Palin "porn actress" column repudiated by CBC News Management in Toronto

The TV news watching public probably doesn't care that CBC News has a "publisher". It's a position held by a man named John Cruikshank, and he becomes news worthy today (September 29) because he just decided to issue an apology for a gross error in judgement. On September 5th the main CBC News website published an extremely vicious attack on Governor Sarah Palin and on Senator John McCain which goes beyond what the CBC can expect to get away with.

The libelous assault, which compared Gov. Palin to a "porn actress" was written with the intention of inciting hatred. The "journalist" also grossly mocked and insulted Palin's husband and children. This reprimand will not prevent the CBC from publishing more of Mallick. Indeed the CBC may relish the notoriety she brings. I note that Cruikshank, though publisher, had to have the matter brought to his attention by outraged readers. He was careful to let the CBC Ombudsman rule on the matter FIRST and to publish that ruling FIRST before he took second place with the official repudiation.

"Mallick's column is a classic piece of political invective. It is viciously personal, grossly hyperbolic and intensely partisan.
And because it is all those things, this column should not have appeared on the CBCNews.ca site."

In effect the CBC News publisher is supporting the decicion of the Ombudsman. That's an extremely safe position to be in.

I had never read a word Mallick has written, so I had to Google her piece. This is just a selection and I'm not providing a link. Judge for yourself what kind of woman she is.

This photo is from Heather Mallick's personal web page. It must be a favorite. This is how she sees herself, and this is how she wants you to see her. Her invective reveals much more , offering something terribly troubled. Methinks this woman needs to consult the shrink who helped Sylvia Fraser... Sylvia is a better woman and a much better writer.

“Palin has a toned-down version of the porn actress look favoured by this decade’s woman, the overtreated hair, puffy lips and permanently alarmed expression. Bristol has what is known in Britain as the look of the teen mum, the “pramface.” Husband Todd looks like a roughneck; Track, heading off to Iraq, appears terrified. They claim to be family obsessed while being studiously terrible at parenting. What normal father would want Levi “I'm a f**kin’ redneck” Johnson prodding his daughter? I know that I have an attachment to children that verges on the irrational, but why don't the Palins? I’m not the one preaching homespun values but I’d destroy that ratboy before I’d let him get within scenting range of my daughter again, and so would you. Palin’s e-mails about the brother-in-law she tried to get fired as a state trooper are fizzing with rage and revenge. Turn your guns on Levi, ma’am.” - (Heather Mallick Sept. 5)

Wow! And I thought the Vancouver SUN was leading the pack of haters. Sun columnists ain't got nuthin' on this Mallick bi*ch.

The McCain - Obama TV debate - what were Vancouverites smoking last night?

I didn't watch the first McCain - Obama Presidential Debate last night. Perhaps you did? My excuse is that TV debates rarely cover anything fresh, because of the risks involved, and I've already read a million words on that pair. I've said before that I like them both and I will be content with either man as U.S. President. It is very apparent that both are intelligent and fair, and that neither man is arrogant toward women. I'm certain that neither McCain or Obama will use executive power to coerce blow jobs from young women in the Oval Office. They both have good women at home.

Still, I know the level of hatred for the Republican party and for American conservatives which exists here in Vancouver. This city is world class when it comes to America haters, and if Osama ever gets tired of cave couture in Pakistan there are plenty of safe houses available to him in Greater Vancouver.

This morning I decided to check out the overnight viewer response to the Presidential televised debate. The first thing I noticed was that the wire services were calling it a draw. Even the BBC called it a draw, and BBC staffers loathe the U.S. Republican Party more than they hated the I.R.A. Don't trust my judgement? Do your own content analysis of articles archived by the BBC. Then get back to me.

Next I went over to Matt Drudge's site and this is what I found at 9:35 AM Vancouver time. Drudge had a clear and honest question. "Who won?" Over 323,000 votes showed McCain by a landslide.

Then I went to the Vancouver SUN website at 9:45 AM our time. I wanted to record the score so I voted "No clear winner" to gain access to the results. This is what I found. Over 71% for Obama and 19% for McCain. What we see at play is not analysis of a formal debate but rather an expression of deep seated dislike.

Now our Canadian Federal election has become a barrel of laughs, but there is precious little to joke about in the U.S. campaign. The Democrats are not funny. Alan Alda has not been hired to "balance" out the panel of pundits on CNN. No Sir! When the Republicans gutted much of their National Convention, in favour of focusing on the hurricane then building in the Gulf of Mexico, Democrats nationwide hooted and cheered, believing it gained them a tactical advantage (remember Michael Moore?) Then last week when Sen. McCain suggested that the Wall Street crisis was of equal importance, so why not delay the debate .... the Democrats in a chorus called the war hero a coward. A schemer. A charlatan. Vancouverites too, were seething.

And finally, cast your baby blue's over this. A Vancouver SUN columnist (and a Class-A hater) spews venom at Sarah Palin and.... surprise! he draws just the angry reaction he was hoping for. Then the little thumbsucker writes a column asking for RCMP protection. "Dear RCMP Officer - In the event of my untimely death..." he writes. The bully is actually the victim, don't you see? If the Canuck gets caught with a hockey bag full of coke in Vegas, he wants to be shipped back to B.C. to do his time in Eden. Sanctuary!

Well Dougie, I never read your stuff and I'm judging you by your phony outrage, but you don't make me angry. You're just another example of why I stopped buying the SUN eight years ago. Yes I still get calls from the Pacific Press subscription department ("65% off, guaranteed for three months, and no contract") and I always make a point of telling the hapless telephone solicitor just why I won't buy the SUN. Next time I get the call I'll be sure to mention your name.

Self-sabotaging NDP candidates outed by Posse of Google sniffers

It's election season so it's appropriate for a Blogger to write at least one election commentary. This one is mine. I used to say "I'd rather eat ground glass than vote Tory," but the truth is that I'm no Jihadist. I was merely trying to convey the intensity of my feeling. Actually I'm not likely to injure myself just to make a political statement. And now, having just spent a month ingesting melamine-laced Asian coffee drinks, I will be very leery of what I put in my mouth in future.

In a genuine democracy all of us would be encouraged to join in the political process. But since we live in a bastardized democracy the extent of our involvement is limited to voting for the local candidates who, for a few months at least, pretend to support the "progressive" platform of this or that Centrist party. I write "Centrist" here because of course I'm forced to use the model you all grew up with. It's ridiculous to think in terms of the "Left - Right" spectrum in our Canadian context, but it's what they peddle in our schools. I think the old model just creates meaningless noise. And noise contributes to chaos.

Kirk Tousaw (Vancouver Quadra) engaging in a little self sabotaging behavior. As a lawyer he knew better. The NDP should have done well this election, but images like this one have shredded their credibility.

The L-R spectrum, which is a tired relic of French Revolutionary politics, should be torn from every high school Social Studies textbook in Canada. But we can't do it because our leaders aren't creative enough to define their own beliefs with a fresh and honest tongue. They are not political philosophers. Surprise!

When I look about me in Vancouver I don't see "Right wingers" or "Left wingers". I just see a million folks doing whatever they please. I guess you could put a label on their behavior - call it 'the primacy of the senses'. If you share in their "lifestyle" choices they may approve of you. But if you don't... oh boy! ...if you don't, the best you can hope for is that they'll ignore you. At worst, they will work like Trojans to deny you your very right to participate in the limited political conversation which pretends to inform our diverse community. Witness the sudden explosion of news stories about federal candidates outed by political watchdogs and assorted Google sniffers.

BOURQUE NEWSWATCH, the news "aggregator" site, has been serving as a cheer leader for busy Google sniffers during the 2008 Federal Election. Here is a screen capture for September 21 which pulled NDP Leader Jack Layton into the furor over dumped candidates in Vancouver.

I have views of course, on the B.C. candidates who have been "outed" and those who are still under siege by persistent ankle biters. My preferred response is to remind you that they are only "guilty" (stepping down does imply acceptance of guilt) of behaving in a manner that is widely accepted in B.C. Which of you cannot smell cannabis wafting from your neighbor's window? And how is showing your ass at some Earth People "happening" any different from displaying it in a PRIDE parade downtown? Split hairs and you only split hairs. The fact is that tens of thousands of British Columbians engage in self-sabotaging behavior and election calls only sanction the cowardly to engage in some finger pointing.

I can assure you that if the newsroom employees at the Vancouver SUN or at BCTV were put under blanket surveillance for 48 hours, you would all enjoy reading the sordid details in the transcripts. Should that disqualify journalists from running for public office? Well perhaps that depends on just how bastardized our political process has become. If elected in 2008, none of those celebrated election dropouts could have hurt my family directly, but the witchcraft policies of the Greens and NDP could adversely damage the social fabric and the unchecked spending or Voodoo economics of the Liberals and Tories will certainly pick our pocket over the next decade. Must my tune change on the day I start receiving the "Old Age"? Unlikely, but until that day when I do join the ranks of the "cheque people", our great dependency uber-culture will fail to bury my right to exercise free speech.

Blogging is not a subversive activity, and one does not need a diploma from the "Upstairs College - School of Journalism", the Cambie at Broadway campus, to qualify as a "credible" voice. Watch your TV news tonight and ask yourself the question "What makes those news readers so credible?" Is it the way they grimace and scowl to let you know when to boo the villains of the piece? Hi Deb ! Hi Pamela!

Julian West (Saanich-Gulf Islands) just handed an election win to the Federal Liberals as the NDP cannot replace him on the ballot. Who could have imaged that West wagging his noodle in public could one day guarantee Briony Penn a seat in Parliament? Yikes! It's all too surreal.

Read "Nude Swimming NDP Candidate faced further Allegations" (here)

The Federal Riding we live in seems typical. The Liberal candidate is a party stalwart who carried water for Chretien and Martin for years. So now he wants a paying job he can retire on. The Tory candidate was parachuted in to service our demographics. He lives miles away. The Tories are playing "skin to win," a cynical ploy that should fail. I'm not fond of the N.D.P. candidate but he gets my vote because he's harmless enough. He can't hurt our family. My wife was born in Taiwan, a country where the politics are nuttier than ours. She's a hard working realtor and rather savvy in her take on local politics. She won't support my choice of federal candidate on moral grounds, which is her call. Still, we'll walk together to the polls as we always have.

Marc Emery, the drug promoting "activist" who claims that in 2003 he made a "handshake agreement" with the leader of the New Democratic Party to recruit candidates and marshall support at the ballotbox. Mr. Emery's Guide to the October 14 Election assures me that my local M.P. is "totally solid with the cannabis culture and must be re-elected". If true, it validates my wife's choice not to vote for the guy.

And for TV funny man Rick Mercer's take on all this (although he skewers only Tory candidates who dropped out) check out his column "WHO CAN SURVIVE A GOOGLE SEARCH ? NOT ME" in the Globe & Mail.

B.C. Gangsters and that Liberal Lawyer - Kuldip Singh Chaggar

A disgraced Vancouver lawyer, already notorious for his role in the Air India Bombing Trial and for being arrested in 2004 by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency is back in the news. Kuldip Singh Chaggar was thrust back into the spotlight by the Vancouver Sun's ACE crime reporter Kim Bolan. Chaggar, some may remember, was convicted in a federal court in Seattle and later returned to live amongst us. If you Google him you will find listings for Chaggar's old law practice in Burnaby Metrotown, but that business is defunct.

On September 3rd the SUN published a story on the criminal background of James Edward O'Toole an erstwhile rock musician who was murdered in August. Man killed in cab on Commercial had a violent past
The man local media had been assuring us was an innocent musician tragically slain on the cusp of a breakout career, turned out to have an extensive criminal past... with convictions for possession of narcotics, stolen property and for brandishing a pistol outside a nightclub in downtown Vancouver. In 2003 O'Toole used a loaded Walther PPK pistol to make a statement on Richards Street, but the B.C. "Justice System" seems to have decided to issue the gangster associate a pass. He was able to travel to Hong Kong, the Philippines and Australia unimpeded. After his death a police spokesman admitted that O'Toole was known to every Law Enforcement Agency in the urban British Columbia.

The Big Fellah is dead. James Edward O'Toole was shot to death in a Vancouver taxicab but nobody has bothered to delete his "Jed Cruz" promo website. We now learn that the "musician" had a lenghty criminal record which was concealed from the public and also from INTERPOL.

These porcelain PPKs are authorized by WALTHER, and legal for carry in the City of Vancouver. O'Toole (Jed Cruz), no doubt a James Bond fan, brandished the illegal and loaded PPK in front of a downtown nightclub.

The really interesting aspect of the SUN story was the reemergence of Kuldip Singh Chaggar, which connects the O'Toole killing to a couple of bigger stories. Chaggar should be more widely known because over the years he has helped several local "names" get elected. One senses that Bolan is holding something back, but she deserves our appreciation for broadening the investigation of local gang activity and underworld connections to the professional class - realtors, acountants, lawyers, etc.

Kuldip Singh Chaggar made an enviable string of contacts in Vancouver politics - among Federal LIBERALS, B.C. LIBERALS and Burnaby Civic Councillors. He also once had a weekly show on Shaw Cable TV. Then his mask slipped and the dangerous truth was revealed. A U.S. federal court did us all a service by clipping Chaggar's wings.

In the following extract from the Bolan article we see that CHAGGAR is mentioned by name 13 times. In effect the SUN article was about the disgraced Burnaby lawyer and not about the aspiring rock performer.

"The Vancouver Sun has learned that O'Toole's name also came up in late 2005 at the Seattle witness-tampering trial of former Vancouver lawyer Kuldip Singh Chaggar.
Chaggar was followed by the RCMP as he had a meeting with O'Toole and a second man, who police described as a known criminal.
Chaggar's lawyer, Jeff Robinson, complained in U.S. Federal Court in August 2005 that the RCMP were inappropriately attempting to influence Chaggar's case because of Chaggar's long-time representation of convicted Air India bomber Inderjit Singh Reyat. His proof, Robinson said, was that his law office had just received a package from the state attorney's office containing surveillance photographs taken by the RCMP on May 31, 2005 of Chaggar with O'Toole and the other criminal in Vancouver.
At the time the RCMP told The Sun that Canadian investigators were watching Chaggar at the request of the U.S. state attorney.
Chaggar was convicted of witness-tampering and sentenced to almost two years in jail. He is back in Vancouver, but was unreachable Tuesday.
O'Toole is the fourth Metro Vancouver gangster linked to Chaggar who has been gunned down in the last three years.
Two others identified at Chaggar's trial, Gurpreet Singh (Gary) Dhaliwal and Inderjit Singh (Andy) Rai, were slain in Surrey in January 2006 and May 2005 respectively. Evidence showed both men had approached Chaggar to ask a jailed gang member to change her statement to authorities after she was caught entering Canada with $1.5 million worth of cocaine for Dhaliwal's organization.
Chaggar is also linked to Tommy Ho Sing Chan, who was shot in the head in the Richards on Richards nightclub in May 2006. Property records show that after the former lawyer was convicted in the U.S. case, he sold his Whistler condo to Chan, then 30, with a lengthy criminal history, and a Delta businessman named Patrick Thomas O'Toole.
The Sun could not confirm if James O'Toole and Patrick O'Toole are related.
The title transfer documents were signed by Chaggar on June 13, 2005 and he received $360,000 in the sale - less than what he paid for the Hillcrest Drive condo three years earlier. When Chan was killed, Patrick O'Toole bought out the gangster's one-third interest in the condo.
At the time of his murder, Chan was living at his mother's Vancouver house at 827 East 32nd Ave.
Two other young gangsters were shot to death after being lured to the same house in May 2004. None of these gangland murders has yet resulted in charges, though the cases all remain open."

I urge you to download Kim Bolan's article, as I have, and keep it for reference. This story has legs and these execution killings will continue. It will take some effort on our part to keep up with events and it isn't easy to sort the local outlaws from the innocents.

__________________________________________

Postscript - I can't help smiling at this little coincidence. The GLOBE & MAIL today reported comments of a B.C. Liberal strategist who thinks it's good election optics to bray about getting tough on the Drug Gangs. "Liberals planning gang task force for B.C. " IAN BAILEY - September 16, 2008 at 4:00 AM EDT
VANCOUVER — Federal Liberals in B.C. will propose a “guns-and-gangs task force” Tuesday as a plank in their made-in-B.C. platform – a bid to lure voters in a province where gang-related violence has taken a heavy toll...

How many B.C. Liberal signatures were on the petition to get Kuldip Singh Chaggar, a Liberal stalwart, sprung from the Federal detention center in Seattle?

Anti-Gang Spooks get wake-up call from the Vancouver Sun

"GANGSTERS, COPS MIX AT SURREY WEDDING"- I think this SUN piece is the most interesting news story published in Canada today, and I did make the effort to compare. I urge you to read Kim Bolan's investigation for yourself and ponder its significance. If you are trying to follow news of gang activity and the best attempts of law enforcement to put a small dent in the "Industry", you will understand what this article is saying.
Hat's off to Ms. Bolan. She has done more to identify the player's and the trends in Vancouver's anarchic sub-culture than have the entire West Coast news media combined. Her production is hard to keep up with.

I remember an anecdote a Vancouver detective once told me. "What if you were sitting in a restaurant and you recognized two men in the corner - the Mayor of Vancouver and a high ranking Gangster. Who are you going to tell?" The answer was "Nobody, if you want to have a career." Fortunately a few dedicated men and women have Kim Bolan to work with. Show them that we appreciate their courage. Keep up with your reading.

Hating Sarah Palin - Canada's CBC out of its frakking mind!

On August 2nd the CBC's Neil Macdonald shredded his journalistic integrity, and made an attack on Sarah Palin which was nothing short of defamatory libel. The disgusting rumours broadcast on THE NATIONAL were more in keeping with the NATIONAL INQUIRER than they were of a flagship National Broadcaster. I am not in the habit of taking notes while watching TV news, but some people are, and we benefit by their efforts.

It's really an agony to return to the question of Media Bias so soon. I don't enjoy the subject at all. It's just the toxic atmosphere we all learn to cope with, but this week it's taking on the proportions of a sandstorm - simply because the Republicans have discovered Sarah Palin in deepest, coldest Alaska.
It was only a few days ago that I pointed out the hateful reaction of two influential newspapers - one in London and the other here in Vancouver, which typify that triumphant "Gotcha" attitude prevalent to the Status Quo media. Within hours of Gov. Palin's arrival on the International stage the media claimed to have detected flaws of character which invalidated Governor Palin's participation in Presidential politics. They were wrong but they won't stop. The case at hand, a story concocted by Witch Doctors of the Left, rushed to underground serum factories, and then injected into the public bloodstream by the so-called "mainstream" press.

Take five minutes to read this article written by Jonathan Kay for the NATIONAL POST, August 4. The CBC's Bogus Smear on Sarah Palin .

If you haven't got time, here's an extract:

But on Tuesday night -- two full days after the rumour was killed -- CBC's The National went live with it.
"Sarah Palin was strangely absent from public view today," reporter Neil Macdonald told viewers from the Republican convention in Minnesota. "The story surrounding her grew ever stranger, too."
"It's baby Trig who's generating the questions," Macdonald went on. "There are the pictures of [Sarah] Palin looking slim just weeks before the April birth. In March, the Anchorage Daily News reported that Palin 'simply doesn't look pregnant.' Then, there was the birth itself. Palin was in Texas on April 17 when her water broke, but she went ahead with a speech, then, rather than checking into a hospital, she headed back to Alaska." (The CBC provided a helpful map showing Palin's lengthy plane ride, with dramatic-sounding music.)
"There is no record of the birth," Macdonald added somewhat breathlessly. "Some suspect that Trig is actually Palin's grandson, and that Bristol, the now-pregnant teenage daughter, is the baby's real mother."

Now I can live with either the Republican or Democratic ticket taking the White House in November. I care most of all that the Clinton's have finally been taken out. But that was Obama's accomplishment, and not McCain's. As a Canadian I do insist on a standard of honesty and decency when it comes to our taxpayer funded CBC, which has always been full of itself. Neil Macdonald owes Governor Palin and her family an honest apology and the CBC News division should simply be ashamed of itself.

Governor Sarah Palin, her husband and their new son - Trig. "Family Values" is not tribal "code" for a neo-Christian Revolution. We non-Christians also identify with the need for a shared moral code and value set which transcends consumption and selfish gratification.

UN Gang leads infiltration of Vancouver Real Estate Companies

Michael Bradley Gordon was shot to death in Chilliwack on August 25th. One more sad death in a protracted vendetta which shows no sign of of running out of bullets. What distinguishes Mr. Gordon's case is that he was the second local realtor with known associations to the incredibly ruthless UN Gang to be executed over the summer. (The other was Elliott Castaneda, slain in Mexico on July 12.)

The Mike Gordon story took on a more sinister aspect when Kim Bolan posted a few provincial documents online which revealed that Mike Gordon wasn’t just a real estate salesperson like Castaneda, he was an Agent. While the public makes no distinction between the role of Salesperson and of Agent - the Tax Man does, and so does FINTRAC. "Agents" are owners who employ the licensed sales staff who provide service to the public. Agents train and supervise the sales force, they hold the deposits on Real Estate deals, they pay out the commission cheques to realtors, and much, much more. Agents are granted a higher level of discretion by the tax authorities, en par with accountants and lawyers, and if you have one in your pocket it’s a great assist to laundering money.

Mike Gordon was the owner of two companies - one the brokerage BEST BET REALTY registered on August 14, 2007 and the other a vehicle to spin real estate franchises, which was registered in April of 2008. Mr. Gordon was a personal friend of Clayton Roueche and he personally handled Roueche’s real estate portfolio. Roueche is the now infamous leader of the UN Gang, currently being held in a federal lockup in Seattle. Bolan, an investigative reporter for the Vancouver Sun, has interviewed both of Roueche’s parents at length. She taped an interview with Rupert Roueche, and the father is clearly getting frustrated that his own life is also becoming an open book. Roeuche's parents have been insisting for months that their son kept his activities separate from family life, and yet we now learn that father and sons had friends in common. "Rupert …confirmed that [Mike] Gordon was his real estate agent and a "good friend" and that he was advertising Gordon's company with a billboard on his property.”

It was Glenda Luymes, who covers the Fraser Valley beat for The Vancouver Province, who claims to have learned the reason why Mike Gordon was killed. She reported that “Murdered Chilliwack realtor Michael Gordon was buying and selling property for the UN Gang's jailed leader -- and hanging out with one of his sworn enemies.” Luymes seems very confident of her “source” but did not indicate whether the source was law enforcement or a gang associate. Her article implies that Rouche was displeased with Gordon and considered his behavior an actionable betrayal.
This begs the question of how Roueche could order a killing when he is in close confinement in Seattle? The SUN has reported that Roeuche used coded signals to issue orders from his cell last May, but surely he no longer has that ability. Is is not more likely that this killing has something to do with the ongoing investigation of the illicit income and spending habits of UN Gang associates, including realtors, which is being conducted by the Tax Man? Mark LaGrange (above) is also a key figure in this drama, and he is still alive. LaGrange, who refused to talk with reporters, is named on documents quoted in a SUN exclusive. The documents record the purchase of a Coquitlam condo by Clayton Roueche in 2007, before his arrest in the United States. LaGrange was also involved in recruiting salespersons for the company Mike Gordon set up in Surrey, B.C. At last count there were seventeen persons on staff in the BEST BET office.

Attempts were made to portray Gordon as a victim of circumstance but law enforcement wasn’t having any of that. A spokesman for the Chilliwack Detachment RCMP stated: "It may surprise you in what capacity or in what area that some of these individuals may work or operate, but definitely, this victim is known to police." Specific reference was made to “police intelligence” which means that Gordon may not have been charged with anything but he was an active investigation file. We already know that Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU) grabs the curbside garbage of gangsters as often as they can, so one must assume that most of Mike Gordon’s waste paper is archived somewhere.

So how to attract sales people and gain some credibility for Gordon’s “instant” brokerage, and without spending too much money? Well he seems to have assigned that task to an assistant. Just ten days before the boss was murdered Mark LaGrange placed an Ad on Craig’s List attempting to entice sales people to come over to BEST BET.
“No monthly Fees
No Coffee Fund
No Desk Fee
No Joke
Don't lose your license during the hard times, you worked so hard to get it! Join Best Bet Realty Ltd. and get through the hard times. Take advantage of this offer now!!! Contact Mark LaGrange at Best Bet Realty Ltd. Toll Free 1 866 860 7117 or by email: XXXX @shaw.ca”

Lena Sin and Glenda Luymes shown in THE PROVINCE newsroom, September 2007. At the time they had just completed a two month investigation of gang culture in Vancouver.

Glenda Luymes, who handles the Fraser Valley beat for The Province newspaper, interviewed Integrated Gang Task Force spokesman Sgt. Shinder Kirk . He said "It's not surprising organized crime would turn to real estate. There would be a benefit to having someone in that profession as part of your organization." Kirk pointed out that gangs, "like any other business organization" must recruit members with a variety of skills.

I was curious to read the comments of Larry Buttress who answered the reporter's questions on behalf of the Real Estate Council of B.C. His remarks were so bland that they testify to a culture of neglect in the industry. “Certainly it's concerning to us when we hear about Realtors who are involved in things they shouldn't be . . . but it's not a perfect world." Mr. Buttress thought it was enough to assure the public that neither Gordon nor Castaneda had a disciplinary record with the council.

FINTRAC: I would like to see the SUN and the PROVINCE do some federal Access to Information searches for FINTRAC records which might reveal the extent of organized crime infiltration of the Industry in B.C. We are warned that the scale of illicit drug activity is now 'off the scale'. FINTRAC officers are constantly giving presentations to Real Estate companies in the Lower Mainland which scare the hell out of honest Realtors. They repeatedly warn salespeople that it's there legal duty to report all criminal activity they spot in the course of their daily work. (And risk what level of retaliation?)
[The CREA FINTRAC Compliance Page is here.] It would be instructive to learn if management level is taking any of the responsibility, or just contenting themselves with milking many thousands of Realtors of exorbitant fees.

For an interesting little sampling of how FINTRAC "compliance officers" actually go about their Intelligence gathering in the hunt for bad eggs among Vancouver Realtors, have a gander at "Dealing with FINTRAC" by Marty Douglas. It's posted on JUROCK.COM.

CBC British Columbia has an online scoreboard for 2007 & 2008 gangland hits. (Use the link at upper right) On Sept. 2 the board shows 18 "targeted shootings," the local euphemism for execution murders. Some of the pistol tags are actually sites of multiple killings. Each tag opens to a data card and also a link to a news story. Note - Mike Gordon is not listed.