March against Monsanto

CTV is reporting that "Protesters gathered in cities across the globe Saturday to rally against the American biotechnology giant Monsanto. The third-annual March Against Monsanto was held in several major Canadian cities, including Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary and Vancouver. In total, organizers said that events were being held in 428 cities in 38 countries."

The protest is about the abundance of Genetically Modified organisms which inject pesticides into food and modifies the seeds. It is a serious concern because it is wiping out bees which means cross pollination becomes obsolete. In Europe where GMO has been banned the bee population is starting to return. It's another example of corporate greed where large corporations get a monopoly on a market and wipe out all opposition. I first found out about GMO at a Stephen Harper protest in Kelowna. Consequently there was a large turnout in the Kelowna protest today.

Castanet is reporting that "organizers believe Monsanto is destroying farmer’s lives across the globe and making headway into owning the seeds that farmers are forced to use – which would be GMO." Conservatives are supposed to support small business and the free market but that is exactly the opposite of what Stephen Harper is doing. Instead he is helping large corporations destroy the free market by killing small business so they can gouge consumers as long as they pay a kickback to the politicians that enabled them.

We need to enforce GMO labeling by law. If someone wants to sell GMO produce it needs to be labeled accordingly. Failure to do that is fraud.

Ireland votes to approve Gay marriage

Vice News is reporting that Ireland became the first country in the world to legalize gay marriage by a national vote with 62% in favor. I think the key word here is marriage. What two consenting adults do behind closed doors is their business. Gay rape is just as heinous as heterosexual rape. Especial when it involves children. So although the church opposes the decision it clearly must take the board out of it's own eye before it takes the speck out of it's neighbors.

Suspicious fire in Courtenay

CBC is reporting that a suspicious fire in Courtney yesterday. The Comox Valley Record is reporting that a witness described multiple explosions. Police have obtained a search warrant and are investigating the possibility of a drug lab.

Shooting outside Coquitlam Centre mall

CTV is confirming a News 1130 Twitter post about a shooting outside Coquitlam Centre mall this afternoon. Global is reporting that "calls came in to RCMP at about 3 p.m. saying one person had been shot near the Montana’s Restaurant."

There has also been an update on the biker brawl in Waco Texas. Breitbart.com is confirming the claim that all the bikers who were shot dead were shot dead by police. Their source is the Aging Rebel who was told that by the bikers or supporters.

Drug plane from Venezuela crashes off Colombia's coast

The Big Story is reporting that "a small plane en route from Venezuela with more than a ton of cocaine on board crashed into the Caribbean on Wednesday after being pursued by Colombia's air force. Venezuela has become a key transit country for cocaine produced in Colombia, with several government officials and high-level members of the military sanctioned by the United States for allegedly colluding with drug traffickers."

If it was heading to Florida or Mena, Arkansas it would of had safe passage. Remember Operation Watch Tower? It must have been a Farc trip as opposed to a Narco trip otherwise they wouldn't have shot it down. Video clip.

Ottawa pledges 100 more cops to fight Surrey Drug War

The Vancouver Province is reporting that Ottawa has pledged to hire 100 more Mounties in Surrey to respond to the dramatic increase in recent drug related shootings. What a crock of sh*t that is. You can fill every donut shop in Surrey with cops and it won't do a thing to stop the drug related violence as long as you continue to let drug dealers sell crack in Newton and outside the Front Room. If you don't arrest the crack dealers you are wasting everyone's time and money.

It's also a waste of time if you don't transfer Bill Fordy out of Surrey and put a professional in that will actually do the job. In the /80's when the US crack epidemic was thriving in south Seattle, I knew of two different police officers, as soon as they started putting pressure on the crack dealers and arresting them, they were transferred out of the area. We can't stop the gang violence until we stop the corruption in office that enables it and profits from it.

Welcome to the Brave New World where money talks and the bullsh*t never stops.

Police incident in New Westminster

News 1130 is reporting that there is a police incident at 1st & Royal Ave New Westminster. They also claim that it extends across New West, south Burnaby and into South Van. The Vancouver Sun reported that it was likely about "Police searching for an armed and dangerous man and woman following an attempted shooting and car chase through New Westminster, Burnaby and Vancouver."

Scan BC reported that #PortCoquitlam #RCMP are on scene with a person who has been shot in the head out front of a residence at 1100 Clerihue Road - unconfirmed. Global is reporting there was a shooting in Burnaby Tuesday night.

News 1130 is reporting that IHIT has been called in after police found a body in Richmond Tuesday.

9 dead in Texas biker brawl - New Update

CNN is reporting that Gunfire erupted Sunday among rival biker gangs in Waco, Texas, leaving at least nine people dead. Three rival groups were present. The violence erupted shortly after noon at a busy Waco marketplace along Interstate 35 that draws a large lunchtime crowd.

Seemingly it was between Bandidos and Cossacks. Law enforcement officials said the gun battle was primarily between the Bandidos and Cossacks gangs, a continuation of a long-running feud between the two groups, though members of the Scimitars and two other gangs were also involved. Texas police say 192 people are to face organized crime charges after the Waco bike-gang shooting that left nine people dead and 18 others injured.

Update: Mixed reports are coming in on this. It has been claimed that it was the police that fired all the shots which resulted in all the fatalities. That is worth finding out.

NEW Update: Breitbart.com is confirming those rumours by quoting a different account of what happened by the Aging Rebel. The Aging Rebel claims "When the restaurant refused to ban the Confederation of Clubs, police stationed at least 22 cops including ten Swat officers from the Waco P.D. and the Texas Department of Public Safety in the parking lot outside the restaurant. They did not station either uniformed or plain clothes officers in the restaurant."

"The shove in the bathroom became a scuffle in the restaurant. When about 30 Bandidos, Cossacks, Scimitars and other bikers spilled into the parking between the Twin peaks and the Don Carlos Mexican restaurant next door, the police were waiting for them. The scuffle became a knife fight and several men were stabbed. When one of the combatants produced a gun the Swat team opened fire with automatic weapons. Multiple sources have told The Aging Rebel that all of the dead were killed by police."

OK so the bikers claim everyone shot dead was shot by the police. Not necessarily a reliable source but at this point I'd say it's one step more reliable then the police on the scene which changes the events completely. Yes a fight broke out and yes someone pulled a gun and was going to shoot someone. So why not just shoot the guy who pulled the gun? Perhaps they also shot guys who pulled knives and were stabbing people.

We're never going to find out what really happened. The bikers who would have been shot by the biker who pulled the gun are still going to complain about the police saving their life. Just as the ones who were going to get stabbed next by the bikers with the knives are going to complain the police saved their life as well. The underlining question is, did SWAT over react and just use it as an excuse to exterminate bikers? We know a fight broke out and we know there is past history with those clubs. The Bandidos trying to tax the Cossacks. However we also know there is past history in Waco Texas with the Branch Dividians.

East Vancouver residents complain about dug related crime

This is the same problem that keeps repeating itself like a broken record. Residents complain about drug related crime while the police and the city refuse to do anything about it. The Vancouver Province is reporting that Residents of an East Vancouver neighbourhood say the City of Vancouver must respond to a “surge” of prostitutes, crime and drug activity that they say is endangering area families and harming children. The petitioners want the city to bar prostitution from residential neighbourhoods and contain it within a “red-light” district.

Banning drug addicted prostitution from residential neighborhoods is a no brainer. Yet creating a red light district is indeed problematic because drug addicted prostitution is nasty. The residents are fed up with the bizarre extreme they are facing and are willing to resort to any compromise to get it out of their neghourhood. Kensington-Cedar Cottage may be in East Vancouver but it is nowhere enar the DTES and it is indeed full of kids. Allowing that kind of criminal activity in a residential nehgbourhood is in itself criminal. So is rewarding outrageous behavior.

Likewise the Vancouver Province is reporting that "four men charged after a Downtown Eastside drug den was shut down and the premises sold have had their drug charges stayed by the federal Crown. Randolph Brown, Shawn Brown, Mark Chung and Dennis George Knibbs were charged on a 15-count indictment after police searched the former Backpacker Inn in the 600-block Alexander Street and seized more than $300,000 worth of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and crystal meth. An estimated $50,000 in cash was also seized."

Do you remember that case? The police sent out press releases patting themselves on the back for busting a ruthless drug ring that was exploiting addicts and the crown drops the charges. The pattern of corruption continues. Once again the problem is the public drug dealing of crack.

Handing out free crack kits or free crack pipes is not the answer and is the exact opposite of the New York model everyone raves about. Crack pipe vending machines aren't the answer either. They are promoting the problem instead of confronting it. Homelessness and rising rents are a legitimate concern. People need homes not drugs.

Alberta lawyer goes to jail for mortgage fraud

The Edmonton Sun is reporting that "a 'rogue' lawyer who was the complicit 'lapdog' of the ringleader of a $6 million Alberta mortgage fraud was put behind bars Friday for his part in the financial crime. Roy Elander, 65, was sentenced to 3-1/2 years in prison and ordered to pay $426,000 in restitution after earlier being convicted of 14 counts of fraud over $5,000. The judge ruled Elander was “instrumental” in facilitating the central Alberta mortgage fraud - orchestrated by Allan MacMullin - while acting as a lawyer for both the financial institutions involved and the straw buyers. "

The Edmonton Sun previously reported that the actual ringleader, Allan MacMullin, was given a 10 year sentence and ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution to two financial institutions and various individual straw buyers after earlier being convicted of 38 counts of fraud over $5,000.

Another case of Mortgage Fraud in Alberta involved more than 100 people including Devinder Shory, Stephen Harper's Conservative MP for Calgary Northeast. CBC reported that the Bank of Montreal settled out of court with all but a handful of the 160 people involved after the insurance fund for lawyers, the Alberta Lawyers Insurance Association (ALIA) agreed to pay $9.2 million to BMO to settle the case on behalf of all 17 lawyers named in the suit which stopped the RCMP's criminal investigation dead in it's tracks.

Calgary Hells Angel associate Ali El-Sayed was convicted of being a "ringleader" of another mortgage fraud in Alberta. Ken LeBlanc and Ali El-Sayed's other associate Jahan Meshkati was shot dead in BC last year. Nobody likes a scammer.