It looks to me like the foundation that is supporting the entire system, standard of living, and whole way of life in both Canada and the United States is quite shaky.

http://stateofthecanadiannation.blogspot.ca/2013/09/latest-total-government-federal_13.html

So an internationally respected organization (UN), who represents the majority of governments / countries in the world, calls on Canada to do the right thing and investigate violence on aboriginal women and our Harper government rejects them!

Hmm… I wonder what Harper’s christian conservative support base thinks of this?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/canada-to-reject-un-panels-call-for-review-of-violence-on-aboriginal-women/article14406434/

People#1

So an internationally respected organization (UN), who represents the majority of governments / countries in the world

———————————————
Cuba, Iran, Belarus and Russia used a United Nations body Thursday to criticize Canada’s human-rights record

———————————————
The first quote is People#1’s summary of an article .. the second quote is the lead line from the article that People#1 linked to support his question … this non-Harper supporting Canadian sees a big difference between the two statements … I think I will go with the Globe and Mail’s analysis this time ;-)

I love a good laugh early in the morning: First post is at 12:00..oh-oh…”I’m gonna wait until midnight then post a blog as a citation.” Followed with the resident lefty who was beaten to the first post..because well they are dippers and they never come first…and then that post is a ringing endorsement of that bunch of clueless goons in New York, otherwise referred to as the UN.

Much movement on Syria? Or is the plight of volunteer drug users in the west more important than children dying of chemical attacks and other atrocities?

Take a page from Dix’s biography and quit while you are behind.

Just wondering why we can’t comment on cases before the courts if they are local, but if it is a Williams Lake councilor it is alright?

I think it is just cowardly to encourage comments but not on anything before the courts. How many times have the media launched a legal challenge to report a court case that has been needlessly hidden from the gallery, or the public?

It is hypocritical and cowardly to place yourself as the vanguard of the “news” but also the gatekeeper on who gets to discuss it.

This wouldn’t be the first website with a comments section that had to delete something offensive or libelous. Grow a backbone and let us comment on local stories, regardless of whether you can afford to moderate it.

Has anyone noticed when driving the road signs on the opposite side of the road are always facing the other direction so as to be camouflaged from view to those that don’t need to be reading it. The only highway or official road signs one ever sees on the other side of a two lane road are the do not enter signs for a merge lane. One would assume this is because road signs on the opposite side of the road are a distraction to drivers that should be focused on their own side of the road thereby not drawing them across traffic from natural drift due to misplaced focus.

I think this is a huge issue in Northern BC seeing as we don’t have divided highways and we have a large number of accidents involving traffic crossing the center line.

So why is it that advertisers are allowed to advertise on the opposing side of the highway with large distracting signs often on the apex of a corner and often in the most misplaced of places to create the maximum amount of distraction to the distracted driver? It is especially bad in the Vanderhoof area and really should be looked at by the Ministry of highways IMO. I see it all the time.

Still glad Costco gas came.. They helped lower prices. Just shows how we been gouged before

Traffic signs are placed on the right side of the road so that it is clear which lane the sign is intended for.

Just imagine the common situation of driving out of town as the speed limit increases from 70kph to 100kph and the speed limit in the opposite direction moves from 100kph to 70kph.

So if the signs were visible from both direction we would have a sing on the left indicating a speed of 70kph and the one on the right at 100kph.

Quite confusing.

It is a simple rule which the police that gave me a ticket some decades ago did not know.

The situation was a T intersection with a stop sign on the right if you were crossing the road or making a left hand turn. I was making a right hand turn. A turning lane was provided for that with a yield sign on the right of that turning lane. So the stop sign was to the left of me. I got a ticket for not stopping when driving through the turning lane. There was no traffic to yield to, so I was able to keep on driving without interruption, until the police pulled me over.

I went to court, and it was thrown out for the obvious by the judge.

So, traffic signs have one standard, and it has nothing to do with distraction.

Advertising signs have another standard based on attraction. The highways department decides whether they consider them to be distracting or not.

PG doe not have too many “Burma Shave” type signs. The most obvious ones are those approaching the airport.

I love how everyone seems so excited that since Costco opened there gas bar gas dropped 7 cents and everyone thinks this is awesome and says that it shows how much everyone else is screwing us. ( not picking on anyone in specific just ranting ) A bit of a news flash. There all still screwing us over. There’s lots of oil in the UAE and there about 50 cents a litre. We have lots of oil in Canada and were 126 cents a litre?

Does anyone know how the food is at uhnbc, I hear there is a new menu?

alexvega:

Ben has said before that you can have carte blanc to post whatever you like as soon as you bring in a letter from your lawyer accepting full responsibility, financial and otherwise for the contents of the posts.

Grow a pair and bring in a letter:P

People is this town don’t know the difference between a merge and a yield sign in their own lane, let alone what’s going on in the opposite one

interesting with the new dumping fees…. We go into dump two bags of garbage of a very decent weight and a very heavy bag of cloths to the recycle. Wait in line to be given a weigh in number, dump our load, weigh out. This is the silliness… we are told on weigh out that our load weighed ZERO and we would not be charged. Question is that if the scales were off to our advantage this time ,how do we tell if the scales will be correct next time and not over charge us with incorrect weight ?

Walter, newer menu, but not necessarily better food. I avoid most of it.

“First post is at 12:00..oh-oh…”I’m gonna wait until midnight then post a blog as a citation.” Followed with the resident lefty who was beaten to the first post..because well they are dippers and they never come first…and then that post is a ringing endorsement of that bunch of clueless goons in New York, otherwise referred to as the UN.”

And your upset because you thought you would be first at 4:23am?

Costco gas has been open a week and what is their price now? Last I heard it was 1.21 / litre. Not a bad price adjustment in a week. How long will it last?

Vega…a bright star or a car famous for rusting before it left the showroom ?

The funniest comment I’ve read on here lately is vega’s:

“Take a page from Dix’s biography and quit while you are behind.”

That is priceless.

SO the news this morning is UBCM’s vote on 4 year terms for mayors and councilors beginning in 2014. I’m surprised that this isn’t all over the page this morning.

Gas could be down another 7 cents if it was not for the carbon scam. The new Australian gov. Dumped the tax and has shut down the Mann caused warming scam there.

Speaking of price gouging,went to a drug store chain store to purchase cough medicine and was a little amazed at the price.On my visit to WM, went to the pharmacy where the exact same item was over $7 less. Wrote a letter to head office of the drug store and this is the reply I received.

“Thank you for writing to us regarding your pricing concern. It is a constant struggle to stay competitive and we are continually investigating ways to help reduce our retail prices. We appreciate your concerns and your time in sharing them with us. Our stores are individually owned and operated and as a result prices vary from location to location. Numerous factors contribute to the pricing of certain products. Buying patterns, product availability, location etc., are all factors that affect prices. Your comments and concerns are very important to us and have been forwarded to the appropriate department for future consideration.”
In other words, we can charge what we want.Well, I for one am done with this chain of stores.

I noticed a few months ago that the companies who sell water for water coolers all hiked their prices at the same time. It used to be that a 5 gallon jug was $2 at the u-fill stations. Almost overnight they all raised their prices to $3.

They took a page out of the local gas stations playbook on that one!

To the individual who is playing the role of sycophant: No letter from any lawyer would prevent an order to delete any libelous comments.

Anyone who has spent any amount of years, or in my case decades blogging, would already be well aware of the attempt by the “Free-Press” to stifle comments on any topic deemed to touchy.

But that is a moot point: Read my post, I asked why we can comment on legal matters as long as they are not local. Did you get that this time?

Comment Posted by: alexvega on September 20 2013 4:31 AM

Just wondering why we can’t comment on cases before the courts if they are local, but if it is a Williams Lake councilor it is alright?

other news outlets allow comments and is why they are more popular.

Been a long time since we have seen a barn stormier story on this site.

FOUR YEAR TERMS FOR MAYOR AND COUNCILLORS???
Good godfrey, just think how a bunch of them could benefit their friends in that kind of time window! Even a two year term is MUCH TOO LONG for this bunch in PG.

Anyone know what is burning on Cranbrook Hill?

I liked that clean cut well dressed cop that was standing at intersection of Domano and O’Grady yesterday around three looking at drivers and being obvious about it.(probably checking for cell usage) Then as you pass Joey’s, you see two other cops in uniforms standing behind the building there waiting to pull over drivers..

Passed Petro Can this morning and gas was 1.23.. Wonder how much lower Costco is..

Went for a drive yesterday: Out of eleven bike riders observed one wore a helmet!

Anyone know what is burning on Cranbrook Hill?

Ohhh yeahhhhh FORGOT the cops are paid by the City….duhhhhh

Gas in PG was 133.9 a liter nine days ago.
Costco price today 121.9. Interesting.

Ispy – I went to a drug store in down to purchase a particular skin cream I forgot to pick up at Superstore. The price was a full $5 MORE at this drug store, for the exact same product. I asked them if they would price match and they simply said “nope”. Just like that. Not even the slightest attempt to be competetive. I left, after leaving behind my basket of other items I had collected. I won’t be returning to that drug store. EVER.

Went for a drive yesterday. Between PG and Hope, the lowest gas price was in PG.

One hell of a rare occasion!

I wonder how come that happened? ;-)

Costco? The store, that if it were located in Venezuela, gas would be 1 cent per litre. It is the cheapest in the world there, reportedly at 6 cents per gallon (1.5 cents per litre) early in 2013.

The whole world is getting gauged. The stuff is cheaper than water ……. if you can get the others who do not have any oil to pay for the oil.

Isn’t public ownership of resources just the greatest? … ;-)

Time we applied that notion to wood. Free wood to build our fences with. LOL

Week before last our livelihood was blockaded on the Leo Creek Road north of Fort St James for 5 days. Ours being one of many logging trucks, loggers, miners that could not legally pass this blockade. The news teams in this area were not able to get the information as to why the natives had it blocked nor do the RCMP have the right to just take it’s down. In the end, nothing was gained by the protest, not even a mention on the news to bring it to the attention of the general public. How frustrating that if we crossed it would be a charge of dangerous driving and the end to our National Safely Code. Yet if you or I were to blockade a public road it would be shut down and we would be charged. In my opinion the loss for that week of taxable income was into the hundreds of thousand. How are those that collect social income going to get paid this month?

Why is it that the Canadian natives are still on reserves anyway? Shouldn’t we welcome them in our communities and let them become part of society like the rest of us?

Livingonwater, I like your statement “Shouldn’t we welcome them in our communities and let them become part of society like the rest of us?”

I personally believe that is the only way that first nations people will have a better life. Assimilation into society; which is similar to survival of the fittest and adaptation.

Why is it that other people can retain their heritage and culture while assimilating into other cultures?

gus: “Costco? The store, that if it were located in Venezuela, gas would be 1 cent per litre. It is the cheapest in the world there”

A common example. However, gas in Venezuela is susidized by the government, which is why they’re so cheap. They’ve decided that gas is more important than say, education and medical funding. Plus, I’ll take our current government over Hugo Chavez (or whoever his replacement is).

Biggest things for me this week? Just learning that Bob Newhart is 84 and the Sahara Desert is actually “desert desert”. Apparently Sahara is Arabic for desert. Who knew? All of the ninnies at city hall will be elected again. People have short memories, most don’t care because many issues don’t affect them, and the city puts something in the water here to induce temporary amnesia a week or two before the vote. I sure hope downtown revitalization is a topic for discussion during our net evection. Maybe some wag can approach the Guinness people and have us entered in their book about our record of how many years we have talked about it. Despite its shortcomings, (many) I still like this town.

…next election. (faulty keyboard). Oops!

Why bother having trials, just allow comments from people who feel they know what the decision should be beforehand. Your submission on who is guilty or not is left to you, of course without the facts.
That is why we have courts , not justice by someone who feels they have all the answers and their thoughts are the only ones that count. That may be the practise in some countries thank God it isn’t in Canada.
Trying to get a local jury that is impartial, is difficult at best, that is why we eliminate comments on those stories where people have been charged and their names are in the public realm. It is important that a trial be held in the communities impacted by the matter being tried. If the court cannot find an unbiased jury, the case will be moved to another jurisdiction, and that is not only expensive, but does a disservice to the community and all involved in the case.
If you feel strongly about commenting on individuals who find themselves before the court, start your own website . Say whatever you want. You will quickly discover that there are penalties that come with people expressing their thoughts without having knowledge of the facts, and so there should be. You also will discover that the saying “freedom of speech” does not mean you can say whatever you want about who ever you want, whenever you want , without fear of reprisal. You also will find that when it is you who are being judged you would like a unbiased hearing not tainted by someone who thinks they know all the facts without hearing them first. No matter the case, no matter the charge, we are all innocent until proven guilty.

“However, gas in Venezuela is susidized by the government”

If one is a believer in a 100% free market economy, all gasoline priced below the price determined by that economy is subsidized.

So, does the USA subsidize its gasoline if it is cheaper than gasoline in Canada … or Britain, or Turkey?

At what point is gasoline subsidized?

Are we subsidizing government?

Perhaps, for a start, we need to get rid of City government and let out contracts to management companies to run our cities to standards determined by business contracts and audited by an independent company hired by us to do that work.

I disagree. You are treating people like idiots. There is a public gallery and it is there to ensure the transparency of the process. More reporting, local or otherwise is an important part of justice.

By your theory no trial should ever be held in any communities with less than 20,000 people, because word of mouth and innuendo spread faster than any media outlet I know of. Maybe a little factual reporting would help educate the jury pool.

But that too is irrelevant. Just take away the anonymity of your posters and combine that with a court order to the IP and you have a responsible party to target, if they can’t abide by libel laws.

I think you are just throwing out the baby with the bath water..and as for hiding behind that tired sophomore response “..host your own website if you don’t like it”..pfft..Sorry for mistaking this for a legitimate news outlet. I’ll try and remember this is just a big ego trip for a retired journalist.

alexvega, what did someone do to your cereal this morning? If you don’t like this site, stay off it.

250 News, keep on doing what you do. A lot of us like it. Thank you.

“it is in front of the courts, so we cannot discuss it: is too often a lame excuse to respond to the interest of the public who want to deal with a matter which is often not included in the court case.

So, does the standard practice serve us well? perhaps on balance, it does not.

The same goes with the considerable privacy of the Canadian trial process compared to that of the USA with more visibility of the process.

Is one system right and the other wrong? Of course not. They are different approaches from different points of view.

Is civil law right and codified law wrong? of course not. Again, different points of view.

Should we be discussing such matters without adding ad hominem opinions? You betcha!!!!

Maybe having to read my “lefty” comment so early in the morning, and then being compelled to respond to it, set alexvega off?

Sorry I ruined your goose stepping weekend :(

Give me a break. As a professional windmill bender I laugh at the suggestion that it is possible to exchange ideas with anyone on this site if you happen to represent a differing opinion.

I attempt to be obtuse and adopt a “..if the shoe fits wear it type of targeting”, making it pretty hard for anybody to take direct offense at my comments, but rather the tone…(oh-wah)

Most of the responses to my posts are just the local clique piling on to anybody who dares to sully their sandbox. As someone who blogs as a conservative on the HP, this is water off a ducks back. Carry-on.

JB:”However, gas in Venezuela is susidized by the government, which is why they’re so cheap.”

Venezuelan gasoline is partly *subsidized* by us Canadians! We import our oil for the Eastern part of Canada mostly from Venezuela, paying big bucks instead of supplying Canada’s East with Canadian bitumen/oil coming from one of the largest deposits on the globe in Alberta.

Too boot the oil industry in Venezuela is state owned so it can charge whatever it wants for its product, unlike Canada.

BTW, Norway has established a heritage fund approaching two trillion dollars with the vastly better revenues it gets from its oil fields.

Alberta in contrast is running a deficit and has a large provincial debt!

To Livingonwater—- Look around ya… They are everywhere, living everywhere, AND working too, paying taxes… Which community you living in??? Mennonite???

“a professional windmill bender” in common parlance…..a blowhard.

Wow… it took only nine (9) minutes for alexvega to respond to my comment, with an additional “bonus” response from lonesome. I am so flattered ;-)

Have a good weekend everyone.

Was in Edmonton last week and everywhere the price of gas was $1.12 a litre……except the new Costco in SW where it was $1.08. Thank you Costco for coming to town. Then went into the Costco liquor store and picked up some Kirkland booze for half the price paid in BC !

PrinceGeorge : “Venezuelan gasoline is partly *subsidized* by us Canadians! We import our oil for the Eastern part of Canada mostly from Venezuela”

Um, no. Our oil imports mostly come from Norway, Algeria, UK, Saudi Arabia, Angola Nigeria and Iraq. Russia and Mexico supply about as much to eastern Canada as Venezuela to the tune of about 25,000 barrels a day on a total import of 850,000 to 1 million barrels a day (compared top an export of 1.8 million barrels a day average)

US however imports a lot of oil from Venezuela, they are #4 on the US list… but last time I checked we still didn’t sing about stars and stripes at the Cougar’s games (unless they came up here to do battle)

alex: “Most of the responses to my posts are just the local clique piling on to anybody who dares to sully their sandbox.”

Nailed it!

PG: “Venezuelan gasoline is partly *subsidized* by us Canadians! We import our oil for the Eastern part of Canada mostly from Venezuela, paying big bucks instead of supplying Canada’s East with Canadian bitumen/oil coming from one of the largest deposits on the globe in Alberta.

Too boot the oil industry in Venezuela is state owned so it can charge whatever it wants for its product, unlike Canada.”

Yeah, I get it, the whole system is corrupt and we’re all going to heck in a handbasket. But again, I say, would you rather have a Venezuelan government or Canadian?

i agree, costco gas is a great addition. it took that crew less time to put in a gas station than the crew to put in a parking lot at lac des bois elementary, go figure. only gripe? no squeegees. oh well, bugs won’t be an issue much longer. one more gripe? posters like vega that have trouble posting their opinions without namecalling. add me on to your blacklist as another resident lefty, vega. i was a teacher for a time and used to tell my teenage students that there was nothing that made someone sound less informed and sullied an honest argument more than namecalling. my wife pulls her hair out when i say it, but let’s just agree to disagree sometimes, and do it politely.

Some might say go build your own sandbox!0

“….would you rather have a Venezuelan government or Canadian?”

Venezuelan of course! (a silly question deserves a silly answer).

Kind of like how a silly post deserves a silly response.

Thanks slinky, looks like the CBC had all its facts based on misinformation.

I agree with 250 blocking comments about matters before the courts. If that matter happens to have to go before a Jury, you may have influenced some of the opinions and decisions those people might have to make.
Although, our system is far from perfect, would you want a jury basing their decision on what posters say on a news website, or what is actually presented in court?

I agree with 250 blocking comments about matters before the courts. If that matter happens to have to go before a Jury, you may have influenced some of the opinions and decisions those people might have to make.
Although, our system is far from perfect, would you want a jury basing their decision on what posters say on a news website, or what is actually presented in court?

“Although, our system is far from perfect, would you want a jury basing their decision on what posters say on a news website, or what is actually presented in court?”

If jurors are basing their decisions on what they are reading on a news site instead of what is presented in court, we are all really in trouble.

Could not have said it better myself dragonmaster.

Not all cases involve a jury and if the judges in this province read blogs and base their judgment on blogs, we are in bigger problems.

AlexVega, have you ever heard of commenters being brought before the court for contempt or sued for something said on a blog?
It happens. Ben does this for a reason as a lot of Intelligent media types do. There’s folks out there who are potential jurors and there are witnesses out there who read some of the spew that ends up here. Unfortunately the less intelligent take what they read as gospel, on here and on the internet.
Nuff said?

Any rumors as to what’s happening to the land between The Sandman and the Brick? It is getting cleared finally.

Northland Dodge!

Nope. Strip mall. Goat truck sales will be on the other side of the Sandman.

The Fed really pushed the envelope too far this time.

The Federal Reserve shocked the markets Wednesday with its decision to furlough QE “tapering.” The Bernanke Fed, having for years prioritized a clear communications strategy, threw unsettled global markets for a loop.

Much has been written the past few days addressing the Fed’s change of heart. I’ll provide my own take, noting first and foremost my belief that Wednesday’s decision likely marks a critical inflection point. A marketplace that had been willing to ignore shortcomings and give the Federal Reserve the benefit of the doubt must now reevaluate. After all the fun and games, the markets will have to come to terms with a divided and confused Fed that has lost its bearings. As much as the Bernanke Fed was committed to the notion of market-pleasing transparency, it had kind of come to the end of the rope and was forced to just throw up its hands.

http://www.prudentbear.com/2013/09/sept-20.html

Sure sad when it comes to kids
stabbing other kids but most of us in this white society are very ignorant of society on reserves. It ain’t pretty for most of them.

middle finger is correct, Northland will be in the old tennis court area

Grizzly 1 wrote: “Unfortunately the less intelligent take what they read as gospel, on here and on the internet. Nuff said?”

250NEWS IS on the internet!!!

Jurors, as any human being, are biased. The juror selection process is an attempt to see where the biases lie and whether they are acceptable to both the crown and the defense.

The base notion is that the accused should be judged by a jury of the peers. Of course, in the case of a “career” criminal, that would mean the jury would be composed of career criminal.

There goes that notion.

If one were to be truthful, rather than idealistic, that notion can really rarely be attained.

So, how about a cross section of the population?

How about men judge men and women judge women?

The system is not perfect.

I think the key reason is that the person is innocent until proven guilty and while the network of gossipers can whisper behind people’s backs about the terrible deeds the accused has done and how it was about time for her to be caught in the act, that is one thing that cannot be published, proving once again that slander is difficult to stop, while libel is not.

Would that be the left wing clique, the right wing one, or the clique in the middle?

Stillsmokin: ohhhh yeahhhhh FORGOT the cops are paid by the City… duhhh.

You might want to retract that. They are RCMP not city police; their wages are NOT paid by city hall…. duhhhh

City RCMP are paid for by city hall. The regional RCMP on 5th avenue are paid for by the feds.

With the price of gas now down over ten cents its a lot of money into the retailers pockets here in town. Another couple of million a week into the disposable income for people will boost the local economy for sure.

Isn’t a better time of the year to go for a drive in Northern BC with the changing season and fantastic landscapes we are lucky to have.

Have a great weekend everyone :)

I don’t think your comment that city RCMP are paid for by city hall is correct. That is why they are called RCMP not city police. Port Moody for example has city police. We have city fire department, although they are not CUPE, they are paid by the city.

“Any rumors as to what’s happening to the land between The Sandman and the Brick?”

The existing River Point development is not large enough to be a drawing card for those who will do more than destination shopping. As others would also recall, Rona was supposed to go there, but they thought better of it.

Starbucks went in there on the understanding that Rona would move there. When they did not, Starbucks quietly and quickly walked away with tail between its legs.

To be successful (drawing new customers because of location) a larger number of retailers are required.

“I don’t think your comment that city RCMP are paid for by city hall is correct”

And you base this opinion on what research you did on your own? Look up the City budget on their web site. You will see that eagleone is correct.

The City has to have a police force. They have a choice of creating their own, as several cities in BC have done, or contract it out. Most in BC contract it out to the RCMP. The same is done for the provincial police. It is contracted out to the RCMP.

By virtue of the provincial Police Act, eleven cities and municipalities in BC have created their own independent police agencies. They are:

◾Abbotsford Police Department

◾Central Saanich Police

◾Delta Police Department

◾Nelson Police Department

◾New Westminster Police Service

◾Oak Bay Police Department

◾Port Moody Police Department

◾Saanich Police Department

◾Vancouver Police Department

◾Victoria Police Department

◾West Vancouver Police Department

Thanks for that info. I will check out what you suggested. :)