A Bear encounter on Grouse Mountain

I enjoy the Grizzly bear exhibit on Grouse Mountain. It never ceases to amaze me that tiny electric fence holds back such massive and powerful bears. Coming face to face with a Grizzly in that setting is a good thing. It helps people see them for what they are and understand how connected we are and how important it is to protect them.



I went up Grouse today and after passing by the Grizzly exhibit I hiked up the side of Dam Mountain to Goat Mountain. There is a lot going on at Grouse. The new zip lines are pretty cool. The fog rolled in so the helicopter tours and the parasailing were grounded.



I decided to proceed with the hike anyways because I wanted to get some cardio in as I’m hoping to make another attempt at the Lions this year. Right before I get to Goat Mountain I’m walking along a narrow trail in a wooded are then all of a sudden there was a big thump and grunt on the trail right in front of me. This big ass bear stumbled down the hill out of the bush onto the trail right in front of me. We were both startled and it made an aggressive sound that made me reach for the bear spray instead of my camera.

The bear shot off the trail so I cautiously proceeded ahead talking loudly but calmly letting it know where I was so it wouldn’t be startled. The trail made a sharp turn to the left up the mountain and I saw someone coming down. I said did you see the bear? He said yeah it’s a cub right in that tree. I slowly turned my head to the left to look at the tree right beside me and the trail which was shaking and I said that tree? He said yeah. OK it’s time to turn around I said. I just saw it’s mother down there and she wasn’t happy. You don’t want to get between a mother bear and her cub and I didn’t want to spray a bear protecting it’s cub.

Normally seeing a bear in the wild is not a big deal. You make noise, let them know where you are without sounding threatening and everything is fine. In this case we were caught right between a scared cub in a small tree and it’s angry mother. Not a good place to be in. We walked for about five minutes and I said OK I’m having lunch and stopped for a break. A few hikers passed and I told them about the bear. Some were cautious, some proceeded anyways. I waited until the bear had a chance to get the cub off the trail, and proceed up the mountain without another incident.



It’s unfortunate the fog cut the visibility because the view from there is amazing. You’re right beside Crown Mountain and from Goat Ridge you get a magnificent view of Coliseum Mountain over in the Lynn Headwaters. This is a picture of Goat Ridge on a clear day.



The bear encounter made up for the limited visibility. Ya gotta respect seeing animals in the wild. When I was a kid Stanley Park was a zoo. There were black bears, polar bears, penguins and sea otters. Kids today don’t see that and are sometimes distanced and removed from nature and the animal kingdom. Perhaps that’s part of the reason there is such a wanton disregard for the environment now a days. A lot of people do care about the environment but many others don’t.

I saw a ridiculous article recently about someone promoting a garbage incinerator in Surrey claiming that people think the brown haze in the Fraser Valley summer air is from pollution but it’s not. The guy was on crack. Of course it’s from pollution. That’s why they announce air quality levels on the news during the summer. The Fraser Valley is a valley surrounded by mountains. In the summer the air doesn’t move and the pollution just hangs there.

All you have to do is drive up to the look out on Cypress Mountain any time of the day or night. Everywhere you look you see smokestacks billowing smoke into the air. That’s why there is a brown haze over the Fraser Valley. Burning toxic garbage would increase that pollution exponentially.

When you’re up in the mountains, you don’t have to be a tree hugger to see and feel how connected we are to the environment we live in. Hiking up the mountain getting the lungs working and the heart pumping with all those big trees around breathing in all that fresh air. We breathe in the fresh oxygen the trees produce and they absorb the CO2 we exhale. We are totally connected. We are a part of the ecosystem. Damaging the ecosystem doesn’t just create an imbalance, it also damages us. The air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat. It really is that simple.

The insane greed that is consuming these short sighted rapists who want to burn toxic garbage and burn enough coal to blacken the planet is really astounding. As time progresses we are supposed to get more technologically advanced. As we go to school we are supposed to get more educated. I don’t see it with this corporate greed that is driving us down the road to Bilderberg.

Small business is good. Corporate monopolies are not. Preston Manning said being environmentally responsible is being fiscally responsible. Fiscal responsibility means we don’t leave our children a huge debt. It’s the same thing with the planet. We want our kids to have a planet to live on as well as their kids. Future generations. That is progressive thinking. This coal obsession and Garbage Incinerator is Devolution. We’re going backwards not forward and it's greed that’s driving it. Blind, short sighted, selfish greed.

Dirty developers and politicians destroy ALR

This is a great video and article from Global about the dirty deals going on between developers and politicians in the Lower Mainland that is destroying the agricultural land reserve so a hand full of large developers who make political campaign contributions get rich at the public and environment’s expense.

These developers buy up agricultural land, give candidates at City Hall and in the Provincial Government campaign contributions, then City Hall and the Province flips their protected agricultural land into industrial so these dirty developers make an obscene mark up.

One blog reader pointed out that at 1:16 in the video the woman mentions Emerson and Joe Segal buying up all the ARL in Delta with the intent of flipping in into industrial. That’s exactly what Surrey City Hall did for them at the Campbell Heights industrial park. Montreal has nothing on us. Our corruption at our City Halls is worse than theirs.

The Tsawwassen trick is another example. They are laundering the ALR through a First Nations Reservation. They take a massive amount of ALR and transfer it to the Tsawwassen First Nations who in turn flip it into industrial for them to build a huge shopping mall in the middle of protected ALR. This is a key habitat for migratory birds. These short sighted dirty politicians are killing the province and the environment. They need to be stopped. We need to be sustainable and responsible.

Paving all the agricultural land and bringing in massive coal exports is not sustainable or responsible. It is exponentially expanding CO2 emissions so a couple of insiders can make a quick buck. Coal dust causes pollution. It pollutes the air we breathe, the water we drink and the fish we eat. This is not forward thinking. It’s backward thinking. Air quality is a huge concern.

We need a free enterprise party at City Hall. One that supports small business not corporate monopolies or huge dirty developers that bribe them with campaign contributions. Godzilla sucks and her dirty deals are expanding throughout the Mayors council. That is destroying the province and the planet. God save the people and the planet. Dirty developers, Alas for you. Blind fools.

Syrian Intervention - Update

People have been asking my opinion about Syrian intervention and I had to respond by saying I don’t know. I don’t know enough about what’s really going on there to make a conclusion. Yet. If anyone is using gas attacks on civilians then that is a concern that we need to address. It is something that we should get involved in even if there is no threat of them attacking us. Yet there is a bigger picture we need to look at and address.

The first question we must ask is did Syria use chemical weapons and did they use them on civilians? Using them in an armed conflict is bad but using them on civilians is even worse. We don’t want to make the same mistake that was made in Iraq. The US and England said Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and they didn’t. The US and British intelligence agencies lied. It wasn’t a matter of them making a mistake. In Operation Mass Appeal MI 6 were caught red handing giving the media false information about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. They lied. They did not make a mistake.

In this case it does appear that chemical weapons have been used on civilians in Syria. I have to check the sources to confirm but it does appear that did happen. My first question now is OK who sold it to them? We know the US sold Iraq chemical weapons to use on Iran and that was not OK. We assumed responsibility and liability for Saddam’s actions when we sold him the chemical weapons. That whole invasion was a complete farce. Saddam was hanged for allegedly using chemical weapons on the Kurds that America sold him. How about hanging the people that sold it to him as well? We can’t address one without the other. (New allegations arise claiming that evidence was deliberately faked like in the past)

On September 1st it was revealed that England sold Syria the chemicals to make saran gas. That needs to be addressed. If we invade Syria for using chemical weapons we have to invade England for selling it to them and that is somewhat problematic now isn’t it?

The Daily Record is reporting that furious politicians have demanded Prime Minister David Cameron explain why chemical export licenses were granted to firms last January – 10 months after the Syrian uprising began. It was also mentioned in the Independent and was originally reported by the Sunday Mail. So that is problematic.



I remember how Israel was using white phosphorous on civilians in Gaza during that conflict. I remember seeing pictures of Israeli soldiers with white phosphorous shells from the United States. I’m not going to show pictures of dead burned bodies from white phosphorus but it is horrible.



So if we are going to address the issue of chemical weapons we must address it when we manufacture and sell them as well. Military intervention in a country that uses something we sold them is hypocritical at best. At worst it’s just a plain set up to justify military action. Syria using saran gas on civilians is very bad. It is also bad when Israel uses white phosphorous on civilians as well. We need to address both if we are going to call ourselves peace makers not war mongers.



Don’t get me wrong. I am outraged with the use of chemical weapons on civilians. We don’t have to wait for a vote from the committee to do something about it. When innocent civilians are being killed it behooves us to get involved. Just like Rwanda. I’m just saying we also have to address the criminals that sold the gas in the first place. Which brings us back to Iraq.

Selling Iran chemical weapons to use on Iran was wrong. It was wrong if and when Saddam used them on the Kurds. It was just as wrong when he used them with our blessing on Iran. We can’t enforce one without enforcing the other. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard than our enemies. We are different than our enemies. We don’t resort to their tactics. We rise above them.

Another concern in Iraq that needs to be dealt with is the possibility of the US themselves using chemical weapons on civilians during that unlawful invasion. The Independent is reporting that the Toxic legacy of US assault on Fallujah is worse than Hiroshima.

The Independent claims: “Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study.”

“Iraqi doctors in Fallujah have complained since 2005 of being overwhelmed by the number of babies with serious birth defects, ranging from a girl born with two heads to paralysis of the lower limbs. They said they were also seeing far more cancers than they did before the battle for Fallujah between US troops and insurgents.”

I’ll tell you what kind of chemical weapon causes birth defects – mustard gas. The same thing the US sold Iraq to use on Iran. I used to work with a woman who escaped Iran during the war with Iraq. She said they used mustard gas on civilians. Whole cities. It was horrible. There was a sharp rise in the number of birth defects after that.

So what happened in Fallujah? That too needs to be addressed. As Martin Luther King said, the old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. That doesn’t mean we tolerate chemical attacks on civilians. It means we oppose it every time it happens not just some of the time and we can’t justify an invasion when we are the ones that sold it to them. We need to stop selling it to them first. That’s kind of obvious. One would hope.

Right now we need to say to Syria if you are using chemical weapons on civilians, that needs to stop right now or it will result in a military strike. The rules of engagement state you must warn your enemy before you fire upon them. It’s got nothing to do with getting approval from the UN or some other committee. As we do that we also need to say to the Western companies that sold them the chemicals to make the gas and the governments that let the companies do it, that has to stop. Now. Those companies and those government officials need to be held legally accountable. We cannot address one without addressing the other.



This is a declassified CIA document from their own web site a blog reader sent in about chemical weapons used in the Iran Iraq war. At no time does it state chemical weapons are bad. It simply discusses the effectiveness of each type of chemical attacks and states the use of chemical weapons in that war will likely increase. Especially since they were selling it to them. Napalm and Agent Orange was used extensively in the Vietnam war.

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Update: Good news. Russia came up with a proposal that Syria turn over all it's chemical weapons to the International community to avoid a military strike and Syria has agreed. This avoids military action. Now we just need the British and American companies that sold it to them to do the same. Intervention is very problematic since there are two sides in conflict. One group that supports the president and one that opposes him. The group that supports the president have adults with signs in demonstrations showing their support. The group that opposes the president has released videos of individual children reading from an English script calling for military intervention. Suspect indeed.

Okanagan man found with assault rifles and bomb materials

Well Kim Bolan is back from holidays. She is reporting that Police have arrested an Okanagan man and seized “bomb-making equipment” they believe could have been used in future gang-related violence. Bombs for the gang war is a lot more believable than for false flag attacks. At least they weren't more pressure cookers.

Police claim that although no fully-built bombs or explosive devices were found in the Oyama home, they found “modified timers, batteries, igniters, dismantled shotgun shells, a container of black powder and small wooden boxes fitted with wiring” as well as two semi-automatic assault-style rifles with over-capacity magazines. Gunpowder is a little more realistic than nails and pressure cookers. Oyama is between Kelowna and Vernon on the south end of Kal lake.

Kelowna drug bust

The Vancouver Province is reporting that two Kelowna residents are facing potential drug trafficking charges after police executed a search warrant on a home in the 300-block Moubray Road. Police seized more than 10 litres of GHB (gamma-hydroxybutyrate, which is used as a date-rape drug), several ounces of cocaine, crack cocaine, and crystal meth, 10 bottles of methadone, and small amounts of heroin, marijuana and various pills.

A 33-year-old woman and a 47-year-old woman, both from Kelowna, were arrested and then released on a promise to appear. They are expected back in court on Nov. 14. Two women selling date rape drug. Wonderful. We're still waiting on names and affiliations.

Earlier this summer police in Edmonton seized 106 litres of GHB along with cocaine. People are starting to call it liquid ecstasy. Work with me people, this stuff is not ecstasy. They even use it on guys for the purpose of committing rape.

Surrey Shooting

A blog reader pointed out that Scan BC is reporting the Surrey RCMP on scene with a male shot in the shoulder near 128th St & 92nd Ave. Two possible suspects were arrested. 9:30 PM Friday.

The Surrey Now is reporting that 18 people were arrested after a drug related raid on a South Surrey home on Thursday. One local said "It's a house that has a whole bunch of people coming and going," describing everything from teenagers to biker-types. Bikers getting teenagers to sell drugs? That's concerning.

Another blog reader claimed they saw someone who looks like Rob Yew on Season 3 episode 11 of the The liquidator. What's he doing back in Surrey? Last we heard he was selling shirts in Yellowknife. He's gained a few pounds but it's the same leather vest and hair cut.

Saint Mary’s criminal fantasies and their sexual harassment

Saint Mary’s university in Halifax is in the news. An offensive video was posted online of a group of student orientation leaders singing about having sex with underage girls without consent. Rape is nothing to brag about or joke about. These were student leaders teaching a song and chant to first year students at their orientation. It was a criminal act.

The video shows them chanting “Y is for your sister. O is for oh-so-tight. U is for underage. N is for no consent. G is for grab that a--. St. Mary’s boys we like them young,” What’s worse is there are girls with them singing it as well .A bunch of Karla Homolka wannabes. This isn’t just disturbing, it’s disturbed. What have we come to as a society?

What’s more shocking and outrageous is the University’s response. Oh they are going to give some of those student leaders a sensitivity training course. That is offensive and illegal. Tell me, what is the first thing you are taught in your sexual harassment training at work? That sexual harassment is illegal. That the employer is obligated to act on sexual harassment complaints because if they don’t they will be legally liable for the unlawful conduct. Giving those psychopaths a sensitivity training session telling them what they did was illegal and the only consequence they will face is a slap on the wrist course they get to joke about? That does not in any way fulfill their legal obligation as a University to protect other students from unlawful sexual harassment.

They were chanting about raping underage girls for God’s sake. One of the news outlets on TV cited some parents concerns they expressed on Saint Mary’s facebook and said clearly you don’t understand the seriousness of the offense. Clearly they do not. That is why they must face a class action lawsuit for sexual harassment. Since they have failed to kick out those students from the University they are now legally liable for their unlawful conduct and the University should stop getting government funding.

The University can recover from this. If they fire all those student leaders and kick them out of that University. All of the ring leaders need to be kicked out of that university permanently. People on the fringe should get expelled and sensitivity training. They need to fire all those student leaders and not let them hold leadership positions at the university ever again. It is shocking that this action isn’t automatic. That’s why a lawsuit is necessary. Just like with the RCMP. The RCMP failed to address the ongoing issue of sexual harassment. That is why they are now facing a class action law suit. Now it’s the University’s turn to go to court.

Giving them sensitivity training is offensive. In essence you are telling them you little rich kids can break the law all you want. You’re getting this talk because you got caught. Don’t video tape these things in the future and post them online.

Jared Perry, the guy in the picture above, needs to be expelled from that university permanently. That should be automatic but there’s more. All of those kids need some time with Dr. Phil. It’s not a matter of being swept away in the moment saying well everyone was doing it. It’s about accepting responsibility for one’s conduct. Something they should have learned long before university. If they don’t learn conduct has consequences in University then all their education is meaningless.

Joking about raping under age girls. That is nothing to joke about. It is fantasizing about a criminal act. Just like Jim Brown. The fact that he and Don Ray are still working for the RCMP proves they don’t care at all about preventing sexual harassment at the work place. Just like Saint Mary’s University doesn’t. Shame on them and shame on us for letting it happen without legal consequence.

These are a bunch of Paul Bernardos and Karla Homolkas. Clearly none of them understand how serious that is. Having new first year university students listen to them chant about raping underage girls is sexual harassment and the University is legally liable for it.



Jared Perry stated that the cheer was repeated in the “heat of the moment”. No it wasn't. "This is his second year as student president. He said he has been repeating the chant since he first came to the Halifax university in 2009 – and never thought anything about it. He has never received any complaints about it." He's been doing it for two years and never thought anything about it. Now all of sudden he feels sorry for it and admits it was a mistake. That's only because he may face discipline over it. Not removing him from that position and that university is illegal. He's been doing it for two years and has no real remorse. The University has been breaking the law for two years.

Resigning and running again in a by-election is not a consequence. As long as Jared Perryis a student of that University, the University needs to be sued for sexual harassment. It's that simple.

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Update: Saint Mary’s University has suspended one of its students after the 24-year-old Halifax man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl. He was her soccer coach.

Cocaine seized at Kamloops Greyhound bus depot

CFJC is reporting that the police seized 3 kilos of cocaine and 2 kilos of heroin at a Greyhound bus depot in Kamloops on it’s way to Vancouver. The blog reader who sent it in said you would think it would be going the other direction. Indeed you would. It must be coming from the Montana border. They keep changing the direction of drugs when the heat is on. A 45-year-old Campbell River man has been arrested after Mounties seized the drugs from his luggage at a Kamloops bus depot. Three guess who the cocaine and heroin was for and it wasn’t the Triads. I guess it's old news since it happened a week ago. I missed the story. I wonder if it's part of that bad batch of Heroin and crack that was found in Kamloops.

Joey Verma’s murder trial has finally begun

It’s about time. Castanet is reporting that the Joey Verma was in court Tuesday for the voir dire. The trial within the trial to see what evidence is admissible and what isn’t. We thought it was going to start last summer. He’s been in custody for three years.

I’m not going to be able to make it up this time so if anyone local has the chance, it’s worth checking in to see what is said. As we know, Joey Verma is on trial for the murder of Britney Irving. At the time the media claimed he was with the Independent Soldiers.

We know he is friends with admitted woman beater Donnie McWhirter who is with the Kelowna IS. We also know Joey associated with Kingpin Crew. Mind you after they abandoned their fruit stand by the airport and reported one of their bikes stolen, no one has seen any Pinhead patches all summer. Oh happy day. The Kingpin crew were also implicated in that Hells Angels stolen car, boat and motorcycle ring that was busted two summers ago.

It was rather upsetting to receive reports that Joey got a VP tattoo and was recruiting for the Kingpin Crew in prisons. That’s likely one of the reasons the HAs pulled the plug on those wooden puppets. Bad press. Bragging about killing a girl isn’t going to win any friends or respect with the locals. Britney was a wonderful person and who ever killed her and ordered her murder is the lowest rat scum on the face of the earth.

Like I said, there’s no way Joey was acting on his own either. If he was he would have left town but he didn’t. He was still in town doing business as usually with the same old boys he did business with before. Lets’ hope there will be slivers of truth and justice come out in the trial. Yet with our injustice system, I’m not holding my breath.

Update: The jury was told Britney was shot four times, twice in the back.

The Hells Angels are murderers

It is no secret that the Hells Angels murdered many people in the Quebec biker war. It is also no secret that the Quebec biker war had absolutely nothing to do with riding motorcycles. It was a war over a monopoly on the drug trade. It wasn’t just a matter of them being involved in the drug trade. It was about them forbidding anyone else from being involved in the drug trade but them and murdering their drug dealing rivals. BC is no different.

Friday, the Montreal Gazette reported that 27 more Hells Angels entered guilty pleas of conspiracy to commit murder during the Quebec biker war from 1994 to 2002. The violence didn’t end there. That’s just when they won that war. The founder of the Rock Machine crossed over to become the president of the Montreal Hells Angels when Mom Boucher went to prison and brought several leaders with him.

The new Rock Machine really has nothing to do with the old crew in Quebec. Sean Brown was the one that resurrected the club and tweaked the logo. He didn’t even want to go to Quebec and revisit that old conflict. He even put on their web site that they don’t sell drugs. They kicked him out and turned it back into a drug dealing gang which is now expanding into Australia.

A year ago, 13 members of the Hells Angels pleaded guilty to murder and conspiracy to commit murder in Montreal. They were mostly from the Sherbrooke chapter. Guy Rodrigue is a founding member of that chapter. In 1987, he was convicted for his role in the murders of five members of the Laval chapter. Also known as the Lennoxville Massacre. Rodrigue was sentenced to four years in prison. Four years in prison for murdering his own brothers so he could make more money. Astounding.

Here’s the deal. These murders had nothing to do with loyalty or honour. They were about betrayal and greed. Just like when the Ontario Hells Angels were allowed to kill Bekim Zeneli, the leader of a Hells Angels puppet club in Manitoba called LHS - Loyalty Honour Silence. They killed him so the Ontario village idiots could take over the drug trade in Thompson, Manitoba. They told Billy Bowden to suck it up or become a target.

Just like they told Mom Boucher and Biff Hammel after they murdered their sponsors in the Lennoxville Massacre. Only Biff and Mommy Dearest said sure where do we sign up? Biff Hammel was present when they murdered his sponsors. It takes a certain kind of rat to betray his own sponsors like that just so he can get ahead. David Giles was even given one of the stolen motorcycles from one of the murdered brothers in Lennoxville.

It’s all about murder and betrayal for money. It’s all about greed. It always has been for the Hells Angels in Canada. Halifax was no different. Randy Mersereau left the Hells Angels but kept selling drugs so the Hells Angels killed him as well as his brother and his brother’s wife. Years later Jeff Lynds admitted to murdering Randy Mersereau for the Hells Angels.

Now we see a long list of the same thing in BC. The most recent of which is the murder of Joey Arrance. Along with a huge list of lies about the real motive why they killed him. The number of drug dealing rivals the Hells Angels have murdered in BC is astounding. It became clear at the Christmas in Vancouver 1995. Yet they don’t just murder informants and drug dealing rivals. They also murder and torture drug addicts for drug debts.

My point here is that this isn’t a few rogue members of the club selling drugs on the side. These are all presidents and high ranking members getting busted for drug trafficking now. This is what the club is doing with their name and reputation. They are a criminal organization. Not only that but the guilty pleas in Montreal last year showed that the Hells Angels paid a portion of their drug profits into a fund to pay for hits on drug dealing rivals. That means when the Hells Angels commit murder as an organization, every member of that criminal organization is guilty of murder both morally and legally.

Giving the Hells Angels a monopoly on the drug trade in BC has been a huge mistake. The violence has not ended. It has just gotten worse as they continue to betray, bully and murder at will. This needs to be addressed without giving up our civil liberty. We need to look at Operation Fast and Furious and recognize who is really responsible for all this betrayal and violence for the almighty dollar. Gary Webb was right. Iran Contra never stopped.