Greens Advocate for BC Police Service and Commission

Victoria – The Green Party of BC today announced that it advocates for a BC Police Service (BCPS) to oversee policing matters in the province that are not related to federal areas of concern.

“BC is at the stage where we need to take back our responsibility for policing and work in conjunction with municipal and federal forces,” said BC Green Party leader Jane Sterk.

“Greens would regionalize police services in the Lower Mainland and the Capital Region", Sterk continued. "We need to rationalize and streamline the current patchwork of municipal forces, provide consistent province-wide training and procedural standards, and avoid costly infrastructure duplication.”

The Green Party of BC will support the appointment an independent Police Services Commissioner, to oversee investigations into police conduct for all BC, municipal and regional jurisdictions.

"The Green Party believes internal police investigations should be in the hands of an independent commissioner," Sterk also stated.

"The BC public perceives a lack of transparency in internal police investigations," Sterk said. "This is eroding trust in our law enforcement system that must be rebuilt. Nobody believes that organizations are able to act impartially in matters involving themselves and the police are no different. The only way to ensure transparency and unbiased results is to form an independent group to manage that task."

You might think that the Green Party had been reading this blog. As it happens I had nothing to do with the Press Release above, but it is nice to note how congruent my views (expressed here more than once) fit in with the Party

Harper appoints 18 senators

“Our government will continue to push for a more democratic, accountable and effective Senate,” said Harper. “If Senate vacancies are to be filled, however, they should be filled by the government that Canadians elected rather than by a coalition that no one voted for.”

I have come to expect hypocrisy from politicians of all stripes - but Stephen Harper hit a new low this morning.

He knows that he does not command a majority in the House and that if he had not pulled off two very undemocratic stunts - cancelling an opposition day and getting the prorogation - he would be out of a job. More people voted for the other parties than voted for conservatives - by a ratio of 2:1. So the idea that "no one voted for" the coalition parties is just a lie.

Of course we need a second house - elected, effective and all the rest. And yes Mr Harper could have started that process - back when he was convinced that he had a workable majority and that the economy was fine thank you very much.

He has demonstrated in recent weeks that he has no more moral sense than the average skunk. And if we have an election next spring he should suffer for his perfidy.

Males of All Species Are Becoming More Female

For quite a long time now I have refrained from comment on those people who point to all our environmental ills and blame it on the exploding population. Malthus was wrong - or at least centuries ahead of his time - and population control is often a flag of convenience for various kinds of fascism.

It seems that humans may well have managed, indavertantly, to come up with a solution to population growth. It is indeed unfortunate that this applies to all the other species too. Since we do not appear to be capable of dealing with our emissions, and will therefore face a planet much more hostile to human life, this may be, quite literally, the end of human life on this planet. It would have been some comfort to think that the other species we have preyed on and brought close to extinction might have survived us, but that is not to be either.

In the fullness of time, I have no doubt that the planet will manage to regulate itself back to the point where life can resume. None of us - or our decendants - will be here to see it of course.

But meantime, we will remain focussed on re-starting the failed economy. The environment is just such a low priority these days.

Attacking Alzheimer's with Red Wine and Marijuana

Passed along as a public service.

The red wine thing is not surprising. What is depressing is that the researchers have to skate around the ridiculous restrictions placed on marijuana. The time for sensible drug policies is long past, and demonizing of pot is plain stupid.

Copyright

This image is itself an example of copyright theft. It is not mine. I have not provided a link to the source - though if you know what you are doing you can find out easily enough.

The FBI does not scare me since I live in Canada. And I always thought that reference to an aged statement by Interpol was laughable. But that does not mean that the greedy people and their lawyers won't try civil proceedings

Eyewitness

Strasbourg, France, November 8 2008: MEPs discuss the EU response to the world fi nancial crisis and the G20 summit
Photograph: Vincent Kessler/Reuters

"Crisis? What crisis?"

Mount Baker

Mount Baker
Originally uploaded by Stephen Rees

Cold clear weather and a stray beam of sunlight through the overcast. Remarkable clarity. Taken from the eastern end of Steveston Highway

This picture featured on the CBC Vancouver News at six on Tuesday November 25