Canadians, Stop Being Naïve! (please)

Why showing a lack of experience, wisdom, and judgment is

not helping us out of our self-made mess

I can’t stand it anymore:  Canadians act like a bunch of Boy Scouts at a Hell’s Angels Jamboree.

Perhaps it was the article I read in the McGill student newspaper in 1978 that said something like this: Nice. Nice. Nice. We are so nice. So nice that it’s not true. So nice that pretending and denial are necessary; so nice that passive aggressive behaviour is almost inevitable; so nice that nice becomes a 4 letter word. So nice that  most Canadians just

Here a few headlines to make the point that the world many of were brought up in, where, for example, you never had to lock the door, even in Vanier, no longer [sadly] exists.

 

Vancouver, global money laundering capital?

The evidence that the Lower Mainland is a magnet for ill-gotten—mostly mainland Chinese—money is stacking up fast. A Postmedia investigation found that while money laundering appears rampant in B.C., successful convictions are rare. An interim report released the same week also showed that the B.C. RCMP lacked proper staffing to investigate large-scale money laundering. The former head of the B.C. RCMP’s Integrated Proceeds of Crime section says he feared Canada would be unable to meet international obligations when the force decided to disband its teams of money laundering specialists in 2013. Read More at https://www.bcbusiness.ca/vancouver-global-money-laundering-capitalhttps://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/money-laundering-in-b-c-timeline-of-how-we-got-herehttps://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/former-rcmp-proceeds-of-crime-head-warned-bosses-of-weakened-dirty-money-investigations-1.5099332

 

SNC Lavalin – a tale where taking the moral high ground only drags us in the morass

“Without a deferred prosecution agreement, a case that has dragged on for years could end in failure

Canada has been making unflattering international headlines of late. Not since the folks at South Park came up with their Blame Canada song has our country looked this bad. The scandal surrounding alleged interference by Justin Trudeau and his entourage to secure a non-trial settlement for SNC Lavalin on fraud and bribery charges has changed perceptions of our politics and our Prime Minister abroad, and not in a good way. Instead of winning kudos for peace, order and good government, we’re getting warned that we need to pull up our socks. The OECD noted that 78% of 890 bribery cases concluded since 1999 have involved non-trial resolutions, most in the form of DPAs [deferred prosecution agreement]. Canada has yet to conclude one DPA… (Because of the snails pace of our legal system) two former SNC-Lavalin officials have already seen fraud and bribery charges against them dropped because of unreasonable delays…”  Read More at http://globe2go.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx

 

Why Is Canada #1 in PTSD?

So long as we ignore the dubious honour, we betray those tasked with protecting us. Paradoxically, PTSD was far less common in countries more vulnerable to just such traumas – with vulnerability defined as “the likelihood that an individual or group will be exposed to and adversely affected by a hazard.” Brazil’s cities suffer far more violence than Canada’s, but Canadians suffer more PTSD. The authors of the report speculate that high-PTSD/low-vulnerability countries “are inhabited by more individualistic cultures” that “may be lacking aspects of social capital such as community engagement and support that could help victims of trauma repair their resources and rebuild their lives.” In other words, it’s your problem; solve it yourself.  Read More at https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2016/08/02/Canada-PTSD/

 

How the Hells Angels Conquered Canada

The Hells Angels’ path, starting in 1977, to eventually dominating the Canadian crime scene was a bloody one, but also one that was carefully thought out and executed. The biker gang has maintained that dominance through a savvy combination of diplomacy, business sense, marketing, and bloodshed.The biggest and most obvious indicator is the influx onto the streets of some of the dozens of bikers who were arrested in 2009 as part of Operation SharQc. The major sweep led by the Sûreté du Québec and the RCMP resulted in 156 arrests, but many of these charges were thrown out when the mega trial was deemed to have violated a number of the defendants’ basic charter rights to a speedy trial. “We’re back to square one again,” he says. “And they are a lot wiser now [because of the disclosure of evidence in the trials]. The Crown had to give the defense everything it had on how we got into the organization.”    Read  More at https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/bn3vnq/how-the-hells-angels-conquered-canada

A truly Made in Canada Ponzi Scheme: The Pigeon King

Arlan Galbraith, Miller was the Attorney-General of Iowa with the power to launch an investigation, which, of course, is what he did.In December 2007, his office released a warning statement: “We believe that potential investors/buyers should be very cautious and examine the situation very carefully – especially the question of whether there is a realistic and independent market for pigeons now and in the future.” This quickly shut down the Ponzie scheme in the USA, however, because Canada had no equivalent laws to go after Ponzi schemes….in Canada police started to look into Pigeon King’s business operations. This resulted in Arlan Galbraith appearing before a judge and jury in late 2013 on charges of fraud. Think about it : 6 years of Canadians being taken advantage of because of boy scout laws. By the way, I saw the play at the NAC about this 2 months ago, put on my local who lived near the farmers who were scammed – it was terrific!  Read More at https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/The-Pigeon-King-Swindle

 

Canada’s climate gap widens yet again

The gap between Canada’s proposed climate efforts and its 2030 Paris Agreement target has grown even wider in the last year. The federal government is now predicting a gap larger than all emissions from the province of Quebec. It is of course worse than that: we have failed to meet EVERY climate agreement we signed: Rio, Kyoto, Copenhagen. We say `nice`things – but fail to deliver – consistently. Read More at https://www.nationalobserver.com/2019/01/30/analysis/canadas-climate-gap-widens-yet-again

 

It’s a national tragedy: Emerald ash borer devastation continues across province (and was avoidable)

The emerald ash borer is native to China and eastern Asia. It was found in North America in 2002. … Like some other exotic pests that affect plants and trees, it is believed to have been accidentally introduced to North America in imported wood packaging or crating material. Canadian Forest Service (CFS) scientists estimate that costs for treatment, removal and replacement of trees affected by emerald ash borer in Canadian municipalities may reach $2 billion over a 30-year period. Also expected to be significant are the ecological impacts of ash tree mortality on aquatic organisms, birds and understory vegetation, currently under study. A personal note: “accidental” is not quite true – according a friend who works for the Federal government told me that the recent invasion came in on Chinese wooden pallets, clearly untreated as they are supposed to be according to International treaty, which the Canadians KNEW were untreated pallets – and did nothing. Clearly, nobody is going to say this publicly. This has affected me personally as I had to hire somebody to cut down over a dozen large trees at a cost of $2000. Read More at https://www.southwesternontario.ca/news-story/9309212–it-s-a-national-tragedy-emerald-ash-borer-devastation-continues-across-province/

 

I could go on, [ie. cyber scams, cyber warfare]  but I think you get the point. It is time to realize that Canada is no longer on the side lines and that to make things better we have to leave our Boy Scout ways behind and do more to update our laws and our attitudes as being the only way to maintain the civil society that we all value.

So, although I was a Boy Scout as a child I have grown up and act accordingly: that means I act “as gentle as a dove but as wise as a serpent”. I recommend you do the same.