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I wrote back to BC health ministry & straight up told them that their self congratulatory, canned email had infuriated me. I advised them to cease sending out those emails to other people like me, who did not get ANY help from #BCNDP #BCgovernment & was treated like disposable by their #eugenics ministry. I reiterated my constant call to #FireBonnieHenry with multiple valid reasons on why that taxpayers funded criminal is still running our #PublicHealth into hell. I still wish death & lifelong disability on every single government official who supported easing up on #CovidSafety. I do not forgive people responsible for murdering my Dad.

I've been on the phone almost all morning. Trying to get some medical appointments & follow-up meetings booked/confirmed for both me & Mom. I'm having better luck getting Mom booked than for myself. I'm beyond frustrated with our #BCMedical / #BCHealth situation. I want to know where the hell do we find all those new family doctors that #BCNDP #BCgovernment had bragged about - WHERE ARE THEY??

We need serious #ForestryReform in #BritishColumbia immediately. We need to implement the science-based recommendations from experts who were commissioned multiple times by #BCNDP #BCgovernment to produce #OldGrowth Strategic Reviews (twice during Horgan's regime). They promised to implement the recommendations but they have not done so. Our old growth forests aren't numerous anymore & yet our #capitalist driven, #neoliberal government is still allowing them to be cut. In a severe #ClimateCrisis - we're stuck with political leaders who are still siding with ecocidal corporations. We need to ban corporate lobbyists. They never have citizens' best interests at heart & our politicians are too easily bribed.

Still trying to upload my 12 minutes interview from Fairy Creek blockades in 2021. I started going to support in 2020. I adjusted all my urban life schedules & setup remote work before I headed out for longer stints. I spent about 9 months in total at that ecojustice blockade. I went & supported 4 other blockades against #BCgovernment approved ecocide projects between my work commitments & my time at Fairy Creek. I will always fight for what is very important to me & humanity as a whole. I am not scared of colonial violence because it's been used against me & people like me, since we were born.

We are #ColonialResistance in #Canada in action. We don't apologize for direct actions.

Canadian governments need to fucking apologize for their continued colonialism abuses!

#FuckTheRCMP - they flew these #helicopters multiple times, daily, to try & intimidate us. We had Transport Canada verify that this helicopter maneuver & 3 other ones documented at other resistance camp areas was illegal & violated federal regulations but no action was taken to punish people responsible for violations.

This footage was taken before over 100 RCMP CIRG goons raided 4 different #ResistanceCamps.

Voluntary RCMP #CIRG unit was created in 2017 as a strictly corporate mercenaries unit in BC. Approved by #BCNDP government. The same government who has given them multiple budget increases - millions of #BCtaxpayers monies were used for that. Taxpayers monies were also used by #BCgovernment on attempts to criminalize environmental activists in BC courts. Some of the court cases are still ongoing.

RCMP CIRG is a fully voluntary unit & RCMP who choose to join the unit get paid more than regular RCMP goons. It's all about the extra money for these colonial greedy chumps.

2021, from the frontlines.

#FuckTheRCMP - they flew these #helicopters multiple times, daily, circling over us, to try & intimidate us. An hour after I took this vid clip - they flew above us again. I mooned them from landback resistance camp bridge.

The voluntary RCMP #CIRG unit was created in 2017 as a strictly corporate mercenaries unit in BC. Approved by #BCNDP government. The same government who has given them multiple budget increases - millions of #BCtaxpayers monies were used for that. Taxpayers monies were also used by #BCgovernment on attempts to criminalize environmental activists in BC courts. Some of the court cases are still ongoing.

RCMP CIRG is a fully voluntary unit & RCMP who choose to join the unit get paid more than regular RCMP goons. It's all about the extra money for these colonial greedy chumps.

2021, from the frontlines.

The sentiment has not changed.
#FuckTheRCMP
Especially RCMP #CIRG - created in 2017 as a corporate mercenaries unit in BC. Approved by #BCNDP government. Same government who has given them multiple budget increases - millions of #BCtaxpayers monies were used for that. Taxpayers monies were also used by #BCgovernment on attempts to criminalize environmental activists in BC courts. Some of the court cases are still ongoing.

I get quite irritated seeing news of more #treaty talks when past #treaties are still not being honoured in 2024. I'm talking about several #Indigenous treaties with #GovernmentOfCanada & #BCgovernment - as well as #InternationalTreaty agreements in #geopolitical arenas.

#HonourTheTreaties - a well overdue #ethical & #moral #responsibility! An essential step towards #RightingWrongs from #colonialism.

The revelations about the government’s numbers were also frustrating for Green Party Leader Sonia Furstenau.

“This government — and in particular when it comes to anything to do with health care — loves rolling out a whole bunch of numbers that they think are going to somehow convince people that what they're experiencing in their communities isn't real,” she told the IJF.

But she said she was exhausted by the other parties’ deflection on the issue, and by their shared push for involuntary care. She described secured treatment facilities as the “the most expensive end of the continuum of care” for substance use disorders, and said they are not well supported by the evidence.

“We are starving for access to preventive and proactive mental health care services in this province, and we hear again and again from parents who say ‘I couldn't get help from my child when they needed it,’” Furstenau said.

“The response of both Eby and Rustad is to say, well, we'll wait until that person is in absolutely the worst state of crisis and then we'll force them into involuntary care. It makes no sense.”

theijf.org/bc-parties-trade-bl

Investigative Journalism Foundation · Parties trade blame following IJF investigation into B.C.’s addiction treatment bed numbersBy Bethany Lindsay

A dozen #teachers from the #GreaterVictoriaTeachersAssociation are expected to show up for a #rally supporting the #LGBTQ+ community at the #BClegislature on Friday.

The rally is one of a series of events across #Canada that day to counter what local organizers from the groups #1MillionVoicesForInclusion and Finn’s Future call the “transphobic rhetoric” of a previous 1 Million March for Children, which opposes teaching on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity or #SOGI in schools.

The teachers will be advocating for SOGI education prior to the noon #Celebration of #QueerExistence rally.

SOGI in schools has generated protests in #BritishColumbia which #GVTA president Carolyn Howe said was part of the reason the #BCgovernment recently brought in rules to keep protesters off school grounds.

She said she doesn’t know of any such protests at local schools, but noted there has been “a worrying uptick in very vocal opposition to -inclusive practices around #GenderDiversity, both in schools and in the wider community.”

“Victoria schools have #queer staff, parents, students and we want everyone in the #2sLGTBQIA+ community to know we stand together.”

timescolonist.com/local-news/t

Times Colonist · Teachers to support Celebration of Queer Existence rally at the legislatureBy Jeff Bell

At least a third of the publicly funded #AddictionTreatment beds #BCgovernment claims are available for drug users across #BritishColumbia do not actually offer treatment, the #IJF has learned.

“B.C. now has 3,645 publicly funded substance-use treatment beds, including 659 beds opened since 2017 with more to come,” the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions announced in an Aug. 27 press release.

But a breakdown of the available types of adult and youth treatment options provided by the ministry shows that its tally includes 1,232 low-barrier housing beds, accounting for about 34 per cent of the total.

#Addictions treatment is not directly provided in low-barrier housing in B.C., but is part of “a full continuum of support services,” the ministry said in an email to the IJF. This type of facility simply makes shelter available to people who use drugs, without requiring them to abstain or be in treatment.

The news comes as both the #BCConservatives and the #BCNDP government are touting #involuntary addiction care as a solution to the province’s ongoing #ToxicDrugCrisis.

That #political focus is deeply frustrating for Correne Antrobus of #MomsStopTheHarm, an advocacy group led by families affected by tainted illegal drugs.

theijf.org/bc-publicly-funded-

Investigative Journalism Foundation · One third of B.C.’s ‘publicly funded substance-use treatment beds’ don’t provide any treatmentBy Bethany Lindsay

The #BCNDP #BCgovernment has said no to a proposal to create a #ProtectedArea for an area of #OldGrowth #cedars near #DuncanLake.

"At this time, #BCParks is not considering including this area in the provincial protected areas system," wrote Minister of Land, Water and Resource Stewardship #NathanCullen in a letter to Grant Trower of Howser, B.C., on Sept. 3.

Trower is the founder of the group #WildlifeHabitatsForTomorrow that has been advocating for the protection of a 531-hectare grove and wetland.

He wants #BritishColumbia to declare the #CedarGroves a protected area, which is a category of protection just short of a full-fledged provincial park.

“There are many #trees in this grove that are well over 1,000 years old, and one that is estimated to be 2,100 years old,” said Trower. “They are the largest trees in the whole southern interior #rainforest. It isn’t just old growth. It’s #ancient old growth.”

He told the Nelson Star that Cullen's letter will not deter him.

"The advocacy is ongoing to ensure this special place will remain for our kids and grandchildren, for this grove is unique and easy to experience," he said, adding that the next steps will include media attention, targeted field trips and obtaining #FirstNations #endorsement.

nelsonstar.com/local-news/bc-p

Nelson Star · B.C. Parks rejects protected status for Duncan Lake cedar groveBy Bill Metcalfe

*Me, my Mom & my youngest brother are some of the many thousands of patients in #BritishColumbia who have been on the #WaitingList for a new family #doctor since our previous GPs retired.*

When the province introduced its #HealthConnectRegistry in 2021, we were told this would help #patients to find a #FamilyPhysician.

About 900,000 #BritishColumbians have no doctor, and while the #Health Ministry continues to announce the recruitment of new #physicians, that number has remained fairly constant for years.

Yet the #inability of the Registry to make meaningful progress is only one of its failings.

More troubling is that the Registry makes no attempt to place patients based on their age or #medical condition. This conflicts with one of the basic principles underlying medical practice, that faced with an inability to treat everyone who needs help, those with the most pressing requirements should come first.

timescolonist.com/opinion/edit

Times Colonist · Editorial: Tell us where we stand in queue for a doctorSome residents who’ve been on the Registry since its inception have never received an update on their status and still have no family doctor.