Canada relies on US for Justice

Today in the United States, Clay Roueche, leader of the Canadian based "UN Gang" was sentenced to 30 years in prison. This violent gang leader, who made millions smuggling drugs into both Canada and the United States got the kind of sentence that is the stuff of dreams here in Canada. Considering these were only drug and money laundering charges, there is no doubt in my mind that if Mr. Roueche had been tried in the true north strong and free, he'd be walking free in far fewer years than 3 decades, assuming he got any sentence at all. Canada has long taken such a soft approach to crime that many big American cities are safer than their Canadian counterparts and now we are relying on the Americans to dole out the justice we seem incapable of dishing out ourselves. How pitiful is this? We send our pregnant women to the US because we run out of hospital rooms, we send our criminals to the US because we can't deliver justice, we send out troops into combat on American planes and boats because we won't fund our own military adequately, and the list goes on. Let's hope Canadian prosecutors and politicians wake up and try to deal with our problems ourselves.

Bill Vander Zalm should have stayed out to pasture.

Now he's raising money for a constiutional challenge to the HST? After asking the Governor General to step in, which is laughable, he's now going to fight the HST in the courts. Why? If you could decipher his foaming-at-the-mouth tirade on CKNW last week, its because the HST is being forced upon BC by the federal government without BC's approval. Sorry, but he's wrong. A democratically elected provincial government is pursuing this shift. What'sundemocratic is a political dinosaur un-extincting himself to undermine the government. Get over it HST zealots. There's no conspiracy or scheme here. Its a policy you don't agree with. I get it. But enough with the rallies and court cases already. If you're still angry in 3 1/2 years when we are out of recession, the HST having done nothing but create jobs and increase efficiency, and the province humming along, then you can voice that anger at the polls. And maybe there will even be a washed-up flower magnate on the ballot for you all to rally around.

Posts for Copenhagen - #2

You've got to admire the idea Ecuador is peddling at the climate conference in Copenhagen. The Ecuadorians are suggesting that "rich" countries pay it $3.5 billion to NOT drill its crude oil reserves, which unfortunately are located beneath parts of the Amazon rain forest. This "novel idea" (as the Wall Street Journal puts it) sounds like blackmail to me. If Ecuador is passionate about reducing greenhouse emissions, then it should simply not cut down the Amazon and drill for oil. What it certainly should not do is hold a hacksaw up against a tree and try to extort other countries for money. Where will that end? Do we pay Japan to stop whaling? Let's cough up billions and bribe Brazil from clear-cutting tacks of its forests too! And since the world is in such a giving mood, will Canada get a fat cheque if it scales back the oil-sands? I won't be holding my breath for that one. Countries should adopt environmental policies because they believe in the cause or want to increase their efficiency or cut oil imports or for myriad other reasons; they should not be looking to Copenhagen for a big, fat payday.

Posts for Copenhagen

The UN Conference on Climate Change began today with a "Cultural Opening Ceremony" which involved a 4 minute video featuring a young girl dreaming that climate change is going to:
1) change her lush playground into a desert
2) cause earthquakes to split the earth swallowing up her stuffed polar bear friend
3) create black swirling skies that shoot funnels of wind down from the heavens to devour her city
Quite alarming. But the actual conference won't be filled with such alarmist talk will it? If we want to lower carbon emissions, go ahead. But did I miss the evidence that if we do not start this month, we're hooped?

Fort Hood according to Mark Steyn

Since Mark Steyn will always say it better than most others could:
"Major Hasan was the first mass murderer in US histroy to give a powerpoint presentation outlining the rationale for the crime he was about to commit. And he gave the presentation to a roomful of fellow army psychiatrists and doctors. Some of whom, glanced queasily at their colleagues, but none of whom actually spoke up. And, when the question of whether then-Captain Hasan was, in fact, "psychotic," the policy committee at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center worried "how would it look if we kick out one of the few Muslim residents." This is your brain on political correctness. So instead he got promoted to major and shipped to Fort Hood."

"[there was much concern in the media] to 'get at the root causes of soldier stresses.' As in post-traumatic stress disorder. Operative word 'post': you get it after you've been in combat. Until Nov. 5, PTSD was something you got when you returned from battle overseas and manifested itself in sleeplessness, nightmares, or, in extreme circumstances, suicide. After Nov. 5, PTSD was apparently spread by shaking hands and manifested itself in gunning down large numbers of people while yelling 'Allahu akbar!' This is your brain on political correctness."