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Something is rotten (again/still) in Victoria
Kootenay Crust
By Ian Cobb
Op-Ed Commentary
Something is amiss, rotten even, once again at the Victoria Legislature.
No, it’s not the entrenched partisanship of the electoral reform referendum. It’s not the usual greedy trough-rush antics of professional politicians trying to keep jobs in the grotesque pension growth game plan.
I’d like to say it is something bigger, or smaller, than that. But like the rest of British Columbians, I have no clue what’s happening at the Legislature. So basically I’m spit-balling here, but it seems to me Victoria (the government not the city) needs a big, wet, uncomfortable ball of gob-slathered paper in its collective earhole.
On Nov. 20, Craig James, the clerk of the B.C. legislature and sergeant-at-arms Gary Lenz, were led away under ‘criminal investigation’ and have been put on administrative leave without pay or benefits.
Two weeks later, British Columbians remain in the dark as to why these two men are under investigation.
Perhaps the clearest patch of mud came from RCMP media relations officer Sgt. Janelle Shoihet who admitted the investigation is looking into “allegations pertaining to their administrative duties, and we are not in a position to provide any other details or specifics.”
Yet, we have witnessed video of the two seemingly stunned men being led from the Legislature – a pall of questions surrounding them, as well as the likelihood of their personal reputations being obliterated.
Dermod Travis of Integrity BC has stated James and Lenz should not have been led out of the legislature by police with cameras rolling. Agreed; it seemed so… wrong and unusual considering the lengths taken to protect the identity of those who have committed or allegedly committed crimes by pretty much all police forces in Canada.
To provide some perspective as to why this is a strange and disturbing turn at the Legislature, bear in mind, for example, the sergeant-at-arms is a permanent officer of the house who is responsible for the security of the legislative buildings and grounds.
Naturally, this being British Columbia, politics have been a-raging over this.
Premier John Horgan has said he wishes to “assure people at home that although this is a very difficult time for all of us in the legislature we will get through this and we are hopeful that the investigation in whatever form it takes is completed as quickly as possible.”
In the words of a long-time copy editor who saved my once print-bound butt countless times, “Huh?”
Adding hot pepper sauce to this badly botched broth is the fact that House Speaker Darryl Plecas, who the BC Liberals view as a pariah for taking the job in the first place, opening the door for the current minority government, hired a friend (Alan Mullen) earlier this year to, in part I think, investigate Lenz and James, for whatever it is they appear to have been caught doing.
And then Plecas asked that his chum be handed the job of one of the people he fingered in his investigation and lost his composure when some media types pressed him on it – inspired by the latest trend coming out of America, perhaps – the ole deny knowledge and be angry about it. (Side note: if one is in public office and behaves like that only to later be caught red-handed in the wrong, one should be forced to eat a large bowl of bull crap on live television.)
A government with a real leader – or real leaders in the case of B.C. – would not let their bosses – that being me and you dear readers, the taxpayers and voters of this province – to be left wondering what the hell is going on when it comes to the security of our house of government.
A day may go by; fine. But two weeks and counting; not cool.
My first reaction to this was the house should be closed down – no more legislative work of any kind – with fast answers coming to the litany of questions coming from all corners of the province.
Premier Horgan and Green Party leader Andrew Weaver have completely failed everyone in this matter, which is: all those sitting and serving in the Legislature; the two men under investigation who appear to have been served up on a platter made from a substance we will hopefully learn about soon; all other government employees; and the taxpayers of B.C. who have been shown how little control the Horgan/Weaver coalition has, and how much of a mess our current government is in.
Perhaps to try and distract the public, the NDP/Green PR machine has been churning out vast volumes of non-news and self congratulatory dreck in the last few weeks, too. Tis the season, though, and such tactics are tried and true on both sides of the political scale.
Optics is everything in politics as even those in semi-stupors now realize in the era of Tweety Trump and Justin ‘please allow me to suck up to celebrities’ Trudeau.
The current optics in Victoria, where greasy games appear to be hugely in fashion again, is b-a-d.
To quote an American Second World War general: “Nuts!”
We taxpayers want to know what’s going on in the Legislature. IT IS OUR house, you pack of trough-slurpers; not yours. WE put you lot there and whether we stick with First-Past-the-Post or opt for Proportional Representation, we still deserve to know what the bloody hell is going on. Now get to doing the right thing and let us all know that our house is in good order. Let us know for certain that some form of creepy police state isn’t taking shape.
Or get the hell out!
Is that proportionally represented well enough for you?
– Ian Cobb is owner/editor of e-KNOW
