Why is it so hard to get a straight answer from Vancouver City Hall? There are some really simple questions whose answers the public has a right to know. First, did the city approve Chief Constable Jim Chu's request for almost $1.3 million for Stanley Cup policing, yes or no? Second, if yes, when did they approve it?

We now learn from an administrative report dated September 1, 2011 that Penny Ballem, the city manager, recommended that Vancouver city council "approve $1,000,000 from the Contingency Fund to cover those expenses that cannot be absorbed by City departments related to the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoff Live Site activation, policing of the public realm, and the incremental costs associated with the riot that took place on June 15, 2011."

The whole event has run the gamut from spectacle to pathetic farce: Vancouver Police Department chief Jim Chu and Vancouver's Gregor Robertson desperately trying to shift blame for the Stanley Cup riot away from their own culpability onto the backs of others. First, the riot was blamed on "anarchists." Alas for Chu and Robertson, some of the normally tame media are having trouble understanding exactly how anarchist mind control of drunks is supposed to work.

Now Chu is going after Robert Whitelaw, one of the contributors to the report on the 1994 report on that year's riot. Chu seems to be hoping that by slagging Whitelaw's contributions to the 1994 report, his own lack of any back up plan will be sidelined.