Hells Angels linked to Pickton Inquiry

Just as he was warming up to theories regarding Pickton's associations with drug dealing bikers, lawyer Jason Gratl was shut down by Commissioner Wally Oppal, who was clearly perturbed. Gratl was cross-examining RCMP Cpl. Mike Connor, the force's lead investigator on Pickton.

Connor admitted that he received a tip that a Hells Angel associate who worked in a "booze can" after-hours drinking club across the street from Pickton's Port Coquitlam, B.C., property "was chopped up in a meat grinder on the farm and fed to the pigs."

Connor said police knew Hells Angels went to Pickton's farm and attended "Piggy's Palace" — the nearby illicit nightclub run by Pickton and his brother Dave. However, Connor said he did not investigate the credibility of the allegation a male Hells Angel associate was disposed of on Pickton's farm.

During Pickton's trial, lab staff testified that about 80 unidentified DNA profiles -roughly half male and half female — have shown up on evidence.

This stunning new development in the inquiry shows us several things. First, that Wally the Limp Fish Oppal was the wrong choice to head the inquiry. Second, that police knew there was an illegal booze can ran by the Hells Angels across the street from the Picton farm. Third, that the DNA from many unidentified bodies were also found on the Pickton farm, half of which were men and that the police had received a tip that the Hells Angels had put one of their employees through a meat grinder and feed him to the pigs on the Picton farm.

These are all very significant findings. The fact that the police knew the Hells Angels ran an illegal booze can across the street from the Pickton farm and knew that Dave Pickton was a Hells Angels associate, are facts that need to be explored. They most certainly aren't to be shut down by a brain dead idiot who has done nothing for BC other than rationalize BC's judicial incompetence.



Is it true Jesse Hadden was involved with the booze can across the street from the Pickton farm? Is it true that Jesse's father Spike was the one that caused the rift between the Haney Hells Angels and the Mission City Hells Angels? Please advise.

The Court was told Dave Pickton knew about bodies. Court also heard that police believed a marijuana grow-op in an unlicensed "booze can" across the street from the Pickton farm was connected to the Hells Angels. So the grow op was in the booze can across the street...

Deputy Police Chief Jennifer Evans’ Pickton Report

The Missing Women Commission of Inquiry has promised for weeks the release of Peel, Ont. Deputy Police Chief Jennifer Evans’ 800 page report. On Monday morning, Inquiry Commissioner Wally Oppal called the leak of Evans’ report to CTV “appalling.” But Oppal upheld the objections of lawyer Cameron Ward, acting for 20 missing women’s families not to mark Evans report as exhibit, which would have made it available to all media. Ward continues to call the inquiry a “whitewash,” saying Oppal needs to hear from frontline police investigators. Of course it's a whitewash. The Hells Angels have not been mentioned in it at all. Why oppose making the Peel Report and exhibit? After all, it is a public inquiry.

Oppal's tab keeps growing and growing

Michael Smyth made a good point. He said the least-surprising development at the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry so far is that it will last much longer, and cost much more, than previously anticipated.

Everyone knew this inquiry was ripe to transform into the political circus it's become, and Wally Opal is not known for his efficient work habits — especially when he's bagging $1,500 a day plus expenses. Now hang on to your wallets. On the very first day of the inquiry, Opal's chief counsel confirmed what everybody had been expecting — the budget and deadline are likely to be blown out of the water.

Wally Opal is financially benefiting from this circus side show. I can't stomach reading all the bs drama about the inquiry venting on the police. What a side show. What a waste of money. The real issue is who else was involved, who killed all the other missing women and which drug dealers are pushing Native Women out of hotel windows in the Downtown East end over drug debts. The real questions aren't being asked.

Tony Pires and LA Embroidery

This is an interesting story. We read that the owner of LA Embroidery is Tony Pires. Tony is a member of the Hells Angels. David Baines wrote an interesting article in the Vancouver Sun back on July 01, 2006. He normally deals in investment fraud and the stock market. It creates an interesting connection between stock market fraud and organized crime.

The article expresses his frustration trying to explain to Wally Oppal when he was the BC Attorney-General that the B.C. Securities Commission has not been able to contain the proliferation of Vancouver-related companies that are being floated on the lawless OTC Bulletin Board and "pinks sheets" in the United States. Talking to Wally the limp fish was like baning your head against a wall.

He cites 880 companies that have been perpetuating Vancouver's infamous sub-culture of chicanery, where crooks and accountants and lawyers and other professionals come together to produce stock market scams, most of which are foisted on investors in the United States, Germany, or other foreign countries. The net result is that Vancouver's reputation as a haven for scams is as bad as ever.

Despite the fact that we no longer have a Vancouver Stock Exchange because it was shut down for being corrupt. It was full of fake pump and dump scams. That's why we don't have a stock market in Vancouver any more.

David Bainesn referred to a fake company called De Beira Goldfields Inc which was set up by Vancouver longshoreman Mike Fronzo which was then handed over to a couple of Australian promoters. The Australian promoters were introduced to De Beira by Ralph Biggar, a former broker with Georgia Pacific Securities in Vancouver.

Biggar is no stranger to bulletin board companies. In 2003, he set up Tora Technologies Inc., which has no appreciable assets except a services agreement with a Vancouver company called LA Embroidery Inc. The agreement gives Tora the right to market LA's custom embroidery services via the Internet. The owner of LA Embroidery is Tony Pires. For granting the rights, Pires was given 250,000 shares.

Pires is an interesting business partner, to say the least. He is a full-patch member of the Nomads, an elite chapter of the Hells Angels.

On Thursday, I asked Biggar whether he knows Pires is a member of the Hells Angel. He refused to answer, instead referring questions to his lawyer, Gary Snarch. But that didn't get me very far, either. "My advice is not to talk to you," said Snarch.

There are some interesting links between Tora Technologies and De Beira Goldfields. As mentioned, Biggar has been involved in both companies. In addition, Fronzo and Pires have been co-investors in two unrelated deals.

In 1999, they were among a half-dozen investors in a U.S. company called Value Software Inc. The same year, they participated in private placements in International En-R-Tech Inc., a Vancouver Stock Exchange company. Other investors included:

- Ronald Lising, a full-patch member of the East End chapter of the Hells Angels. In 2001, Lising and Pires' brother, Chico, were convicted of trafficking drugs through No. 5 Orange strip club and the Marble Arch Hotel. Each was sentenced to four and half years in jail.

- John Punko, another full-patch member of the East End chapter of the Hells Angels. In 2001, he was convicted of threatening the Crown counsel who was prosecuting Lising and Chico Pires on their drug trafficking charges.

The fact that Fronzo invested in these deals along with several Hells Angels may be entirely coincidental. I tried to ask him about this on Friday, but he did not return my phone calls.

Let's pause for a minute and consider the magnitude of what we are now looking at. A company called Grant Street Holdings Ltd. owns the Burnaby Nomands clubhouse. All the company's directors - Francesco (Frank) Amoretto, Bob Green, Tony Pires and Gino Zumpano - are well-known members of the Nomads. Green is listed as president of Grant Street Holdings, while Pires is secretary.

Technologies Inc was tied to LA Embroidery Inc which was owned by Tony Pires. Tora Technologies has links with De Beira Goldfields. In 1999 Fronzo and Pires were involved with U.S. company called Value Software Inc. along with John Punko and Ron Lising. Are we beginning to see the magnitude of the problem yet?

David Baines more recnelty reported on Ialta Industries Ltd. One of its major shareholders was Nomad Glen Jonathan Hehn. The settlement agreement notes that in January 2007, the B.C. Securities Commission issued a cease-trade order against Ialta for failure to file financial statements.

Baines also discusses a scam run by Marcel Rada who also became president of Montrose Exploration Ltdm of which Glen Hehn was the largest shareholder. Ralph Biggar, tied to Tora Technologies Inc, LA Embroidery Inc and Tony Pires, was also a shareholder in Montrose along with Glen Hehn.

Another good book about the scams of the Vancouver stock exchange is Flim Flam by Mark Bourrie. Investment fraud ruins pensions and destabilizes markets. When organized crime gets involved we should all take notice.

Pickton Red Herring Inquiry

Speaking of the Pickton Red Herring Inquiry led by Wally the limp fish Oppal, let's take a look at the Red Herring mandate. Some say the mandate of the inquiry is to find out why the police took so long in finding the Pickton murderer and if the police did in fact fail to make it a priority because the victims were drug addicted prostitutes. The apparent mandate of the inquiry is to find out why justice was delayed.

I call it the red herring mandate because justice was never served. There are a lot of unanswered questions that will never be answered by the inquiry because of it's limited mandate. Funding isn't the issue. All the anti poverty groups can still participate with their own worker advocates. The Province said they're not going to pick up the legal fees for each and every group. Which is kind of understandable yet somewhat hypocritical given the millions spent on the Bassi Virk defense fraud.

The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs and the Carrier Sekani Tribal Council say they have several concerns with the inquiry, including the narrow terms of reference and the appointment of former B.C. attorney general Wally Oppal as the commissioner.

No kidding. Wally Oppal is a former judge and the former AG. Aside from him being a limp fish on justice which likely played a significant role in why he was not reelected, it is a conflict of interest. When Jim Chu addressed the public at the Carnegie centre locals said they do not support Wally Oppal heading the commission.

Yet the real issue is the mandate of the inquiry. It's an inquiry into the police investigation. It has nothing to do with a public release of all the evidence that led them to believe there might have been other offenders and it has nothing to do with making public any and all evidence that caused the Crown to ask Robert Pickton on the stand if the Hells Angels were involved.

My argument all along was that all reports claimed Robert Pickton was slow and deferred to his brother Dave who ran the pig farm. I did not believe that Robert Pickton could have been the mastermind behind all those murders and do so without the knowledge of his brother Dave. There's no way he could have hid it from him.

Well low and behold the court hears that Dave Pickton did in fact have foreknowledge of the murders on the farm. In January of 2007 the court heard that The brother of accused serial-killer Robert "Willie" Pickton told police he knew about "bodies" and showed investigators where to look.

So not only was Dave Pickton convicted of sexual assault on that same farm and was accused in a second sexual assault on the farm, he admitted he had foreknowledge of bodies buried on the farm only he claimed Dinah Taylor was responsible. Yeah right. If he knew about the bodies, he was involved. Not only does that make him a suspect it makes him culpable because hiding a murder makes you an accomplice to murder.

The whole issue of the involvement of the Hells Angels has not been addressed in court. The crown asked Robert if the Hells angels were involved and he said no. Would he have said yes if they were? What made the crown ask that question? The defense submitted that there was considerable association between Dave Pickton and the Hells Angels. The witness that was supposed to testify to the fact that Hells Angels attended parties at Piggy's Palace was chased out of town and never testified. Later a musician told the Vancouver Province that Hells Angels were there all the time. That evidence was never submitted to the court.

Then there's the grow op. The Court also heard that police believed a marijuana grow-op in an unlicensed "booze can" across the street from the Pickton farm was connected to the Hells Angels. I'm assuming the booze can was Piggy Palace. This is the first I heard of a grow op on site. We know the Hells angels have a long history of using violence to take over grow ops in BC.

I realize the likelihood of convicting anyone else in this case is highly unlikely especially if they were members of a criminal organization. Nevertheless, the public inquiry should be public. That means the evidence in the voir dire - anything and everything that gave suspicion of organized accomplices should also be made public. That won't cost a cent. Especially with the news of Juel Stanton's involvement with someone from the Surrey House of Horrors where dna from one of the Pickton victims buried on the farm was found.

It is a bizarre twist to hear that Geoff Meisner's father was involved in the Pickton investigation. His son later became involved with the Hells Angels and the Kingpin crew in Kelowna. Geoff went missing in 2009 and was legally pronounced dead by the courts in 2010. I don't think it's related I just think it's bizarre. That was another tragic case. Too many people have died from organized crime. It's time to make the evidence public.

“All the attention so far has been on Mr. Pickton … but now there should be discussions about others who may have been involved and played a role,” Mr. Crey said. “I don’t mean to sound bitter, but I think [the Christy Clark government] should be sensitive and respond to the families who want to see more done. … They need to take another look at it and try to decide if other charges should be pursued.”

Just ask anyone in Maple Ridge. I am told that not only did the Hells agnels attend parties at Piggy's Palace and have a grow op on site, witnesses claim the Hells Agnels ran the bar. That needs to be addressed.

The Red Herring Pickton inquiry

Well the Wally Oppal Red Herring Pickton inquiry continues. Wally insists that he's not in a conflict of interest heading the inquiry even though he has been tied to the BC judicial system for so many years and said it was just fine. Activists in the East Van town hall meeting disagree and say they don't support him heading the inquiry.

I realize everyone is upset with the police these days and wants to blame them for delaying their feet in the Pickton investigation which resulted in the murder of more women. Yes they likely dropped the ball on that issue. However, the real issue isn't finding another scape goat to blame the atrocities on. The real issue is finding Pickton's accomplices.

It was the Crown that suggested Pickton did not act alone. His lawyer complained in the appeal and said the whole time the Crown's case was that Robert Pickton acted alone and was the mastermind that eluded police for so long in keeping all the murders secret. Then all of a sudden, right before deliberations the judge told the jury they could convict Robert even if he didn't act alone but was an active participant in the murders.

Indeed that opened a whole can of worms that is not being addressed at all by the Wally Oppal Red Herring Inquiry. Which really comes as no surprise. No doubt Wally would have done a great job for the Liberals overseeing the BC Rail scandal.

Interesting to note that according to Deputy Chief Doug LePard every officer involved in a management role during the investigation of Vancouver’s missing women in the late 1990s while serial killer Robert Pickton picked up women in the Downtown Eastside has retired. He claims "Mistakes were made and there are police officers who will be haunted by them for the rest of their lives.” Oh brother, not another scape goat. When will it end?

The retired officers have stated that they will cooperate with the inquiry. Do ya think if they weren't going to cooperate they would actually say so? What if they were under some sort of gag order? Would they be able to break the gag order for the inquiry or do they mean they will cooperate with the inquiry as best they can without breaking the gag order? Please advise.

Was there movie making equipment found on the farm? Yes or No. What happened to that evidence?

Pickton case in the news.

Another Kash Heed Scandal

Well Kash Heed made the front page of the Vancouver Sun yesterday with another breaking "scandal." Is that guy in or is he out? First he resigned pending an investigation. Then he was back in after being cleared in the investigation. Then he was out again because the person in charge of his investigation was one of his campaign contributors.

I guess he's back in cause the Sun talked about another scandal that wasn't really a scandal but hell, we live for the political drama in BC why not call it one just because. Actually there are two new scandals involving good old Kash. First is the breach of trust charge which claims he used public funds for political purposes.

Oh but wait, who's making the charge? Why it's the RCMP the federal police force that don't want him to turn their force in BC into a Regional one. Isn't that a conflict of interest? Isn't this charge coming from the RCMP a conflict of interest? Yet if he really is guilty of criminal conduct, who else can charge him? A regional police force he created? I'm sure that would be a conflict of interest too. My oh my aren't we conflicted.

OK setting the sarcasm aside momentarily, here's the charge. New MLA's are given moving allowances to spend on furniture and what not. Kash had his own furniture so he signed over the cheque for the furniture to two people who worked for him during his campaign. The RCMP admit it was "free" money because he was entitled to it but didn't spend it on on furniture he spent it on something else. $6,000.00. I don't see that as a very big scandal. Not that I support Kash Heed at all. I'm just cynical about much of what's happening in our political landscape.

Here's the scam. Turns out that the two people he paid using his free money were involved in making that "illegal" anti-NDP pamphlet "he knew nothing about." Big freakin surprise. OK so he's caught with guile. He lied and said he didn't know anything about that nasty anti-NDP pamphlet his campaign office handed out during his election.

Kinda like how Peter MaCkay lied when everyone freaked about his humorous comment during heckling in the house referring to his ex who crossed over to the other political party the night she dumped him as a dog. They were debating the clean air act and the opposition cat calls and yells out this will be good for everyone. Think about your dog. Then Peter points to Belinda Stronach's empty seat on the other side of the house and yells back You already have her.

It was a witty come back. Yet he lied and denied he said it when it was caught on tape. Big deal. It was a funny comment given the circumstances lying about it isn't really necessary. I will note that MacKay has sure stepped up in the world with his new dinner date. Wow. Anyways, back on topic.

Kash Heed knew full well HIS campaign office was sending out those anti-NDP drama flyers that someone has deemed "Illegal." I can't remember all of what was in it, but it was pretty typical right wing rhetoric and stereotypes about the NDP. Stuff like "the NDP are soft on crime" and "the NDP want to legalize drugs." I'm sure some NDP wanted to legalize marijuana. We know the green party does and many federal liberals. The NDP being soft on crime is a common stereotype. It's really not surprising they made the erroneous claim in an election flyer. In reality the BC NDP have been a lot better on crime than the BC Liberals like Wally didn't get reelected for a reason Oppal who said everything was fine.

So the "big" scandal is Kash Heed knew about the pamphlet and paid people in his campaign for it with money he was given to spend on new furniture. Whatever. Now that we've got that out of our system let's look at the next Kash Heed scandal involving Catherine Urquhart.



Global BC TV news reporter Catherine Urquhart is being taken off the air pending a review into whether she breached any journalistic standards. The decision comes after a recently unsealed search warrant revealed an email exchange between Urquhart and former solicitor-general Kash Heed's campaign manager Barinder Sall.

Here is the intercepted private e-mail conversation between them that became unsealed in a search warrant and was published in the paper for the world to see:

"I can honestly say Kash would not be SG [solicitor-general] today if it hadn’t been for some key people behind the scenes,” Sall wrote to Urquhart on June 10, 2009.

“There were only truly 3 people that played a major role: Me, Peter Dhillon and yourself and Kash knows this,” he added.

"Peter was the money guy, I’m the brown tanned James Bond strategy girl-chasing guy and you were like the communications director . . . your stories, coverage and timing gave Kash a lot of profile and built him a following from day 1 at West Van and then leading into the election.”

In response, Urquhart wrote: “Hey . . . that’s really sweet of you. Have to say — there were a number of people along the way (cops and reporters — mostly cops) who seemed to have it out for Kash. But I always believed he was a good guy. I’m truly glad it worked out! C”

The guy is thanking a reporter for writing positive things about his client. She expressed her opinion that some, "mostly cops" had it in for him. Ooooo big surprise there. Why would the RCMP have it in for him? Because he was talking about creating a Regional Police force. Something I'm not really in support of because the idea of Gordon Campbell or most of our former BC Premiers being in charge of their own police force is somewhat frightening for me to conceive of.

Sall claiming to be the brown tanned James Bond strategy girl-chasing guy is a bit of a gag me with a spoon flirt but come on... this is a private e-mail. Does privacy not exist in our intrusive world any more? Don't give me any of this unethical journalism nonsense.

She printed some articles in support of Kash Heed. Maybe she and her newsroom supported his candidacy. Oooo maybe she and or they support a Regional Police force? Heaven forbid. Media outlets support candidates all the time. Why on earth do you think Harper is trying to create a Fox News North now that they have relaxed the truthful reporting requirement.

Why the Vancouver Sun supported Wally Opal for the position of the Pickton inquiry. Does that make them guilty of unethical news reporting? Of course not. It makes them guilty of having and expressing an opinion which up until recently was a Charter right in this country.

Give her a break. Having to listen to Salls flirts just to get a story has been enough punishment for her. Don't take away her charter right. That would be a very bad precedent for all of us. Catherine Urquhart could well be another Tamara Taggart.

Personally I don't support the B.C. Liberals or Kash Heed. I don't support a Regional Police force either. I support a publicly accountable police force on all levels. Federal, Provincial and Municipal. Let's not turn Kash Heed into a talk show celebrity either by letting him turn the Kelowna RCMP assault into a campaign for a Regional Police Force. Let's just take it for what it is and make all police forces publicly accountable.

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Oh brother here we go again. Another Kash Heed scandal. That guy keeps digging himself in deeper and deeper.

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And deeper and deeper. Looks like he'll be a flash in the pan fading memory. I'm glad Catherine Urquhart is staying on. Criminal investigation give me a break. Private e-mail. If the guy that was hitting on her publicly claimed she was responsible for Heeds election then she should have denied it. It was just a passing comment by a nit that was hitting on her and she was trying to keep it professional.

East Van Town Hall Meeting

Speaking of Jim Chu, he just held a town hall meeting in East Van at the Carnegie centre in response to the sit in and public protests about the investigation surrounding Ashley Nicole Machiskinic's death. Activists claim she was pushed out of a hotel window and was murdered for a drug debt. They were calling on police to take her death seriously and the mistreatment of women in East Van.

Sounds like the police took a lot of heat at the meeting and locals expressed great concern over public trust in the police there. Jim Chu urged residents to work with police to end violence against women by reporting crime.

However, Daisy Kler of Vancouver Rape Relief said more than 70 per cent of women who contact the women's shelter never call police because they are afraid they will not be believed or have had a previous bad experience with police.

"Arrest the men doing violence against women," she urged Chu. Which is kind of hard if people don't report crime or give information to the police. Yet if there is no public trust, that's just not going to happen. Thus the dilemma.

Another woman, who lives in the Europe Hotel, shouted at the police chief as she recalled seeing a woman recently abducted by a man late at night but police refused to take her complaint, even though she had a licence plate number.

Jim Chu holding the town hall meeting was a good thing. Especially when local activists in the sit in were calling for a meeting with him specifically. That means they trust him.

The pushing to the ground of the disabled woman by an officer in East Van seems to be the tip of the iceberg. Many complain that police there treat the locals like garbage. Obviously if they report a crime and nothing is done about it, that is going to weaken public trust and discourage crime reported.

Some say that is a city hall initiative. I heard reports of police officers express their concerns that city hall started closing down the police station at night to suppress crime stats. That's kind of like closing down an emergency ward of a hospital at night.

Locals also expressed concern about the presence of Wally Oppal at the meeting and his appointment to investigate the Pickton inquiry. "I do not support you being the head of the commission," Radek told Oppal. "You didn't support us when we called for a public inquiry." She suggested Oppal is using the inquiry to boost his pension income.

I for one certainly didn't think he was a good choice to lead the inquiry. He was a former judge who publicly declared the judicial system in BC was fine and was soundly defeated in his re election bid. Public perception is he's a good choice to oversea the Pickton inquiry if the government wants to cover something up. Maybe he can oversea the Kash Heed scandal as well.

The whole meeting reminds me of an all candidates meeting that was held at First United during the civic election when the Woodwards Squat was on. Many locals expressed many concerns. One candidate expressed her concern over an NPA policy of having the police evict homeless from under bridges in the city. She thought that was cruel.

One of the people who had been evicted from under a bridge spoke and expressed his concern about having all his personal possessions stolen by the police as he was evicted. I cited the practice and asked where this police brutality will take us as a society. One candidate who was a former police officer got defensive and started to back pedal as he talked about the many accusations of the police assaulting members of the community in East Van.

I explained I wasn't taking about assaults when I was referring to police brutality. I was referring to the cruel practice of evicting homeless from under bridges and stealing their few personal possessions in a time when record budget cuts had seen a record number of homeless on the street. I said that practice was cruel and brutal then asked where will that kind of brutality take us as a society?

That was the year when the NPA was wiped out and COPE won a landslide under the leadership of Larry Campbell, Vancouver's own Da vinci. Although things greatly improved temporarily, some things went in the wrong direction and the over all situation has got worse. The Four Pillars program was about four pillars not one. Every time extremists from VANDU cited the four pillars they over emphasised the harm reduction pillar and ignored the other three pillars in the program.

The four pillars consist of Prevention, Treatment, Enforcement and Harm Reduction. Extremists completely ignore the enforcement and completely erase that one. All they do is scream harm reduction over and over again like spoilt brats demanding every drug under the sun at taxpayers expense. One officer referred to the program as the one legged horse. Four pillars will not support a building or a program if you only use one pillar. It’s like only using one oar in a boat designed for four. You just keep going in circles.

I'll tell ya what harm reduction is. Harm reduction is removing all the crack dealers from an area where addicts are seeking treatment for drug addiction. When an addict is seeking treatment and everywhere they go they have dealers in their face crying Crack Crack Crack like possessed ducks from an Alfred Hitchcock movie then that addict can't recover or have effective treatment.

We need to get over ourselves and stop suppressing crime statistics by making crime difficult to report in East Van. Reopening the police station at night would help. We need to end the brutality towards the homeless and we need to stop caving in to VANDU and start enforcing the drug laws that do exist by arresting the drug dealers outside the Carnagie centre (and Surrey Central). We need to stop kicking the cat and arrest the drug dealers not the drug addicts. They are the ones throwing women out of windows in East Van. That kind of violence needs to stop.

The Notwithstanding clause of the Charter of Rights

When discussing some of the outrageous decisions coming from the courts of late, a reader quoted Section 33 of the charter of rights - the Notwithstanding clause and said that Parliament doesn't have to listen to the courts so don't blame the judges. Kinda sounds like something Wally Oppal would say.

Basically the clause states that the federal or a provincial government can create a law notwithstanding a provision in the Charter of rights which in essence means it can violate the Charter of Rights with a five year time limit which may be reenacted.

The Charter of Rights was created to replace the Bill of Rights which the courts interpreted to be a mere guideline. The intent of the Charter of Rights was to make the Bill of Rights unalienable rights so to speak.

Many provinces were concerned at the time about how it would significantly shift political power from elected legislatures to appointed courts. The Notwithstanding clause was subsequently added to the Charter as a means of alleviating these provincial concerns.

Although I agree with the concerns about shifting power from elected government to appointed courts, the whole idea of creating a Charter of Rights then creating a loop hole saying parliament can suspend the Charter seems like a contradiction. Seemingly the Bill of Rights in the US has no such exemption.

Eileen Mohan referred to our sacred charter and how criminals are using it against us so that the rights of criminals have become more important than the rights of law biding citizens. Steve Brown referred to the constitutional obligation to provide public safety.

Basic rights are nonnegotiable. Free speech is one of those rights. Lawful assembly is another. Freedom of religion is one as is the freedom not to be discriminated against for race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex or age. The right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure. The freedom from being arbitrarily imprisoned, the right to a fair trial, the need to be charged with an offence all are nonnegotiable rights just as mobility rights.

The concern is when a judge in a court of law misinterprets that charter to mean committing a criminal offense is a charter right. That is nonsense.

Section 467.13 of the code made it illegal for a member of a criminal organization to instruct someone else to commit an offence. Hells Angel defense lawyer Matthew Nathan successfully argued that section of the code was a violation of the charter. B.C. Supreme Court Justice Heather Holmes concluded the law was too broad and vague, and therefore violated the constitution. That is insane. That is the root of the problem.

We don't need a provision in the charter which lets the government violate the charter. We need a provision in law to uphold the charter when it is violated and misinterpreted by the courts. Freedom from cruel and unusual treatment or punishment is not negotiable. Do we really want to empower the government to suspend the laws banning torture because we have.

The double edged sword is simple. We want to protect citizens from giving governments too much power to violate basic human rights and we want to protect citizens from giving the courts too much power to violate collective rights and the constitutional obligation to provide public safety. Claiming it is a charter right to instruct someone to commit a crime on behalf of a criminal organization is insane.

Drug use is not a charter right. The court does not have the right to tell me I have to have a safe injection site in my neighbourhood and I have to pay for it with my tax dollars. The court does not have the right to tell me I have to have a safe inhalation site in my neighbourhood where people can smoke crack at the taxpayers expense. Our social programs would go bankrupt pretty fast not to mention our social values.

When the courts tell me human trafficking is a charter right then it's time to fix the courts not the charter. The charter of rights is fine. The judicial system is not. In the US judges are elected. Perhaps that is something we examine. Either way creating a mechanism to fire or replace bad judges who ignore public safety because big brother knows best is an immediate priority.

B.C. Gang Wars Forum

The RCMP have launched a Gang Watch Forum at: http://www.justiceinourtimes.ca

Unfortunately there is no forum on it and despite reaching out to credible people for their input I just get the feeling that there is the same old underlining propaganda rationalizing the Judicial complacency in BC. This is where I break ranks with the establishment and stand in support of Jim Chu from the VPD.

I completely agree that politicians need to take more heat and be more accountable for passing law an order legislation. I do take issue with politicians exploiting our misfortune and using it as a platform to promote themselves and their political party instead of laying party politics aside and doing what is in the country’s best interest.

Nevertheless, I take great offense to the extent of the propaganda passion rationalizing the Judicial screw ups we see on an ongoing basis in BC. My beef starts with the lawyers. Lawyers are by nature arrogant. They refer to each other as “My learned Friend”. If you don’t have a law degree you’re not a learned friend, you are in essence a civilian.

Lawyers see themselves in a different class from the rest of the world and if you don’t have a law degree you don’t understand the courts. Period. It’s compounded by the fact that judges were at one point lawyers. I had one person ask me how is it that a crooked lawyer becomes an honest judge? Is there some kind of epiphany that takes place? Not likely.

The perfect example of this credibility gap was Wally Oppal. He was a former judge and the Attorney General who went to a great deal of effort convincing the public that our judges were fine. He was not reelected and I was not the only one that felt his defeat was related to his stand on the judges.

One page I saw on that RCMP Gang Wars site was the goal to make hearings public so the public can understand why some decisions are made. That is offensive. Here we have the propaganda doctor restating the lawyers misconception that they know everything and the public knows nothing. This is the founding premise of most dictatorships.

It’s not about the charter. The charter of rights is a good thing. It’s about bad judges who are either scared, inept or corrupt. If they are scared I can understand that. Let’s spend more money on protecting our judges and less money on protecting the Bacon brothers.

Nevertheless, defending the charter has nothing to do with throwing out evidence that was acquired after a search warrant was acquired. It has nothing to do with throwing out evidence because the police didn’t knock on the back door after they knocked on the front door to execute a search warrant. The list is long and shameful but we do have a problem with bad judges in BC and if that puts me on a black list for exercising my charter right to say that then so be it.

When the line in the sand is drawn and the masses lobby to rationalize judicial incompetence I will stand on the other side of that line and support people like the mother of Michael Levy who said “I’d like to slap that judge’s face.”

Recalling Wally Oppal

It is worth remembering why Wally Oppal was recalled through the democratic process by not being re elected. Two readers wrote in to the Province stating that in their opinion it was because of his refusal to deal with the sad state of the judicial system and his denial that is was fine:

Oppal's ouster sends a clear message on justice failures

Fired for cause