[Analogs – Cell Phones Ban – Children – CMP Smart Meters Overbilling Class Action Lawsuit (Docket No. CV-18-324, Lipman & Katz, Mark Levesque, Trafton, Matzen, Belleau & Frenette) – CPUC – Doug Herling – Emera Maine – EMF – Freedom to Say No to Smart Meters – Gail Rice – Health – Herbert Adams Complaint – Iberdrola (Avangrid) – Itron Smart Meters – J. Sparacino Letter to John Horgan re BC Hydro Smart Metering Program & Opt-out Fees – Letter to Esther Enkin re BC Human Rights Tribunal & Decision by Walter Rilkoff (Article by Bethany Lindsay, EHS / ES Accommodation, Studies) – Letter to Navdeep Bains re Huawei & Security (5G Lab, Five Eyes, Telus) – Liberty Consulting Group of Pennsylvania – Mark Graham vs. SMUD Lawsuit (Case #2016-00188891) – No Smart Meter (Randal Barrett) – NTP – Pacific Power Opt Out (Aclara Installers) – Parents for Safe Schools – PhoneGate Alert – Power Outages (AMI Outage Data, Higher Bills Complaints, Public Advocate’s Office, Storm Audit) – Privacy – PUC (Mark Vannoy) – RF – Safety – WHO – Wi-Fi in Schools | Vancouver, BC – Nova Scotia – Canada – Australia – EU – France – Spain – California & Maine & Medford, Oregon, USA] & audios & Websites

1)    As the new school year approaches, more children will be exposed to high levels of RF in their rooms, most likely higher levels than are in their homes. It’s time for parents to campaign for a safer school environment.

(click on photos to enlarge)

Parents, teachers and students want to know why the “No Cell Phone” policy has not been implemented in our Schools?

“More and more schools are applying a ‘No Cell Phone’ policy during school hours due to distractions that negatively impact learning. This has made a huge impact on the reduction of radiation exposure our children are experiencing in our classrooms.  The US National Toxicology Program, Expert Panel, recently concluded there is “Clear Evidence of Carcinogenic Activity” and the association of cancer in the heart and brain and cell phone radiation. We can’t afford to ignore this health risk for another school year.”

https://parentsforasafeschool.blogspot.com/2018/08/parents-teachers-and-students-want-to.html

2)    Groups in Medford, Oregon are organizing to protest a smeter program that was approved by the Public Utilities Commission without proper notice. Another utility is allowing people to keep their analogs (which is not unusual).

Many utilities are allowing customers to keep analogs permanently – yet BC Hydro insists that this is impossible with their system. Why?  Is BC Hydro that incompetent?  Is the ITRON system that inflexible?

The fees being proposed are higher than ours!! with a one-time payment of $137 and a monthly fee of $35.

Local volunteers plan action against smart meters

MEDFORD, Ore. — Multiple groups of Jackson County residents teamed up to say “no” to smart meters.

The groups have a number of plans in the works.“Freedom to Say No to Smart Meters” is an organization preparing a presentation for the Jackson County Commissioners, asking them to send a letter of denial to the Public Utilities Commission.

Another group, called “No Smart Meter,” is organizing a demonstration outside of Pacific Power.

https://ktvl.com/news/local/local-volunteers-plan-action-against-smart-meters 

3)    It sounds as if Pacific Power is trying to do a sneak attack on much of the Oregon / North California area.

“Without notification back in June, Pacific Power started installing smart meters for residences with “slow” analog meters and where access is difficult (dogs, locked out of property, etc.). Now, although the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) hasn’t made a final decision (however the CPUC has released a proposed decision); there has been little or no notification given; and many issues are still up in the air, Pacific Power has begun full deployment of smart meters in Mount Shasta, and apparently throughout the county since there are approximately 60 installers doing deployment.”

http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/opinion/20180803/letter-to-editor-smart-meters-have-arrived

4)    An audit done in Maine, about the performance of the utilities during bad storms last Fall, concluded that the smeters failed to report outage data accurately, leading to inflated bills.  There are lawsuits ongoing about the many billing errors in Maine and independent audits are being done.

Regulators say Maine power utilities responded ‘reasonably’ to damaging October storm

Still, the Public Utilities Commission finds fault with CMP and Emera Maine’s outage reporting systems.

The PUC found that both CMP and Emera took reasonable steps to prepare for the storm, but it found problems with both companies’ outage reporting systems. 

In CMP’s case, the PUC said the company’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure, or AMI – also known as “smart meters” – often failed to accurately convey outage data. Many customers complained that CMP’s phone- and web-based outage reporting systems provided inconsistent or false information following the storm. 

“In instances where a significant part of the system is without power, CMP has acknowledged that the AMI system does not work well,” the PUC report says. “The lack of actual AMI data in the October storm may have caused CMP to rely more heavily on the outage assumptions feeding into the predictive modeling algorithm. CMP has acknowledged that the model produced flawed results in certain instances … ”

https://www.pressherald.com/2018/08/03/regulator-says-maine-power-utilities-reacted-reasonably-to-october-storm/

Letters:

From: J. Sparacino  (name given with permission)
Sent: August 3, 2018
To: Office of the Premier, BC John Horgan <Premier@gov.bc.ca>
Subject: Smart meters

Honourable John Horgan
Premier, Province of British Columbia, Canada

Dear John,

First, thank you for the job you are doing for the people of British Columbia. I know you’ve had some hard decisions to make but I think you have done well.

Below is an excerpt from a newsletter that I think you should consider. The new executive of BC Hydro should also read this but I wanted you to have it first.

Many of us have been concerned about the way we have been misled, misinformed, and plain lied to by the previous administration and the executive of BC Hydro. Many of us want our analogue meters back and many of us want our money back for the outrageous fees imposed by the previous administration and executive of BC Hydro for opting out of the smart meter program.

By now I’m sure you know that this program has been a debacle from the start in terms of severely underestimated costs of installation and maintenance with results terribly short of expectation. I think it’s time to correct this grave mistake as it is being corrected in other areas as demonstrated by the information below:

A lawsuit was filed and dismissed a couple of years ago (and is being appealed) against Sacramento Municipal Utility District because he was not given the choice to “opt in” to the smeter program, which was the program that was approved in 2007.  People are allowed to keep their analogs or to have their smeters replaced by an analog – but according to this site, the utility company keeps this option silent.  Notice the monthly fees: $14 for SMUD and $10 for only 36 months.  So much for BC Hydro’s claims that 1) the grid won’t work if some people have analogs and 2) no more analogs are available. If people in California are allowed to keep their analogs, the utilities must have a source for new analogs.

“In March 2012 the Board created an “opt out” policy which allowed SMUD customers living in single family homes to exchange their smart meter for a non-transmitting digital meter.  The charges were $127 for the meter plus $39 per month, which deterred many customers.  In March 2013 the Board amended the opt out policy to allow customers to receive an analog meter and lowered the monthly fee to $14.

By comparison PG&E customers are allowed to opt out and pay $75 for the new analog meter plus $10 per month, but only have to pay the $10 for 36 months.  PG&E puts a notice on page 1 of the bill to inform its customers that they can opt out.  PG&E also has a drawing  

http://www.pge.com/en/myhome/customerservice/smartmeter/optout/index.page

To this date SMUD has not notified its customers that they can have their smart meter removed and have an analog meter installed.  Graham has repeatedly asked SMUD to notify customers.

http://www.sacsmartmeters.org/smud-lawsuit/

I think it is time to be honest with us with regards to this program, the availability of analogue meters, and make the appropriate corrections and adjustments we expect from the new government we elected.

Thank you,
J. Sparacino

__________________________________________________________________________

From: X
Sent: August 2, 2018
To: Navdeep.Bains@parl.gc.ca
Subject: Vulnerability of British Columbians to Huawei

Dear Mr. Bains

By now it should be evident to anyone on the planet that the new form of global aggression is cyber.  Huawei has provided all the transmitters for Telus’s microcells in BC and is a partner in the pilot projects for 5G in Vancouver.  I draw your attention to the article in the Globe & Mail – see link below.

What is your government doing to ensure our security?  Are you working with other levels of government and Canadian corporations?

X

Morning Update: Ottawa’s worries grow over Huawei’s global ambitions

Canadian officials will not say what measures Canada might take against Huawei, but the senior government insider said national-security officials have been consulting their counterparts in Australia, which is reportedly preparing to ban Huawei from supplying equipment for its planned 5G wireless network. Huawei has already been virtually shut out of the giant U.S. market because of national-security concerns and effectively banned from that country’s future 5G network.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-morning-update-ottawas-worries-grow-over-huaweis-global-ambitions/

Here is the entire article.  https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawa-sees-chinese-owned-huawei-as-major-security-threat-senior/

_________________________________________________________________________

From: XX
Sent: August 1, 2018
To: Esther Enkin <ombudsman@cbc.ca>
Cc: Sharon Noble
Subject: Follow-up to Complaint about Student’s HR Violation

Dear Ms Enkin:

Thank you for your response to my email when you sent me your email to Sharon Noble and cc’ed me.  I am grateful that you are taking this issue seriously.

I continue to wait for a response from Ms. McGuire, General Manager and Editor in Charge of CBC News, and/or from Ms. Lindsay.

The poor coverage of the loss of this critical legal battle is an affront to the countless people who suffer from EMF.  Throughout the world, there are instances where students who suffer are accommodated, and some schools have completely eliminated wifi and electromagnetic frequency (EMF)-related devices.  We, in Canada, hold our heads up too high sometimes, and this is one of those times.

Without a doubt, the biased article by Ms. Lindsay has made life more difficult for this young EMF-sufferer, who simply wants to be able to go to a public school.  Peanut allergies are accommodated for and are respected.  EMF sensitivities should be as well.  In addition, there is much scientific evidence supporting the fact that all living beings are being adversely [affected] by EMF, and that the sensitivities are worse in children and in those who are more exposed.

Common sense tells us that to go to the extremes this student and his caring family have gone to, just to secure a healthful school environment, that this student’s motivation to be able to attend a public school is high.

Again, I am shocked by the legal outcome, and this biased and demeaning journalism deepens my shock.

Best regards,
XX
Retired BC Educator

Sharon Noble
Director, Coalition to Stop Smart Meters

“Activism is the rent I pay for living on this planet.”
~ Alice Walker

www.facebook.com/Coalitiontostopsmartmeters