Burnaby shooting sends car crashing into house

CTV News is reporting that a targeted shooting in Burnaby caused the victim's car to crash into a house landing a few feet away from a 21 year old woman sleeping in her bed early this morning.

Linda Hepner launches Surrey's Crime Promotion Strategy

The Vancouver Sun is reporting Linda Hepners' press release unveiling her crime promotion strategy for Surrey. The same article was also printed in the Vancouver Province and the Vancouver 24 Hours. Word for word thanks to Post Media mergers and the Attack of the Clones. This new strategy is nothing new. It's just more smoke and mirrors to appease the masses and pretend she is doing something about crime in Surrey. We've heard this all before. You can fool some of the people some of the time but you can't fool all of the people all of the time.

Remember when they promised to map crime statistics instead of suppressing them? What a wonderful world that would be if they ever followed up on that promise. If they did that they would see the highest crime rates in Surrey correspond directly to where they let crack be sold in public. Instead of arresting the crack dealers that are selling fentanyl to unknowing customers, Linda Hepner and her media circus is dancing all around the crack dealers promoting their cause and their business. If we do not arrest the crack dealers that we see selling crack in public all this other bullsh*t is a complete waste of time. You are not fooling anyone any more.

Last year Tom Zytaruk from the Surrey Now reported that Surrey mayor says new strategy is not to comment on crime. Now all of a sudden she cares? Not likely. She only cares about appearances. The problem has not changed. If she cared she would have done something.

Fentanyl and cocaine seized in Grande Prairie

Global News is reporting that More than one kilogram of cocaine and nearly 150 fentanyl pills were seized from two Grande Prairie homes on Oct. 13, 2016. Karman Singh Grewal, 24, of Langley, B.C. and Elson Blue Joy, 22, of Kelowna, B.C. have been charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking.

19 year old found dead in Edmonton

The Edmonton Journal is reporting that Police are investigating a suspicious death after a 19-year-old man was found dead near the Alfred H. Savage Centre at 13204 Fox Drive around 8:30 p.m. Saturday. A 21-year-old suspect was picked up by police nearby, however no charges have been laid at this time.

The Vancouver Sun is reporting that A male victim has been taken to hospital after a shooting Monday morning in Delta.

Drive by shooting in Abbotsford

The Abby News is reporting that Police are investigating a drive-by shooting that occurred at about 8 p.m. last night (Saturday). No one was injured but a home and car were hit with bullets. CBC also reports that yesterday human remains were found on a rural Abbotsford B.C. property.

Remembering Hudson Brooks

CBC is reporting that "The province's police watchdog has completed its report into the death of Hudson Brooks, 20, who was shot and killed by police outside the south Surrey RCMP detachment last year. The Independent Investigations Office will now send its report to the Crown office for consideration of charges. That only happens when the IIO determines an officer may have committed a crime."

In August of this year CBC reported that A member of the Independent Investigations Office visited the family of Hudson Brooks on Wednesday to provide them with more information about the case. Brooks's mother, Jennifer, says the IIO told her that her son appeared to be in distress in the early morning hours of July 18, 2015. She says she was told Brooks was walking in the middle of 152nd Street near 18th Avenue wearing only a pair of shorts and flip flops. "I guess he was causing a bit of a ruckus, so they called the police," Jennifer Brooks said. "The police officer called for backup. Backup came. Hudson started pounding on the second police car, pounding on the window and asking for help."

This confirms our initial report at the time when local witnesses claimed Hudson was unarmed running for his life from a mob at the same park that another skateboarder named Dario Bartoli was assaulted and murdered. Hudson was frantic running to the police for help and the police shot him dead. This new report has not disclosed how a police officer was shot when Hudson was unarmed running to the police for help but it has refered the case to the crown to consider if criminal charges should be laid agaist the officers involved.

At the time we reported how one witness claimed a rookie cop ordered Hudson to stop when he was running for his life. Since Hudson was frantic and failed to obey her direct command she drew her gun and shot themself in the leg. Then the officer frantically radioed for help saying officer down I've been shot. That is when other officers arrived on the scene and shot Hudson dead. It was a tragic mistake by a rookie cop. The truth needs to be told. Peace.

Philippines President embraces Communist China

Rodrigo Duterte, the raging lunatic who has told citizens to shoot anyone they claim is a drug dealer on sight has officially embraced Communist China. After denouncing the US for not supporting his complete abandonment of civl liberty he has boldly endorsed Communism. Big surprise. This is what happens when you elect a dictator. He embraces dictatorships.

He has given up Scarborough Shoal, which China seized from the Philippines in 2012 and sparked demonstrations by Filipinos around the world. Duterte says "We cannot win that. We can’t beat China.” So instead he wants to join them. The question now remains are his fellow Filipinos prepared for their nation to become a Comunist satellite?

Say hello to political prisoners and organ harvesting. Anything to make a buck.

The love of sobriety

Speaking of Wayne Moriarty and media mergers, he just wrote an inspiring editorial in the Vancouver Province on the love of sobriety. He talked about how last week he came home to a strange woman passed out on the front lawn of his apartment building and talked about how that reminded him of his love of sobriety. Indeed.

It's not often you see the editor in chief write actual articles for the paper. Yet it appears in June of this year he stepped down as editor in chief and went back to being an editorial columnist. I wonder if that has anything to do with the media mergers? If all of these local papers are now owned by the same company, doesn't that mean one of the chief editors can take the job for more than one paper? Evidently so.

Harold Munro is the chief editor for the Vancouver Sun. He is now also listed as the editor in chief for the Vancouver Province. Things that make ya go hmmm.... Times have changed so they have. That's a sobering thought. Welcome to the new media order.

Postmedia Spin and the resignation of Dan Murphy

The Financial Post is reporting that "Postmedia holds the largest audience in Canada, with a nationwide readership of 11.1 million people on all platforms, dominating all other Canadian newspaper groups." The exact same article was in the Vancouver Province. At first I thought it was a joke but it wasn't in the comic section, it was in the news section. The reason why Postmedia has the largest readership in Western Canada is because they are the only media outlet. They now own almost all the newspapers here.

We've talked about media mergers and how it is concerning when all the media is owned by one entity because it becomes easier to control. Well, wait until you see where I'm going with this.

Here we have a news agency reporting on itself. The article states "According to a new study by Vividata, Postmedia leads the Torstar network by more than 2.9 million readers and the Globe and Mail by more than 5.2 million readers." Ah so Toronto still have two independent newspapers, the Toronto Star and the Globe an Mail. Time will tell how long before they too buckle and cave into the hostile takeover killing the freedom of the press once and for all. Honourable mention goes to the CBC who are also independent. For now.

In all fairness, the Toronto Sun confirmed the findings in this new report. Oh wait, they're owned by Postmedia as well. Same article, same media outlet. While this propoganda piece hit the airwaves, the Globe and Mail reported that Postmedia to cut more jobs as net loss spikes. At the same time, the CBC is reporting that Postmedia Network Canada Corp. says it intends to reduce staffing costs again as the company reports lower revenue and a deeper quarterly net loss.

I was joking when I said Postmedia could fire Keith Fraser now that Kim Bolan writes for the Vancouver Province as well as the Vancouver Sun. Shockingly, it looks like that just might be a reality in the new media order. Kim Bolan recently wrote an article that was printed in the Vancouver Province and instead of saying the Vancouver Sun has learned, she now says Postmedia has learned. Well let's take a look at what the new media empire did to Dan Murphy.

The Death of Political Satire

Yesterday it finally dawned on me that I hadn't seen an editorial cartoon in the paper for quite some time. My employer subscribes to the Vancouver Province so there are always several copies in the lunchroom at work. In 2015 the Vancouver Sun reported that "A longtime British Columbia editorial cartoonist described as a survivor among his Canadian colleagues is a victim of budget cuts after more than three decades at the same newspaper. The Victoria Times Colonist announced Tuesday that it can no longer afford to employ cartoonist Adrian Raeside."

I remember him. Budget cuts... The Victoria Times Colonist isn't part of the Postmedia empire as it was sold to Glacier Media in 2012 but it shows a disturbing trend. Political satire has been a long standing Canadian tradition. Removing political satire is another step towards eliminating the royal opposition and turning everything into one homogeneous machine of royal assent.

Now for the shocker. In 2015 the National Observer reported that editorial cartoonist Dan Murphy lost his job with the Vancouver Province for printing a cartoon that upset one of it's corporate advertisers. The story as also in Huffington Post and the CBC.

He claims he reigned after management said it was time for him to move on. Dan Murphy claims that after he made a video spoof of an Enbridge commercial, it was taken offline out of fears of upsetting the corporate advertiser. The story made the New York Times.

The National Observer reported that "In his meeting with Moriarty, Murphy says he was told Enbridge had complained to the Toronto head office of The Province’s owner, Postmedia Network Canada Corp., Canada’s largest newspaper chain. He says the order had come down to pull Murphy’s satire off the paper’s website – and that $1-million in Enbridge advertising was at stake."

Wayne Moriarty has a different recollection of the conversation but the fact remains, the spoof was pulled and Dan Murphy resigned. This has been one of the public's primary concerns with media mergers. When the news becomes censored because it may offend and affect advertizing revenue from corporate sponsors, the freedom of the press is diminished.

So what happens when all the editorial cartoonists are done away with though attrition and budget cuts? Will that be the end of political satire? Will that be the end of dissent? Does the media then simply become the mindless propaganda tool of the state? Heaven forbid.

I like Wayne Moriarty. He treated me fairly once. Years ago the Vancouver Province printed an article form the National Post mocking 911 truthers. I wrote in to complain that the article said 911 truthers concerns were unfounded yet the article didn't cite a single fact. Wayne and I started to argue back and forth about the issue. I cited Conrad Black's ownership of the National Post and other media outlets claiming that when he was in charge, if a reporter printed a labour friendly article they could lose their job. He passionately disagreed that was the case and we agreed to disagree.

I kept saying the bottom line is that you're only printing one side of the debate until finally he said fine, you write an article and I'll print the other side. I was shocked. I wrote an article and he printed it. Truthers were contacting me and ask how on earth I got that article published. I honestly said I'm not sure. One minute I'm in a heated argument with this guy and the next minute he says he'll print my side of the debate. That was fair. Sadly I don't see it happening again.

I understand the pressure to make money. I just think political satire is a Canadian tradition worth preserving. The public has to be able to question government polices. That is the fundamental aspect of a democratic society. Peace.

Police seize a kilo of fentanyl on Vancouver Island

The BC RCMP are reporting that the seized a kilo of fentanyl from a suspicious vehicle just south of Nanaimo near Cassidy Airport on Vancouver Island last week. Now they just have to take the next step and arrest the drug dealers in Whalley selling fentanyl mixed with other drugs.