No, you're the one who's "Ugly"

If anyone saw Gary Mason's column in the Globe & Mail yesterday, it's easy to see why the B.C. Liberals are up 17 points on the NDP after this week's Ispos-Reid poll: the Goebbels-like precision with which B.C.'s corporate media continues to manipulate the truth to appease the profiteering, anti-human agenda of the B.C. Liberal government.

Aside from the usual Liberal cheerleading that Mason parrots in declaring Carole James the "Ugly Betty" of B.C. Politics, the former jockrider cites the "startling" illustration of NDP MLAs agreeing with the lawyers for the two BC Ferry & Marine Workers Union members who advised their clients against participating in B.C. Ferries' internal coverup...er...investigation of the Queen of the North sinking. If there was one thing that this page learned under the first five years of Campbellism, it's that everyone in this province has a right to be treated fairly, unless you happen to be a unionized public employee.

This statement by Mason amounts to little more than a SMEAR by omission. First of all, since when does any elected official (or for that matter, any newspaper columnist) tell anyone to REJECT the advice of their own lawyer? If that was an acceptable practice, Robert Pickton would be deaf now as a result of people screaming at him to plead guilty. Secondly, and more importantly, why does Mason leave out the fact that the crew members and their union have, in fact, actively participated in the only investigation that counts, the Transport Canada Investigation? The Transport Canada investigation is going to take a little longer, but it isn't going to be exempt from vital accountability legislation like the privatized BC Ferry Corporation is.

Michael Smyth at the Province and Vaughn Palmer at the Vancouver Sun threw similar tantrums at the BCFMWU and the NDP a few weeks ago. Wow, is there anything better to pump up the government than linking the opposition to one of the worst tragedies in B.C.'s marine history? It wouldn't surprise me that someone on the CanWest or Globe editorial boards is trying really hard right now to find a link between the NDP and the Virginia Tech shootings.

It disgusts me that these sickening subhuman syncophants are regarded as the gospel truth by much of the unsuspecting public. For any real democracy to emerge in British Columbia, these idiotic lying scumbags need to be shut up once and for all.