Suspicion

If nothing else, he lied to the border police.

He insisted that he had only $10,000 as he was trying to drive into Canada last month.

Turns out he had considerably more than that - about $900,000 in gold coins and other currencies.

He also had an odd and damning array of other goodies in his possession. Read the full story for all the details.

Khaled Nawaya is in custody and he is innocent of any charges until proven otherwise.

He may be the Danny Kaye of border crossers - a goofy naive dupe.

Or he may be a terrorist.

Being a pilot and a certified flying instructor trying to drive into Canada with a cargo of oddities doesn't help.

The border guards were justified in stopping Nawaya and the Canadian government is justified in holding on to him until all can rest assured that he is just a nice guy with peculiar tastes in memorabilia.

Disgrace

It seems to have become a new Canadian tradition.

Every year, just before November 11th, some bright light urinates on or topples a war monument.

This time it is Fredericton, where vandals have crashed part of a monument with names of those Canadian soldiers killed in wars.

Some of these acts of sheer stupidity or outright hatred can be assigned to drunks who care about nothing, for whom nothing ever was or ever will be honorable, let alone sacred.

But some are committed by misbegotten fools who believe that they are making a plea for peace.

Yes, we get it.

We all know war is hell and war is dreadful and we'd all like to sit in our gardens and sip tea.

We also know that wars are often fought for all of the wrong reasons and that millions have died needlessly.

None of those home truths however change the fact that those who have fought and died did their best to serve.

Honoring the dead is not approving of war.

Like any Canadian, I mourn the loss of any soldier's life in Afghanistan, even while decrying our very presence there.

The desecration of monuments to dead soldiers is about as detestable an act as can be imagined.

End of The Indian Act?

One of the most costly and deadliest pieces of legislation to ever disgrace this country has been the Indian Act.

Billions and billions of dollars have disappeared, mismanaged by a Department filled with incompetence and bad intentions and handed over to people who have continued to despise the landlords who feed them so badly.

Now a sign of a New Day.

A delegation of the Gitxsan people from northwest British Columbia is set to meet with Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl next month with a groundbreaking proposal: That the 13,000 members of their tribe be allowed to abandon their status as "Indians."

The group is willing to relinquish reserves, tax exemptions, Indian Act housing and financial supports in exchange for a share of resources. Unlike most contemporary efforts at treaty-making, it would also abandon the ambition of a separate level of government.

This is the most exciting and refreshing news I have seen in many years.

Think about this.

A group of Canadian aboriginals says we will forgo reserves and we will vote on general elections and will pay taxes and be like all other Canadians in governnance and law.

The first nation's treaty team, led by hereditary chiefs, proposes the Gitxsan would become regular, enfranchised Canadian citizens, governed by municipal, provincial and federal governments.

"Every time we sit down with politicians at every level, I make a point of saying the Gitsxan don't want to be a burden on the Crown and we don't want the Crown to be a burden on us," said Chief Derrick, a hereditary chief of the Gitsegukla, one of seven communities of the Gitxsan nation.

Now this is astonishing and wonderful.

Of course, all the officials have been caught with their pants down and their hands in the troughs. Of course, they are raising countless phony objections to this extraordinary piece of progressive thinking.

I've just returned from several days in Winnipeg where the horrors of aboriginal life are on full display everywhere you turn.

Can you seriously believe that what we have been doing with and for native peoples for the past hundred years has worked?

I hope and pray that these native leaders get what they want.

This is the first great news I recall ever hearing about this matter in more than 40 years.

Full speed ahead!

Influence

In case you were wondering...

China's trade with Africa was $2 Billion a decade ago.

Today it is $107 Billion.

When it finds its Public Voice to go with its financial and military clout, China will easily outstrip America as the World Power.

If it hasn't already...

Energies To Save for Something Else

Marvelous little guest editorial by a U of T professor in the Globe this morning.

Clifford Orwin

Can we teach ethics? When pigs fly

Read it and laugh.

On the Fly

So I'm catching some cathode tube rays while waiting for the laptop to upboot and...

Two women are interviewing a third woman who is starring in a new movie.

One of the interviewers says with shrieking incredulity, "So, you actually read the book??!!??"

Imagine.Between texting and carrying your latte through traffic, you actually with your very own set of eyeballs read a book!

Why, Girl, you are a wonder!

Politics

On Saturday, October 24th, I posted a small item that got a large and impassioned response.

Headlined Number, the post simply stated "The hungry people in the world are now 1.02 billion."

There was a photo of two starving children in Africa.

In recent days, we have been told in various newspaper reports that a mere one dollar a day from every Canadian could eradicate the housing deficits and homelessness in our country.

Yesterday, the United States took its first tentative step in providing real and affordable health care for more than 35 million of its currently uninsured. Of course, more fighting will occur in the Senate before President Obama will be able to sign this important initiative into law.

What do these three pressing and often depressing stories have in common?

Politics.

Politicians.

Politicians are and have been and apparently will continue to be the single biggest obstacle to human progress.

More often than not, politicians represent the most reprehensible in human nature - greedy, tiny-minded, and self-serving.

So many years ago, Buckminster Fuller declared that if we eliminated politics from the earth, nothing of significance would be harmed or negatively changed; he added that if we eliminated designers and scientists, the world would crumble.

Are there in fact enough food stuffs to feed the human family tonight?

I think there are.

But this tribe hates that tribe and this government is in revolution against that and this corporation is vying for this or that and, after all, guns can be sold.

A friend of mine who raises money for AIDS victims in Africa takes the cash in her hand and gives it directly to the women in the villages, lest it gets "re-directed" by some helpful agency.

Could we house our own here in Canada, including the north?

Sure.

If we really wanted to and didn't let our votes or optics or petty allegiances or plans for the next election interfere with common good sense and good will.

Could the Americans adopt a public health care similar to the one we cherish here in Canada?

Of course they could and should, but that might not serve the Obama-bashers or the Republicans in general or the insurance giants or the rabid anti-socialist day dreamers, who see red at any sign of human kindness.

Of course, I am not suggesting we rid ourselves of these politicians.

But we could do at least two things that might help.

One is pay less attention and the other is pay more.

For the daily grind of headline after headline and column after column and interview after interview about Iggy Pop or Sarkozy or the local goons - JUST IGNORE IT.

These are diversions. You might just as well read something rally weighty like People Magazine or Star.

Blah, blah, blah.

Don't give these suckers the time of day.

On the other hand (to quote a famous milkman), when elections are at hand, this is when we should really get into action.

Challenge these simpletons, ask them the tough questions, assure them that they will not get your votes without real commitment to real programs.

Stop voting for clowns because they have a shiny nose or a big smile and you have some childish idea that they might "be a nice guy."

Last year, a new Vancouver City Council was elected with 30 something per cent of eligible voters showing up at the ballot box.

This is what soldiers died for on foreign fields?

When we welcome new Canadians into the fold, do we encourage them or ask them or demand of them that that they vote, that they carry the democratic dream forward?

Blessings in Disguise

There is a marvelous full page ad in the Globe today that I cannot reproduce here. Perhaps you can find it in your local paper.

The ad celebrates National Down Syndrome Awareness Week.

The headline goes like this.

"There is a place for children like Hannah...it's called a public school."

The copy then goes on to explain why inclusiveness is so crucial for all concerned.

I was so glad to see this today because I have been arguing exactly this position for decades.

Having children with disabilities in regular classrooms is not only wonderful for them; it is most important for all the able children.

Steve Largent, the great record-holding wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks said years ago when he was still playing football when asked about his fourth child who had spina bifida, "Our boy is a gift from God, because how would my wife and I and our other children have learned about love without him?"

OFF THE RAILS

Transclunk is - may I coin a new phrase? - "ungoverned."

It's a financial unholy mess according to the official penny-counter in Victoria.

And BC Ferries, who pay David Hahn a cool million a year, sit on their own board of governance and vote themselves gaspingly generous pay raises.

Read the piece here, and then tell me again about what a good business manager is Gordoon.

DANGER! STEP BACK, PLEASE!

Have you ever been in the hospital?

Did they give you happy juice?

Demerol?

Do you have the faintest memory of anything you said to your Aunt Tilly or the kids when they came to visit?

Could you give a royal visiting poop what went on around you when you were medically stoned out of your gourd?

Of course you couldn't.

Thus is exposed the lie that if we only give addicts drugs and drunks a little shot, then we can talk to them about treatment.

Utter pig swill.

But...

The Harm Reduction Army has a new strategy in the relentless - and powerful - PR campaign.

We will admit that our mantra and mad mission is controversial, but our experts swear it works.

Oh, brother.

Harm reduction

Contentious, but experts say it works

For some substance abusers, abstinence is unrealistic so it is best to try to reduce the harm caused by substance abuse rather than focus on stopping the substance abuse outright

That's the headline and lead from an unsigned piece in today's Globe. Is this supposed to be an editorial? A news item?

Whatever it's intentions it is irresponsible in the extreme.

A newspaper, any newspaper, but especially a national rag like the Globe, carries with it a certain gravity, a centre of belief.

This article unattributed to any writer in particular (Oddly, that is the case in the print edition, while online the piece is credited to reporter Andre Picard.) says in print that Hard Production "works." It says that "experts" say that.

What experts?

Addicts? People who have worked with addicts for years?

No.

Evan Wood is a quack pseudo-scientist at the university who claims with a straight face that "Harm Seduction results in healthier individuals and communities and, ultimately, offer the best chance of getting people with addiction problems treated."

O.K. Ev. Let's examine that.

Healthier individuals?

You give a junkie junk in the morning. In the afternoon he is back in the alley getting more junk. Now he's healthier?

"In the managed alcohol program run by Ottawa's Inner City Health Project, they give alcohol to alcoholics. Participants get one drink of fortified sherry per hour as a safer alternative to the Lysol, Purell and Listerine they guzzle in desperation on the streets."

So now that drunk is healthier?

Healthier communities?

Never in Canadian history have we had so many addicts on so many substances clogging up so many of our public highways and byways and hospital emergency wards and courts. Never have we had so much rampant breaking and entering of citizens' cars and homes.

Nice strategy. Yes, that's really working.

Getting people treated?

Do you hear anything when you're on happy juice?

No.

What treatment?

I've just returned from four days at Manitoba's Behavioural Health Foundation, where for $50,000 a year per bed, they are turning over 100 addict resident clients into clean and sober citizens. Nobody is given wine or a pipe kit. They are given love and support and school and work and a gentle kick in the butt.

Here is my personal list of the most dangerous people in our communities:

Evan Wood

The Portland Hotel Society

Larry Campbell

Sam Sullivan

When the press, who should be asking tough questions, become aiders and abettors to these destructive people, we are in serious jeopardy.

On the Road Again

I'm in Winnipeg on assignment and although I read through the Winnipeg Free Press this morning, I confess I didn't see much that couldn't live without my witty incisive commentary.

Why did the Calgary Flames get the H1N1 flu shots but Vancouver Firefighters haven't?

'Cause Life is unfair?

Because bureaucracy is determined to screw up even the most mundane activities?

I'll be back home on Friday and posting like crazy Saturday morning.

Hang in there, Blog Army. There are still robins to be spotted, cafes to be drunk, books to be read...horses to ride or bet on?

The Big Zero Sum BIke Caper

The City of Vancouver claims that a recent survey of some 300 people proves that the famous Burrard Street Bike Lane joke has been a clear winner.

I have given this matter serious and prolonged consideration.

For ages upon ages, I posted my daily count of bicycles.

That is, until I tired of the whole silly thing.

Here is my conclusion, rigged and slanted and unreliable surveys aside:

This has been a nothing, a non-event, a smoke-screen for lack of action and ineptitude on other more pressing issues.

The net result of wasting $1.5 Million of public tax money is zero.

No big rush of bikes, no big traffic snarls.

Just headlines and arguments and the spending of tax dollars on an irrelevancy.

Feh! Poo-poo.

NEXT!

CBC News - British Columbia - Olympic security plan a safety risk, airline warns

CBC News - British Columbia - Olympic security plan a safety risk, airline warns: "Olympic security plan a safety risk, airline warns
Saltspring Air says diverting passengers for screening will jeopardize flights"

Yes, another fun Olympic moment.

Accountability

A girl of 12 murders her parents and younger brother.

Now, three years after being confined to a secure building in a mental institution, the girl may be allowed out from an Edmonton psychiatric hospital so she can go to banks and malls.

Her 'treatment team' is seeking such approvals from Alberta's Solicitor-General.

May the Solicitor-General have the good common sense to say, "Absolutely not!"

Or add a little rider: Each and every one of you nut bars on the treatment team will be publicly named and held personally responsible when this crazy person kills again.

Program Advisory

The PBS television program, 'Frontline' features an hour long documentary tonight called "The Medicated Child."

In the Vancouver area, that can be found on KCTS 9/Cable 27 at 9 pm.

I have been speaking for many years now about what I feel is a public crime and con job by Big Pharma - the overselling of powerful drugs for the alleged "problms" of children.

This piece might be worth a gander.

H1N1 - The 2-Tier Shot

Private-clinic patients jump the line for flu shot

Health agencies give clinics in Toronto and Vancouver access to vaccines amid shortage; Ontario vows review


No. Not a swift move, folks.

Not when people are lining up for blocks to get theirs.

The Copeman Clinic here in Vancouver has already received its first shipment and expects more.

Then why are my doctor and his clinic still waiting?

Time Warped

What century is this?

Pay for these dimwits to travel about, wave at the peasants?

Th photo in the print edition is much better.

C & C are captured in the back of an open carriage. He is sporting a top hat, she a great swooping white something on her head and a quiet tasteful bead of pearls.

King...queen...royal consort. Whatever.

I read through Sir Walter Scott by the time I was about eight.

Nice old bygone era for sure.

Hello, Future. Bye Bye Canerda.

While the broadcasters and the cable companies continue to make the Globe and other papers rich with their daily full-page ads accusing each other of being THE robber barons in the television landscape, Sheridan Scott has written a prescient little piece this morning pointing us to the real future - the net.

She warns that the Brits and Aussies are accommodating themselves to the new communications world and illustrates how Canada is typically twiddling its dials and thumbs.

Note the obvious - you have read all of this on your computer, or for all I know, on your smart phone while eating a sandwich, making love, driving your beemer and moving that portfolio into something more productive.

Canada, the B movie.

For the Birds

When I saw that very large and fat and healthy looking robin on the laburnum tree behind my house this morning, I was sure that I was hallucinating again.

Or maybe the poor thing was just five months off schedule.

But then I checked with my Audubon Field Guide (There's one on the kitchen window sill and one on the table near the glass doors off the living room.) and cheer-eep, cheer-up:

The American Robin winters in British Columbia and Newfoundland.

Who knew?

I hope my guy has a good safe flight to St. John's.