These web sites recall local Taser victim Robert Wayne Bagnell (2004)s and also provide recent news reports and discussions on recent events in the taser controversy:
"Darkness to Light: A Web Tribute to Robert Wayne Bagnell"
http://robertbagnell.ejohnlove.com
"Truth, Not Tasers": A blog by Patti Gillman, Robert Bagnell's sister
http://truthnottasers.blogspot.com
Girl at East Vancouver Starbucks, April 14, 2007.
(A Palm PDA sketch.)
Seen in the Blue Parrot Cafe, Granville Island.
(A Palm PDA sketch)
Walking up Beatty street towards SkyTrain, the sun was out, but it was still raining a little - you know that weird combination of sunlight and rain. I saw a nice bright rainbow coming up over the downtown East side, and it made me feel good, like that kind of magic, happy feeling I'd felt seeing a rainbow as a kid.
At Stadium Station, I saw Curtis James, a guy I've known on the street for a few years, and who lost almost all his toes to frostbite last winter. I recently switched jobs, which meant that I wouldn't be working downtown anymore. I told Curtis that I would soon be leaving the area, and that I probably wouldn't see him again.
He said "I dunno. I get around town, you know" and smiled.
"Well, it's out in Burnaby, so I dunno..."
"Well, maybe you'll help one of my brothers then. You're doing God's work, my friend. You really are."
"Thank you. Enjoy the rainbow" I said to him, feeling grateful for such a gracious personal remark. After the past few years, it had only been pocket change, but the weekly chit chats and little conversations about hope and the kindness of strangers had added up to something too.
"There's two of 'em."
"What?"
Damned if Curtis wasn't right. There was a second rainbow, right next to the first one. I was really glad that he could notice something nice like that.
"World peace must develop out of inner peace."
- Dalai Lama
On Saturday September 9 2006, His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet spoke to 12,000 people at GM Place in Vancouver, BC. The title of his talk was "Cultivating Happiness.
The Dalai Lama is the only person for whom I would personally use the word "role model" - someone whose words, examples and actions have inspired me on a personal level.
My wife and I were seated in the top-most row of the upper level of the stadium - right up in the "nose bleeds", but the large-screen monitors made it very easy to see everything happening down below.
The event began with performances by a Vancouver-based Tibetan Children's Choir, a group of kids ranging in age from 5 to 14, who had learned traditional Tibetan songs, dance and musical instruments.
For me, the highlight of this performance was the duet of a 5 year old boy singing, accompanied by a 10 year old boy playing an eight-stringed instrument that looked like a bass guitar. At one point, the older boy played a kind of guitar solo, plucking his strings for all he was worth. His obvious joy and proud, almost swaggering body language showed on the big screen for all to see, and the crowd roared and applauded his performance with the loudest cheers of the event.
A coroner's inquest was originally scheduled for between May 24th and June 3rd, 2005, but was delayed. The family of Robert Wayne Bagnell have been waiting for the Coroner's Inquest for well over a year.
Republished from A Tribute to Robert Wayne Bagnell:
Jun 05, 2006: Coroner’s Inquest into the Death of Mr. Robert Bagnell Scheduled for September 2006
"VANCOUVER – The British Columbia Coroners Service will conduct a Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Mr. Robert Bagnell. Mr. Bagnell died while police were attempting to remove him from a common bathroom in a hotel at 1390 Granville Street, in Vancouver, on June 23, 2004.
The inquest will be held at the Coroners Court in Burnaby
commencing at 0930 hours on September 5, 2006, and is expected to last several days.
This inquest will allow for the public presentation of all
relevant evidence relating to Mr. Bagnell’s death. Coroner Stephen
Fonseca and a five-person jury will hear evidence from subpoenaed
witnesses in order to determine the facts surrounding the death. The jury will have the opportunity to make recommendations aimed at
preventing deaths under similar circumstances in the future.
Contact: Stephen Fonseca Coroner
Office of the Chief Coroner
604 660-7753"
First-degree murder charges have been laid in the largest serial killer case in Canadian history.
27 women have disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside between 1995 and 2002.
The prime suspect, Port Coquitlam pig farmer Robert "Willy " Pickton, has been in custody since his arrest in February 2002. In British Columbia Supreme Court in New Westminster on January 30th, 2006,
Pickton pleaded not guilty to 26 of the 27 charges. Canada does not have the death penalty, so Pickton faces multiple consecutive life sentences if convicted.
The number of at-risk women missing from Downtown Vancouver since 1978 stands at a shocking 68.
DNA from 31 of those women was found on the Pickton property by investigators.
How did it ever get that far?
Relatives of deceased women whose remains have been found on the Pickton pig farm have vocally criticized the Vancouver Police and the joint V.P.D./RCMP Missing Women Task Force for an initially "shoddy" response to women going missing, or for apparently not taking earlier complaints about the pig farm seriously enough.
This is a continuation of my previous UrbanVancouver post, my previous review of the movie, "Sin City", and a rant about pulp fiction in general.
When I first reviewed the movie "Sin City", I was severely put off by the portrayal of women in Frank Miller's grim and gritty world. The Vancouver-area missing women case with it's enigmatic DNA evidence and ghoulish rumours about Willie Pickton's pig farm (where the DNA evidence against him was gathered) were still fresh in my mind then, so watching a portrayal of a psychotic woman-killer doing his deadly deeds on an old farm hit me as sickly coincidental and put me off the movie big-time.
The violence of Sin City was excessive, and every male seemed to be a one-man killing machine. The story and characters seemed like 1940s stereotypes and that pissed me off. However, the movie's visual style was beautifully stark, unlike any movie I had ever seen.
A few months later, something happened to further tweak my attitude. My wife fell in love with the story, and bought the entire set of original graphic novels by Frank Miller. She read them from end to end in sequence, reciting detailed descriptions to me of the scenarios with analyses of her favourite characters and their motivations. (We had each enjoyed a similar obsession with Lord of the Rings a few years earlier.)
This is a blatant plug for my personal email newsletter, "The List of Love".
I'm constantly updating a variety of online and print writing projects (in other words, blogs and a novel). I provide status of these on my web site news.ejohnlove.com and via my email newsletter, The List of Love (sign up on my web site).
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E. John Love.
I have begun giving my street friend, Curtis James, my extra novels to read. Occassionally, I have had extra copies of James Bond novels or other detective/spy thrillers that have no room on my bookshelf. Curtis once told me that he really liked detective novels - the excitement, the action, the women, so I began to keep him in mind whenever I had a spare thing to read. Sometimes, this gift would be in lieu of pocket change when I was a bit short, and other times, the book would come with some silver.
I saw Curtis today on my way home from work. He had positioned his wheelchair along Georgia, in time to catch the crowds heading to the Canucks game. Smart guy.
He told me that currently he's reading "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", which I do think is one of Ian Fleming's best Bond stories. "I'm looking forward to Moonraker", he called after me as I wisahed him a good weekend.
It's nice to have someone to share my books with.
