From Vancouver Sun, 8 April 2011- “City engineer Peter Judd admitted that Vancouver city staff consulted with the Chinese government over a proposed bylaw that would prevent Falun Gong protesters from erecting billboards and huts in front of its Granville Street consulate, [Vancouver City] council was told Thursday.” … “City manager Penny Ballem said the city entered into a “confidential agreement” with the Chinese consulate in order to get feedback on the proposed bylaw.”
“Clive Ansley, a lawyer representing the Falun Gong, said it was “disgraceful and indefensible” that Vancouver consulted with the Chinese government over “the extent to which Canadians’ freedom of expression should be curtailed. “They are representatives of a foreign government and the issue we are discussing here is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and how it applies in Canada and the right to free political expression on the part of Canadians,” Ansley said. “No foreign government has any legitimate input with respect to these issues.”
This issue is relevant to RE in Vancouver because it highlights the lack of clarity that many in positions of power have regarding appropriate boundaries, inappropriate influence, and conflicts of interest. Who do our civil servants serve? Recall that the provincial premier received >50% of her campaign contributions from the real estate industry. – vreaa
um..
uh..
err..
this is getting really ridiculous.
i can only draw the conclusion that a lot of the mainlanders who can afford to buy real estate here (not to mention the ones who seem to evade China’s rather harsh capital flight laws) are Party apparatchiks or “cadres” as they call them.. i prefer the term “flunkies” – and if you are correct re: the Premier’s funding then that’s .. that’s just great. very harmonious!
I consider the Falun Gong a cult and a nuisance but I’m really appalled that the Mayor would would submit to the Communist Party of China like this.
lol i’m not
come on, are you really?
you westerners are just jealous of our harmonious power!
Gregor has sold us out for his little piece of the mandate of heaven.
what, you wouldn’t?
rising superpower and blah blah blah
Vision Vancouver has once again proven itself to be run by a cadre of smug self-satisfied toadies willing to sell their souls to the highest bidder. Perhaps appeasement of the Chinese consulate was done to encourage more HAM to our ever-hot real estate market.
If Vancouver is a free speech zone then why are we consulting China?
http://www.visionvancouver.ca/news/vancouver-a-free-speech-zone
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
TO: info@votevision.ca
SUBJECT: City Protest Bylaws
To whom it may concern:
The Vancouver Sun published an article (LINK) about how the City of Vancouver consulted the Government of China about a local city bylaw. I don’t think its right consulting foreign governments about local laws; it might even be illegal? I expect canvassing resident Canadian citizens of the neighborhoods which bylaws take effect but not foreign governments. I expect Vision to make an official statement about this in the press very soon.
I’m quite surprised and offended by this revelation. Please let me know if this is something endorsed by Vision Vancouver and if it is legal.
Thank You
–CH
oh la la!
Mayors, city counselors, MLAs and the last premier had visited China religiously in recent years. Have the proposed trips panned out yet?
“CC would visit China and India to increase our sales of natural resources and green energy to these nations. “
who doesn’t enjoy a good junket?
Sure! Who wouldn’t?
http://www.chinasmack.com/2011/videos/woman-beaten-by-group-of-men-in-sichuan-yibin-caught-on-film.html
Closer to home @No. 4 Road
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rude+and+uneducated&aq=f
I AM LI GANG
I AM LI GANG
I AM LI GANG!!!
while we discuss influence wielding by foreign consulates and embassies
in case anyone hadn’t seen it
good lulz
what happened to the good old days, when you wanted to have a coup and you just painted some of your own planes in different colors, hijacked the domestic airwaves and proclaimed a rebel attack on the capital to defend the populace from a rapine communist threat or whatever gobbledegook came to mind, and then execute or exile the president, and proceed to entrench your little banana and pineapple plantations? and if anyone asked any questions, just publicly just call em a red or a beatnik.
oh wait, that sounds like city council!
“A revolution is not a dinner party, or writing an essay, or painting a picture, or doing embroidery.” – Mao Tse-Tung
in Ford’s Toronto, you can’t be a pinko, but in Gregor’s Vancouver, you can be a red!
these write themselves
i am sufficiently amused (for now)
This whole issue has had my blood boiling all week. Free speech – nah, we don’t need that here. Our local economy after all is based on real-estate and very little else (worryingly).
Nothing’s going to change in Vancouver until HAM decides to get out.
I think the time is slowly approaching (inflation + discontent in the masses + tipping point = boom) :
An article on the chinese housing market (reduced sales and prices with price curbs, property purchase limitations, land taxes)
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/video/2011-04/08/c_13819197.htm
China may well start to ostensibly show it’s trying to deal with its corruption once their jasmine revolution starts:
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china/more-petty-officials-reported-for-massive-corruption-54397.html
Then we’ll see if all these boys and girls with their beemers and mercs are looking so smug when Mummy and Daddy are up on corruption charges. (see today’s greaterfool.ca for explanation of where I’m coming from on this!)