A Closer Look: Jody Paterson

Public gatherings test our civility - and we get a pass I always enjoy the annual Island MusicFest, and had my usual good time grooving to the tunes at the Courtenay festival last month. But it’s the people-watching that’s the best part of a music festival. Pack several thousand people of all ages and backgrounds into a fairground for three days and nights, and things are guaranteed to get interesting. A whole lot of people in tight quarters is a true test of our civility. Yes, there are rules at MusicFest, and quite a number of security guards and police on hand to try to enforce them. But when that many people gather in one place, what really determines how things will go comes down to people’s willingness to be tolerant and respectful of each other. And the MusicFest crowd always delivers. If you’ve been to a music festival, you’ll know all about blanket rules, and the strict but unwritten code that governs the sea of blankets stretched out in front of the main stage. Blanket rules...

I met with three families recently who are frightened by the rumours they’re hearing about the group homes where some of their family members live. They’re not alone. Back when B.C. was closing the big institutions like Woodlands and Glendale in the 1980s and 90s, group homes housing four to six people were touted as the way of the future for people with severe mental handicaps, and money-savers to boot. But that was then. Now, the government is back looking for more savings. The group homes that families believed would always be there have suddenly become the focus for budget cuts at Community Living B.C., the five-year-old Crown agency charged with overseeing housing and support services for adults with developmental disabilities. A shift away from group homes isn’t necessarily a bad thing if well-handled, at least not for residents with the potential to thrive in more independent housing. More than 2,700 CLBC clients already live outside of the group-home system in B.C.,...

A link to the Vancouver Sun's story on that creepy penile-arousal test they've been doing on kids in B.C. for the last 20 years. Where the heck are the university ethics types when you need them??

Oh, no! So now our premier shows his true colours as well around the census. 

MLAs' tax-free meal allowance tip of the iceberg Ida Chong is the one we’ve all been talking about, but this meal-allowance business is much bigger than the $6,000 per-diem Chong claimed in the last fiscal year. I can feel it in the public reaction. Like me, people see the Chong story as symbolizing much more than just one politician’s per-diem spending. There’s real outrage and betrayal in the letters to the editor and on the radio call-in shows. Genuine hurt. It’s a shame that MLAs have reacted by circling the wagons and closing ranks, because this is an important moment to try to understand. I’ve been surprised at my own wounded reaction, especially after learning this week that MLAs don’t even have to submit receipts for the $61 per diem they’re eligible for when doing official government work in Victoria or Vancouver. (“It costs more to administer the receipting process than to just set a flat rate,” said a communications spokesman with the Finance Ministry.) Call me naive, b...

A good read from Paul Willcocks on the Capital City allowance paid to MLAs, with no receipts required. And here's the other end of the spectrum - a teen reading program becomes the latest victim of budget cuts .

Chong's food bill tough to swallow Tough economic times are a particularly sensitive time to be learning that our political leaders think  belt-tightening doesn’t apply to them. Admittedly, news of elected officials pushing the limits on how much of the public dollar they’re spending on themselves is unsettling at the best of times. But when a province is in the midst of wiping out services and supports for people who really, really need them, it is truly offensive to hear about things like Ida Chong making full use of her publicly funded meal plan.    We paid for $6,000 worth of restaurant eating for the Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA last year.   Chong was within her rights to claim it, mind you; legislature rules allow even local MLAs to charge up to $61 a day for restaurant meals while on the job in Victoria. But would you do it? If services and supports were crashing all around you during a terrible economic year and it was your job to set thing...

A disturbing link to a site that lets you put the giant BP oil disaster into the context of your own back yard. Try moving the spill to Victoria, B.C. - terrifying.

Here's  a thoughtful piece from today's Vancouver Sun opinion pages that points out the folly of our federal and provincial governments when it comes to improving the health of their citizens.

It's still the back of the bus for mental health services Alan Campbell couldn’t believe the kind of care and support his wife received after being diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago. The speedy treatment. The kind words. The follow-up calls and offers of support. It was an amazing experience, says Campbell - and all the more striking when compared to the level of care his own clients typically see. Campbell has spent the last 34 years working in B.C.’s mental-health system, most recently as director of mental health and addictions for the Vancouver Island Health Authority. I’m sure he would have liked to have been finishing off his career this week reflecting on the tremendous gains made around mental-health care in his time. That’s certainly been the case for breast cancer and for many other major health concerns that we’ve tackled with fervour in the last three decades. Alas, Campbell retired Wednesday from a field that is very nearly as underfunded, misunderstood and...