Reflecting on the homeless in East Vancouver

I have a friend who is a hunter. I’m told today is the opening of duck season. To commemorate the season, last night I went hunting in East Vancouver for the weasel that has threatened my daughter and put her life at risk. I had something to eat at a restaurant in Chinatown, and then roamed the old stomping ground in the DTES.

Years ago I did volunteer work in East Van. Before I left to travel the world, an image I had left a lasting impression on me. Back then crack hadn’t hit the streets yet. It was heroin and aftershave. The winos would run out of money for cheap wine and drink aftershave to get a buzz. If you didn’t have a mental disability before that you sure did afterwards.

I remember seeing an older homeless man wacked out on aftershave clinging to a tree in a park at the side of the road. He was holding onto the tree to help him keep from falling over and he was just staring off into space. At the time I thought to myself how can anyone see that and not have a desire to help. There has got to be something we can do to help this person.

I really get upset when people coin the phrase oh they want to be homeless. Nobody wants to be homeless. There was a woman who died camped out on Granville one cold winter. A street worker tried to help her get into a shelter but the shelter wouldn’t let her in with a pet or with her shopping buggy of her world possessions. To everyone else it was garbage. To her it was all she had. So instead of giving up all she had left, she stayed in a plastic shelter in the bitter cold. She begged the street workers for a candle to keep warm. The candle ended up catching her shelter on fire and killed her.

I’m not saying the street workers were wrong for giving her a candle. She was freezing cold and begged them for one and it did give her a small amount of temporary relief. I’m saying that woman didn’t want to be homeless and that event was a real life tragedy. Thankfully First United has since set up a program where the homeless can check in their shopping buggy of belongings so they don’t get stolen or prevent them from getting into a shelter. That is a good program worth supporting. The problem is there just aren’t enough shelters.

I parked near Pigeon corner and walked up Blood alley for old time’s sake. The allies are much cleaner now but the rat infestation is much worse. As soon as I entered the ally a big ass rat kept scurrying back and forth in front of me. It kept getting closer and closer as I was stomping my foot and almost had to crush it with my boot before it ran off and scurried up the wall beside a drain pipe.

Back in New York they used to joke about the rats. They used to say the rats in the tunnels were so big they barked. Yet the rats I saw last night were huge. Three big ass rats and one small mouse in a very short walk in the alley. Yes there was a woman sticking a needle in her arm shooting heroin. She was heavier. Not your typical skin and bones addict. She must be a new addict. Fresh meat so to speak. It won’t be long before that poison turns her into a zombie and kills her like so many others the predatory drug dealers have exploited and profited from.

Before I went home I said to myself I’ve got to go for a ride through Stanley Park. I need a change of scenery. There’s more to life than this. I stopped at the parking lot beside the totem poles and the water was calm and serene. The city lights reflecting on the glass like water was magical. I thought to myself it would be a great night to put the kayak in for a night paddle. A bit chilly but very serene. There were no campfires on third beach last night. It’s starting to get colder. Colder on the bike these days too, though nothing compared to back east.

Colder living on the streets as well. I’ve experienced homelessness arriving back to my hostel late after curfew in London. After getting locked out I soon discovered how cold concrete is when you try and sleep on it. That’s why people set cardboard down as a ground sheet first. Housing is a big problem in London or at least was when I was there. I slept in a park beside a hostel for a while. I could use the shower at the hostel until I got paid from my new job and was able to afford a bedsit.

Back then the cost of housing compared to wages was very challenging. It’s the same here now. Usually on social assistance people are forced to choose between food or housing because you can’t have both. That’s why people turn to drugs or alcohol to numb the cold of life on the street.

Imagine years ago, someone handing out free wine at pigeon park. Here have some of this. Everyone would be like alright, party. Imagine afterwards that person coming back to those homeless and saying alright today you have to pay for all the wine you drank. But we don’t have any money. That’s why were homeless. I don’t care he says. If you don’t pay for the wine you drank I’ll kill you. Find the cash. People start scrambling to get the money. Pan handle, steal, pawn. It’s not enough so the dealer pushes one of them out of a window and kills her to send a message to the others. Pay up or we will kill you. All of a sudden there minutes of relief has turned into a life of misery scrambling to pay their debts and pay for their new addiction.

It’s hard to conceive that anyone could be so cruel to offer free wine at pigeon park then threaten to kill the homeless for not paying for it after the fact. Many of those people have a mental disability. Yet that is exactly what the predatory drug dealers are doing at Main and Hastings and outside the Front Room in Surrey. Giving the homeless free crack then threatening to kill them after they are addicted when they don’t have enough money for food or housing is predatory. That needs to stop.

We need to remember Ashley Machiskinic and Janice Shore. We need to remember who killed them and why. We need to embrace the New York model and confront the predatory drug dealers that exploit the homeless. Word.

The cartoon in the top picture was from my daughter. It's in Spanish. The guy is looking up to heaven and saying where are you God that I may serve you? Then the homeless man behind him is saying I'm right here. Christ said Inasmuch as ye have done it not unto one of the least of these, ye have done it not unto me. Mother Teresa quoted Gandhi who said He who serves the poor, serves God. And Moses said, let my people go.

Bribes at Surrey City Hall

I saw this article about bribes at Surrey City Hall when it came out but couldn’t find any direct links to Diane Watts. However, a blog reader just sent me a link to the article with the following two quotes: "an unnamed female who allegedly helped Akolo with his transactions" and “Many people have their hands dirty and don’t want to be named.”

I had totally missed that. That is significant. Obviously the unnamed female doesn’t have to be Dianne Watts. However the claim that Many people have their hands dirty and don’t want to be named is very believable and very significant. It wasn’t just one fall guy as they are trying to portray. Godzilla’s Ivory Tower is made of glass.

Is Joey Verma really a dead man?

Rumors in Kelowna are swirling about the Joey Verma murder trial. Some are saying he’s a dead man if he’s not convicted in Britney Irving's murder. Yet some of these rumors are lies spread by the same people that hired him to kill her.

In the beginning I said there is no way Joey simply ripped off Britney. In so doing he would have been ripping off the Hells Angels and would have left town. He didn’t leave he was in town doing business as usual. The monetary value of the drugs he was dealing makes it clear the Kelowna Hells Angels were involved in his drug trafficking. He was not an independent drug dealer. The drugs had to have come from somewhere.

The fact that he got a VP tattoo and was recruiting for the Kingpin crew in prison was astounding. He was bragging about shooting a girl in the back just like the Hells Angels in New York were bragging about Otis Garret killing Margo Compton and her twin seven year old daughters for testifying against him.

The fact that goons were showing up at court to intimidate the witnesses and the jury is further proof Joey was not acting on his own when he killed Britney. He told witnesses he had to. In a taped interview with the police Joey admitted he was a small fish and claimed that Britney owed people money. He said she lost all that pot. Figure it out. It’s pretty clear the Hells Angels held her accountable for the loss when her clone show was busted and the money was seized just like they held Jeremy Snow liable for the value of the drugs that were seized when he was set up.

He killed Britney as a favor for the Hells Angels and now that he’s getting bad press they are betraying him just like they betrayed Britney and Geoff. No L & R there. Never was. Just greed and betrayal. Just like when they told the rat that murdered the police informant and his wife in the Vancouver Christmas of 1995 to murder his co accused right after he helped them with the hit. Those are the rats. Not the ones that report them to the police.

Update: Joey has been found guilty of first degree murder.

Body found in Surrey ditch

Surrey RCMP have located a body in a ditch near Hwy1. Reports that body is of missing female who SAR crews are currently looking for.

Harper returns Canada to the Colonial era

The third act of domestic terrorism I’m going to cite is Stephen Harpers drive to turn Canada back into a colony instead of a free republic. First he sold our oil rights to Communist China. Every time we get gouged at the pump we finance the military expansion of a Communist dictatorship.

Now he has sold our natural gas rights to Malaysia. A state owned company. How about we make our oil and gas state owned in Canada? How about Canadians profiting from our own natural resources not some other country.

The insane thing is Harper is posing like an idiot as though he has done something good by drawing foreign investment. It’s not foreign investment it’s foreign ownership. There’s a huge difference. There is nothing wrong with selling China or Malaysia oil and gas. There is something very wrong with giving them the rights to our natural resources so they profit from our resources instead of us. Stephen Harper is a sociopath.

Tea Party Terrorists

The second act of domestic terrorism I’m going to cite is the current government shut down in the US. Here’s the deal: Obama wins the election. He follows through with his campaign promise to create affordable medical insurance. The bill passes in the house. So what happens? A few extremists say OK we lost the vote so now we are going to hold the country hostage and shut down the government until we overrule the democratic will of the people. That is terrorism.

In a democracy you vote against something and record your dissent if you get out voted. You don’t hold the country hostage by an act of terrorism that damages the economic stability of the nation. I’m not sure where on earth that insane clause comes from but I can’t see it being a part of the constitution. It has to be something new someone just made up because no one has done it before until recently.

The other criminal act that has taken the nation away from a democracy is the new provision that you can have anonymous corporate donors to a politician. That is a crime. It is the opposite of transparency and fiscal accountability. In an era of making trade unions and large corporations document how much they donate to a politicians campaign, these anonymous donations are unlawful and undemocratic.

A toll for every bridge is insane

Alright, today we’re going to highlight three acts of domestic terrorism. The first of which is the Diane Watts disease that has spread all over the front page of today’s Vancouver Province.

Dianne Watts was the criminal who came up with the idea that we should toll all bridges because tolling just a few isn’t fair. That has got to be the stupidest statement in recorded history. You build a new bridge, you charge a toll until it’s paid for, then the toll is removed. Just like what was done with Lions Gate bridge and the Coquihalla highway. Even the mayor of Delta has caught the Diane Watts disease and is spewing the same nonsense. No doubt the mayor of North Vancouver thinks it’s a dumb idea because after paying for their bridges they don’t want to have to pay for bridges in Surrey too. That's totally understandable.

Tolling every bridge is simply a tax grab to feed the mayor’s counsel of gluttons who already burn a billions dollar a year regional gas tax and still want more more more. They even wanted to introduce a regional sales tax to give them a new budget to spend. Those people are insane and we need to fire them. It is a violation of the mobility rights protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights. You’re free to move as long as you have enough money. Not. Tolling every bridge would be grounds for lynching.

Finian’s Swan Song

This isn’t my Last Post but it is my Swan Song. Where I lay everything on the table. After all, what shall we die for Elizabeth? Apparently a scrawny weasel I used to do volunteer work with just gave my real id to some of my enemies. I am in the process of hunting him down.

We all face the consequences of our choices. Yes I put my kids at risk by doing this blog. However, the person that gave my id to my enemies also assumes moral liability for any harm that comes upon them. Especially when he repeatedly joked about harm coming to my children when he kept trying to expose my real name. For some reason he thinks I’m not going to come for him now. Like I said, he is insane.

I’m still going to cover the Joey Verma trial, the Johnny Newcome trial and the Dain Philips murder trial. Joey’s trial is going to be over much quicker than expected. The defense isn’t calling any witnesses and Joey’s not taking the stand so he doesn’t have to face cross examination.

I am going to pull back a bit and enjoy the time that I do have. After all each day is a gift from God. I don’t pretend to be religious. I most certainly believe in God as well as the atonement and the resurrection. I just don’t pretend to be righteous. I am just as flawed as anyone else. I just don’t sell crack or pimp crack hos. I’m really looking forward to the snow in the mountains this season.

Trolls claim the Hells Angels don’t sell drugs. Well if they didn’t, then I wouldn’t have a problem with them. They do so that creates a problem. The Hells Angels and the Dirty Flu have no right to harass the Iron Order. If the Aging Rebel or Belt Drive Betty can’t see that then shame on them.

Harper is still a raging lunatic. After selling our oil rights to Communist China now he’s selling our natural gas rights to Malaysia and he’s even smiling like an idiot as though giving up Canadian sovereignty is something to be proud of. The FIPA agreement is a complete violation of our democratic rights. When I was in Kelowna at the Harper protest I spoke with one local business owner who said they are convinced our political leaders are complete sociopaths. I have to agree.

Gregor Robertson is smoking crack. He went to a summit in New York City to share the lessons about Vancouver's successes. Is he kidding? What successes? Social housing? Rapid Transit? The DTES? BC transit loses over a billion dollars a year in that absurd regional gas tax. New York is a much bigger city than Vancouver. They have a lot more to teach us than we have to teach them. Ever heard of the New York model?

Gregor Robertson should visit the Deuce while he’s in New York. East 42nd Street Time Square. See how nice it is? That used to be like Main and Hastings. Crack dealers and drug violence around the clock. They cleaned it up through enforcement. They harassed the crack dealers not the crack addicts. That is the New York Model. I was there. I saw it. They didn’t do it with safe injection sites or by handing out free crack pipes.

The DTES is the biggest toilet in North America. That is one big failed social experiment. It’s time to try something new. The New York model works. When I came back from Ireland my father put an add in the Surrey Leader. It was a picture of me kissing the Blarney Stone in Ireland with the caption Look out world, Here comes trouble.

I used to be known as Finian. My father gave me that name when I came back from Ireland. He sat me down and made me watch Finian’s Rainbow. T’was an eloquent legacy to bequeath a child so it was. He quoted the song Look to the Rainbow and said I was always the type of person that followed my dreams. Martin Luther King had a dream and so do I.

I have a dream that one day Vancouver will rise up and embrace the New York model and set the homeless free from the predatory drug dealers that enslave and exploit them. I have a dream today. If they shoot me for that, my blog will go Tupac. Word.



It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas. Sounds like it’s time from some TSO. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony represents death knocking on the door. Who knows, maybe this Christmas Eve in Surrey will be another Christmas Eve in Sarajevo just like the Christmas of Vancouver 1995 where a rat murdered a police informant and his wife and was given instructions to murder his co accused after they murdered the informant. No L and R for that puppet on a string.

I have always believed in the right to bear arms. Buyer Beware. Even in Canada you are allowed to use deadly force if someone uses deadly force against you .That’s how you know who got off of killing John Lahn. It was in self defense. I knew a man once who said, "Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smile back." Welcome to my parlor said the spider to the fly.

Drive-by Shooting on Marine Drive

Police are investigating a drive by shooting on Southeast Marine Drive today at 3:30 PM.

Montreal cop arrested for giving intel to the Hells Angels

The Montreal Gazette is reporting that “A recently retired Montreal police officer who had access to the highest levels of intelligence on gangs like the Hells Angels appeared in court Monday to face allegations he leaked information to the biker gang in exchange for money.”

The Sûreté du Québec announced the arrest of Benoît Roberge during a press conference this morning. Roberge retired from the force in August and is now working for Revenue Quebec. He was arrested on Saturday at his home on Montreal's South Shore while in the company of a member of the Hells Angels.

That is a dirty cop. One who gives information to the Hells Angels. It reminds us of Ken Houston and Rob Sidhu. Matt the rat Schrader was caught driving Rob Sidhu's car. Now Sidhu is on trial for that cross border drug ring tied to the Hells Angels and Rob Shannon. Winnipeg Hells Angel Ian Grant was in possession of a confidential police file.