Gaffe Confirmed: The Evergreen Line, the BC Liberal Candidate in Coquitlam-Burke Mountain, and Worksafe Safety Protocols

I received a follow up phone call earlier today from a Worksafe representative following up on my query regarding the appropriateness of the photographs being used by the BC Liberal candidate Joan Isaacs as part of her campaign materials in the upcoming by-election in the Provincial riding of Coquitlam-Burke Mountain.  The photos in question were taken during what was supposedly a media update event ostensively to update the public on the progress of the Evergreen Line but that in reality appears to have become a partisan photo-op and an event to promote a local BC Liberal by-election candidate.  This is all well documented in the post “Why let those pesky WCB regulations get in the way of a good old-fashioned partisan photo-op“.  The WCB representative confirmed to me that an internal investigation into the matter had established that the photos do indeed show numerous safety protocol violations.

Apparently, the investigation determined that the on site representative responsible for ensuring that safety protocols were followed during the media event had been called away to another worksite on an emergency basis and was not around to brief the media representatives and the various politicians (and their entourages) as to where they could and could not go, what safety precautions that they should be aware of, and what safety equipment that they should be wearing.  That unfortunately left a bunch (a herd? a gaggle?) of BC Liberal politicians and their entourages blissfully unaware of the safety hazards in their immediate surroundings and the safety protocols issues that they were causing, to wander around an active worksite unattended and without PPEs (Personal Protective Equipment) doing only what politicians appear to do when they gather in groups of more than two these days: take pictures of themselves and post them online on social media with trite comments that start out with such phrases as “great to see…” and “much support for…”, etc.  Because of the unintended documenting of safety protocol violations, arguably, the photos that Ms. Isaacs has been using as part of her curious “Evergreen Plus” strategy could easily be included in the next “What not to allow visitors to do on an active worksite” chapter of future Worksafe presentations and documents.  As such, they are not totally without merit I suppose.

So there you have it.  Final confirmation: An unelected Liberal candidate wandered around an active worksite apparently causing numerous safety violations in order to get promotional materials for her upcoming by-election campaign.  What an unelected BC Liberal candidate was doing at all at what was supposed to be a media update event, I still don’t know.  A number of currently elected BC Liberal MLAs also appear to have joined in on the festivities (see below) because, you know, they don’t really have anything better to do for the general public and their constituents than to parade around an unelected candidate so that she could get promotional materials for her by-election campaign.

January 10, 2016 Evergreen Line Update “Media Event”

BTW, while I’m on that topic, Lord help you if you are looking to get anything out of the constituency office of Linda Reimer these days (the BC Liberal MLA for the adjacent riding of Port Moody-Coquitlam).  She’s in full campaign mode these days as the pictures below show.  I bet you get a very sincere “she’s busy working very hard on constituency matters” if you ask her office about anything these days.  The pictures of course tell a different story.

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Friday, January 15, 2016. Part of the famous “Let them eat pie” photo.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with this.   It has often been said that the Federal Conservatives are often lurking behind the BC Liberals.  It appears that we now have photographic proof (please see below).