The Voices collective becomes the Morris Nation

There are no other "endorsements" but some not legally registered slates who make "recommendations".  First, of course, is what I call Team Mussatto, in local politics it is common for candidates to group themselves for and against the Mayor since that position is the public focal point of the City.  I see TM as follows, candidates Mussatto, Buchanan, Keating, Back, McGrenera and Makris. 

I've said in Council and to Darrell personally that the way of winning is to form an electoral organization, North Van Vision, let's say and you'll win the majority you have always dreamed of.  Obviously, he has chosen differently.

Second, is what I call the "VOICES Collective" or now what can be called the "Morris Nation", a group that published an "approved voting list" in the North Shore News the day before the election in the last two elections.  After doing this illegally in 2008 and being seriously chastised by the Chief Election Officer, they registered as "Third Party Advertiser" like the CUPE unions do.  But since so members of their core group were also candidates they failed the "arms length" requirement and again their actions were illegal.  The "Morris Nation" is new.  The old Voices core believes they are using Kerry Morris, knowing he can't win to keep Darrel busy so their Voices candidates can hold a majority of Council 

In 2012, they posted a website "NVan City Voices", they claim to have just started in the spring of 2012, organizers will get mad when one says it's the same old Voices but they feel a need to hide from their illegal activities.

A fuller history here. The Voices Collective is Morris, Bookham, Clark(R), Nichol.  Some would place Bill and Dorothy Bell in that slate but even though their platforms will be very similar, I doubt they are controlled by the Voices Collective.  Of course, they might "recommend " the 3 Bells in order to make it appear as if they have their support as they did last time with Don Bell.

They have no formal board of directors, no formal organization, like the "Occupy" movements of a couple of years ago.  Dennis, the Constitutional Peasant described the Voices Collective best, "an anarcho - syndicalist commune, taking turns to act as an executive officer of the week but all their decisions have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting by a simple majority in the case of internal affairs but by a 2/3's majority ..."  See full youtube clip here

I say the same to them as I've said to the Mayor - do things according to the law and be transparent about it for a change.   The time has passed to register so we've stuck with the shady practices of the past.   It looks like the Voices Collective thinks they using Kerry Morris to keep Darrell busy if when he is on a third place track and Kerry thinks he is using the Voices Collective.

Kerry Morris' brilliant tactics

Well at 9pm tonight on Shaw TV, Channel 4, you can all see what happens when Kerry Morris tries to make the Charge of the Light Brigade look like a sensible military maneuver.  It will be up on Shaw's website until the election.

Minutes before the meeting as we waited in the lobby, Kerry Morris made a big deal of calling his lawyer or pretending he was calling his lawyer to authorize a lawsuit against me.  He was trying to bully me so his endless drone of nonsense would dominate the debate.

Bad move Kerry, it just made me angry.

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Probably not up until after 1st broadcast 9pm - 10pm tonight

Kerry Morris is not a convicted criminal

Three of my Blogs have altered as per request from Kerry Morris' lawyers.  It appears as if there was the original trial was appealed and Kerry won so the original charge was negated and erased as if it never existed.  Sorry for the mistake readers and I retract any statement that I've made that Kerry Morris is a convicted criminal. 

I did not check the Court of Appeals records to see if the original decision had been appealed.  I should have.  I am sorry for the mistake.  I look up the Court of Appeal decision and see what it says and verify what Kerry Morris' lawyers have told me.

Did Kerry Morris lie to voters in Mayor's Debate?

So DailyXrta published a story on Kerry's homophobic hate speech. It's business as usual for Kerry, apparently he under a lot of stress.  Good he doesn't want to serve as a Mayor for the next four years or something stressful that that. 

A Provincial Judge commented in one of Kerry's trials that "I found Mr. Morris to be evasive and non-responsive to questions put to him in cross examination. Further, I found him to be belligerent, antagonistic and argumentative (observations similar to those made by the officers) to the point where I had to instruct him to answer Mr. Flannigan's questions."

This is not what I, am saying but what a Provincial Court judge said in the official record of Kerry's trial.

In my opinion, Kerry lied in yesterday's Mayors Debate when asked by a voter to explain why he was taken away in handcuffs after allegedly threatening Telus staff when he said he was just sitting in on a couch, calmly waiting for a refund of a bill that he had overpaid.

Do you believe that armed RCMP officers apprehended Kerry Morris for sitting on a couch? Kerry likes to paint this serious incident as act of the lone individual standing up for consumer rights. I'm surprised that this didn't go to trial after seeing a portion of Kerry's court records.  

I'm surprised that they even let him go  since he signed a "Promise to Appear in Court" during a charge of Driving under the Influence and failed to show up for his Court Date until after an Arrest Warrant for "Failing to Appear" had been issued.

Kerry has an excuse for everything.  Does he deserve your trust and vote?  Why are Council Candidates Bookham, Clark and Nichol still supporting Kerry Morris?  Why have they not issued a public statement withdrawing any statements of support they have made in the past?  Do they deserve your trust and vote?

Update 30 Oct 2014:  Blog altered as per request from Kerry Morris' lawyers.  It appears as if there was the original trial was appealed and Kerry won so the original charge was negated and erased as if it never existed.  Sorry for the mistake readers and I retract any statement that I've made that Kerry Morris is a convicted criminal. 

Kerry's "apology" & more Kerry incidents

Well, I received the expected "apology" for his homophobic words but not the homophobic bullying he performed on an Officer of the BC Counts.  He claims this is a "privileged email" although Kerry Morris's need to copy his homophobic comments directly to the lawyer he was making comments about  removed the "privileged" status of this document.

Although I'm flattered that Kerry commended my research by stating "it would take months for a skilled researcher to find" when it only took this blogger a few days to find.  I guess my days working in the House of Commons researching events like the sponsorship scandal or even during academic research during for my Poli Sci / History degrees made me a skilled researcher after all.

Press wise, it has made into print media although not the North Shore News as it would disrupt their coverage of gardens and such other important things. 

Kerry blames "a period of extreme business stress" for his multiple uses of homophobic threatening hate language.  He would likely say the same if asked about his criminal conviction or when he threatened to take hostages at a Telus office or his breach to fulfill his "promise to appear" in Court for his trial.

It's a good thing Kerry isn't doing anything extremely stressful now like running for Mayor and telling people he can handle the stress of being Mayor for the next four years.

Update 30 Oct 2014:  I guess I shouldn't use the term "skilled researcher".
Blog altered as per request from Kerry Morris' lawyers.  It appears as if there was the original trial was appealed and Kerry won so the original charge was negated and erased as if it never existed.  Sorry for the mistake readers and I retract any statement that I've made that Kerry Morris is a convicted criminal. 

A portion of Kerry Morris' raged filled history

"Candidates standing for public office need to be prepared to 'take the heat', according to Morris", published in the North Shore News 10 Oct 2014. Kerry said it to justify why he had performed a campaign to harass a young candidate who he proclaimed, was on Mussatto's team. Live by the sword, guy.

As he keeps proclaiming "he's in the business." It's not an episode of West Wing. Six months of being "belligerent, antagonistic and argumentative" as a Judge called him in one of his  trials. Actually, it disqualifys you.

Simply, Kerry Morris does not have the temperament or even the basic ability to hold his temper in public to be able to represent the City of North Vancouver.

1) Morris was arrested and taken away in handcuffs after threatening to take hostages at the Burnaby office. Kerry now tries to deny the story but do you believe Telus office workers and our trained professional police officers when confronted by an belligerent rage-oholic ?  Or Kerry who when asked by a judge in his criminal trial why he had lied to police officers said "it wouldn't be in his best interests to volunteer that information".  It wouldn't be in his best interests to tell the truth at any time when he has various incidents or convictions to cover up.

2) Kerry Morris started coming to Council meetings about a year ago, last January after a particularly scary outburst, RCMP officers had to be placed outside the meeting to guard the public against a potential Morris "outburst" that may have turned into something a lot more.

3) During a civil trial, Kerry Morris, felt particularly belligerent and agitated after an Officer of the Court had cross examined him in one of his trials.  Kerry got mad, outraged at the slight and as usual blew up. 

He sent an email to his lawyer and copied it to the opposing lawyer who Kerry Morris had made the presumption of being gay.  

Kerry Morris wrote comments to this Officer of the Court which most people in the 21st century would call hate speech which to this day are still in the Court Registry.  I bleeped parts of this, 

"Bill, to the extent you are able, and bearing in mind that I would never tell that missirable little pr*ck what a perm-headed fa*** I truly believe him to be, tell him to f*** himself in the most polite terms you can find. You might remind him that since he embarked on my character assassination at trial last week, I feel little inclination to soften the blow to the gay little pud-knockers feelings more like telling him the way all I know see him to be."

 This was all in a public document that any reasonable person would going to the official court record, Kerry copied this to the person he made the hate speech about in a threatening and intimating way.  All misspellings are Kerry's.

This is just a sampling of Kerry's last decade. A more intensive research effort would reveal a lot more, I bet.  Kerry is now 57, this is no youthful indiscretion but a snapshot of Kerry's life.

After reading this and in my experiences of Kerry Morris over the last year, it was obvious to me that he should not be allowed to hide this from the voters who he is asking for their trust and vote.

Perhaps someone in Toronto should have taken action before Rob Ford was elected Mayor there.

Authorized by George Pringle, Financial Agent, 604-971-0665

How am I deciding who to vote for?

Of course, a question I get asked a lot is "who would you want on your Council if elected?" 

Here are my and your choices but use different factors as to why I won't or will vote for candidate(s) to shorten the list a few times.  

So here what we have to choose:

Back, Holly
Bell, Bill
Bell, Don
Bell, Dorothy
Bookham, Pam
Buchanan, Linda
Clark, Matt
Clark, Rod
Fearnley, Via
Harvey, John
Heilman, Joe
Janis, David
Keating, Craig
Makris, Ianni
McGrenera, Kathryn
Nichol, Amanda
Sostad, Ron
Valente, Tony

First, I'm not voting for incumbents, 4 of 18 gone.  Council has been far too nasty and not professional enough for me. A new Mayor with a new Council.

Second, I prefer candidates with real business experience and not a public employee career as they have a whole different mindset.  When Holly Back wants to spend more money on something in her business she has to decide how to raise that money, she can't just raise the prices like Councillors raise our taxes every time they want to spend more money.

Third, I'd like to see 3 women and 3 men so a short list of eight appears.  I'd also think it that Ianni and Dorothy should sit on Council together to learn how to get along.

Back, Holly  hollyback.ca
Bell, Bill electbell.com
Bell Dorthy electbell.com
Clark, Matt votemattclark.com
Fearnley, Via viafearnley.ca
Heilman, Joe Joeheilman.ca
Makris, Iani  voteforianni.com
McGrenera, Kathy kathymcgrenera.ca
Valente, Tony www.tonyvalente.ca

So three have to go and their campaign and campaigning will have to help me decide!  Toss in a comment on who should go.

Remember Actions speak louder than words!

Update 28 Oct: Via wins the award for the most imaginative campaign material for her banner she has brought to meetings.  I think she has moved into my list of 6.

I am extremely disappointed in Dorothy and Bill Bell.  I've sent all the Council candidates information on Kerry Morris' failure to appear in court and the issuing of an arrest warrant  and on his homophobic hate speech.  Nothing.  Are Dorothy's crusades reserved for candidates she thinks are candidates for the Mayor?  Does she not think homophobic hate speech is acceptable?

Rod Clark, Pam Bookham and Amanda Nichol have stood up and endorsed Kerry Morris for Mayor.  Does their judgement meet the standards you set to earn your trust and vote?

Update 30 Oct It is clear to me that Bill Bell has not been away from City Hall long enough to act differently than the incumbents I won't vote for.  The "spin" he and Dorothy Bell use in their campaign is unacceptable to earn my vote.  So I'm down to:

Back, Holly  hollyback.ca
Clark, Matt votemattclark.com
Fearnley, Via viafearnley.ca
Heilman, Joe Joeheilman.ca
Makris, Iani  voteforianni.com
McGrenera, Kathy kathymcgrenera.ca
Valente, Tony www.tonyvalente.ca

A Tale of two Cities

I took a walk through the Downtown Eastside in Vancouver last July.  The usual panhandlers, spaced about a block away had turned into 3 to 4 blocks of people just sitting in or passed out drunk, in front of stores and bars on the sidewalk. Not a happy little street fest.

I turned around a corner and there was a guy shooting up.  I guess Insite doesn't work for him.  It allows him to break into cars, steal his drug money, illegally buy his drugs and shoot it up in government safety so he doesn't kill himself.  But he can't be bothered.

I know you're thinking, are you getting like the VOICES collective's webpage who will just forward an article on a 59 story tower going up in Burnaby and say "THIS IS WHAT IS HAPPENING IN NORTH VANCOUVER!!" using their obvious fear mongering for election purposes, referring to a 6 story building in Lower Lonsdale. No, it is a tale of two cities which how we in North Van deal with the issue far better than Vancouver or the taking the path that some Councillors and Candidates want us to take.

In Vancouver, their Mayor wants create a big re-development area of over a billion dollars with half coming from the Federal and Provincial governments.  Foolish dreams of more government money to the likes of Insite and the corrupt Portland Hotel Society and their poverty industry.

In its core is the quest for "affordable housing", Mayor Robertson's Vision is that a large segment of the Downtown Eastside won't see a serious revitalization.  He will continue, speed up if he can the BC Housing / Provincial Government programs to bring the crowd of Single Occupancy $375 welfare hotels to minimal standards.   As we've seen from the example of the Pidgin Restaurant which was protested by poverty activists as they saw "an west that was invading the east". By increasing and improving supply at the really low end of housing but really it is just sprucing up the ghetto met with resistance by those who leech from the massive government funds that flows to the poverty industry.  Those trips to Disneyland aren't cheap.

Subsidized housing for the needy and alcohol / drug plagued persons can be seen as laudable but why does it have to be on some of the most valuable land in BC?  Surely, we can build far more housing further north where the land is cheaper?

In North Vancouver, we pretty much have taken the opposite approach and stopped Lower Lonsdales' descent to being a extension of the Downtown Eastside.  While the mass change in liquor laws have pushed out the old beer halls / seedy hotels in favour of the neighborhood pub, Mayor Mussatto's Vision was to pump up the supply by packing in more people into less land.  He failed as the demand curve rose just as much as the supply curve increased but at he stopped it from turning into a slum.

It's important that we enhance the property value of those who invest in residential property and condos.  People have invested their life and mortgaged the rest of their life to buy their homes.  It is devastating when property values fall. 

At least we in are in the process of revitalizing Lower Lonsdale with 3 to 6 story mixed use buildings, creating a new storefront start of a downtown with the coming jewel of the crown, the new  Shipyard Plaza.  Opposed by a few voices, "nattering nabobs of negativity" as Jean Chretien used to call them.

The Voices Collective would like things to stay the same as it decays into a ghetto that rivals the Downtown Eastside chasing the fantasy of Affordable Housing in North Vancouver in our little 5 square miles.

Campaign Time

I have insomnia.   As Tuesday is the start of the pre-election I wanted to shift my time and get up at 5am every day to get on a regular schedule.  A tough thing when you've been retired for almost 3 years.

Well, asleep by midnight and awake by 1:30 unable to get back to sleep.   A long day awaits as I will try to get to bed at 9pm to have a normal night's sleep and can't fall sleep in my chair as I tend to do in the middle of the morning.

Crossing my fingers!

Campaign funding (Donations) 1

I have not applied for nor would I accept any donations, support or endorsement from the Labour Council (or any union organization that has a relationship to any of the City`s employee`s unions).

I do not believe it is proper for an union to be taking funds that are involuntarily taken from their members (who have no choice of being a member) which should be only used to support workers on a legal job action.  To take that money to try to influence the voters choice of who will be their boss is inappropriate.  

We saw in the case of the recent teacher`s strike that the BCTF had drained their coffers so much trying to get the NDP elected that they did not have the funds to properly support their workers during a strike.  I think there is something wrong with that.  I will not participate that kind of activity.