Judicial Arrogance not up for Review

The Vancouver Province is reporting that the judges don’t want their independence to be under review and claim that they need to educate the stupid public about what it means to be learned in law. No big surprise there. No doubt the police didn't want a civilian body to deal with police complaints either.

Before a judge becomes a judge they have to be a lawyer first. At one public demonstration about judicial unaccountability, one man comes up to me and says, all judges at one time were lawyers. At what point does a crooked lawyer become an honest judge? Is there some kind of epiphany that’s supposed to take place because I’m not seeing it.

Judicial arrogance is nothing new. Lawyers and judges think they are better than everyone else because they are learned in the law and the public isn’t. That makes them better in their eyes. That’s why they refer to each other as their learned friend in court. I remember getting in a fight with one lawyer once as we were arguing in front of the trial coordinator about what direction the judge gave us for our next court date. I referred to him as my friend then proceeded to state my objections.

The other lawyer snapped. He went on this tirade about this and that then insisted I wasn’t a lawyer, I was unrepresented. The trial coordinator was surprised as she thought I was a lawyer and told me I’m not allowed to refer to him as my friend which obviously gave the implication that I was a lawyer. I said I am the other party and I am representing myself. I have the same rights as any other lawyer. I can’t call him my friend? He’s not my friend? How about buddy? Can I refer to him as my buddy? You could see the steam spewing out of the other lawyer’s eyeballs. He was furious.

Right before that he tried to get me to withdraw my application. We had made cross applications in court. He saw I was winning so he withdrew his application. I said to the judge that I had also made an application and have already served the other party with it. If they want to withdraw their application, I want to proceed with mine. He freaked. He asked me to withdraw and I just said I’m sorry but I believe proceeding with my application is the right thing to do. He came unglued and started yelling and freaking out right outside the courtroom.

After he left a friend noticed me and said Hi. I jokingly said sorry you had to see that. They asked why the other lawyer was so upset. I said he’s losing and he knows it. He wants me to withdraw my application and I said no. I joked and said when the other lawyer starts yelling at you, that’s a good sign. It means you’re right and they’re scared so they want you to back down. When the other lawyer is laughing at you, that’s isn’t a good sign. It means you’re screwed.

Aside from being arrogant, judges don’t want to be accountable because they don’t see interpretation of the law as a survey of public opinion. On the surface that argument has merit. Interpretation of the law isn’t a matter for Pontius Pilate to survey the mob. However, we do have a problem and their arrogant denial of that fact isn’t going to help solve the problem.

Right now we have no real mechanism to get rid of a bad judge. We need one. Peter Leask is a prime example. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to understand what justice is and isn’t. Giving someone house arrest for trafficking cocaine is not right. I don’t care how much watered down jurisprudence you’ve memorized. The law answers to natural justice. Most lawyers and many judges have no concept of natural justice whatsoever.

I remember back when we started this blog and website there were several demonstrations calling for more judicial accountability. One group kept showing up with signs that boldly declared : “Judges are the Problem.” They printed up T-shirts that said “Revolving Door makes Judges Accomplices” and “100% Contempt for BC Judges.” Their beef was property theft.

They had a guy named Jamie Pool in their neighborhood who kept ripping them off. The police knew who he was. Every time he was arrested he was given less time served not more. This infuriated the residents, understandably so.

In the United States they have a policy called three strikes you’re out. After making the same mistake three times, you get the book thrown at you. In contrast the VPD launched a proposal called 30 strikes and you’re out. As ludicrous as that sounds, they weren’t kidding. Our current system has a huge problem with chronic offenders. That still needs to be addressed.

Some people, mostly judges, claim you’re not allowed to criticize a Judge. Retired Judge Wallace Craig disagrees. He has seen the judicial pendulum of justice swing in the wrong direction and he claims that criticizing judges who make bad decisions is a moral duty. I agree. If our arrogant court judges aren't publicly accountable, then we don't have a democratic system. In the United States court judges are elected and can be impeached. Here they are untouchable.

Winnipeg Hells Angels President busted in Flatlined

Police arrested 11 suspects in the culmination of an extensive undercover project called "Flatlined" which involved targeting high-level drug sales throughout the province. They include current Hells Angels president Dale Sweeney and his brother Rod, a full-patch member.

Interesting to note that when Gerald Blanchard was busted for his involvement in an international crime ring involving theft and fraud, police also found "various papers and phone numbers" for local Hells Angel Dale Sweeney.

I guess Dale Sweeney took over after Dale Donavon and Sean Wolfe went to prison for selling crack through the Zig Zag crew. Sure sounds like a criminal organization to me.

State of the Rebellion

The large banner add in the middle of Neil Hall’s book has got me thinking. We’ve been doing this website and blog for a while now. Three years and over three million hits later, what have we really accomplished? I’m sure some would say absolutely nothing. The blog has been a complete waste of time. Yet it has raised public awareness about the Hells Angels’ involvement in the drug trade and the BC gang war.

Neil Hall’s book The Hells Angels vs the Million dollar rat has helped document the connection between the East Vancouver Hells Angels and the Vancouver drug trade. Something that Wally Oppal didn’t want discussed. Not just Ron Lising and John Punko’s involvement in the cocaine trade. Their ties to Kerry Ryan and the meth trade as well. Last December the OMGU busted up a series of meth labs ran by bikers. We all know which bikers they are referring to. They also ran a meth lab in Kelowna that was a large production point for the interior.

It’s not just a matter of a few members of the Hells Angels getting caught selling drugs. It’s a matter of the Hells Angels using their name and reputation to enforce for the drug dealers that sell their drugs. This is not new and this is not limited to Surrey and Vancouver. It has become the past practice in Quebec and Winnipeg as well as small towns across the entire country.

Not only have we established the Hells Angels involvement in the local drug trade, we’ve also established their use of violence to control the drug trade as well as the Stripper agencies in BC and the prostitution. Some sources claim that a prostitute can’t be a prostitute in Maple Ridge unless she worked for the Hells Angels. The Hells Angels use of violence in the sex trade industry is very concerning as well as their connection to the Pickton farm.

Another thing we’ve discussed on the web site and blog is how the drug trade has infiltrated higher levels of government as shown in Operation Fast and Furious. Operation Fast and Furious made the news when government agencies were caught selling the Mexican cartels guns and brought back tons of cocaine as payment. The big outrage was selling the cartels guns that were used to murder a US border agent. Yet bringing back tons of cocaine into the US as payment for those guns was equally disturbing.

This web site has discussed the fact that government agencies involvement in the drug trade is nothing new. Gary Web exposed it and documented it. That is what they were doing out of Mena, Arkansas for years. Barry Seal was a CIA operative directly involved is the drug trafficking and money laundering. Bo Gritz confirmed that this was even going on during Vietnam. Strange how every time I link to the video, it's taken off the Internet.

Clearly, if we want to address the concerns the public has over the Vancouver gang war and the crack and crystal meth sold on the street, we need to confront the secret government agencies that are involved and profit from it. Which as we recently demonstrated is even tied to the dark side of the Mossad.

The Hells Angels vs The Million Dollar Rat

We’ve talked a bit about Neal Hall’s book Hell to Pay when it first came out. It came out around the same time that documentary about the East Vancouver Hells Angels was on TV. Well, I’m at Chapters the other night having a peek through the True Crime section. I was looking for the book by Julian Sher, The Road to Hell.

They had the Sixth Family there. I picked up a copy of Neil Halls book and I say to myself ya know I really oughta fork out the money and pick one of these up because it obviously has a lot of pertinent information about the Hells Angels connection to the drug trade here. I start flipping through the pages and take a look at the photos in the middle section. They have pictures of Glen Hehn, David Giles, Ron Lising, Kerry Ryan, all the familiar faces.

Then on the last page of the photo section the top picture jumps out at me. Hey, I recognize that picture. I made it. It’s a photoshopped picture of Peter Leask with bugs bunny rabbit ears on a Looney Tunes background. It explains that the picture was from the Gangstersout blog under the heading Peter Leask should be hanged for treason after Peter Leask came out with yet another watered down decision involving the Hells Angels. My eyes just about popped out of my head as I was somewhat shocked. That was a pretty bold photo credit.

So once again I will site the book, The Hells Angels vs the Million dollar rat, and say it is worth a read. People laugh and say Michael Plante screwed up his life for nothing as there were no real convictions out of that whole effort but I beg to differ. It did clearly show how very involved the Hells Angels are with the local drug trade. That adds to the case law establishing them as a criminal organization.

As for Michael Plante, I didn’t realize he worked the door at the Newton Inn in Surrey before he went to the Orange Number 5 in East Van. I hear he was a bit of a hot head. I don’t know where he is now but we do need more people in Surrey coming forward with things they know about the dark side of the drug and prostitution trade. People are already starting to spill the beans about the Surrey House of Horrors.

Price of Oil keeps Dropping

The price of oil keeps dropping but the price of gas at the pumps doesn’t. That is an ongoing scam. Oil prices down, but gas prices up? Shysters. How Exxon paid zero taxes in 2009. Chevron was found to have evaded $3.25 billion in federal and state taxes from 1970 to 2000 through a complex petroleum pricing scheme involving a project in Indonesia.

In 1950 three companies, General Motors, Firestone and Chevron, then known as "Standard Oil", were charged and convicted of criminal conspiracy for their part in the General Motors streetcar conspiracy. The scandal involved purchasing streetcar systems throughout the United States and dismantling and replacing them with buses, in order to increase their sales of petroleum, automobiles and tires.

Private emails end up with education outfit's boss

Tuesday, the Vancouver Province reported that the Ministry of Advanced Education is investigating how a senior member of the Eminata Group, a Vancouver-based education conglomerate, came to be in possession of private correspondence between The Province and ministry staff.

Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto claimed she did not share the e-mail but said her office would look into it. Today, the paper reports that MLA Harry Bloy apologizes for leaking information related to Province investigation and as of 2:00 PM had resigned from his position on Cabinet.

Bloy was minister of state for multiculturalism when he came into possession of an email The Province had sent to the ministry of advanced education seeking comment on Eminata Group founder Peter Chung. Bloy forwarded that email to Eminata, a provider of post-secondary education at six for-profit schools in B.C. that was being investigated by The Province.

Peter Chung is the guy under investigation in his for profit schools and has claimed he never admitted to wrong doing. When the province wrote an article about complaints his school is receiving. So the Liberal minister decided to give the guy a heads up that the Vancouver Province is asking about him. Why would he do that? If a for profit school is scamming the system, wouldn't everyone want that scam cleared up not swept under the carpet?



Global is reporting he is a frequent donor to the Liberal party. Another for profit enterprise bribing another dirty politician to make himself rich. Sad.

Don't Cry For Me Argentina

Argentina is an interesting country. I'm not sure what everyone's beef with Argentina is. When the Taliban gave the contract for the Oil Pipeline in Afghanistan to Bridas an Argentina firm instead of UNICOL, everyone freaked. Yet you have to admit that Bridas is a large and competent company originally from Argentina.

Bridas began expanding into the Central Asian energy sector in 1987, and secured its first large-scale contract (gas exploration rights in Turkmenistan), in 1992. Between 1995 and 1997, CEO Carlos Bulgheroni was personally involved in negotiations between Bridas and the governments of Pakistan and Turkmenistan, as well as the ruling Taliban faction in Afghanistan, to build the Trans-Afghanistan Gas Pipeline.

These negotiations were in competition with those undertaken by Unocal, and although an agreement with Unocal-led corporation CentGas was reached, the deal was forfeited in January 1998 in favor of one with Bridas. Instability in Afghanistan delayed construction of the pipeline, however, and following the United States Invasion of Afghanistan in October 2001, the Bridas contract was rescinded in favor of the former one with Unocal.

Not only oil but nuclear reactors and satellites as well. In 2006 an Argentina company won the contract to help refurbish one of Libya's nuclear reactors. In 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy was trying to take over the contract and sell Libya a French reactor. Oil, satellites, nuclear reactors... Argentina is a pretty industrialized nation.

It reminds me of Evita, an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical written in 1977 about the life of Eva Perón who was the second wife of President Juan Perón (1895–1974) and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She is often referred to as simply Eva Perón, or by the affectionate Spanish language diminutive Evita. The song Don't Cry For Me Argentina is from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Madonna played Evita in the 1996 movie.

Although she was a stage, radio, and film actress and was active in charity work, Eva Perón became powerful within the pro-Peronist trade unions, primarily for speaking on behalf of labor rights. She also ran the Ministries of Labor and Health, founded and ran the charitable Eva Perón Foundation, championed women's suffrage in Argentina, and founded and ran the nation's first large-scale female political party, the Female Peronist Party.

Eva Perón is referred to as the Mother of Argentina and Spiritual Leader of the Nation. She dies at an early age of cancer but her legacy has been recorded in eternity. In her autobiography, La Razon de mi Vida, Eva writes, “From every period of my life, I retain the memory of some injustice tormenting me and tearing me apart.”

Everyone jokes about how Adele's new song makes grown men cry. That one doesn't really do it for me but it is hard not to shed a tear for Evita. A compassionate activist about to die a very premature death from cancer. It's hard not to shed a tear for the injustices she saw and stood up to correct.

What ever happened to the revolution of love? The American Revolution, the French Revolution, the Communist Revolution, the Arab Spring, they all want the same thing. They’re all trying to oppose a great injustice and restore equality and fairness to an unjust system despite the fact that all too often the worker’s revolution is high jacked by a dirty politician. It’s a quest for love. Not the trashy nightclub come grind with me kind of love. The real, heartfelt, selfless love that moves us and transforms us.

Where is that kind of love? I'm not just talking about a Black Eyed Peas heartfelt observation. I’m talking about that and more. Much more. I’m talking about the passion and the compassion. They go hand in hand. The heart felt yearning for not only a lost loved one but for a better world. A better justice. That love seems so far removed in a materialistic world driven by greed and exploitation. A new SUV paid for by torturing a crack addicted sex trade worker. I find the extreme real but difficult to process.

Court freezes fraud assets

Man convicted of credit card fraud forced to give up luxury cars. No kidding. The guy commits massive credit card fraud and uses the fake credit cards to but luxury cars and boats. When he gets caught, the court has every right to seize his assets to repay what was stolen.

Here’s the deal: if the court can seize someone’s assets for a credit card fraud, why not for a larger investment fraud? $26 million is a lot of money but $7 billion is a huge amount of money. Right before Earl Jones jumped ship and took the money and ran in his ponzi scheme, he transferred several millions dollars of the company’s money into his wife’s name right before he went bankrupt. That’s illegal. You can’t do that right before a bankruptcy. The court has every right to seize that money and return it to the shareholders who were defrauded.

$7 billion is a huge amount of money. It didn’t just disappear. It had to go somewhere. Follow the money and seize it so it may be returned to the shareholders. That is a must in confronting the investment fraud epidemic. Jail time for a scape goat is one thing but the real players will just find another scape goat. We need to follow the money and start seizing it.

Elections Canada hides Peter Poutine's identity

First we heard that Peter Poutine, the person behind the robocall scandal was going to go reveal themselves since their ip was allegedly traced. Today the media is reporting that that Elections Canada is not revealing who it is. They're waiting to see if any charges will be laid. That isn't right. If they have found out who it is, the public should know.

CTV reported Monday night that senior Conservative sources said that Tory party campaign worker Michael Sona had taken responsibility for the calls, but Sona is proclaiming his innocence.

Staff at a Thunder Bay call centre tasked with making scripted calls claiming to be on behalf of the Conservative Party about voting locations during the 2011 federal election knew they were giving out incorrect information, say former employees. “The whole call centre (noticed it was happening).” “We called the RCMP,” she said. “We actually also told our supervisor about it.” But no action was taken at the call centre and employees were told to stick to the script, the woman said.

Fraudulent robocalls that misdirected voters in Guelph, Ont., came from a Virgin Mobile disposable cellphone registered to a fabricated owner called Pierre Poutine, of Separatist Street, in Joliette, Que., court documents obtained by Postmedia News reveal.

The obviously fabricated name appears to have been a ruse to evade detection in the event the number was ever investigated. The “Pierre Poutine” phone was activated April 30, two days before the election, and called only two numbers other than its own voice mail.

Both corresponded to RackNine, the Conservative-linked voice-broadcasting firm that was used by whoever made the fraudulent calls into Guelph, causing chaos at a polling station.

Democracy Watch claims Elections Canada is falling down on electoral fraud. The National Day of Action Against Election Fraud took place across Canada over the weekend.

Nicolas Sarkozy: le chien sale

The Vancouver Province is reporting that French President Nicolas Sarkozy is denying multiple allegations that he accepted millions from Gadaffi for his 2007 election campaign before leading an assault against him.

This not a new allegation. Gadaffi's son said the same thing. Sarkozy had a long term relationship with Gadaffi and Libya. They sold him arms for years. In fact the new allegations exposing the money trail between the donations turned up in court investigating a French Arms dealer named Ziad Takieddine.

The president's fury comes after investigative website Mediapart released a report by French terrorism expert Jean-Charles Brissard. Its claims that Sarkozy secretly received Gaddafi's millions for his previous election campaign are based on court testimony to an arms trafficking probe.

The report alleges that French arms dealer Ziad Takieddine arranged the Gaddafi donation channeled via Panama and a Swiss bank account in the name of a sister of one of Sarkozy’s key political allies, the head of his UMP party. The deal was said to be reached during one of Sarkozy’s frequent trips to Libya as French interior minister, where he met Gaddafi in person.

Sarkozy and Takieddine both deny it but let's look at what we do know. We do know that France sold Libya arms for years. We now that Takieddine was a French arms dealer in Libya and that Sarkozy made multiple trips to Libya. In fact the year in question, 2007, saw Sarkozy make one of his frequent trips to Libya where he told the world that we should trust Gadaffi with nuclear power because he wanted to sell him a French nuclear reactor. What's the matter? Did Gadaffi decide to buy one from someone else? Is that what this is all about ? In 1976, Iraq purchased an "Osiris"-class nuclear reactor from France.

"If he had financed it, I wasn't very grateful," Sarkozy said sarcastically, in an apparent reference to the active role that France played in the NATO campaign that led to the strongman's ouster. No kidding. Like I said before, Sarkozy screwed Gaddafi royally.

What's even more disturbing is the claims that a complicated plot involving the 2002 killing of 14 people — including 11 French engineers — in the Pakistani city of Karachi, which involves defence sales, kickback allegations and intermediaries reportedly channelling millions of dollars worth of cash, Karachigate has been making headlines in France over the past few years and has long threatened to implicate Sarkozy.

French media reports as well as some of the families of the Karachi attack victims have suggested that the suicide bombing was in retaliation for scrapped defence commissions.