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.