It couldn't have been a more monstrous or absurd sight.
A day after a ship leaked about 3,000 litres of bulk oil into Vancouver's beautiful English Bay,
And a few hours after the province's premier and the city's mayor blasted the slow federal response.
The monstrous Con beluga James Moore broke through the oily sheen to spout off at his critics.
Federal Industry Minister James Moore hit back at criticism of the Canadian Coast Guard's handling of the Vancouver oil spill, saying that it is "highly inappropriate for politicians to point fingers and make political jabs" before all the facts are known.
And if you can believe it, accuse them of fear mongering.
"The public expects serious issues to be handled in a serious tone," Moore said. "I think it is irresponsible for people to dial up anxiety and fear."
When in fact the response was incredibly slow, if the ship had been carrying dilbits or the weather had been worse, it would have been even more of a disaster.
And if Harper regime hadn't closed the nearby Kitsilano Coast Guard station the response would have been much much faster.
But then what can we expect from the Cons? When Moore defended the closing of the station three years ago while claiming that Vancouver would have "the best coastal safety in the whole of Canada."
And when the Cons staged a photo-op two years ago to promote their so-called tanker safety program.
The oil recovery vessel ran aground.
An oil spill recovery vessel ran aground en route to a federal announcement on oil tanker safety in Vancouver on Monday, officials have confirmed.
The vessel was making a 12-hour trip from its base in Esquimalt to Vancouver for a tanker safety announcement by Federal Transport Minister Denis Lebel and Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver when it struck an uncharted sandbar near Sandheads at the mouth of the Fraser River near Steveston.
Leaving the hapless Joe Oliver standing on the dock looking as stupid or criminally irresponsible as Moore looked today...
And the good news?
If there is anybody in beautiful British Columbia who still thinks that Northern Gateway wouldn't be a disaster, they clearly need to be watered not fed.
It is a wake-up call.
Joe Spears calls it a wake-up call. An international shipping expert, Spears says Canada is supposed to be a world leader at dealing with maritime emergencies. But he says the response to an oil spill into Vancouver's English Bay on Thursday was anything but world class.
And this is the lesson:
A Con is a Con is a Con artist.
And you can't trust the Bitumen Boys as far as you can spit...
Please click here to recommend this post at Progressive Bloggers.
15 comments:
Noone has seemed to notice. Ontario has joined Quebec in a carbon cap and trade policy. They action shows the uselessness of the Harper government.
Now 65% of Canadians live with a sensible environmental policy and Harper can do nothing to please his oil patch masters.
As horrible as this event was, it did some good here..it made it clear to all the naysayers bleating about jobs that NOTHING is worth even the chance of a spill..not to mention the fact that we need our Coast Guard and emergency stations, we need our lighthouses manned, we need some serious emergency response services here on the Coast, and the Feds have once again proven their contempt and disinterest for any Province besides Alberta or Ontario..
The Tyee has a lot of coverage, of course: http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/04/10/Vancouver-Preview-Spill-from-Hell/
Mizdarlin, their rich friends and power base in Alberta and (southern) Ontario. Not the Albertan First Nations downstream from the tar sands, or workers losing their jobs in Ontario or anywhere else.
Even Alberta has lost a lot of full-time jobs. Yes, they've picked up part-time jobs, but no one will leave his or her family behind in the Maritimes to work at a WalMart or a filling station.
Oily Joe must have had a toxic spill in his depends when he heard about the ORV's grounding. The irony of it all should have been a slap in the head to all those responsible for these cleanups, but as usual, the Cons didn't put their money where their mouth is (with their "war on terror" being another glaring example).
James Moore could have done the right thing here and admit their failings and offer solutions but no, he lets his big mouth run aground. Be thankful that it wasn't millions of litres and let it be a wakeup call to local and provincial governments that depending on the incompetent Cons will lead to further disasters.
JD
They trashed the coastguard station and contracted the work out to Western Canada Marine Response Corporation a private company partly owned by Kinder Morgan.
most people in greater Vancouver know the ocean and rivers around us are not adequately protected in case of an oil spill. One station on "Sea Island just doesn't cut it. It takes 30 min. flat out to get from that station to the Vancouver Harbour. then we have the other port out by the Tswassen ferry terminal. if there were two spills, one would have to be forgotten.
Closing the Kits Coast Guard station may not have had much to do with saving money. That station sits on some of the most valuable land in North America and is actually owned by the Province of B.C. So the other question is: what does Christy Clark and her B.C. Lieberals really want to do with that land, besides sell it to one of their developer friends?
The "sparkle pony" queen of B.C. was bleating about B.C. taking over coast guard duties?????????????? ya right. obviously she forgets how unprepared the province was when the Mount Polley dam broke at that mine and how little was done. B.C. does not have the money to run the b.c. ferry corporation let alone a coast guard operation.
B.C. is so broke they have been clawing back the child support payments made to children, whose custodial parent are on disability from welfare. Christy and her then cabinet minister said they couldn't give up the $17M they clawed back each yr. Oh, and we have the highest rate of child poverty in Canada and have had for 13 yrs or so. Now that she has a tad more money, she will stop clawing back that child support in SEPT, but people on disability and families on welfare haven't had an increase in 8 yrs, because it is alleged we don't have any money.
We live in an earthquake belt. Many of our schools still have not been brought up to code. it was to be done by 2020. Now its going to be 2030. So here we hve thousands up on thousands of children sitting in schools which will fall if there is even a moderately strong earthquake and she thinks she has the money for a coast guard...........?????? Ya, contract it out to one of her friends.
In B.C. they can't even run a transit company. Bought a fare checker system for $200M and it doesn't work and she wants to run the coast guard.
It is hoped people remember what happened with this oil spill and vote harper and his clowns out of office. One good earthquake and those proposed pipelines, we will be wall to wall oil, on the ground, on the ocean, just light a match
Harper’s cuts contribute to unacceptable spill response, says Green Party
On Friday, April 10th, 2015 in Press Releases
http://elizabethmaymp.ca/harpers-cuts-contribute-to-unacceptable-spill-response-says-green-party/
VIDEO: Does James Moore still think Vancouver has Canada's #1 Coast Guard service?
http://www.pressprogress.ca/en/post/video-does-james-moore-still-think-vancouver-has-canadas-1-coast-guard-service
Vancouver’s Preview of a Spill from Hell (April 10, 2015)
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/04/10/Vancouver-Preview-Spill-from-Hell/
http://www.albertaoilmagazine.com/2015/04/another-inconvenient-truth/
Another inconvenient truth
The fuel spill spreading across English Bay in Vancouver (and throughout social media) today isn't going to help the energy sector's prospects of getting pipelines built on the west coast. Why Stephen Harper bears direct responsibility for it - and the inevitable fallout
[snip]
I’m not suggesting that the Prime Minister is responsible for the fact that a ship – carrying grain, not crude – dumped a bunch of bunker fuel into the ocean. But I am very much suggesting that he’s responsible for the decision to close the Kitsilano Coast Guard base in 2013, one that, as its former commanding officer Fred Moxey told local radio station CKNW yesterday, could have responded much more quickly to the spill and potentially prevented it from spreading as far as it has. Moxey said that the hovercrafts that are located at Sea Island, and which replaced the more robust boats at the coast guard station in Kitsilano, can’t even go into an oil slick, and that if the Kits base were still actively staffed today it could have been at the scene in six minutes with the equipment needed to deal with it.
@ E.A.F.
I wish to add that I officially have a PWD status in BC my allotment has being going down every year now the BC Lib's want to take it away entirely. Apparently they are good with making their friends richer and the wounded homeless, it gives me the creeps. The governments are for the 1% by the 1% and of the 1% who do not share their ill earnings with society hell they do not even have to pay taxes they just liberally sprinkle cash on the political party in power. Then they use that as a tax write off. Look at the billionaire from Alberta whose mining company created the Mount Polley disaster. He got off Scott free because he held a giant fundraiser for Crusty Clark prior...
https://www.google.ca/#q=mount+polley+disaster
http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2012/10/09/Big-Oil-Christy-Clark/
Murray Edwards a Calgary Tycoon put on a lavish event for Crusty raising millions for her beleaguered Liberal Party. The parties have got to end it is high time we get back to government plain and simple run by the people of the people and for the people. Not the1% not the corporations. End it now...
Mogs
hi rumleyfips...I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that these days the Cons are living in a parallel reality. Everything they do is subordinated to the needs of their perpetual election campaign, So they've lost sight of the bigger picture. It's the very last thing we need in these challenging times, and if only for that we can't get rid of them soon enough...
hi mizdarlin...that's very good news. I very much enjoyed the six months I spent in BC, and I used to love biking from False Creek where I lived all the way past English Bay to the tip of Stanley Park where I would lie on my back in the sun and watch the fantastic classic Canadian bush planes overhead coming in to land in the harbour beyond. And in my travels elsewhere on the mainland, and in drives from Tofino to the ferry dock near Victoria I was able to appreciate the beauty of its coastline, and understand how vulnerable it is. So I simply can't understand how those oil pimps could push their pipeline obsession, and cut back on coast guard services. It's insanity and I do hope it makes people in BC even more determined to defeat the Cons...
hi lagatta...most of my friends work in lousy part time jobs, sometimes two or three, are treated like slaves, sent home early according to the whims of some computer in the U.S., and needless to say have no security and no benefits. So I can only imagine what this country could become if part-time jobs become the norm. The Cons have failed us completely and they should be fired for sheer incompetence...
hi JD...yes I remember the whole scene vividly. And remember that ORV was on a desperate 15-hour dash to supposedly get to the scene of an emergency. I should say that I have a lot of respect for coast guard crews, but none at all in their superiors. It should not be hard to accept that something is wrong and needs to be improved, but all the Cons ever play these days is political games and everything is a triumph. The truth doesn't just keep us free, it's essential for our survival...
i anon...yes isn't that ironic? And outrageous. In the name of privatization they would reduce this country to ruins. A nation that borders on three oceans, and has the Great Lakes smack in the middle of it, deserves and needs a strong coast guard. The fact that needs to be said is absolutely incredible...
hi e.a.f...I remember cycling past that station when I was in Vancouver and it's so obvious a station is needed to keep an eye on all those ships anchored out in the bay waiting for their turn to load up in the harbour. Having grown up by the sea I have very strong feelings about those who don't recognize its dangers. As for Christy Clark threatening to take over coast guard operations, that's just posturing and not the solution. The solution is to have a well funded and modern Canadian coast guard that can deal with all emergencies. But as I told Mizdarlin, if it serves as a warning, and it tuns up the heat on the Cons, some good will come of it...
hi David... thanks for the links. I was watching the CBC News channel as Moore was preparing for the newer, and he looked frantic, and I couldn't help feeling that he was pressuring the coast guard boss to say what he wanted to hear. As I said above, I have a huge amount of respect for coast guard crews, but like the generals in our army I feel that their superiors are being turned into propaganda tools of the Con regime. And that's simply unacceptable in a democratic society. Those filthy Cons really have corrupted everything decent in this country...
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