[quote]A British Columbia cabinet minister shared internal government correspondence regarding fraud allegations against a Chinese businessman with an employee of that businessman who is also a BC Liberal Party insider.
Pat Bell, the minister of jobs, tourism and skills training for the B.C. Liberal government, forwarded an internal government e-mail to Bill Belsey last year, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.[/quote]
Very weird. Especially since none of them can be sure about anything whether they even know anything people involved in shady things never seem to remember anything and receiving internal government emails is shady. We are not to worry though because there was no policy information in the email so it could be sent un-redacted to mr belsey but we the public can only see the redacted email because it has policy information in it…
WHAT THE FUCK?
its obvious mr belsey does not care about prince rupert (or at least cares more about his wallet) since he chose to represent sunwave but this is ridiculous. Must be nice to be a registered lobbyist and receive internal government emails at the same time, thats gotta be good for business, and im sure is friendship with mr Bell will prosper since they are both so “passionate” about forestry issues.
“We talk about all kinds of things. I do lobbying. I’m a registered lobbyist with the province. Pat and I went into government together. We shared a passion for forestry issues,” Mr. Belsey said.
The BC Liberal Party vice-president said he would be meeting with Mr. Bell this week to discuss Sun Wave and the mill. Mr. Bell, however, denied he had a meeting scheduled with Mr. Belsey.
Mmmm, very cozy. Vice-president of the Liberals and a lobbyist to that same government. Can anyone say “shenanigans”.
So long as the bc liberals keep positioning the spouses of the big media political journalists in cozy high paid government positions im going to say the story is dead as of this article. Kind of like how the other many scandals disappear.
He said “We talk about all kinds of things. I do lobbying. I’m a registered lobbyist with the province. Pat and I went into government together. We shared a passion for forestry issues."
He said “We talk about all kinds of things. I do lobbying. I’m a registered lobbyist with the province. Pat and I went into government together. We shared a passion for forestry issues."
Hes not a registered lobbyist he just plays one on tv. Hope that clears it up. Seriously though how much of what they say is ever truth? More importantly if you were able to find out he wasnt a registered lobbyist in less than a minute why the.hell couldnt the media do the same and report it in their story?
Pat Bell uses an iPad. Bill Belsey uses a Blackberry. Sounds about right.
So according to the Globe & Mail, when this document was released in response to a Freedom of Information request, it had stuff blacked out, for privacy reasons. The original e-mail to Belsey didn’t, though. Apparently it’s ok to break the privacy laws when sending internal government documents to Bill Belsey? Is he or isn’t he a registered lobbyist?
You know… at least he’s getting caught in his lie… too bad the media didnt bother to look into his claim and actually included the fact that it was a blatant lie but what do you expect when they are in the pocket of the BC liberals… millions of dollars in ads for what exactly? to tell us that things are going according to plan…
So he finally registered as a lobbyist over a month after this thread was created. Must be nice not to have the rules apply to you and to be able to lie about being a registered lobbyist because you intend to do it if someone actually calls you on your bullshit.
Please mr belsey come explain to us why you felt the need to lie.
[quote=“jesus”]So he finally registered as a lobbyist over a month after this thread was created. Must be nice not to have the rules apply to you and to be able to lie about being a registered lobbyist because you intend to do it if someone actually calls you on your bullshit.
Please mr belsey come explain to us why you felt the need to lie.
especially when you have the added stresses of trying to secretly meet with “lobbyists” and cover your tracks.[/quote]
Secret meetings are nothing new in BC politics (Vander Zalm, Glen Clark). But forging documents and getting fired for it! Now there is some quality leadership right there.
The legislature always meets in public, but the cabinet always meets in private (laws that protect cabinet secrecy have been around as long as there has been a cabinet, here and in other Westminster democracies).
There are media conferences and interviews that are inherently public, and politicians attend public events, some of which are meetings.
But a large part of the day to day work of politicians is done in private meetings, with civil servants, constituents, and representatives of other public and private organisations.
Does anyone honestly think that a reporter or member of the public is supposed to be able to sit in on any meeting that a politician (of any party) attends? That would be absurd, regardless of which party is in government.
If a constituent or a representative of an organisation has a concern and wants to meet with their MLA (Gary Coons is very approachable) or a cabinet minister if they happen to be in town and have some available time, does anyone honestly think they’re going to say, hang on, I’ll have to call the Northern View and put up a notice in case anyone in the public wants to sit in?
Referring to closed or private meetings as “secret” as if that implies wrong doing is misleading.
The issue with Bell Belsey is that as a former politician, and unlike the rest of us, he has to be registered as a lobbyist before he can attend private meetings with politicians, and he is potentially subject to censure and a fine if he failed to do that. But that’s more of a problem for Bill Belsey than for Pat Bell.