Leonard Cohen: The Stranger Song

You MUST Read this Comment

Hello David.

A small but horrifying story for you, just one of many that I see every week.

There are drug dealer(s) working out of the Lore Krill social housing complex on Cordova (between Abbott and Carrall). (This is hardly news.) Walking to work in the morning, I often see drug addicts queued up at the intercom, trying to get in to get their morning fix.

This morning two addicts, a man and a woman, were at the intercom. The woman had a baby carrier on her back, and, initially, I thought she had a toy doll in it. When its head listlessly lolled back, I realized it was a live baby. It was naked. It's raining, it's three degrees. A blanket is trailing behind the woman, trailing through the puddles and the dogshit and the filth that spreads out from the homeless encampment across from Army and Navy.

Having lived in the DTES for a number of years, I know better than to directly intervene with junkies, especially those that are jonesing for drugs. Verbal abuse is nothing to me now - over the years I have been assaulted, grabbed, followed and threatened. Fortunately two men were nearby, a construction worker and a postman, and they intervened while I walked on.

I didn't see what subsequently happened. So many things bothered me about this vignette. My own cowardice, to start - it disgusts me that my fear for my own well-being is greater than my fear for that baby. But I am also swamped by a sense of futility. What difference would it make to see that the baby was wrapped up in the filthy, wet blanket, when its life is being destroyed, in far more profound and appalling ways, by its junkie mother? Why bother calling the cops - the addicts would be gone by the time they arrived, and what could the cops do anyway?

Baloney Always has a Pungent Odor

Buried amidst all the nonsense flowing from the testimony of Ryan Baloney is the widely ignored or wholly accepted fact that he was lobbying governments to buy armaments - tanks and such.

This is an honorable activity for anyone? For a Prime Minister? The Arms Business? Why not sell guns on the street?

Baloney didn't write an invoice for all the cash he received and he didn't declare any income thereby or offer to pay taxes until many years later, by which time all records had been destroyed.

These aren't crimes according to Canada Revenue?

Hate Crimes

Jews are sub-human and worthy of the firing squad.

And, oh yes, the Holocaust didn't happen.

These are the contents of a new book called, "The Jews - The Whole Truth."

The author had now been sentenced by a court in Greece to 14 months in jail.

There are those among you who will still argue for freedom of speech in such instances.

What is it about 6 million dead people that you don't understand?

Send Mandatory release to the Scrap Heap. Do it Now

The authorities are debating whther or not we should do away with mandatory parole.

Duh?

Women Run From Premier

Labor Minister Olga Illich, the latest woman to say, "Enough!" to Gordon Campbell (Carole Taylor, Dr. Penny Ballem, Virginia Greene, Tamara Vrooman and Christy Clark) blew the whistle on the cost overruns at the Convention Centre expansion many months ago.

She also was lobbying vigorously to raise the minimum wage.

What does all this say about the Premier?

Social Condition Bad. You think?

The BC Progress Report rates our social condition as amongst the worst in Canada.

Of course, all that would be required of the legislators is that they walk 3 blocks off their usual paths to the heart of Victoria which is a living cesspool of inhumanity.

Minister Claude "I never Saw a Government Job I couldn't Milk for Meself" Richmond says that the government is doing a wonderful job closing the gap between the rich and the poor.

Hahahahaha....

Sport on the Ropes

As Jim Rome, one of my favorite talk show host's put it yesterday, "Everybody in sport wants an edge. They are fierce competitors, evrey athlete, every sport. Everybody is looking for an edge."

The Mitchell report indicts everyone equally -"Everybody in baseball — commissioners, club officials, the players’ association, players — shares responsibility."

What will happen? I have no idea.

But I know this - we are all saddened and angry. While I could care less about Mark McGuire or Barry Bonds, I was, like millions of others, a fan of Roger Clemens, who henceforth will be known as Mr. Butt.

The system itself - high stakes, high payoffs, outrageous sums of money on the table - make professional sport a natural breeeding ground for illegal drugs, gambling, game-fixing and scams the likes of which most of us cannot imagine.

Remember the next time you watch the NFL or MLB or the NBA or tennis or golf or soccer, you may be seeing only a small part of the story.

2 BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS 2

1. Sorry for not getting the blog to you this morning. There was some meltdown with the Shaw server and it just wouldn't work.

2. My Friday column in tomorrow's Province has been moved to Sunday for this week only!!!

I've never been fond of Ryan Baloney, but now I really am mad at him.

Because of Ryan's latest old and boring self-pointy-headed news, the paper is obliged to run a column from Back East tomorrow.

HOWEVER...get the Sunday Province for my second column. It's a goodie.

Sickening News

No. No. No. No. No.

This is the worst, most dreadful, most outrageously bad news I have read in a long, long time.

Crack pipe kits will be distributed for free to crackheads in Victoria, Nanaimo, Campbell Rive and Courtney by the Vancouver Island Health Authority.

NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO.

A sick researcher says that this is cheap and it does no harm.

?????????

DOES NO HARM????

I just spent an hour yesterday with two very wonderful and brave young women who are into their 4th and 6th months of recovery.

Why not give them garbage to keep them enslaved to drugs, you misguided horrible pigs?

Has nobody in the official world ever heard of an EXIT STRATEGY?

You don't give dope fiends dope toys, you murderers; you give them a hand that says, "Come with me to The Clean Life."

Oh, but wait, I forgot.

That takes time and effort. Real work. Often tedious and repetitive.

And it's so much easier to give people garbage, even though it ensures that the people themselves will continue to be garbage.

I really, actually almost fell out of my chair this morning when I read this shit.

PLease, please, PLEASE write your MLA and beg the government to kill this terrible, terrible plan.

The Force Behind the Mob Rule at YVR

The loudest voice in the mob scene at YVR on Monday was that of a convicted Sikh terrorist. Nagra was convicted on charges of bringing an extremist to Canada on someone else's passport. That man flew to Toronto shortly before the Air India bombing with the bombing's mastermind Parmar.

He is also the founder of the International Sikh Youth Federation, which has been banned in Canada.

So the entire mob scene was fomented by a full-time professional shit-disturber who is linked to terrorism and mass murder.

Read the whole story here. It is truly sickening.

The local Sikh community should be ashamed of itself for following the entreaties of such a man.

Jingle Balls

Mary Anne Watson is a Jewish mother on the Island, who has pulled her 5-year old son, Joshua from his local public school because it's wall-to-wall Christmas and there's no Hanukkah or rabbis or kugel.

"Mary Anne Watson" is Jewish? Well, that's another geshichta.

Since when are public schools in the religion business?

Since when have families counted on public schools to teach or enforce their religions?

I lived through umpteen years of Christmas Carols in public schools. My first acting assignment ever was as the voice of the Talking Christmas Tree when I was 5. I hid under Miss Prescott's desk (which provided a refreshing view of Miss Prescott) and recited my clever lines.

And guess what?

I am a Jew.

I am a proud Jew. Love being Jewish. Couldn't imagine my life any other way. Don't care if everybody sings Christmas songs till February. Often sing them myself. Have no belief in the divinity of Jesus. Still enjoy Christmas as a cultural staple.

Mary Anne - get a Jewish name and then get a life. Bring Josh up in a Jewish home and he'll be a lovely little mensch for sure.

Tina Turner

So Ike died.
Ike represents the worst in all of us, a serious failure of the human gift.
Tina is real story.
Marvel at her.

One for the Fifth Estate

Major kudos to Vaughn Palmer and to the power of the press in the latest turn in the case of the children's watchdog.

The Liberal government refused last week to give Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond the money she needs to do her job. They refused because she had the courage to reveal how inadequately we are serving the 15,000 children in our care.

Now, thanks to Palmer's column, they are about to reverse themselves.

They will meet again.

She will present her budget again, and they will approve it.

It's a shame when governments can only do the right thing after they are exposed for doing wrong.

It's a thing of beauty to see the press bring about such changes of heart - as if governments had heart.

Wally Does Something!!!

Attorney-General Wally Oppal has stopped acting for a moment - shaking hands, slapping backs, looking solemn when the occasion demands it - and actually ACTED. This is banner news, indeed.

As reported in this morning's Province, the AG has called for a second look at those hideously inadequate sentences for the pigs who put Michael Levy into a wheelchair and hell for the rest of his young life.

Here's the whole story:

Attorney-general orders review of sentences in Michael Levy case

Jack Keating, The ProvincePublished: Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Attorney-General Wally Oppal Tuesday ordered a review of the aggravated-assault sentences given two young offenders who attacked 18-year-old Michael Levy and left him a quadriplegic.

"I think when a person walks out of a courtroom and laughs at the judge's decision that maybe the judge didn't get the message to the particular offender," Oppal told Global News. "And in those circumstances, I think the sentence deserves to be reviewed."

Oppal was reacting to news footage that showed Tuan Minh Nguyen, 18, and his friends entering an elevator after his 20-month conditional sentence and then an outburst of laughter being heard when the door closed.

Michael Levy was left a quadriplegic after the attack

"I'm ecstatic," Deborah Levy, Michael's mother, said of the review announcement. "What they got, I thought, was totally unjust. There was no justification whatsoever."

Mike Farnworth, the NDP's justice critic for public safety, also called for Crown counsel "to very seriously consider an appeal" of the sentencing by Judge Kenneth Ball in Surrey Provincial Court

"Family members and the public are understandably outraged at the sentence," said Farnworth. "This was a brutal, senseless crime that very nearly resulted in a death."

Levy was attacked by at least three teens during a dance at the Tynehead Community Hall in Surrey on Oct. 28, 2006. He was punched, pepper sprayed, hit over the head with a bottle and hit in the back of the head with an axe, severing his spinal cord.

Nguyen admitted punching Levy and Robert Alexander Green, 18, was given a three-year sentence to be served at the youth custody centre in Burnaby for hitting the teen with a bottle.
The third teen, who wielded the axe, will be sentenced Jan. 23.

"They're laughing at what they got," said Deborah Levy. "They're laughing at their sentence. That is a slap in the face to us. To Michael and I. Also to the judge."

"These guys are straight cowards," said Michael Levy. "You can't get any worse than that."
jkeating@png.canwest.com

Who's the Turtle Now?

"To move forward, you have to stick your neck out, but it's nice to have a hard shell."

Words to live by.

For newspaper columnists, talk show hosts, bloggers and The Whistleblower of the Year, Gord McAdams.

After 34 years on the job and on the day of his retirement, the despicable creeps at the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management (???) changed the locks on his doors and told people not to come to his retirement party or to associate with him.

Who's their HR advisor?

For the whole story from this morning's Sun, click here.

Commentator Post

David,

I am offended to the core by the shameful behaviour by some members of the Sikh community.

This group of people has been welcomed into our country and communities in a way that no other country on earth has done. We have changed our pre-existing culture to ensure that the one they brought with them from their home country is accommodated.

The response of this group of people is to shout at us that we are all racists because our authorities applied Canadian law to a Sikh who had managed to smuggle himself into Canada under false pretenses.

They have called the Vancouver Sun, the Province (newspaper), CKNW, British Columbians and Canadians in general racists. It’s despicable.

The CBSA may well suffer from bureaucratic incompetence for not handling this differently, but I feel they are due some defense: They were deporting a man in a lawful and dignified manner.

If they had taken him into custody or had planned some undercover deportation can you imagine the outrageous would have leveled against them?Shame on them, and shame on us for allowing it.Maybe you have this week’s column.

AND WHAT'S MORE...

The headline in this morning's 24 Hours is:

"IT'S A BIG VICTORY"

For what?

Mob rule? Intimidation?

The protest at YVR wasn't about civil disobedience or reasonable protest. It was about preventing officers of the law from performing their sworn duties.

And this commentary is not about race, religion, color, customs or differences.

It is about respecting the laws of a sovereign state - Canada.

If those Canadian Border Service agents had proceeded out of the building and approached the taxi in which Mr. Singh was waiting, absolute chaos would have followed.

Perhaps that is to be expected in other cultures and communities, but it is not welcome in Canada. Just as people who sneak into the country using false documentation are not welcome.

That mob scene was a disgrace.

CULTURAL BLACKMAIL

Laibar Singh entered Canada illegally. He used false documents.

Canada is trying to send him back to India. Canada has the right and the obligation to do just that. End of story.

Canada has a very unattractive record when it comes to deporting people who break Canadian laws. Mr. Singh should go.

But Mr. Singh suffered a stroke since his illegal arrival in Canada and he is now a quadriplegic.

He is also a Sikh.

Yesterday, 2000 protesters prevented the Canadian Border Services agents from taking Mr. Singh from his taxi at YVR onto a waiting aircraft.

This isn't civil protest. It is cultural blackmail.

We won't vote for your government. We won't buy tickets on your airline. And we will riot in the streets and disrupt your daily affairs.

That would all be understandable if there were some important principle at stake here.

But the only "principle" is that Mr. Singh is one of us and therefore you are discriminating against us.

How false.

Mr. Singh is a criminal. he broke the law on day one.

The Sikh community should think more of itself and be proud to be law-respecting Canadians. They should deliver Mr. Singh to the plane themselves.

The Crime Blotter

One needs a separate blog just to cover the criminal cases.

1. Michael Levy is a quadriplegic. He became a quadriplegic because 3 horrible out-of-control pig-people attacked him at a party. They were given slight sentences, even though they were tried as adults.

Shame on the judge once again.

2. Conrad Black has been sentenced to 6 1/2 years. He will appeal. Whatever the outcome, one can only marvel at this story. The most arrogant, successful, wealthy fellow imaginable stumbling to this place in life. No doubt the books and screen play are being written as we speak. Oh, I forgot, the writers are on strike.

3. Bagri, charged and acquitted in the Air India murders, made a speech calling for the murders of 50,000 Hindus. For this act of inciting hatred at the very worst and most obvious level he was and will never be charged. I suppose we just wait about like good friendly Canadians for the next bomb.

4. Larry O'Brien is the mayor of Ottawa. He has been charged with 2 criminal counts. He and his city council are so clueless, they are not sure what to do now. After all, innocent until proven guilty, right? Wrong. He is a public servant, the mayor of Canada's capital city. He must step aside until this dark cloud is lifted or resolved. Who, besides the mayor and his council, didn't know that?

5. A Newfoundland doctor, found guilty of drug and sex charges involving his patients, has lowered the bar even on scum like himself. Not only was he blackmailing his patients into providing sexual favors in exchange for perscriptions and sharing in the scripts himself, but hitting a new low for creep behavior, he would - hold onto your seat, now - pick patients up after their Narcotics Anonymous meetings so he could give them more narcotics.

6. Four pm at 41st and Knight and a guy is trading gunfire with the police. Welcome to Kansas.