This just in: Vancouver hates peace

Vancouver's city council has pulled funding for a planned peace conference that was to be part of the World Peace Forum in June.

The move was supported by all Non-Partisan Association councillors. Vision Vancouver and COPE councillors, who first approved funding for the conference when they were in power last March, voted against the motion passed today.

Mayor Sam Sullivan blamed a tight budget for the move. The city is facing a steep 6.4 per cent tax increase as part of its yearly budgeting decisions.

"We are facing some very tough decisions in the 2006 budget process and I was not prepared to put Vancouver taxpayers on the hook for additional costs," Sullivan said in a prepared press release.

The costs for the conference were supposed to fall within a $50,000 range. City staff worried the costs could have ballooned to $200,000, however, which prompted Sullivan and his staff last month to blame potential budget overuns on the previous council.

The move had critics, aka the damned liberal media, charging Sullivan with setting up a smokescreen for more significant cuts to come, given the relatively small amount of money compared to the city's overall budget the conference would have commanded.

And it inspired positively warlike words from World Peace Forum communications coordinator Rosamelia Andrade:

"This is clearly an excuse and a campaign against the Vancouver peace movement because Sullivan doesn't believe the people in Vancouver who want to promote world peace are his friends. He thinks peace activists are leftie troublemakers."

You read it here first: Sam Sullivan hates peace. And possibly cute fuzzy animals.

Here's a portion of Andrade's vitriolic press release:

Date: Thursday, January 19, 2006 1:25 PM From: Rosamelia Andrade

WORLD PEACE FORUM 2006

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sullivan's war on peace

Vancouver, January 19, 2006
The World Peace Forum 2006 will not be the cause for Mayor Sullivan to rise up property taxes for Vancouver homeowners. Sullivan has been constantly blaming the Peace Forum and the Peace Messenger Cities conference for the city's budgetary problems. If this was indeed a budget issue, Sullivan would have much better targets to save money.

During the City Council meeting that took place on March 31, 2005, the motion to host the World Peace Forum in Vancouver in 2006 passed unanimously with the support of all City Councillors who were present, including Sam Sullivan. The motion also approved $50,000 to organize the Peace Messenger Cities conference.

Sullivan says he expects more bills loom for such things as meals and security, but he has offered no evidence or reason for this expectation. The city's exposure is set and limited to the $50,000 to host the mayors, and $100,000 to support the Peace Forum venues. The $50,000 funds will not be used to pay for costly expenses such as air fare, accommodation and food for mayors. These expenses will be covered by the city governments that will send their representatives to attend the
conference.

According to Sullivan the excessive city expenses will force him to increase property taxes by 8.1 percent this year. And he is expecting to save costs by canceling two conferences that will cost $150,000 in total, which represents 0.5 percent of the $30 million shortfall that he claims the city faces.

This is clearly an excuse and a campaign against the Vancouver peace movement because Sullivan doesn't believe the people in Vancouver who want to promote world peace are his friends. He thinks peace activists are leftie troublemakers.

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Tags: vancouver , sam sullivan , world peace forum