Ottawa, this is BC calling… Come in Ottawa.. this is BC calling – we actually need the Coast Guard here. Do you copy? …….

Posted on by Laila

coast guard

Second major Coast Guard communications outage in three days

“For the second time in three days, the communication system for the Coast Guard in Canada’s busiest waterway had an extended malfunction.

“There was a loaded tug and barge with 86,000 barrels of diesel and gasoline going through the Port of Vancouver, and was not being given traffic advisers of which shipping he may meet when he transits through Second and First Narrows,” says Allan Hughes, Western Director for Unifor 2182.

The outage was on Victoria Coast Guard Radio Marine Communications Channel 16 at 6 a.m. today. It’s used to transmit messages to mariners in the waters as far north as Nanaimo, and as far west as Port Renfrew. It followed a 18 minute outage last Monday, a recent two minute outage – and there were three more brief outages this afternoon, according to the union.”

8 thoughts on “Ottawa, this is BC calling… Come in Ottawa.. this is BC calling – we actually need the Coast Guard here. Do you copy? …….”

  1. Now Laila, do you really thing Ottawa gives a load of dung from cows? You are old and wise enough to know better. of course for your readers it is a catchy headline and I thank you for it because I hadn’t seen it on the MSM.

    We need better communications systems on the west coast. The changes the Cons made will only lead to death and destruction. However, Canadians, even in B.C. don’t care. They keep voting the Cons into office. so if the coast is splattered in oil, like in Santa Barbara or their friends die at sea, they just need to look in the mirror as to whose fault it is.

    We could have oil slicks and dozens of people dying but Steve isn’t going to change his game plans any time soon. You see he wants a balanced budget and he doesn’t want to tax those Canadian corporations who have $199 BILLION sitting in off shore tax havens. Hell they might stop giving him campaign funds.

    The P.M. and his Cons really don’t care about the environment. The P.M. and 60 of his Cons belong to the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. They believe the bible is “inerrant” and the second coming is “imminent”. They also believe women ought to be subservient to men. With a religion like that how do you thing the environment is going to compete. Their god will take care of it all. Unfortunately this P.M. and his party have brought their religion into our House of Parliament. They really need to go.

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  2. I believe it was former Vancouver Mayor, Gerry McGeer, who stated that it was 2,000 miles from Vancouver to Ottawa and 20,000 miles from Ottawa to Vancouver.

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  3. Some people may think you have to go west to get to Ottawa not east.
    Are they trying to run everything from Ontario?
    What no backup?
    What the?

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  4. It is NOT the Coast Guard, it is Ottawa. The problem has been Ottawa for thirty years; maybe longer. In fact, our local CG are verging on heroic doing more with less all the time. I have been ‘on the water’ all of that time and once, when I needed them, they were there. Sadly, it was the volunteers that got there first. Not sad for me – they were great! But mariners should not have to rely on volunteers. Ottawa saved money. CG Volunteers saved me. But even volunteers need equipment and back-up. Even heroes need help. And a triple-backed modern communication system is just the beginning. Ottawa has been MIA the whole time on this coast for fish, people and the environment. But they are there for the oil companies. Turf these criminals and never let them back.

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  6. How well does H-boy think he knows BC? Well enough to attempt an HST coup? Surely he hasn’t forgotten what happened to his co-conspirator who carried the can for him as he sailed unscathed to his first majority—and all it cost him was a lousy appointment to the Canadian consulate in the UK—such a deal!

    Not so much fun with Northern Gateway, though. Consistent popularity polling that indicates about three-quarters of BC firmly opposed to shipping bitumen to China for environmental reasons—that is, indicating a solid majority that obviously crosses party lines on this issue—has only inspired contempt from the H-boy: it was that word “environmental” that switched “on” his curious prejudice (that and the word “BC”): one would think he’d be more sensitive to the fact that his BC caucus is absolutely critical to his political survival, and some of those pipeline opponents are—or were—his supporters. Better judgement was obviously lacking on Harper’s part.

    All the more curious, then, his axing of the Coast Guard station on Canada’s busiest harbour, which is related closely—front-of-mind, fire-already-lighted, full-boil—to shipping, navigation and the local marine environment that laps shorelines enjoyed by residents of West Vancouver and Gulf Island retirees, along with the rest of the highest riding density in this politically crucial province. Not only are most people opposed to bitumen tanker traffic, they are insulted by Harper’s rigged environmental review panel. Even Enbridge has conceded this much.

    More curious still is his choice of persuaders with regard First Nations on the coast: the stick instead of the carrot. Did he somehow miss the bullseye centrality of environmental protection—especially of the marine environment—when dealing with (instead of treating with) coastal FNs? The Tsilhqot’in SCoC decision might have disabused him of his notion that his government had fulfilled its obligation to consult with FNs on un-ceded territory, but it’s hard to tell now that he’s taken off with his bat and ball to more promising territory in Syria.

    The Coast Guard issue does more than add to his self-inflicted jeopardy in BC, multiplying as it does his abiding difficulty with the environment in general, the marine environment in particular, and the Constitutional environment especially. Only prejudice can explain it: Harper figures he knows BC well enough; however, his judgement is based only on the single and unfortunately true fact that we British Columbians have repeatedly elected the best provincial proxy Harper could ever hope for—a morally bankrupt, legally corrupt, self-enraptured charlatan-eruption that is the BC Liberal government—what else does he need to know?

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