Regional Police Force

Locally, John Ferry wrote an article in the Vancouver Province calling for a Metro police force that he hopes will solve all the world's problems. Obviously, that's going to generate a knee jerk reaction from the RCMP. Personally I don't see a metro police force in BC being the solution to anything. Point granted it works in Ontario. But this isn't Ontario. Ontario has a much larger population base.

Take Surrey for example. We don't have City police in Surrey, we have the RCMP. In fact, the RCMP musical ride is part of our historical tradition in Surrey. For us to give up the RCMP would be like trading in a longstanding historical tradition for a mall cop. I don't think we want a Regional police force in Surrey.

Although there is merit in the concern that our current system is fragmented, let's think about how it got that way. Vancouver wanted it's own police force. So they made one. The same with Delta and New Westminster. They wanted more control over their own policing so that is what they decided to do. I don't think those cities want to give up their control over their own police forces.

Then comes the issue of unionization. Some people love unions, some people hate them. The feeling that I get from the RCMP is that they prefer not to be unionized. That is their choice. Just like it's Vancouver's right to chose unionization.

Personally, I'm an idealist. I support the historical tradition and the values portrayed within the RCMP. I'll be the first one to agree the RCMP needs help. Everyone likes to cite the taser incident at the airport over and over and claim that is proof why we need a regional police force. But it's not. VPD has had it's share of police brutality complaints. The use of force instructer in New Westminster got drunk and robbed a newspaper deliveryman with two of his buddies.

What we do need in BC is a civilian agency that monitors police complaints. That is a given. It needs to oversee all policing in the province not just one force. The taser incident in the airport is over rated. Yes it was an absolute tragedy. Yes the police misused the taser. Remember it's the airport. With all this terrorist frenzy it isn't surprising the police over reacted in a call to make the peace in the airport.

Saying that a regional police force would have prevented the Vancouver riot is somewhat absurd. Yes the police were under prepared. We just came off the Olympic high. We didn't really think the mob would flip to the other extreme so fast over something so senseless. That certainly doesn't mean we want to march around with the SS breaking into homes and removing civil liberties. Jim Chu is a good man. I still think he would be perfect at the head of the RCMP if he so chose. Yet perhaps a better choice would be to promote someone from within. Having a civilian lead the RCMP is kind of like having a civilian be a general in the army.

I like the idea of speaking with an RCMP officer in Surrey from Quebec. I like the idea of an RCMP officer from Surrey serving in Quebec as well. One of the problems with a City police force is stagnation. I think working main and Hastings for your entire career could get you down after a while. I think having the option to transfer out would be good and I think giving other officers the chance to work Main and Hastings would be a eye opener for them as well.

Perhaps the best way to over come the fragmented system is to have the various agencies work together. Imagine that. As long as there is the threat of doing away with the RCMP or having VPD give up it's control of it's policing, all the agencies get territorial and protective. Let's keep the status quo and encourage more interaction between the forces.

Ontario's Biker Enforcement Unit came out to Langley when the Whiterock Hells Angels had a party there. Why can't RCMP officers go on an exchange with VPD officers and visa versa. By building those kinds of relationships you break down the walls of ignorance and stereotypes and you promote interaction. It's like I've got a friend in the VPD I trust so I can share information with him or visa versa.

I think we should preserve the RCMP. I do think Stephen Harper spending millions on promoting the RCMP "brand" while at the same time cutting funding for the RCMP and the Gang Task Force is hypocritical and bizarre. Yet preserving good traditions helps us carve out and retain our unique identity as a nation.

It's like Paul Gross in the TV Series Due South. Ya gotta love that optimistic Dudley Do Right naivety the character portrayed. Seeing the RCMP on police boats in Pitt Lake was inspiring. It's like the adage of how the Mountie always gets his man. It reminded me of seeing a police presence in Surrey Central complete with volunteers, a mobile command center and auxiliary police officers on quads for chasing down suspects in Surrey parks. That was awesome. Let's preserve our heritage and not trade it in for mall cops. This is our home. That makes it worth fighting for.

Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Unit

After I checked out the Haney Hells Angels clubhouse I went over to soak up the sun at Pitt Lake. Low and behold there were two police boats on site filled with RCMP and some representatives from the Outlaw Motorcycle Gang Unit. I didn't know we had one. Seemingly they are a branch of the CFSEU - Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit. Now that's what I'm talking about. This is one unit well worth funding.



Word on the street is that some gang members were having a party on the lake recently. That must be why the police were making their presence known. The more public the gangs are the more it attracts the police like a magnet. Maybe they were looking for Larry Amero's boat. With all those huge boats on the lake, some of them have got to be drug dealers. I prefer paddling up Widgeon creek and hiking up to the falls myself.

Haney Hells Angels Clubhouse

I'm working on a Haney and Maple Ridge spotlight like I have for Kelowna. In the means time I thought I should post the location of the Haney Hells Angels Clubhouse in Pitt Meadows / Maple Ridge. It's right on the way to Pitt Lake. I had no idea I've driven by it so many times.

If you take Old Dewdney Truck Road it's right after Hale Road before Neaves Road which takes you to Pitt Lake. It's right beside 13843 McKechnie Rd. It kinda looks like the Whiterock Clubhouse in Langley. A Gated fence with the big red barn thing going. Only all the red and white mixed together kinda looks pink. Not that there's anything wrong with that.



I also noticed that Haney Ink is right beside Spike's motorcycle shop Haney Hawgs on Maple Cresent and has Stocky i.e. Vince Brienza listed as president and board member. I guess he didn't od after all.

Mortgage fraud in Canada

Mortgage fraud threatens our economic stability. BMO is suing over a huge mortgage fraud. Part of the fraud involves selling a house that is falsely valued much more than it's worth. Another aspect of the fraud is when a con man fakes a debt and fraudulently puts a lien on the home. The BMO claims the scheme generated $70 million in fraudulently obtained mortgages, costing the bank $30 million in potential losses. It is believed to be the biggest mortgage fraud in Canadian history, according to court documents first uncovered by CBC News. Calgary Northeast MP for Prime Minister Stephen Harper's federal Conservatives Devinder Shory is among hundreds of individuals and companies named as defendants in an alleged massive fraud scheme against the Bank of Montreal. Mortgage fraud and lax mortgage rules were blamed in part for what has happened in the U.S housing crisis. Ottawa urged to toughen penalties for type of activity alleged in BMO suit involving Tory MP. Meanwhile, back on the ranch, Bernard Madoff, who ran one of the biggest Wall Street frauds in history, says that many of his former colleagues in the financial industry are also crooks. In a prison interview with Fox Business Network, Madoff claimed insider trading "goes on at every level of the industry in plain sight." Locally, ex-Calgary oil CEO, Benjamin Koorbatoff, has been jailed for two years as judge cites Madoff case.

The Conservatives are coming

Don't look now but the BC Conservatives are coming. BC Conservatives leader John Cummins said "Conservative-minded people are fed up with the lack of choice in provincial politics."

"One of the reasons the Liberals and the NDP are out of touch with so many people is that they owe everything to the special interests. They fund their campaigns with money from big corporations and big unions. They do not have to listen to the people."

The BC Conservatives oppose the Carbon tax and support small business. They're not PC as in Regressive Conservatives returning to pork barrel tax and spend politics. They are TC - Traditional Conservative. They believe in the old ways and the old morals the Neo Cons have apostatized from. Looks like BC voters will have a choice next election. Let's hope we can learn from Gordon Campbell's arrogant deviation from democracy and move forward with a positive spirit of hard work and fiscal accountability.

Paul Forseth has stepped up to the plate. He's a credible candidate.

BC voters kill HST

Voters in British Columbia have voted to dump the Harmonized Sales Tax after the results of a provincial referendum were released today. The tax has been ousted with 54.73 per cent of voters turning it down.

B.C. will now return to paying a 5 per cent Goods and Services Tax and a 7 per cent provincial sales tax. That means all the previous items that were except from GST will hopefully return to that same exemption. The big lie was a 10% tax on things that were previously tax exempt was a tax increase.

Jim Sinclair, president of the B.C. Federation of Labour, said the HST represented an unfair tax shift of $2 billion from corporations to families. In February 2010, British Columbia's Chief Electoral Office approved a petition submitted by William Vander Zalm, a former B.C. premier, to rescind the HST and restore the PST.

More than 500,000 people signed the petition against the tax, triggering B.C.'s unique direct democracy laws that forced the vote. Elections BC, the agency monitoring the vote, told The Canadian Press on Friday that about 1.6 million British Columbians, or about 52 per cent of registered voters, had their say in the referendum.

Can we now vote on Gordon Campbell's appointment to the British High Commission? Alberta has no provincial sales tax. That practice increases business revenue and promotes small business. When the neo cons return to tax and spend pork barrel politics it's time to return to the traditional values the neo cons have apostatized from.

Dain Phillips murder trial

The trial involving two little boys at the root of the conflict which recruited the assistance of the Hells angels to beat a father to death in Kelowna with baseball bats and hammers is under way. They were grinning from ear to ear outside the courthouse which is an offensive mockery of the murder.

It's just like the kids who were laughing outside the courthouse in the swarming of Michael Levi. In that case a large number of kids swarmed Levi, bear sprayed him, gave him the boots then took an axe to the back of his head and left him a paraplegic. They were seen laughing outside court. If they had any remorse whatsoever, they would not have been laughing.

Releasing them on bail was disapointing. It just reinforced the cocky unaccountable attitude which created the problem in the first place. Obviously, the Hells angels decision to get involved in a high school feud was insane. As is this shameful mockery of human life.

Drunk with a gun

A Kelowna drunk with an outstanding warrant in Edmonton was arrested last night on various weapons charges. Witnesses claim he was standing outside a bar in Kelowna "waiting" for someone and someone noticed a bulge in his pants that was indeed a .45 pistol.

His name is Grant Victor David Lewis and is due back in court 9:30 AM August 26 2011. Police claim he is affiliated with organized crime in Edmonton. Isn't being in possession of an illegal firearm while drunk like a DUI?

The Passing of Jack Layton

I am deeply saddened by the news of Jack Layton's passing. When he came to Surrey he walked with a cane but he spoke with a revised strength. He had a vision. I share many of his values. I support public medical. That doesn't make me a socialist. It was absurd listening to the attack adds of Stephen Harper's Storm Troopers that kept repeating socialist over and over again like a deranged parrot. Alberta has free medical. According to Stephen Harper even Alberta are socialists.

Jack Layton will be remembered fondly as is Chuck Cadman. Jack won't go down in the annals of tyranny like Alfonso Gagliano and Brian Mulroney. I really don't think Jack was the kind of guy that would invade another country for their oil. I really don't think Jack was the kind of guy that would repeatedly fire and harass whistle blowers for telling the truth. I really don't think Jack was the kind of guy that would have endorsed torture. His passing is a deep loss for the country.

I found it profoundly ironic to hear a "left wing" politician speak out in support of small business and against sales taxes that hurt small business. Alberta has no sales tax and is fiscally responsible. That's why they were able to offer free medical insurance. It was somewhat shocking to see a Prime Minister from Alberta raise sale taxes and try and do away with public medical insurance. Somehow I don't think Stephen Harper will be remembered as fondly as Jack Layton or Chuck Cadman when he passes on.

My father used to say, follow the fellow who follows a dream. Jack Layton shared his dream with all of us. There is no reason we have to abandon that dream for cruel intolerance that gives up our sovereignty and our civil liberties. The new interim leader of the NDP, the one nominated by Jack Layton himself, used to be a member of the Bloc Quebecois. Now she is a federalist. Welcome. We all should be inspired by Quebec's vision for the future.

Jack Layton's parting words. "My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world."

Operation Fast and Furious

Freddy sent me this link surprisingly enough and I think it's well worth discussing. Especially since we were told that some of the recent drug busts in Kelowna had ties to the Mexican cartels.

The link claims Washington Times journalists cite a "CIA Insider" who claims that Operation Fast and Furious was a Central Intelligence Agency-orchestrated program to arm the Sinaloa drug cartel, a group that was also given the green light to fly tons of cocaine into the United States. No this isn't a Vin Deisel movie, this is real life. IRL.

Former ATF agent William Newell, testified before a Congressional hearing and testified that the Internal Revenue Service, Drug Enforcement Administration and Immigration and Customs Enforcement were “full partners” in Operation Fast and Furious. The Washington times journalists claim their sources stated that the CIA was also involved in that list.

The Obama administration and the ATF claim that the Fast and Furious program was part of a sting operation to catch leading Mexican drug runners, and yet it’s admitted that the government stopped tracking the firearms as soon as they reached the border, defeating the entire object of the mission.

That sounds familiar. Kinda like how when Judge Bonner was with the DEA he complained about the CIA bringing in a ton of cocaine into Florida. The CIA kept denying it over and over again until Judge Bonner went on 60 minutes and documented everything. Then they finally admitted it and said it was a mistake and it was the only occasion. They claimed then, like they claim now, their bringing in the cocaine was part of a sting operation. Gain the bad guys trust to bring in one shipment, then bust them for a later bigger shipment. Only there was no follow up bust.

So Operation Fast and Furious was once again arms in exchange for cocaine. Has the final destination of any of that cocaine been traced? Since there were two huge cross border pot for cocaine drug rings involving the Hells Angels in BC recently, I wonder if any of that cocaine made it's way into Canada?

There have been several cases of arms dealing in the south that claimed to arm the Mexican cartels. I cited one case not long ago that involved the City's mayor and police chief. Don't ya just love American politics? Everything is bigger and better there. Even their scandals.

In that case I cited the boldness of the police chief. After the FBI caught them and confiscated some of the firearms that were being shipped into Mexico and sold to the cartels, the police chief was bold enough to ask for the guns back. Without citing tangible facts, I made a simple speculation. I asked why would the police chief risk his career by asking for the guns back? One possibility was if he had the backing of the CIA, perhaps he felt that operation outranked the FBI and they would in fact return the weapons. That's when everyone got all up in my grill saying that was absurd. Well when we look at the tangible testimony of Operation Fast and Furious, it doesn't sound that far off now does it.

In Operation Fast and Furious, the ATF deny it promoted the operation and found three scapegoats to take the fall. Again. Video clip from Congressional hearing. What did you mean when you said you didn't get this from me?