Hamilton Police Being Sued

I can't say I'm shocked, but yet another black Hamilton man is suing the police for not doing their jobs. As you can see in this article, Robert Junor was attacked a couple of years ago by a guy who screamed and spat at him over his skin colour (and allegedly tried to use a bolt cutter on him, too). The lunatic who went after him, did get put away for it, but it wouldn't have happened if the Hamilton police had any say in it.

For some reason, despite there being physical evidence of an assault, the officers that initially took Junor's report, refused to do anything about it. They actually told him to PRIVATELY file charges.

I'm not sure you understand the concept, officers!

The officers who made this bone-headed move are currently suspended and being tried for negligence. Mr. Junor is suing, claiming racial prejudice. To be honest, I really don't think race has anything to do with it. That may sound weird, when talking about a police force that was recently in court for arresting a black man for the crime of a white man, or beating up a defenseless Asian refugee for no particular reason, but there is a method to my madness.

About a year and a half ago, a girl that I went to grade school with, called my house trying to get me to wire her some money. She got my mom instead (I was out at the time), and claimed that her boyfriend had beaten her up, and needed money right away to get herself and her kids from Alberta back to Hamilton. My mom wired her $50, and when I managed to get this woman on the phone again she said she would pay us back in a couple of days.

Suffice it to say, she never did. The phone number she gave us, was soon disconnected as well, and she didn't return any e-mails I left on Facebook.

I soon discovered that she'd done this exact same thing to many of our mutual friends. Western Union said that my mom and I needed to take this to the police fraud unit... and they wouldn't even look at it. I'll acknowledge that a lot of hearsay and e-mails is hardly iron-clad proof, but you'd think that would at least be enough for them to take over and start digging. Maybe if my mom was 80 and in a nursing home it would have been taken a bit more seriously, I don't know.

If it had even occurred to me to get the desk officer's name/badge number and talk to a supervisor, I would have. Not because I particularly care about the $50, but because this bozo was being shown evidence of a crime wave, and did nothing about it. Sadly, we've also seen this attitude when reporting drivers that nearly ran us over in crosswalks on the job.

Back when I was protesting the G20 incident, I was asked by some sheep what I would want to happen if someone was assaulting me or killing my relatives -- wouldn't I be calling the cops? Well, here's the thing: I don't even know if the cops would do anything about it.

Crooked Stephen Harper

In the last week, the government of Emperor Harper has caught nothing but flak, over one -- relatively insignificant -- cabinet minister. Bev Oda, the Minister for International Co-Operation, has admitted (after a lot of cajoling), that she revoked the funding to KAIROS (a progressive Christian humanitarian group). Specifically, she did this by adding the word "NOT" to a document that had already been signed by one of her staff, which actually approved $7 million in federal funding.

Everyone in Ottawa, or following the story, who isn't a die-hard Stephen Harper supporter, is calling for Oda's head. It's not so much because she denied KAIROS funding -- whether one agrees with that or not, that is her prorogative, as the head of that department. The problem is that she not only altered a signed document (effectively forging it), but that she initially claimed that she wasn't the one to have done so.

In other words, not only did she lie to Parliament (which -- on top of being extremely unethical -- is grounds for dismissal), but she apparently committed a crime.

So what does our righteous Conservative Prime Minister do? After all, he has always thumped his chest about bringing an accountable government to Ottawa, and being tough on crime. Well, guess what? He's championing Bev Oda's actions.

For those who have forgotten recent history, Harper took down the Paul Martin Liberals for scandals like this (ie. AdScam). Not only that, but less than a year ago, Harper had fired cabinet minister Helena Guergis and sicked the RCMP on her, for a lot less than this. I guess being honest with Canadians, and obeying serious laws, is yet another thing that Harper only cares about when he can wound lower-case liberals with it.

I sincerely hope that Opposition Leaders Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton, and Gilles Duceppe remember where their testicles are, and overthrow Harper NOW. Forming a coalition is all that it should take, but even if it comes to an election, Harper's going to have a very hard time convincing Canadians he deserves to stay in power, when HE'S ASSISTING A CRIMINAL, WHO LIES TO THE PUBLIC. Of course, we won't even get into how Harper himself is being investigated by the International Criminal Court, for covering-up (and possibly ordering) the torture of Canada's Afghan war prisoners. If ever there was a Prime Minister, who made himself a textbook case for being thrown out of office by force, it's Stephen Harper.

Enough said.

Cancer Fraud

Across Ontario, there's been a young woman in the news, named Ashley Kirilow. If you haven't already heard, she conned thousands of dollars off from people (including her closest friends) by claiming to have terminal cancer. It seems like the only people she didn't manage to scam were members of her family, and only because they saw right through it -- evidently she's been a spoiled liar ever since she was a kid.

Sure enough, now that she's turned herself in and confessed, not a single person is willing to bail her out.

People like her make me sick. All her life she has manipulated people to do her bidding or give her attention. Now that she's in a position to finally get real help, I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt, but the fact is that the way she's behaving around her lawyer and the judge is exactly the same as how she's behaved around her marks. Plus, in my experience, liars this pathological very rarely change.

And of course, people like her make life a thousand times harder, for anyone REALLY trying to raise money for cancer treatment or research. I had a hard enough time with my cancer drive, and that was BEFORE this twit came along -- I'd be screwed if I'd tried it now, and no doubt many others are.

Honestly, even though I'm not religious, I suspect that there's a special place in Hell reserved for people like her.