I got a smile from reading Mr. Scott's attack on the credibility of Ms. Waghorn-Kidd. Mr Scott asserted that the lady's criticism of the local MLAs might be biased because she is an NDP member. I imagine he is probably correct. I wonder if it occurred to him that we might see some possible bias in his defense of our local MLAs since he is a president of one of the riding associations?
The MLAs show up for photo ops and Ms. Bond is often seen on TV treading purposefully around the corridors of power. I have to give them all a failing grade though, for their responses to the mill explosions. Here were two extremely violent events happening in their ridings. They were events that would not surprise in Iraq or in Afganistan. They were industrial accidents of the kind that happen in Bangladesh. And the government decided essentially to do nothing. I think that at least one of the local members should have put a job on the line in solidarity with their constituents. I did hear that Ms. Bond tut-tutted but I heard precious little else.
The reason given for not pressing charges appear to be flimsy coming from this administration. They have shown in the past that they are not afraid of a legal fracas. They kept the Bassi-Virk case in the courts for six years. We know the taxpayers finished up paying $6 million to fund the defense but no one ever told how much we paid to prosecute. They have been in conflict with the BCTF since 2002, had two judgments go against them and they have appealed again. Why could they not on this occasion tell their prosecutors to proceed? If they lost the case so be it.
The taxpayer would be out some more cash but everyone would have a clearer understanding of what went wrong here. As things stand we don't know what to think of the affair.
Ross Pearce
Prince George
