Justice denied, one more time.
A nineteen year old man will be going to prison for seven years for his part in the swarming death of Jomar Lanot outside a Vancouver high school in 2003 (check the Canadian Press article by Terri Theodore here).
Seven years hardly seems like a fair trade for a life brutally taken without the slightest provocation. But then, the man was found guilty of manslaughter, not murder - which implies that the killer had no intent to kill.
Jomar was chased down and beaten with a wooden bat, golf clubs and a cricket bat. Most of the improvised weapons landed on Jomar's head. After the deed was done, the culprits ran in an effort to escape justice, leaving their bleeding victim on the ground.
What intent other than murder could there have been?
The worst part, of course, is that at least two killers will be walking free for lack of evidence. Witnesses have recanted statements, presumably out of fear of reprisal by the thugs that carried out the crime. Charges have been withdrawn. As a further insult to justice, Vancouver's law-abiding citizenry will have no way of knowing the murderers in their midst; their identities are protected by our youth justice rules.
If we needed another example to support Stephen
A damning report by a human rights lawyer and former Canadian cabinet member says Muslims are being rounded up by Canadian authorities for practicing their religion.
The innocent are silenced, tortured and sent to secret prisons where doctors extract their organs for sale on the black market. The Canadian government cremates the remains to
hide their terrible secret.
This would be shocking if it were true.
Replace "Muslims" with "Falun Gong" and "Canadian" with "Chinese" and it would be (as reported by Reuters and Canadian Press reporter Jim Bronskill, among others).
And then, it's still not all that shocking. Falun Gong's protesters in Vancouver and elsewhere have been making these allegations about horrifying treatment by the Chinese regime for years. Over five years ago, I wrote in the Vancouver Courier about Falun Gong's persecution and allegations that the Chinese government was spying on Canadian Falun Gong practitioners in this city and their families back home. It's only now that the mainstream media and prominent Canadian officials are picking up on the story.
On another topic, I just attended one of the World Peace Forum events ("Are We Yesterday's Tomorrow Today?" - who chooses the titles of these forums, anyway?) at the Vancouver Public Library downtown. It was quite interesting and I wish I'd had a chance to stay longer and hear all of the speakers (I already blogged about what I did see here, if you're interested).
I'm pretty sure I'm not the only Vancouver blogger who could have attended these forums. With the latest news cycle giving no relief from the darker side of life, did anyone come away from one of these forums with that life-changing idea that can practically work to make this world a better place? It would be nice to hear some inspiring stories, experiences and ideas. Thanks.
Lately, my blog has been focusing a lot on social issues around the city - namely, the perception of urban decay creeping into my own neighborhood from the downtown eastside. I wrote an Op-Ed in the online version of the Vancouver Sun that you could find here (if you have a subscription to the Sun and can access their archives) or just click here and you'll find it.
The city's official policy seems to be promoting the spreading out of social services throughout the city. Any opinions on this? I'd love to hear what the consensus is from Vancouver's blogosphere.
As regular visitors of Urban Vancouver will be aware, I've been cross-posting from my own home page, Jonathon Narvey's COMM CENTRE at http://jnccwriteimage.blogspot.com/, for a number of months. I'm still a relative newbie in the blogosphere, but I'm starting to feel like I'm getting the hang of it.
I'd like to thank all of the people who have taken the time to visit my site by linking from Urban Vancouver (hopefully I've also directed some traffic the other way). Now that I've finally got a subscription service up for my feed, it will be even easier for everyone to read my latest unasked-for opinions about life in Vancouver, politics, real estate and our place in that great big world out there.
If you haven't checked the site out already, drop in for a look and perhaps even some feedback (I love comments!). In particular, if there are any other Vancouver bloggers who would be interested in linking up with me or techies with free advice about how to get my visitor count up from between zero and thirty a day to something a little more impressive, that would be appreciated.
I did a really bad job putting up the blinds in my apartment.
I'm going to have to spend another $100 to replace the ones I destroyed.
Since they'll be on special order, I can look forward to a few more
weeks of being woken up at 5 am as the sun comes up.
Of course I'm disappointed at this confirmation of my Homer Simpson-level of handyman ability. But my feeling was somewhat muted by today's reminder that no matter how badly I screw up a window treatment, my home will still gain value in somebody else's eyes.
The latest figures from the Canadian Real Estate Association (as summarized by the CBC here)
show that home prices in Vancouver went up an astounding 23.7 per cent this year. It's not quite up there with Calgary (up 43.6 per cent), but nowhere else even comes close to the Texans of the north, either.
Growing up in the relatively stable real-estate market of Winnipeg (which rose this year at just under the national average of 12.9 per cent), I had no idea that property could rise in value so quickly outside of a postwar reconstruction sort of scenario.
For my sake, this bubble better keep on blowing. I've got a few more jobs to do around the apartment and I plan on screwing them all up at least once.
If we're fighting them over there so that we don't have to fight them here, then it looks like we're screwed no matter what we do.
It seems the Security and Anxiety seminar at UBC's Living the Global City series attended by UV's own Richard Eriksson was pretty timely.
Seventeen terrorism suspects inspired by Al Queda were rounded up in Toronto on Friday (check the summary here). The group had three tonnes of explosive materials and weapons components when the RCMP nabbed them.
The foiled plot could have been hatched just as easily here in Vancouver; actually, I had to check the headline twice just to make sure it wasn't.
While some bright minds in our city wonder at the danger of fetishizing security or argue over semantics (security from terror/auto accidents/hurricanes - in Vancouver?), it is good to know that our "urban warriors" have their eye on the real dangers in our midst. Hopefully, when our turn inevitably comes, we'll be ready.
It's definitely a case of better late than never... but a century is pretty late by any standard.
Canadian
Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in Vancouver on Thursday that
he will be apologizing for the head tax collected from Chinese
immigrants between 1885 and 1923 (For an article by Elianna Lev about
the announcement, click here).
A sad consequence of Canada being governed strictly by the rule of law is that governments may feel threatened by potential lawsuits when apologizing for atrocious behavior. Rather than run the risk of racking up multi-billion dollar legal fees and compensation (and ushering in unpopular taxes to pay for it), our elected officials would prefer to keep our dusty old skeletons in the closet.
It may well be that the government feels safe enough to apologize only because there are so few potential claimants left to collect compensation. But the Liberal government that preceded it can't have been faced with such a dramatic difference in numbers. The Conservatives should be commended for finally doing what's right.
Vancouver is the centre of an unfolding human rights case, full of
international intrigue, shadowy characters and questionable ethics.
A Chinese businessman under house arrest in his Vancouver condo is hoping Canada's courts will protect him from the long reach of the Chinese government. Lai Changxing is accused of running a smuggling empire worth billions and corrupting Chinese officials. (For the full story by
Steve Mertl, link here).
The Federal Court of Canada has agreed to hear his case to stay an order for deportation. Changxing claims he's being targeted because he's the victim of a frame-up after making enemies of some of China's political
elites.
Official Chinese assurances that he would not be
executed if sent back are not necessarily relevant; once Changxing gets processed through the Chinese prison system, he stands as good a chance of surviving back-breaking punishment in a labor camp or the harvesting of his organs as he does of surviving a bullet to the head.
China marked the completion of the Three Gorges Dam today - a project expected to provide the equivalent of 18 nuclear power plants worth of energy.
Here in resource-rich BC, we should be making money from energy exports; we're not. We might be importing 45 per cent of our energy in 20 years, according to a recent article by Scott Simpsonin the Vancouver Sun. But hydro power projects are opposed here on the grounds that they will flood fishing and hunting grounds (as reported by Allan Dowd.
The population of this province is overwhelmingly urban. Their only contact
with nature is the ritual summer camping trip or nature hike. I could
care less if a few grizzly bears - or even a few hundred - are forced
to literally sink or swim when these projects finally do get the go
ahead. A few hunting guides and tour companies can go out of business
in the hinterland so long as Vancouver residents remains free of
frequent blackouts and sky-high utility bills.
Power to the people.
