Christmas Rain

We’ve talked a bit about Vancouver rain and how going out and about on a fall rainy day is a very Vancouver thing to do. Christmas rain is a bit different. It’s hard to get into the spirit of Christmas in the rain. I think it’s a little easier to get into the Christmas spirit in the Okanagan or back east where there’s snow. We occasionally get a white Christmas but not often. We recently had snow in the city but the rain quickly washed most of it away as usual.

Yet one thing we need to remember about Christmas rain is that as long as it’s below 8 degrees Celsius, all that Christmas rain in Vancouver is fresh powder on the local mountains. If you’re not there you miss it completely. As I’ve said before, driving up the mountains and crossing over the freezing point where the rain becomes snow is magical. After spending the day on the mountain in fresh snow then returning to the rainy city below is like waking up from a pleasant dream.



Nevertheless, today we went to the Vancouver Christmas market which is something fairly new. It’s a traditional German market with hand made crafts and lots of traditional food and drink. This picture is a local guy originally from Toronto dishing up some traditional German noodles. One is plain spaetzle for the vegetarians, the other is spaetzle fried with ham and Swiss cheese while the other is a different type of noodle with some potato mixed in. They’re quite nice. I’m not a big fan of sauerkraut though. I prefer the plain ones with a little glazed sugar. I like the spaetzle with ham and cheese. They had a girl from Switzerland glazing the cheese and the sugar with a small blow torch. I kid you not.



The chocolate fountain is a family favorite. I’m not big on fruit dipped in chocolate myself but I think the idea of melting chocolate and putting it through a fountain is cool. So even in the rain there are things to do to help you feel the spirit of Christmas.

I remember speaking with an Australian guy on one of the local mountains one winter. He said they’re not really big into the turkey dinner at Christmas back home. I asked him what a Christmas tradition was for him in Australia and he lit up and said we always have shrimp on the Barbie at the beach. Barbeque on the beach at Christmas I thought? Then I clued in, oh yeah Christmas is in the middle of your summer. That would definitely put a different perspective on it. Rolf Harris and the six white boomers. My father used to listen to that all the time at Christmas.

Speaking of Christmas, there’s a video going around of Nina Grewel saying how as a Sikh she is not offended by Christians celebrating Christmas. It’s a powerful video and pretty much sums up my definition of multiculturalism. Someone else’s traditions don’t diminish mine any more than my traditions diminish anyone else’s. She claims we can still use the C word and she is absolutely right. Merry Christmas everyone. May it be a peaceful one.

More guns from Fast and Furious

We have an update on Operation Fast and Furious that ties in with the December series on Gary Webb. Prime Time Crime reported on a LA Times article about more Operation Fast and Furious guns found after a drug cartel shoot out in Mexico that killed five on November 24 2012.

The Toronto Sun is reporting that Federal authorities were probing how a gun bought by George Gillett, a former top U.S. federal agent in Phoenix ended up at the scene of a fatal shootout that killed a beauty queen in Mexico.

Even Fox news asks the same question. The answer is simple. It was part of Operation Fast and Furious where government agencies were selling the Mexican cartel guns and bringing back tons of cocaine as payment. Bringing back tons of cocaine implies that they sold them a lot more than three guns.

Earlier this month ATF’s William McMahon was fired in the wake of the Fast and Furious investigation. McMahon’s lawyer said “Mr. McMahon was unfortunately the victim of a politically charged football match over an operation that was officially sanctioned.“ This goes right up to Obama and his own Oliver North, Eric Holder. Who I might add worked with Bill Clinton during the Mena Arkansas Arms Dealing Drug Trafficking scandal.

Last year ATF Director Kenneth Melson resigned as Obama retaliated against whistleblowers. My question is this, if Obama is going to pursue his gun control bill in the United States, will his government agencies stop selling arms to the Mexican drug cartels? Please advise. Arming criminals and disarming civilians is not gun control.

Stop the December Violence

Last night in what appears to be a domestic dispute, a man in Surrey shot a woman in front of her 10 year old son then put the gun on himself when the police tried to arrest him. What is wrong with these people? I realize December is a stressful month but for God’s sake it’s Christmas. Stop shooting people. Thankfully the woman survived and was hit in the shoulder and or wrist and the shooter didn’t shoot himself. Nevertheless all this violence both gang related and domestic needs some time with Dr. Phil.

Why would a man want to shoot his ex, then kill himself? She cheated on him? If that’s the case, you’re better off without that trailer trash. No need to murder her. How many guys out there cheat on their woman? If every woman shot every guy who ever cheated on them we would see a significant reduction in the population. This if I can’t have you no one can persona is messed up. Get over yourself. If it didn’t work out, then she’s not the one. Someone else is. There’s no need to wish misfortune on someone.

Same with all these gang shootings. You think they’d have a little respect for the season and for public safety but no. They keep shooting rival drug dealers over Christmas because they are consumed in their greed. That is what this is about. Make no mistake. There is no honour in greed.

Take Columbia. Farc offers a unilateral ceasefire during Christmas and the government of Columbia rejects their proposal. What is up with that? US troop backing the government of Columbia because someone discovered oil and now they are rejecting a December ceasefire. Go figure.

Then there was that horrible massacre in the States where a shooter opened fire on young school children. Columbine couldn’t do it. The Dark Night Rises didn’t do it. Killing young children at school did. Now Obama is talking about gun control and there seems to be enough support to push it through.

Murder is horrible. All the massacres are outrageous. Killing young children at school is heart breaking. Yet I’m not sure gun control is the answer. Criminals will always have access to guns. But I am sure there is way too much violence in December that is related to the gangs as well as to domestic disputes.

Within New Zealand with one in three women experiencing violence from a partner in their lifetime, while on average, fourteen women are killed each year by a member of their own family. No doubt it’s similar in Canada. This needs to be addressed.

Where are you Christmas?

Giuseppe Fetta shot in Montreal

More December shootings. Freddy posted this link in the other forum. December 17 Giuseppe Fetta, a man known to the police with mafia ties was shot in Northern Montreal. A police source said that in recent months Fetta is believed to have associated with Andrea (Andrew) Scoppa, 48, a convicted drug trafficker known to have ties to the Mafia in Montreal for several years. Giuseppe Fetta was referred to as a Rizzuto bodyguard.

According to court records, about a decade ago Scoppa got involved in a dispute with members of the Hells Angels over who controlled certain parts of northern Montreal and required the input of Mafia leaders to negotiate a settlement. How’s that settlement holding out now as the Hells Angels continue their violent control of the Canadian drug trade?

Mega Casino Misrepresentation

Gateway Casinos bussed in non Surrey residents for the public meeting to support their drug money laundering operation that required a $1.5 billion debt restructuring. Bribes and dirty tricks to support blood money. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised. They're wearing the wrong shirts.

Christmas Preparations

There’s still lots to write and talk about. I have two final pieces for the Gary Webb Series. Likely the final one will comprise this year’s Christmas epiphany. I’ll save my discussion about Redemption and leaving the game in my New Years message. I still have to mention John Bryce’s new music video that makes Weird Hals’ I’m on a boat video look even more ridiculous.

And of course tomorrow is the big day! The planetary alignment. Unfortunately it looks like yet another day of rain so it doesn’t look like we’re going to be able to see it. I’m sure we’ll be able to see some kind of morning alignment around Venus for a few days after the fact in case we get a break in the clouds at sunrise.

Yet I really need to get ready for Christmas. All this work work work is good for paying the bills but it’s easy to miss the spirit of the season. We went on the Stanley Park train yesterday to see the Christmas lights. I haven’t done that for years. The fire department has some lights set up just outside. We’ll have to check out the Bear Creek park train too. They do the same thing.

There’s lots of free places to see Christmas lights. I remember one house in Surrey that would do their lights up every year and had a large train set in their back yard. Usually the paper lists addresses of houses that do their lights up over Christmas. I hear Capalino suspension bridge has lights. If you live local buying a year pass is worth it. That tree top adventure is nice in the summer. Just like the Aquarium or the Planetarium. Buying a year membership makes it worth while.

The same with the gondola on Grouse Mountain. A year pass is worth it. Now that’s festive. A sleigh ride on the mountain, a small ice rink and even live reindeer. It’s worth bringing the kids. Although I don’t think they have horses pulling the sleigh any more. They do on Silverstar. Lots of nice things to see and do on Silverstar and Big White.

So here it is, Get festive. Enjoy the season. Take time out from the road rage and the mall rage to look at the lights and enjoy your freedom. Yeah I had to go and use the F word again. One blog reader was asking my opinion about Giles spending Christmas in prison this year. I have to admit it’s a little comforting knowing that justice has finally arrived with that guy. Dale Sweeney was trying to get parole for Christmas in the wake of his cocaine trafficking trial. The big house crew isn’t very bright. Spending Christmas in prison isn’t very fun.

Nevertheless, don’t forget that part of being a good Christian is to visit the sick and those in prison. Strange as it may sound. Anyone can change but the key word there is change. You can’t change unless you admit you’ve done something wrong. Crack and crystal meth are horrible drugs. Profiting from that is wrong. Torturing addicts for drug debts is deranged. Lies and denial won’t change that. Be a man. Face the facts and come clean. You’ll feel a lot better about yourself.

So here’s a little tribute to Davie Giles and all the boys in the dumb house crew spending this Christmas in prison. Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson singing Folsom Prison Blues. And to the rest of you out there who think you can live a lie while you torture addicts and live off the avails, don’t kid yourself. Buyer Beware. God’s gonna cut you down. Word.

Vernon Greeks lawyer pleads guilty to criminal organization charges

William Jacob Mastop is a lawyer who represented the Vernon Greeks and was himself charged with participating in a criminal organization. Today he plead guilty to those charges. One of his bail conditions was a no-contact order with past or current members of the Hells Angels or the Greeks. Interesting that it specifically named the Hells Angels. We know the Vernon Greeks were a puppet club who sold drugs for the Hells Angels. Hells Angels support gear was found in their office.

Haslett said Mastrop wasn’t involved in murder or drug dealing but he assisted the Greeks by providing them with documents that they wouldn’t normally be able to access that aided their criminal activities. “He was aware of the murders, everyone in town was,” he said. “He would have known they were killing people.”

Speculation arises about the possibility of those court documents including names of police informants which is what some claim got Ron Thom killed. Thom, who the gang mistakenly believed had cooperated with police, was lured to a road near Vernon in the middle of the night and shot to death. Smart said when Thom’s bullet-ridden body was left on Commonage Road, it was “to send a message to others involved in the illegal drug subculture.”

Hells Angels members pleaded guilty to extortion and assault

Two members of the Hells Angels in Hamilton, James (Bubba) Sherwood, 42, and Joel Rollin, 29 plead guilty to extortion and assault yesterday. A statement of agreed facts claims the pair went to a Greenhill Avenue residence on Aug. 8, 2011, around 6:30 p.m. and entered through an unlocked door.

The pair, one of them wearing a gold and diamond necklace with the biker gang’s name spelled out, was hired to force two former owners of an east-end bar to transfer a liquor licence in a sale dispute, court heard. Once inside, Sherwood confronted one victim and punched him in the neck. He then demanded the two former owners sign a document to settle the sale of their bar and punched one of them in the face, said Leitch.

“In the house were three young people, one still a child,” Leitch added. Once the document was signed and before leaving, Sherwood told one victim he was being taxed $5,000 for mentioning the Hells Angels and had a week to pay or they’d be back to take his car. Bubba received a three year sentence. Joel will b sentenced on January 29.

New Port Mann Bridge closed for falling icicles

Just when I was going to renege on my Surrey the Centre of Stupidity post. After all, they opened up more lanes on the new bridge going into Vancouver finally so things were finally improving. Until today. Two inches of snow and the thermometer hovering around zero has produced icicles on the cables of the new bridge. As it warms the icicles melt, fall and smash windshields of cars driving below. I’m not talking about one or two cars, I’m talking several. Great another brain surgeon escapes with his pocket full of money while the tax payer is left to pick up the pieces. It’s like the new wonderful sky train that doesn’t work when it snows. Brilliant.

Gee the old bridge didn’t do that. Twining it would have been cheaper, safe and we’d be able to use it all year round. The same thing doesn’t happen on the Alex Fraser bridge because those towers are on the sides of the bridge so the cars don’t drive under the cables like on the new and almost improved Port Mann bridge. I don’t want to be a pessimist all the time but I’m really not excited about the design of the new bridge. The whole thing held up by two concrete towers. It’s hard to tell if all those cables are holding the bridge up or if they’re holding those Babylonian towers up so they don’t tip over. I guess time will tell. When the earth quake hits we’ll see how it does. I personally prefer steel arches. They’re much more reliable.

Pickton Inquiry Report is a Fraud

Wally the limp fish Oppal blamed the police for failing to arrest Robert Pickton sooner. Yet we all know that circus side show was a fraud and that the public inquiry wasn’t public. Aside from being in a position of conflict of interest right from the get go, and aside from his offensive side job in a slasher movie, Wally Oppal censored the inquiry and shut it down as soon as other possible suspects were mentioned which was highly relevant to the mandate of a Missing woman inquiry.

Wally blamed the police for such a disaster from happening while he himself was the root of the cause of it happening again which we have seen in Whalley recently. There was a great deal of information about the Hells Angels involvement on the Pickton farm that came to light during the inquiry and Wally ruled that information inadmissible. He then shut the inquiry down and transformed it into a less “adversarial” panel discussion to prevent key witnesses from testifying.

The judge’s instructions to the jury in the Pickton trial was that they could find him guilty even if he wasn’t the only suspect. He even went so far as to say they could find him guilty even if he wasn’t the primary suspect, just and active participant. On that basis he was convicted. Any missing woman’s inquiry needs to ask what other suspects were involved if it sincerely hopes to prevent that tragedy from reoccurring. Wally Oppal isn’t just a fraud, he is now an accomplice to murder.

Wally Opal is the last person on earth to make any recommendations about a Regional police force. Neither the RCMP nor the city police forces want that. That is something we can objectively look at but we should not let that distract us from Wally Oppal's criminal failures in the commission.

Police Negligence

I will however, say a word about police negligence in this case which went far beyond apathy and indifference. When a witness accused Willy Pickton of murdering a prostitute, a member of the Coquitlam RCMP went to Willy on the farm, told him about the accusation and told him the name of the witness. That was a crime. That officer should be charged and that whole tarnished detachment should be under review.

There are two mayor concerns on the table. The first is the overwhelming climate of unprofessionalism that permeated the RCMP as well as the VPD at the time. It was far more widespread in the RCMP. It was a climate of sexual harassment. Don Ray is the epitome of that dark reality. Catherine Galliford was the public face of the police investigation into the Pickton case. Her testimony about the ongoing sexual harassment she experienced by that investigation team is astounding. It was a climate of unprofessionalism that was rampant. Likewise, members of the VPD were accused of blackmailing prostitutes into having sex with them. Telling them if they didn’t have sex with the police officer, the officer would arrest them for prostitution. That’s the first concern. The climate of unprofessional that was pervasive.

The second concern is the huge cover up. The police covered up the Hells angels involvement on the Pickton Farm because the Hells Angels were under investigation at the time and they didn’t want to come across as having bungled that investigation which they clearly did. Just like Operation Phoenix. So the Hells Angels involvement with Dave Pickton and the farm was extensive and that fact was obsessively covered up by the police during the inquiry. Relevant police reports were not admitted as evidence in the not very public inquiry.

The Globe and Mail reported that the inquiry will hear that off-duty officers “frequented” Piggy’s Palace, that evidence was not submitted. We all know about the Jim Brown scandal. The police assisted that cover up by raiding the whistleblowers home.

Obviously the other purpose of the fake inquiry was to give the police a slap on the wrist and absolve them of any legal liability for telling Pickton the name of a witness who made allegations about him and for covering up the fact that they bungled the investigation into the Hells Angels involvement with Dave Pickton and the farm. I know paying the families of the victims compensation would cost a lot of money, yet that is no excuse for withholding evidence in the inquiry. Since there was no public inquiry perhaps civil litigation is the only remaining avenue to get a full disclosure of that important evidence Wally Oppal denied.