Canadian lawyers laundering money

Here's an interesting one. Today's Vancouver Province claims "Money laundering experts say there is no way for Canadians to know how much dirty money is being laundered in Vancouver real estate through Canadian lawyers. As a Province investigation revealed Monday, Canada’s financial intelligence unit Fintrac has ramped up an audit of Vancouver’s booming property market because of concerns that realtors may be turning a blind eye to money laundering."

We're going to have to start an online pool. How long do you think it will take Christie Clark to disband Canada’s financial intelligence unit? Historically, every time a police task force found organized crime, a government body disbanded that police task force. They claim "Canada's dirty money detection system broken all the way through." So instead of fixing the broken system what do you think the odd are that they';ll just get rid of the task force that came up with the report? Judging from their past history, I'd say it's guaranteed. So let's have a pool to see who can guess how long it will take.

Shooting in Richmond

CBC is reporting that "a man is in hospital following a serious incident Friday night in Richmond, but police are revealing few details. The incident began around 11 p.m. PT Friday near Number 2 Road and Westminster Highway and closed down nearby Dover Park for hours. A trail of blood could be seen leading from the park to a nearby Chevron gas station. Numerous evidence markers covered the scene."

Yes I remember the Dover Park shoot out in 2007 well. It was before I started the blog. I tied white balloons around the park and held a press conference on site calling for a cease fire. It was a park in the middle of a residential housing complex with a day care on site. A local Persian gang were targeted by another group with automatic weapons.

Update: News 1130 is reporting that "Police say a shooting in Richmond on Friday night appears to be targeted and gang related." The man who was shot is well known to the police, has gang ties and is not cooperating with the investigation.

Surrey Shooting

CBC is reporting that there was a shooting in Surrey 9:00 PM last night. "According to police, witnesses called 911 to report that the drivers of a silver Honda Civic and a Ford Mustang were chasing each other, with gunshots being fired between the cars. Officers located the Mustang, detained its three male occupants and found at least one bullet hole in the car."

Politics of the Pork Barrel

As the Canadian election kicks off the parade of politicians spewing ridiculous campaign promises has begun. Mulclair came to Vancouver and promised more money for Transit. Then he came to Surrey and promised more money for police. Likewise Harper and Justin are promising the moon. I think voters in BC and more specifically here in Surrey, don't want to hear a political promise they are going to spend more money on anything. I think they want politicians to be fiscally responsible and lower taxes for everyone not just for the rich and not just for the poor. When the government is fiscally responsible and taxes are low for everyone, business prospers and tax revenue increases.

Think about it. Many years ago Ireland was poor. Then the government had an idea. They figured that 80% of nothing is nothing while 10% of something is something so they offered a tax incentive to corporations. They gave large corporations huge tax breaks. As a result, large corporation moved in and started doing business in Ireland. The Shannon Industrial Park opened up and all of a sudden all these high tech industries set up shop right beside Paddy and Mic's sheep farm. They began to prosper.

Alberta is an excellent model. It's just unfortunate that Stephen Harper had destroyed that model when he went to Ottawa. Alberta has no sales tax. As a result, businesses are attracted to that province. This creates jobs and tax revenue because people working at those jobs pay income tax. Alberta even went one step further. They were doing so well financially they started paying everyone's medical insurance premiums. That almost a socialist idea yet Alberta is very conservative. For them it's just good business and that it is. It just makes sense.

I like Thomas Mulclair because he's a good guy and he's the only one supporting the Canadian Charter of Rights in defense of civil liberty. That is my primary election issue. However, I recognize that no political party is perfect. The Neo Cons keep parroting the same old stereotype that the NDP will tax and spend. Yet Harper has done a far worse job of spending tax dollars then any NDP government has ever dreamed of. Harper was the driving force behind the HST in BC that voters rejected. That is why Harper gave his buddy Gordon Campbell that offensive job as a high commission. Taxing things that are normally tax exempt is not a reduction in taxes. The HST killed a lot of local restaurants before it was finally over turned.

Conservatives are supposed to support small business and the free market. Stephen Harper does not. Harper supports big business and corporate monopolies which gouge consumers destroy the free market. Stephen Harper is no a conservative. He is a Neo Con and that is something very different as Ron Paul has clearly pointed out.

Yet when Thomas Mulcair comes to Vancouver and promises more money for Transit I'm like hold the door. That might be fine in Ontario but in BC Translink is a fiscal disaster. They already are over budget a billion dollars every year and suck that much money up in a regional gas tax above and beyond all the other gas tax. Consumers pay for the gas tax because everything we buy in stores gets shipped there on trucks. In BC we just had a referendum on raising sales tax to pour even more tax dollars into that fiscal nightmare and the voters said no. So promising more money for transit isn't going to win votes here. Forcing Translink to balance their budget will. The fact that SNC-Lavalin got the contract for the Evergreen line was a criminal act all on it's own.

So Thomas comes to Surrey and offers more money for police. Well that's nice but even Surrey's Worst has promised that finally. We have seen that more police officers is indeed helpful but that is not the solution in itself. If we start arresting crack dealers outside the Front Room in Whalley and in Newton then that would certainly make a huge difference to the violent crime in Surrey but that's not going to happen as long as Bill Fordy is in charge. He needs to be transferred out of the City before we can start finally addressing the violent crime in Surrey like we should. Peace.

Margaret Atwood's Hairgate

Margaret Atwood ran an amusing editorial in the National Post mocking Stephen Harper's attack adds on Justine Trudeau which seem to focus on an obsession with his hair. The controversy arises in how much the National Post ended up editing her article. The editing doesn't seem to be too extreme and has me wondering if it ties in with the subject of SLAPP law suits. Newspapers don't like to waste money on lawsuits. Perhaps they were simply covering their ass so to speak.

In her article she asks: Let’s try this hair quiz:

Of the three national male leaders, which one travels with a personal grooming assistant -lavishly paid for in whole or in part by you, gentle taxpayer—so that none of his hairs will ever be out of place, supposing they are indeed his and not a wig, as some have supposed? (Hint: Initials are S.H.) Which leader, on the other hand, doesn’t need such an assistant because his hair is “nice” enough already? (Hint: initials are J.T.) And which one wouldn’t know what a personal grooming assistant was if he fell over one? (Hint: Initials are T.M.)

Internet Censorship Part 2 SLAPP Suits

As we have discussed, large corporations can sue or threaten to sue individuals based on fraudulent copyright claims to censor the Internet. Likewise, the civil courts can and have been misused to bully and censor the Internet. Previously one blog reader referred to this process as a slap suit. Another way the rich bully the poor. Another blog reader explained from Wikipedia:

"A strategic lawsuit against public participation (SLAPP) is a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition. The typical SLAPP plaintiff does not normally expect to win the lawsuit. The plaintiff's goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism."

Consequently, the public is engaging in conversations trying to lobby lawmakers to adopt legislation to respond to this kind of censorship. Ontario established an Anti-SLAPP Advisory Panel that the public contacted with their concerns. The panel released it's recommendations in 2010 and the Ontario Government responded by adopting an Ant-SLAPP bill, "The Protection of Public Participation Act" in June 2013. BC needs this. Michael Geist is a good person to follow.



Judges are paid with tax dollars and are employed to protect the public interest not betray that trust. They claim that civilians don't know the law like they do. In reality they elect the governments that make the law. The intent of the law is to protect civilians not enslave them.

Former RCMP officer sentenced for stealing cocaine

The Burnaby Now is reporting that "a former peace officer with the Burnaby RCMP is serving a 14-month jail sentence for stealing a kilogram of cocaine from a police exhibit locker in the spring of 2011. Gary Read, a longtime special constable once in charge of exhibits in Burnaby, was charged with theft in November 2011 after an exhibit audit at the local RCMP detachment in the spring of 2011 revealed some drugs were unaccounted for. Read was found guilty in February 2015." He was recently sentenced this summer. CBC refers to him as a City worker but Vancitybuzz refers to him as a former Burnaby RCMP officer.

Internet Censorship Part 1 Copyright

Today I'm going to launch a two part series on Internet Censorship. For Part 1 we're going to roll back the hands of time and look at Corporate Censorship through fraudulent copyright claims. To being with we'll talk about a case I was personally invoked with about Telus censoring videos on Youtube that Michael Geist wrote about and has now resulted in the Notice and Notice copyright system being implemented in Canada. In the US they have the Notice and Takedown system which as we shall see is filled with problems.

Back in the day I was a bit of a Labour activist so to speak. I supported the Telus employees who went on strike against their employer's use of off shore call centres. Sending Canadian jobs overseas is bad business. I had posted several videos about the dispute on Youtube. Songs employees wrote and performed, a bagpiper leading a picket line and various news reports on the strike. I also posted some exerts of Telus Idol which was a training video filled with sexual harassment. It was a spoof on American Idol and was totally inappropriate. They didn't just film it, they made all their employees watch it as a training video. When I posted it on Youtube they freaked and wanted it off the Internet as soon as possible.

So they contacted Yotube and asked the videos be removed because they violated Telus' copyright. They had all the videos taken off. Even the videos of the picketline and news reports. I complained to Youtube and said come on guys, take a look at the videos. There is no possible way they could own copyright to any of those videos. The only way I could get those videos back on Youtube was by filing a counter notification which I did. That in tern forced Telus to file a copyright claim with the courts which they did. Only they refused to serve me a copy of the claim. They once again tried to go ex parte - without me. It's a lot easier to argue your case when the other party isn't there to defend themselves.

Youtube ended up sending me a copy of their court application and I soon saw why they didn't want me present. They lied. They claimed Telus Idol was called Telus VOIP and was about Telus' voice over Internet protocol and was a copyrighted work. That was a bold faced lie. Telus Idol was a spoof on American Idol full of sexual harassment and had absolutely nothing to do with voice over Internet protocol. Nice try.

So I filled my response to the court objecting to them proceeding ex parte and pointed out that they lied in their application. They also made a fraudulent copyright claim on a whole list of other videos that had nothing to do with Telus Idol which they had no possible copyright claim on. Later I found out that one of their representatives said that the name of the CEO was protected by copyright and that they owned copyright to any video that uttered his name. It was absurd.

To make a long story short, I told the law firm in San Fransisco that they could have Telus Idol as long as I got back all the other videos. They refused and insisted on litigating it to the end. After a full trial against three different law firms they got Telus Idol and I got all the other videos back. Just like I had said.

I remember meeting with a lawyer that represented Telus in Vancouver from the largest firm I had ever seen not to mention gone up against. He was trying to get me to take down another web site I had about the CEO. I said sorry, no can do. He said how about I make that trial in San Fransisco disappear. I laughed and said I'm not to worried about that trial. I filed a Motion to Dismiss on Jurisdiction and had everything in their wish list taken off their application and made sure the case was strictly about videos posted on Youtube. I'm allowed to E-file court documents. I'm allowed to make telephone appearances and I caught them lying in their initial application. Quite frankly, I'm not too worried about that trial. He just kinda looked at me and growled.

I said to him, I fully realize we don't have the same amount of chips on the table here. If the court finds Telus right and I have violated their copyright, I could be fined $500,000 and go to jail. If I'm right and Telus did in fact commit copyfraud, fraudulently claiming copyright to something so they could censor the Internet, they could be fined $2,000 which is nothing for a big corporation. I looked at the lawyer and said I am fully aware I have much more to lose here then your client. He just looked at me in shock as if to say you realize that and you are still going to proceed. I just nodded embarrassed and said yes as his stunned look said you are insane. I felt sorry for him and wrote him a nice tribute. He still uses my quote on his home page. I'm the adversary he quoted.

The point of this tall tale is that one way large corporations censor the Internet is through fraudulent copyright claims. The Notice and Notice copyright system is better than the Notice and Takedown system as Michael Geist has explained. The Notice and Takedown model means as soon as a server gets an allegation that someone might sue, they take down the content to avoid spending money on a trial. The Notice and Notice model means the person who posted the information has a right to go to court without the server being sued. Peace.

Lilyhammer End Game

As I previously mentioned I have been enjoying a Netfilx TV series called Lilyhammer. It's about a New York Mafioso who moves to Norway after getting shafted by a rival. He picked Lilyhammer after seeing it on the Winter Olympics. It's a fun series because it was actually filmed in Norway with a Norwegian cast. Most of it is in English but parts are in Norwegian with English subtitles making it all that more realistic. The Rolling Stone ran and article about it.

Johnny, the New York Mafioso meets a nice Norwegian woman and has a child with her, actually twins. Only she gets fed up with Johnny's secret business transactions and kicks him out. Torgeir is a fun character that rises up to become Johnny's right hand man. He eventually meets a girl and as they prepare for her to have a child he starts to reconsider whether or not he should leave the game so to speak and focus on starting a new life as a Dad.



At first Johny says I'm sorry but I can't accept your resignation at this time. The only way you can get out of this business is horizontally. Then they end up having to kill one of their former associates who screwed up. Killing bad guys is pretty easy but killing an innocent person or a decent guy who screwed up is an entirely different matter. After that incident Torgeir lost the wind in his sails and once again asked Johnny to retire. This time Johnny said yes and let him retire on good terms.

We used to have a saying here. 81 in 86 out. Now that's not so much the case and many people have been able to retire in good standing. The key thing is once you retire, keep your mouth shut and start a new life. If you become an informant no one can protect you.

TBM Fresh Start has a good thing going. They are big in Scandinavia. They are well established in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. They actually have a series of safe houses like the RA in Ireland did to protect people who want to leave the gang life. I had sincerely hoped to be able to get involved with them in Canada. Unfortunately my resources are tapped out and I have to focus on paying my own bills right now. Yet if anyone else wants to rise to the challenge and help them set up here in Canada please feel free. As individuals we can't do everything but we can do something.

Gas prices rise while oil prices drop

Market Watch posted an article running interference for the obvious dilemma: Why gas prices are rising as oil falls to 6-year lows. Gee I wonder. It's because Harper let the oil companies obtain a monopoly on the market then sold that monopoly to Communist China.

The Canadian oil companies are getting screwed over by that monopoly. The Canadian workers in the oil fields are getting screwed over by that monopoly. The Canadian consumers at the gas pumps are getting screwed over by that monopoly.

Years ago, the Rockefellers were using hostile takeovers to obtain a monopoly on the market through Standard oil, the US courts ruled it illegal citing anti trust laws. Now the dirty politicians call it good business as they line their pockets with political contributions. Corporate monopolies are good business because they screw over the consumers and destroy the free market. Welcome to Harper's Corporate Communism.

I noticed that Harpers attack adds have shifted from Justin Trudeau to Thomas Mulclair. They wouldn't have enough air time to put out commercials about Harpers corruption within his caucus.



A friend at work asked me if I saw Harper's trolls heckle the media for asking questions about the Duffy trial. I missed it but it certainly doesn't surprise me. When Harper has a press conference he tries to control what questions are asked. This time he had trolls heckle the media for asking him about the Duffy scandal which is in trial now. The media has every right to ask questions about it. This is another example of the propaganda machine that tries to control the press. Stephen Harper is no Preston Manning.