Canadian Ambassador insults Ireland

I have a few stories to catch up on but I just wanted to pause on this one to give us a chance to reflect in case there was someone out there I have not yet offended. The Canadian Ambassador to Ireland is in the news after tackling a protester in Dublin. We have to pause and reflect on how outrageous and offensive this ceremony was on Irish soil. This wasn't in London, this was in Dublin. This is like the Nazis having a ceremony in France mourning the loss of its soldiers when it invaded France or North Korea holding a ceremony in South Korea mourning the loss of its soldiers when it tried to invade South Korea. It is freaking offensive. Sure soldiers are people too and everyone wants to remember those who died fighting for their country but if you don't want your soldiers to die don't invade another county.

All the Protester said was this is an insult and it bloody well was. If you want to have a ceremony in England remembering soldiers that were killed when you invaded another country have at it but don't do it on sovereign soil. It is insanely offensive. That's like the Protestants marching through Catholic areas in Northern Ireland on the 12th of July throwing it in their faces that they lost some battle back in 1690 which somehow gives them the right to remove all Catholics civl liberty today.

Do we have any idea what the Easter Uprising was? We all get upset when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait but that is exactly what England did to Ireland. They invaded a sovereign state just like Hitler or North Korea did. During Easter in 1916 when the world was opposing Germany's invasion of Europe and was silent on England's invasion of Ireland, a group of noble men took the Post Office and struck for freedom. Have you read the inspired contents of the Irish Proclamation the founding fathers were executed for signing? It is worth reading.

On behalf of Canada I would like to formally apologize to Ireland for this offensive disregard for their liberty. Peace begins by respecting the struggle for freedom. Erin go Bragh. Tiocfaidh ár lá.

Kamloops RCMP officer charged with selling cocaine

The National Post is reporting that "A former Kamloops police officer has been charged with three counts of cocaine trafficking — with allegations she was selling the drugs while still employed as a Mountie. Randi Love, who has since retired from the RCMP, is accused of dealing cocaine on three occasions last June, while still a member of the national police force. According to court documents, the 40-year-old allegedly trafficked cocaine on June 13, June 22 and June 26. KTW has learned Love retired from the RCMP in recent months after discovering she was the subject of a drug-trafficking investigation." CFJC Today article.

As we recall, the Chief of police in Merit pleaded guilty to stealing and using cocaine from an evidence locker. A Burnaby RCMP officer was sentenced to 14-months in jail for stealing a kilogram of cocaine from a police exhibit locker in the spring of 2011.

Surrey drug bust

Speak of the devil. The Surrey now is reporting that "Surrey RCMP's drug unit arrested eight suspects Wednesday in Surrey and are looking for four more in connection with an investigation into dial-a-dope drug trafficking in Surrey and Richmond." Just when we observed none of these drug busts ever happened in Surrey. Bill Fordy must have asked the gang task force to do a bust in Surrey so he didn't looks so bad. Mind you it's pretty hard for him not to look like and idiot when he is dancing naked after he set fire to some toilet paper hanging out of his ass.

The question we need to keep asking is why do they spend all that time and energy conduction an investigation into a dial a dope operation when there are drug dealers selling crack in public outside the Front Room in Surrey? Why do they let them do that? Those are the ones exploiting the homeless not the dial a dope operations.

Fraser MacRae was a real man. Bill Fordy never came close.

Canada Arms China's nuclear Sub

Welcome to another day in the Twilight zone. The Guardian is reporting that China to send nuclear-armed submarines into Pacific amid tensions with US. Who the hell do you think gave Communist China the materials and the technology to arm those nuclear missiles on that sub? Canada did. First it was Jean Chretien's sale of military weapons and CANDU reactors to the Communist dictatorship. Then Stephen Harper did the time warp and thought selling China nuclear reactors was a good idea. It's not like they would ever use it for the wrong purposes or arm any terrorist organizations in the world or anything like that. Which once again forces us to ask ourselves which side are we on?

Let's not forget how Stephen Harper sold Communist China our oil rights. He didn't just sell them oil, he sold them our oil rights. That means every time we fill up at the pump we are funding the military expansion of a Communist dictatorship. Stephen Harper was more of a Communist than Pierre Elliot Trudeau ever was. History has recorded that. Guess who got the contract for CANDU reactors in China? SNC-Lavalin. I kid you not. The same criminals that got the Evergreen line after they were banned from world projects for corruption and money laundering.

Shootings in Abbotsford and Peachland

The Abbotsford News is reporting that Police watched a guy on a stolen motorcycle drive eraticalty and crash the motorcycle. The rider fled the scene but police found a fanny pack on scene with almost $1,100 cash, a loaded pistol, street drugs (including heroin, crack cocaine, cocaine, methamphetamine and unknown drugs), and identification of the arrested man. I guess that's one for the gangsters' fail army. The suspect was well known to the police.

Guy on a stolen motorcycle caught with gun and drugs

1130 News is reporting that there were shots fired between vehicles in Abostford last night around 8:30 p.m. on McCallum Road and Switzer Avenue (just south of South Fraser Way). Shell casings were found at the scene

Kelowna Capital News is reporting that there was a shooting in Peachland last Thursday when a man was shot in the leg on a rural property.

Steven Skinner arrested in Venezuela

CBC is reporting that "Venezuelan police have arrested a Nova Scotian man who left Canada shortly before being charged with murder in 2011. Steven Skinner, 43, faces a second-degree murder charge over the killing of 20-year-old Stacey Adams in the Halifax area. " I was wondering why the traffic on an old post I made about him was off the charts. A blog reader finally wrote in and said he was arrested. I'm not sure about his affiliations. He was a MMA fighter.

CBC is reporting that in 2006, two clothing stores owned by Skinner were firebombed within an hour of each other. One of the men charged with arson in the fires was Cory Melvin, the younger brother of Halifax crime figure Jimmy Melvin Jr.

The Chronicle Herald reported that "Melvin, a notorious Halifax crime figure, was arrested in July and charged with first-degree murder in the February 2009 shooting death of Terry Marriott Jr., who belonged to a rival gang." It doesn't name the gang but describe the feud between the Melvins and the Marriotts who used to sell crack together then split and became rivals.

The article states Jimmy Melvin Sr worked for the Hells Angels back in 1992 when he was caught trying to off load a spanish vessel loaded with three tones of cocaine. In 2000 a member of the Marriott family was charged with the murder of former Hells Angels associate William St. Clair Wendelborg. December 2001 Jimmy Melvin Sr was arrested along with Hells Angels members and associates when the Halifax clubhouse was raided for drug offences.

That would imply Skinner is a HA rival but Venezuela kinda sounds like HA protection. In the book Road to Hell, it claims Larry Pace (Lars) killed William Wendelborg in a contract hit ordered by Wolf Carroll’s associate Paul Wilson. Lars is the guy living in Kelowna now. So that hit was for the Hells Angels not against them. The HAs must be working with both groups in Halifax. Locals are under the impression Skinner got his HA patch in 2011.

Rental housing disappears in Metro Vancouver

Numerous media outlets are reporting that Low-cost rental housing disappears across Metro Vancouver. This is the first factor in the tent city crime plague. Housing is a genuine concern. Adding drug addition to that makes it untreatable. Global is News is confirming a Vancouver Province report that the high cost of housng is causing young families to leave Vancouver.

Tent city plagued by violence

The Times Colonist is reporting that "Victoria councillors have unanimously approved spending up to $113,000 in additional policing funds to deal with increasing crime and violence in the neighbourhood surrounding the tent city on the courthouse lawn. Acting Police Chief Del Manak painted a grim picture to city councillors of drug use, violence and intimidation in and around tent city because street gang members have infiltrated the encampment. 'The site is clearly not safe,' he said. Manak said police officers are regularly met with aggression at tent city; both residents and service providers are intimidated and many neighbours worry for their safety."

This is a common theme we are seeing repeat itself. Victoria, Vancouver, Surrey, Maple Ridge - all have areas where the street gangs are exploiting and brutalizing the homeless so they can make money from addiction that results in a huge amount of violent crime.

The Victoria police chief said both residents and service providers are intimidated and many neighbours worry for their safety. This is very true. Service provides is referring to sex trade workers like Dianne Rock and Janice Shore where the drug dealer becomes the pimp and take everything they make not just a percentage. There is nothing consentual about it.

There are two problems on the table not just one. Housing is a legitimate concern. Yet the cause is lost when it is overcome and exploited with open drug abuse. Hal Hannon from Breaking the code nailed it in a post he made entitled Why Tent City Has No Solution.

Hal states Addiction is relentless:

"Have you ever supported a drug habit? I have. I supported my ex-roommate’s addiction for fifteen years. It cost me between $3,000 and $5,000 a month, whatever I could make available. Had I made more available, she would have wasted that on drugs too. Multiply that by the masses who inhabit tent city and those waiting for a spot to pitch a tent. I can assure you that when a lifestyle is driven by addiction there is never enough money. Without enough money, tent city has no solution. Every effort to help them will be misused to support their drug habits I am not saying every tenter is an addict. I am saying that some ninety percent of them are."

Hal has a very valid point. However, I am saying there is a solution. Arrest the drug dealers exploiting the homeless not the drug addicts. Unless we do that we are enabling and supporting the violence exploiting them. Then we can devote some of the resources we spent on harm promotion on housing instead. People need homes not drugs.

Provincial government shafts Surrey Schools

The Surrey Leader nailed it. More specifically Kevin Diakiw did. I can't find the article online but the printed edition has an inspiring article that states residential growth in Surrey contributed $585M to BC coffers over last decade then points out they only devoted 18.4% of that to building new schools. It's not surprising that article isn't available online. It was quickly replaced with a Christy Clark Corporate spin and photoshoot announcing new schools. Better late than never.

Recently there has been a lot of hype in the media about how Surrey has to slow down it's new construction because there aren't enough schools. Then I start thinking wait a minute, building new schools is a provincial budget not a civic budget. Then we hear that some kids in Surrey might have to be bussed into Vancouver to go to school because there isn't enough room in Surrey. But we discover that Vancouver is facing the possibility of closing schools that are full. Why? To save money because of their being over budget.

Once again we see the ugly face of the BC Hydro fraud reveal itself. In Christy Clark's' fudge it budget she said she was going to balance the budget by extracting a dividend from BC Hydro knowing full well that was a lie. The Campbell government created the BC Hydro crisis and their ballooning deficit made it impossible for Christy Clark to extract a dividend to fix her fudge it budget. Instead they had to lend the money to BC Hydro to pay the dividend they didn't have to *balance* Christy's budget.

The real crisis was created by the one and only Gordon Campbell who privatized the power brokers that sell power to the public company at above market rates so his campaign contributors could literally make a fortune off the taxpayers back. If he hadn't done that, BC Hydro's debt would not be ballooning out of control and we could in fact have extracted a dividend from them to balance the budget and fund more schools. This is the same fraud that created the Greek Financial Crisis. What was public money became private then disappeared. Buyer Beware.



BC Hydro's Amazingly Bad Deal for Ratepayers

The Tyee reported that "Not only had B.C. Hydro agreed to buy three times the power requested in the tender, it had done so at locked-in prices far above projected market rates. We give big firms $15 billion. We get higher prices, no assets, no guarantee of supply."

Financial Fraud at BC Hydro

The Northern Insights bog reported that: "In fiscal year 2015, BC Hydro purchased 13,377 GWh of electricity from independent power producers for $1,064,000,000 ($79,540 per GWh). In the same period, BC Hydro sold 14,020 GWh to large industrial users for $748,000,000 ($53,250 per GWh). In other words, each GWh of power purchased from IPPs was resold for $26,290 less that it cost. However, the loss was not limited to $352 million since the utility had to pay distribution, administration and other overhead costs in addition to the power acquisition price."

How BC Hydro Wound Up $76 Billion in Debt

The Watershed Sentinel reported that "By 2015, BC Hydro had 105 operating projects on contract, nominally capable of 18,902 gigawatt hours (GWh) of energy, with 3,098 GWh to come from 23 IPP projects still in development. In 2015 it purchased 13,377 GWh of energy at a cost of $1,064 million. That is 24 per cent of BC Hydro’s domestic supply at 76 per cent of its cost of power; $79.54 per megawatt hour (MWh), compared to $8.11 per MWh for power from BC Hydro’s dams. This describes the haemorrhage of cash which is now flowing out of ratepayers’ pockets through BC Hydro to IPPs. The contractual commitments add up to $54 billion over 56 years."

Note: If you move to Surrey and your kids can't get into a school they can always sign up for Surrey Connect online. Evidently it's called SAIL now - Surrey Acadamy of Innovative Learning. That would make a lot more sense then bussing it all he way into Vancouver every day.