Wednesday, October 14, 2009

UGLY IS AS UGLY DOES


The B.C. government has found a wonderful old-fashioned way to justify cutting funds from social and medical programs.

"You can't have that, 'cause everyone will want it, so there!"

The fancy name they give this meanness is "service equalization."

On Vancouver Island, the Health Authority needs to cut $45 Million from their budget. (The new Canada Line cost $133 Million per kilometre vs. $13 Million they could have spent on Light Rail. The Olympics? Don't even ask.)

So, here is a partial list of what's going:

Fewer operations, reduced diagnostic services, higher parking fees. There's a hiring freeze and an overtime ban. Properties will be sold and two residential care homes will close.

If a support service for parents is available in Victoria but not in Powell River, the Victoria program is being cut. Meals on Wheels will no longer be delivered for free to some shut-ins because others pay a fee.

The same principle means less money for therapy for adults with mental illness and peer counselling programs for those struggling with addictions.

Peer counselling for addicts is just about the cheapest, not to mention the most effective approach to addictions that we have. Cutting funds is cutting your own throat.

And Meals on Wheels?

Hahahaha...

Gordon Campbell is clearly going out of his way to be the new poster boy for The Grinch.

Incorruptable Cop Not Wanted Here


Immigration Canada has much to answer for.

While they do an admirable job processing thousands of new people arriving from all over the world and swearing in new and valuable citizens with regularity, they make some colossal errors.

Usually we are made aware of the criminals and nut jobs they welcome.

But today, the Globe has focused on a troubling case in which a policeman from Mexico has fled to Canada with his family under death threats.

We don't believe him. We, being Canada.

Do you still travel to Mexico?

I don't.

Murder is practically the national sport.

Drug and sex murders are daily past times.

And that includes in luxury "protected" resorts.

In the age of the iPhone and Google, how long exactly would it take to verify this man's claim that returning to Mexico would constitute a death sentence?

CHUZTPAH REDEFINED


Taser International says their gun didn't kill Robert Dziekanski.