Court upholds Hells Angel’s acquittal, despite rude judge, Ian Mulgrew, Vancouver Sun, Apr 30, 2008
The controversial acquittal of an elite Nomad member of the Hells Angels caught with 52 kilograms of cocaine worth $1.56 million has been upheld in spit…
Author: Norman Farrell
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: J. Leask: Questions of perspicacity and impartiality
Two Hells Angels called ‘pawns of police’ get short sentences for drug trafficking, Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun, March 12, 2010
Vancouver — Two Hells Angels members received short jail sentences Friday of one year and 14 months for serious drug traffic…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Ocean playground
Photos taken near Powell River
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Would they lie to us?
Nine Months before Olympics, Province Saw Big ‘Shortfall’, Bob Mackin, The Tyee, November 14, 2011
“…When VANOC revealed its post-Games financial report on Dec. 17, 2010, it claimed a balanced budget after $188.78 million in operations revenue fro…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Political action at the grass roots
Inside the Russell Pearce recall, Amy McMullen, Salon.com
A good read about citizen-activists organizing to make Russell Pearce, President of the Arizona Senate, the first state legislator in Arizona history removed from office via a recall election…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Some targets are easier to make than others
Forget land costs, management and operating expenses; BC Place still needs $2.5 million a month to break even. That represents amortization of recent renovation costs over 20 years. Of course, the actual revenue needed for break even is much higher bec…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: If we do not act, we bear the guilt
“Its the name on the front of the jersey that matters most, not the one on the back.”
Joe Paterno (Penn State)
Legendary coach Joe Paterno and Penn State are in the news but not for football results or academic achievements. I won’t repeat details exce…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: George Monbiot explains national bankruptcy
The 1% are the very best destroyers of wealth the world has ever seen, George Monbiot, The Guardian
“If wealth was the inevitable result of hard work and enterprise, every woman in Africa would be a millionaire. The claims that the ultra-rich 1% make f…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Old news, aged quickly
Today, media conglomerates are not only influenced by Big Money interests, but they are often themselves Big Money interests.
– Cameron Gaut
I wrote earlier that the Toope Report helps the Liberal Government change the subject from that which makes it …
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: When up is down and down is up
BC Agriculture Minister Don McRae, coordinating with federal agencies, claimed last week there are no confirmed cases of Infectious Salmon Anaemia (ISA) in British Columbia salmon. Mcrae said,
“It is vitally important that we ignore and discredit scien…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Policies are pointless if routinely ignored
BC Liberals paid $6-million in public funds to Dave Basi and Bob Virk as part of enticements that ended the BC Rail political corruption trial. The criminal court action had been embarrassing the government and was about to get worse. Former minister G…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: An impassioned gale
In 1908’s New Worlds for Old, H.G. Wells examined a nascent movement that he supported avidly. He wrote,
“The early Socialist literature teems with rash, suggestive schemes. It has the fertility, the confusion, the hopefulness, the promise of glowing y…
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Questions remain unanswered
10-12-28_bc_rail_100_questions
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Northern Insights / Perceptivity: Old line parties share corrupt styles
Silence reigns over Port of Montreal hiring controversy, Politicians prefer to keep things quiet, BY STEPHEN MAHER, POSTMEDIA NEWS, October 29, 2011
“…In the Mafia, if you break that code and rat out your brothers, the penalty is death.
In politics,…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Mainstream media no longer sole gatekeepers
In the government’s sale disposition of BC Rail, there are compelling indicators that massive fraud was perpetrated. Even worse, senior provincial officials interfered with investigation and prosecution of the duplicity involved. Premier Campbell’s of…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: The myth of democracy
Oligarchy, American Style, Paul Krugman, New York Times Op-Ed
“We have a society in which money is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few people, and in which that concentration of income and wealth threatens to make us a democracy in nam…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Mistrusted neighbour
“Salmon farming along the British Columbia coast has expanded with encouragement from both Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) and the B.C. provincial government.
The Canadian federal fisheries department is in a contradictory role. I…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Has the game changed or merely the players?
Recently, I was amused by a certain radio news-talk host angrily sputtering in response to callers’ claims that he was partial and passive in political coverage. He replied that, in a very long career, he’d followed his own conscience; management had …
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: So they arrested the reporter, not the bankers
Truthdig, November 3, 2011:
“Goldman Sachs, which received more subsidies and bailout-related funds than any other investment bank because the Federal Reserve permitted it to become a bank holding company under its “emergency situation,” has use…
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: The end of news as we know it
The following article was first published May 24, 2010. Since then, Sean Holman suspended the Public Eye website, Postmedia has focused on serving business not public interests, the destruction of CBC News has advanced and radio news, with few resource…
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