Bad weather all the way up Hwy 5, from Seattle to Vancouver. I was there Monday night, went on short notice, just to see who would show up. I'm retired law enforcement and I still look like I'm on the job, and I was amused at how many people I was about to protest came up to talk to me about the 'radicals'. Six or seven different people managed to find me on the sidewalk and they all took time to say something like, "Glad to see a friendly face, can you push them back to the other sidewalk?"
You should not judge a book by its buzzcut. And I do not have a friendly face. I did met many friendly and peaceful people, and all of them were outside the Le Bon Mot's event at the Vancouver Club.
I'm going to just post some links to the sites of some people I met in Vancouver-- their organizations are inspiring and worth following.
First, look at www.sandrafinley.ca
Sandra Finley was the leader off the Green Party from 2006-2008, and her website shows all of the work she has been involved with. Some of her people were in Vancouver. This site broke the news on September 23, of the first Canadian politician to publicly speak about the need to refuse Dick Cheney entry into Canada:
In a calm and measured voice, Vancouver Kingsway MP Don Davies today (September 23) declared that former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney should be barred from entering Canada.
Then try www.itccs.org. They had a big problem with Cheney appearing at the Vancuver Club, noting the organizations past ties to child-trafficking.
A United Nations conference on child trafficking, held in Vancouver in September, 1999, confirmed in its summary report that Vancouver is one of three cities in the world where “organized child prostitution and trafficking operates with unofficial police and judicial protection … including at the elite Vancouver Club.”
The itccs is also trying to use Canadian law to expel several organized religions from Canadian soil:
Issued against the Corporations known as the Roman Catholic Church, Anglican Church, and United Church of Canada
By Elders in Council from the Inuit, Cree, Metis, Mohawk, Anishnabe, Basque and Gaelic Nations under traditional and sovereign Land Law Jurisdiction.
As of this day, Sunday, September 18, 2011, your organizations, their clergy and officers, are forever banished from our territories and lands, and your property and wealth are claimed and re-possessed for the use and benefit of all our people. Your right to operate on our land has been forfeited by your rape, torture, and murder of our children, by your refusal to change and do justice, and by your betrayal of your own faith and public trust.
What was interesting about the Vancouver event was that Cheney was allowed to come and go, without being detained by Canadian government officials. Despite the move by Swiss officials in February of this year in denying Bush entry, and then the later HRC report in June, which declared Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and several others war criminals, Canada does not appear to want to act against these still-powerful men and their infliential friends. A Monday diary gives details about Bush's trip to Toronto on September 19, 2011. It's a good read and it shows how forces within government are held hostage to billionaires and organized influence.