If Gregor Robertson wants to be Mayor of Vancouver then he should act like one by keeping his nose out of criminal cases instead of using them to score political points.
27-year-old Jordan Smith who ended up in the hospital with a broken jaw after a violent attack in the early morning hours of Sept. 27. The alleged perpetrator is a 20 years old man named Michael Kandola. Gregor Robertson stated in a media release:
I join with many other community groups today in calling for this crime to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law[..] link
If Robertson becomes Mayor will he put his nose in criminal cases and micromanage every incidents that happens on the street or will he let the Judicial power deal with these without interference?
Sensationalist media coverage combined with the public comment made by Gregor Robertson “keen on cheap political capital” that could be a threat to the fair treatment of the Michael Kandola case by the justice system.
I strongly believe everyone should take a step back and let the criminal justice system run its course without interference. And by everyone I mean especially politicians like Robertson.
The Michael Kandola case is just the latest instance of those outside the justice system interfering with it for their own advantage.
I believe it is a worrying trend, politicians from all sides coming out and putting forward their opinions when a criminal case is well publicised by the media.
Judges and other court personnel need to be able to make decisions free from interference from political dimwits such as Gregor Robertson. If they are motivated to ingratiate themselves with an authority with influence over their judgment, the judicial process will have been corrupted.
I have to tell you, I’ve rarely seen such an attack on a politician like I have seen the plagiarism attack on Harper. I’ve never seen anything like it.
Back at the beginning of this campaign, I said to a blogger friend of mine — I said that unfortunately Stephen Harper was going to be the next Prime Minister of Canada, I said, unless he starts acting like an average politician. Then he’s going to be in trouble. He sets the bar very high for himself. And that time is right now. I can’t believe what’s happening. As his poll numbers are high the Grits are going into attack mode with scandalous imagery, and all the nasty bits that come along with it.
So here’s “The Point” of this post. The Liberal campaign is imploding, and it’s not necessarily because of Dion. It’s the Liberal Party. They’re going crazy. And here’s how I got there. I just visited the Liberal website. Well, there is an article denouncing Harper’s speech from 5 years ago.
” me Minister Stephen Harper must explain how it is possible that almost half of the major speech he delivered in House of Commons calling for Canadian troops to be sent to the War on Iraq was a word-for-word recitation of the speech Australian Prime Minister John Howard delivered less than a day and a half before, said Liberal Foreign Affairs Critic Bob Rae.
“How does a leader in Canada’s Parliament, on such a crucial issue, end up giving almost the exact same speech as any another country’s leader, let alone a leader who was a key member of George W. Bush’s Coalition of the Willing?” said Mr. Rae.” link
Please, reassure me by saying that there are no more Canadians who believe Stephen Harper when he swears that he does not want a majority in the House of Commons! Not only he wants the majority but he has been working on it since the January 2006 election. His closest advisor, Tom Flanagan, does not hide it at all in his written statements. The goal is in three parts:
Going from a united right to a minority government.
Replace the Liberal party as “Canada’s natural governing party”.
To dethrone liberalism by making conservatism the dominating philosophy in Canada.
What a plan! To achieve this, Harper’s strategy is to “divide to conquer” [L'Actualité – French] (1) . This is done by winning votes by appropriating an issue that divides the voters and other parties. Example: by giving the impression of wanting to open the debate on abortion with bill C-484 and by opposing the Order of Canada given to Henry Morgentaler, Harper consolidated the support he has from influential religious leaders who contribute generously to the Conservative Party. He also took away votes from anti abortionists from other parties. [MICHAEL VALPY - Globe and Mail] (2)
What the press does not talk about is how Harper and his advisors operate. Their method: using a surgical vote-catching technique (pork barrel). A masterpiece! This particular technique is not only used to consolidate a party base but also to increase its size by robbing adversaries of the largest slice of the voters market pie possible. But Harper’s war room goes further than that, with the help of specialized firms they have built an unprecedented database of personal data on “micro targets”: small groups of voters having a community or religious network of any size. That sophisticated database allows the Conservatives to maintain personal contact with these voters through emails, cards and telephone.
(1) Alec Castonguay, “Diviser pour régner”, L’Actualité, October 1st 2008.
(2) Michael Valpy, “What the Tories know about you”, Globe & Mail, September 12, 2008
What’s in the news today? Translink cops use tasers on fare evaders, Vancouver Island Cocaine Sailor wants mercy and natives want to riot like Tibetans in case they don’t get enough money before the Olympics.
Is Translink Police, who’s the only armed transit police in Canada, electrocutes fare evaders? The force’s board of directors now has a majority of senior police officers on it, which has been adding to concerns about the force’s use of Tasers on SkyTrain passengers.
The Canadian Press reports that B.C Natives plan to use same strategy as Tibetans in the upcoming Winter Olympic games. Canada’s top native chief says the Vancouver Olympics are a potential target for First Nations protest much like Beijing has been a flashpoint for Tibet supporters.
