Howe Sound Crest Trail

Yesterday I took Howe Sound crest trail from the parking lot on Cypress to St Mark's summit and both peaks on Unecessary mountain. The first picture is the view from St Mark's summit.

I was hoping to make it to the Lions as I've never done them from this route before. I've done them from Lions bay which they say is shorter but steeper. The beginning of the trail is well groomed and the first two switchbacks up St Mark's summit look just like the trail up Baker called the Heliotrope trail. However after the first two switchbacks the trail gets fairly rugged pretty fast. Lots of rocks and roots. They are working on improving the trail with bobcats but that's a big job so it is.



Just as I hit Unecessary mountain the fog started to roll in covering the lions. In this picture you can just barely see the tip of the west lion with the east lion being completely hidden by fog.



The wind was coming from the ocean so I thought luck was on my side and it would blow the fog away. In reality, withing two minutes the wind brought fog from the ocean and the entire panorama was zero visibility. This is a direct view of the Lions from the north peak of Unecessary mountain:



Not much to see but when the clouds aren't there it's spectacular. Turning to the left this is the view of Lions bay. Again when the clouds aren't the view is spectacular.



I finally found the trail down from Unecessary mountain to the back of the lions. It's a short steep descent but with the lions in sight you're almost there. If you see a rope anchored to the rocks you're on the right trail. Kinda like how they have a chain riveted to the rocks to help climb on Goat mountain and the back of the Chief.



I was somewhat disappointed to make it so close to the lions and have to turn back defeated. The lions are without question the crown jewel of Vancouver. As I was descending there were several groups that were determined to pass the Lions in their journey despite the fog. One group of backpackers were heading to Deeks lake while two groups of runners were going all the way to Porteau cove. That is a long way.

For me the Lions is the primary quest. If you go too early in the summer there's still lots of snow to cross. If you go mid summer in the heat, you'll need more water and since there is no fresh water en route you have to carry it which significantly adds to the load. Now is the best time of year to do them. Not too hot and the trail is bare of snow finally. Yet like always on the coastal mountains the visibility is hit and miss.

This is an old youtube video I made of the Bruce Cockburn song Wondering Where The Lions Are. It has pictures around Vancouver including a close up of the lions when I hiked them from Lions bay. Yesterday as I stood at their foot looking straight at them hidden in dense fog that song Wondering Where The Lions Are came to mind. Of course it's also metaphorical. Wondering where the lions are can also mean the lions of Judah willing to stand against crime and corruption in defense of civil liberty. But then again people say I'm too metaphorical. This is a picture of the Lions from Hollyburn ridge on Cypress. They are the crown jewel of Vancouver.

She was Not just a junkie

There are a few stories to catch up on and although I will mention them briefly I really want to focus on where this has all taken us. 37.5 kg of cocaine were seized at Toronto airport. 3.3 tons of cocaine bound for Belgium and Spain were seized just outside of Peru. We still haven't heard what happened to our local Hells Angels arrested in that 500 kilos of cocaine seized in Spain.

The Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian Medical Association said smoking anything is bad for you including pot. Kinda like I said. The weird thing is they had to vote on it. Since when did scientific evidence become popular opinion? If enough people voted to say smoking cigarettes was good for you would they have said so? The Vancouver Province also ran an article saying smoking pot while driving is a bad idea. No kidding. Yet my real concern is Eric Clapton's version of Cocaine. When you want to get down, down on the ground, cocaine.

Although I do think way too many people smoke way too much pot, I recognize that meth and crack are much worse. Selling drugs in clubs to people who can afford it really isn't any of my business. These predatory drug dealers that push crack on the homeless and live off the avails by giving prostitutes crack then collecting all their money to pay for it is predatory exploitation.

Which brings us back to the Prince George serial killer case. Personally I think the guy is indeed a pathological liar. There is no possible way the 15 year old legally blind girl he killed was killed for a drug debt. His claim that she committed suicide while he was on a date with her is absurd. Under cross examination the crown implied he made up the story about other people being involved so he wouldn't be labeled a sex offender in prison but it's too late for that. He is a sex offender. He admitted to having sex with the sex trade workers before he killed them and he had sex with the 15 year old girl before he killed her too so he definitely is a sex offender.

Even if his story about killing the sex trade workers for a drug debt was true, it doesn't change the fact that he murdered them. That is what the evidence clearly declares. The fundamental problem in this case is that this guy has absolutely no remorse whatsoever. That is sad.

It reminds me of the Britney Irving case. Britney was most certainly not a sex trade worker. She sold pot to support her oyx habit. After Joey Verma killed her and was trying to get another man to take the fall for him, he said "I had to do it. She was just a junkie anyways."

Britney was not a junkie. In the trial Britney's brother testified how he was concerned about the plan to go shoot guns in the bush during a drug deal while the buyers picked up the product stashed in their car. He said that sounded kinda strange since during a drug deal you're trying to be inconspicuous and not get caught. Britney reassured him that they could trust Joey and that everything would be OK.

She was sadly mistaken. She genuinely cared about Joey and he used her and literally shot her in the back. The expression on her face they showed in court when her dead body was found still haunts me. I'm not sure which was worse. The pain of being shot in the back with a shotgun slug or being betrayed by the person she trusted and cared about. The pain on her face was real.

The tragic part was her excitement about her decision to go into rehab to get off the oxy once and for all right before she was killed. Just like how Natasha Montgomery was ready to leave Prince George and return home to be with her family right before she was killed. Someone didn't want them to get clean. It's the if I can't have you no one can tragedy.

It's like the Dianne Rock and Vince McMurchy case. The court was told Vince sold crack and got her addicted to it. After she was addicted, then she became a sex trade worker to pay for the drug. When her beauty started to fade and she was no longer able to pay her debts she was killed just like Janice Shore and Ashley Machiskinic. The point is, these women became sex trade workers out of necessity after they became addicted to crack. They weren't sex trade workers or drug addicts before they met their dirty dealer. As I said before the drug dealers are the pimps outside the Front Room in Surrey and in the DTES. They are the predators we must confront.

BC Teachers: Get back to work - Update

There is nothing more disgusting and infuriating that seeing BC Teachers on strike again holding signs that say think of the kids. Going on strike does not help the kids. Teacher's raises do not help the kids. If the government locks them out that is one thing but going on strike is another. You don't have to ratify a contract. There is no reason you can't vote down the contract, keep working and let the courts hash out the details of the contract. The Union can sign a memorandum with the employer agreeing that the old contract remains in effect until the new contract is ratified. Everybody knows the BC Liberals are corrupt. Everybody knows the BCTF is corrupt too. Now we know the teachers are selfish and greedy and don't give a rat's ass about the kids.

Never before have I had such an uncontrollable urge to yell out get back to work when I see a picket line. Never. I support free collective bargaining and the right to strike. However, education is an essential service. You only graduate once. You're only in grade eight once. You once play sports in that year once. Nothing replaces those lost memories. Nothing. Now when I see a teacher with a picket sign that says think of the kids I just want to scream out Shame! That's my position on the matter. Let the parents volunteer for the extra curricular activities and God help any selfish bastard that calls them a scab.

Update: Christy Clark's recent publicity stunt is yet another example of everything that's wrong with the BC Liberals. She sends out a press release saying she's asking the Teachers to call off their strike and the media reports that the Teachers rejected her offer to return to work. That in itself is ridiculous. If she wanted the teachers to return to work she makes them an offer at the table. I'm sure if she said they would obey the court order they have refused to obey that would have significant more impact in getting the teachers back to work. This conflict isn't a matter of being on the teachers side or being on the government's side. Both are wrong here.

A child's education is an essential service. The government can easily legislate the teachers back to work. It because ever so problematic when the government legislates them back to work after they have been found in contempt of a court order themselves. Often the federal government has in the past legislated Postal Workers back to work with legislated wage settlements. Education is much more of an essential service than the Post Office.

What the government isn't allowed to do, which is to my understanding reflected in the court order they are in contempt of, is legislate someone back to work and throw away their existing collective agreement. True, wages are considered part of a collective agreement but the rest of the contract they just can't throw out at will. That's what they did. So although the teachers are being greedy and selfish and are using the kids for their own personal gain, it is important to realize who really caused the problem and elect a new government next election. We also need to remember that Surrey MP Fassbender is the current Labour Minister at the seat of the conflict. Fire him.

Peter Fassbender rejects binding arbitration. Exactly. Fire him.

Tentative agreement reached. Thank God.

Prince George Serial killer claims he had accomplices

The Vancouver Province is reporting that "a young man accused of murdering three women and a teenage girl in northern British Columbia admits he was involved in two of the killings, but he told his trial Tuesday that he didn't act alone." Cody Legebokoff said three other people were also involved. He refused to provide their names, instead referring to them only as X, Y and Z.

Legebokoff described X as a drug dealer who introduced him to cocaine. He said he met X at a party and soon became a regular customer. He said X came in soon after and told them Stuchenko was going to be killed because she owed a lot of money. A prostitute murdered for a drug debt in Prince George. Imagine that. And who runs the drug trade in Prince George?

The Life and death of Jill Stuchenko



Update: Evidently one of the four women Cody has been accused of murdering is a 15 year old partially blind girl he met online. It is not believable that she too was killed for a drug debt. He was caught after dumping her body. Evidently this case has been going on for a long time and 93 witnesses were called. I'm going to have to go through some of their testimony as well.

One woman who claimed to have had a relationship with Cody testified that she knew one of the victims. She claimed that she and the victim were both prostitutes that did a lot of crack cocaine and crystal meth. Montgomery’s boyfriend, Brian Godwin, confirmed that she developed a serious drug problem around crack cocaine and the relationship broke up. Right before she died she was trying to leave Prince George and come home to her children.

Natasha Cynthia Maas' blood was found on a pickaxe in Legebokoff's Prince George apartment. Montgomery's blood was on an axe found leaning against a wall in a coat and boot closet near the apartment's entrance and was seen upon opening the closet door. Montgomery's blood was also found in Cody's apartment. There's lots of dna evidence. The three adult victims worked in the sex trade to pay for drugs. The fourth 15 year old victim did not.

These are however, some links to relevant information about sex trade workers that have been murdered for drug debts that Cody did not make up:

Prince George Torture Chambers (That was obviously an internal conflict because the Renegades, the Crew and the Independent Soldiers all work for the Hells Angels)

Diane Rock and Vince McMurchy

Larry Mizen and Janice Shore

Ashley Machiskinic

Anthony Terezakis and the American Hotel

Anthony Terezakis and Piggy's Palace

Mining company sues the Federal government

This is exactly what I'm talking about. This is exactly why these bizarre trade agreements have nothing to do with free trade and everything to do with removing our democratic system. The Vancouver Province is reporting that Taseko Mines is taking the Federal Government to court because it rejected it's application to create an open pit gold mine beside a lake over environmental concerns. WTF?

In Costa Ricca a Canadian mining company sued the the Costa Rican government over the canceled Las Crucitas gold mining concession. The concession was revoked in 2010 following environmental concerns and doubts about the concession’s legality. The corrupt company claimed that Costa Rica violated the Costa Rica-Canada Bilateral Investment Treaty when an Administrative Appeals Court revoked its mining concession in San Carlos, Alajuela, in 2010 and sued for a billion dollars in damages. The Costa Rican government was forced to let them continue their hazardous practices. These trade agreements remove our democratic sovereignty.

This time they aren't even going in front of one of these ridiculous closed door tribunals. They're going in front of the Supreme Court of Canada. Where and the hell is the jurisdiction to hear this application? The public elect a government, the government says no over environmental concerns and that's it. There is nothing more to discuss. The people had a protest and the government actually listened for once. Now a corrupt corporation wants to overturn the democratic will of the people. That is the problem right there. The court has absolutely no jurisdiction on this matter.

Innocent bystander shot dead in Calgary

The Globe and Mail is reporting that "a Toronto woman gunned down in Calgary early Saturday was an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time, police say. Natasha Mohamed Farah, 26, was killed in a shooting near 11th Ave. and 1st St. Southwest at about 3 a.m. Ms. Farah, who had just recently moved to Calgary, was pronounced dead at the scene."

CBC reported that "three people are in custody after being arrested at a hotel in the city's northwest, police said on Monday." The Calgary Sun is reporting that "she was killed only because she happened to be chatting with friends on the sidewalk, directly in the path of one badly-aimed bullet."

The Calgary Sun is reporting that "the man wanted in connection with a shooting in the Calgary community of Tuscany has been arrested in Ontario. Ulises Boris Quinteros, 51, was taken into custody early Monday morning in the lake city of Kenora, located 200 km east of Winnipeg. Quinteros is now charged with attempted murder, pointing a firearm and discharge of firearm with intent to wound, maim or disfigure. He is also charged with choking with intent and break and enter with the intent to harass." That shooting appears to be a second one that happened on sunday after a car crash where the victim survived.

Chuck Zito places foot in mouth

TMZ is all over this. Chuck Zito, the former president of the New York Hells Angels gone actor said he would beat the crap out of his girlfriend if he ever caught her cheating. Oh really? Adultery is a pretty serious offense but beating the crap out of a woman? Really? After the sh*t hit the fan he came out with an apology and said in actuality he would go nuclear on any guy who attacks a woman. Oh really? So which is it? Bustle.com claims his apology was insincere and misguided.

In the youtube video Chuck was asked his opinion and the Hells Angels opinion of a mma fighter named war machine who beat up his girlfriend. He said it's got nothing to do with him or the Hells Angels. If my girl was banging somebody I'd be doing the same thing. His apology on youtrube does seem rather misguided. He just reaffirms what he previously said.

According to a police report MMA star War Machine 'threatened to rape ex-girlfriend as he brutally beat her and she only escaped because he went looking for a knife to kill her'. Somewhat ironic Chuck Ziito shows his and the Hells Angels true colours when it comes to domestic violence right after Kerri Krysko writes a book about her abusive marriage to a full patch Hells Angel.



What I'd like to know is since Zito was so casual and matter af fact about how he wouldn't hesitate to beat the crap out of his girlfriend if she ever cheated on him, what other offense would be worthy of a woman being beating by him and or the Hells Angels? What was the real offense that caused the Hells Angles to stab Cynthia Garcia 27 times and dump her body in the desert? Was she really being disrespectful to them or did she just say no to the train?

Speaking about trains, who did gang rape Dianne Rock on the Pickton farm anyways? Is it true the Hells Angles did security for Piggy's Palace? That's what Stevie Cameron said in her book On the Farm after the publication ban was finally lifted. She had access to all the court documents.

What other offenses could Chuck Zito's girlfriend commit that would cause him to beat the crap out of her other than cheating? Just for the record Christy Mack, War Machine's EX girlfriend didn't cheat on him. They broke up in May and he was stalking her. He showed up at her house at 2 AM Friday and assaulted her. Is Chuck Zito's girlfriend allowed to have another relationship after they break up or would that mean he'd pull a War Machine on her? Please advise.



The Hells Angels brand is sure becoming synonymous with domestic abuse. In fact, in Chuck Zito's own chapter back in New York, March 1978, the chapter president, Vincent (Big Vinnie) Girolamo was charged with throwing his girlfriend, Mary Ann Campbell, from the roof of the building to her death on the pavement below. He died while he was on bail before the case went to trial.

The police claimed the New York Hells Angels were bragging about the fact that Otis Garret ordered the murder of Margo Compton and her twin seven year old daughters for testifying against him is a prostitution trial. With Zito's casual attitude about beating his own girlfriend and the fact that Vinnie threw his girlfriend off the roof of the clubhouse to the cheers of the crowd sure makes the police's claim believable.

Women the Hells Angels have murdered (We can add Patti Grondalski and her five year old daughter Dallas to that list as well.) Rage Against the Machine. The Big Red Machine.

Christy Clark cuts Gang Task Force budget

Vancouver 24 hours is reporting that "Two provincially funded sections of the RCMP are being told they are in a budget deficit and have to cut $4.2 million from their operating budgets to get things back in line. The Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit will see $2.8 million cut from its budget and this includes the elimination of Team 6 — the unit specializing in gathering intelligence and investigating outlaw motorcycle gangs, known as OMG."

Should we expect anything less from the most corrupt government in this province's history? Let's not forget that it was the BC Liberals that did away with the RCMP department that kept track of money laundering in casinos right after they issued a report about how bad it was in BC. Maybe the RCMP should play the BC Rail card again. You know, the charges relating to money laundering that were dropped after the province renewed their contract.

How many billion tax dollars a year does CSIS lose from it's spying on Canadians budget? Christy Clark says Hells Angels are OK. It's the civilans that have to worry about government surveillance. This is the exact opposite of the advice that former OPP undercover police officer Bob Deasey showed us in his book Being Uncle Charlie which explained some of the successes Ontario had with their BEU.

Drone hunting season now open in Vancouver

Evidently, Drone hunting season is now open in Vancouver. The Vancouver Province ran an article about someone in Vancouver spotting a peeping Tom drone outside his condo at night. CTV ran a video. That is illegal. It's not just the government spying on civilians. Now it's any idiot who wants to be a peeping Tom. Any Radioshack geek on the planet.

In Colorado they talked about issuing hunting licenses and offering rewards for every government drone shot down. Now the hunting season has now opened in Vancouver. Discharging firearms in the city might violate local bylaws but you can shoot them with paintball guns, throw string into their propellers of swat it out of the air with a stick if it comes within reach of your condo.

You can also take a picture of it and sue the company that rents them along with the BC Civil Liberties Union. The guys with the real estate drones claim they apply to Transport Canada every time they fly theirs. Somehow I don't think the hobbie drones do that.

Alex Caine: Angel Dust - Update

Alex Caine has just released his third book in his biker trilogy called Angel Dust: How the Outlaw Biker Gang Became a Criminal Empire. I wrote a chapter for him about the Vancouver Gang War but I don't know yet if it made the final cut. I understand that he mentions Margo Compton and another case about a little girl named Dallas Grondalski in it. Julian Sher also wrote about her in his book Angels of Death so no one can say he's making that up. This picture of him with Sonny Barger isn't photoshop either.



Dallas was the five year old daughter of Billy Grondalski who was a member of the Vallejo chapter of the Hells Angels. Gerald “Butch” Lester was president of that chapter and Charles Diaz was the Sergeant at Arms. The two murdered Billy and his entire family after they kicked him out of the club. Charles Diaz cut Dallas’s throat and Butch shot her. Then they burned down the house with all the bodies in it. That's part of the court record.

Update: OK I picked up a copy of the book at Chapters and it looks pretty good. The chapter I sent in on the Vancouver Gang War didn't make the final editing so here it in in pdf format. It needs to be updated since I sent it to him back when the blog only had 6 million hits. This month we just broke 12 million. There have been a few more convictions since then.

He does devote nine pages to my blog starting at page 230. It's a pretty good summery of what we've done and even concludes with a pretty good description of my basic philosophical beliefs citing Martin Luther King and Allan Watts. It brings me to the conclusion that I'm going to have to put together a book of my own expanding on what's been said and tying everything together. I want to talk about criminal organizations and civil liberty. The importance of confronting the one to preserve and protect the other.

The interesting thing about this book is that he has a chapter on the Vancouver Hells Angels involvement with the stock market.

Update: Interview on CTV - The Hells Angels are a “clear and present danger to our social fabric."