BC Liberals hit Straight with Million dollar fine

Anyone who knows Vancouver will know the Georgia Straight..it was considered to be the last street fighting paper left over from the 60s. Now it is mostly Arts and Entertainment, with some news and opinion. This is a crock of shit the Campbell government is trying to run it out of business for it's continued questioning of the BC Liberal (Total Oxymoron) party.


B.C. Liberals Hit Straight With Million-Dollar Fine
By Dan McLeod

The Georgia Straight is faced with the biggest threat in its 36-year history.
Following a visit from a provincial-government auditor, the Straight has been stripped of its status as a newspaper under provincial sales-tax legislation and assessed fines and penalties that will total more than one million dollars by year's end. This fine must be paid immediately and can only be reversed through a difficult and expensive appeal process that could tie us up in court for several years to come.

http://www.straight.com/?defaultarticle=&defaultnode=40404&layout=227&pagefunction=Load%20Layout

It's a good read, check out the q and a section especially.

for daring to cover his late-night vacation escapades!

Did that make a lot of news in Hawaii? It was the biggest thing ever here!

Canadian-owned, by the way: watch your back, David Black!

That is almost unheard-of for a Neighbor Island story in which no one died.

Hawai'i is sleepy enough that Gordo was considered a "foreign dignitary": hence: breaking news!

Edit: Here ya go, complete with mug shots:

http://starbulletin.com/2003/01/11/news/story3.html

That's been around for like forever, I used to read it from time to time.

I wish Gordo Campbell would just go away.

Thanks for posting the article. Few here will read it, but this important. Going beyond what the Straight means to Vancouverites and BCers, this is a perfect example of the new fascism rearing its ugly head throughout the world. Essentially Campbell doesn't like that the Straight is independent. Sure, they're VERY critical of him and his policies, but their main sin is independence. They are not beholden to a huge media conglomerate like all the other media in Canada and especially in Vancouver. They aren't the only indie in Vancouver (Terminal City still exists), but they are by far the largest and the most widely read. And you can't have that in today's world. No no, we must be infromed by those who agree with our leader(s).

Take this as a warning. Fight your asses off for your indie media: 'THEY' are coming for them. Seriously.

I wrote for them once

I've read it and it blames BC liberals. What's all this about a corporation and special interests?

In BC free speech is only allowed to those who want to write Pro- Liberal bullshit. Hence anyone who doesn't gets hassled by the government. Yet, major diales...all owned by one company, enjoy the advantage of zero hassle because of their friendship with Gorod

City Hall went after them at the urging of CanWest Izzy (piss on his grave) Asper by saying their contributing to littering because they were distributed free in boxes...Izzy said only his boxes could be on the street.

They survived that attack..among others...
Like The theatre owner boycott on ads a few years ago comes to mind coz they write reviews and are critical of the product--which is a no-no to the biz--in fact Ken Eisner, one of the finest movie critics in Canada, has won numerous awards for his stuff...

Vancouver/BC has a real problem with free speech--it pretends to be worldclass, but is very very provincial--

Anyone who has lived in Vancouver KNOWS that the Straight has way more cred than either dailies (both Canwest/global rags) or the local electronic media for that matter and is the only one of the lot that does any local city political coverage...

Go get em Straight

The Vancouver Courier covers municipal politics as well.