The recent revelations of the luxurious spending of the Portland Hotel Society appear to be just the opening chapter in a long tale of corruption and greed. The National Post’s Brian Hutchinson had much to say this morning:
Among the astonishments in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, its heavily subsidized misery and decay, are the politicians. They rule in perpetuity while producing, well, what?
Mr. Small was a handsomely compensated and increasingly well-travelled executive with the PHS Community Services Society (PHS), the biggest, most aggressive social services provider in the neighbourhood, a $28-million-a-year giant funded almost entirely by tax dollars, most from provincial coffers, with millions more in federal funding topping things off.
A smile, she has said, “is worth a thousand bucks.” But a toot across Europe costs a lot more, as she has just discovered. In her case, $34,992.27, at least.
Local pundit, Alex G. Tsakumis, had much to say as well:
I’ve interviewed Mark Townsend three times over the last 9 years. Each time I was convinced he was an out of control grief pimp preying on the downtrodden of the DTES. I personally told Gordon Campbell in 2005 that there was something wrong. He ignored me. I confronted Jenny Kwan–another povertarian fraud–and she ignored me. Libby Davies, whose son Leif had a job at InSite (a shooting gallery) ignored my objections.
The entire street drug normalization industry has been dealt a major blow. It was always in the best interest of Townsend et al, to keep addicts addled and sick–so he and his wife could charge outrageous amounts on holidays, fine wine and limousine rides!
WHY ARE THESE PEOPLE NOT BEING CHARGED??? OUR TAX DOLLARS WERE USED FOR THEIR GOOD TIMES, WHEN WE THOUGHT WE WERE HELPING ADDICTS GET SAFE AND BE BETTER!!! SHAME!!!
“Close to $1-million was put on the Visa Business Platinum Avion credit cards alone, for luxury travel, world famous hotels, fine dining, liquor, floral arrangements, hair salons, spas, limousines.”
The report by the BC Liberals is not enough! What are they hiding? Have they cut a deal with Townsend now that he’s resigning??? The RCMP should be called in. Total misappropriation of public funds…and all under the guise of helping people in the throes of addiction and disease. I hope Townsend and his wife Liz Evans and her $300.00 hairstyles burn in hell…
What happened to AGT’s blog anyway?
Meanwhile the VPD’s Jim Chiu refuses to put anyone in handcuffs over this blatant embezzlement and fraud. I guess when you’re a puppet of the Mayor, you have to tread lightly when it comes to the komrades of vision vancouver.
It’s the NDP way. See Nanaimo Bingogate. thetyee.ca/Life/2013/04/25/NDP-Skimmed-from-Charities/
Folks need to yell to the heavens in the comments sections of local papers and on talk radio. This theft must be investigated! There is indeed an effort by the still sleazy, corrupt BC Liberals to sweep this under the rug. No doubt a cozy quid pro quo of some kind has been hastily agreed too and they are hoping folks get distracted so they can quietly continue stealing and cheating from the miserable sods they purport to care about.
I had hoped the formerly conservative folks who got elected recently would have been honest and courageous enough to do what they were elected to do, but I guess it is awful hard not to fill your pockets when you have your hand on the treasury.
Damned liars and bandits the whole lot of them. And that’s just the politicians. It takes a lot of filth to appear dirtier than the perps who pulled this off in the first place. Hang them all!
What do you want to bet this story has no legs? You see, this is fraud perpetrated by the left, not the right. The MSM will howl for a few days then, distracted by subsequent events…somewhere, will forget about it. As for prosecuting the perps, good luck with that.
Maybe the best way for this to remain top of mind is to have the Federal government sue them personally. Neither the provincial nor municipal government will have the balls to do it – too many of their own would get caught in the net.
Vancouver’s poverty pimps in action and this is just the first surface scratch. Scam on scam and the BCNDP is in this up to their corrupt eyeballs.
Where are all the usual screaming civil liberty mouthpieces? Pivot legal is silent, BC Civil Liberties AWOL. The slimy David Eby is nowhere. if this was a landlord scamming the poor they would be Mach 1 mouthpiece on every news outlet.
complete hypocrisy of Vancouver’s poverty industry leadership
God help us all if Olivia gets elected in Toronto. Jenny’s little adventure will seem like chump change in comparison.
The KOMRADES of VV infiltrate the PHS, and vice-versa, its a mutual admiration society, or full of socialist incest/
ANyhoo, its just bidness as usual, although this has certainly claimed one victim who has little if any support anywhere, Jenny Kwan, an absolute Poverty W hore of the worst kind, sanctimonious, self-righteous, fill-in-the=blank champagne scialist, who has represented the area for how long? And what has she done to SOLVE the problem? Shriek much?
Oh yeah, she went to Disneyland while she lived the High Life with her ex, a high ranking member of the Poverty Club (inc.)
It would be great if this took down the whole house of cards, it certainly would not hurt anybody on the street (they’re STILL poor and downtrodden, despite the millions the champagne socilaists kick around!)
How deep does the corruption go? Hello Christy, you can squish the NDP like a dead bug right now! Yes, its ok to kick this dog when its down, the “true believers” will run for cover
The Downtown Eazstside hasn’t changed much from the 70s. There was an NFB film of Whistling Bernie Smith, an old school beat cop on the DTES, a mountain of a man, but he still had time NOT to talk down to the truly downtrodden. Damn, we just don’t have any of those kind of cops anymore.
It is hard work keeping the drunks, drinking, the addicts, addicted, and maintaining the poor in squalor and misery. These people deserve their little perqs for running an initiative sapping and ambition destroying racket. It must be soul destroying work keeping so many downtrodden and miserable, year after year. So of course they deserve outrageous compensation and all the tax free bennies they can appropriate.
The easiest way to ferret out the criminality is to focus on all the suddenly wealthy people that have no source of income outside of taxpayers money, including low-hanging fruit like Kwan. Non of them should be able to afford to write cheque for 35 grand on the salaries they receive. Ask where the hell all that money is coming from?
“Damn, we just don’t have any of those kind of cops anymore”
Yes,I remember Bernie Smith,and no, we don’t have his type of cop anymore,and that’s a damned shame.
Alex Tsakumis’ blog has been “out of order” for months.He was having troubles with a new site, hope he gets it going again soon,because there is nobody who keeps his eyes on civic corruption in Vancouver like AGT!
BC needs Tsakumis, because no one else seems to give a damn.
I truly hope there will be a proper investigation,though I doubt it, as it might mean the end of Jenny Kwan’s career, and no one deserves that to happen more than Jenny of the Long Knives.
Well,maybe Libby Davies.
AGT has become too friendly with the hardcore socialists, my puter needed a deep cycle rinse after each visit to his website. Stopped reading his diatribes many months ago, it was tiresome and boring.
We may agree that Christy is not a great leader, nor the Liberal party a good option at all.
But even on their worst day, ITS NOT THE NDP. And AGT just doesn’t get it. Mind you, when you are finacially independent and wealthy, you can outlast any socialist government, adn that’s where he comes from.
But yes, at this time, AGT’s blog is MIA, it would be the place to visit, as he knows all the players, and would have lots of juicy stuff to say. Alas, my life is private, and I refuse to be a facebookie!
Nobody is saying “give these people free drugs”, however it’s the most logical and most effective approach to true harm reduction.
The high cost of drugs fosters property crime and prostitution to feed the habit and organized crime gets rich off the ludicrous mark-up on street drugs. If drugs are free to registered addicts then they have a chance to get their life together out of the crime world.
Yes, some will undoubtedly OD; they probably would have anyway.
There are more addicts than the system can treat; adopt a triage approach to save the savable and make the end as painless as possible for the others.
Getting them out of the crime loop gives them the best chance to control their addiction.
Just giving out free paraphernalia only makes the drug lords richer.
The best solution to the problem is to give addicts as much free dope as they want. The ones that overdose will reduce the cost to our overused health care system and make room for people with treatable illness who want to get better. For others, if they don’t have to resort to crime and prostitution to support their addiction, then they might have a chance to get their lives back together. At the very least it will reduce property crime.
If YOU want crackheads to have free pipes then YOU go buy them and hand ’em out to whoever YOU want. Don’t expect taxpayers to enable addicts.
All of these do-gooders who support useless ‘harm reduction’ programs using taxpayer dollars should spend their own money on programs they think are worthwhile and invite the addicts to come live with them. It’s always easier to spend someone else’s money isn’t it?
The only people who profit from keeping drugs illegal are crime lords, their lapdog politicians, and the grief merchants in the ‘non-profit’ organizations living large on the taxpayers dime, while doing little or nothing to actually help the addicts.
You are right, and remember that this is the mayor whose election campaigne was funded by Tides. That for me tells me all I need to know.
I am unfamiliar with BC politics, but was astonished to read of the doings of these bureaucrats, As for Ms Kwan,astonishment doesn’t begin to cover my reaction to her statement. Can’t remember anyone announcing a leave of absence from a provincial legislature, has she ever heard of the verb resign? It’s not as if this is all going away in the next few weeks. Her political career has ended, she just can’t believe it yet.
The poverty pimps claimed taxpayer $$$ should be spent on the needy. Instead the money went to the greedy. Government spending most often leads to waste, fraud, and abuse.
Resign? That would mean off the gravy train. Unthinkable for a dipper
One wonders how Olivia Newton chow will manage. Except maybe jacks pension
I’m sure that the queen of social justice in the area will straighten this whole mess out very soon. It is likely just an accounting error.
Libby, where are you?
What’s all the excitement about? It’s not like they were trying to open a trendy, upscale restaurant amid the squalor or develop some other gentrification project. Alinsky didn’t say about not swindling the poor, so it must be OK.
Fred nailed it. Where are the spokespeople that regularly gin up the DTES every time they claim they’ve been victimized. Now there is overwhelming evidence that the people tasked to help the drug addicted and sick have been blowing through hundreds of thousands of dollars of tax payers money. Money that should have gone to help the area. Can a group like the Canadian Tax Payers Association initiate legal proceedings against these people or does it need to come from the province?
Technically, mayor Moonbean and Vision Vancouver is funded by Endswell Foundation. Same uber rich Americans who inherited $$$$millions and are now buying all the progress they believe we need and they do not have to suffer.
Minded you, the same Americans run Tides and impose their politics on us that way as well.
when ppl quack like you just did, it simply shows you have NO clue about that segment of the population, full stop. As my daughter, who was a crack head at one time, said, you think differently when you are addicted. What that means is that you don’t react or behave as a “normal” person would, so all your suppositions just flew out the window. You would still have crime because these ppl would just blow their cash on something else and still be broke, I’v seen it, first hand. Tho I will say decriminalization could have some effect on the legal system and therefore reduce legal aid costs. But as in the booze industry, there will still be criminal activity.
One of two reports. Very polite.
http://www.scribd.com/document_downloads/direct/213551959?extension=pdf&ft=1395535761<=1395539371&source=embed&uahk=HzJDONAymqaOp1jAhmxa3w9LUjk
I wrote to my MLA and I strongly suggest others in BC do the same, even if your MLA is a marxist. Be polite but firm that you expect this crime to be investigated. Look up their constituency office or email them through their leg offices here:
https://dir.gov.bc.ca/gtds.cgi?show=Branch&organizationCode=LASS&organizationalUnitCode=GovMLACons
I forgot to include the link to the marxists.
https://dir.gov.bc.ca/gtds.cgi?show=Branch&organizationCode=LASS&organizationalUnitCode=NDPMLALeg
Now I have to wash my computer…
My kids didn’t turn out to be addicts and crack heads; I guess I just wasn’t the kind of parent to make that happen.
I do know folks struggling with addiction and they all say that the addiction is manageable but the cost of the habit is a millstone around their neck that keeps them in the cycle with little money left over for anything else.
John Prine said it best:
http://youtu.be/xSeBEgFjGLA
No one will be charged with any of this fraud. The left is a corrupt parasitic entity because they realize this. They have no shame or moral compass. They will keep on doing this because there is no consequence. Too bad vigilante justice is against the law. The only thing the left understands is violence. Beat a bunch to a bloody pulp or hang a few off of lamp posts and they will start to understand that maybe they should stop stealing from taxpayers. Everyone knows that reasoning with them won’t work.
Nof60…as a recovering addict myself,you do yourself and the still using addict zero creditability. Something about TRUELY walking in ones shoes? You sound like every poverty pimp that exists.Addiction is NOT manageable while beinf fed tax payer funded drugs.If it was,crimes would not need to be committed to support said addiction.I know a billionaire also.Doesn’t make me a go to guy for your finances.
Someone should make up posters with pictures of these folks, and something like:
“These people stole the millions that we gave them to help you, and they spent it on themselves instead, with trips to Disneyland and fancy hotels”,
then post them up all over the East side, and let community justice take it’s course.
best of luck making enough to keep your monkey fed
have a nice day now
They ran Insite. Federales hate Insite. Will be interesting to watch. Lots of cops in Vanc are loathe to say nice things about Insite. I think it stinks myself. I hope there is a audit of Insite. Im sure the “numbers” are hinky when it comes to Insite.
One million spent on a credit card? That’s about $10,000 worth of travel or merchandise. Off the books not traceable back to PHS.
That’s why it’s unmangeable,Nof60. Thanks for giving evidence against your silly “I do know folks struggling with addiction and they all say that the addiction is manageable”.
That’s too bad your addiction is unmanageable, perhaps others have more strength and fortitude. I related what I was told, it seems to apply to them, if you don’t like that, it’s your problem not mine.
Only foolish people believe their personal experience applies to everyone else, but then like another post mentioned addicts “think differently” …and… “don’t react or behave as a “normal” person would”.
I’ll take that into consideration when reading your messages.
have a nice day, and be nice to your monkey
So pipples.I’ve been off here for 6 months.Can somebody explain when or how Nof60 became a troll sock-puppet?? I do love s/he attempts at non-admittance of ad hominems in a lot of s/he’s previous threads. heh. Oh. And s/he is right…it’s not my problem. Denial(not the River) is the person’s problem who is showing it.
Okay…I will stop feeding the troll now.(and calling a duck a duck is not ad hominem,gotta leave the spelling mistakes..lol)
You’all are a little harsh regarding Jenny for a couple of reasons:
1) Everyone in BC spends 35K a year on family vacations
2) Nobody here would ever notice that we actually didn’t spend the money
Somehow it seems appropriate that she would repay taxpayers money with tax payers money.
The PHS brings dignitaries in from other countries (ie. the Mayor of Rio) and pays their expenses for flight and hotel. Then, in an attempt to show Insite is a success they boldly proclaim that mayors from around the world come to see what we are doing at Insite insinuating that Insite is a success. So its not too much of a stretch to relalize that the stats proclaiming Insite as a success are bogus as well.
Can you spell properly or is it commonplace for you to drop vowels and consonants from the end of your words?
I dn’t o wht I ht oe – vwls o cnsnnys.
crrctn – cnsnnts
I related what I was told, it seems to apply to them, if you don’t like that, it’s your problem not mine.
And we all know addicts never ever lie about how badly their addiction is screwing up their lives. I mean, that never happens.
I’ve been critical of the Harper government here lately, so let me now give credit where it is due. The federal Conservatives were right to oppose this abomination and they are the only level of government to look good in the face of these revelations.
People can be addicted to all sorts of things or are we just talking about street drugs and street people? Most of the addicts I know are addicted to one or more of the following: tobacco, alcohol, sugar, prescription drugs, social media, and their cell phones. As long as it remains relatively cheap and easy to get, they cope reasonably well, some better than others. They only have real problems when their addiction is taken away from them. Of course that’s what makes it an addiction. If you can stop using it with no ill effects then it’s just a habit, not an addiction.
Well, you seem to be 14.2% of the “problem” here, on this thread. Other posters, not so much. Like hearing your own voice much? If SDA went away, could you handle it?
…My kids didn’t turn out to be addicts and crack heads; I guess I just wasn’t the kind of parent to make that happen…
Thats about as ignorant a statement as I have ever read. Pull your minuscule head outa yer (_i_) buddy.
As for these THIEFS at PSH. I suggest all to write to the PM and DEMAND an investigation and DEMAND Charges be laid.
This is a disease that has spread throughout politics and needs to be stamped out…cant do it, then maybe its time for Canada to have its own revolution….now where is my guillotine..??
I sure hope Dean keeps his teeth sunk into this carcass, though it really must be extremely hard to resist spitting it out. There is a strong effort afoot to whitewash the whole works.
http://bcblue.wordpress.com/2014/03/22/bc-liberals-made-secret-deal-to-pay-off-scandalized-insite-managers/
Hey, that’s an excellent idea! stephen.harper@parl.gc.ca
In Saskatchewan we give out paraphenalia for drugs and the needles end up strewn in large piles. It may have reduced AIDS, but our drug problem is getting worse. The gov. can’t really stop giving out the needles because it would make them liable when druggies got diseases from infected needles. The people distributing the needles have no interest in what a community thinks of their actions or how their actions affect a community The reason the piles of needles are generally considered acceptable is that they are in poor neighborhoods.
If your child is a junkie, you might support the program, but it’s hard not to wonder if the money could be better spent somewhere else.
That’s hilarious, people struggling with an addiction habit tell you things would be better if they could just get their fix for a more reasonable cost, & you buy that. They sell you some waterfront in Florida along with that story?
You’ve made some reasonable, intelligent points about addiction, but using the addicts’ storyline regarding cost to justify some of what you advocate is ridiculous. You’re inclined to ridicule those who communicated their own experiences with addiction, yet suggest “all” the addicts you’ve spoken with have the answer in “cheaper fix”. You looking for a cheaper one yourself?
Doubtful that the Feds want to get involved because then it becomes “mean conservatives hurt the poor.”
I doubt that could be pulled off Bernie. The folks who would have to shout about it would be the guiltiest ones as well. The NDP will trample each other running for the exits to avoid going down with them. This mess has the potential to bring down not just the poverty pushers, but the BC NDP and the BC Liberal enablers mixed up in it all at once, but I expect Dix et al to toss some folks under the bus very shortly. That’s what makes it imperative to act now before they construct an exit strategy. It’s a terrific opportunity to slap the whole sordid cabal silly. This kind of corruption is about as bad as it gets.