May 11, 2010 - 12:12 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
Park Board Commissioner Stuart Mackinnon is playing politics with an issue that is supposed to be close to his heart.
I read with interest Park Board Commissioner Stuart Mackinnon’s blog post from last Friday, which levied criticism at an article published in the Vancouver Courier on the same day, entitled “Green commissioner opposes Beaver Lake plan”.
In his rant, Mackinnon accuses the Courier of getting the details of his political machinations wrong, and goes on to advocate for an overall stewardship plan for Stanley Park.
Well, I have done a little digging about the specifics of what exactly happened, and it is clear that Mackinnon is playing politics with an issue area that a) is a huge component of the core principles he campaigns upon and b) is one that he and his political higher-ups feel as though has been fumbled.
Mackinnon’s rebuttal to the Courier is not only inaccurate, but is also without the proper context regarding priorities and motivations. Here is a clearer account of this whole affair.
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March 16, 2010 - 9:29 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
City Council doesn't seem to be getting a full picture on a number of issues within City Hall.
Far be it from me to try and rival what Tsakumis is doing with this story, because his investigation over the past month and a half has been quite extensive.
For those unfamiliar with the issue, here is the Vancouver Courier’s Allen Garr and his account of the situation.
But in the vein of last week’s Vancouver Sun column, I am specifically interested in the January 21 in-camera City Council meeting that notified Council of Tsisserev’s departure and suggested Will Johnston, former Chief Building Official, as his replacement.
More specifically, I want to know what city staff conveyed to the electeds.
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March 12, 2010 - 7:35 am |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
It seems that yesterdays’ post on Paralympic snubs, which was sent out to a whole slew of local and national media outlets, has had an impact.
Notice the following pieces here, here and here, which seemed to have used CivicScene’s analysis of CTV’s alternative scheduling as the basis for their story.
Now comes word from a friend who caught CTV’s News at 11:30pm last night that there will now indeed by live coverage from the Paralympic Opening Ceremony, although a call to CTV National News in Toronto at 5:30am PST was met with a producer that said he had no idea nor any knowledge regarding sports coverage (odd in consideration of their official Olympic broadcaster status), nor have I been able to track down anything online to confirm this claim.
If anyone has any information, please shoot it over to civicscene at gmail dot com.
On a side note, Allen Garr from the Vancouver Courier also seems to agree with CivicScene’s take on the culpability of Sam Sullivan in the Olympic Village “scandal” over the inaccessibility of the balconies:
“Federal Paralympics ambassador and former mayor Sam Sullivan told the Courier it is a “scandal” that balconies in the Athletes Village are not wheelchair accessible. The real scandal is that Sullivan can get away with this. The decisions leading to the current balcony design, including a discussion over accessibility and a unanimously supported motion on the issue brought forward by council’s Disability Committee liaison Heather Deal all took place under Sullivan’s watch as mayor.”
March 10, 2010 - 5:49 pm |
Posted by Jonathan Ross
My appearance has been postponed for the time being because as I have been told by the field producer that called me, they want to do a little more checking on where responsibility for the mishap lies.
Fair enough…by all means do your due dilligence. But unlike Mike Howell from the Vancouver Courier, who tiptoed around the issue of blame attribution in his story, I will not.
Readers can once again carefully review my post detailing the chronology of initiatives, guidelines, motions and reports having to do with accessibility and inclusion, and all of which can be directly connected to former Mayor Sam Sullivan’s leadership, or lack thereof.
I certainly hope that CBC isn’t backing away from the story because of another reporter.
As I have been told, there is going to be some kind of follow-up once more comments and information become available. Let’s see.
Tomorrow, I will cover another national disgrace when it comes to the Paralympic Games and our official Games broadcaster CTV.
