What you need to read, right now: The $150,000 cheque Premier Clark gave for a review, the government has no records for.

Posted on by Laila

I don’t spend a lot of time watching BC legislature TV. But maybe I should after reading this new post from Merv Adey, who has an excerpt of questioning by John Horgan of Premier Clark, that goes nowhere. She makes statements that make no sense, refuses to answer the question and completely evades him on an important matter that indirectly links to her brother.

And it stinks:

“Chief Ken Rea made the request directly to me”- Christy Clark

Opposition leader John Horgan did the best prosecutorial inquiry in the legislature yesterday since Mulcair on Nigel Wright, Mike Duffy and the $90,000.

This time it was about a $150,000 story that’s been largely untold. A story that got vastly more interesting by the time John Horgan was through with Christy Clark in estimates May 11th.

The title quote above relates to a story told by Mark Hume of the Globe and Mail some months ago. It’s a story that should have raised alarms in the media but the Premier was questioned only once, with no follow-ups.

That fact should raise alarms in the public mind about media disinterest in official corruption in this province. It’s a story that entails coincidental benefits to Clark’s family, a lack of records which may never have existed, weren’t produced, or were triple deleted evading FOI.

And it involves the evolution of excuses….(Bruce Clark can’t get his sister to a family dinner, never mind peddle influence…Christy never knew her brother wanted to do business with Old Massett…Bruce Clark just gave a fellow a number of a friend in the Ministry of Education. If that’s true, and it’s true that Ken Rea subsequently made the request to Christy Clark, that’s some friend. )

The original story involves Christy Clark travelling to Old Massett on Haida Gwaii to give a very unusual $150K cheque, a provincial contribution to a feasability study on building a new gym at the school there. It’s unusual because the school is on reserve land, which is federal jurisdiction.

Nothing like this cheque has ever been given. It happens that the fellow lobbying the government for a contribution, Chief Ken Rea, was also working on behalf of  a deal with Christy Clark’s brother on a partnership with the Old Massett Village Council on a $10 Million windfarm project.

Allegations were made that the $150K school contribution helped Chief Rea in an election to council, and thereby assisted Bruce Clark in his business ambitions.

Read the original story just here, then follow the Hansard quotes below, and decide for yourself if this doesn’t stink to high heaven… http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/christy-clark-accused-of-interfering-in-band-election-to-aid-brothers-deal/article27654979

Now I’m going to selectively quote the exchange between Horgan and Clark yesterday in Estimates Debate for the Premier’s Office.. The full debate can be found here https://www.leg.bc.ca/documents-data/debate-transcripts/40th-parliament/5th-session/20160511pm-House-Blues beginning after Question Period.  Sorry it’s long , but it’s worth it.

Given the lack of records produced via FOI, it’s difficult not to think this is about Christy Clark splashing public money around however she feels like it…. And if it helps her brother?

Well that’s accidental of course. It’s just a coincidence this unprecedented action helped him out.

 

Now I am all for equality for children of First Nations in BC and across Canada. It’s an appalling comment on our federal government past and present that the situation is no where comparable. But Premier Clark has a very very hard time answering any questions directly here.

In fact, she deliberately talks around them, and when she says there was a full review done by the ministry of education, Horgan counters by asking why then, are there no records from this FOI?

Now.

Go.

Read the rest.  Read the questions Horgan asks… and the non answers Clark gives.

Kind of reminds me of one of those happy accidents Bob Ross used to have on his painting shows back in the day…considering other First Nations schools are not getting the same kind of treatment. http://www.bcveritas.com/index.php/2016/05/12/chief-ken-rea-made-the-request-directly-to-me-christy-clark/

Well done Merv.

 

 

 

I’ll be back Monday with another compelling post on questionable motivations. Until then, be well.

40 thoughts on “What you need to read, right now: The $150,000 cheque Premier Clark gave for a review, the government has no records for.”

  1. “. She makes statements that make no sense, refuses to answer the question and completely evades him on an important matter that indirectly links to her brother.” Well nothing unusual there, all politicians are trained to evade answers especially to those questions about where taxpayers money has gone.

    As for the wind farm scams, yes scams they are, many already rich folk in the UK (PM David Cameron’s millionaire family for one) have been made even richer by receiving EU subsidies to erect these monsters. That have proven to be a waste of space and money, kill hundreds of birds every week and bring noise pollution to anyone who lives nearby. They are also not very good at generating power, when the wind isn’t blowing they produce nothing and need backup from power stations and if the wind blows too hard they have to be stopped as they are unstable and dangerous. Many in Europe are now being dismantled, but hey, lots of people have stuffed their pockets with taxpayers dosh so what the heck?

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  2. This morning on CKNW, two supposed journalists (veterans if you please) Vaughn Palmer and Jon McComb discussed the debate in the legislature highlighted in Merv’s post. http://bit.ly/27jVdfj

    Their take? Christy got the best of Horgan because he became frustrated, and if that continues in the election campaign it will be to her advantage.

    Think about that. A Premier stands in the Legislature and acts like a four-year old while disrespecting the citizens of this province on an issue that has impropriety written all over it, and they think it’s funny. Absolutely no recognition on their part that there are major unanswered questions on several levels here and that it is their job as journalists to get us the answers Christy Clark won’t give our Legislature.

    They’re focusing on process, rather than the substance of the issues, and they should both be ashamed of themselves.

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  3. Christy Clark evades ANY tough questions directed at her.
    Her ability to spew unquantifiable bafflegab nonsensical inanities is only surpassed by Donald(We’re gonna make things better!) Trump.
    Its pretty easy for the lowliest buffoon to make vague promises that they have no intention(or perhaps memory) of keeping.
    Christy helping her brother win a lucrative contract. Theres a novelty!
    This smells like another BC Rail and we all know how interested the Main Stream Media was in getting to the bottom of THAT incestuous cesspool.
    Keep hammering away Laila. Eventually the financial crap Christy thows at the fan will stick.

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Hmm … the truth of what really went on, always lies beneath and differently from what PrintMedia misleads. Such as yesterday’s T-C headline, NDP curtails budget debate… a headline that was apparently cooked up, as was the story that Christy Clark top-up defender Andrew Weaver couldn’t speak up.

    Yet when there was a journalist around, Green Party’s Andrew Weaver certainly found ample voice, plus demonstrated his low form with a lot of name calling.

    Apparently for Andrew Weaver, propagandizing is a much better use of his time and gets much more publicity for himself than asserting his right to participate in democratic institutions. Him and Christy have a lot in common with their narcissistic ways.

    Yeah, printing that kind of stuff is why no one bothers reading PrintMedia anymore..

    The truth of the matter is that obviously there was no debate to curtail. As the record shows, Christy Clark did not honestly and directly answer any question about how she’s spending tax-payers money, apparently without any oversight or due process to protect taxpayers.

    If the T-C were an honest paper and alleged journalist Lindsay Kines honestly wrote about what happened on Thursday afternoon in the BC leg, then the headlines would be screaming outrage about how, apparently

    * tax-payers funds have been misappropriated by the premier herself,

    * worse, then those misappropriated funds were spent in ways to enhance brother Bruce Clark’s interests, while there is no money for the interests of the kids in the poverty capital of Canada in the so-called best current economy in Canada,… the poverty capital kids whose plight, per Christy Clark’s lexicon, is “aspirational” and so of no concern to Christy at all.

    You all remember brother Bruce Clark, who as the alleged briber of BC Rail scandal’s Basi & Virk, can hardly claim to be naïve & disingenuous about the ways of government lobbying?

    http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2010/12/christy-clark-bruce-clark-criminal.html

    * the premier did nothing but mislead, evade, and smirk in contempt at honest questions about taxpayers money raised in the BC legislature.

    Ugh! Revolting.

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    1. Andrew Weaver.
      I’m beginning to think he is trying to become the next Gordon Wilson by jumping ship to Christybelle’s team. More money, better perks and he can get his family work as well.

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  5. Hi Laila.

    Vaughn Palmer’s headline in today’s Sun is “Horgan Takes Beating In Bruising Budget Debate”.

    I suppose if you define “Beating” as not answering a single question asked of her then yes he took a horrific beating for not receiving a single honest answer in 3 hours of questioning.

    I am disgusted at Clark’s behavior in parliament and why isn’t she in contempt for not giving a single answer to important questions that all BC citizens have a right to know.

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  6. Laila it’s a must see, once you read the Hansard Blues or Watch you canna go back. I hate it when I see someone in the comment section say , “Why isn’t Horgon doing more to hold the Socredlibs fee to the fire” and I’m like, WATCH the Hansards he IS , but the Socredlibs Sneer and Whoop and Hollar and Bang Desks and lately EVERY question asked has the Libs and Christy and Coleman turn the answer into a , ” NDP BAD , WE GOOD. I think a bleeding child could be brought in to SHOW the Damage the Ministry of Children hath wrought and Christy would still take it as an opportunity to Flog her LNG ajenda.

    I encourage you to go over the Hansards , Much Grist for you mill!

    Yours in Activisim Brenda ILEY Maple Ridge Raging Grannie✌🏾️😄

    🐾Bren🐾

    >

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    1. The problem Brenda, is, ordinary, hard working British Columbians are just that; ordinary and hard working. They neither have the time, the willingness or the directions to find Hansard. They don’t or can’t watch the legislature channel. They, in huge numbers, don’t come here either. Although that is slowly changing.

      Most of them won’t hear what Integrity BC or the AG have to say and don’t know an IPP from a Kiewitt. So, when they are pressed to read some of the exceptional blogged material, their eyes glaze over because they are not regulars. They don’t know who the friends and insiders are. They don’t know who Bruce Clark is or Tiabji, Chin, Palmer et al are. Darn it, some of us regulars have a hard time keeping track.

      That is why it is so very important for Mr. Horgan to get out in front of the public. That little debate over a $150,000 tip might have been intriguing to you and I but it went nowhere, did it? Why? Because only the likes of you and I, who have the time to follow Laila, Ross, Lew, Norm, Merv and others, are aware of it.

      Why do you think they aren’t familiar with Basi/Virk, Sea to Sky, SNC Lavellin, Port Mann, Site C and Haida Gwaii handouts, but know all about Fast Ferries? Because they are constantly reminded of one and not the others.

      Mr. Horgan needs to introduce himself and start talking to the people he hopes will support him. Your neighbours and mine.

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  7. Hang in there everyone. Things will be getting far better in the not too too distant future.

    We’re in “Have To Go Through Hell To Get To Heaven” mode is all.

    World-class city and province come before world-class political leadership is all. Clearly.

    The next wave to crash BC’s political scene will consist of many BC’ers that grew up in world-class BC.

    BC established world-class standing in the mid-80’s, give or take a couple of years. So, BC’s next generation of leadership has just entered their 30’s. This is the group that will be able to match Vancouver’s and BC’s world-class standing, and my guess is that one of the very first things they’ll do is triple BC’s public school funding. Afterall, a superlative public education system did of course play a leading role in Vancouver’s and BC’s rise to world-class standing.

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  8. Interesting view of the Legislature via your link to the transcripts.
    The “debate” about Haida Gwaii seems to start at line (1635…. if you scroll down about halfway the numbers are located next to the scroll bar).
    It seems the Premier has become the master of deflection. Instead of answering questions she blurts out stats about totally unrelated subjects…..but it worked. She steered Horgan away from “Haida Gate” and the subject was either forgotten or dropped.

    It seems as if Christy did learn a few things in university even if she didnt graduate.
    The proposed ideas for stimulating the US economy in the near future are mysteriously similar in several ways.

    http://www.google.ca/url?url=http://www.reuters.com/article/us-funds-janus-gross-idUSKCN0XV1AL&rct=j&frm=1&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ved=0ahUKEwjDvdHN0tnMAhULx2MKHa52AzYQFghTMAw&usg=AFQjCNHosZrLs5Law6nqII8lnY1ft1mGBw

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  9. “It seems as if Christy did learn a few things in university even if she didnt graduate.”

    Lol. University is supposed to teach *about* psychopathy, sociopathy, narcissism and megalomania. It’s not supposed to train students how to do it. 😉

    Also; it’s obvious that she paid attention in her “Classic Cinema 101” course…. Does everyone know that the original working title for the Godfather trilogy was “Families First”? LOL!

    Seriously, though, it’s pretty obvious that she is just a useful idiot whose strings are being pulled by a team of advisors who have read Carroll Quigley (Bill Clinton’s mentor) and Zbigniew Brzezinski.

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  10. The key here is the sub-title to Laila’s post, above (and the title to Merv Adey’s original, exceptionally important post).

    Specifically, the sub-title this is a direct quote from Ms. Clark wherein she indicates that she received the request for the proctocol/papertrail-free gift/grant directly from Mr. Rea.

    Previously, in the original Globe piece from Mark Hume last December, Ms. Clark’s brother, Mr. Bruce Clark (who is backing a wind farm proposal supported by the good Mr. Rea), stated that he told Mr. Rea who to contact in the BC Liberal government’s Education Ministry about the matter. This was confirmed by Mr. Rea at the time.

    The fact that both Mr. Clark and Mr. Rea indicated that they discussed a contact (or contacts) in the Education Ministry was nowhere to be found in a government response to an FOIR from the BC NDP. Furthermore, the government’s FOIR response indicated that there were no discussions whatsoever in the Education Ministry about the school expansion and/or the gift/grant.

    Given the FOI response, it is interesting to note that Ms. Clark’s spokesperson, Mr. Ben Chin, told CKNW’s Matt Lee in December 2015 that the government had been discussing the matter for ‘more than a year’. Additionally, this timeframe appears to be discordant with what Ms. Clark told Mr. Horgan in the legislature when she indicated that she received the direct request from Mr. Rea in September of 2015, less than three months before the gift/grant was handed out by Ms. Clark in late November 2015.

    These facts are what fine proMedia folks like Mr. Palmer are ignoring when they focus, instead, on the perception of whose winning and/or losing the political game of thorny thrones in the legislature.

    I have written about this, with more complete descriptions and links back to the original sources, here and here.

    .

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  12. This isn’t Bruce or Christy’s first rodeo in terms of coincidences related to connected interests.

    In the Statement of Facts entered into court in connection with one of the plea deals to end the BC Rail trial, Dave Basi and Bob Virk admitted in part:

    “…With respect to counts 7 and 8 of the Indictment, Basi and Virk admit that they disclosed confidential information about the proposed sale of the operations of the BC Rail Port Subdivision to Bruce Clark, a consultant to the Washington Marine Group in its bid to acquire the Port Subdivision and hence put the bidding process at risk contrary to section 122 of the Criminal Code…”

    The offence occurred between April 01, 2002 and December 28, 2003. During this period Christy Clark, Bruce Clark’s sister, was the Deputy Premier of British Columbia. Basi and Virk were therefore ministerial aides in the government of which Christy Clark was essentially second-in-command.

    Under these circumstances, why would they think it was safe to illegally hand over documents to Bruce Clark? What would make them feel comfortable? You’d think he’d be one of the last people to hook up with given his sister’s position. Some of their connections illustrated in this article from the days when the Vsun did actual reporting might help:
    http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Former+Victoria+aides+trial+Dave+Basi+Virk+were+charged+after+police/1423877/story.html

    It should be noted that counts 7 and 8 of the indictment were amended as part of one of the plea deals to remove “Cabinet confidences” as part of the information disclosed. This article is interesting in that regard:

    http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2011/02/24/BCRail/

    Another unanswered question (among thousands on this file) that has always stuck with me is that Basi and Virk admitted and were convicted of taking cash bribes for their illegal activities. But they apparently did considerable work to then give Bruce Clark a freebie. Why?

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    1. Point of clarification for last paragraph above. While both Basi and Virk admitted and were convicted of accepting bribes of rewards, advantages and benefits, only Basi admitted receiving money.

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        1. One was offered immunity to testify; the others walked. The one offered immunity went on to be accepted as a lawyer in Ontario. Still can’t figure why the FBI hasn’t moved on a certain Denver Colorado outfit under their Corrupt Foreign Practices Act.

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        2. “Still can’t figure why the FBI hasn’t moved on a certain Denver Colorado outfit under their Corrupt Foreign Practices Act.”

          Does the FBI even know?

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    1. What I don’t understand about the political system John is; that little exercise of graft had to have broken Parliamentary Rules/Laws and most likely criminal ones as well. Why can nothing be done? Why, if Mr. Horgan has her dead to rights, as it appears, does he do nothing more than ask questions and accept crap answers. Why can’t or won’t he blow the lid clean off this shite? Have the whole lot of them arrested.

      Is there not a clean, duty bound MLA in the entire house.

      Can’t anyone stop this train wreck?

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      1. My sentiments exactly HW. I’ve seriously considered absenting myself from blog reading, (as if that would help the situation!). But I keep getting drawn back into the scene in hopes that there will be some good news. But they sit so infrequently that it would probably be empty.
        Just read ‘Gangsters Out Blog’ and that raised the ol’ hackles again – about the ties to BC Rail and the drug trade. Maybe global warming and wiping out the whole corrupt species might be the answer. We’re all going to die anyway so…….
        But I digress somewhat. Why oh why can’t/won’t Horgan, or somebody, blow the whistle? I can see Horgan’s point of view – he doesn’t want to inherit the whole corrupt mess that would be left behind. Rafe’s too old to be effective and Bernie Sanders is busy elsewhere. But SOMEONE young and principled could become an icon. The opportunity is certainly there.

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        1. ” I can see Horgan’s point of view – he doesn’t want to inherit the whole corrupt mess that would be left behind.”

          If that is even remotely the case, then he is a sham just like the rest. I know he was talked into the leadership against his own desires but to be going along just for the ride. A very disturbing thought.

          “Rafe’s too old to be effective.”

          Rafe?
          RAFE?
          Hell, he’s the only one I know older than me and NObody listens to me.
          Rafe needs to just keep on with what he is doing…stirring the pot and being a grandpa.

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  15. Mr. Horgan, sir;
    Why are you so reluctant and afraid to unseat this government, now?
    Would not a valiant action on behalf of all British Columbians, give you a better couple of lines in history than “they failed again”?
    Your actions inside the house are indeed honorable.
    Bring it on outside, sir.

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    1. Sorry friends, first time upright in 36 hours but before that working on a few big projects, one of which is updating the 100 reasons in a downloadable,printable format for readers . Should have posted something to let you all know whats going on, but when I get into something, I really get into something… and this is a huge list. Massive. Its a big chore to update the older reasons too.

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  28. Very interesting reading but I’m afraid my/our problems are worse as far as we are concerned! I am 79 years old and my partner is 81. We were kicked out of a Manufactured Home Park because of lies that even we had a hard time believing. Has anybody ever considered looking into how badly the Residential Tenancy Branch does its fairly simple job! They are the biggest reason for about 60 tenants of a park in Port Edward B.C. lost their bought and paid for homes. How would any of you like to be our age and to be made homeless? This all started in Dec. 2013, actually the plans for the park were put in place by our new landlords from West Vancouver. As for Christy Clark – she calls the Port Ed mayor “Dancing Dave”. She also made it possible to provide her pet project – LNG with office space while saying the old school was beyond repair so they built an addition onto the Village Office. Anybody wanting reams of wrong doings please feel free to contact me via e-mail kenjennings46@yahoo.ca

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