Mr. Vass does not mention that these three candidates, of which I am one, are members of the Concerned Citizens' Coalition, unhappily.

This is a problem that we are not likely to see solved unless and until we gather the requisite number of signatures, which I believe is 50 or 60, to have the legend CONCERNED CITIZENS' COALITION mentioned for easy identification on the ballot.

After the ballot is published in the newspapers prior to the election day, the names of our candidates should be easily associated by all informed citizen-voters with the Concerned Citizens' Coalition.

- Gregory Hartnell, President

   CONCERNED CITIZENS' COALITION

  CCC

[Nota bene: I will try to find a link to the Victoria News article, and place it in the comment below for easy reference.]

CCC

These neighbourhood recovery houses would be run by self-help groups with proven performance records, and would promote sobriety through strict abstinence, multivitamin therapy, healthy nutrition, excercise, recovery fellowship meetings, counselling, life skills, job training and future career planning.

The aim is the complete eradication of the shameful homeless-addicted-mentally ill phenomenon which is making life in Victoria a nightmare for all concerned.

By emphasizing abstinence, hope, recovery, healthy nutrition, multivitamin therapy, excercise, fellowship meetings, job training, life skills and career planning, we hope to prioritize the value we see in our fellow human beings, currently ill-served by enabling programmes that keep them mired in their deadly addictions.

After their needs have been met, the City of Victoria Council could then look at the expenditure of some 28.8 million on sidewalks, or whatever else it deems important.

Shamefully, the City Council received a recommendation to spend this amount over twenty years on  67 kilometres of roadways in Victoria not yet adorned by concrete non-essential sidewalk, according to an article in the Times Colonist by Carolyn Heiman.  They think it is a good idea at this time.  WE DON'T.

A link to the T-C article is provided in the comment below.

[The following is the full edited text of a recent letter to the Editor of the Victoria News by CCC President Hartnell.  It was printed at the top of the LETTERS section of that free bi-weekly newspaper, with the head line stretching across the whole of the top of the page.  This is rare, and very much welcome, in my experience.]

Re: Council Briefs, Aug. 20

  Keith Vass informs us in this article that 'the City of Victoria won't seek to regulate location of needle exchange services through zoning amendments.'

  This outrageous dereliction of duty on the part of the Victoria city council follows a July letter sent by Mayor Alan Lowe encouraging the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA) to dispense hypodermic needles out of all of its facilities.

  This is a pathetic, stealthy betrayal by the mayor and council of the public interest, particularly that of parents of vulnerable children at the nearby Victoria Conservatory of Music, St. Andrew's elementary and preschool and Christ Church Cathedral Preschool.

  When parents convened an emergency meeting at the St. Andrew's gym earlier this year, they were given assurances by Victoria city Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe, VIHA CEO Howard Waldner, the school's principal Keifer Pollard, the Superintendent of Catholics Schools Joe Colistro (representing the Bishop of Victoria) and other worthies that their legitimate concerns for the safety of their children were heard and would be brought to the attention of the council.

  The overwhelming majority of parents, neighbours and other concerned citizens attending the meeting opposed the siting of a so-called 'needle exchange service' in the new Our Place facility on Pandora Avenue.  Parents were horrified at the obvious failure of the needle dispensary on Cormorant Street to reduce addiction and social disorder (overt public injections and drug dealing, defecation on private property, needles, condoms and other debris left everywhere, etc.).

  They later presented a petition asking that city council not allow such facilities anywhere near schools, pre-schools or playgrounds.  By choosing not to bring in zoning changes, the irresponsible council has completely dropped the ball, leaving innocent children vulnerable.

  Instead of continuing to enable poor, sick active addicts to stay mired in their deadly addictions, the City of Victoria should prohibit the siting of any such facilities near vulnerable children, as the parents requested.

  They should then start to offer rehab and abstinence-based residential treatment programmes in conjunction with successful self-help groups to help these addicts recover, regain their health and become productive members of society again.

Gregory Hartnell, President

Concerned Citizens' Coalition

CCC

  Readers interested in the ongoing saga of the needle dispensary will find a letter to the Editor of the Victoria News written by the webmaster of this website (Gregory Hartnell) at the bottom of a stack published at that newspaper's website today Wednesday September 3, 2008.

In that letter I castigate Mayor Alan Lowe and the Victoria City Council for their 'dereliction of duty' by choosing to do absolutely nothing of consequence to reassure parents of children near the Our Place facility on Pandora Avenue that the dispensary will not be placed in or near that new building.

I then suggest that the Mayor and Council protect children by bringing in zoning, as originally requested by the parents in their petititon to Council, which would prohibit enabling zoning anywhere near preschools, elementary schools, conservatories or playgrounds, etc.  They should offer detox and rehab instead.

The letter can be found easily by going to the Victoria News website and clicking on the first letter published today in the letters section.  That will open up a stack where one finds the letter written in my capacity as President of the Concerned Citizens' Coalition.

Better yet, one can go to the comment section below this article, for a direct link.

- Gregory Hartnell, President

  Concerned Citizens' Coalition

  CCC

  I've been asked to explain what I mean when I refer to the Sport-developers' Cabal, so in the public interest of complete transparency, and to complement the excellent visionary critical analysis of contemporary Victoria provided by Concerned Citizens' Coalition candidate Patrick Jamieson in these pages, I'll expound on that idea, at the  risk of parroting Patrick's ideas.

  VICTORIA'S TIGHT CLIQUES CLOSED TO 'OUTSIDERS'

  Victoria has long been known as a town of very tight cliques.  It is a town that is not particularly friendly to newcomers, refugees, immigrants, and certainly not to the homeless, contrary to what we are told in the mainstream media.  If it were, why would our City Council tolerate more than a thousand of these citizens to wander aimlessly about our streets, begging pathetically on practically every corner?

  A FINE POLITICAL ROMANCE: ANTIDOTE TO THE TYRANNY OF THE CLIQUES

  My late mother Sheila (a bilingual Quebecer nee Turnbull) told us a story about how lonely and isolated she had been during the Second World War in her new Victoria hometown until she resorted in desperation to attending a Conservative Party meeting in deepest Esquimalt.  At the time, she was employed as a stenographer out there at Naden, and one of her girlfriends suggested that they might find eligible batchelors at that unlikely venue.  Not really poltical, she came along to the meeting almost as a joke, and there she met my late father, Peter.

VICTORIA STILL OFTEN COLD-HEARTED MORE THAN 50 YEARS LATER 

 I tell this story to emphasize that the nature of the town hasn't really changed all that much in more than half  century.  This town is still often cold-hearted and overly concerned with bourgeois appearances, at the expense of the poorest of the poor, the lonely, and those many thousands of others who suffer from various mental illnesses in virtual isolation and imposed silence.

  LIBERAL REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS & SPORTS FANATICS

  What does all this have to do with real estate developers and sports fanatics?  Everything, in my estimation.  What we have here is really a pretencious little town that does not want to grow up, a town where a minority of Liberals have assumed for themselves privileges they have no right to enjoy.

 CABAL STOLE $30,000,000 IN A BOGUS REFERENDUM

  I'm talking about a cabal of people who will tell you that the homeless problem is a great shame, but virtually unsolvable, that poverty will always be with us, etc., etc.  It's a town that can steal $30,000,000 in a bogus referendum from the poorest of the poor, build a monolith to trash culture, and then not bother to finish the ugly thing, and none of the Liberal elitists seem to give a damn if it ever does get finished.

CITY COUNCIL APPROVES OF GIVING HARD -CORE ADDICTS NEEDLES AT PUBLIC EXPENSE

  We are a town with a civic government that thinks that by giving hard-core addicts needles at public expense (and is seriously contemplating opening up a heroin injection centre to compound the problem), that they are somehow doing something constructive, when in fact all they are doing is sweeping the problem under the rug, and keeping people stuck in their deadly habits: 'out of sight, out of mind.'

 DEVELOPERS TYPICALLY WANT VARIANCES ON ZONING TO BUILD HIGHER

  It is a town with a City Council that heretofor has been satisfied with cosmetic solutions to grave social problems, a town that up until now has let developers run amok, bullying neighbourhood associations into acquiescence with threats of not providing any kind of housing at all if they don't get their way.  They typically want to get a variance to disregard a zoning that would otherwise restrain their grandiose schemes, if we had any kind of Council with guts.

 LOWE LIBERAL COUNCIL HAS ERODED REASONABLE DOWNTOWN HEIGHT LIMITS OF PETER POLLEN 

 It's a Council that has allowed a reasonable ethos of limited downtown height restrictions (inaugurated by former mayor Peter Pollen) to be eroded into a greed-driven ethos where practically any development proposal that is put before it is rubber stamped without giving much thought at all to social justice considerations, let alone aesthetic or conservation concerns.

 PATRICK JAMIESON AND THE CCC'S MORE COMPASSIONATE NEW CIVIC ETHOS

  I commend Patrick Jamieson for his ability to articulate a newer, more compassionate civic ethos, one where these unhealthy greed-driven trends are arrested, and a sane return is made to what some now call 'smart growth.'  I have some trouble with that expression, as it seems to imply a kind of know-it-all attitude not too dissimilar from that which I have just been describing.

  ACCOUNTABLE CULTURE OF LIMITS WOULD REDUCE WASTE, LOWER TAXES, SHORTEN TERMS

  What we really need is a culture that recognizes the wisdom of recognizing healthy limits.  I'm not only talking about limits on residential and commercial property taxes and bureaucracy empire-building, but also limits on the number of years councillors and mayors may hold seats on the Council.  

'DOWNZONING' VICTORIA: NINE AND FOUR STOREY HEIGHT LIMITS

  Those limits would also include a nine storey height restriction on downtown buildings, and a four-storey limit on residential mid-rise construction in the quaint old neighbourhoods, including Chinatown.  This is called 'downzoning,' and for those who care to know, it is the latest trend in the old neighbourhoods of none other than New York City, if a recent article in the New York Times is to be believed.

  CONCERNED CITIZENS COALITION' VISION IS UNLIKE THE WEST END OF VANCOUVER

  What the Concerned Citizens emphatically do not want to see happen is for Victoria to become like the West End of Vancouver.  That is the nightmare vision of hell that we most dread.

  A NATURAL, WELCOMING, SAFE MIDRISE PACIFICAN CITY

  How can we become a more welcoming city, while at the same time restricting the heights of buildings?  Don't we need to build up to accomodate all these new immigrants, refugees and other travellers who are attracted to the natural beauty of this Pacific paradise?

  DENSITY THROUGH PYRAMIDAL BUILDINGS BUILT TO PROPERTY LINE EDGES

  The answer is no, not necessarily.  We do need to build density, that I concede, but that can be done by expanding the footprint of new buildings right out to the edges of properties.  Pyramidal forms for buildings, rather than phallic boxes, would allow this.

  HENRI SAUVAGE'S TERRACED APARTMENT BUILDINGS MIXED WITH PATRICK JAMIESON'S SOCIAL HOUSING 

  There are great models we can learn from in recent architectural history.  I cite as just one example the very elegant work of the French Art Deco architect Henri Sauvage whose terrassed buildings along the edge of the Seine achieved the desired density without going much more than about nine storeys high.  These buildings accomodated a healthy mix of social housing for the poor, mixed with varying options for others, all within the same building.  Patrick Jamison explains the concept excellently in his article in this number of LA ROSA.

NUMBER NINE: REAL & SYMBOLIC LIMIT OF GREATEST SINGLE DIGIT

  What is it with the number nine?  There is a psychological threshold that is broken, I believe, when developers are allowed to go higher than that.  Once one gets into two digits, anything goes . . . the sky is the limit, and we return to the folly of the Courtney Haddock days of 38 storey towers on Douglas Street, and huge looming towers on the waterfront below Bastion Square.  As Pat says, if that's what you want, you know who to vote for . . . it wouldn't be us.

OBSCENE PHALLIC TOWERS DWARF THE CHURCH OF OUR LORD  

  The City made a real mess of Humboldt Street, and they ain't finished yet!  As I write they are preparing to pass a variance proposal for the property next to the Church of Our Lord near Saint Anne's.  There is something obscene about these phallic structures which in their hubris would dare snuggle up to a temple designed to glorify the Creator, only to dwarf it in shadow.

VOTE FOR 'SLOW GROWTH;' VOTE FOR CONCERNED CITIZENS' COALITION CANDIDATES

  By voting for Concerned Citizens' Coalition candidates, Victoria voters can be assured that a new culture of slower green growth would be introduced into the discourse at Victoria City Council.  As part of the return to sanity represented by the worldwide so-called 'Slow Growth Movement' in urbanist planning, we will work to make this City a less competitive, more co-operative, friendlier, more human-scaled, and more beautiful Pacifican port city that will be noted around the world before we are through . .

CCC

Sgt. Grant Hamilton is quoted in this Times Colonist article saying that the deployment will last until the Vancouver Island Health Authority makes up its mind where to put the so-called 'needle exchange':

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/capital_van_isl/story.html?id=75f8caa3-4698-4e23-b5f3-d525df24db7c

[Nota Bene: this article remained in the draft stage until I just rediscovered it, and realize that it is just as topical now, Labour Day, September 1, 2008 as it was when I originally typed it up, about a month ago, on August 2, 2008, but neglected to post it, for some reason ...]

- Gregory Hartnell, President 

  Concerned Citizens' Coalition

  CCC

  I have a ten-point plan based on three basic principles: accountability, conservtion and solidarity.

1.  [RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL PROPERTY] TAX CUTS:

To help first-time home buyers, particularly young families new to the real estate market, and to stimulate the depressed downtown economy.  Lower residential and commercial property taxes in the City of Victoria.

2. GET OUT OF THE 'TRASH' ENTERTAINMENT BUSINESS:

Sell arena for top dollar, no less than $40,000,000.  Build a new or renovate an existing facility to serve as a downtown residential addiction-recovery centre for homeless addicts.  Fund neighbourhood recovery houses run by recovering addicts.  No [more public] funding for so-called 'safe-injection sites,' nor for the [currently still] publicly funded ['so-called'] needle exchanges.

3.  SUSTAINABLE RECOVERY ECONOMY:

Start Victoria Recovery Tax on alcohol, tobacco and cannabis product sales in Victoria to fund abstinence-based recovery programmes in above [downtown residential treatment and neighbourhood recovery] centres.

4.  MAKE IT DIFFICULT FOR POLITICIANS TO BORROW MONEY:  

Ensure that all large borrowing proposals are put on ballot questions at election time, not during extraordinary referenda, and that they meet high thresholds for passing.  At least 70 per cent of eligible voters must vote, and a further 70 per cent or more of those voters must endorse the proposal for the borrowing to pass.  This will protect taxpayers from politicians with grandiose schemes, like the still-unfinished arena and the proposed new Crystal Pool.  As for the latter, I do not support the borrowing of $18,000,000 to tear down the existing Quadra STreet structure which is fine as is.

5. QUIET, SAFE AND COLOURFUL PUBLIC HARBOURS:

To enhance public safety, ban visits of nuclear-powered and nuclear-armed vessels, helicopters and seaplanes from within 3 km. of Victoria Harbour.  Take over control of harbor from Harbour Authority.  Reduce fees for artists and buskers.

6.  CONTROL ZONING ANARCHY:

Downtown highrise limit should be reduced to a human scale of nine storeys; the residential midrise limit should not exceed four storeys.  Council must consult with neighbourhood associations and other concerned citizens to revise neighbourhood plans.  Ban casinos in the City of Victoria, plant more trees on boulevards, build more bike racks, bus shelters, bike lanes and more softened curbs for scooters.  Phase out one-way streets, reduce speed limits, spread out bus stops downtown to disperse dilinquents.

7.  ENHANCE BEACON HILL - SAINT ANNE'S PROTECTION:  

Consolidate regulations for Beacon Hill Park and St. Anne's Academy into one special protected non-commercial zone.  Cultural events must conform to the spirit of the original 19th century trust for the park.

8.  NEW CULTURAL POLICY - LOCAL FAMILY CULTURE FIRST:

All current cultural funding, particularly for the Inter-Cultural Association and the Royal McPherson Theatre Society should be subject to review.  Family- oriented culture with an emphasis on 'local culture first' will guide the new criteria for funding under our new hands-on cultural policy.  Preference should be given to new, young, or non-organized individual artists.

9.  INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS GAUGED BY HUMAN RIGHTS RECORD:  

Cancel sister-city relationship with the city in Communist China.  To affirm peace, human rights and support for Tibet, start up sister-city relationship with Dharamsala, India.

10.  TERM LIMITS AND ENHANCED DEMOCRACY WITH BALLOT QUESTIONS:

I believe strongly in term limits - two terms per council seat, maximum of six years, including mayor.  Let's bring in some electoral reforms and put the sewage treatment question, amalgamation questions, mayor and councillors' term limits, lower -age youth vote, direct votes for CRD and PCC directors and other popular issues on the regular election ballot for more accountability and to enhance direct democracy.

CCC

Sarah Palin says she has a lot of gay friends. But, as it turns out, back in 1998, she was all over the Alaskan media pushing for the Defense of Marriage Act. Yeah, I know all about friends like that. I remember back in grade school, there were plenty of kids who liked me just fine, we'd hang out and play, best of buddies, so long as nobody else was around. If we were on the school bus, or the playground, in the halls surrounded by the other kids, they didn't know me, and would join in the harrassment and bullying with the others. And I'd try to tell them how this upset me, the way they'd turn on me just to save face with the others, and they'd always say, "Oh, come on, man. You know how it is."

Well, yes, I did know "how it is," a hell of a lot better than they did. And the thing is, although I know I'm a hothead and we got off on the wrong foot, I have to admit you, Barack Obama, are the first presidential candidate I have ever seen that honestly does know "how it is," too.

Looking back on the promotional video you played before your speech, I kept seeing these images of elderly, white midwesterners, and over and over the message, "I am just like you." I couldn't help but think back to the first time I crossed paths with Fred Phelps and his venomous congregation, who had travelled all the way from Topeka to disrupt the funeral of the man who had saved me from the streets. I can still see the cold, vicious emptiness in their eyes as they chanted their hatred at us, flashing their placards:

"God hates fags!"

"Thank God for AIDS!"

"Praise Jesus for Another Faggot Burning in Hell!"

I was already so devastated that day I couldn't lift my eyes much less put up a fight, but since then I have infiltrated dozens of similar groups, only to be horrified at how "normal" these people are otherwise, how "just like me." Until they learn the way in which we differ, and I become inhuman to their eyes.

It can't have been easy being you, growing up the racially-mixed son of a single white mother in that part of the country. I'm sure you've taken plenty of knocks along the way. But every time you would repeat that mantra of oneness over the images of the very embodiment of "mainstream Americana," all I could think was that you are a hell of a lot more "just like me" than you are like them, and though I do know "the way it is," I wish you could have voiced your affinity with fellow outsiders, instead.

You are poised to attain the ultimate in enfranchisement, and I am moved and gladdened to watch. Much has been made of the historicity of this election, but though I recognize that Hillary, as a white woman, is marginalized to a certain degree, you are a lot more "like me" than she is, and the triumph of your nomination has been unexpectedly inspiring to me. I'm sure you can relate to hearing it said that any American child can "grow up to be president," and I am willing to bet there were times in your life where you, like me, scoffed at the words because of how unlikely a dream it seemed to be for you. But you chased it anyway, and I have to say it does my heart good to see that a fellow outsider is within reach of that dream. My birth father was a local politician, and growing up I heard that same line so many times, and even believed it. But on surviving my banishment and time on the streets, only to find myself a leper, I came out the other side feeling as if the most I could hope for, for myself and those "just like me," was to become a thorn on the side of the status quo, and a reminder of the failure of the system.

I never thought I would see the day where I'd be wondering if there will ever be a gay president. In fact, for most of my life I'd have laughed in the face of anyone making the suggestion and invoked the memory of Harvey Milk and the "Twinkie Defense" that set his murderer free. But today, I find myself envisioning Milk and Martin Luther King Jr. sharing a cloud and saying, "Just you wait."

I want to see you win this election, even if the means rub me all the wrong way. Thanks for not giving up on your dream.

Sincerely,
Victor Marzowicz-Velasquez

  There can be no sense of accomplishment, nor of dignity, nor of common interest, if there is not first a sense that we have each been treated justly.  So in considering all the issues which are sure to fly back and forth among the various candidates during this race, I am reminded of but one single word: Justice.

  Our community is not a community of businesses, tourist attractions, or captivating landscapes - although we have those in abundance.  Victoria is a community of people, each as valuable and deserving of as much consideration as the next.  So while we are grateful for our international acclaim as one of Canada's most beautiful cities, let us not forget that how we treat each other, from the least of us to the greatest,  also shapes and forms our identity as a community.

  We have a problem in the inner city concerning people who are impoverished and in many cases addicted.  We have largely ignored this problem.  Things have now escalated to the point where we receive attention not for our unique artistic accomplishments, but for being one of the few cities in Canada where the civic government is planning a so-called 'safe-injection zone.'

  We have a serious problem in Council concerning the Save On Foods Memorial Centre.  It has been left to fester when on numerous occasions there was opportunity for us to cut loose and recoup.  Now, rather than celebrating our athletic passion, we find ourselves in the ridiculous situation of not being able to pay subcontractors - who are in turn being asked to vote for the incumbent this election.  There is suffering to be felt; by our reputation as a City, and by the hearts of those people who trusted her.

  Yes, we are known for our friendly disposition and gracious hospitality.  But we are equally known for our obscene sewage dumping and absurd treatment of our homeless citizens.

  We as a community need to go back to the basics.  We need to return our Council to a place where people are its primary concern.  Business owners, labourers, senior citizens, disabled persons, students, and the homeless; all of us are equal members of this great community, and share equally in its successes and shortcomings.

  As elected representatives of this community, our Council has a duty to take into consideration the hopes and dreams of all our citizens - in public, and on the record.  We need to make sure that what is debated in chamber is what we as a community are willing to support -through work, taxes and trust.

  As candidates, our name is what we are.  We are concerned citizens.  Mr. Hartnell, Mr. Jamieson and I make no effort to mask our agenda in this campaign.  We believe that if you will elect a Council which is truly interested in serving the community, then as a community we can find a way to begin earning real trust, through real change, for real people.

CCC

P.S. : Sorry for the misleading title.

P.P.S. : Since the 28th deadline has gone by, and I haven't gotten any visits from my dear friends (just some non-threatening mails from other friends), I have decided to go back to my previous title.

  First, Gregory's own qualities that make him the best choice for Mayor.

  Gregory ran for mayor fifteen years ago in 1990.  It was the year another 'outsider' David Turner ran and won and some commentators have suggested that Gregory's vote total was the difference that allowed Turner to squeak through.  Now is the time for another high quality outsider to win.

  In that fifteen years Gregory has been preparing himself to run again.  He has closely studied and critiqued the business incumbents who succeeded David Turner, Bob Cross and now Alan Lowe.

  Gregory comes from a long-time Victoria business family, the eldest child and son.  He and his father formed the Greater Victoria Concerned Citizens' Association in 1988, and it was this organization that stayed vigilant and helped save Saint Anne's Academy in the late 1980s from an inappropriate commercial 'development.'  His work with the GVCCA and the Saint Anne's Rescue Community Coalition saved it from the developers, the same ones who are running rampant with equally inappropriate developments throughout the city now, transforming the core nature of our beloved Victoria.

  Gregory will be an activist mayor.  He will be in the faces of those who wish to shape the city to their own self-image and values, those with money and those with political influence.  He will stand beside the small people, the middle class and the working poor and will strive for an imaginative, creative response that is suitable  to the problems of the impoverished, the homeless and the addicted who are appearing in greater numbers as late capitalism closes its gates to the less than elite.

  Gregory will be imaginative and inclusive in his decision-making processes.  He is accomplished and disciplined as an artist and sees the connection between healthy cities and healthy individuals with their struggles, transformed through the therapeutic process of creative discipline.  His attitude toward the arena project has revealed his stubborn commitment to a more egalitarian and accountable city administration.

  Gregory has a brilliant analytical mind.  Trained as an historian at a renowned Jesuit University, he has the complex sensibility needed for Victoria at this point in her history, at the juncture from small city to cosmopolitan centre, striving for the right formula to preserve her identity and at the same time evolve into her fuller destiny.

  Gregory has energy and commitment that will never wane.  He is not 'old hat' and he is not in anybody's pocket, political, social or business group.  He is a true independent, graced by the fiscal and personal abilities to make this happen.

    PATRICK JAMIESON FOR CITY COUNCIL

    As for my own platform as Councillor...I am formed and experienced as an independent social radical out of the Roman Catholic social justice prophetic tradition.  For twenty years I have run a newspaper which challenges society and the church itself to live up to these foundation principles of western society.

  I am professionally trained and experienced in social communications and community development skills, philosophy and principles.  This translates in political terms into being a professional social change agent.  

  Change, as everyone so painfully knows, is the daily norm we live with in this post-industrial, information technology era of history.  There are two attitudes toward change - to accept it passively or MANAGE it dynamically.  Passive acceptance means a juggernaut will roll over you and your community, leaving in its wake an unrecognisable place and a looming question - How could we let this happen?

  Dynamic management of change requires anticipation, analysis, and critical attitude.  I am trained and prepared to provide this sort of leadership, challenging the powers that be on every front, developing grassroots community leadership to resist and build according to our own self-determined values.  No more box store trash culture, as Gregory Hartnell said during the arena debate.  I am prepared and equipped for this challenge.  I welcome it.

  VICTORIA TODAY

  In Victoria today the challenge to change takes two major fronts, unbridled development and the social cost of the collapse of late capitalism.

  The first is driven by a feeding frenzy from narrowly focused, short-term developers who want to get in quick, make their money and move off to the next 'opportunity.'  Our job on council is to broaden their focus, hold them accountable for the social problems they leave behind.  THEY MUST BECOME PART OF THE SOLUTION.  Here's how.

  The social problems left behind can be seen in the widening rich-poor gap of haves and have nots, the prevalence of street people, homelessness, the incipient problems from that including incessant petty crime, evidence of rampant addiction and the irresponsible attitude of higher levels of government who try to float above the problems created by their crass narrowly-conceived passing of the buck to the municipalities where people actually live.

  All developers will have to provide mixed housing components to their housing and business projects, affordable housing units to address the homelessness issue.  They will have to build-in such permanent units and be committed to maintain them.  To do this they will have to help pressure higher levels of government to provide subsidies for this.  They will have to ensure ongoing professional maintenance of these units with their necessary social programs.

  This will involve BC Housing and a form of profit sharing.  Our job will be to broaden the parameters of their conscience, hold them to the responsibilities of the new awareness that dealing with council will bring.  Developers want their share of the pie by building in Victoria.  City Council holds the knife that divides the shares.

  I will fight for this tooth and nail, down to the wire and will be around to inspect the results.  Developers will learn that there are creative ways to frustrate them financially which will bring about this new integration of rich and poor.

  CRITICAL THINKING

  This is just one example, obviously, of my critical thinking and overall approach.  It would be applied to every arena of political and social discussion at city council.  It's an activist approach.  Concerned Citizens' Coalition candidates will bring creative thinking to the homelessness situation which will include in-depth public consultation.  The solutions are in the community.  We will develop structures to tap into this wisdom.

  The role of the police in this context will need to be revisited.  Community development principles along with psychological training are part of the solution.  Creative nonviolent techniques of social confrontation are part of the answer.  These principles of social development will be front and centre, not mere window dressing.

  This can happen because the CCC candidates including mayoralty candidate Gregory Hartnell are far from 'old hat' like the present administration, nor are they in anybody's pocket.  This sort of practiced independence has been honed over twenty years of engaging in social struggle in Victoria.

  PARKING TICKETS

  On the more mundane level, as an example, the irritation felt by so many people by the city's on-street parking approach needs radical revisiting.  So many people have had bad experiences with the agressiveness and inflexibility of the parking ticket Commissionaires.  Downtown parking needs to become a neutral if not friendly experience, cheaper to on-the-street parkers, equal to the rates in the City parking towers.

  The whole administration of parking needs to be revisited in line with an overall traffic management policy that includes serious commitment to light rail transit, including street cars in the core downtown area to the exclusion of much traffic.

  I know personally that Bill McDonald,  former furniture merchant in the downtown core has dedicated years of study and commitment to this area, only to be given short shrift.  His expertise and that of his LRT colleagues will be acted upon as we take a futuristic approach to the city.  Under this approach, Victoria in ten years should have the firm beginnings of being a model of a charming small cosmopolitan centre.

  Victoria's sewage outflow attitude is a problem, underlined by Mr. Floatie's candidacy.  He will get more than a handful of votes because it is not enough to be doing the right thing - if we are indeed - but to be seen to be doing it in an environmentally sensitive age.

  Victoria is at a changing point.  Its prevalent small merchant Chamber of Commerce mentality will not suffice.  It can become a visionary place by resisting the box store culture and trash Hollywood culture, as Gregory  Hartnell reiterated during the arena fiasco debate.

  Local control can be assured by facing the demons of crass global capitalism that are so demoralising and depressing to so many people on their televisions every night.  The true role of the media is to identify problems, turn them into issues and work out the right solution.  So much of media today is mindless boosterim of crass capitalism; therefore part of the problems, not part of the solution.  It is owned by the people who benefit from the perpetuation of the problems.  Let's wake up to this fact.

  Foreign ownership of business must be made to pay heavily for the privilege of perpetuating low end wages, siphoning the profit out of the community and promoting trash culture values.  Locally controlled business is the key.

  If you want to continue down the current path, you know who to vote for.  If you want to start to seriously turn the corner, vote for people not afraid to speak out, provide acute critical analysis, take on the powers-that-be, and are open to creative solutions.  If you wish to vote for the people who have the wits and the skills and know-how to rejoice in getting the job done.  I think you know now where to turn. 

  If you take the higher road, you'll notice the difference, and be better off for it.

CCC

  [Nota Bene:  Patrick Jamieson is a poet, historian, founder and current editor of the monthly Island Catholic News, which bills itself as the 'West Coast's Independent Voice of Prophetic Catholicism.' We are disappointed to announce that Patrick will not be able to stand for nomination for the CCC this fall, due to a heavy work load at ICN and a number of book projects.  We appreciate Patrick's ongoing membership and support of the Concerned Citizens' Coalition.  Look for our new Autumn number of LA ROSA, which will focus on the CCC's newest policIes and will introduce our candidates for the November election. This eight page number of LA ROSA will be inserted into the September number of ICN]

  While ranks of the neglected addicted homeless are now thought to number more than one thousand and counting, unbridled real estate speculators seem to have hypnotized all members of Victoria City Council, rendering them unfit to do much more than rubber-stamp any development proposal that comes before them, no matter how outrageous.

  The latest egregious instance is a proposal to build two 12 - storey towers next to the Church of Our Lord, the lovely nineteenth-century church across the street from St. Anne's Academy.  Unless lightning strikes, mayor and council are very likely to pass this latest supposedly 'modified' proposal from the developer, thus betraying their aesthetic insensitivity and providing yet another instance of their inability to stand up to the pressure tactics of developers.

  The present moment in Victoria's history is reminiscent of the year 1971, when Mayor Courtney Haddock had a ridiculous notion to build a 38 - storey tower two blocks north of City Hall.  He also thought it was a good idea to build two highrise towers on the Reid waterfront property below Bastion Square, until my father and other members of the Victoria Waterfront Enhancement Society worked with alderman Peter Pollen to rally popular opposition to it.

  Mr. Pollen was elected mayor that year on a prophetic platform that challenged the hegemony of the developers' cabal.

  According to Valerie Green's 'No Ordinary People, a History of Victoria's Mayors from 1862 to 1992,' Mr. Pollen's "social conscience would not allow him to simply sit back and witness Victoria becoming just another North American city."

  I have long admired what Peter Pollen did and also what he tried to do while serving as Victoria's mayor.  His forsight created a vision for Victoria which entailed strict height restrictions on downtown highrises, park-building, enhanced heritage building protection and numerous beautification projects.  Had there been an obviously visible homeless problem in those days, I am sure he would have tackled that effectively also.

  The addicted homeless problem has plagued Victoria for too long now, and it is clearly evident that the Liberal councils of Bob Cross and Alan Lowe have not deemed it high on their list of priorities.  Apparently these councils have been too busy appeasing the development cabal to notice the poorest of the poor beggng for their attention on every downtown sidewalk.

  In my slow but sure walk for election, I intend to pay homage to the legacy of Mayor Pollen, and to ask voters to allow me to revive and enhance his good work.  I have drawn up a ten-point Recovery Plan that addresses the above and other issues, and offers voters a real alternative to the status quo.

  Attend to the outstanding liens against the City, pay for work already done on the arena, finish it, and sell it for a least $40 million.  Pay off the $30 million loan and with the proceeds renovate or build a new downtown residential addiction recovery centre based on strict abstinence.  The family treatment centre at Kakawis could serve as our model, complemented by various 12 - step fellowship meetings.

  Banning nuclear-armed and nuclear-powered vessels from Victoria harbour, enhancing protection for Beacon Hill Park - St. Anne's precinct, ending spot-zoning anarchy with 9 - storey downtown highrise limit, inaugurating a new cultural policy emphasizing family and local culture first, lowering residential and commercial property taxes to help young families new to the real estate market . . . . . these are a few of the ideas I will be proposing to Victoria voters.

  If you share our concerns to attend to the needs of the poorest of the poor, to restrain the real estate cabal that is ruining our town, and to provide accountability, conservation and solidarity as the guiding principles of a new Victoria administration, please consider joining the Concerned Citizens' Coalition by phoning 382-9767 or the office at 386-0439, and remember to vote on November 19.  

  Blessings!

[Nota bene: the 386-0439 telephone number listed above is no longer operative.  Please  phone 250 382 97 67 to find out more about the CCC now]

CCC

Jag tänkte skriva lite mer om helgen. I lördags var jag och Kim på bio och hade mysigt. Hancock var bra, bättre än vad jag hade förväntat mig, med tanke på att den fått ganska dåliga betyg. När vi kom hem tittade vi, eller mestadels jag och David, på What happens in Vegas. Den var riktigt, riktigt bra faktiskt.

I söndags ställde jag och Kim klocka, applåder, tack. Vi tog det lugnt på förmiddagen och senare åkte vi för att se Davids match (han spelar amerikansk fotboll). Tyvärr gick denna matchen mycket snabbare än vanligtvis, så vi såg ungefär de tre sista minuterna och bara under den perioden hamnade David underst en gång och en kille skadade sig. Jag fattade ingenting, men när matchen var slut och den lilla publik som var där hade applåderat åt vi hamburgare - gott!

När vi kom hem tittade vi på Ghost som var ganska bra. Den påminner mycket om en annan film som jag knappt kommer ihåg nu. Sedan käkade vi och efter maten satt jag, Kim och mamma G. kvar ganska länge och gjorde en budget osv. Sedan var det tyvärr dags för mig att åka hem och lämna min snygging för nästan en vecka. Och när man läser det här tänker man "Shit vad mesig hon är - inte ens vecka kan hon vara utan honom" och ja, så är det väl.

Idag gick jag upp alldeles för tidigt helt i onödan, vi såg nästan två timmar av The Da Vinci Code som är bättre än jag trodde. Sedan klyddade allt i studion så vi hade inget ljud ut, vilket gör det helt onödigt att sända eftersom det från lilla studion inte går ut till webbradion, vi sänder bara där för att ettorna ska tro att vi gör något konstruktivt. I alla fall så bestämde Per att vi fick gå hem och så får vi sända imorgon istället, så vi tog tillfället i akt och gjorde en halvseriös enkät till morgondagens sändning. Vi får se hur det blir.

Sedan dess har jag inte gjort något vettigt, förutom att jag pratade med Kim i telefon i ungefär en timme - jag älskar att vi ringer gratis till varandra. Har mejlat med en kille på min framtida APU-plats och stämt träff med honom imorgon, jag har typ panik eftersom Per sagt att jag ligger i jävligt mycket underläge pga. min storlek och kön. Så, vad har man på sig egentligen?

Hur som helst har jag bestämt mig för att efter maten åka och köpa nya byxor, det behövs i alla fall så då kan jag lika gärna ha dom imorgon. Om jag hittar några vill säga. Annars är det Outsiders ikväll klockan 20, imorgon har jag bara en lektion + sändning + möte och sedan är jag dömd till ensamhet eftersom Kim är hemmahemma och inte hemma i Lund.

Jag funderar förresten på att göra en ny header igen. Blev inte nöjd med den nuvarande. Men vi får väl se hur det blir med det.

Name: Shania Waynolt

Level Distribution: Cleric (29) / Bard (1) / Red Dragon Disciple (10)

Gender: Female

Stats: STR 16, DEX 10, CON 16, INT 12, WIS 26, CHA 26

Skills: Concentration - 43, Heal - 9, Lore - 42, Spellcraft - 41, Tumble - 10, Use Magic Device - 18

Some Feats: Improved Combat Casting, Planar Turning, Great Charisma V, Great Wisdom III

Immunities: Sleep, Paralysis, Fire

Take her around for loads of fun. It's great seeing Rakshasas and demon outsiders get destroyed by a simple gesture of her hands. Not to mention the usual plethora of spells that Clerics get. I also added Zen Archery, just in case you need it.

Sinead Breathnach-Cashell ... (for more: http://www.myspace.com/draw_in)

[wpvideo 3xt7Ysz3]

Neil Brogan ... (for more: http://caff-flick.com)

[wpvideo mKSxhshg]

Margaret Hagan ... (for more: http://penelopebox.etsy.com)

[wpvideo FtovtpvV]

David Timlin ... (for more: http://www.creativematch.co.uk/portfolio/david_timlin/ or d_timlin@mac.com)

[wpvideo vAA2RRE2]

Stuart Sloan ... (for more: http://www.youtube.com/user/sloanowski)

Thanks to alert reader Wilf Gervais, and a phone call this morning from former CCC candidate Pat Jamieson, I have become aware that the Times Colonist printed a severely edited letter to the editor calling for the Mayor of the City of Victoria to resign his position as Chairman of the Victoria Police Board, to release the full RCMP investigation report into his police chief (now thankfully resigned), and not to pay the latter's legal bills.

The letter is found at the following link:

http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/letters/story.html?id=fe86a886-413b-47ee-9fad-71016d342c49

A hot link direct to the edited letter in the T-C is found in the comment below...

CCC

Mayor Alan Lowe has not been forthright with the people of Victoria by hiding public interest information pertaining to his disgraced Police Chief Battershill.  

Now that the Police Chief has resigned, the Mayor should immediately release the full contents of the investigation to the wider public.

It is completely unacceptable in a modern democracy that this type of secrecy and non-accountability is allowed to persist.  

Taxpayers have a right to know exactly why the Police Chief was suspended with pay for nine and a half months.

If the Police Chief has lost the confidence of the Police Board, as the Mayor said today in his press conference, it is incumbent upon him to tell the citizens of this capital city why that is so.

Anything less will aggravate an already growing chasm of mistrust between the taxpayers and their Police Department, and by extension, the whole of the City of Victoria's Council.

CCC

Monkeys ransack police officer's office.

MNS men at it again, disrupt I-T exam.

Victoria Vision, a website maintained by Bernard von Schulman, is a good source of information for Concerned Citizens' Coalition (CCC) members and other Victoria citizen-voters to consult to find out more about the upcoming Victoria Election.

While it is not as popular as Vibrant Victoria, Victoria Vision complements that other website, providing some information and opinions not found at Vibrant Victoria.

The moderator, Bernard von Schulman, seems to be a left-leaning Liberal who needs to be convinced not to vote for Dean Fortin (formerly of the NDP-affiliated Victoria Civic Electors) for Victoria mayor, notwithstanding the former's horror of the latter's lamentable association with the New Democratic Party.

A live link to the Victoria Vision website is provided in the comment below.

CCC

The Concerned Citizens' Coalition (CCC) invites all CCC members and other Victoria citizen-voters to participate in a new discussion forum to be found at the Vibrant Victoria website.

While we do not endorse the philosophy of this particular website, which is gung ho for uncontrolled development in downtown Victoria, we do acknowledge that this forum is useful for finding out information about the upcoming election.

A live link to the Vibrant Victoria website is found in the comment below.

CCC

Teen Titans/Outsiders: Secret Files & Origins 2003