The Week - June 11

CBC gets a boost

At last, a small ray of hope in the otherwise grim local media landscape. It seems the Mother Corp so likes the good works emerging from Victoria’s CBC radio outpost that they’ve awarded the locally produced drive-time afternoon show All Points West with an extra hour of airtime when the new season kicks off in September. Host Jo-Ann Roberts will now begin her broadcasting day at 3 p.m. and carry right on through to 6 o’clock.

“We’re sorry, of course, because other colleagues in the CBC are unfortunately being cut, but what I take from this is that the corporation is really serious about investing in radio and its Victoria station,” says CBC Victoria station manager Peter Hutchinson.

All Points West is broadcast province wide—with the exception of Vancouver—and Hutchinson says it’s the most popular program on the dial for its time slot.

MP abstains on C-15

Esquimalt-Juan de Fuca Liberal MP Keith Martin may want to see possession of small amounts of marijuana decriminalized, but his party voted in line the federal Conservative Party to pass Bill C-15 on Monday, a draconian piece of legislation modelled on failed U.S.-style war on drugs policy.

After unsuccessfully lobbying to have elements of the bill changed, Martin opted to abstain from the vote. But how does he reconcile his own private members bill for softer pot laws with his party’s support of a policy destined to fill prisons with small-time peddlers?

“I am very supportive of taking a very hard line on the organized crime gangs that are at the root of wholesale production of marijuana, large commercial drug operations and those that traffic those drugs are rooted in organized crime—which is entirely different from the individual user who can presently get a criminal record and be prosecuted for simple possession,” he says.

Martin says his party will work to amend the bill at a later date to differentiate between large-scale traffickers for profit and the petty dealers in business to support their own addictions, who the local MP says are better served by the medical system.

Real estate wrongs

Local realtor Michael Hanus is the latest Victoria home-seller disciplined by the Real Estate Council of British Columbia, in a decision released last week.

According to the document posted June 1, Hanus was slapped with a 21-day suspension, must pay $3,000 in enforcement expenses to the Council and must participate in some “Professional Ethics” education.

According to the discipline decision, Hanus engaged in professional misconduct for, among several items, “. . . failing to use reasonable efforts to discover relevant facts about the property, namely a restrictive covenant registered on the title to the property which limited use of the property and which rendered the property unsuitable for the buyers’ use.”

The discipline decision states Hanus was licensed with Re/Max Camosun at the time of his transgressions, but has since joined Sutton Group West Coast Realty.

Rules for residents

Further proof that subsidized housing residents are often treated like children—even when they are parents: Last week the Capital Region Housing Corporation sent out its long list of summer rules to residents. Among them, “When children are playing active games, please ensure that their play is kept away from beds, trees, buildings and vehicles that could be damaged. Sidewalk chalk may be used only on sidewalks and must be removed daily by parents. Please ensure that toys and bicycles are not left outside when not in use.”

And remember kids, squirt guns are to remain holstered at all times

Halfway to health

Physicians at the James Bay Community Project say VIHA has approved a request to reinstate a nurse practitioner position cut in December 2007, but the provincial Ministry of Health has yet to deliver the approximately $90,000-plus-benefits that could make that happen.

Since the position was cut, the clinic has operated with only one registered nurse in addition to the four part-time docs.

“We’ve kept all of the patients that we had at the practice, but what it’s meant is longer waiting times and it’s harder to access their physician, or the remaining nurse here,” says clinic executive director Graham Taylor. “So the level of service and level of responsiveness has been challenged, since we lost that nurse practitioner.”

Taylor says restoration of the position could give the community clinic the potential to bring on upwards of 500 new patients otherwise turned away.