This morning, before a mass delete, I transcribed several text messages from the "sent" box of my cellphone. Below are the verbatim transcripts with added explanations.
- To VPD Chief Jim Chu: BTW, Van not a police state. U can't tell law-abiding citizens where they can/cannot go
Last June, Mayor Gregor Robertson invited more than 150,000 people downtown for Game 7 without a plan or a clue. The mayor's "LiveSite" went sideways and Chief Chu's "hands-off" approach to crowd control helped spawn the worst riot in modern Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»history. During a police board meeting last Wednesday, Chu unveiled this year's Stanley Cup playoff plan: "This time around, don't come downtown." Huh? Can someone get the chief a copy of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms? How would Chu enforce that decree? Sandbags on the bridges? A weekend VPD press release walked back Chu's statement but the damage was done. The yearly VPD budget is $212 million. Chu's officers are highly trained with clubs, Tasers, Glocks and armoured vehicles. Keep the peace. If trouble starts, jump on the idiots before others join in. We, the vast majority, are with you. But don't tell us to stay home because you're unwilling to separate the chaff from the wheat.
- To VanCanucks: BTW, Daniel is our BP. Without him, winning is hard : (
Last week in Chicago, Blackhawks defenceman Duncan Keith launched an uppercut-elbow into Daniel Sedin's face. The Canucks bench went wild. But accept for a Zack Kassian shove and Alex Burrows facewash, no one did nothing. Keith got five games, Daniel's out indefinitely, and we look like a multi-million dollar ringette team.
- To Arnold Clifton: FYI, Many aborig communities r dysfunctional. Socially, economically, wutevr!
Last Wednesday, speaking at the Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»Board of Trade, Joe Oliver, federal minister of natural resources, noted the benefits of mining and other resource development projects to First Nations communities "that have been socially dysfunctional, that haven't had economic opportunities, haven't had employment opportunities." Clifton, chief councillor of the Gitga'at First Nation, cried foul. "This language is insulting to First Nations and the minister should apologize." Apologize? For what? According to Statistics Canada, 33 per cent of aboriginal people don't graduate high school. The on-reserve unemployment rate is 49 per cent. Aboriginals living off-reserve, 34 per cent. And despite representing three per cent of the population, aboriginals comprise 25 per cent of provincial prison inmates and 18 per cent of federal inmates. If that's not dysfunction, I don't know what is. Canada has poured billions into First Nations communities. But any group, aboriginal or otherwise, yoked to government entitlements will never return to self-reliance. Sadly, some aboriginal leaders seem satisfied with the status quo.
- To MayorRobertson, greeniacs @ CH: BTW, clean energy is great but IMHO ur dishonest
Tonight, the Vision-dominated park board, a puppet department of the Vision-dominated city council, will vote to install three electric vehicle charging stations in parking lots along Beach Avenue. According to a park board report, which excludes a cost analysis, "by 2017, 4.9 per cent of new purchases of light duty vehicles will be electric" so we'll need "275 stations throughout the city." Meanwhile, General Motors halts production of the Chevy Volt due to poor sales and/or the Volt's tendency to burst into flames. Green energy is great, but until technology catches up with the rhetoric, don't waste our money on wild green schemes.
- To BCTF and Lambert: FYI, OMG. We get it. It's all about the children
Last week, BCTF president Susan Lambert uttered the following phrase: "Courage is not the absence of fear, but we have to, in our view, stand up to the type of dismantling this government is envisioning." Courage? Really? Webster's defines courage as "mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty." Firefighters are courageous. Cancer patients are courageous. Lambert leads one side of a labour dispute where the average employee in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»makes $72,000 per year. The virtue of her position depends on your perspective. But there's nothing courageous about it. Stop asking everyone to live in your bubble.
Twitter: @MarkHasiuk
