Modern Luddite

Any Suggestions: The News Friday Dec 5/2014

I have a suggestion Cherryl maybe you could give us your expert opinion on the hundreds if not thousands of other chemicals and other deadly toxins released in the burning and recovery of fossil fuels, maybe you could enlighten us of the benign inconsequential global affects of say Sulfur Dioxide which just one supertanker produces 5000 tons a year, and 16 super tankers produce more pollution than all the cars in the world and acidify our oceans, create acid rain, pollute our fresh water supplies and the very air we breath, not to mention damage our and our childrens health. Maybe you could give us your expert opinion about some of the other deadly byproducts of the fossil fuel industry such as Benzene, Nitrogen Oxides, Pet Coke, Formaldehyde, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAH), Mercury, Silica, Radon, Hydrofluoric acid(HF) Hydrogen Fluoride, to name a few of the more deadly ones. You continue to deny or trivialize the deadly affects this old fossil fuel technology dumps on the earth every minute of every day as though there is no other options, with flippant comments like going back to pre-industrial times. 

The simple irrefutable truth is that 97 percent of actual climate scientists agree that climate warming trends over the last century are very likely due to human activity but you chose to ignore the obvious and chose to not take the only sensible path out of this clear and present danger to life on this fragile planet.

I read your letters and it is quite clear the only degrees you have are in trickle down economics 101 and a masters degree in ultra right-wing double speak, thanks but I think I will trust and listen to the 97 percent instead of a modern Luddite.

Like Daniel Patrick Moynihan says Cherryl "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts”.

Fuzzy Logic

We have all seen the veiled Conservative governments latest attempt at using our tax dollars to make their political rivals look bad with their REEFER MADNESS advertisement which claims that Marijuana is 300 to 400 times more powerful than it was 30 years ago which is possibly true. 

Did you know that the prohibition moonshine alcohol (everclear) that was made in the days of alcohol prohibition was anywhere from 160-200 proof and contained any number of toxic metals and chemicals, lead, and methanol for example and killed thousands of people all through prohibition until the government finally legalized, taxed and regulated alcohol once again and once more made it safer for consumption. For one thing it is cut 4 or 5 times down to the normal 40 proof you buy in the liquor store only after you show your ID. 

To any reasonable rational person the fact that marijuana is 300-400 times stronger than it was 30 years ago is even more reason for this product to be legalized and regulated for it’s purity was well as strength and just as important keeping it out of the hands of children, as any fool knows pot is easier for children to get than alcohol or tobacco, as would be expected with any regulated product such as alcohol or tobacco.

I don’t expect Neanderthals like the Conservative to ever get it, but the fact is 71 percent of Canadians want to either decriminalize or legalize marijuana such as is happening right now in America the birthplace of the tragic, costly, failed war on drugs. In BC the figures are even more prominent, 54 percent are for the full legalization and regulation of pot.

Canada Lost

Is nothing sacred to these soulless carpetbaggers and their political shills Harper and his gaggle of mindless doppelgangers. 
It is clear that there is absolutly no respect for the laws of Canada, including electoral, parliamentary, environmental, human right’s and freedoms, property rights, Supreme court, Canada’s constitution, Charter of rights and freedom and the rights and freedoms that document is supposed to ensure and last but not least democracy. According to Harpers ideology the environment is nothing more than something to use and abuse, the animals both commercial and non-commercial species are acceptable collateral damage and lets not forget Canadian workers. Canada’s parks are just in the way and are to be treated the same as all the rest of the environment and resources are to be exploited and polluted or destroyed as needed. The traditional jobs that composes most of Canada”s real economy such as fishing, forestry, tourism etc, etc are subservient to non-value added non-renueable resource extraction destined for other countries for pennies on the dollar. 

These quisling have even gone as far as giving away Canada’s sovereignty for 31 years to a brutal Communist dictatorship, and the Kocks. Because Canadians have rejected this total sellout they have resorted to doing an end run around all our laws by signing FIPA which gives China the ability to sue any jurisdiction for billions of dollars, such as Vancouver, Burnaby or Maple Ridge or anyone that get’s in the way of forcing whatever evil they decide to do no matter the cost to the environment or any of it’s creatures, commercial or non-commercial, and the jobs those resources provide.

Canada’s people are expected to accept poisoned water, loss of habitat, health of Canada’s people and the whole of the west coastal waters are all considered an acceptable price to pay for profits to the one percent. 

This government ceased working for the Canadian people and it’s best interests long ago and is in effect a radical, illegitimate government by their proven many electoral frauds. 

The system and the Crown has failed the Canadian people as the Governor General should have called an election years ago when Harper was charged with contempt of Parliment and the ongoing contempt he shows it every day since, since then multiple convictions of electoral fraud and the many other corruptions this government has perpetrated on Canada's laws, people, and Constitution, and as such these traitors are a clear and present danger to Canada and it’s people.

Divine Right

It would appear good King Harper has invoked the Divine right of Kings and once again put himself above the laws of Canada. He claims he can’t be called to testify at Mike Duffy’s trial because he has answered all those questions already in the House of Commons, you know that branch of government that lying is the rule, not the exception, in fact according to various Conservatives it is something they all do every day, it is such a common practice that it not even called lying, it is just misspeaking or embellishment.

The first thing Harper and every other MP, Governor General etc etc did when they took office was swear the Oath of Allegiance which is an oath that represents egalitarian governance and the rule of Canada’s laws, it signifies that here in Canada justice is done not in the name of the PM or the Mayor, or the police chief as in totalitarian nations but by the people, in other words a democracy. These are meant to be positions of public trust and power therefor elected individuals are expected to act patriotically and in the best interests of the country and it’s people, it is a solemn oath to adhere to the symbolic keystone of the Canadian Constitution, Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the laws of the land and national life. 

The court system Mr. Harper is a lot different in as if they can prove you lied or committed a crime they can put you in jail, you don’t just agree to disagree and carry on as usual as is Harpers usual stand. Which is obviously why Harper in particular wants to stay away from that troublesome reality.   

The Oath of Allegiance besides all that democracy ideal, is for the most part an Oath of fealty to the Crown and the supremacy of the reining Monarch and that is who Harper is working for the Crown. 
If it was otherwise the Governor General would have shut Harper down long ago due to Harpers long list illegal actions, contempt, his obvious disrespect for every Canadian institution from Parliament, electoral laws, Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Senate, free press, Supreme court and it’s judges, environment, the and last but not least Canadian people and their democracy.

The deafening silence from the monarchies Canadian representative the Governor General tells me that Harper is doing exactly what the Crown wants , which is turning Canada into nothing more than another resource poor dictatorship for the pleasure of the one percent, of which as always the Monarchy is a prominent member first and foremost. 

Ironically this sad situation is no different than if the Kock brothers were the absolute rulers of America, the only difference is an accident of birth. 

SCREWED

Dog owners lose, dogs lose, democracy loses, due process loses, we never had a chance, they never intended to give the off leash dog park users any input into the process at all, as Al Hogarth would say the "fix was in”. It was supposed to be a slam dunk and the only glitch was MR council recognizing the total lack of democracy and due process and kicking it back to the Parks and recreation, in affect giving us a two day reprieve from June tenth to the twelfth, the next Parks and recreation meeting where the users were supposed to get to finally tell the users side of this issue, the schedule appeared to give us the opportunity to speak to the issue but when it came to the meeting the parks commission voted on the issue before the dog park users were allowed to speak, history sadly repeating itself. We heard Al Hogarth and others tell the heart wrenching story of the horror and stress of living beside an off leash dog park, stories of unsubstantiated complaints of noise, easily fixed problems of dust, lies about bio-hazard a strain of e-coli allegedly taken in the adjacent school yard, only one problem the e-coli comes from cattle, sheep and goats definitely not dogs, if in fact this is true it is undoubtedly coming from the farm on the North side of the playground and the dog park was originally farm land. The Parks board just took all this BS and without substantiating these claims they swallowed these sad anguished tales hook line and sinker. In the 5-8 months this small group secretly lobbied the commission I guess it never occurred to the parks board to actually do some decibel testing or put a hedge where there was an actual sound problem or change the park hours or how about put in some turf to stop the dust problem, I suppose for some unknown reason they just accepted all these lies and exaggerations as fact. One of the main reasons Hogarth, Morden used to shut the park down was the danger of violence and the safety of the dogs, I would have to ask Al Hogarth and Michael Morden if that is the case why they didn’t get the RCMP who apparently were never tasked to find the monster that has been poisoning and trying to maim our dogs ongoing for over a year, and I have been informed that the SPCA was never contacted about these crimes, I guess they weren’t all that worried after all. Then after all that they for some unknown reason chose to totally disregard the parks and recreation staff recomendations about the park. I guess they forgot to ask Sam the main spokes person for the 27 name secret petition how long he has lived in that home as the dog park was there when he bought the house and would totally make their argument about doing it right and to not make the same mistakes the next time, and make sure all the home owners adjacent to the next location for a dog park are happy with the decision a joke at best. 

In the end it was a done deal conducted in secret with the secret 27 with only one side of the issue of the park considered, users only finding out about the closure after the deed was done the 1300 names on a petition a waste of time and of of absolutly no consequence to these dictators, absolutely no democracy, no due process of any kind. 

You may have won the battle but it is very likely Al Hogarth and Michael Morden could lose the war, I know that there are 27 people that are very happy that your heavy-handed undemocratic un-inclusive good old boy political style got  them what they wanted, but even they might have second thoughts after seeing first hand how you operate when it comes to things that do not affect them personally, and make no mistake this is how these people operate doing all Maple Ridges business and I know 1300 people that will not be giving them another mandate and probably 10,000 other dog owners that have had a severe reality check watching this travesty unfold.

 

P.S. It would seem that Pitt Meadows has a few like minded politicians who are quite comfortable with a total lack of democracy or due process also, but that is for the most part Pitt Meadows voters responsibility to fix.

Animal Cruelty Laws

It seems every time I pick up a paper, turn on TV, go on the internet there it is again a horror story about animal cruelty, man shoot’s and stabs and ultimatly slaughters a hundred Husky’s, man beats ex police dog to death, 6 men duct-tape a foxes jaws shut and make sport of kicking him to death, 8 men fired from dairy farm in Chilliwack for beating probably natures most docile creature cows with chains and boards, or how about because of a total failure of our government and the existing animal cruelty laws to provide even minimal safety in a public dog park and then government uses this personal failure as an excuse for closing down an off leash dog park, all because of Canada's laws inability to catch and prosecute a serial dog poisoner that places poisons, glass, tacks, fishhooks around park in an attempt to maim and kill dogs and this outrage goes on continuously unabated for over a whole year. 

Probably when most people see these atrocitys they think what the hell is wrong with these people and secondly they think why doesn’t someone do something about it. You might well blame the police or the SPCA or if they are by chance caught Judges, but actually none of these people can do a whole lot about this situation because Judges don’t make laws they just enforce the laws that politicians make and the fact is animal cruelty laws are a misdemeanour and that in itself pretty well insures any penalty will be minimal to non-existent, we are talking 6 months in jail and $300 dollar fines which rarely ever happens. 

The real problem is that these laws were brought enacted in 1892 and were never intended to be laws to prevent cruelty to animals that was a different time when you could be shooting bears, wolves, wild dogs in your back yard they were laws to protect commercially viable species such as cattle, horses and you would likely be hanged if you stole or killed someone else’s livestock, they would have probably thought you were crazy if you actually thought people should protect dogs for instance, they were animals that lived outside and killed rat’s and guarded the livestock for their keep, they weren’t seen as family pets as now, anyway this is only a part of the problem.  

Any law no matter how good or up to date a law is it is open to interpretation and more importantly affected by past precedents, no law says "if this crime happens this shall happen", it says or this, or this, etc etc depending on past precedents, and in this case you have 122 years of past precedents, particularly when that law didn’t even have the same intent as what we want it to mean in this day and age. 

In other words these animal cruelty laws are nothing more than unenforceable misdemeanours at best and possibly the worst assembly of words to ever sully a Canadian law book at worst, at least looking at it 122 years after the fact. Over the years they have tried to tweak these laws but have only managed to make them even more bizarre, here’s a beauty the criminal code penalty for uttering a threat to kill poison, or injure an animal or bird comes with maximum imprisonment of 24 months as opposed to 6 months for actually killing the animal.

The government has to first extinguish this archaic relic from the past and all it’s precedents along with the many loopholes that guarantee any lawyer could ensure no one is ever convicted under this law, and come up with a new humane law more in tune with the realties of today’s society and it’s attitudes about animals and in particular the humaine treatment of animals, and this new modern law shall make animal cruelty a felony that gives the police the power to apprehend these monsters and gives judges the tools to punish and fine the perpetrators of these atrocity's appropriately putting the worst offenders behind bars or mental institutions whatever the case may be.

Travesty Averted

I would like to thank all MR council for righting a wrong to the users of Volker dog park and postponing the shutdown before options can be explored, with the obvious exception of Al Hogarth and Michael Morden who acted like a couple of spoiled brats because they didn’t get their way. After the May 27 Th. Council meeting it is quite easy to see how situations like this particular fiasco transpire with Mr Hogarth’s apparent contempt for democracy and due process and of course the help of his hand puppet sidekick Michael Morden.

The one lesson we should all learn from this distressing exercise is to not give in to bullies or psychos no matter whether they are sitting across from you at a council meeting or throwing rocks through your windows or egging your house or even trying to kill or maim your furry family members. 

The users of dog parks should not have to do walk arounds looking for poison kibble, glass, tacks, fish hooks and have to change the water in the dish and then worry and hope to god you did not miss anything, every time you go to the park.

Now to ensure this is not a hollow victory we need to change the laws and put some teeth in the animal cruelty laws and make the poisoning and maiming and other cruelty done to animals a felony and put a few of these monsters in jail as a warning to others that commit these heinous acts with impunity and even if they get caught it is a misdemeanour, no big deal, no real consequences, this is after all not a victimless crime. 

Terrorism Rewarded

May 15/ 2014 I went to a hearing if you could honestly call it that, in reality it was a sham at best an insult at worst, over 1300 signature were collected in under 3 weeks and the petition was presented to the Parks board and a couple of speakers presented a compelling case for the users of the dog park to be involved in this important decision.  
The meeting took place at MR City Hall about the iminent Volker dog park closure and was the result of a huge public backlash because all the people that use this important facility were undemocratically left out of the process of the ultimate fate of the dog park, and consequtently the media was inundated by angry letters of outrage over the lack of proper procedure for taking such a drastic arbitrary action as closing the dog park without proper consultation. 
The truth is none of the issues used to justify the closure are valid the noise problem does not exist and strategically placed hedges would cut that down even more, the dust problem is totally fixable by the installation of a heavy duty playground turf, the hours the park is open can be adjusted to please everyone, and the bio hazard is non existent the e-coli allegedly found are found only on cattle, sheep, and goats not dogs, but apparently none of these issues was really the reason the dog park is being shut down, we heard from Al Hogarth that he voted to shut the park down because he was afraid of the threat of violence and for fear of the dogs safety and another couple members said that was their main concern also, isn’t that sweet. 

This is a failure of council as they should have told RCMP to make sure this facility was safe and the only way to do that was instruct RCMP to catch this monster, but that never happened. Not only that but all the complaints should have been addressed to the satisfaction of all, except of course the few individuals that are beyond pleasing. 


I want to thank the few members of the council that did not take the cowards way out to protect our furry family members and at least tried to do the right thing.

Over a year ago my dog was poisoned at Volker dog park and nearly died, along with two other dogs that also thankfully recovered from the poisoning. I don’t know how many dogs were cut or maimed by the glass and tacks and fish hooks strewn around the park with the poisoned Kibble but when I phoned the RCMP about the poisoning I told the officer I might not take my dog back to Volker dog park and he said to me “so you are going to let him win” I thought about it and said NO, we talked about putting infrared cameras in the trees and what else could be done to catch this monster, so every time I went back to the park I would empty the water dish put clean water in the dishes and do a walk around looking for glass, poisoned kibble or old balls and anything else suspicious, basically doing everything I could do to reducing the risk to my beloved furry friend, all the time assuming the RCMP were taking steps to catch this monster.

I have to wonder what kind of world we are now living in where a few bullies and psychopaths can force change on all the rest of us. Since when has any level of government not only succumbed to the violence and terror of a terrorist but also rewarded them for their terrorist acts. 
Ask yourself what would happen if this monster had been targeting the children in the adjacent school ground, perhaps leaving poisoned candies or shooting at them, would they have shut down the school or playground, I don’t think so, they would have made it a top priority to catch the criminal and he would have either stopped his violent terrorist acts or been caught, but in this case the criminal still to this very day continues his terrorist acts with impunity, but it is just dogs right. The RCMP obviously never told put in the cameras and consequencialy never pursued and brought to justice this monster, all because the powers that be never told the RCMP to get this guy yesterday, whatever it takes. 

This monster should have been targeted, caught and made an example of, as what he did is not only against the law, but a cowardly crime against total innocents that cannot protect themselves against monsters such as these.

This whole issue is about “NOT IN MY BACK YARD" and I have news for these people the Volker dog park is not their back yard it belongs to the people of Maple Ridge.

Star Chamber

It would seem something is rotten in Maple Ridge, after witnessing the farce that passes for due process in the Parks and Recreations board meeting of May 15/2014 in Maple Ridge council chambers as pertains to the parks boards arbitrary decision to shut down Volker dog park in a Star Chamber like decision with only one side of the issue represented, that was done literally in secret with the users of the park only finding out about the dog park closure after the decision was already made, especially in light of the fact that that decision is contrary to the explicit recommendations of the original Parks Board staffs recommendation. 

If this is the way this council and it’s various departments function it is no wonder they get so upset when someone like Corisa Bell dares to raises questions about pending issues. I can only guess how many other municipal issues have been handled in this partizan, undemocratic, one sided, dictatorial manner. 

Here is something I find nearly impossible to understand, it was almost a year ago my dog was poisoned at Volker dog park and the glass, tacks, fish hooks and poison have continued constantly right up to this day, here is the question the RCMP have been involved from day one, I know because I talked to them about it and we talked about how to catch this monster but as far as I know the infrared cameras were obviously never installed as the criminal has never been unmasked, is it really possible that the RCMP can not find the guilty party in an ongoing crime after a whole year of investigation surely even Elmer Fudd could have caught this monster by now in a crime being committed in the very same location in the open for over a year, how is that possible, have the RCMP even been told to investigate these heinous crimes against dogs and and their families or have they been told to stand down because they already know who is committing these crimes and they are being protected by someone. 

Not only must Justice be done; it must also be seen to be done, and in this case we certainly have not lived up to that ideal. 

It would seem that Maple Ridge Parks and Recreation board and Council is following Victoria’s and Ottawa's lead and doing the peoples business in dark secret rooms with vested interests.

See no Evil Hear no Evil

Randy Kamp Conservative MP extraordinare, a man and government with a finger on the pulse of the nation, sensitive to the wants and needs of Canadians of every creed, colour and economic demographic. Quote Randy Kamp “ We don’t see a lot of opposition” unquote, seriously, Mr Kamp is talking about the seriously misnamed "Fair Election Act” C-23 which short of blood running in the streets of Canada has had nothing but condemnation from every faction of Canada, Constitutional scholars, political scientists, past chief electoral officer Jean Pierre Kinsley, present chief electoral officer Mark Mayrand and past Auditor General Sheila Fraser has called the bill “an attack on democracy", and private citizens all over Canada have been hitting the streets of nearly every town and city of Canada including a demonstration that Mr.Kamp failed to notice as he will probably fail to notice another protest on C-23 on May 10 at 1:00 PM in front of his office, and miracle of miracles even Herr Harpers rubber stamp Senate have given the thumbs down to this undemocratic unconstitutional attempt to disenfranchise certain voting groups in a desperate attempt to hold onto power, even his mentor Preston Manning had unkind words about it. This attempt to Americanize Canadian voter suppression has even got the attention of international democracy watch groups but Mr. Kamp apparently hasn’t seen a lot of opposition.
Possibly the worst part other than the obvious attempt of voter suppression and total lack of respect to Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the fact that it does absolutely nothing for the actual flaws in Canada’s voting system but are not seen as flaws by a government more interested in stealing the next election than improving Canada’s democracy. Instead of increasing the amount of money spent on elections mostly 2nd and 3rd party money this should be eliminated or at least cut down drastically not increased or how about a proportional voting system and maybe a box for “none of the above” for people that want a protest vote and no excuse for not voting. 
Love him or hate him at least Pierre Trudeau left Canada a more democratic country than when he was first elected.

These are just a few of the changes we need in Canada’s democracy, but these are important issues for Canadians that need to be debated by Canadians according to their merits for the betterment of our democracy and Canada not to be dictated by some dictator for his own benefit and self interest.
As far as Randy Kamp Mr. hear no evil, see no evil, I can’t honestly say, say no evil, all-told this is not a good virtue when you are the perpetrators of that evil.

RED HERRING 2

What a surprise our local town cryer Randy Kamp totally agrees with C- 23, the Conservatives claim to want to fix our democracy and get more people to vote but most of all stop all the voter fraud, I hardly see how that is possible when the whole exercise will make it harder to vote for 10s if not 100s of thousands of legitimate voters, never mind the fact that much of what they propose is totally against Canada’s charter of rights and freedoms, "the right of every citizen to vote, guaranteed by s.3 of the Charter, lies at the heart of Canadian democracy” even prisoners get to vote in Canada, the charter also says “A voter can establish Canadian citizenship verbally by oath” I have to wonder what will happen to absentee voting ballots under this new law or will they also be disenfranchised as well. 

The extent of the so-called voter fraud C-23 is supposed to fix involved less than a dozen people in the last election, hardly what I would call a voter fraud crisis.

Mr. kamp is right about one thing there were “significant irregularities” in the last election but as has been proven in a significant number of instances these were committed by the Conservative party, the so-called Robocalls and other crimes and irregularities and these will only get worse because many of the people that are the watch dogs of the elections act and watched for these crimes and irregularity’s such as the Chief Electoral Officer have been removedly with this affront to Democracy.

There are many things wrong with our Canadian Democracy and electoral system as Mr. Harper and his accomplices have proved repeatedly but they involve first past the post elections, wilfully breaking existing laws, improper proroques and 2nd and 3rd party advertising and less than truthful constant attack ads and corruption in the House and Senate and last but not least the unreasonable power and advantage money plays in our political system. It is clear this is a despicable clumsy attempt to get even less voters out on election day which plays well for the Conservatives. Another thing they fixed was now you and me can contribute $1500.00 dollars to elections, I don’t think they had you and me in mind for that one but the CEOs and the Conservatives will be happy.

If the CONS are truly serious about eliminating election fraud they would simply not run any candidates in the next Federal election which would eliminate not one but two problems, first it would not only eliminate 99.9 percent of election fraud but bring Canada back to it’s former status as a Democracy. Hopefully our new government would then prioritize fixing some of the more obvious real flaws in Canada’s electoral and Democratic system such as first past the post, elected Senate with more powers and sorely needed checks and balances, deal seriously with corruption in the House and Senate and taking the money out of the electoral system, and last but not least coming up with a version of Democracy that doesn’t totally depend on the good character or lack off character of our elected representatives as to whether Canada has a functioning healthy Democracy or not.  

Double Speak

Re Middle class doing better than ever MR Times March 27/14

According to Mr. Kamp the middle class is doing better under the Conservatives, This stands right up there with other outrageous statements by Conservative MPs Canada’s Minister of citizenship, immigration and multi-culturizm Chris Alexander that announced "poverty has been eliminated in Canada”, just how removed from reality is this government? 

Amazing how you can make numbers say anything you want especially if you don’t mind misspeaking a little along the way. First revelation from the Conservative ideological bubble $120,000.00 is not the middle class and I am sure this is the lower end of the upper class are paying less taxes, the rich are the only people that are paying less, the middle class average family income is from $60,000 to $85,000 dollars and this group is shrinking while the poor and lower middle are growing. Of course Mr. Kamp doesn’t mention the 1 out of 5 children living in poverty or the First nations people that have had a 2 percent cap on costs since 1996 so are now getting the equivalent of .23 cent on the 1996 dollar Kamp didn’t mention the 30,000 Canadians sleeping on the street on any given night, or the 16.2% of Canadian people living below the poverty level or all the seniors that are falling into poverty and debt trying to keep their heads above water. 

This sham of a government has been playing a giant shell game cutting transfer payments, social programs, medical and anything else for the people and diverting our tax dollars to subsidizing corporations, any government can download the taxes on to the Provinces and then the Provinces download them to the municipalities and say what a great man am I. Thanks to the Conservative government cutting transfer payments to the Provinces for such things as medical, the citizens of BC pay more for MSP than all the corporations pay in corporate taxes in BC. I pay from $35-$65 dollars a month in bridge tolls (TAXES) now, and the corporations get to use the infrastructure I pay for, for literally nothing, not only that but exploit our resources for a pittance, never mind about all the new fees and doubling and tripling of existing fees. Then you have the nerve to say you have cut our taxes, if you put all the Federal, Provincial, Municipal taxes, fees, tolls the money governments take out of Hydro BCAA, liquor and sales taxes you would find you give by far the lions share of your earnings to the government. 

If the real rapidly shrinking middle class is surviving it is only till they run out of credit as Canadians owe more now than they have ever owed, just like their government who has Canada owing $647 billion dollars the largest deficit in Canadian history. 

Thanks to the Conservative inept and dangerous economic polices we have a 7 percent unemployment rate in spite of about 500,000 million foreign workers doing Canadian jobs probably because in destroying the unions they also destroyed the very organizations that trained our apprentices and journeymen and other skilled workers and companies are quite happy to hire foreign workers for less money than Canadians contrary to Mr. Kamp’s misspoke. Then we have a .90 cent dollar which I am sure Mr.Kamp will tell you is a good thing and they are trying to get it down to .60 cents and then everything will be wonderful.

Talk about painting an incomplete picture these people do not have even a slight grip on reality.

Recipe for Disaster

A quote caught my eye the other day "I had rather be an oyster than a man, the most stupid and senseless of animals."-George Berkeley I thought to myself what a stupid quote oysters can’t invent an I-Phone or a Atomic bomb or how about an incredible engineering wonder such as a SUPERTANKER, like I said stupid quote. 

Then it occurred to me that it wasn’t oysters that are responsible for the decimation of not only themselves but 10 million scallops and any other creature that has a shell on our BC coast, it was mans activities that have acidified the oceans. Ph levels on BCs coast have dropped from the normal 8.2 Ph to 7.2 Ph which is significantly more acidic and is caused by man made carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide being absorbed by the ocean. I guess there are many different opinions on whether I-Phones or Atomic bombs are good or bad but 1000 supertankers being invited to inundate BC shores is definitely one of the dumbest short-sighted, dangerous ideas ever. 

We all know what a weed whacker is, you know those loud irritating garden tools that wakes you up in 6.00 A.M. well they are not only loud but they used to be 2 stoke motors but because they were so polluting they have had to become 4 stroke engines, well guess what supertankers have 2 stroke motors 14 cylinders and 3ft 2in pistons and an 8ft 2in stroke and produce 260 times more sulphur dioxide than all the cars in the world, just one supertanker produces as much as 5000 tons of sulphur a year and 16 supertankers create as much air pollution as all the cars in the worlds. 

Being a two stroke engine is only part of the problem as your normal 2 stroke weed whacker burns refined gasoline with a little refined oil, a super tanker burns bunker oil which is the sludge that is left over from the oil refining process and has up to 4500 times more sulphur than is allowed in car fuel and these behemoths burn 16 tons an hour or 380 tons a day. 

This is without a doubt a clear and imminent danger to the citizens of BC, our wild life, the environment and the very province we live in, Mayor Robertson has even more to fear from these pipelines, supertankers and coal-ports than he even knows. 

I know oysters did not have a hand in their own destruction along with eventually most of the life in the sea and yes the world if we continue on this fools path, but once again we ignore the obvious and the science and invite around 1000 supertankers to our BC shores. A super tankers motor weighs in at 2000 tons so in our infinite wisdom we have allowed 1000, 2000 ton extraordinarily dirty weed whackers into our back yards so don’t be surprised if there is an epidemic of allergies and asthma, cancer and a pandora’s box of other health problems. 

Maybe that isn’t such a stupid quote after all.

Invisible Danger

I want to talk about the miracle scenario painted by the warm and fuzzy propaganda campaign being drummed into the people of BC 24/7 365 days a year, where a pipeline doesn’t leak into our rivers and pollute and poison the land which is a statistical and physical impossibility and there are also no supertanker catastrophes or leaks to destroy our beautiful BC coastal environment and kill millions of aquatic and forest creatures which is a statistical and physical impossibility also, and make no mistake it would only take one to destroy thousands of jobs, millions of wildlife creatures not to mention destroying BCs coastal environment for decades even centuries to come.

What no one is talking about is a serious pollution consequence no one is even talking about or telling us about, catastrophic  amounts of air pollution from Supertankers. Kinder Morgan 400 a year, into Vancouver harbour and Burrard inlet, I have hit bottom of my sailboat miles off UBC in the spring with a 5 ft 2 in draft keel an obstacle not on any chart because it will be gone by fall, Northern gateway 240 Supertankers a year and from the proposed LNG plant in Kitimat up to 7-8 supertankers a day all the way up 240 Km of the 4th most dangerous waterway in the world. Lets not forget the Supertankers that will be hauling all that coal from at least 3 BC coal ports, even the Americans won’t  let them ship from American ports, it is to dirty and from what I understand they are none to happy that Canadians are allowing it, because of the inevitable accidents Americans will likely suffer as much damage as we do. 

Here is the problem Supertankers burn Bulk crude which is the sludge that is left over after the oil refining process, you can literally walk on it when it is cold it is basically asphalt (much like dilbit), It has up to 4500 times as much sulphur in it than the diesel that you put in your car, these floating pollution factories pump out  260 times as much sulphur dioxide than all the cars in the world put together, not to mention CO2, heavy metals and all the other pollutants generated by burning this cheap extremely dirty fuel.

The motors that burn this bulk crude are 5 storeys high with 14 cylinders 3ft 2in diameter pistons and a 8ft 2in stroke and they burn about 37,000 litres an hour or about 20 tons of this crude a day, just one of these behemoths emits as much as 5000 tons of sulphur a year. 

There it is just 16 of these supertankers produce more pollution than all the cars in the world, is it any wonder that our oceans are dying with over 500 super tankers and super cargo carriers plying our oceans and more being built every day, is it any wonder that a cites ports are the source of most pollution and the cause of the many health problems the people exposed to this pollution suffer from, in fact it is estimated that over 90,000 people a year die as a direct result of living in coastal areas where this poison is concentrated, so you could say yes it is a cheap fuel to move product around the world but health wise and environmental costs are astronomical. Do you consider that cheap?

A while back Canada stopped America from building a natural gas power plant at Sumas, gas a comparatively clean fuel on the BC border because of the resultant unacceptable pollution hazard and the fact that it would have been like putting another 500,000 cars on our roads, and the fact is pollution from these giant oil bombs will dwarf that pollution and nobody is even talking about this aspect of this lose-lose disaster for the people, animals, environment and economy of BC. 

GONG SHOW

If you want to see the quality of the people running Canada at this time there is no better example than watching the gong show that passes for the Canadian Parliament. 

Canadians have watched everyone from the Prime Minister and half his caucus and the Senate stand in front of the Canadian public and Lie their faces off but this latest Butt is the ultimate Butt joke, here you have a CONservative MP that perjures himself in a feeble attempt to legitimize his masters attempt to disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of Canadians in the next election because it looks like that is the only way the CONS can possibly win. 
Here is the gist of this sordid tale, this Butt stands up on the floor of the legislature and tells this story about the last election and he makes a point of the so-called fact that he witnessed this act with his very own eyes, he watch voters put their voters cards in the garbage and then watched an individual retrieve those cards which were taken and given to other people who then used them to vote again, pretty serious stuff wouldn’t you say. 
The first thing I have to say is if that was me or most other honest people that witnessed something like that they would have seen to it that the people who were doing this would be stopped and charged so I can only guess they were members of his party because he never stopped or reported this obviously alleged illegal practice, then as the story goes 3 years later he got up in front of the legislature and told this fabrication not once but twice, 19 days later he turns around and says it didn’t happen he never saw anything at all, he just embellished or misspoke the story. In other words it was obviously a premeditated lie, and a whopper at that, which makes it contempt of the legislature at the very least, if he was a MP in Australia he would be going to jail. 
Now here is where the story moves into the twilight zone according to the rest of the CONservatives he never lied and doesn't deserve a contempt ruling he merely misspoke, embellished, I might accept that he embellished but he embellished a bare faced lie, he purposely lied and mislead the legislature for devious ends, now the real crazy part unfolds as the rest of the CON cabal instead of admitting the obvious are trying to convince the Liberals, NDP, Green party and not to mention the Canadian people that it was not a lie at all, he only did what they all do every day, well if you are talking about CONservatives he is probably right but any 3 year old knows you are not supposed to lie and you get in trouble if you do, but apparently our elected Conservative MPs have degenerated to the point that anything goes lying, election fraud, stealing public tax dollars and who knows what else is done by them every day. 
Mr. Butt will be doing the talk show circuit any time now.

It is painfully clear lying and corruption and contempt are now the norm rather than the exception, it is time for the Governor General to put an end to this travesty of an already illegitimate government and call an election. 

Omnibus protest

I was at the OMNIBUS protest in front of our perpetually absent MP Randy Kamp’s office and took great pride at all the caring Canadian patriots holding their signs and braving the bitter cold to protest the so many things wrong with this government it is impossible to focus on one issue anymore, I was heartened by the young people that had the courage and foresight to join us. 

But sadly they were not what was foremost on my mind, it was the thousands of people that were not there, I suppose they were sitting in front of the TV watching some movie they have seen 3 times or maybe even watching the news and getting angry over something they don’t approve of, maybe even this very protest rally. 

I have to wonder where were the people that expect our government to be at least competent money manager a government that turned a surplus into the biggest deficit in Canadian history $647 billion, they even managed to lose $3.1 billion dollars and have the Canadian dollar at an abysmal 80 cents, where were the unemployed 7.2 percent of Canadians who should be outraged that 446,847 foreign workers are in Canada doing Canadian jobs, everything from non-skilled to skilled jobs and the fact that this government has failed miserably in making sure there are Canadians trained for these positions, talking about incompetence you have a government that seems to pay 3 to 10 times as much for everything they do or buy such as the G-20 and an icebreaker for example, where were the people that care about public health care where because of Conservative environmental polices (or to be more specific lack of environmental laws) you have 400 percent increases in cancer rates in certain areas and at the same time the government is trying to get rid of public health care, where were the people that don’t believe that only commercially viable wildlife species should be protected by the government of Canada or that only 97 lakes and 62 rivers out of 2.25 million lakes and rivers deserve protection, or how about forcing environment destroying pipelines on a majority of people that do not want them, Harper has acted to destroy environmental law brought in as far back as Sir John A. Macdonald. Where were the people that don’t believe the government should be spying on innocent Canadians and our allies, where were the people that are angry that Canada’s government has for the first time in history litteraly given away Canada’s sovereignty (a treasonous act in my mind) and infringing on Canadians right to make laws consistent with Canadians rights and values such as protecting our enviroment, rights of privacy, voting rights, for example where were the people that don’t want Americas police sweeping into Canadian homes to take you away for supposedly breaking some obscure American law that they can’t even enforce in their own country ( this just happened in Vancouver where Seattle police raided an old age home looking for drugs and never found any, it was according to our government a simple misunderstanding) I guess we should be thankful they are not going to prosecute the older lady that resisted them or even just had a drone put a missile through the front door. 

Where were the people that hate the fact that Canada the peace keeper has been turned into a gunboat diplomacy thug, a hypocrite of the highest order a leader that calls good environmentalists and scientists that disagrees with them terrorists and at the same time hobnobs with real monster terrorists.

Where were all the mothers and fathers that always believed their children would be brought up in a Democracy and do they even know what that means and instead have a government that without debate and once again using giant omnibus bills is purposely making voting harder for Canadians and in affect disenfranchising 100s of thousands of Canadian voters, where were the people that are incensed with the way our war veterans are disrespected and treated, where were the people that don’t like MPs getting up and spouting barefaced lies and then within days turning around and recanting his testimony with the feeble excuse that he misspoke, where is the honesty, integrity, ethics where is the respect of democratic principles of this government and our Prime Minister that has been found guilty of contempt. 

They lie on a daily basis, flagrant illegal election law abuses and their pathetic answer to fixing these abuses is to disenfranchising even more voters and making sure there is no one there to catch them in the next election when they do the same thing to steal yet another election. 

I realize Canadians are a very laid back passive people but time is running out for Canadian's and their quasi-democracy in Steven Harpers own words quote “you will not recognize Canada when I am through with it” well Canada, he has already made it unrecognizable from the Canada I was born into and the democracy my father and so many others fought and died for it’s professed ideals and democratic principals. 

I loved how Canada was a world leader sometimes biting off more than it could chew but always trying to lead the world in the right direction. I sorely miss that Canada.

I know this letter is to long but anybody that has been paying attention knows that I have only scratched the surface of this governments corruption, incompetence, destructive shortsighted economic and environmental polices.

CONservative Red Herring

RE: No more federal voter cards The News Feb 14 /2014

What a surprise our local town cryer Randy Kamp totally agrees with C- 23, the Conservatives claim to want to fix our democracy and get more people to vote but most of all stop all the voter fraud, I hardly see how that is possible when the whole exercise will make it harder to vote for 10s if not 100s of thousands of legitimate voters, never mind the fact that much of what they propose is totally against Canada’s charter of rights and freedoms, "the right of every citizen to vote, guaranteed by s.3 of the Charter, lies at the heart of Canadian democracy” even prisoners get to vote in Canada, the charter also says “A voter can establish Canadian citizenship verbally by oath” I have to wonder what will happen to absentee voting ballots under this new law or will they also be disenfranchised as well. 

The extent of the so-called voter fraud C-23 is supposed to fix involved less than a dozen people in the last election, hardly what I would call a voter fraud crisis.

Mr. kamp is right about one thing there were “significant irregularities” in the last election but as has been proven in a significant number of instances these were committed by the Conservative party, the so-called Robocalls and other crimes and irregularities and these will only get worse because many of the people that are the watch dogs of the elections act and watched for these crimes and irregularity’s such as the Chief Electoral Officer have been removedly with this affront to Democracy.

There are many things wrong with our Canadian Democracy and electoral system as Mr. Harper and his accomplices have proved repeatedly but they involve first past the post elections, wilfully breaking existing laws, improper proroques and 2nd and 3rd party advertising and less than truthful constant attack ads and corruption in the House and Senate and last but not least the unreasonable power and advantage money plays in our political system. 

It is clear this is a despicable clumsy attempt to get even less voters out on election day which plays well for the Conservatives. Another thing they fixed was now you and me can contribute $1500.00 dollars to elections, I don’t think they had you and me in mind for that one but the CEOs and the Conservatives will be happy.

If the CONS are truly serious about eliminating election fraud they would simply not run any candidates in the next Federal election which would eliminate not one but two problems, first it would not only eliminate 99.9 percent of election fraud but bring Canada back to it’s former status as a Democracy. Hopefully our new government would then prioritize fixing some of the more obvious real flaws in Canada’s electoral and Democratic system such as first past the post, elected Senate with more powers and a fairer distibution of Senators determined by a regions population and the resulting sorely needed checks and balances, deal seriously with corruption in the House and Senate and taking the money out of the electoral system, and last but not least coming up with a version of Democracy that doesn’t totally depend on the good character or lack off character of our elected representatives as to whether Canada has a functioning healthy Democracy or not.  

Quote The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is Fascism—ownership of Government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power.

The second truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living.
Both lessons hit home.
Among us today a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.
This concentration is seriously impairing the economic effectiveness of private enterprise as a way of providing employment for labor and capital and as a way of assuring a more equitable distribution of income and earnings among the people of the nation as a whole.” 
― Franklin D. Roosevelt

Corrupt inequitable unsustainable economic system

Re; Letter writer’s mantra growing tiresome Jan 23/2014 MR Times Jan 23/2014

Talk about the pot calling the kettle black, Cherryl can hardly wait for that one person in the world that owns everything and everything in the world will be set right and Cherryl can worship him as a GOD and the trickle down will make the world into heaven. Well contrary to wacko philosophy here is the reality. 

This week, the world’s wealthy and powerful meet in Davos, Switzerland, for their annual talk fest and exchange of business cards. This year several panels have been organized around the theme of widening inequality – which has grown even more extreme since the Great Recession, both in the U.S. and around the world. As you probably know, the 400 richest Americans have more wealth than the bottom half of the American population combined – and since the “recovery” began in 2009, the wealthiest 1 percent have got 95 percent of the economic gains while the bottom 90 percent has become poorer. But the U.S. isn’t the only place where inequality is surging. A new report from Oxfam shows that the world’s richest 85 people now have the same amount of wealth ($1.7 trillion) as the bottom half the world's population combined (that’s 3.5 billion people). The world’s wealthiest 1 percent have $110 trillion, 65 times the total wealth of the bottom half of the world.

The right in the U.S. (and Cherryl of course) considers any mention of this sort of thing “class warfare,” motivated by envy. In reality, it's a growing threat to global capitalism. But what are the chances that the wealthy and powerful, meeting in Davos, will be motivated to do anything about it? 

In my humble opinion not much as there are to many like Cherryl who worship this corrupt inequitable, unsustainable economic system that is totally controlled by money and those that have to much of it.

If the shoe fit's wear it

Cherryl even your claimed saviour said Quote " It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. and you can add to that about another 16 percent of Canadians that should by rights also be tarred. If the shoe fit's wear it.