Her Day in Court - Why is this Necessary?

Hi David

I just came back from another pre-trial hearing regarding my legal action for compensation for businesses losses due to the RAV debacle. Me, and my lawyer - them and their 6 lawyers. Who knows how much money they have spent to fight me, instead of giving compensation.

We have another hearing on November 7th and 8th where the bullies will try to have my case dismissed.

Thanks for your interest in this just cause for compensation. I will keep you posted on next steps.

Regards
Susan

Susan Continues Her Assault on the Canada Line Juggernaut

The EditorProvince - Small Business Week feature - October 16/07Abby Palmer - "Growing her Business"

Abby really is a wonderful example of the kind of entrepreneurial spiritthat it takes to be successful. She's energetic, thoughtful, creative,determined and she did her homework.

That said, we would not be celebrating the success of her business had shestill been in her location on Cambie Street. All around where her shop was,are empty stores and struggling family run businesses. The RAV/Canada Lineand every level of government neglected to do their homework and factoradequate compensation into their business plan, to ensure that the smallbusinesses would survive this unprecedented hardship.All mitigation has clearly failed, and after two years of construction manyfamilies are in financial crisis as a result.

It is outrageous that we areexpected to bear this unfair burden, and are being forced into businessfailure by the Province of BC and this several billion dollar governmentdriven project.

The best laid plans, and decades of hard work are now in jeopardy for hundreds of people, as the ripple effect of business losses reach not justowners, but employees and suppliers, and the residents as well.The Province indeed should be celebrating the successes of the smallbusiness community as we represent 98 percent of all business in theprovince, and have made a major contribution to the 4 billion dollar surplusthis year. And they are showing their appreciation by destroying thelivelihoods of the small independant shops that line their RAV/Canada Lineroute by refusing to take responsibility for the consequenses of thisconstruction. If this can happen in our neighbourhood, it can happen to anysmall business anywhere in the province. This is wrong and must be maderight.These families and all small businesses deserve better than bankruptcy.

Compensation is the right thing to do.

Susan Heyes Hazel&Co

Danielle de Niese: Handel Arias

Hello!

Victor Finds the "CON" in Conservative...and uncovers POLENTA POLITICS!

It is sad, although not surprising, to read in today's Globe, a story stipulating that the Conservatives have a strategy to woo the urban ethnic groups in Canada.

For three decades, the Liberals have been the five dollar political whore in Canada's multicultural brothel. They would say anything, promise anything, to fill school buses with bovine voters from various ethnic halls, temples and churches.

Now the conservatives have discovered that there is voter gold in those hyphenated-Canadian hills.

So here is my question. Will the Conservative promises in Urdu, Hindi, Farsi etc. be the same as the promises in English/French. We already know that the Libs would sell their souls for a cabbage roll or shawarma.

Now, the PCs have officially embraced polenta politics.

They will, like the furtive John, pay a quick visit, love awkwardly, leave money on the bedside table, and stumble on to the next ethnic bedroom, trying to pull on their blue pants over their conservative brown shoes.

The Real News is Alarming...and Essential

Regular commentor "Murdock" has alerted us to therealnews. com and in particular a frightening story about the CIA. This story also carries back to Canada and the Arar case.

Check it out. It includes a first-rate video cast.

Pseudo-Science Strikes Again

The trouble with most so-called "studies" is that they tell us what we already knew ages ago. Money not well spent.

Yesterday, I was singularly depressed by a TV commercial for a van.

The commercial shows a "family" all piling into the van and each person disappearing up their own asshole playing with a different electronic device. One boy is on his X-Box, two kids are playing some other thing, mom is on her computer, dad is driving and watching a movie. Everybody is having a grand old time. The van gets to a spectacular cliff overlooking a beautiful sunset-draped beach. Everybody continues playing with their toys.

This is, apparently, the groovy new family configuration. Great.

So this morning the Vanier Insitute for the Family announces with front page fanfare that "Family Time is Losing out to Technology." Apparently, they have discovered that people "can be isolated even when under the same roof."

Brilliant.

Why the study? Why the announcement?

All they had to do was ask the ad agencies. Or you and me.

7-Eleven Model for the Homeless Exposed

Bev Meslo, writing in the Letters to the Editor, today, absolutely nails it on the subject of Campbell and Coleman's cynical shelter money.

She calls it the "7-Eleven" model.

Read the letter.

Graham Bruce is Guilty of breaking the Rules

Graham Bruce was the BC Labour Minister.

Now he is a lobbyist.

It is not credible or acceptable that he claim he didn't know he had to register as a lobbyist. This is sheer arrogance and lies.

Shut the man down.

I Hate Your Team. I Sabatoge Your Bus

Hockey is so serious in the Hinterland that people cut the brake lines on a team bus???

Oh, yah, the backwoods are a great place to raise kids.

If you missed this story, you're in luck. Here it is.

Air Canada & WestJet should be grounded until, they GROW UP

The Conference Board of Canada is trying to get a handle on CO2 emissions.

But Air Canada and WestJest have both refused to disclose information on what kind of imprint heir little enterprises are making on the environment.

Now, that's great Corporate Citizenship.

I'm Sorry, Your Policy Has Been cancelled Due to High Winds

Are you familiar with the many insurance companies that have gone broke?

No, of course not. Maybe you're more familiar with the Insurance Companies, who, like, banks, have marble floors and 40 foot ceilings and towering towers.

Well, check out the latest from the Excited States, where it is now becoming commonplace for major insurers to cancel people home coverage for fear of catastrophe like hurricanes.

This is the best example of the dry rotten underbelly of Corporate Thinking I've seen in a long time.

Victor Nails It Again - for the common good

A certain bloated talk show host is waxing troubled because city employees took other jobs during the strike. The same bloated talk show host has a morning radio show, does the nightly tv news and writes a magazine column while young journalism grads are working at Tim Hortons for lack of jobs.
Victor

Taser Death - An Unexplained Epidemic

The taser death at YVR raises some serious questions. Pardon my cynicism if I don't expect many useful answers.

The simple fact is that, across North America, "death by taser" has become almost commonplace. Jurisdiction after jurisdiction show the same results. Police attempt to subdue some fool who is "out of control," and not long after the sorry soul is dead.

Why? Is it the taser shock(s) itself? Is it the way the suspect is pinned against the floor or otherwise confined?

I don't know. But will you and I ever know?

America, the Has Been

In the August 27th edition of the New Yorker Magazine, in house writer Adam Gopnik, who spent many years living in Paris and writing about France contributed an excellent piece on Nicolas Sarkozy, the current President.

That article is worth reading entirely on its own merit. But it is especially revealing in its final paragraphs, where Gopnik comments on the current view held Europeans of America.

He argues with calm persuasion that the old days of loving (Blair) or hating (Chirac) the USA are over.

Rather, he suggests that America has fatally shot itself in the foot on so many fronts (economic, political, cultural) that Europeans by and large just don't care any more. They look to China and Arabia and India for financial interests and elsewhere for almost everything else. In short, America is not the power it was even 10 years ago, or five, and that may be a good thing.

He also higjlights the dreadful experience that most everyone who is not a US citizen now has when arriving at JFK, an experience that seems to be echoing here at YVR. The assumption that if you are not a National, there is a high likelihood that you are a terrorist.

The whole article is available here.

Brady Uber Alles

While the extraordinary run of the Colorado Rockies is compelling - especially for local fans with 20-year old Jeff Francis, a UBC physics grad pitching strikeouts - the hottest game in ages was yesterday afternoon's drubbing of the hated Dallas Cowboys by the New England Patriots.

Brady and his front line and his rejuvenated core of receivers were sensational.

The final score, 48-27, doesn't really indicate how thorough was this pasting. It could have been 92-12.

The shame will be at the end of the season when the two best teams in football, New England and Indianapolis and the two premier quarterbacks of this era, Brady and Peyton Manning, slug it out for the AFC title, the winner going on to bury whoever is the NFC sacrificial goat.

The NY Times full coverage can be enjoyed here.

Boogie Woogie Piano

Aretha Franklin - Don't Play That Song For Me

Oh Boy! Oh Boy!

Patti Page 1981 -- Tennessee Waltz

And So It Goes

Great Billy Joel Anthem

Elvis Costello - Veronica