Regurgitators for Rent - A trendy PRopaganda Sub-trade - Alcyonenews

Main menu:

Islands Trust

Posted July 31, 2020

Regurgitators for Rent - A trendy PRopaganda Sub-trade

On July 17 I wrote a Marketplace column bylined “Hired Ears – the new PRopaganda Mercenaries”. This was a brief discussion of the Trust having a consultant deploy “eDemocracy” to generate fake optics of public hearings.

Deception is a “norm” with the Trust. In 2011 they commissioned a Province-wide poll with which to foil a grass root attempt to review the Trust. The poll “found” unbound love for the Trust in Prince Rupert and Prince George. Then Trust Chair Superior Sheila Malcomson bragged that “support for the Trust was sky high”.

After the 2017 SSI referendum a “Consensus” to Change the Trust was formed The BC Government and the Trust were in it. The Trust joined in, surreptitiously pursuing more power to do that which necessitates the Change.

On December 18, 2018, while people were holiday shopping, Chair Luckham, successor to Malcolmson, sneaked a Trust “change” plan to the Ministry (Jan11, 2019 column). The Ministry rejected and declare that “Change” would require widespread public support. Knowing and fearing what the public would say, the Trust misappropriated $115,000 to hire “independent Consultants” to produce fake images of “public support” with which to sway the Ministry. “Islands 2050” and “eDemocracy” are consultant driven projects.

On March 15, 2019, the Trust held a public meeting ostensibly to comply with the prerequisite for Change. Only 55 people showed up and Luckham admitted to the inadequacy of the event and promised to reach the rest of the population. On second thought, they opted for hiring PRopaganda Professionals to do the “job” ...

In 2019 they launched “Islands 2050", a grandiose scheme of deception. I exposed that too for being geared to produce fake optics of public consultation for the Trust to deceive the Ministry and us, the populace.

Prodded by theTrust machinations, in January 2020, I challenged the Trust once again, to come out in the open by instituting the Ideas Bank. Unwilling to openly deny “open governance” they moved to pre-empt the issue by supplanting eDemocracy for the Ideas Bank. But these are opposites and I exposed that in the July 17 column.

Three days later, on July 20, the Trust rushed out a report from the “Islands 2050" enterprise. This would testify to the Trust listening to the public and the public approving the Trust line. It does neither.

Since the people would not come to the Trust, the Trust had gone to the people, or something like that. They pitched “Vision Booths” onboard BC Ferries, in the lobby of the swimming pool and elsewhere. Passers-by responding to Vision Booth “Greeter” (in line with Costco and Wallmart store mode) or pausing to look at the PRopaganda Infographics, were all counted as “contributors”.

Slogan buttons were free. The message was: “You have to be more careful with an island”. It suggests the Trust enables us “to be more careful with an island”. Preposterous really !

Trust agents took half a year to regurgitate what they heard from over “1,000" contributors and serve the messy mash to us in that 18 -page Report. It is titled: “What we heard” and billed as “Stage 2 of 7 – Islands 2050". Interestingly, “Stage 7" is scheduled for 2022 or later.

The Trust had been silent on “Islands 2050" and I thought they had abandoned the folly. I was surprised by the Report and astounded by the failure of the Trust and its consultants to discern that their Report damns the Trust. For it showcases the Trust indulging in secrecy to hide misconduct.

To begin with, environmental issues are not among the causes of the consensus to Change the governance of the Islands. Evidently, the 30-year timeframe for regulating gas emmissions is meant to make us the populace resigned to the “inevitable” and carry the Trust on our shoulders for the next 30 years.

The Report is un-signed and unsupported, contrary to prevailing standards. Trust reports are normally signed by the Planner, co-signed by the RPM and carry adjunct reports by QEPs and others. This even if a report is about a permit to replace a rusted driveway culvert. Evidently no one is willing to sign the nonsense wrapped in this Islands 2050 Report.

The Report hides the identity of the Vision Booth agents; of the people who spoke to the Booth agents; of the Report authors; It even hides the Trust “instrument” of authorization of the “Islands 2050" project. Incidentally, I had myself asked a few procedural questions in a couple of Vision Booths I attended. There is no trace of any in the Report.

The Report is vile and the response must be virile.