BC Politics with Hubert Beyer

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Hubert Beyer, Biography

Hubert Beyer was widely known as one of Canada's most read journalists. His columns were published regularly in most BC Community Newspapers, and his perspective sought on the Federal level as well as by NORAD in the US, Beyer lived up to his reputation as the "Fairest of them All."

Born in a small village in West Germany, Beyer immigrated to Canada in his 20s where he married and had 4 children.

A German Language publication in Winnipeg was Beyer's first foray into writing in Canada, it was soon followed with work at the Winnipeg Free Press as a Reporter covering many different beats. more

Click to read the Eulogy for Hubert Beyer

Top Search: Forestry

Find out what Beyer had to say about Forestry in BC through the years. With the forestry industry supporting a large segment of employment and opportunity in British Columbia, it's no surprise that it's a top search.

Top Search: Elections

Election are always a hot topic. Anytime the faintest hint of a provincial or federal election announcement draws near, the search for quotes and history on past British Columbia elections starts to climb.

Top Search: Budget Release

When is the Budget not a hot search. Provincial Bugets are introduced with fanfare and fraught with talk from pundits, experts and critics. Take a few minutes to see how BC Budgets of the past were often projections of the future. 

EDUCATION FOR A BRAVE NEW WORLD

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VICTORIA – British Columbia has the "Year 2000" educational program. All the states of the US have the "America 2000" or the "Global 2000" program. These programs, which are to prepare students for the new millennium, constitute a dramatic shift in the focus of education that have many experts alarmed.

The most disturbing aspect of the shift in our education program, according to critics, is that curricula are more and more designed to suit the workplace. In other words, the employers of our education system are no longer the parents but industry and commerce.

The US are ahead of us in their revamping of the learning system, and alarm bells are going off all over the place. In a recent speech to a conference under the heading "What Goals 2000 Means to the States," Ron Sunseri, a representative in the Oregon Legislature, described a frightening scenario, the implications of which may ultimately apply to British Columbia as well.

Oregon began its education reform in 1991. The new system was called "Outcome-based Education." Narrowly-focused education programs were to be a thing of the past. No more diplomas in clearly-defined disciplines.

Instead, students would works towards a Certificate of Initial Mastery, to be followed by an eventual Certificate of Advanced Mastery.

Sunseri says the new system is a clear attempt to force an education on children that replaces content with process.

"They talk about self-directed learning and collaboration and understanding diversity. Very little is mentioned about academics.

"It becomes clear why it is important to change (students’) attitudes. And control the behavior of the child at an early age. The goal is no longer to give children a broad base of knowledge so they can make their own choices, but to compete with third-world nations under GATT and NAFTA. A compliant workforce facilitates this," Sunseri says.

Cottage Grove in Oregon was the first to jump on the Certificate of Initial Mastery bandwagon. Sunseri says it was a catastrophe. Of the 183 students in the class that received the certificates, 116 wrote a letter to the authorities, begging the school district to stop subjecting them to that kind of education.

"What’s happening to our children with these Certificates of Mastery is a tragedy," says Sunseri. "Forest Grove school district declined 36 points in verbal skills and 17 points in math."

At the district’s high school level, Sunseri says, they finally agreed to add some academic content by teaching Shakespeare to Grade 10 students.

"After it was over, we found that they read two comic books and watched the video Roxanne with Steve Martin. So much for Shakespeare."

The result of Oregon’s fiddling with the education system to suit the needs of the world of business in the new global economy has been that students leave high school with gaping holes in their education.

Sunseri says that 30 per cent of all high school graduates going on to college need remedial course. That, he adds, "blew the cap off the capitol building" because it involves the spending of millions of dollars for an education the students were already supposed to have had.

British Columbia’s "Year 2000" program may differ from that of Oregon’s, but the fact is that here, too, the education system is shaped more and more to suit future employers. And that, I suggest, will leave is with future generations more suited to Huxley’s Brave New World than the one we hope our children will inherit.

EVERYONE WINS IN ALCAN DEAL

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VICTORIA – Until a few weeks ago, Alcan and the province were fighting each other tooth and nail. Today, they’re all smiles, and with good reason.

The long-standing dispute over the cancellation of the Kemano Completion Project has been settled, and with it the question of whether or not B.C. taxpayers might have had to foot a half-billion-dollar bill to compensate Alcan.

Under the terms of the agreement, Alcan drops its law suit against the province, commits itself to the construction in Kitimat of a new $1.2 billion aluminum smelter, contributes $50 million, to be matched by the province, to a fund for the enhancement of the Nechako watershed, and establishes a $15 million northern development fun, also to be matched by the B.C. government.

In return, Alcan will get from the province the replacement power it lost when the Kemano Completion Project was axed.

I may be missing something here, but the agreement looks to me like one of those rare deals in which everyone’s winner. Alcan CEO Jacques Bougie seems to think so too.

"We believe this is a good agreement for everyone concerned." Bougie said. " Securing this settlement package in exchange for dropping our legal action allows us to pursue our business goals in B.C. The people of the Nechako Valley can start to address some of their outstanding concerns, and the people of Kitimat can look to the future with optimism."

The only drawback that I can see is a temporary one. Alcan will not immediately start construction of the new smelter. Under the agreement, Alcan "will use all reasonable efforts," subject to market conditions, to build the new smelter.

Company officials say they may start construction as early as 2003 or as late as 2012. In either case, it takes at least a couple of years for a project of this kind and magnitude to jump through all the environmental hoops and get the necessary permits.

Once completed, the new smelter is expected to create more than 2,000 permanent jobs and thousands of man-years of employment.

What really turned the tide in the fight between the province and Alcan was the availability of downstream benefits from the Columbia River. Without those benefits that now flow back to British Columbia, the government would have been hard-pressed to find the power Alcan needs to operate the new smelter.

Columbia Pacific Consultants, an independent firm, has estimated the annual benefits of the new smelter to British Columbia as follows: $283 million added to the Growth Domestic Product; 2,024 jobs, 400 direct, 1624 spin-off jobs; $91 million in household income, $8 million in personal income taxes, $13 million in provincial revenues from corporate, municipal and other taxes.

Former premier Mike Harcourt came under a lot of fire for cancelling the Kemano Completion Project, including from this quarter. The people of Kitimat were incensed, and understandably so. It was their community’s future the government had jeopardized.

This deal should go a long way towards restoring hope in Kitimat. It should also satisfy those who had grave environmental concerns over the project.

But it goes beyond that. As long as the two parties were engaged in a court battle, British Columbia didn’t feature in Alcan’s investment plans. Had no agreement been reached in the foreseeable future, Alcan might well have taken its expansion business elsewhere.

And just as everybody benefits from this deal, credit for it should go to everybody involved in the issue: the people of Kitimat for not giving up, the environmentalists for having drawn attention to the dangers of the completion project, and finally, Alcan and the provincial government for having the sense to strike a deal.

Win-win deal don’t come long too often.

OLSON ENRAGES THE NATION ONCE AGAIN

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VICTORIA – Given half a chance, I’d blow Clifford Olson’s head off. And that scares the hell out of me, because I consider myself a non-violent man. I’m against the death penalty. A contradiction? I don’t think so.

While I would not hesitate a moment to snuff out the miserable life of Clifford Olson, I would not want to empower the state to legally kill any of its citizen, no matter how deserved their death.

I shouldn’t even be writing about this mass murderer, because the current publicity surrounding his application for early parole is unfolding according to Olson’s own, carefully scripted plan.

Why then am I writing this? Good question. The closest I can come to an answer is because I’m madder than hell. And because there won’t be any closure to the wounds Olson has inflicted not only on his victims and their families, but on the soul of the nation, until the son of a bitch is dead and rotting.

Everybody knows Olson’s chances of ever getting out of prison are slimmer than the proverbial snowball’s in hell. The judge knows it, the jury knows it, Olson knows it.

The first day of the hearing, he said himself that no jury would parole him. And the witnesses he called told the jury he shouldn’t be considered for early parole. A psychologist who did a profile on Olson even said he considers him ore dangerous today than 16 years ago.

The so-called faint-hope clause was brought in to give those people a chance at early parole who have a genuine chance of being rehabilitated. It was never designed for the likes of Olson.

In the meantime, the clause has been amended to prevent multiple murderers from applying for early parole, but the amendment couldn’t be made retroactive to apply to Olson.

So, here he is, back in British Columbia, the scene of his unspeakable crimes, grandstanding and tormenting the families of his victims. His arguments for early release are as sick as his psychopathic mind.

He says wants to help find the bodies of dozens of other victims he lays claim to, so they can have a "Christian burial." By telling the jury he is even sicker than anyone believes, he thinks he should be eligible for parole.

Everything Olson does serves to make him feel powerful. His ability to manipulate was his most powerful instrument during his rampage 16 years ago, and it still is.

Journalist Peter Worthington, who has interviewed Olson on numerous occasions, said the trappings of the hearing play right into Olson’s hands. The heavy guard, the bullet-proof glass behind which he sits, the shackles, they all reinforce his own image of himself as what he calls the "Beast of B.C."

Worthington said Olson would be furious if the was guarded by only one sheriff and spoke to an empty courtroom, instead of one packed with spectators and reporters. He would feel cheated.

It is to be hoped that this will be the last time we have to listen to Olson’s sick ramblings, the last time his victims’ families will be tormented, the last time this excuse for a human being can pull the strings of the justice system like those of a marionette.

For the families the terrible pain will never cease, but at the very least, they should be assured that they will never have to go through another Olson-orchestrated spectacle again.

It’s too bad that Olson can’t be left with the general prison population for a few minutes, because his fellow inmates would quickly render their own justice.

In the meantime, many Canadians, myself included, have to confront the demons in themselves that, given the chance, would not let them hesitate to kill Olson in cold blood. And that is Olson’s crime against all of us.

LIKE IT OR NOT, THE UNITY DEBATE IS BACK

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VICTORIA – When the last Quebec Referendum campaign racked the Canada, our federal government sat on its haunches, refusing to get involved in the fray until the very last few weeks, and almost lost the country.

Fortunately, this time Ottawa isn’t playing ostrich. As Quebec’s mercurial premier Lucien Bouchard threatens to drag his province to the polls once again for yet another nation-wrecking vote, the rest of the country is playing hardball.

During their recent meeting, nine premiers decided to hod another meeting later this year to discuss national unity. The feds weren’t invited. Predictably, Bouchard said he wouldn’t come. The nine said they didn’t care.

Ottawa, not to be left out of the unity debate, followed with its biggest salvo at Quebec separatism to date. The usually quiet and soft-spoken Stephane Dion, Canada’s intergovernmental affairs minister, sent a letter to Bouchard that went off like a bomb.

The former University of Montreal political scientist usually argues the case for federalism with reason, advancing legal and historic precedents to which Bouchard promptly replies with emotional oratory, devoid of logic and reason.

This time, Dion took off the gloves. No, he said, a 50-plus-one vote isn’t going to be recognized as enough to tear Canada apart.

No, Quebec isn’t going to be able to leave the country with its present borders intact. There will be partitions, should a yes vote receive enough support.

And no, Quebec residents certainly won’t be Canadian citizens if they decide to let Bouchard lure them into independence.

The latter seems a bit obvious, but the fact is that a large percentage of Quebec residents who voted for independence last time around firmly believed they would remain Canadian citizens, keep their Canadian passports, and keep the Canadian dollar.

The Dion letter makes it very clear that such an arrangement will not be tolerated by the rest of Canada. Any politician outside Quebec advocating it would be digging his immediate political grave.

Polls have shown that Canadians really don’t have the appetite for another round of unity talks, and that, I suspect includes Quebec. But it is that apathy Bouchard counts on for what will probably be his last run at separatism.

Whether we want to talk unity or not, there will be another referendum in Quebec. If we like our country the way it is, we have no choice but to immerse ourselves in the debate. And not just a few weeks before voting day.

One mass demonstration of patriotism by 200,000 people in Montreal isn’t going to cut it next time. We have to tell Quebec now and until the next referendum goes down that yes, we want them to stay in Canada, but no, there won’t be any cozy deals if they decided to pull out.

I’m sure that the Reformers, the new official opposition, will place the unity question front and centre in the next session, and they will do so in their peculiar tough-love style. And that’s perhaps what’s needed to bring home the message to Quebeccers that they can’t have it both ways.

The rest of Canada, meanwhile, will have to decide just how far it is willing to go in assuring Quebec that its culture, language and heritage is safer within confederation than outside it.

It’s probably a safe bet that a decisive no-vote will put Quebec separatism to rest for some time. Until then, even though we’ve all had out fill of the unity debate, the next referendum concerns us all, and we would be foolish to ignore the threat that would come from the separation of Quebec.

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