11779 replies to this topic

[JimV]

 

 

I might have bid on an item that had him promise to be silent in all public forums for a week.

I would have bid if they paid me.  Then I would have donated the money to charity. Win win.

[spanky123]

Helps, Screech, Haynes, May, Martin, Base Commander and Police Chief. Its all in the link I provided

 

None of those are on council or an MLA/MP! 

 

edit: I guess technically May still is for now.

Edited by spanky123, 23 November 2020 - 12:07 PM.

[Nparker]

None of those are on council or an MLA/MP! 

Has Lisa Helps left council and nobody told me?

[Tom Braybrook]

Gotta say its something that should never have been allowed. The current Chamber Board should not have allowed his name on the bid to begin with and then they should have been monitoring it to make sure  zero bid didnt happen for any of the politicians as thats quite the indictment from the business community.

 

Williams should have been on top of this or John Wilson and made sure a fake bid was thrown in.

 

We all know Isitt is divisive and some of his comments are simply idiotic....but he commands quite a block of votes and could potentially be the next Mayor (heaven forbid) but an embarrassment like this would likely impact any support from the City to the Chamber etc.

 

So yes we can laugh at the situation, but what could the repercussions be later?

 

For me as a past Executive Board member of the Chamber it is equally embarrassing for them and shows how out of touch they are with the local political climate. 

...this is why i mentioned that even - the mystery bidder "Anonymous"  -  didn't come to Comrade Ben's rescue... as they did on so many other items...

[rjag]

These people are truly insane

 

Provincial support, community care tent, $100,000 grant, housing update – Mayor’s Sunday Email – November 22 2020 – Lisa Helps – Victoria Mayor

 

Some of you have said that the Beacon Hill Trust is a tool of colonization and that we should just ignore it for that reason. I agree that it is a colonial tool. And the City of Victoria is a colonial government. But for the reasons outlined above and last week, we can’t simply ignore the Trust, we have to uphold our responsibility under it.

 

[aastra]

 

...we can’t simply ignore the Trust...

 

Well, that's mighty big of them. So the CoV will continue to misuse & abuse the park and chip away at the fundamental premise of the trust, as it has done almost without a break since the 19th century. But it won't simply ignore the trust as if the trust had never existed. Come on, that would be crazy right? To simply ignore the trust? Can you imagine?

 

Take that, all you cynical people who claim there are no ethics and no principles in politics. Take that, all you cynical people who claim politicians are not heroic defenders of everything that is right and true.

 

Seriously though, I feel like we've reached that point where the only way 2020 can get any more ridiculous would be if politicians start pulling off their human masks to reveal giant snake faces underneath.

[Nparker]

....the only way 2020 can get any more ridiculous would be if politicians start pulling off their human masks to reveal giant snake faces underneath.

What a terrible thing to say...about snakes.

[aastra]

Some of you have said that the Beacon Hill Trust is a tool of colonization and that we should just ignore it for that reason.

 
As we've observed many times, the city's attack on Beacon Hill Park has been relentless from day one. The rationalizations & justifications change, to suit the present moment (example: "the park trust is a tool of colonization!"). But the attack has remained the same all along.
 
The park is a big chunk of central real estate and the CoV and other levels of government have never stopped trying to switch it over to other uses. THAT'S WHY THE TRUST EXISTS. Put it another way: there would be no need for the trust if not for the ongoing efforts to hijack the park.
 
I'll just keep posting this same thing until people are sick of it:
 

The legal action against the City allowing the Agricultural Hall on Park land was carried to the Supreme Court. Judge Matthew Begbie ruled on August 30, 1884, that the building was not an acceptable use because it did not constitute public recreational use and enjoyment, according to The Trust...

Begbie specifically noted that, in his opinion, the following uses were also not permitted: a university, sanatorium, a barracks for soldiers, a lunatic asylum, and a cemetery. Begbie's ruling, "Anderson vs. Corporation of the City of Victoria," concluded that the Park was not to be used "for general purposes of profit, OR UTILITY, however great the prospect of these may be."

From:
https://beaconhillpa...ts/chapter5.htm

 
 
Beacon Hill Park has always been in the crosshairs, generation after generation:
 
Quote

Daily Colonist
July 31, 1970

Retiring Parks Boss:
Destruction of Beauty Price of Progress

The words don't come easily to (Herb) Warren, who has headed the city's parks department for almost 40 years.

"I don't want to criticize the people I've worked with, but the conflict between the ever-increasing demand for land to accommodate public buildings and a city's need to a clean and beautiful environment worries every parks administrator," he said.

"It's unfortunate that the elected representatives prefer to take the position of least resistance to schemes presented by traffic engineers. Politicians seem to be willing to destroy more and more parkland to accommodate public buildings rather than purchase land elsewhere,"

"A good example of this attitude is the construction of Victoria's new swimming pool in Central Park."

"Beacon Hill Park has been proposed as a site for every major public building ever constructed in Victoria, including the provincial museum," he said.

"If it hadn't been for the original terms of the trust deed, there would be no park today." (The park was given in trust to the city by the province in the late 1880s.)

Edited by aastra, 23 November 2020 - 08:53 PM.

[Sparky]

Trouble in paradise?

Here is a group that doesn’t appear to agree with anything anybody is doing.

https://povertykills2020.ca/blog-2/

[On the Level]

Trouble in paradise?

Here is a group that doesn’t appear to agree with anything anybody is doing.

https://povertykills2020.ca/blog-2/

 

The "Who are we" on their website didn't indicate who they are other than those that work or are part of the homeless scene.  Whois is set for privacy.  It appears to be lined to a "Indigenous Harm Reduction Team" facebook account.  

 

There is a Times Colonist article indicating a bit more information;

 

 

Joshua Goldberg is a volunteer with Poverty Kills 2020, a network of people who came together in mid-March to address the crisis of COVID-19 and the street community.

https://www.timescol...nity-1.24147956

 

 

There following link has an information bulletin for Poverty Kills 2020 and links to Videa (not necessarily connected to each other) whose office and staff are here in Victoria (http://videa.ca/) which provides a "Decolonization Toolkit" for download etc.

 

One interesting site that provides a link to Poverty Kills 2020 is noprisons.ca

 

We can defund police and prisons instead of ticketing people for being outside, snitching on our neighbours, tearing down tents, criminalizing people in mental health and addictions crisis and profiling Black and Indigenous Peoples. Prisons are too broken to reform. If Canada is serious about dealing with racism, then the abolition of both policing and prisons is the way forward.

 

No Police and no Prisons....that sounds like fun.  At least we can see the types that Helps and Together Victoria are reaching out to.

Edited by On the Level, 23 November 2020 - 10:23 PM.

[aastra]

 

Some of you have said that the Beacon Hill Trust is a tool of colonization and that we should just ignore it for that reason. I agree that it is a colonial tool.

 

--

 

 

Begbie specifically noted that, in his opinion, the following uses were also NOT permitted: a university, sanatorium, a barracks for soldiers...

 

You know you're a committed anti-colonialist when you get offended because the grounds of a pleasant public park weren't put to better use re: permanent military housing or a state-run university.

[FogPub]

And yet surprise, the other 50% of scientists who complained of being shut out by Harper are now complaining that Trudeau won't let them speak freely either!

 

https://www.cbc.ca/n...tists-1.4545562

I neither said nor implied Trudeau was much better.  He's done next to nothing to fix what the previous administration broke (muzzling of scientists being but one example), and sooner or later he'll get called on it.

[rmpeers]

These people are truly insane

Provincial support, community care tent, $100,000 grant, housing update – Mayor’s Sunday Email – November 22 2020 – Lisa Helps – Victoria Mayor

How these blog posts get created is beyond comprehension. I can only assume they are not vetted by anyone with even the slightest insight into how human beings communicate with each other. My favourite bits are where she awkwardly tries to pretend she cares about what citizens think. The sort of weird robotic attempts to simulate human empathy and caring are unintentionally hilarious.

[spanky123]

How these blog posts get created is beyond comprehension. I can only assume they are not vetted by anyone with even the slightest insight into how human beings communicate with each other. My favourite bits are where she awkwardly tries to pretend she cares about what citizens think. The sort of weird robotic attempts to simulate human empathy and caring are unintentionally hilarious.

 

I see she is back to blaming Dr BH for 24x7 camping. 

 

I assume that one of her 12 PR folks writes these every week.

[Awaiting Juno]

12 PR folks - what does that cost? Assuming they're each making 70k/year, that's nearly $1M per year....

[Victoria Watcher]

70? the guys emptying the trash bins make over 70. try 95.

[Mike K.]

$95 with benefits?

[Victoria Watcher]

$95 with benefits?

 

well i'd guess it's somewhere around pay grade 16 or 17.

 

so ~$48/hour.

 

x 40 hours x 52 weeks = $99,840 + benefits.  

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 24 November 2020 - 05:26 PM.

[On the Level]

well i'd guess it's somewhere around pay grade 16 or 17.

 

so ~$48/hour.

 

x 40 hours x 52 weeks = $99,840 + benefits.  

 

General rule of thumb for budgeting is 1.5x to 2.5x salary depending on the benefits package and supports.

[spanky123]

12 PR folks - what does that cost? Assuming they're each making 70k/year, that's nearly $1M per year....

 

If I recall, the total cost is $1.3M