BC Housing should value their friends in Kamloops City Council

City councillors support public housing but the recent announcement by the B.C. government took them by surprise. In a press release, BC Housing said that they had purchased the Fortune Motel on Kamloops North Shore.

Fortune Motel, image: Agoda

BC Housing is a crown corporation that finances subsidized housing for low income families.

“What the hell is this?” was a common reaction at City Hall, Councillor Dale Bass told me. The lack of communication represented a “disconnect of our relationship” with the provincial government.

While staff at City hall were apparently aware of the purchase, councillors were not Bass said.

Consultation is needed because Council has plans for the North Shore and BC Housing’s purchases may not fit. Of course, consultation would have to be done in confidentiality since real estate purchases are sensitive.

In a press release, Attorney General and Housing Minister David Eby said that BC Housing and the City of Kamloops will work together to determine a permanent plan for the property. That’s a fine thing to say but just when did BC Housing plan to start working together?

It’s Councillors who take the flak from the public over public housing. Some citizens are “genuinely afraid” of homeless people, Bass said.

Kamloops homeless are often characterized by the actions of “street people” who sometimes appear menacing.

Encounters with mentally ill people can be frightening. A friend of mine was approached by a stranger, apparently in a psychotic state, as she shopped in a thrift store on Tranquille. “You’re going to fucking die, bitch,” he shouted angrily. The verbal assault left her shaken.   

Mental health of homeless people is a problem and it’s exacerbated by their lack of secure shelter. While mentally ill people are more likely to injure themselves than others, that’s little comfort to those are accosted by the unstable mentally ill.

Street people are also blamed for an increase in crime. Yet the perception doesn’t always match reality.

Kamloops RCMP Supt. Syd Lecky told City Council on June 11, 2021, that crime was actually down in some parts of the city compared to last year. Property crime was down in North Kamloops by eight per cent, the same in Valleyview, and up 11 per cent in Westsyde.

But last year was unusual because of the pandemic, Lecky added, and that property crime was up everywhere from 1019.

Homeless people represent a fragile sector of our population.

In a survey done by BC Housing of Merritt’s homeless in 2020, one-quarter reported a brain injury and 70 per cent had two or more health concerns. Seventy-eight per cent suffered from addiction.

In a survey done in Kamloops in June, 2018, one-half of respondents first experienced homelessness as youths. Probably, as in Merritt’s case, many were formerly in foster care.

The profile of homeless people is one of addiction compounded by desperation, mental and physical health. They are often youths thrown out on the streets with few life-skills.

Kamloops doesn’t need a big-stick approach by BC Housing to get affordable housing in Kamloops. Not like that other Interior city, Penticton, where City Council is taking the province to court over a dispute involving BC Housing’s locations.

Kamloopsians sensibly realize that you can’t complain about homeless people on the street while also complaining that they are being housed.

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Wilson-Raybould: a uniquely Canadian scandal

A scandal in Britain brought down the Conservative government in 1963 when it was revealed that model and nightclub dancer Christine Keeler had slept with British and Russian officials. Revelations of the previously well-hidden world of sex- and alcohol-fuelled orgies among Britain’s political elite rocked the establishment.

The walking, breathing, American scandal involves President Donald Trump groping women, mocking disabled people and provoking attacks on blacks. His former lawyer Michael Cohen says: “He is a racist. He is a conman. He is a cheat.” Cohen testified that Trump wanted him to pay off adult-film actress Stormy Daniels who says Trump had an affair with her.

image: The Independent

Canada’s scandal is not like that.

Prime Minister Trudeau is accused of trying to influence Jody Wilson-Raybould to settle a case out of court in order to save thousands jobs. The former attorney-general and minister of justice objected to the pressure, especially when she had already decided to proceed with the court case.

After she was shuffled out of the position, Gerald Butts, Justin Trudeau‘s former principle secretary, said it had nothing to do with the disagreement between Wilson-Raybould and Trudeau.

It doesn’t look that way. It looks like Trudeau didn’t like the fact that Wilson-Raybould was not complying with his wishes so he re moved her.

Post #MeToo, Canadian scandals look different.

What’s changed are the expectations of women entering politics says columnist Elizabeth Renzetti:

”. . .there is enough research out there to suggest that women in office do not believe in politics as usual. And once more women are brought into office, politics will have to change. We are seeing the consequences of that right now. (Globe and Mail, March 6, 2019).”

In addition to the mismatched expectations of new women in an old system, there is an inherent conflict in the office duties that Wilson-Raybould held. She alluded to them in her testimony:

 “The two hats that the minister of justice and the attorney-general wears here in our country are completely different,” she said, “and I think there would be merit to talking about having those as two separate individuals.”

As minister of justice, she was expected to be a team member of Trudeau’s cabinet. As attorney-general, she was the government’s lawyer. Politics and justice seldom mix.

 Former minister of justice and attorney-general in the Paul Martin government, Irwin Cotler, reflected on the internal conflict of minister of justice and attorney-general:

“There were times when I would oppose a decision of cabinet in confidence and then be obliged to show support for the decision outside of cabinet, out of cabinet solidarity − and because of solicitor-client privilege, I could not even say that I had opposed it. It created awkward situations.”

Mr. Cotler recommended splitting the office but that idea gained little traction.

It’s hard to imagine this kind of scandal in former Prime Minister Harper’s government because there was no misunderstanding who was in charge. Non-compliant ministers would have been bullied into compliance or fired.

This distinctly Canadian scandal doesn’t centre on the dalliances of politicians but on Trudeau setting up expectations on which he couldn’t or wouldn’t deliver.

Zombie Canadian mining company stalks Costa Rica

The vital statistics of Infinito Gold, based in Calgary, don’t look good. It has no functioning mines and a negative working capital of $154 million. Monitor magazine assesses their condition bluntly: “Infinito should be six feet under.”

Yet, it staggers on. The only thing keeping the zombie mining company going in Costa Rica is cash infusions from Calgary billionaire Ronald Mannix. He refuses to let it die.

If you’ve been to Costa Rica, you know how important eco-friendly tourism is to the small Central American country. Infinito seems to have been blind to that culture when they bought land on the border of Nicaragua to build an open-pit mine fifteen years ago.

When I visited the area near the border of Nicaragua in 2012, Costa Rican pride in their pristine rivers and forests was evident.  Back in June 2002, on the occasion of World Environment Day, the Costa Rican president of the time, Abel Pacheco, banned open-pit mining completely.

But not even banishment could stop the mining company from lurching forward. In an apparent bribe, Mannix flew to Costa Rica in 2008 to offer $200,000 to a Foundation named after the new president Oscar Arias Sánchez. Suspiciously, shortly after the trip, the president decreed that the open-pit mining ban was lifted.

Costa Ricans were incensed and through a citizen court secured a moratorium on Infinito’s activities; regrettably, not before the company had done $10 million in damage to the proposed mining site.

Costa Rica’s attorney general wanted to get to the bottom of Sánchez’s motives for lifting the ban. While that move would be virtually impossible in Canada under the iron fist of the PM, Costa Rica’s attorney general boldly investigated possible wrongdoing of his own government.

The key was whether the $200,000 offered by Mannix had actually been transferred to the president’s foundation. A request was made of Canada’s Department of Justice to provide a definitive answer. At first, Canada ignored the request, and then stonewalled by demanding additional information from Costa Rica; disclosure of which would have breached the country’s privacy laws.

In the absence of cooperation from Canada, Costa Rica’s attorney general recently stated the case against Sánchez would have to be closed for lack of corroborating evidence.

When apparent bribery doesn’t work, Mannix has yet another scheme to jolt the lifeless body of Infinito. It’s called investor rights. The concept was first embedded in NAFTA, soon to be entrenched in the TPP.  Rick Arnold explains the twisted strategy.

“Time to call it quits? Nope. Infinito Gold’s main backer, the unremitting Mannix, decided to up the ante by gambling on an investor–state lawsuit against Costa Rica, to be heard outside the courts by a private, investor-friendly World Bank tribunal. The legal costs would be expensive, but a win could earn the empty shell of a company megabucks in compensation for not building its mine.”

Even if Mannix wins, the shattered hulk of Infinito will crumple. It’s a lose-lose situation. Costa Rica will lose $94 million for rejecting a mine that was never wanted, promoted by a vindictive Canadian, conducted by a tribunal in secret.