Unlawful          
Assemblies!

The Lord of the Flies on Georgia Street

Let's get Hockey out of the Way First

Thanks to the apparently obligatory riots that a Vancouver Canuck game 7 loss engenders, what should have been a sports story is almost unspoken of this morning. The fact is though that the better team won. Vancouver barely managed to win three games at home, two by extremely lucky/flukey goals and if they had managed to pull off a similar win last night, they might have been the first team to win the Stanley Cup after being outplayed and outscored by a factor of three for the series (total score for seven games was Boston 23 - Vancouver 8). It is pretty difficult to win when your ten million dollar goalie puts up a save percentage that would be good as a batting average in the opponents rink. Frankly if Coach Vignault would have pulled Luongo during game three, or at the least started Cory Schneider in games four and six in Boston there may not have even been a need for game seven. But then, I guess a guy should have to work for his thousands of dollars per minute, even if he is doing a terrible job.

Tim Thomas totally deserved the Con Smythe and no doubt would have won it even if the Canucks had miraculously won last night. He was virtually equivalent to a plexiglass sheet over the goal ending up with a Goals Against barely over a goal a game HOME and AWAY. I would also like to remind folks that those in attendance at Rogers Arena were very respectful to the winning Boston Bruins, and gave especially warm ovations to Tim Thomas, the Canucks nightmare in goal, and BC boys Milan Luccic and Mark Recchi (though calling Recchi a boy might be stretching it).

Last Night's Unlawful Assembly

Apparently with morning coming earlier on the east coast the Boston papers (and the Vancouver Sun) had no mention of the riots, the Boston papers merely having a picture of Zdeno Chara hoisting the Stanley Cup eight or nine feet above the ice, likely the highest it has ever been other than aboard an airplane. The Washington Post apparently has already published a smug article and later editions in Boston will without a doubt chastise the heathens in Vancouver (already they've had endless choruses of the obligatory USA-USA-USA chants, disregarding the fact that each team had an equal number of Canadian players and a minority of Americans). Boston shouldn't feel so smug though, considering the fact that even though they have won EVERY major sport championship (Celtics, Red Sox, Patriots and now the Bruins) some more than once in this new millenium, their idea of partying (or rioting) in recent years has not only resulted in property damage, injuries and arrests, but THREE fatalities.

Assuming courtrooms and sheriffs can be found there will no doubt be people prosecuted, especially since it appeared that everyone not actively engaged in brawling, looting or vandalizing was busy taking photos and making videos of the unfolding ugliness. Then there are the innumerable surveillance cameras that capture anyone downtown countless times a day. Therefore assuming again that courtrooms with sheriffs can be found and the police can take enough time off from covering their own asses for their various homicides, beatings of civilians and drunk driving charges, many or maybe even most of the perpetrators of last night's ugly scene will be held accountable.

Also be prepared to hear every politician in sight or within hearing to commence issuing platitudes about the terrible irresponsible thugs responsible for the carnage - which brings me to the main point of my post, why I wasn't surprised by what happened after the game seven loss.

The Other Unlawful Assembly


BC Legislature - photo by Ryan Busby

Last night's riots weren't an anomaly, but just a vivid illustration of the lawlessness and lack of respect for the law or decency that has become the norm in our province starting at the top and going right through the government, the justice system and the law enforcement establishment. Increasingly over the last decade or two it has become clear that doing the right thing isn't the route to success and honesty is a quality either of no use or totally lacking.

We just said goodbye to a Premier who captured control of his party, and turned it into a virtual criminal organization, by personal attack on the former leader for behaviour that he himself might be guilty of, but doesn't have to answer for thanks to a wholly compliant (and dishonest) media. Then he launched another specious attack on the Premier of the day, Glen Clark, to gain power. Add in a heavy dose of lies, to win elections, whenever your agenda would cost votes if one was honest about it, things like vowing not to sell a railroad, or the HST isn't on the radar, to name but two BIG lies. The only thing one can count on being true with a BC Liberal, including the new Gordon in a Skirt, is that the only time they aren't lying is if their lips aren't moving AND their fingers aren't typing.

But it isn't just the former King Gordo or the current Queen Christy, it goes right through the movers and shakers like lobbyists who lobby both or all three sides of an issue, but mainly working for the goals of the Campbell/Clark Crime Family and when caught out for breaking the LAW, suffer the onerous sentence of writing a god damned essay. Drinking and driving, no problem! If you, say, drive a logging truck (to get raw logs to the dock or border) you might lose your job. But if you are Premier, or an MLA, no problem, after all, the taxpayers will be happy to provide you with a driver, or cab fare, or a free chopper ride to work.

Do you want to steal an election (Kash and Karry Heed), pull off a land scam or two (John Les(s) than honest), rig a bidding process to sell a railroad that isn't for sale? No Problem, that's what the oh so Special Prosecutor system is all about, why don't they call the SP what they seem to be, government paid defense attorneys for members of government and their friends.

Then there is the justice system, which is regularly gamed to cover up the scams that accidentally see the light of day. Conflict of interest, contempt of court, non-responsive testimony - all acceptable if you are on the team, team BC liaR!

If you think I am engaging in hyperbole here, pause and consider the fact that in spite of this government's ability to often play the justice system as if it were its own string quartet, they have been found in violation of the law on some occasions, in spite of fighting to the upper courts to defend the indefensible as in the case of their treatment of the HEU workers and more recently the teachers. Also, we can only be ashamed to elect a government that has the knack for collecting sanctions from various United Nations agencies for its treatment of various segments of their own citizens. Perhaps we can get the OAS and the UN to call in a military intervention to protect us (and our resources) from these grasping, greedy, thieving vermin!

Then of course, we mustn't forget that what little of the BC Rail scam became exposed and forced the powers that be to indulge in the kabuki theatre known as Annie Macks Frontier Justice Star Chamber (or BC Rail aborted Trial), was an unavoidable result of an unrelated drug investigation tapping dozens of calls from Mr. Big in the South Vancouver Island drug trade directly into the office of the BC liaR Minister of Finance - classy to say the least!

Of course all kinds of trickery and thuggery go by the boards, with excuses custom made by the PAB compliant media, such as rewording the Elections Act after the fact by the only in Christy and Gordo's dreams non-partisan Craig James, temporary Chief Electoral Officer now rewarded in a completely NON-bipartisan manner with his new position with the Legislature. I could go on the rest of the week with this kind of skullduggery that this government resorts to as normal practice, and only rarely has to even pretend to answer for. Remember, according to their stooges in the media, Christy Clark has been totally exonerated from any knowledge or dealings with the BC Rail theft, by carefully reading a few pages of otherwise supposedly public court documents, thoughtfully hidden from sight in the name of justice by Madame InJustice herself Annie Mack.

Then there are the police, sterling characters like Monty Robinson, who must be rehabilitated somewhat (perhaps thanks to his years of paid vacation) since as far as I know he hasn't killed anybody lately. Then there is the marvelous Geoff Mantler, who actually may lose a day's pay or something for kicking people in the head and beating up men and women in Kelowna. Apparently if you are a cop it is even not that bad to beat up newspaper deliverymen when you are drunk at four or five in the morning.

Study nursing, education, or train to be an EMT and you will be treated like scum in British Columbia - you will be lucky to get a job, and if you are an EMT, even with a job you might earn the princely sum of two dollars an hour, unless you are in the city (where you aren't as necessary as in the rural areas) and constantly on active duty escorting injured/ill folks to overcrowded ERs. Perhaps those thugs and ruffians last night are frustrated, and have a sense that their home province has been stolen and unless they are in the right circle they have no future here. Or perhaps they are just looking to their betters, the top tier of our wild west society here in BC and have come to the logical conclusion that bad behaviour gets rewarded.

It couldn't have worked out better for the Aquilinis though - four series, seven game final and they LOST. Dem players won't be able to demand the same raises as they could have with the Stanley Cup in hand and Rogers Arena is still probably sold out for next year - the Canucks will have to do some serious losing before that changes, or maybe we've already become like Toronto and it won't matter anymore whether we have a serious team.

Now that the false dream of a Stanley Cup is over, maybe folks can turn their attention to something important, like how they are being lied to and shafted by those who supposedly are serving their interests. Crusty Christy most likely isn't pleased to wake up to a grumpy province this morning, at least there is something I can be happy about there!