Clarity

It was sad to see Tim Shields, the local RCMP spokesman, hiding behind a false claim on the supper hour news last night.

"Privacy."

That's the mantra being used by the police these days when they want to excuse not letting people see what they have done.

They want to protect the privacy of the guy who died in their care.

Right.

Clayton Alvin Willey died of a heart attack in 2003 several hours after police knocked him to the ground, hog-tied him, kicked him in the chest, pepper sprayed him and used a taser on him repeatedly.

What the RCMP is doing in cases like this - and there are far too many in recent days - is misusing some one's right to privacy to shield themselves from investigation.

According to all reports, Mr. Willey, no matter how restrained or injured he was, just kept on fighting.

Now, I have seen such situations and they are not pretty and I can understand the police trying to do their job.

But the police have to understand that they must be clear and transparent and accountable to the citizens for whom they work and who they try every day to serve.

Show the evidence, gentlemen, and man up.

Celebrity

Yesterday, Oprah's guest was Sarah Palin.

Today, a porn star.

Palin is everywhere these days. She had a "book published."

I put that phrase in quotes because it will be hard to imagine anything coming from this idiot as resembling a book, or that someone other than a horse trader bothered to publish it.

Did I mention that Sarah Palin is an idiot?

She is also dangerous.

The fact that half the population of the U.S. takes anything coming from Palin's tiny corner seriously is frightening.

This woman has never had a thought that wasn't lonely. She functions in cliches and shop-worn non-ideologies.

She is ignorant of most of the world.

Of course, Bush didn't have a passport until he was elected President.

How many ways can the central idea of democracy be misunderstood?

Even Better Quote of the Day

It wasn't love that was visiting Calgary last weekend.

Swastikas and slogans including “kill Jews” and “6 million more” were spray-painted on a Holocaust War Memorial, the Calgary Jewish Centre and mailboxes, signs and fences in the southwest neighbourhoods of Pump Hill and Woodbine overnight Saturday.

Now the local police have to decide if these are hate crimes.

Hm...touch one.

Well, let's give them a little hint,

It ain't an MGM musical, kids.

However, the best response came from Stephen Harper:

“Anti-Semitism is a disease of the soul; its odious manifestations, in any form and however rare, can never be tolerated in Canada.”

Quote of the Day

In the ridiculous mock war between the TV boredcasters and the cable and satellite exhibitors, the simple issue has always been who gets to haul in more consumer dollars.

Now that they are facing the CRTC, it is marvelous to hear the CTRC chairman, Konrad von Finckenstein lambaste both sides for their histrionics.

“I don't know why you two don't realize it's in your long-run interests to come to some solution – rather than scaring the daylights out of Canadians.”

911 for the 911

It is not often that I feel the direct impact of a labour dispute.

But the current struggle between Ambulance drivers and paramedics and the B.C. Government has me a little worried.

It was only a few months ago that I dialled 911.

Within minutes, the whole gang was in my kitchen, and only a few minutes later, I was in a bed at VGH.

The response from these dedicated and knowledgeable workers was terrific.

Now, as they have been legislated back to work, they are running a series of work stoppages that has severely limited the number of vehicles and personnel on the road.

The public is being urged to call 911 only in the most dire emergencies.

The first thing that tells me is that in ordinary practice many people are calling for ambulance services when they should not.

If people are being told to visit a walk-in clinic or their local bones, they must be casually using 911 frivolously.

This is not something I had ever before considered, but why should I be surprised?

Now...

If anybody, any worker or group of workers is fighting with the B.C. Government about almost anything, my natural sympathies will lie immediately with the workers.

And so in this case, I support the paramedics pleas for a better contract. They do great, life-saving work and they should be appropriately compensated.

I just wish they could find a way to drive home their arguments without scaring the living beejazus outta me.

The Prize

As proof positive that the world is completely mad, we offer some recently announced and conferred awards:

1. Martin Scorsese will be honored with the Cecil B DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Golden Globes next year.

It is true that Scorsese made Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, two brilliant iconic movies.

And then?

The aptly named "The Departed" won the Best Picture Oscar. I departed the movie theatre with 40 minutes left to run. Months later, I asked a group of people who were standing around talking about it (Why?) who killed whom at the end.

The answer was, "Everybody."

If that wasn't the most execrable movie ever made, then certainly "Gangs of New York" was. I walked out of that just after Daniel Day Lewis threw an axe into someone's back.

Scorsese is obsessed with bloody violence and macho posing.

He is absolutely a fine craftsman and knows film as well as anybody ever has.

The Howard Hughes bio? Yawn, goodnight.

Unfortunately, he makes unwatchable drivel.

2. The man who was drug czar for the City of Vancouver is being given an award from a delusional group in the Excited States. They feel that this creep, who helped create and open Insite and has openly said repeatedly that "treatment doesn't work," has put Vancouver right at the apex of leadership in responding to drug issues.

These geniuses should try living here for five minutes.

They are also awarding the nutty German psychiatrist at UBC who is giving a handful of heroin addicts free heroin. Cost about $8,000,000 a year. Nuff said.

3. And then, of course, there is the dullest bore in broadcasting who was recently given a Lifetime Achievement Award for reading off his question sheet and never looking at his guests. Hahahaha...

By the way, one of the stations that still pays His Dullness has recently fired one of its longest running and popular hosts to accept $100,000 a year in fees from a rival broadcaster to air programs on their own home signal. Possibly a first in the history of broadcasting and the clearest possible example of living by the Bottom Line.

Who knew that the Bottom was so far down?

'Tis Wonderland, kids.

Whole Lotta Sheikhin' Goin' On

Can a war criminal or terrorist or soldier be tried in a civilian court?

Should he?

Can such person get "a fair trial?"

Can justice - whatever that may be - be served?

How?

Can the confession of a man who has been tortured be believed or accepted.

These are big questions and they are all thrown on the table as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and friends are brought to New York City to face charges on killing more than 3,000 people in one horrible moment, now known a 9/11.

Every paper in the world has covered this story today.

The Globe and Mail's is as good as any other, I suppose.

Read it, and tell us what you think of this.

Simple "off with his head" comments won't cut it, so to speak...

Speaking Out

British novelist, Martin Amis, has become a lightening rod in recent months cheering for feminism and jeering against radical Islam.

His interview with Margaret Wente is a tiny gem.

One quick great quote:

" We have also infantilized ourselves with a whole generation of relativism."

Half an hour of driving your car in the city can pretty well confirm that observation.

Dopes

According to a new item in this morning's Globe, Canadians are setting new records.

At using and abusing pain killers and other prescription drugs.

Half a million doses a day.

Nice.

And just to complicate matters, the geniuses who respond to these problems are sending such addicts to...wait for it...yes, methadone clinics.

So they can get even more addicted.

Sweet.

The culprits in this epidemic are Big Pharma and your local family doctor.

The drug companies are no different than GM, only way more ruthless.

And your local MD is a lazy, thoughtless ass, who is constrained by system payments to give you exactly six and a half minutes per visit.

Remember,

You must be your first and own best advisor.

Doctors will be of enormous help...if first, you are responsible and intelligent about your own care.

Om & The Bottom Line

Do you believe everything?

An article in the morning press is titled "Raising Spirituality in the Workplace."

You think that's funny?

The leaders in this movement are Telus and the Bank of Montreal.

Hahahaha...

I have a rabbi friend who teaches a regular class in "Business Ethics."

Every time he mentions this, I say, "Rabbi, please. With all due respect, stop pulling my chain."

Local Motion

The Save Local TV campaign by Canada's major broadcasters is, of course, a farce of the cheapest order.

The broadcasters and the cable and satellite companies will lock horns this coming week in Gatineau, Quebec in front of that most discerning of audiences, the CRTC.

Lord help us.

Three such august groups.

In the late 70's, I worked at CBC Vancouver for a brief year.

I was a story editor on the supper hour newscast, known as Hourglass. I wrote and performed comedy sketches for several TV shows, I read the news and hosted a Saturday and Sunday morning music show on radio. And sometimes I scrubbed down the hallway.

In those days, that concrete bunker on Hamilton and Georgia was the equivalent of a small MGM, studio after studio producing local and national product of every kind. The costume and make-up rooms were huge and always busy.

How can CTV, Global or CBC lay any claim today to "local TV?"

This is and will be entirely a fight for free taxpayer dollars from an industry that has outlived its own business model.

Move on.

Next!

Continuing a Theme

Correctness Uber Alles

I must be showing my true colors.

Two stories with similar trajectories have got my morning goat.

1. An Islamic radical is shot and killed by the FBI in America. Days later, two Canadian associates are arrested in their homes by Windsor police.

But wouldn't you know it, those gnarly officers patted down a number of people during the arrest, including, stand back, a female relative of the suspects.

As these things go, the Windsor Police Chief has now made a formal and public apology and set up new officer "sensitivity" training in conjunction with the local Islamic Association.

Write your own commentary.

2. People bring their relatives to Canada under the family class program. Many of these reunifications work out just fine for all concerned.

But many of theses relatives are quickly and mysteriously destitute. They are suddenly on the dole and the relatives who sponsored them and swore that they would support them so I don't have to now claim they cannot.

The Ontario government has asked that some of these monies be repayed by people who promised in the first instance to do exactly that.

But, no.

Now, these people have sued the Ontario government and thanks to Ontario courts, they have won. Ontario cannot ask to be repayed, at least en masse. The government must pursue each niggly case on its own.

The key element here is that the sponsors have claimed that circumstances - ill health, for example - have made it impossible for them to honor their commitments.

I suggest that they are liars.

I suggest that Canada is known with great good humour in Third World countries as a famous patsy. That we are soft in the head and softer in the heart.

Why not demand a surety or some other bond that can be called in if necessary?

Shhhh...

There many things in the affairs of man that I don't understand.

Here is one.

A fire destroys five businesses at Main and Broadway.

O.K.

That's news.

I'll see it on the 6 o'clock, I'll read about in the paper the next morning. O.K. I get it.

But why do we seek out and print the opinions of politicians?

It's a fire.

What have that gadfly, Jim Green, and that councillor Geoff Meggs got to do with this? What light can these two spotlight seekers shed on a fire?

Unless you're wearing a helmet and a fire-retardant suit, asbestos you shut the f up.

Victor's Got a Burning Torch

I am not anti-Olympics but I am really bored with the torch stories.
If we have to endure this for another 100 days how about some edgy
torch stories. How about these?

At a Prince George strip bar, 12 guys standing at urinals pass the
torch to each other.

In Vancouver's downtown east side, 15 crack addicts race shopping
carts while lighting crack pipes with the torch.

At a Winnipeg WalMart, 9 obese shoppers pas the torch while sitting
and eating nachos.

At Kingston penitentiary, 5 inmates pass the torch while getting
manicures and massages.

At Toronto airport, 137 illegal immigrants launch a class action suit
for not getting a chance to run the torch. [Hahahaha...editorial comment...this is my favorite...hahaha]

In Ottawa, caregivers carry the torch past 8 sleeping Senators
debating a crime bill.

In Victoria, the torch extinguishes suddenly and the Liberals blame
the Glen Clark government.

In Oshawa, 14 auto workers on their third one hour break, pass a zippo
lighter and demand a bonus.


Add your own.

September Song

Lately it seems that every restaurant and cafe I'm in seems to be playing Sinatra.

This is hardly a complaint. I am grateful.

These days, I find myself marvelling again and again at just how good, how great he was.

Totally committed to every note and every nuance of meaning.

Here is one of the first songs I ever learned.

My mother who favoured Chopin etudes and little Mozart piece on the upright piano in our living room loved this Kurt Weill Maxwell Anderson tune, and I would rock back and forth on the sofa while she played it.

It is not "embedded" on YouTube, but here is the link.

Enjoy at the deepest possible level....Sink into it. Swim in it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wte1uk4A5eU

Checkmate

A zero sum game is being played out on the world stage and that mediocre actor, Stephen Harper is in the middle of it all.

Canada needs business.

India needs nuclear power.

Without doing trade with Indian and China, Canada will continue its role as the world's nicest B movie.

India and Pakistan, sworn bordering enemies, both have nuclear weapons.

John Ibbotson has an excellent look at this frightening and very real dilemma in this morning's Globe.

Hail The Taxi!

The news that Tarnsclunk will increase the fare (ever so slightly) on the new Canada Line to YVR can only be a boon for the struggling taxi industry.

Now, if only you could flag a cab down in rush hour...

South Granville Struggles

For those interested in the plight and fortunes of small business in Vancouver, yesterday's cover story in the Courier will be an eye-opener.

So far, 16 businesses in the neighbourhood between the Granville Bridge and West 16th Avenue have closed this year.

High rents and even higher city taxes will do it every time.

Two inevitable consequences follow.

Empty stores and the ultimate arrival of Big Chains, which rob neighbourhoods of any semblance of individuality. Think Robson Strasse of several decades back to Robson today of the Gap, Banana Republic, and Roots . A big yawn if you're not a tourist in a group from Japan.

The Stanley Theatre (Arts Club) continues to be a major and important anchor and draw for the street, and while their work isn't entirely my cup of tea, they are a boon for everybody - actors, singers, directors, musicians, writers, shop owners, audiences and shoppers.

Has anyone considered adding some competition?

Daily Drug Bulletin

1. You must read Mark Hasiuk's wonderfully funny editorial in yesterday's Courier.

Spurred on by the announcement of a "safe" crack smoking room, Hasiuk offers a few original initiatives of his own.

This reminds me of the very large public meeting about 40 years ago when I announced with a straight face that three levels of government had entered into an agreement with Ford Motors of Canada to keep a lot in Steveston fully stocked with new cars. The catch was that the keys would be left in the ignitions and that car thieves were allowed only one theft a day.

At least half the mural stared at me in complete baffled belief.

2. By now you have probably heard or read that former Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan has scored more money for his various nutty programs. About half a million. Dollars, that is. His ideas are about seven.

When asked about his continuing plan to give substitute opiates to addicts, Sullivan admitted that he didn't really have a structure or a team or an office but that this would help him nicely survive the cold winter months.

Proud of you, Buddy!