There are secret words to watch out for from politicians that can help you decode their true message. One of them is “intent.”

Governments profess support for the “intent” of recommendations when they don’t really like what’s been suggested, but for whatever reason can’t say that out loud. Instead, politicians will deploy the word “intent” in clever ways to make it appear they’re about to do something specific, when in reality they intend to go off in a different direction.

That phrasing played out repeatedly in the B.C. government’s recent response to the commission of inquiry into public safety, struck after an attacker in a vehicle killed 11 people at the Lapu-Lapu Day festival in Vancouver on April 26.

Former justice Christopher Hinkson released a 64-page report into how to improve public safety at community events, with six recommendations for the province.

“We accept the intent of all the recommendations,” was the response from Terry Yung, B.C.’s minister of state for community safety.

Four times the minister used the phrase in his press conference.

“We fully accept the intent of these recommendations,” he said, after one........

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