I took this photo last season on Robson St. near the Central library after a Canucks game, but the date on the camera was wrong.

I hate this stuff, the hit to Bruins' forward Nathan Horton. It takes the fun out of watching a game when I  know some guy is probably going to have to suffer the effects of a concussion.

Even though the NHL now has a ban on blindside hits to the head of unsuspecting players, I doubt Rome will be suspended for long.

Horton -- no relation to Tim Horton -- is from Ontario, a town called Dunnville.

UPDATE:

The NHL gave Rome a four game suspension.  He's now out of the Stanley Cup finals, and so is Horton who has a severe concussion.  In deciding on the length of the suspension, Mike Murphy of the NHL said they took into consideration the lateness of the hit on Horton and the severity of his injury.

The suspension is an indication that the NHL is starting to take head injuries more seriously.  Even Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a big hockey fan, spoke out a few months ago about the need to curb head injuries in the NHL.   Concussions can leave a person with daily headaches for years, and can make them more prone to later life brain deterioration such as dementia.

I understand the critics though who say the suspension of Rome is too severe.  They argue that if the NHL was going to get tough, it is unfair to suddenly begin in the finals. Rome himself previously suffered a concussion, and there was not even a penalty.

New Face of the Polling Station

I voted on the Downtown Eastside at about 5:45 and I had to wait five minutes as there was a short line up.  What struck me was the gentrification in the polling station.  Several of those voting in front of me were well turned out, middle class women in their twenties or early thirties.  They've probably purchased condos nearby.

Almost...not quite

A few months ago, I saw an interview with Jack Layton in which he announced, "I'm almost vegan."

On the campaign trail at Montreal's Schwartz Deli in April, he was photographed chowing down on a smoked meat sandwich.

Rainbow at Main & Terminal

On Tuesday evening I was walking by the Ivanhoe Hotel and it was raining and the sun was shining.  I thought, "There's gonna be a rainbow."  By the time I got to Main & Terminal, there it was.

Is the Fix In? Vancouver Canucks vs. Chicago Blackhawks

There's a book out called, "The Fix Is In: The Showbiz Manipulations of the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and NASCAR", by Brian Tuohy.  I've heard the author interviewed a couple of times by Ian Punnit on Coast to Coast, and once on a Vancouver radio station too.  He convinced me that there's fixing going on, even in the NHL.

So I didn't think it was just sour grapes when I watched GM Mike Gillis' at a press conference today, after the Vancouver Canuck's loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Sunday, saying that the officiating has been highly suspect.  He said the number of calls against the Canucks is making it almost impossible for the Canucks to win.  Gillis said that in the last four games, Chicago has had 69% more power plays than Vancouver. In the last four games when the score has been tight, a one or two goal difference, Chicago has had 100% more power plays than Vancouver.  As Gillis read a list of statistics to support his claim that there has been nowhere near "a level playing field", I suspected, "The Fix Is In".

Here's an excerpt from Gillis' statement at the press conference that I pulled from the CBC website:

"One of the most difficult things to understand is why there has been such a power play discrepancy in the series. The Chicago Blackhawks have had 11 more power plays and a penalty shot. No other series has a disparity which is even close.

"I'm not sure how you explain that discrepancy," Gillis said. "We're going to be very hard-pressed to win hockey games if through an entire series when the score is tight, they get 75 per cent more power plays than we do. That's just the reality and the facts we're facing. When you break down the [Sunday] video, there are some extraordinary plays to explain with what has gone on.

"I don't know how to explain it. I'm just giving you the facts. It's easy to stand here and be emotional and look at the hit like the Bickell one on Bieksa and jump up and down and scream and yell. These are facts. They're undeniable. People think we don't have a killer instinct. It's pretty tough to have it when you're killing penalties all the time."


I'd like Tuohy to take a look at Gillis' statistics.

Sports is a business after all and there was a powerful economic incentive to stretch the series between Vancouver and Chicago out into 7 games.  The 7th game is generating massive excitement and media coverage and will attract a massive number of viewers.

Speech Police Order Comic who Insulted Lesbian to Pay $15,000, and Ban him for Life from Performing "Similar Acts" in BC

Photo: Lorna Pardy at BC Human Rights Tribunal

In March 2010, I sat through a four day hearing at the BC Human Rights Tribunal of a complaint by a lesbian that she had suffered discrimination based on sex and sexual orientation by a comic in Zesty's restaurant on Commercial Drive in Vancouver. (See coverage "Ugly Dyke" and "Dildo" Insults by Comic Leave Lesbian Attempting to Replace Human Right to Free Speech with Bogus  Human Right Not to be Offended.)  Last week, the BCHRT awarded Laura Pardy $22,500 in damages: the comic, Guy Earle, was ordered to pay her $15,000 and Sam Ismail, the owner of Zesty's, was ordered to pay her $7,500.

I haven't had a chance to read the judgment but I listened to Ezra Lavant interview Earle on Sun television.  Lavant, who is a lawyer as well as a television talk show host, said the judgement effectively subjects Earle to a lifetime ban on performing in British Columbia by prohibiting him from committing "similar acts".  Earle's stand-up comedy act is not dissimilar to the comments he hurled at the lesbians; one young comic from Zesty's testified that Earle's style is to shock people.  Earle has repeatedly defended himself by pointing out that customers were forewarned that they could be offended by what they heard; he had posted a sign on the door of Zesty's that night announcing, "Triple X, the Edgiest Show in Town."

Earle says the insults he hurled at the lesbians from the stage in his role as MC of a weekly amateur comedy night at Zesty's, were simply an attempt to silence their heckling.  He admits he drank too much that night.  Pardy, a meteorological technician at YVR, says she had been drinking beer but was not drunk.  Witnesses had vastly differing accounts of how much heckling had gone on.  My sense from listening to the witnesses at the hearing was that there were insults going back and forth between Earle and at least some of the women at Pardy's table.

Zesty's was known as a lesbian-friendly establishment.  A lesbian group performed there weekly. So  it appeared that this was an isolated case of insults erupting late at night, when the owner wasn't around.

The coverage of the case has at times been comical.  Levant pointed out that in the judgement, it was noted that hecklers had accused Earle of having a "small dick."  Levant told Earle that if this accusation was true, he could lay a human rights complaint against the women for discrimination "based on disability".

The government used tax dollars to pay for two BCHRT lawyers and other staff to hold a four day hearing and produce a 100 page report in their role as the speech police.  The accused got no financial assistance.  Ismail said at the hearing that his business had gone downhill after the BCHRT complaint.  

Earle's lawyer argued on the first day of the hearing that the BCHRT did not have jurisdiction in this case, that Earle's right to freedom of artistic expression, even offensive expression, is guaranteed by the Charter of Rights & Freedoms. Pardy's lawyer has taken the position that Earle was not actually engaged in an artistic performance at the time he insulted Pardy.

Earle says he won't pay the award to Pardy and will be taking the case to the Supreme Court.  That's exactly what critics of the BCHRT want to see happen, in the hopes of putting an end to their role as censors. The BCHRT have previously attempted to punish McLeans magazine for an article they published by writer Mark Steyn, an article about how rapidly growing Muslim populations can be expected to alter western democracies (in a way that will be less welcoming to Lorna Pardy and her galpals than Zesty's.)

The problem with going to the Supreme Court is that Earle has no money and "a family to support."  This case has over the past four years made him almost unemployable as a comic, as owners of establishments are afraid that if they hire him, the gay and lesbian community will organize a boycott of their businesses.  "I haven't had a pot to pee in for the last four years and I'm scrapin' it", Earle says.  He says he hates to ask for donations for the legal case but if you wish to help him, you can donate at his site www.guyearle.ca.  And if you wish to help Sam Ismail, stop by Zawa's -- he renamed Zesty's after the human rights complaint -- for a beer and a burger.