AN OPEN LETTER TO CASH HEED

Dear Kash,

With due respect, what in the devil's name are you doing?

Until I am shown otherwise, I will continue to believe that you are a good cop and sometimes a great cop.

I don't know if you've noticed lately, Kash, but we are in dire need of good and great law enforcement people these days.

We don't need new politicians, Kash. We need good cops, effective cops, honest cops, dedicated cops. Like you.

If all this swirl is true, if in fact you are going to be running for election in May with Gordon Campbell's Liberals, all I can ask is, "Why?"

What could you possibly expect to accomplish, even if elected?

You'll get elected and Gordon will make you Attorney-G or Solicitor-G? Is that it?

I hate to be crude, but...is money involved? Rewards of some kind, other than the vanity of public office? I would hate to think so, and until shown otherwise, I don't think so. But, as you can see, I am not very bright and I am struggling to understand why a man who can so effectively serve the public in an honorable way would turn to the Most Rotten Show in Town.

Has someone convinced you that you have a shot at being Canada's first Indo-Canadian Prime Minister? Barack did it, so you can too, the time is ripe...is that what people are whispering in your ear?

Maybe so. Maybe they are right.

And that would be exciting and yes, worthwhile.

But the distance from Vancouver-Fraserview to Ottawa is many many millions of light years, fraught with monumental perils along the way. One wrong move and you're toast, Kash.

All I can see at this point is that, at a time of public fear and distrust in our constabulary and increasing crime and decreasing criminal justice, we are losing an excellent policeman and possibly gaining another bullshitting politician. Just what we don't need.

Say it isn't true.

Housing Priorities

Here is the John Doyle,British Columbia's Auditor-General:

"Government has not been successful in reducing homelessness. We found that the government does not have a comprehensive plan for addressing homelessness. Government's goals and objectives are ill-defined and it has no overall measure or target for homelessness."

But Rich Cold Man differs.

Gosh.

Whom are we to believe?

Finally, I see some good coming from the Big Stupid Ski Party.

Victoria, embarrassed as it should be by its complete disregard for people with whom it is not in business, is now looking at building real and new social housing. It is asking the federal government to contribute hundreds of millions to that goal.

If any of this comes to pass, the Great Vancouver Luge-In will have been worth it.

I'm Salutin' You

Rick Salutin argues in the Globe this morning that ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK playing at a Canadian University near you right now is not anti-Semitic.

"Israel is now a state among nations and must be held to account, not absolved for fear of igniting a new Holocaust. Israel Apartheid Week should be gauged on its critique of its subject, not anathematized due to shadows and terrors from another time," he concludes.

Of course, this is an old writer's ploy.

I am the bravest and most fair person on earth because I can write truthfully and openly about legitimate criticism and everyone knows I am a good guy and would never harm a fly.

Right.

So, students breaking down the glass doors of Hillel House of York University recently, while screaming, "You filthy fucking Jews!" How does Mr. Salutin explain that?

He doesn't, because he cannot.

Israel is a sovereign nation and it is open to criticism as much as Canada or Vietnam.

But so much of this annual campus hate fest called ISRAELI APARTHEID WEEK is Jew-hating and it should be clearly seen for what it is.

To apologize for this in a national newspaper is too clever by half.