Vancouver Riot Part 1 - The Riot

We had a riot. I don't live in Vancouver, I live on Vancouver Island - across the ocean from Vancouver. Thankfully, I was no where near the riots, however, I can still feel the impact on this side of the ocean.

Because I am not only Canadian, but also live in BC, this incident is very important to me. 

I will therefore be making this into a 3 part blog.

This is not the BC I know. This is not the Canada I know. The Canada I know is a peace loving, gentle place.

BC is also a place where everyone has a camera phone. I can't imagine what these people are thinking. They will, of course, have to pay the consequences to their actions. We can clearly see their faces.

I can't imagine what these poor people are thinking.

 More Heroes

 Lighting on fire and jumping on top of a Police car. Again, can clearly see everyone's faces.

A clear indication that the "mob mentality" really does exist. I don't think a lot of these people would act this way normally.

 This guy makes me incredibly angry. He just looks like an asshole

Ridiculous. I'm sad that this is the NEW impression of Canada/BC. Everyone loved us after the Olympics, and now.... we are ashamed.

The Joys of Dog Ownership

Another great perk of owning a dog?

Getting outside - hitting the trails - seeing all the awesome area's around you!

Before getting a dog I walked around the city a lot - but never out in my area of town (the burbs). Now, having a dog - I spend less time walking around the city, and more time walking on trails. The first few pictures below are literally right behind my house. And really, I have never stepped foot on them before I got my dog.

This is called the Galloping Goose Trail (click the link). It is a 60KM trail going from Victoria to East Sooke, and there are tonnes of areas to come in or go off the trail. It had a double lane, so there is lots of room for people to ride their bike, run, walk their dogs... its great and BEAUTIFUL. Some of it runs a little ways off the road. I walk those area's at night in case you need to quickly get to the road for some reason - but a lot of it is in a treed area - so pretty.

These next pictures are of Ed Nixon Trail. A lot of the trail is a board walk - which is awesome for walking a dog because then they don't need to stop and sniff every piece of grass - they just walk. This boardwalk leads you to a heavily wooded area (beautiful) and then onto the lake - so awesome!

Oh, and the exercise is good :)

Go Big or Go Home!

**WARNING**

This is a bit of a grisly post

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Oh Canada... Canada Canada Canada...

Canada, is generally known as a peaceful country. It's a fact that our evening news cast rarely has talk of deaths unless they were accidental. We rarely hear the word gruesome or murder.

We have some sponsors that come from the US that are so fascinated by our news casts - no drive by shootings, no murders, they were literally talking about funny dog tricks! Sometimes they ask me - I want to walk around the inner harbour tonight after work (around 6pm), is that safe? Um... yah? You could walk around there at midnight - still safe.

So now, when there is a murder in Canada - to be honest - we go big - or we go home.

Exhibit A: This guy in Edmonton wants to kill his common-law wife. He decides to BLOW THE HOUSE UP. So he sets up the bomb to go off but, he doesn't make it out of the house in time. So he kills himself, his wife, and three innocent neighbours. Totally blew up the house - actually creating a crater, and damaging 15 houses around him.

Exhibit B: Robert Pickton. This is our Canadian serial killer / pig farmer. He confessed to killing 49 women, and was very disappointed he got caught because he wanted to kill 50. The next part I am going to copy and paste because I don't want to type it out - its that bad.

Here--> "On March 10, 2004, it was revealed that human flesh may have been ground up and mixed with pork from the farm. This pork was never distributed commercially, but was handed out to friends and visitors of the farm. Another claim made is that he fed the bodies directly to his pigs" If you need to know more, click the Exhibit link (on any story).

Exhibit C: Kimberly Proctor. She was a young high school student who was going to a party and was beaten, raped, stabbed, and burned. She was actually burned so bad that police didn't know it was a human.

Exhibit D: Reena Virk. I'm actually reading the book Under the Bridge right now that is based on her life and death - Reese Witherspoon is also producing a movie on the book. So this girl was kind of an outcast. Went to a party - there she was ganged up on by 7 girls and a boy who beat her under the bridge (literally about a 5 minute drive from my home). She was able to walk away - but a couple of them followed her - one of them was Kelly Ellard - she was one sick puppy. She still shows zero remorse for what she has done. Anyway, they followed her, beat her some more - dragged her back under the bridge and drown her.

Exhibit E: And finally - Vincent Li. This guy was on the Greyhound bus with a boy named Tim McLean. Li here's voices that McLean is evil - so he switches seats and sits next to McLean. He then took out a "rambo type knife" and stabbed him repeatedly. Everyone ran out of the bus and locked Li and McLean inside.Li then cut up McLean and ate some of him.

I'm sorry for this gruesome post. I just think it's so crazy.

A Whale of a Tale

A couple weeks ago hubby and I went to the beach (below) to check out a whale that washed ashore. He wasn't a beached whale, he had passed away well before he washed ashore. I know it's morbid and weird - but when will you ever get a chance to see a whale up close like that again?

First - the beach. How beautiful is it here?

*click to enlarge - it's worth it*

It was about a 10 minute walk from the parking area to the beach. Once on the beach - the tide was in, so we had to climb up along the rocks to move along the beach. I'm not very tall (5 foot 3 and 3/4 inches) so climbing up on the rocks was quite the task. Especially when your shoes are damp and the rocks are slippery - but I lived.

And then there was the whale. These pics were taken by my co-worker Pauline. It's morbid, stinky and sad - but amazing.





And then it's SHOCKING!!! Who are these people? WHY ARE THEY TOUCHING THE WHALE!!! And who does that little girl belong to? She is full on rubbing the whale - then she's gonna rub her face or pick her nose. They are still not sure how this whale died. They believe it starved to death - but it could have a disease!

So... that's it...

Canada - The True North Strong and Free...

Obviously, a lot of attention has been on Canada lately. Some myths were broken, some truths discovered, we even got some digs in. I have done a post on Canada and where I live IN THE PAST if you are so inclined to wonder.

I have heard a lot of *gasps* and confusion over why Celine Dion and Shania Twain were not at the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. Well my friends, Canada has a lot of talent. More than you probably realize. I myself am not a fan of Celine Dion or Shania Twain and am happy they weren't there. I think KD Lang did an AMAZING job of Leonard Cohen's (also Canadian) Hallelujah.

Canada has also brought you Pamela Anderson, Bachman Turner Overdrive, The Barenaked Ladies, Michael Buble, Jim Carey, Hayden Christensen, Douglas Coupland (if you don't know who that is you need to go to the bookstore and get some stuff), Michael J Fox, David Foster, The Guess Who, Avril Lavigne, Rachel McAdams, Sarah McLachlan, Mike Myers, Alanis Morissette, Ryan Reynolds, Matthew Perry, Keanu Reeves, Rush, Alex Trebek, and Neil Young to name a few.

Some famous SNL-ers come from Canada: Dan Aykroyd, Phil Hartman, Martin Short, Rick Moranis and even Lorne Michaels.

My husband’s hero, William Shatner, also Canadian. James Cameron is Canadian (what would we do without Avatar, Terminator, Titanic). Cirque de Soleil and IMAX also originate from Canada.

There are a lot of stereotypes surrounding Canada – some true – some false.

Canadians are polite. We do say please and thank you a million times a day. We have a great education system. We learn about every country, every leader of every country, capitals, populations - of literally everywhere. I always find it shocking that our neighbors, even directly across the border, know nothing about us really.

We don't carry guns. We don't have guns for protection - all our guns are registered and used mainly for hunting. We can't just go out and get a gun, nor do we want to really. I have never seen a real gun. If, for some reason I was shot, I could go to the hospital, free of charge, and be treated.

A doctor that worked with us for a while was offered a job in the US. He took it as they get paid better in the states. After 2 weeks of having to turn people away who absolutely needed medical intervention in order to survive because they did not have insurance. He returned to Canada. Universal health care is the way to go. I don't understand what everyone is waiting for.

The weather is a big misconception. I have been here in a colder Canadian climate in the dead of winter, and I have been in Minneapolis in the dead of winter, and yah... Minneapolis was rough. Really rough. I would say it was worse than anywhere I have ever been in Canada - and I have lived in the Yukon. I fortunately, live on the west coast. We have had no snow at all this year and generally experience mild temperatures year round. Two years ago we had a hard winter - that means that the snow stuck around for a week. Usually it just falls prettily onto the ground and melts - if it snows at all.

We do not live in Igloos. We have big cities and small towns like everywhere else. We have big shopping centres (yes, we spell centre, metre, and other words differently), we learn on the metric system, we say ZED and not ZEE. We have an over abundance of wildlife that happily walks through the downtown core of some of our towns.

I can see the Pacific Ocean from my backyard (literally). And our Cherry Blossom tree's are already in full bloom!

Perscriptions...

I read on the Vitamin G blog that you always need to clarify with your pharmacist what prescription your getting. If you click on the link you will see horror stories about wrong prescriptions given out and pharmacists really not knowing what the script says.
One story talks about how a little girl was accidentally given Amoxicillin. I don't know if this is another Canada/US/Health care thing - but the pharmacists here go through everything with you. They tell you what they are giving you - if you have not had that prescription before - or haven't had it for a while - they go through the side effects with you - make sure there are no drug interactions - make sure you understand how to take the drugs properly. Even if they so much as give you a different dose of a medication that you normally take, they go through all the side effects with you - tell you what may be different, update your drug list, they give you a pamphlet about the drug...
I always find it so strange when I hear stories like this - my pharmacist is so on top of everything. Have you ever accidentally been given the wrong drug?

Health Care

I work for a medical research company (again we test of volunteer humans, not animals). We have a lot of drug reps who come in from the states to help us out with studies. We had a lady come in a couple months ago from Jersey. She was awesome. Funny, friendly, and the accent... wow... think Marissa Tomei, My Cousin Vinny... Including hair and clothes.
So she's there - we talk about the differences between Canada and the States, and of course health care came up. She is (was) a strong believer that universal health care is the devil. Long waits for procedures, she shouldn't have to pay for someone else to be covered on and on. I tried to explain to her at the time that yes, there are waits to have procedures done. For example, if you hurt your knee and want an MRI - you are going to wait until the people with MS, or brain tumors get their scans first - as they are more important.
She has been led to believe that even the very sick have to wait for treatment on the universal health care plan. I can assure you, that those who need care immediately, get care immediately. If you have cancer - you will be in treatment the next day - no waiting... but again, if you hurt your knee - you'll have to wait.
So this lovely (she is really a super sweet lady) came back a couple days ago and told me her daughter was diagnosed with Lupus. Her insurance doesn't cover the treatment for Lupus. She has to fork out $450.00/week for the treatment. She was so upset and distressed. She has decided to put her in a study that she is uncomfortable with just to get free treatments. I feel so horrible for her and her daughter.
If the US would adopt the universal health care program her daughter would have free treatment, no waiting, and wouldn't have to be uncomfortable in a study just to get treatment. So sad.

The Town I Live In...

When people think of Canada - they think of this...

This is where I live... it snows maybe once a year for about a week (if that). Sometimes it doesn't snow at all. This is my version of Canada...

We have lots of culture... and... LOTS of wildlife...