Real IRA member shot and killed in Cork city

The Irish Times is reporting that a former chief of staff of the Real IRA named Aidan O’Driscoll aka the Beast died after he was shot three times today in Cork. We know that if he was shot in Cork, he wasn't shot by the Protestants so the UDA, UVF or the UFF are out. Looks like it was obviously internal so to speak.

The people who call themselves the real IRA are a splinter group. They're not the original IRA. They simply call themselves the Real IRA because they still oppose any kind of peace settlement the original IRA made in the Good Friday accord. At least that's what I thought.

It appears that I'm a bit out of the loop so I am. I've been back from Ireland for 26 years now. The interesting thing is that Aidan O’Driscoll and Alan Ryan from the Real IRA waged a war against drug dealers in Dublin. So here we see the Real IRA start doing what the original IRA did back in Belfast. They start shooting drug dealers dead. Aidan does time in prison because he was a member of an illegal organization. So here we have a paramilitary organization waging war with drug dealers and the government deems them an illegal organization and sends them to jail. So which side is the government really on then? Are they supporting drug dealers? This has become somewhat problematic so it has.

The Independent reported that "However senior sources say the Real IRA was simply demanding large sums of cash off criminal gangs and if they refused to pay up they became targets for the feared dissident gang who traded under the IRA name." Hmmm... That's possible too so it is. The stories I could tell. It's hard to sift out the truth between the lines so it is.

Sounds like things are heating up in the Holy land again only this time it's about drugs.

Notice the Easter rising pin on the beret. God love 'em.

There are two reasons the Irish Republicans chose the Easter Lily to commemorate the Irish Proclamation and the Easter Rising. First is the obvious in that the Easter Lily blooms at Easter and symbolizes the resurrection. The other reason is because the Easter Lily is white, green and orange just like the flag of the Irish Republic. Green represents Catholics, Orange represents Protestants and White represents peace between the two.

The Irish Proclamation declares "we pray that no one who serves that cause will dishonor it by cowardice, inhumanity, or rapine." When I first arrived in Ireland many yeas ago I landed in Dublin right after the IRA had kidnapped a Dentist and held him for ransom. That was a criminal act. It had nothing to do with fighting for freedom. It was simply extortion. After they kidnapped him they cut off his fingers and sent them to his family with the ransom note. That was a brutal and senseless act that violated the Irish Proclamation. It was inhumane rapine.

That was Dessie O'Hare. He had been kicked out of the IRA and the INLA at the time. O'Hare had broken away from the remaining INLA leadership in Belfast and set up his own group, the Irish Revolutionary Brigade, which operated in the border region out of Castleblayney. It was described as having "a handful" of members. In 1987 O'Hare and three other INLA members kidnapped John O'Grady, a dentist from Dublin, and demanded a IR£1.5m ransom. The Dentist, John O'Grady, passed away in September of this year. So in reality Dessie O'Hare didn't represent the IRA or the INLA, he only represented himself.

The IRA stands for the Irish Republican Army. Irish Republicans are not people who believe in George Bush. They are people who believe in a free republic. I share that belief.

Police make two arrests related to Rock Machine murder

The Montreal Gazette is reporting that Richard Hunt, 38, and 28-year-old Mélanie Binette were arrested in the Vaudreuil-Dorion area and questioned about the role they may have played in the killing of Joseph Fluet & Steven Lamarsh - two men with supposed links to criminal biker gangs.

Saturday we posted that Rock Machine member Joseph "Fuego" Fluet, 45, was one of two men who were shot and killed Friday just outside Montreal. Sunday the Montreal Gazette reported that Hunt and Binette were people the police want to question not suspects.

Fluet has been identified in the past by police as a member of the Rock Machine. The Journal de Montréal reported that Fluet was born as Éric Lefebvre and was once part of a puppet gang controlled by the Hells Angels, and had his name changed sometime after 2008. In April 2001, Lefebvre told the newspaper that he had got into serious trouble with the Hells Angels. In May 2001, an expert on biker gangs with the RCMP in New Brunswick described Lefebvre as a courier who transported drugs for the Hells Angels in Quebec. This was after Lefebvre had pleaded guilty to setting a pub called Goodfella’s on fire in Moncton.

Surf's up: The New Season has Begun

Today was a magnificent day. As I was riding down King George outside Gus' shop you could see the snow on Grouse and the surrounding mountain peaks from the top of the hill. Then riding into Vancouver you could see the Lions covered in snow. The snowline was almost at the bottom of the mountain. It was like someone swept a paintbrush across the mountain and left behind a blanket of fresh snow. The season has officially begun.



I snowshoed up Hollyburn Ridge on Cypress today. It was awesome.



If you look closely you can see Lion's Gate bridge from the top of Hollyburn Ridge:

George Christie's Exile on Front Street

I finally started reading George Christie's new book Exile on Front Street. It is freaking awesome. The preface contains that quote about Outlaws I previously posted:

"People confuse the outlaw and the criminal. Some outlaws commit crimes, but the real outlaw isn’t a criminal by trade. He’s someone who refuses to live by society’s established norms of behavior. He has an internal code and answers only to his own sense of honor and right and wrong. The outlaw doesn’t conform; he rebels. He doesn’t accept; he questions. In the end, the outlaw might change and adapt, but he bends for no man and won’t let his life be defined by someone else. Jesse James was an outlaw but so was Albert Einstein. I’ve been many things - father, son, husband, leader, brother, and friend - but through it all, I was always an outlaw."

That sets the stage quite effectively. In the introduction he states "Undercover cops and informants who have written about the club paint members with one brush. In those books, we're one dimensional criminal scum. Most outlaws who write about the life are just as bad. According to them we are heroic freedom fighters living only to ride." He then explains it's not all black and white which is very true. You simply can't stereotype everyone in anything.

His book is worth reading. He is someone I can endorse. The movie he made, the Last American Outlaw was profound and has inspired me to embark on three separate adventures starting this summer. The book is helpful because he addresses the betrayal of being out out in bad after he left the club and about being falsely accused of being a police informant when he wasn't. He tries to remind us what the dream originally was. As Pink Floyd once said, take heed of the dream.

Easy Rider Update:

What I'm talking about is very simple. There is no need to overthink it or misinterpret it. I'm talking about Easy Rider not Sons of Anarchy. There were no patches in Easy Rider. Just riding free with the wind in your face leaving all the fears and concerns behind you in the dust as you ride off into the sunset. It's embracing life like a Bat outta Hell. It's Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild. It's Steppenwolf's God Dam the Pusher. It's supporting a free republic. That's what I'm talking about.

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Be advised that this blog will move forward not backward. Lead, follow or get out of the way.

Rock Machine member shot dead in Quebec

CBC is reporting that "Quebec provincial police have identified one of the victims in a Vaudreuil-Dorion double homicide as Rock Machine member Joseph "Fuego" Fluet. Fluet, 45, was one of two men who were shot and killed yesterday afternoon in a field behind a home on Montée d'Alstonvale" just outside Montreal.

Former mayor of Laval pleads guilty to breach of trust

CBC is reporting that "the man once known as the 'King of Laval' is on his way to jail tonight. Gilles Vaillancourt, who ran Quebec's third-largest city for more than two decades, pleaded guilty Thursday to fraud, breach of trust and conspiracy to commit fraud, dating back to his time as mayor. Under an agreement reached with the Crown, Vaillancourt will voluntarily repay the city $7 million from a Swiss bank account, as well as roughly $1 million in other assets, including his condominium. He is also waiving his pension. The plea deal calls for Vaillancourt to spend six years in prison. He could be eligible to apply for parole in a year." The plea agreement resulted in the gangsterism charges against him being suspended.

What's the difference between BC and Quebec? Quebec has an anti corruption task force, BC does not. Quebec is confronting organized crime, BC is not. That's the only difference.

Vancouver Hells Angel associate shot and killed

Kim Bolan from Postmedia News is reporting that "a controversial rocker and Hells Angels associate convicted of stock fraud has died, three months after being shot in Burnaby, Postmedia News has learned. Adis (Ady) Golic passed away Nov. 22 from injuries sustained in the targeted shooting. The 41-year-old was gunned down on Aug. 22 around 8:30 p.m. in the 7700-block of 12th Avenue in Burnaby. At the time, Mounties said the shooter was a white man, dressed all in black, who hopped into a dark-coloured getaway vehicle with a roof rack."

Another white guy shooting someone in gang related violence. When Kim says rocker she means the guy was a heavy metal musician. He was with the heavy metal band Skard. John Bryce, the East Vancouver Hells Angels president appeared in some of their local videos.

Dead herring washing up on shore in Nova Scotia

The National Post is reporting that "Tens of thousands of dead herring keep washing ashore along Nova Scotia’s western coastline, a mystery for biologists trying to figure out what is killing the small, silvery fish. Craik said the fish could be succumbing to a virus, some form of pollution, parasites or a poisonous algae bloom — but lab tests have yet to determine what is going on."

Christy Clark's densification fraud

We knew it was too good to be true. Christy Clark, the queen of photo ops, held a press conference promising to spend $500,000 on rental housing and build 2,900 new rental units. It sounded good until you read the fine print. We knew it was too good to be true.

The plan is to tear town perfectly good rental townhomes and build high density apartments in their place. So in essence they are in fact displacing a whole lot of families to build new units so they can charge more money and make more profit without spending any money on new land. This is the cheapest way for the Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation to make more profit at the tax payers expense.

If they were genuine and really wanted a helpful solution without turning so many struggling families lives upside down, they would buy the vacant lot across the street and build new units. That would be a press conference worth listening to. Unfortunately they won't do that because displacement and densification is more profitable for the Slumlords and the Post Media Marketing Company is more than happy to endorse the fraud for the public. God help us. No one else will.

The bottom line is that we need to elect a new government in BC. No political party is perfect but I know the NDP wouldn't be doing this to us. The Christy Clark government is the same as the Gordon Campbell government. I cannot begin to list all the corruption they have been involved with from BC Rail to money laundering in Campbell Heights to cutting back police task forces as soon as organized crime was found. Bruce Ralston and Mike Farnworth are good stable leaders who care about people. The BC Liberals do not. History has recorded that.

Acorn Canada: Uniting Communities for Justice

Colin Lamontagne arrested again

The BC RCMP is reporting that "Colin Lamontagne, an honorary member of the Vertens MC, has been arrested again. Search warrants carried out on two residences in Nanaimo have resulted in the seizure of a large quantity of drugs, weapons and various other stolen items. The search warrants were carried out on Tuesday November 29th, at a home in the 300 block of Ninth St and in the 13000 block of Cedar Road. With the knowledge there may be weapons and an illegal clandestine lab, entry was led by the Vancouver Island Emergency Response Team (ERT) and the E Division Clan Lab Team."

"40 year old Colin LAMONTAGNE of Nanaimo was arrested at the Ninth St home and taken into police custody. LAMONTAGNE is presently in the charge category for Manslaughter originating from an incident in Victoria. LAMONTAGNE has been remanded into custody and charged with Aggravated Assault, Forcible Confinement and Breach of his Recognizance. His next court appearance is set for Wednesday December 7th."

"Weapons were seized at both homes. Several high end stolen vehicles were located at the Cedar Road residence. The E Div Clan Team was tasked with searching both homes for the illegal clandestine lab and located a large quantity of drugs and precursors from the Ninth St home, used in the production of GHB."