To Serve and Protect

Another problem we are clearing seeing in Canada or at least in B.C. along with the police brutality is the sheer arrogance that goes along with it. The underlying mandate of to serve and protect has been completely lost.

Of course not all police officers in Canada are bad. Yet the documented problem is much worse than a few bad apples. I had a conflict with an off duty police officer not long ago myself. He was a confrontational bully who bold faced lied about something to get his way. I was shocked. It reminded me of the New Westminster use of force trainer who got drunk before assaulting and robbing a newspaper delivery man in Vancouver. His recollection of the events was a complete contradiction to the victims recollection and two witnesses observations.

Being a bully and assaulting someone is bad enough but lying in court. Coming from a peace officer that is shocking which once again brings us to the lost mandate of serving and protecting the public.

When the use of force trainer is caught red handed beating the tar out of an innocent victim then using his station as a use of force trainer to intimidate a younger police officer from pressing charges, that use of force trainer cannot be the use of force trainer any more. To continue to do so would be to mock the public interest and demonstrate further arrogance and disregard for public safety.

It is past time for a civilian agency.

Conservatives would bungle crime bills

Stephen Harper said a Conservative majority government would bundle unpassed crime legislation into one bill and push it through Parliament within 100 days. And after that, he'll cram the HST through. He'll bungle the crime bills alright. In fact he already did. It's a bungle in the jungle and that's not alright by me.

There is no question that Stephen Harper intentionally screwed BC with the tough on crime bills. The bill as it stands is over reaching. The Liberals tried to amend the bill in the Senate to fix it but because Harper broke his promise to create an elected senate and exploited every opportunity to stack the Senate, they refused to accept the amendment to the bill fixing it.

So now he tells us he's still refusing to fix the bill and insists he will railroad it through without thinking through the necessary amendments. Which isn't surprising since Stephen Harper refuses to listen. He exploited our misfortune for his own personal gain. He doesn't care about us or our problem. If he did he would have fixed it but he didn't. He purposely didn't take the amendment because he wanted the public to get angry at the Liberals for voting down his over reaching crime bills and give him a majority so he can govern.

Stephen Harper does have a hidden agenda. It's not about abortion or same sex marriage, he won't touch those time bombs with a ten foot pole. He wants to privatize everything under the sun and completely remove public accountability from every possible social program from pensions to medical. His first target on his list is doing away with medical and the Canada Health Act.

So, I've said it before, Stephen Harper has lost my vote on the crime bills. Jack Layton on the other hand, like Penny Priddy, Adrian Dix, Mike Farnworth and Bruce Ralston, is putting forth his own suggestions to deal with crime and gangs. Throwing everyone in jail for minor offenses is counter productive and too costly. Mandatory minimum sentences for prolific offenders who commit an insane number of property crimes. They should spend three months in jail. Period. That is not excessive. Not doing so is irresponsible.

Larger sentences for violent crime and for hard drugs would be helpful. But it's all counter productive when Stephen Harper turns around and appoints a lawyer for the Hells Angels to be a judge in the Quebec Supreme Court.

Fleetwood grandma stabbed 126 times

This story doesn't involved gangs or drugs but it is a crime. A heinous one at that. It is a case of domestic violence. Surrey grandmother Maria Catroppa was stabbed 126 times in the Fleetwood townhouse she shared with her second husband, Sebastiano Damin.

The husband, Sebastiano Damin has confessed to the murder. He said his wife was wanting to end their 11 year marriage and told him it was over. So he snapped and stabbed her 126 times. An autopsy revealed 51 stab wounds to the 69-year-old woman's head and neck, 69 to her torso, five to her arms and one to her thigh. Damin was 74 at the time.

That is absolutely bizarre. Stabbed 126 times, 51 times to the head and neck area. That is deranged. And I'm not talking let the guy off for not being of sound mind like we did the guy that decapitated the guy in the greyhound bus. I'm just saying stabbing anyone 126 times is sick especially when it was a case of domestic violence.

It doesn't take a feminist to realize that kind of violence against anyone not to mention women is wrong. Time Magazine wrote a powerful article about domestic violence in Afghanistan. After reading about one case where a man cut off his wife's nose after she threatened to leave him a female friend of mine said she was ready to take a gun and kill all the men in Afghanistan.

No doubt some cultures have some pretty backward views about gender equality. Yet here we have a case in our own town of an equally if not worse case of domestic violence. I don't know what to say other than it is a very sad horrific autrocity. No doubt Maria Catroppa is in a better place and Sebastiano Damin will not be with her or her family in the eternities.

U.S. Government shutdown

I've been asked about what a U.S. Government Shutdown means. I had to look it up because I didn't know. In Canada we can have non confidence votes which will result in an early election but the United States have relatively fixed election terms. I wasn't aware about the Government Shutdown clause.

Apparently this happens when they can't agree on a budget. Essential services like police and military continue but all other nonessential government workers stop going to work. Personally I find that somewhat bizarre but apparently that is the way their system works. Or rather doesn't. Doesn't keep working in a shut down that is.



They can agree to spend billions on the unlawful invasion of Iraq based on a lie and they can spend billions on the bail out the banks scam but God help Obama if he dares spend money on health care. Those selfish conflict of interest politicians will voter no and rather shut down the government. Go figure.

However, part of the controversy appears to be over the use of tax dollars to fund abortions.

Renegades get ripped off

The Prince George Citizen claims it was the Renegades Clubhouse that was broken in to. No one was injured but a quantity of alcohol was stolen. I wonder if there was anything else stolen they didn't report to the police? Any GHB missing? That clubhouse was the site of the recent gang rape before the Hells Angels fund raising dinner in Kamloops where one of the accused resides.

Brittney Irving - one year later

Castanet ran an article about Britney Irving one year after her murder. The day before she was murdered, her boyfriend said she told him she was going to meet someone that is a real bad person. The question that I have is how could she be referring to Joey Verma, the one charged with her murder? Joey was bad but was more of an idiot. He was a low leve drug dealer. Hardly the type of person that would generate fear in anyone.

In fact if, Brittney was selling pot to supply her Oxy habit, then surely she had done business with Joey before. Wouldn't she be concerned if she was meeting a supplier further up the food chain so to speak? May Brittney and Geoff Meisner both Rest in Peace.

Geoff Mantler: Another Public Betrayal

This latest shameful decision is more proof we need a civilian agency to monitor police complaints. Constable Geoff Mantler got off charges in the Jeremy Packer case even though he had physical evidence included a lost tooth. Seemingly this was Mantler's third documented offence. There was another case involving Manjeet Singh Bhatti as well.



Before we spend undisclosed amounts of tax dollars to fill our over crowded drug infested prisons with more people for minor offenses, we need to establish a Civilian Agency and we need to clean up the prisons that we do have.

Privatizing the Military is Dangerous

We have seen the dangerous conflict of interest Dick Cheney's Halliburton created in Iraq. While George Bush kept going to the Senate to ask for more taxpayers money to spend on the unlawful invasion of Iraq, Halliburton was raking in the profit. Not even mentioning the insider conflict of interest that existed within Halliburton, it clearly establishes a very bad precedent.

Privatizing the military to circumvent public accountability is dangerous. Instead of having a Military mandated to provide for the common defense, we have a mercenary force mandated to profit from war without any public accountability whatsoever.

What's even worse is Blackwater's abuse of the laws covering war crimes. Blackwater is a privatized contracted military. They claim that they cannot be sued as civilians for war crimes because they are part of the US Total Force. Yet they also claim that since they are civilians they are not subject to military discipline.

Removing public accountability is not a good thing.

Richard Secord

Richard Secord is a name Al Martin frequently uses when discussing the extended version of the Iran contra. Along with Oliver North of course. Turns out North was Secord's scape goat.

Secord filed a libel case against the authors of a book published in 1987 entitled Out of Control: The Story of the Reagan Administration's Secret War in Nicaragua, the Illegal Pipeline, and the Contra Drug Connection. Secord lost that case.

He was charged in the Iran Contra affair in 1987 and on March 16, 1988, Secord was indicted on six felony charges. On November 8, 1989, Richard Secord plead guilty to one felony count of false statements to Congress, and on January 24, 1990, he was sentenced to two years probation. In 1992 the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia expunged the conviction on the grounds that the US Supreme Court had earlier found the underlying indictment to be illegal and without effect. The Justice Dept. did not oppose the matter. Thus the entire Iran-Contra imbroglio ended for Secord.

Well not exactly. Even if they make him a Fox News host, he was found guilty and got off. Let's take a look at some of the evidence in the trial and let's take a look at that book he sued for libel and lost.

May 5, 1987 during the Iran Contra public hearing, General Richard Secord testifies that CIA Director William Casey was one of the driving forces behind the illegal sales of arms to Iran, and the equally illegal diversion of profits from those arms to the Nicaraguan Contras. Secord, the leadoff witness, testifies that in addition to Casey, CIA and State Department officials aided in the efforts to provide the Contras with weapons and funds.

I think that's the whole point behind the extended version of Iran Contra. It didn't just involve Iran but was deeply involved with funding and supplying the Contras in Nicaragua which was directly tied to Operation Watchtower. Since Oliver North was in charge of everything that went in and out of Nicaragua at the time, it also implicates him.

Al Martin claims that Richard Secord was also tied to Trans World Armaments of Quebec City. He claims that Joe Clark made money off it and that the Brian Mulroney connection was a much bigger scandal in Canada than it ever was in the US. Interesting...

BTW in the picture above Secord's lawyer is talking to him during his testimony at the Iran Contra hearing. Gee I didn't think you were allowed to consult with counsel during your testimony in court...

Bre-X, George Bush and Brian Mulroney

I was just reading in Al Martin's book "The Conspirators" on page 31 where it claims that George Bush was on the Board of Directors for Bre-X and made $40 million off of that fraud.

They made a shoe cannon for Bush when he came to speak at Calagary. No wonder he loves the hard working people of Calgary. He scammed them out of $40 mill.



Al Martin also claims former Prime Minister Joe Clark made money from that fraud as well. Googling it shows Brian Mulroney was also involved. Bre-X was this huge Calgary based gold mining company fraud.

It was billed as the perfect crime because no one was held accountable. Michael de Guzman, the Bre-X geologist also died of a suspicious suicide. It was a $3 billion hoax.

The mining company collapsed after it was discovered that drilling sample bags had been sprinkled with outside bullion to inflate the results. Thousands of investors lost money, triggering a series of lawsuits against the company, Walsh and Felderhof.

Al Martin claims Joe Clark made money off Bre-X as well as Bush. Investing in Bre-X is different then making money off of it. Many innocent people invested in Bre-X and lost their shirt when it collapsed. People who sold at precisely the right time before it crashed and made a killing are suspect for insider trading.

Bre-X investor Jack Kindermann, who lost $500,000, had little sympathy Monday for Felderhof, who allegedly sold $84 million worth of stock prior to the company's collapse.

Al Martin claims that Bre-X is just another example of the continuation of the original fraud that links back to Iran-Contra. Martin claims that Iran-Contra was the genesis for a lot of the fraud that exists today. In some cases, not even the corporate names have changed. Seemingly, drug trafficking was only one aspect of Iran contra. There was a huge amount of spin off fraud that was used to raise funds as well.

One of these examples he gives in Trinity Oil and Gas (page 106) which he claims was founded in 1984 by the infamous Barry Seal. Barry Seal as we all know was the scape goat for all the CIA drug smuggling that went on out of Mena Arkansas.

Martin claims Trinity Oil and Gas was not only designed simply to be a fraud, but also as a vehicle to launder Barry Seal's money -- money that Barry Seal was earning from his narcotics activity. Martin sates there was much more to this man than simply drugs. His money laundering in corporate operations is an area which has never been touched.

It kind of reminds me how Raymond Sturgeon was tied to the company involved with Mulroney's helicopters as well as Harper's Jets. Not to mention the perpetual fraud of Harper's senior advisor Bruce Carson. Much. Then again those deals weren't directly tied to drugs.

It's reminiscent of Enron, the ultimate in corporate fraud where the US tried to privatize it's energy to it's insider friends. The Bush administration was tied to that fraud too. In fact, just like Bruce Carson, the Bush administration gave the Thomas E. White, the Enron book cooker a promotion to be the official book cooker form the Pentagon's missing three trillion dollars until public pressure from his involvement with Enron forced them to get rid of him.

Let's not forget Mulroney's involvement in the $1.8 billion sale of Airbus SAS aircraft to Air Canada wherein he was accused of getting kickbacks. Tears swelled up in his eyes in court when people thought he was a criminal. How sad.



All I can find so far is that Barrick gold was somehow tied to Bre-x and that George Bush served in an honorary capacity as an advisor to Barrick’s International Advisory Board for two years in the mid 1990’s. Another source claims Brian Mulroney was also an advisor to Barrick Gold. In fact Mulroney is curently still listed as a member of the Board of Directors for Barrick and is Chairman of Barrick’s International Advisory Board. It claims Mulroney has been a Director of Barrick since 1993. 1993 was the year Bre-X bought rights to the mine in Indonesia. Yet another source claims George Bush became a director of Barrick gold in 1995.

Interesting to note that the Green Party claims the Harper government has intervened to further the economic interests of Mr. Munk and Mr. Mulroney. Finance minister Jim Flaherty took what the Globe and Mail (May 7, page B1) called “the unusual step of intervening” by phoning CIBC executives to pressure them to settle up with Barrick Gold Corporation over a dispute over losses related to the current asset-backed commercial paper (ABCP) meltdown. Maybe this is why they're not letting the Green Party participate in the televised debate this time.

Joe Clark was a special advisor on Africa for the mining company First Quantum Mineral, which did contraverial work in the Congo.