Giant Iceberg floats past Newfoundland

Iceberg watching season along iceberg alley in Newfoundland has started with a bang. CBC is reporting that "It's an unusual sight on Newfoundland's Southern Shore highway: bumper-to-bumper traffic, packed along the side of the road. And they're all there to get a closer look at a massive iceberg stuck in shallow water, just off the coast of Ferryland, on the Avalon Peninsula. Over the Easter long weekend, resident Don Costello said the area was "swarming with people" taking photos of the iceberg." The picture was taken in Ferryland, NL.

I was going to make a cross Canada trip on my motorcycle this summer but I'm not going to be able to make it this year. Here is an intersting link to a website that tracks icebergs that are floating past Newfoundland in case you want to visit. That's worth seeing so it is.

Netflix series filmed in Whalley

Yesterday they were filming a Netflix series in Whalley. They converted the KFC that just went belly up into a Taco ta go for the film. They had fire crews on site. It looked like they were going to burn the place down but no such luck. They're all done the filming.

CBC has picked up on the story the Surrey Now-Leader ran about businesses leaving the area due to the drug related problems associated with harm promotion. They quote the owner of Motorcycle world a few doors down the street as saying "Nobody is going to be here pretty soon, it's going to be a dead zone." That is the natural consequence of harm promotion. It's time to wake up and smell the coffee and stop pouring gasoline on the problem and start getting people off the streets and into treatment. To accomplish goal that we need to clean up the rehab houses in Surrey that are just flop houses scamming the government and burning tax dollars.

Landfill Harmonic - Inspiration from the Hood

A few stories to catch up on but I just wanted to pause for some inspiration from the hood. The Landfill Harmonic is a group of kids that live in the slums of Paraguay and made musical instruments from landfill trash. I first saw them on a Lindsey Stirling video.

The website for the movie has a powerful video about the slum that is built on a landfill and states "If you ae born in the wrong place, you don't always have the right to dream." The video is called dreamer and states in darkness you shine. So they do.

"The world sends us trash, we send back music." Beethoven's 5th Symphony - Transcendence

Easter Morning

I made it up to Hollyburn Lodge this morning while it was still open. This is the last weekend for skiing on the local hills but there's a huge snowpack remaining. Saturday there was a break in the clouds so I rode up to Seymour. As soon as I hit the second narrows bridge you could see dark dark clouds very low covering the peaks. It looked very dark and dreary. It was snowing on the way up and very limited visibility.



Today the sun was out and fresh snow revealed. In the city the cherry blossoms are out.



This is springtime in Vancouver. Cherry blossoms in the city and a melting snowpack on the mountains. It's a wonderful time of the year. Yet even with today being Easter I think many of us out there just aren't feeling it. Today at Hollyburn Lodge a young family walked in and the mother told her young children this is Hollyburn Lodge. This is where my parents took me when I was a child. Those are good traditions to have and uphold.

I gave a small easter basket of chocolate eggs to the young Syrian kids next door and their eyes lit up. I smiled and said it's kind of like our Ramadan except we eat. I suppose people fast during lent but even that tradition is disappearing. Some say the old ways are lost so they are. Some but not all. It's time to make new memories so it is, for the kids. Peace.

Bat out of Hell 2017

Billboard dot com is reporting that Just in time to celebrate its 40th anniversary, Meat Loaf's famed 1977 rock opera Bat Out of Hell is being made into a musical scripted by Jim Steinman, the man who wrote all the songs on the best-selling album. It opens in London England June 20, 2017 and will hit Toronto October 14 to December 3, 2017.

Tim Petruk stands like a rock

Dude, Postmedia news folds like a cheap tent but reporter Tim Petruk stands like a rock. After the abserd criticism he received from Gordon Clark in the Vancovuer Province Tim put out another article reaffirming his position and pointed out that the colomnist who criticized his coverage of Peter Leask is married to a judge.

Tim's article declares: "Despite what you may have read this week, a B.C. Supreme Court judge was out of line last month when he said he prefers his own Vancouver bed to a Kamloops hotel room at the outset of what was supposed to have been a two-week rape trial. Justice Peter Leask made the comment during a conversation in open court with lawyers about how the case would proceed. He also suggested the prosecutor not call two of her witnesses and rolled his eyes while she attempted to plead her case."

"I was in the courtroom when it happened. It was strange, to say the least - not just the words, but the atmosphere. Leask appeared to be talking down to the prosecutor and the court clerk. When it was time for the court to read the charges to the accused, a 90-year-old man alleged to have sexually assaulted his daughter in Adams Lake decades ago, Leask flicked his wrist down at the clerk and said, simply, “Go.” It felt ugly. The charges against the elderly man were stayed by the Crown on the second day of the trial for reasons unrelated to Leask’s conduct."

"Clark told me he had been 'tipped off' about the transcript by someone suggesting he review it. He expressed concern about “beating up” a reporter who was simply reporting what happened in a courtroom, but maintained I had erred. What he failed to mention was that his wife is employed as a judge, drawing a six-figure salary comparable to that of Leask."

"After a judge makes comments like that, it is impossible to consider any trial-management decision they make without that context. Leask’s tone seemed to be almost one of belittlement to the prosecutor and the court clerk. He was talking down to them - the only two women in the courtroom. Tone, though, does not come across in transcribed pages. Clark thought he could figure it out by reading the transcript. Perrin withdrew his complaint against Leask within hours of Clark’s column being posted. The sister of the alleged victim in the sexual-assault trial told me she will carry on with her complaint against Leask."

"The bottom line remains this: Clark wasn’t there last month when Leask made an inappropriate comment and suggested Bouchard speed things up. I was. I felt the strange atmosphere of the courtroom and heard the belittling tone in Leask’s voice. He was out of line."

God bless Tim Petruk. Rock the World Soulja. That was freaking awesome.

Still riding against the wind. Peace.

Canadian Justice Review Board

Looking at the NDP's business plan for BC

It's pretty bad when the political corruption in BC makes the New York Times and the local media barely mention it. That shows something is seriously wrong with the status quo. This post will shatter stereotypes by helping us look beyond the misconceptions so we can see the facts which stand on their own merit. I saw a commercial with Christy Clark recently and everything she said made perfect sense. Then her Cheshire cat smile at the end made me want to throw up. What she says and what they do are two very different things.

Years ago Preston Manning led a Ron Paul revolution in Western Canada crying out for fiscal responsibility. The people supported it overwhelmingly. It was a right wing movement that rebelled against Mulroneyism and pork barrel politics. We don't want to hear about any more special deals and broken promises. We want you to stop wasting our money and reduce taxes so families and business can prosper. Brian Mulroney had lost that vision completely. He had become worse than the left for spending and taxing. He was the one that force fed us the GST all the while warning us that the other guys would tax and spend while he did exactly that.

Last election I met an old friend who was actively involved with the Reform party federally and provincially and I asked him about the Reform Party in BC. He just said we tried that last time. All we did was split the vote and the NDP got in. Now we're stuck with the Liberals. It was a discouraging prognosis indeed. I submit that the BC Liberals have become even worse than Brian Mulroney at the tax and spend, line your own pockets nightmare. Even Lying Brian didn't make the New York Times. It' all about corporate monopolies and sweetheart deals.

The first lie we must address this election is the false claim that the NDP will tax and spend. No one could tax and spend any more than the Christy Clark government. The NDP opposed the excessive gas tax and support a cap on bridge tolls. The BC Liberals in conjunction with the mayor's glutton council want to tax and spend us right over the moon.

The next lie we need to address is that the NDP are bad for business. That is simply not true. Corporate monopolies are very profitable because they eliminate competition and destroy the free market. The NDP support small business while the BC Liberals do not. That's all there is to it.

Next is the balanced budget lie. The BC Liberals have not balanced the budget. They have manipulated the numbers. They created a tsunami of debt in BC Hydro and keep deferring that debt. They even borrowed a dividend from BC Hydro's deferred debt to balance their budget.

In contrast, John Horgan Is pledging to freeze BC Hydro rates. The critics cry how is he going to pay for that? Wait 'till I tell ye. By fixing the BC Hydro Fraud that Gorgon Campbell first created. By nationalizing the private power brokers that sell power to the public company at above market rates. That obscene fraud has gone on long enough.



Where will the NDP get money from to fix Christy Clark's unbalanced budget? From BC Hydro. Right now the government extracts a dividend from ICBC. If we were to privatized ICBC that would reduce tax revenue and increase taxes for consumers. When the NDP were in power they were able to extract a dividend from BC Hydro. After Gordon Campbell privatized the power brokers that sold power to BC Hydro at above market rates, that tax revenue was lost. The NDP can fix that and in so doing help freeze hydro rates and increase tax revenue at the same time.

We could even take this one step further and nationalize our oil. That would increase tax revenue and freeze rates as well. That would be a colossal help to taxpayers and consumers alike. We can keep all the private Canadian companies. We just take the profits from our resources out of the hands of foreign ownership and put it into the pockets of Canadian Taxpayers.

The NDP are not soft on crime, the BC Liberals are. The BC Liberals are deeply involved with it. Just ask the New York Times. I met Penny Priddy at Dianne Watts' first crime prevention coalition meeting. I told her about my past Union involvement and she just raised her hand and said I am here because I am a mother. When it comes to crime I am more right wing than my opponents. So is Bruce Ralston and Mike Farnworth.

Harm Promotion is not working. The Christy Clark government is tied to that pharmaceutical fraud, the NDP is not. The NDP supports treatment, the BC Liberals do not. In the last civic election I supported Kirk LaPointe not Gregor Robertson. Kirk LaPointe wanted to get rid of open drug dealing at Main and Hastings. If we had elected him, then the number of drug related fatalities in Vancouver would not have doubled like it has under Gregor Robertson.

Likewise in Surrey, Harm Promotion is killing small business. I did not support Linda Hepner last election. I supported Doug McCallum. Harm Promotion in Surrey and Vancouver needs to stop. That is the only ethical thing left to do. This election we can make a difference if we have the courage to do so. If Alberta can do it, so can we.

Another police probe shut down by the courts

In February the Vancouver sun reported that "A Surrey woman is suing the Abbotsford Police Department, City of Abbotsford and three constables, claiming a police officer drew her gun on her, forced her to the ground, hit her and called her “bitch” and “fat” after stopping the plaintiff for allegedly speeding 18 kilometres over in a 50 km/h zone." That article was actually by Tom Zytaruk from the Surrey Now-Leader.

Now Tom Zytaruk from the Surrey Now-Leader is reporting that the complaint stopped before it started in Vancouver Supreme court because of a WCB decision. The article states the WCB decision by Herb Morton found that because the woman and the cop were both on the clock, the woman does not have a legal right to sue civilly but may apply for WCB benefits. AYFKM? This is why the judicial system is so screwed up. The woman can't sue civilly because the incident happened while she was at work. That is absolute nonsense.

Saskatoon judge sentences Hells Angel puppet to 18 years for drug trafficking

CBC is reporting that ​Justin Smith was a member of the Fallen Saints motorcycle club when he was arrested in January, 2015 as part of the Project Forseti investigation. He has been sentenced to 18 years in prison with no opportunity to apply for parole for nine years. Hells Angels member Robert Allen was convicted of cocaine trafficking last February following a trial in December.

"Smith emerged as a central figure as the investigation progressed. He pleaded guilty this week to nine counts, including dealing fentanyl, heroin and cocaine; having proceeds of crime in excess of $5,000; possessing and transferring a handgun; and recruiting members to the gang." He had 26 previous convictions prior to this one.

He was dealing fentanyl for the Hells Angels. Imagine that. During the investigation police seized 5.4 kilograms of crystal meth, 2.6 kilograms of cocaine and 3,358 fentanyl pills.

Harm Promotion is killing small business in Surrey

The Surrey Now-Leader is reporting that "Some may see empty storefronts and a plethora of fences in the Whalley area as metaphors for the area’s social woes. Black fencing around the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of St. Mary on 135A Street serves as a barrier to keep the struggles of the street at bay. A former furniture store at the corner of 108th Avenue and King George Boulevard sits empty, as does a more recently vacated building at 105A Avenue that housed a KFC for more than two decades. Soon, another business will close its doors, just steps away from the former fast-food joint." KFC has been there forever.

Eddie MacNaughton and family have run Motorcycle World on King George since 1999, but they’re packing up shop and heading for the Tri-Cities this fall. “Illegal drug use right in front of us is a concern, the amount of needles every day, the human waste every single day, garbage,” said MacNaughton. “Last year I spent over $5,000 in fence repairs only to find out for instance, two weeks ago, we got broken into and we found the stolen propane tank on 135A Street."

Harm Promotion is not working. It is killing small business. Stop it.



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