BAH HUMBUG

Some mornings I just don't have the stomach for it...

So here, in no particular order of merit or importance, are the day's stories and my grizzled reactions:

* IGGY POPS. Denis Coderre steps away from the Ig Camp, saying "If you want to have what you want in Quebec, all you have to do is short-circuit the party's Quebec authorities by talking to the leader's inner circle in Toronto,” Then, he adds that he is still supporting the Ig. So for the moment, Iggy is revealed to be a naif at politics even within his own toy soldiers.

Will this harm the man in the long run? Probably not.

Which leads us to the question What did Jack Claypot get for his support of Harper? What did the country get?

Nothing that I can see.

* Two low-level drug clowns from Kamloops are living in Puerta Vallarta with no known means of support. They have a Benz, a Hummer and a Ford pickup parked outside their condo. Bad guys execute them.

Moral of the story?

Low-level drug clowns from Kamloops are probably ill-advised to mess with the Mexican drug cartels.

* A man drugged and raped a 13-year old girl. After serving 42 days in a prison for psychiatric evaluation, the man flew to England and then France. Now, many years later, the American government have arrested him in Switzerland, and plan to bring him back stateside to face the music he began low those many years ago.

Oh, the man is famous.

His name is Roman Polanski and he makes movies, often memorable movies.

What if he was Michelangelo or Beethoven? What if he was Bill Smith or Sam Jones?

Here is what Mr. Polanski must do.

He must go back to California and shut up and deal with whatever may follow. Most likely, it will all be horrible as an experience, but, given that he can afford wonderful legal advice, his legal punishment will probably be not especially severe.

* The Dominion Hotel has been refurbished and now houses 63 poor people, some of whom are cleaned up addicts, some of whom are using drug addicts.

The folks trying to run businesses on the street level are complaining.

The new tenants, they say, toss food and syringes out the windows. They leave shopping carts outside the building and spit on the sidewalk. A clothing store owner said she watched a man beat up his girlfriend on the sidewalk outside her shop.

I mention this because almost daily I watch the new housing project for addicts and the mentally ill going up at 16th and Dunbar.

I welcome programs that work, run by people who know how to run programs. And yes, I welcome them next door to me.

But programs run by politically motivated and ignorant governments are not welcome in my neighbourhood.

I think the folks at 16th and Dunbar have much to look forward to - and most of it will be disgusting.

* Glenn Beck is on the cover of Time magazine.

I stopped reading Time magazine when I was eleven and realized that I was reading the weekly status quo report.

I've seen Beck exactly once and dismissed him for the buffoon that he is.

In Mr. Beck's view of the world, Mr. Obama doesn't like white people very much and is conspiring to turn the United States into socialist state. Mr. Beck sees this plot lurking behind nearly everything Washington does - the bailouts, the stimulus package, the push for health care reform and the roster of "czars" working at the White House.

All of which has made him a huge success. Radio and TV talk shows, books, T-shirts, stand-up.

Having recovered from drug and alcohol abuse, Beck is now a Mormon.

Is it part of Mormon teaching to be consistently cruel and rude and incendiary and inflammatory and remarkably close to a public menace?

No.

But it is THE essential part of the American dream to be "successful" at almost any cost.

* Most days I walk past the homeless and turn my eyes away. Occasionally, with no particular rhyme or reason, I stop and chat and give someone a couple of bucks.

Yesterday, a bone-thin man with saggy pants was hawking roses at a traffic Island on Pacific Boulevard near the Science World.

The poor shall always be amongst you. I believe it was Jesus who said that.

But some days, life's cruelties are easier to absorb than others.

Bah Humbug.

Maybe tomorrow I'll offer some music.

ANNOUNCEMENT

In 1967, I became, by a serious of mysterious accidents, the Founder and Executive Director of the X-Kalay Foundation, a residential treatment centre for addicts, alcoholics, ex-cons and others.

We began here in Vancouver and Salt Spring Island, and in 1971 expanded to Winnipeg.

The X-Kalay Foundation Manitoba Inc., incorporated in 1971, has continued for over 35 years to flourish first at its original site in St. Norbert, Manitoba, near the University of Manitoba, and now with a satellite program for teen-age boys in Selkirk.

The Foundation has evolved through two name changes, and is now the Behavioural Health Foundation, about which I have written several times in recent weeks.

In a nation apparently dead set on counter-productive, expensive and harmful initiatives like free needles, free crack pipe kits, free heroin, methadone and places to shoot, the BHF, Canada's original, first and foremost therapeutic community stands out as a glorious sore thumb turning out clean and sober men and women every day.

I was invited recently by Jean Doucha, the executive Director of the BHF, to come to St. Norbert and speak to the resident clients, the staff, board of directors and invited guests.

My speech, given on the evening of Friday, August 28, 2009, was about The History of X-Kalay.

My goal was to try to give everyone a sense of our place on the time line of good rehabilitative work, past, present and future.

Frankly, I found my visit to the St. Norbert and Selkirk facilities of BHF and its 100 resident clients - my first in 30 years - overwhelming.

The experience was moving and profound.

The speech is now on YouTube, as well as on my website www.davidberner.com under the heading "Addictions Expert."

The speech, which begins below, is in 11 parts, each just under 10 minutes, running a total of 1 hour and 40 minutes.

If you get lost in the process, you can always go to my website where the speech runs continuously, or go back to YouTube and search "The History of X-Kalay."

This may not be for everyone, but if you go forth, I hope you will enjoy what you see and hear and that you will gain some insight into the arduous but rewarding work that is involved in real addict recovery programming.

THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT ADDICTIONS

NIMBLE NIMBY

Welcome Home has been trying to find a home of its own for several years now.

Part of the problem was that United Furniture magnate John Volken, a multimillionaire turned philanthropist, was not very clear at first about how his $50 Million program would actually work.

I should know.

I worked for him for a few months when he was trying to build the centre here in Vancouver on an excellent site he owned at Powell near Victoria Drive.

But he and his staff have come a long way since the City of Vancouver dithered and put up one pointless obstacle after another.

Here was a guy donating a ton of his own money to getting addicts clean and sober and the bureaucrats just kvetched and whined until Volken said, "Enough."

He hightailed it a few years ago to Surrey where the Best Mayor in Canada, Dianne Watts, welcomed Welcome Home and has since declared that it is a "fabulous program" which does "a lot of good work."

She is right.

And the 900 people in Newton who have signed the latest Not In My Back Yard petition to keep this program out are entirely wrong.

We need more and more programs that will turn out clean and sober citizens.

These programs can not be on the moon or on an ice flow, if there are any of those left.

These programs must be, as they often are, right next door to you and you don't even know it.

One important caveat:

If such programs are built and run by the government, you can bet your mortgage that they will be badly designed and run even worse. Protest those with all your righteous strength.

If such programs are designed and run by non-profits and /or by recovering addicts themselves, there is a mighty good chance that these folks know what they are doing and you will be safe in your bed.

Support those programs with all your righteous strength.

SUPERB, INSIGHTFUL INTERVIEW

Anthony Tommasini, an opera buff, has scored a real coup - a lengthy, thoughtful and quiet interview for the NY Times with Barbra Streisand about the mechanics and wellsprings of singing.

All of this is in anticipation of a new CD release. Streisand’s latest album, “Love Is the Answer,” will be released on Tuesday by Columbia.

It is produced by none other than Diana Krall.

Barbra is 67 and she's releasing new albums.

Why not?

Tony Bennett's been sending out great new material into his 80's.

Barbra & Bernstein - What could be better?

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"He's a very good Muslim...a very nice boy."

Hahahahahaha...

Usually this kind of irony comes from the neighbour of the mass-murderer after all the bodies are discovered in the backyard veggie patch.

But in this case, we are talking about Najibullah Zazi who has been charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction in the United States.

In short, he is a terrorist who took little study holidays to Pakistan to bone up on making and planting bombs that would kill many, many innocent people.

The quote, by the way, comes from his devoted Aunt.

Altogether now...

"If you knew Zazi like I know Zazi, Oh, Oh, Oh, what a guy...
None so classy, with such a chassis..."

THE CROWNING OF THE KING

Rick Mercer was some time ago anointed by the CBC.

The CBC does that.

Every so often they anoint some man or woman with their high stamp of approval. That person is subsequently given 101 chances to shine, 102 excusable failures, a permanent position in the Towers and a life pension.

Mansbridge, George Stanopopopopopopopulousishness.

Sometimes, as in the case of a guy I went to school with in Winnipeg, the blessed recipient is sent to Harvard Business School by the Corporation. Much of this is not made public.

Now, we are being encouraged to believe that Rick Mercer is the funniest person is Canada.

Mr. Mercer floats in zero gravity capsules and tries soccer and hockey and other past times.

Who is he supposed to be? Harold Lloyd? Buster Keaton?

He is not even remotely funny.

You know who's funny?

My son is funny.

I am funny.

Why haven't we been anointed by the CBC and been given what amounts to a Free Pass in life?

I know.

We have to suffer so we can grow.

Alright, already.

We've grown. We're elephantine.

Where's our Pass?

When's the coronation?

Will Rick Mercer be there with a cream pie?

The Impossible Made Beautiful

Ciao Baby

HOME VIOLENCE IS NOT IMPORTANT TO GORD

Social workers in BC receive one day of training - one day - on the issue of domestic violence.

One day.

In 2007 in Oak Bay, Peter Lee killed his wife Sunny, his six-year old, Christian, Sunny's parents and then himself.

Sunny Lee had appealed to the police and half a dozen social agencies about her husband's threats and increasing violence.

A social worker, assigned to the case at one point met with Sunny once.

Once.

The social worker was instructed to speak to Christian the little boy.

He or she did not.

Yet, he or she concluded that the boy was safe.

How? Why?

The boy was stabbed to death by his father.

Does this social worker still have a job?

If so, why?

Mary Pole-Axed is the Minister of Children and Family Development.

She says the government is doing just fine in these cases.

Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is BC's representative for Children and Youth.

She continues to be one of the best people we have in this country, speaking out courageously in defense of those who seem not able to defend themselves.

She is among many who have pointed to Gordon Campbell's cuts to domestic violence and child protection programs.

With what rationale can this dreadfully misguided politician feel that he is doing the right thing on any given day?

The Ministry of Children and Family Development has been a disgrace for at least a decade.

We have the highest rates of child poverty in the country. Supernatural, my ass.

We all know a simple truism.

If a guy's gonna kill someone, he'll kill someone.

But in this tragic case, dozens of people, not speaking to one another, not acting responsibly even in the shallowest ways, dropped the ball and an entire family has been murdered.

The care takers are not trained and they make lousy, deadly decisions.

The money is not there.

It could be tomorrow morning, if Gordon Campbell had a soul, instead of an ego.

BLACKBERRY NATION

Maybe staying in a fancy hotel in downtown Toronto and jetting about the country had something to do with it.

But certainly over the past several days I have felt myself to be distinct alien corn among a family of space creatures.

Elevators, breakfast rooms, airplane lounges and seats on planes, walking down the street and even being shown into the inner sanctum of a very expensive and trendy restaurant, the Blackberry Nation is out there loud and strong.

They never stop.

Click, click.

My son told me the extraordinary experience a few months ago of doing some voice over work for a radio commercial. The 20-something actress he was working with had to be told by the producer to stop texting while they were recording sound.

I pointed out to the lady next to me on the plane that we were supposed to turn off our cells during take-off. Hey, it's only my life versus her important message.

She smiled, as at a child whose understanding passeth nothing, and explained that she knew that "but I always wait until the last second before turning it off."

Good for you.

What is she? Head of National Security? A cardiologist on call?

No.

She sells real estate in a village not far from Toronto and she's on her way to Vancouver for a Century 21 conference.

Like, very urgent. Muy importante. Mucho, mucho...

The guy in the pin stripe suit being ushered into lunch at Bistro 990 (one of the official troughs for the Toronto International Film Festival - which is over, but that doesn't stop people from coming in with the expectation that George Clooney will still be there. No. I didn't eat there. I walked in to check out the dinner menu and decided that when I win the Lotto, I'll give it a try, with or without George Clooney.) was texting as he slid over the Persian carpets to his wing back chair.

May I say this?

Blackberry Nation.

I think you are all mad, stark raving mad.

Here's my suggestion.

Try walking down the street and actually experiencing the moment. Look at the shops at the people at the traffic. Have a thought. Quietly sing a favorite tune. Try for one blissful second to not be conquering the universe.

I know my entreaty is nonsense, the wishful thinking of a child or a withering old fool.

Blackberry Nation is here to stay.

You rule.

I can but mumble.

SHARING THE BOUNTY

Ah, Wally.

You've done it again.

Political mastermind, crime fighter, bungler.

The judge has tossed the Polygamy case against big jolly Winston Blackmore into the creek.

You'd be jolly too if you were shtupping 15-year old girls every day and getting away with it by calling them all your "wife."

But, Wally, you see, was told by one prosecutor after another to be quiet, that you couldn't possibly win this case.

So, Wally, undeterred, kept shopping around until he found a prosecutor who was willing to give it a go.

That declared BC Supreme Court Madame Justice Sunni Stromberg-Stein (I had to put all of that mouthful in because I know there's a joke just waiting to be written.) declared that such shopping expedition by our former glorious A-G was definitely out-of-bounds.

Thus the good goat and his many ewes and lambs can thrive happily ever after in the magical kingdom of Bountiful.

p.s. A question: Why are all the group wives always smiling beatifically. Is Blackmore that good? Is there some hallucinogenic in the local stream? Should I use "stream" in a post like this? Should I use "post?"

p.p.s. Last question: Why does Blackmore look exactly like a guy I used to work for in the recent past? Spooooky...

WE'RE WAITING...

Even the cops are now calling for an independent body to oversee and investigate police-related shootings, deaths and allegations against officers/

Duh?

How long does this government have to wait before it does the obvious and right thing?

You have the job now, Kash.

Step up to the plate.

Now.

JUSTICE

Soon it will be December 2009.

That will make it six years since the RCMP marched into the Provincial Legislature and seized boxes of documents from the office of Dave Basi and Bob Virk.

Six years.

This corruption trial will resume, with a new sitting judge, next week.

Pre-trail, that is.

Full trial may not happen for at least another year.

Justice delayed is justice denied, or so goes a saying.

What if PR man Patrick Kinsella is shown to have been working simultaneously for both BC Rail and the eventual buyer, CN Rail, as many suspect was the case?

What will that tell us about his good friend and often boss, one G. Campbell?

Stay tuned.

But don't hold your breath...

CANNON FODDER (or, Mudder)

Federal Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon is much in the news today.

Abousfian Abdelrazik is suing the government – and Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon personally – for $27-million over Canada's role in his arrest and alleged torture in Sudan and for violating his constitutional right to come home.

Mr. Abdelrazik, who spent nearly six years in prison or forced exile while his attempts to come home were thwarted, returned to Canada in June after Ottawa was ordered by a federal judge to repatriate the 47-year-old Sudanese-Canadian.

I have absolutely no idea if Mr. Abdelrazik has a legitimate case or not.

But I have long advocated that injured or aggrieved people sue government officials - whether parole board members or members of Parliament or receptionists in the dog catcher's office - so that officials will begin to take their responsibilities more seriously. Remember accountability?

On the other hand...

Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon led a Canadian walkout as Iran's president began speaking to the United Nations Wednesday night, a boycott that was followed by diplomats from the United States and other countries. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad then launched into a tirade against the United States, Israel, and Jews.

And for that, Cannon is to be roundly praised.

What is the UN thinking about? Yesterday they were treated to rambling rants by Ahmadinejad and Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, two criminal terrorist madmen.

Is the UN going out of its way to make itself even more irrelevant and clownish?

PETITION, FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

A petition and campaign has been initiated by the DTES Power of Women
group against the City of Vancouver, VANOC, RCMP, and VPD in their
attempts to change next year's historic and sacred Feb 14 March for
Murdered and Missing Women in order to ensure ‘flow of Olympic traffic’
down Hastings Street.

The Power of Women group is based in the DTES neighbourhood and its
membership is composed entirely of women living in poverty who have
experienced and survived sexual violence and mental, physical, spiritual,
and emotional abuse.

Please sign the online petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/feb14/petition.html


Text of petition:

It has been brought to our attention that the City of Vancouver, Olympic
officials, and the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit are trying to
change the historic Feb 14, 2010, March for Murdered and Missing Women in
order to ensure ‘flow of Olympic traffic’ down Hastings Street.

As residents of the DTES and supporters of the Memorial March, we
completely oppose any change in date, time, or route of the Memorial
March. This March has been happening for 18 years to honour our sisters
who die each year due to the violence of physical, mental, emotional and
spiritual abuse. It is something far more significant and sacred than the
Olympic Games, which has already increased poverty, homelessness, and
policing in our neighbourhood. The government is spending billions on a
circus, while putting people aside.

We, the women in the Downtown Eastside and our supporters, demand that:
• There be no attempts to change or control our Feb 14th Memorial March
• Not a single person be forcibly removed, evicted, or displaced from
their homes in the Downtown Eastside and any other community due to the
Olympics.

For more information or to obtain hard copies of the petition for your
organization, contact project@dewc.ca or call 604 681 8480 x 234.

THE CITY

Returning home after a four day visit to Toronto, I am struck once again how much that city is a City and my home town, Vancouver is not even close.

It's in the air.

There is incredible human energy all around you. Not all of it good, of course, but it is there.

The streets are loud and boisterous with cars and trucks and cabbies and people shouting and bikes (with almost no one wearing a helmet, by the way) and streetcars. Below ground the subways are busy at any time of day.

There are dozens of distinct neighbourhoods, each with its main "high street" of restaurants and shops. On a beautiful evening such as we had yesterday, everyone is strolling, whether they are off to a Greek or Italian or Chinese restaurant or simply taking their after-dinner-at-home passiagata.

The head offices are here and the Blackberry People are in large supply. The Masters of the Universe are all about you, conquering, conquering, conquering. In bars and cafes they are very loud and insistent about practically everything.

How people who have never read a book or sat still for ten minutes to listen to a piece of music are so full and sure of themselves is a baffler, but that's how they are.

There is no Downtown East Side.

Oh, there are poor and suffering for sure.

In the downtown core, the immense divide between the very rich and everybody else is painfully apparent. Most people are struggling. Young, old and in between, you can see the burdens of daily life on their faces. We are just surviving, just barely. A woman from Ethiopia engaged me in a conversation while we both waited far too long for a streetcar on Dundas. All her concerns were about unemployment ("Are there more jobs in Vancouver?"), rent, taxes and deductions. Just enough left for food.

The neighbourhoods are beautiful, but not in the way that Vancouver neighbourhoods are often beautiful. In Toronto, the attraction is in the dense packing together of the old, brick houses and the shops on the main streets, not, as in Vancouver, the trees and gardens.

The Art Gallery of Ontario with its new face-lift is imposing. It is a city block long and when you enter on what should be a quiet Tuesday afternoon, late in the day, thousands are milling about in groups and guided tours. The gift shop is on two floors and is much larger than many entire galleries.

This all proved too much for your weary blogger who had already taken the subway and the LRT to the Harbourfront and lunch at the Queen's Quay. I slipped across the traffic to a french cafe, got my cappuccino and oatmeal cookie, sat outside under an umbrella, took out my latest Philip Roth novel and found myself in traveler's heaven.

Later, I walked back to the hotel first through Chinatown and Spadina and then the U of T. In the evening, my old high school buddy drove us across the Don Valley Parking Lot to the Danforth for some wonderful Greek food.

Toronto can be demanding and exhausting, but it is truly a City.

Vancouver is my home and I love it, but let's be honest. It is a burgh, an adorable little hamlet by the sea. It isn't even remotely like what a City might be.

MORE STREET TALK

Should the homeless be allowed to risk life and limb by sleeping outside in cold weather?

Should we, the righteous, be allowed to intervene?

Do civil rights trump the preservation of life?

These are just a few of the questions being raised by the prospect of a new law in BC that would allow the police to take homeless people to shelters against their wills when the weather is miserable and life-threatening.

Somehow we must find a balance as a community between the extremes of a jackboot police state that is only concerned about cosmetics and a laizzez-faire do-nothing society that allows people to die in our streets in the name of freedom.

This is what I think.

Police and others should be encouraged to actively try to get homeless people into shelters as often as possible even when the weather is not particularly life threatening. If that makes police occasional social workers, so be it. Often, they are already being social workers and that's fine.

If a street person absolutely and resolutely refuses to move to an offered shelter, what are we supposed to do? Some would argue that we must act on that person's behalf and move him or her to safety against his or her will. He hasn't the clear mental capacity to make the decision for himself, goes the argument.

I would say that only in the rarest of instances should we use force and compel the move.

What are those rare cases?

I can't say.

But when it comes to life and death decisions, people on the front lines, like the police, make these choices quite often, usually unnoticed and unheralded.

I think the guiding principle should be encouragement, rather than law and force. And active, regular encouragement. Deliver the message on a daily basis that living on the street is not the best idea and that alternatives exist. If, in fact, they do exist.

If, on rare occasion, force or law is brought into a situation as a last resort, I will have o judge that moment when I see it.

DEFENDING THE SCARY

Canadian courts are continuing to do their level best at protecting the rights of criminals and terrorists.

Mohamed Harkat lives in Ottawa. He has been an al-Qaeda terrorism suspect since 2002, and, as such, under heavy surveillance by CSIS and other police forces.

Colin Freeze, writing in the Globe, calls this "extremely onerous house-arrest conditions."

I have a news flash for Mr. Freeze.

What is extremely onerous is that terrorism suspects are living next door to us, that what's onerous.

Now another wise judge has spoken, This one has decided that Harkat's years in custody and under surveillance have reduced the threat Harkat may once have posed to national security.

Really?

Clearly the good judge was not a fan of the Monkey's, who could have easily taught him that "I'm a believer," holds true for lovers and fanatics of many a stripe.