

At the end of every Council term all committees except those mandated by law end, until they are re-constituted by the new Council. I am recommending that Council delay the re-establishment of our committees pending the clarification of roles as part of the Triple R Review (roles, relationships and responsibilities).

The re-establishment of citizen advisory processes should await clarification of the strategic directions this Council wants to take for the city. I will ask Council early in this term, concurrently with the review of roles, responsibilities and relationships, to engage in a process to determine strategic directions and objectives.

VanRamblings wishes the new Council wisdom and sober second thought, humanity, a sense of humour, civility and respect for varying opinions, and at least a modicum of non-partisanship in their important deliberations.

   

November 28, 2005

School Board Loss: Whither Now Education in Vancouver?

Perhaps the most devastating loss in the recent Vancouver civic election was the NPA School Board majority win, and the consequent turfing out of the respected, hard-working, centrist, consultative and initiative-driven majority COPE school trustee slate — Kevin Millsip, Noel Herron, Angela Kenyon, Jane Bouey, and Green Party trustee Andrea Reimer.

Even given the downloading, by the provincial Liberal government, of a teacher pay raise onto school boards throughout the province, the COPE School Board was the only Board in the province to not lay teachers off during their three-year term, and to maintain smaller class sizes (or in the case of kindergarten, reduce class sizes and go to full day kindergarten).

Unlike past COPE School Boards, the 2002 - 2005 COPE Vancouver school trustees did not pick unwinnable fights with the provincial government, but instead worked together with senior staff in the provincial Ministry of Education to secure additional funding for inner city schools for our region’s most vulnerable children; developed a programme to make all schools across our province seismically safe; expanded literacy programmes, and increased spaces for French Immersion; and developed groundbreaking multi-cultural, anti-racism and anti-homophobia programmes.

Why was the popular COPE School Board defeated? Easy question that. COPE school trustees fell victim to the infighting between COPE Classic and COPE Lite / Vision Vancouver, as slate voting took over to elect a majority NPA slate to the Vancouver School and Park Boards, and City Council.

A diverse NPA Council will be what it will be. Mayor-elect Sam Sullivan will set the agenda for his, and the NPA’s, coming term of office. The Park Board is, for the most part, a largely non-partisan (no pun intended) entity, a Board that tends to work co-operatively and without rancour; commissioners from COPE and the majority NPA Board will almost assuredly act in the best interests of Vancouver citizens, and citizens across the Lower Mainland.

But School Board? Children, parents, teachers, and non-teaching support staff are in for a rough ride with a Ken Denike-led NPA majority on the 2005 - 2008 Vancouver School Board. The NPA School Board will almost certainly prove to be a right wing, ultra-conservative and ideologically driven Board.

Continue reading "School Board Loss: Whither Now Education in Vancouver?"

   

November 23, 2005

Sam Sullivan: The New Mayor of Vancouver

On Saturday, November 19th Sam Sullivan became the 44th Mayor of Vancouver. What does Mr. Sullivan’s ascension to the highest political office in Canada’s third largest city mean for the people of Vancouver?

Well, first off, a return to decorum. Sullivan has promised that City Council debate will not be defined by acrimony, personal invective, and ad hominem attack. All points of view will be heard and decisions will be arrived at only after due consideration. Is Mr. Sullivan to be believed on this front? VanRamblings believes Mr. Sullivan to be a reasonable person who will do everything in his considerable power to return civility to Council debate.

In setting a new — and potentially co-operative — tone at City Hall, perhaps the first tentative steps might be taken towards healing the divide that exists in our City between rich and poor, East side and West side, privilege and anomie. The most salutary aspect of a new start is the sense of hope that is inspired when one does not know for sure what is to come. VanRamblings hopes for the best and trusts that the newly elected majority Non-Partisan Association Council will, while working with the Vision and COPE members of Council, move this City forward toward brighter days.

Lest you think that VanRamblings has been consuming a little too much of the NPA Kool-Aid, we would be remiss if mention were not made of the controversy surrounding Mr. Sullivan’s election to the Mayor’s job. If you look at the chart above, you'll see that Independent candidate James Green polled third in the mayoralty race. Adding James Green’s vote to that of Vision Vancouver mayoralty candidate Jim Green’s vote places Vision’s Jim Green 526 votes ahead of Mr. Sullivan, the declared winner of Saturday’s mayoral contest. Were there “dirty tricks” involved in the NPA’s alleged support of an independent James Green candidacy, a cynical, dastardly ploy designed to confuse voters? Vision Vancouver certainly thinks so.

Re-elected COPE councillor David Cadman chalks Green’s loss up to hubris

You only have to be aware of Jim Green’s history to know that the issue of NPA “dirty tricks” will not be going away anytime soon; Jim’s a fighter and will see it through to the end. Meanwhile, Mayor-elect Sullivan has made statements to the press that he wants to get on with the job, and to that end has extended an olive branch to his Vision Vancouver opponent, suggesting that there continues to be a role for Mr. Green to play in the development of the Woodward’s site, a long cherished dream of Mr. Green.

Continue reading "Sam Sullivan: The New Mayor of Vancouver"

   

November 20, 2005

Vancouver Elects New Council: The People Have Spoken

The 2005 race for Vancouver Municipal Council, School and Park Board is over. The NPA scored a stunning come-from-behind victory, all but decimating the COPE civic party. The election of four of five Vision Vancouver councillors sets a new direction for the progressive forces on Council. What all of these changes mean at the end of the day, it’s too early to say. But development in the City will most certainly take a different direction, and municipal issues will be re-prioritized. And it was always thus.

In the coming days, VanRamblings will publish our take on the meaning behind the change in direction for civic politics, in Vancouver and across the Lower Mainland. In the meantime, we can take heart that the people have spoken, and over the course of the next three years we will receive the kind of civic governance for which a majority of Vancouverites voted.

   

November 16, 2005

Save A Vote For Mel Lehan for Vancouver Park Board

On Nov 19th, vote for Mel Lehan

VanRamblings has a request to make of Vancouver residents today, whatever your political affiliation: please save a vote for Mel Lehan, running as a COPE candidate for a position on the Vancouver Park Board.

VanRamblings has known Mel Lehan for 30 years. In that time, we have yet to run across a more humane, harder working, more steadfast, and more moral person than Mel Lehan.

Mel is a loving father and a good and caring husband, as well as a kind and generous teacher. Mel is also an activist, a member of our community who has always worked with others to help create a better and more livable society for all of us. Which is to say, Mel Lehan can always be counted on not just to do the right thing, but to do all that he can do with his considerable energies to help anyone who comes to him in need of assistance. Mel will move mountains, and dedicate countless hours towards the realization of goals which reflect the best interests of the broadest cross-section of members of our community.

Mel is a great listener. Not only does he hear you, Mel acts on the requests that are made of him, and works with you to achieve your goals.

Mel Lehan works tirelessly on behalf of those who ask for his support, or who vest in him their trust. Placing Mel Lehan on the Vancouver Park Board as a Park Commissioner would mean that you, as a citizen of Vancouver, would have a tireless advocate who would dedicate himself to creating the best parks and recreation system on the continent.

Mel would be there for you, working for you 15 hours a day, six days a week — meeting with and consulting with you, taking your calls, listening to you and advocating for you. There is no other person who is running for the Vancouver Park Board who would do a better job and dedicate more directed and efficient time, effort and energies for you than Mel Lehan.

Over the years, Vancouver Park Board candidate Mel Lehan ...

• Created “Neighbour to Neighbour”, a coalition of more than 50 Vancouver resident associations. Mel chaired the organization and assisted neighbourhoods in building and protecting their communities

• Worked with the Chamber of Commerce to help create the “Welcome to Kitsilano” sign at the south end of the Burrard Bridge, and is currently beginning work to create a tranquil neighbourhood pocket park at Fourth and Burrard

• Chaired and co-founded St. James Community Square, a space for the arts, recreational and physical activities, and a gathering place for meetings and community events

• Co-founded the Mid Main Community Health Centre — a community-based model of health delivery

• Initiated a project of daylighting / opening up the stream at Tatlow Park

• Worked to save affordable housing and character homes in Kitsilano

• Remained active as a member of the Point Grey Natural Foreshore and Waterfowl Sanctuary Protective Society, each year participating in annual bird counts and beach clean ups, and

• While working closely with the community, was instrumental in achieving the goal of preserving the Point Grey foreshore between Kitsilano and Jericho beaches, an area now declared a foreshore in perpetuity, mandating that this pristine beachfront remain natural, undeveloped, and accessible to the entire community

Mel Lehan gets things done. Mel listens, Mel cares, and Mel Lehan works tirelessly and with a focussed, goal-directed energy that consistently meets with success. Whatever your political affiliation, whatever your global intentions voting day November 19th, VanRamblings ask you, once again: please save a vote for Mel Lehan, your Vancouver Park Board candidate.

   

November 14, 2005

Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation: COPE Has The Right Plan

l-r: Spencer Herbert, Anita Romaniuk, Omar Kassis, Jenn McGinn, Mel Lehan, Loretta Woodcock

Last week, VanRamblings published a story endorsing COPE — Vancouver’s Coalition of Progressive Electors civic party — as the only municipal party that champions a sustainable programme of development that balances economic and environmental interests, towards the creation of a more livable city for all of us. Have already wholeheartedly endorsed the COPE slate of candidates for City Council and School Board, VanRamblings turns its attention today to the robust COPE Park Board slate.

Over the course of the past three years, a COPE Park Board, while enhancing public participation and access to the Board, has ...

• Championed the inclusion of 26 acres of park, and a 30,000 sq. ft. community centre at the future southeast False Creek development

• Expanded wheelchair access in our parks and introduced universal design principles to accommodate all members of the public, regardless of physical and mental ability

• Established skateboard parks beneath the east end of the Georgia Viaduct, and in the Strathcona and Quilchena neighbourhoods

• Expanded the Champlain Community Centre, including new child care facilities; rebuilt and expanded the Killarney Pool; undertook an extensive renovation of Renfrew Pool; completed the Millennium Lawn Bowling and Gymnastics facility at Riley Park; established a new artificial turf playing field in Kerrisdale embraced by the community; and established new, or renovated, parks including Emery Barnes, Sahali, Tea Swamp, Strathcona, Heather, George Wainborne, David Lam Phase Two, and Kingcrest

• Extended off leash hours for dog parks, while promoting public education for dog owners

• Promoted and facilitated community gardens throughout the city, and

• Improved environmental practices, including the diversion of rainwater into daylighted streams, as well as the re-use of rainwater for irrigation; expanded the use of green building technology and energy conservation; expanded the recycling programme and the re-use of materials; and continued our commitment to the Cool Vancouver Climate Change plan, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gases

In only a few days, you will be asked to cast your ballot for a new Park Board. Sitting COPE Park Board commissioners Anita Romaniuk and Loretta Woodcock, and new candidates Mel Lehan, Spencer Herbert, Omar Kassis, and Jenn McGinn are deserving of your vote. If a majority COPE Park Board is elected to a second term, a COPE Park Commissioners team would ...

• Continue the renewal and expansion of community centres, ice rinks, swimming pools, and fitness centres

• Move Park Board meetings into community centres, and create an open dailogue with the community

• Approve a plebiscite for the 2008 civic election on whether or not to phase out the containment of whales and dolphins in Stanley Park

• Continue the development of guidelines for waterfront and shoreline activities through the new Waterfront Planning Study

• Engage in a consultative process with young people to enhance youth programming in parks and recreation centres

• Adopt the LEED gold standard for new facilities, thus reducing future operating costs as well as reducing environmental impact

• Keep annual operating expenses and annual inflationary fee increases for facilities and programmes within the target inflationary increases set by the City, while rolling back the NPA-approved 7% increase in seniors fees for golfing, swimming, and fitness centres passed for the 2003 budget

These are good people. Hard-working people. Caring people. On November 19th, when you cast your ballot for a reinvigorated Vancouver Park Board, VanRamblings urges you to support the COPE team of Park Board candidates — Spencer Herbert, Omar Kassis, Mel Lehan, Jenn McGinn, Anita Romaniuk, and Loretta Woodcock — all of whom will work towards the creation of a more livable city for each and every one of us.

   

November 12, 2005

Wal-Mart The Movie: The High Cost of Low Price

Click on picture to enlage poster

Sunday, at 7 p.m. at the VanCity Theatre, director Robert Greewald’s much-praised and controversial new film Wal-Mart - The High Cost of Low Price will première in Vancouver as a benefit screening for Vancouver’s COPE municipal party.

You know Wal-Mart’s inglorious history. Child exploitation. Earlier this year, Wal-Mart Stores agreed to pay $135,540 to settle federal charges in the U.S. that it violated child labour laws in Connecticut, Arkansas and New Hampshire.

Wal-Mart’s culture of crime and greed. In March of this year, only eight short months ago, Wal-Mart paid $11 million to settle charges that it employed hundreds of illegal immigrants to clean its stores across the United States.

Workers have been illegally fired for trying to form a union, and Wal-Mart spends millions to thwart workers basic rights, giving its union-breaking staff priority on resources (like corporate jets) over even higher-placed managers. In 2000, meat cutters at a Wal-Mart in Texas voted for the union — and Wal-Mart promptly violated the law by shutting down the meat-cutting department in the store and, for good measure, closed every other meat-cutting department in 179 other stores across the U.S. and Canada, just to make sure they had stamped out any smell of unionism.

And let’s not forget Wal-Mart’s shuttering of their Jonquierre, Québéc store, in May of this year, after its employees received union certification. A former employee at that store has filed a class-action suit in the Québéc Supreme Court claiming that Wal-Mart, in closing the store, “violated the rights of its workers” by breaching the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees freedom of association to all citizens.

Then there’s Wal-Mart’s wage policies, which deny its workers the basic right to a living wage, not to mention the off-the-clock work they force on their employees, and unequal pay and treatment to which they subject their employees. Wal-Mart's discriminatory policies in regards of their female staff have resulted in the largest workplace-bias lawsuit in U.S. history.

You know the story: poverty-level wages, with a staff turnover rate of 50% a year; destruction of local businesses due to predatory pricing (an Iowa State University study found that in the first decade after Wal-Mart arrived, the state lost 111 men’s and boys’ apparel stores, 116 drug stores, 153 shoe stores, 158 women’s apparel stores, 161 variety stores, 293 building supply stores, 298 hardware stores, and 555 grocery stores); numerous labour law violations, ranging from illegal spying on employees and falsification of time cards to avoid paying overtime to fraudulent record keeping and illegal firings for union organizing; the record-holder for the most suits filed against a U.S. company by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (Wal-Mart had to pay a $750,000 fine for blatant discrimination in Arizona against the disabled. The judge even ordered Wal-Mart to air commercials confessing their guilt); and more, much more.

But you don’t know the whole story. You won’t gain a true insight into Wal-Mart corporate practices until and unless you attend this Sunday evening’s screening of Wal-Mart — The High Cost of Low Price. Until you hear for yourself the shattering experiences of the current and former Wal-Mart employees Greenwald interviewed, this story will be little more than words on a screen. Sunday evening. See you at the VanCity theatre.

   

November 6, 2005

Elect a COPE Vancouver School Board in 2005

Noel Herron was the Principal at my children’s elementary school (University Hill) in the 1980s, and after that Principal at another half-dozen Vancouver schools. Since that time, and before, Noel has continuously advocated for public education, speaking out and publishing for the betterment of the education system.

Over the course of the past couple of years, VanRamblings has had the opportunity to become re-acquainted with Noel, in his capacity as Chair of the Personnel and Staff Relations Committee of the Vancouver School Board, and as a liaison with the employees of Cardinal Transportation Vancouver who, this year, achieved successful CUPE bargaining unit status.

The work of the COPE trustees on the Vancouver School Board has been invaluable this past three years in preserving the integrity of our education system, even while suffering the slings and arrows of a provincial government and Ministry of Education seemingly hellbent on ideological warfare with teachers, trustees, parents and children.

The following e-mail arrived in my computer yesterday, a missive from the desk of valued public servant, COPE School Board Trustee Noel Herron. Today, VanRamblings passes on to you an edited version of the e-mail ...

Dear Friend of Public Education,

The civic election is just around the corner — Saturday November 19.

As people who care about kids and public education — the COPE School Board candidates are asking you to vote for people who care about kids and public education, who believe in the potential of all children. We will do everything in our power to make public schools work for every child.

Before casting your vote on November 19th, we would ask that you check out the record of the COPE School Board trustees.

In just 3 years a COPE Vancouver School Board has:

• Stopped $3 million in provincial cuts to inner city schools and our region’s most vulnerable children, and introduced a successful consultative budgeting process

• Played a key role in winning $150 million in provincial funding for public education in BC

• Worked closely with the province to develop a programme to make all schools across our province seismically safe

• Re-hired multi-cultural workers laid off by the previous NPA controlled Board, while reaching out to Vancouver’s diverse communities, and making our schools safer and more welcoming with new anti-racism and anti-homophobia programmes

• Dedicated increased monies into text books, restored teacher librarian hours and achieved lower class size at the elementary level

• Supported student input into district decision-making

• Worked tirelessly to repair relations with parents, students and staff — relations that had been damaged under previous NPA Boards

• Expanded all-day kindergarten

• Hired one of the country’s most respected educational leaders as our Superintendent of Schools — without resorting to use of an expensive headhunting firm

• Expanded literacy programmes, and increased spaces for French Immersion

• Worked with both the SFU and the UBC Education departments to educate the community about the value of public education

l-r: Allan Wong, Allen Blakey, Angela Kenyon, Conrad Lew, Jane Bouey, Kevin Millsip, Noel Herron, Sharon Gregson

There remains much that needs to be done. We still have a lot of work to do. We need to protect these achievements and build on them.

If re-elected, a COPE School Board will:

• Continue to advocate effectively for proper resources for public schools

• Fight to keep local educational decisions in the hands of our community

• Work for smaller classes for all children enrolled in the Vancouver school system

• Provide increased support for ESL, and children with special needs

• Get junk food out of our schools

• Work hard to build strong and respectful relationships with local aboriginal and First Nations organizations while working towards making our schools more inclusive and relevant for aboriginal students

• Continue to participate and support joint initiatives between the School Board, Park Board and City Council such as the Joint Council on Childcare

• Make each school a centre of environmental sustainability

The COPE Vancouver School Board has made decisions based on sound educational principle — not Fraser Institute fiction. We need all caring Vancouver citizens to help make sure that the positive accomplishments of the COPE Vancouver School Board to support children and make public schools work for every child will not be undone by the NPA.

On November 19 — we would ask you to re-elect a COPE School Board ... Allen BLAKEY, Jane BOUEY, Sharon GREGSON, Noel HERRON, Angela KENYON, Conrad LEW, Kevin MILLSIP and Allan WONG.

The Vancouver School Board — a great reason to vote COPE!

   

November 5, 2005

Elect COPE Candidates for a More Livable Vancouver

l-r: Anne Roberts, David Cadman, Ellen Woodsworth, Fred Bass, Tim Louis

The time has come for VanRamblings to weigh in on the current municipal election in the City of Vancouver. Without any hesitation or reservation, VanRamblings wholeheartedly recommends the entirety of the current COPE slate — for City Council, School Board and Park Board — good people all.

Over the course of the past three years — since electing majority COPE Council Members, School Board trustees and Park Board commissioners to civic government — Vancouver has become a more livable city for all citizens of our fair city, the whole of the community has gained greater access to (and participation in) civic governance, and fiscal responsibility tempered by caring and a commitment to social justice have come to define governance in the City of Vancouver. Therefore, we’re recommending COPE in 2005.

For VanRamblings, the key issues in the campaign are this: development of the south side of False Creek, ensuring a mix of rental and subsidized housing, parks and community gardens, and greenways; re-development of the Woodward's building, and the resulting salutary impact that will occur in the surrounding neighbourhood; the provision of subsidized transit passes for students and persons on low incomes; keeping our libraries open and accessible; and the continued revitalization of neighbourhoods. Only COPE, and their unity partners Vision Vancouver, can deliver on these key issues.

In the coming days, VanRamblings will explore each of the civic issues outlined above, and express why it is that we believe only a majority COPE / Vision Vancouver City Council can deliver on these and other issues, while working towards the creation of a fairer and more livable City for all of us.