Home | Community | Message Board

Cannabis Seeds - Original Sensible Seeds
This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: Original Sensible Seeds Bulk Cannabis Seeds   North Spore North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
Invisible5-HT2A
Registered: 01/30/10 Happy 14th Shroomiversary!
Posts: 1,794
RCMP 'used as a political tool'
    #14466950 - 05/17/11 08:54 AM (12 years, 8 months ago)

http://www.abbotsfordtimes.com/RCMP+used+political+tool/4796803/story.html#ixzz1McbimtcP

Most Lower Mainland residents will agree that marijuana grow-ops, and the ugly behaviour they spawn, are a blight on their community. They also know our supposed justice system is woefully weak-kneed when it comes to nailing druggies.

But that doesn't excuse the Big Brother way in which Mission district city hall has been stepping clumsily into the breach.

Mission's anti-grow-op strategy, in which it dinged homeowners who had outsized hydro bills thousands of dollars in inspection fees, was fundamentally flawed -- as the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and others pointed out.

Now, the district has compounded that public relations fiasco by calling in the Mounties to hound those allegedly involved in leaking embarrassing information about that strategy from secret council meetings.

The RCMP won't say exactly why they had to seize two computers from blind Mission district Coun. Jenny Stevens and three others from former councillor Ron Taylor.

But it's pretty clear the "breach of trust" probe stemmed from vocal opposition by Taylor and Stevens to the discredited inspection initiative.

No one likes a tattletale. And it's obvious Mission Mayor James Atebe and others at city hall are unhappy about the way their money-spinning anti-grow-op approach has backfired, only months from the civic elections. So it's understandable that they would want to get back at those they suspect of ratting them out to the media.

"The RCMP are being used as a political tool," Taylor told me Thursday. And, in the absence of contrary information, I agree.

The fact is, as Taylor pointed out earlier to Province reporter Susan Lazaruk, Mission council "leaks like a sieve."

And as the civil liberties association noted, there are frequent allegations that Mission and other metro municipalities are misusing in-camera meetings intended for sensitive personnel, legal and real-estate matters to discuss topics they don't want to debate in public.

I couldn't reach Atebe Thursday. But the current controversy reminds me of the foofaraw at Vancouver City Hall in the fall of 2008 over a humongous leak about the sorry state of financing for the Olympic Village housing project.

The police were called in, not because the media leak was inaccurate, but because the ruling Non-Partisan Association was livid with the way the information was, well, killing its re-election chances.

Predictably, once the new Vision Vancouver-dominated council was sworn in, the police probe went nowhere, as did a costly investigation by top lawyer Richard Peck.

And all those howls of outrage by aggrieved councillors glossed over the key issue -- namely that, as far as the public was concerned, a leak was badly needed.

For too long, council had kept ratepayers in the dark. Besides, as I said then, this is the Internet age. Everything gets leaked. Key decisions are no longer the exclusive preserve of a cabal of bullying good ol' boys.

We do not live in a police state. And persecutions of those who may have fed, or been fed, juicy tidbits from secret council discussions are as distasteful as they are counter-productive.

We need fewer in-camera discussions, more watchdogs of councils' activities . . . and a far better-informed electorate.


Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Shop: Original Sensible Seeds Bulk Cannabis Seeds   North Spore North Spore Mushroom Grow Kits & Cultivation Supplies


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Councillor claims drugs report cover up Simplepowa 1,222 7 10/20/14 07:59 AM
by nice1returns
* Councillor says she was stoned driving buses - New Zealand wre 762 3 05/22/12 11:00 AM
by Lord_McLovin
* Waimate councillor wants cannabis decriminalised - New Zealand wre 452 0 05/22/12 08:45 AM
by wre
* RCMP dismantle huge ecstasy lab [CAN] veggieM 2,458 5 01/17/08 04:58 PM
by DontPlay
* Drugs factory discovered in ex-councillor's Merton house [UK] Bridgeburner 628 1 11/23/08 05:00 PM
by ShroomNinja
* He altered trucks to hide drugs, but RCMP couldn't make a case [CAN] veggieM 1,620 5 12/27/07 12:54 PM
by LoWgRoW
* RCMP expect to destroy 30,000 marijuana plants on Vancouver Island [CAN] veggieM 909 5 09/03/09 10:59 PM
by ScavengerType
* RCMP makes drug bust on highway asd11 1,781 3 04/28/06 10:29 AM
by Microcosmatrix

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: motaman, veggie, Alan Rockefeller, Mostly_Harmless
590 topic views. 1 members, 11 guests and 3 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.016 seconds spending 0.006 seconds on 13 queries.