Skip to content

Jun 19

Pattison Outdoor refuses to sell billboard space to Sensible BC?

Apparently, PATTISON Outdoor Advertising is refusing to sell billboard space to Sensible BC. Jeff Nagel from the Surrey North Delta Leader reports:

“Marijuana reform campaigners say they’ve been denied billboard advertising space with B.C.’s biggest outdoor ad firm in the key months leading up to their signature drive to force a provincial referendum.

Sensible BC director Dana Larsen said Pattison Outdoor has refused to sell the pot decriminalization campaign billboards in areas such as Surrey, Vancouver, Burnaby, Delta, Langley and the Tri-Cities.”

The Sensible BC campaign supports a referendum (planned for 2014) to decriminalize the personal possession of marijuana for adults in British Columbia. The basic idea is to free police resources, use tax dollars efficiently and ensure that otherwise law-abiding citizens do not end up with a criminal record. Please volunteer with the campaign, or make a donation.

I’m not sure what kind of legal remedy is available (if any) for Sensible BC. Also, it is a bit of a mystery as to why Pattison Outdoor might refuse to sell billboard space to an organization supporting democratic law reform.

Oh look, here is a case study showing that Pattison Outdoor helped make Tudor Beer the fastest growing import in Canada.

And here is something spooky: A media release about how Guinness used Pattison Outdoor to promote their beer as “A True Beer of Halloween.”

Here is an image from the “Innovation Gallery” featuring Strongbow beer on a Pattison billboard. (The innovation part is the two giant arrows sticking out of the billboard.)

The parent company of Pattison Outdoor is the Jim Pattison Group, which also owns the book of Guinness World Records.  I suspect they may have a new record under the category “hypocrisy”.

Beer company advertises on Pattison Outdoor billboard

Jun 17

TEDxVictoria now accepting speaker applications

Applications are now open to become a speaker with TEDxVictoria. This is an amazing local event, put together by an incredible group of volunteers. If you are interested, submit a proposal soon because applications close on June 28th.

The theme this year is emergence.

Jun 14

RCMP arrests (alleged) shoplifter

“Police arrest shoplifter” generally isn’t big news. Except that in this case, the officer was off-duty and the arrest was recorded on video. A couple of things stand out:

1) There were numerous bystanders, but nobody could be bothered to help.

2) This officer demonstrated extraordinary professionalism and restraint.

Jun 12

Senator Duffy’s marijuana joke

Senator Mike Duffy has been in the news a bit lately regarding his housing expenses. Here is an exchange in the Senate from March 29, 2012. His contribution to the debate was to make jokes about marijuana:

Hon. Jim Munson: Honourable senators, my question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Some honourable senators, as I did, may have noted with special interest the report of leading Canadian public health physicians calling on this government to completely reconsider its drug policy.

Yesterday, the chief medical officers for the provinces of British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia, along with the Co-director of the Urban Health Research Initiative at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS published an article in the peer-reviewed open access journal Open Medicine. The article makes a compelling case for the taxation and regulation of marijuana.

I think we all agree that addiction should be considered primarily a health issue and not one of criminal justice. Unlike Canada, U.S. states such as New York, Michigan, Massachusetts and Connecticut are repealing mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offences.

Given that 50 per cent of Canadians already support the legalization of marijuana or cannabis, I think it is time we start asking ourselves, what are we doing?

Hon. Marjory LeBreton (Leader of the Government): Honourable senators, I think it is clear. The government is very clear in its position on marijuana. We just passed a bill through this place, Bill C-10. I did note yesterday the leader of the third party in the other place asking a rather confusing question on this issue. We are well aware of the views of these gentlemen. The government’s position on legalizing marijuana is clear. We do not intend to change that position.

Senator Munson: That is too bad.

As the spokesperson — what is that, Senator Duffy?

Senator Duffy: You’re too old for that stuff.

Senator Munson: Well, there was a time.

Senator Duffy: I know.

Senator Munson: Let us not start talking about the National Press Club in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, Senator Duffy. That will be another story, but that will be in my book, so do not worry about that — no pictures, just a story.

Some Hon. Senators: Oh, oh!

Senator Munson: My supplementary question is for the Leader of the Government in the Senate. A spokesperson for the Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson noted that the government through its law-enforcement-centred drug policy is not trying to punish addicts. While that may be true, it is clear this detracts from a health-based approach focused on harm reduction. Indeed, in 2001, during the last review of Canada’s drug strategy, the Auditor General estimated that of the $454 million spent annually on efforts to control illicit drugs, $426 million, or 93.8 per cent, was devoted to law enforcement.

Opponents of drug policy reform argue that shifting our focus from law enforcement will increase drug use, but this, however, is not the case. In fact, the World Health Organization has concluded that countries with stringent user-level illegal drug policies did not have lower levels of use than countries with liberal ones.

Let us look at Portugal, for example. It decriminalized all drug use in 2001, 11 years ago. It has seen reductions in problematic use, drug-related harms and criminal justice overcrowding, all the while maintaining rates of drug use among the lowest in the European Union.

With such evidence, why is the leader’s government pursuing drug policies that have already proven ineffective elsewhere?

Jun 2

Bill Maher says marijuana legalization is the new gay marriage

Jun 1

Essay in Victoria News about police regionalization

This is a well-written essay by Deputy Chief Ducker. Even if you disagree with police regionalization, it raises some interesting facts and anecdotes that many people throughout the CRD probably did not know about or may not have considered:

It’s no secret to VicPD members that many of the region’s hardcore drug dealers, organized criminals and party crowd live in the outlying areas, which most certainly includes Saanich.

The criminal element of these groups ply their trade on the streets of our downtown core and often retire to the bedroom communities, where not enough attention is paid to them. After 34 years I could fill a police notebook with instances where outlying agencies have either declined outright or simply don’t have the true capacity to deal with serious criminal elements living in their communities, leaving it to VicPD to handle or simply allow the problem to be ignored.

May 31

Auditor General for Local Government in British Columbia

In BC, the Auditor General for Local Government is now up and running. I think it is clear, from looking at the initial proposed audits, that this is going to be a very important office.

May 29

Results of the BC Mandate Campaign

The results of the BC Mandate Campaign have been posted. Roughly 300 BC residents participated which is a small sample. Still, this was a neat experiment. It will be interesting to see what other projects come out of PartyX.

May 7

Advocacy from WWF Canada

I stumbled across the advocacy guidelines for WWF Canada.  Here are the main points of their “advocacy with excellence” philosophy:

  • Being politically non-partisan
  • Being non-ideological
  • Being efficient
  • Getting results
  • Being scientifically accurate
  • Doing our homework well
  • Checking someone else’s homework
  • Staying within our area of expertise
  • Trying cooperative approaches first
  • Following due process internally
  • Taking the high road
  • Being prepared to say No

I like these a lot. These guidelines might not be appropriate for all non-profit advocacy groups, but they sure could help a lot of them.

May 6

1 Comment

Eric Foster’s constituency office reassessed at $214,000

I’ve been meaning to update this blog with the results of my complaint to BC Assessment.

Back in January, I filed a complaint regarding the 2012 assessment of the Vernon-Monashee MLA constituency office. The office in question is located at 3209 31 Ave in Vernon (it was purchased by Kalview Park Enterprises just days before the 2009 election).

The original 2012 assessed value was $177,100. This seemed ridiculously low given that the MLA in question, Eric Foster, had arranged for as much as $78,000 to be spent on office renovations.

After receiving the complaint, BC Assessment – to their credit – assigned two senior employees to reexamine the property. The new value from BC Assessment was $214,000. This was an increase of $36,900 (a 20% increase from the original value). The $214,000 assessment was confirmed after a hearing at the Property Assessment Review Panel.

The building owners, who are allegedly related to Eric Foster’s constituency assistant, did not bother to show up at the hearing.

← Older Entries
Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.