“It can only be done by you,” Senator Larry Campbell told his audience about dealing with the problems with substance abuse in their communities.

Campbell spoke to a group of about 90 people Tuesday night at Kitchener Collegiate as the closing keynote address of a series put on by Community Safety & Crime Prevention Council.

In The Minds Eye 2006: Issues of Substance Use in Film + Forum

Campbell was speaking about the four pillars program, which he introduced as Mayor of Vancouver. The program was a strategy to combat drug addiction in the city and include the pillars: prevention, treatment, harm reduction, and enforcement. The four piollars have since been adopted in Kelowna, B.C.; Victoria; and Toronto.

The harm reduction pillar included a safe injection sites where addicts were able to inject their drugs with clean needles, under the supervision of a nurse, and had an opportunity to speak with former addicts about overcoming their addictions.

Campbell was born in Brantford and worked as a steel worker in Hamilton. He joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and was moved to Vancouver in 1969. He would later be come the Vancouver District Coroner and then the Chief Coroner for B.C. inspiring the CBC television show Da Vinci’s Inquest, on which he collaborated with the show’s creators. He retired as coroner in 2000. In 2002 he chose to run for mayor to succeed Mayor Phillip Owen with whom he had worked on strategies for drug addiction in the city. Campbell won the vote, as did councillors running in his municipal party, the Coalition of Progressive Electors.

“We ran 23 and elected 23,” he said of his party’s success in that election.

His television alter ego would also run and win as mayor inspiring the show to become Da Vinci’s City Hall. The show was cancelled before Dominic Da Vinci could move to Ottawa and work in the red room.

Here are some things that he said: (more…)

Full-time employees at The Record got letters this week offering them Voluntary Departure Offers and in some cases early retirement.

I heard that the newspapers weren’t going to write about it, so I thought to tell the Internet.

The letters came from newly-hired publisher Dana Robbins and says things like:

• In 2006 revenue increased but cost increased more
• There was a substantial decline in profitability
• 2007 will be an uncertain year
• We must reduce costs but not negatively affect our business
• We have decided offer voluntary departure offer
• Individuals whose work can be reassigned, discontinued or accomplished in another manner that give efficiency will be given opportunity to pursue interests outside The Record

The end date for people taking the offer is “no later than” 31 December 2006.

I couldn’t find anything about this on GooNews either.

Simon sent me a note about BarCampWaterloo

Subject: BarCampWaterloo event - Dec 5 - at the Accelerator Centre

It’s called “BarCampWaterloo” or “DemoCamp” and it’s basically a get together for techies, and tech business people and some short demos of stuff that people are working on. it’s been a very successful model in toronto etc. and we’re doing it here. Jesse Rodgers is also organizing it.

Date: Tuesday, December 5th, 2006
Time: 5:30-9:30pm
Location: Waterloo Accelerator Centre, 295 Hagey Blvd.
Expected Attendance: All are welcome! (also, it’s free)

BarCampWaterloo
Simon’s blog post about BarCampWaterloo

Sleemans introduced its Fine Porter two years ago but “for a limited time only.” I liked it and was disappointed to see it go when they reached the time limit. The company reintroduced it earlier this year.

Porter is a type of dark ale made from roasted unmalted barley. Stout, of which Guinness is the best known brand, originated as a type of porter. I made Guinness ice cream in August and soon after decided that I would also make Sleemens Fine Porter ice cream.

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I voted today in municipal elections. I was the 125th person to vote at my poll.

I got a letter size ballot and I cast eight votes in five elections (school board had three positions, regional council had two). Then I carry it in a secrecy folder to the tabulating machine and it gets fed in face down and the secrecy folder is then reused. The number on the LCD screen of the DVS machine indicates which number voter I am.

Supernatural British Columbia’s News and Specials Blog writes a post Don’t take our word for it, part 7 - Bloggers around the globe

Many people are writing about their experiences in British Columbia.

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Ryan describes his camping trip near Mount Currie, close to Whistler and includes some very nice pictures.