Acer asked to withdraw as Sponsor of Vancouver 2010 Olympics while Persecution of Bloggers and Computer-Users by City of Vancouver Remains Unresolved

Photo: William Simpson, a homeless man punished by City of

Vancouver for being linked to this blog

When agreeing to sponsor Vancouver’s 2010 Winter Olympics, Acer, a marketer of laptop and netbook computers,would have been aware of well publicized complaints against the City of Vancouver of human rights abuses targeting computer users and bloggers. Acer has therefore been asked to pull out as a sponsor. The request was made in July to Acer’s public relations representives Stella Chou and Henry Chang in their “Branding Division”, and to Andrew Chang in the Shareholders Division, by an advocate for a member of the City’s Carnegie Community Center in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. There is documented evidence that City bureacrats overseeing Carnegie Center, just a few blocks east of the 2010 Olympics media center, are persecuting bloggers and users of public computers.

By entering into a sponsorship agreement essentially endorsing the City of Vancouver and it’s Olympic Organizing Committee [VANOC], says the Carnegie member, Acer is contradicting it’s advertising claims: “Empowering People….Our long-term mission is breaking the barriers between people and technology….” Under two successive City managers — Judy Rogers who was both City Manager and the City’s representative on VANOC, and Penny Ballem who is the current City manager and VANOC representative — the City of Vancouver has been accused of "maliciously" creating barriers between residents of the low income Downtown Eastside and technology.

These barriers, including banning homeless William Simpson from the City's Carnegie Centre for daring to be linked to this blog, have been reported on numerous posts on this blog.

Show Gay Pride: Raise a Child

The Gay Pride parade was this weekend. Pride goeth before a fall.

At a time when it looks like gay rights are so alive, they are on the brink of being murdered. Look at the demographics.

Gays, and the liberals who support gay rights, are not reproducing. To sustain itself, a culture must have 2.11 children per family. History shows that cultures with a fertility rate below that die out. In 31 countries across Europe, the birth rate is a deadly 1.38 per family. In Canada, we are one percentage point below our ability to reproduce our current culture: 1.6 children per couple. The German government, the first to officially acknowledge the problem, recently issued a statement admitting that Germany is past the point of being able to reproduce their culture: "It will be a Muslim state by the year 2050."

Most western countries are making up for their low birth rates by having an open door policy toward immigration by Muslims. When they arrive, Muslims reproduce at about 7 times the rate of liberals.

Islam has no pretense to supporting gay rights. Or women's rights. Don't say, 'The Catholic church is just as bad." They aren't. Compared to most Islamic clerics, the Catholic pope is the blow up doll at the head of the gay pride parade. And besides, the Catholics are becoming outnumbered by Islamists too, according to a recent statement by the Vatican.

The problem with many gays and liberals is that they are too pc to talk about this. The last time I outed Islam on this blog, I got a comment from a woman at the Lorie Krill Co-op on Cordova St. on the Downtown Eastside, calling me "racist". Islam is not a race. But the facts never deter liberals falling over themselves to accomodate the Islamic religion which will do little to accomodate them.

Look at what happened to Mark Steyn. Young Muslims in Canada arranged for him to get dragged in front of the Human Rights Commission for daring to write about Muslim demographics and the threat they pose to the western way of life. Steyn quoted a Muslim sheik who said that the Islamic way of life will prevail because Muslims are reproducing "like mosquitos", compared to western liberals. Don't ask this sheik what he thinks of gay rights.

Like Steyn, Coast to Coast radio has the courage to report on this issue. That's where I came across the above link to a video.

I almost forgot to mention the Netherlands. What ever happened to that liberal-to-the-max country we've all heard about? I read about a gay man who thought the U.S. was homophobic so he moved to Holland; he moved back to the U.S. where he found it much safer to walk down the street as an openly gay man. He said Muslims in Holland were attacking gays. In 15 years, the population of the Netherlands is expected to be 50% Muslim.

Instead of sneering at "breeders", gays should consider doing more breeding themselves.

Bill Good's Colleague Hit by Cyclist while a Pedestrian

In July, I was listening to the Bill Good show and he was talking, along with his panelists Bill Tielman and Norm Ruff, about the dangers of bicyclists on the sidewalk.

Good said "a colleague" of his was severely injured when, as a pedestrian, she was hit by a cyclist.

I was glad he brought it up. I've been criticized for blogging about bicyclists on the sidewalk. One commenter asked if I'd actually ever seen a pedestrian hit by a cyclist. I haven't but I've seen close calls. So I was glad Good was willing to talk about how it does happen and can cause serious injury.

Ruff pointed out that pedestrians in Victoria have been placed at risk by a bicycle path which pedestrians have to cross. But Good pointed out that at least those pedestrians have a choice. They can look both ways.

One thing I like about Critical Mass is that they cycle on the street, not the sidewalk.

Too Pretty to be Poor

Garrett used to be homeless, going through McDonald's garbage cans for food. But he never had the ragged, dirty, down and out look.

It was during Garrett's homeless period that he discovered that you could drop into the St. Vincent de Paul store on Main St. on a Monday and they would give you one of the bags of canned food that they kept in the back. They had some sort of food bank operation going.

Earlier this month, I ran into Garrett who now at 44 yrs. old has a place to live; he gets free rent in exchange for a bit of maintenance work. And he gets casual paid work as a self-trained mechanic. But money is tight so he dropped by St. Vincent de Paul for a bag of food. They turned him away. There would be no canned food for him; they would give him only a bag of scones. "If I was unshaven, and smelly, and if my clothes were rumpled, they would have given me a bag [of canned food]," he blurted out. That was the second week in a row that he'd been turned away. Two women working there have separately turned him away. "They must think I'm a scammer," he says.

Garrett said that the two women working there are immigrants. They probably got help when they arrived, he says. And now they're in the business of cherry-picking who gets help. And their method amounts to eye-balling.

Just after getting turned away from the food bank, Garrett went to the IGA on Main St., bought a can of tuna and a loaf of bread, and sat inside McDonald's making himself a couple of straight tuna sandwiches, no mayonaise. He had a bit of money in his pocket, but he said that bag of food would have fed him for about three days.

I ran into Garrett again today. He said he's trying to sell his car which he doesn't drive, but he's not optimistic about finding a buyer in this recession. I asked him if he has been turned away from St. Vincent de Paul since I last talked to him. He shook his head. "I never went back."

Downtown Eastsider who sent Obama a Threatening Letter Arrested

Photo: George stands in front of the UBC Learning Exchange. He asked a Downtown Eastsider with a camera to take this photo; I think it was taken in early 2009 but I haven't had a chance to talk to the photographer. George was wearing his Alaska t-shirt but did not yet have his Sarah Palin glasses.

I asked Dale, a homeless guy with a shopping cart who hangs out in front of McDonalds restaurant at Terminal & Main, where George was. "You know George, the guy who wears the navy blue t-shirt with FBI on the front," I said, prompting Dale's memory. "The cops picked him up," said Dale who used to sleep in the same spot as George under a bridge. "He was threatening people."

Don't get me wrong, George wasn't threatening his friends and acquaintances around the Downtown Eastside. He was actually quite affable, always quick to call out, "Hi!"

Downtown Eastsiders had cautioned George, who was a fixture around the Downtown Eastside with his shopping cart -- "my carriage," he called it -- that he couldn't go around threatening people. You just can't send President Obama a letter warning him,"You're dead", he was told when he showed the letter with the fax receipt stapled to it. You can get arrested for that; you can do jail time, people warned him. But George would remind people of the reason he was immune from prosecution. "I'm George Washington incarnate."

George had recently been notified that he had inherited money from his half-brother. He showed the will to people on Whopper Wednesday at Burger King, and at other places too; it had an official red seal in the upper corner. He said that when he got the inheritance, "I want to get a room in a rooming house." On the front page of the will was the name of a Montreal law firm, along with their address and telephone number. George said he phoned them and threatened them.

Long before George learned of his inheritance or threatened Obama, he had been regularly dropping into the University of British Columbia Learning Exchange on Main St. near Keefer to use the free phone. He would phone the Canadian Security Intelligence Service [CSIS] and threaten to bomb them. Once CSIS returned the call and spoke to a staff person at the Learning Exchange, according to George. The staff person told George not to use their phone again.

But George needed access to a telephone on another day, so he told staff at the Learning Exchange that he just needed to make a quick call. He made it quick, the call to CSIS, threatening them.

UBC Learning Exchange staff banned George from the premises. I know that because I was walking past with a couple of friends in the spring when George, standing out front on the sidewalk, asked a woman with us if she would do him a favor and go inside and fill up his coffee cup. The Learning Exchange provides free low quality coffee to attract the poor, keep the sign-in numbers up, and keep the funders believing they are helping ahelluvalot of down and outters turn their lives around.

UBC President Stephen Toope who helped himself to $565,000 in income and perks last year will never mention George, the guy they kicked to the curb. All the networking these UBC povertarians do at their catered openings and socials at the Learning Exchange -- Toope gave a speech at one last November -- you would think they would have a few names in their Rolodex like homeless advocate Judy Graves to call and ask, "Is there anything you can do here?"

Standing on the sidewalk out front of the UBC Learning Exchange, George was always friendly, stopping people to chat, most recently about his new Sarah Palin rimless glasses that he got a kick out of wearing with his Alaska t-shirt. Dionne, the Learning Exchange Co-ordinator, a white woman who likes to remind people that's she's really Black -- a sort of Michael Jackson in reverse -- would stand just feet from him when she ducked outside to stand in the sunshine on her breaks, taking long drags from her cigarrette, escaping into her novel.

"They were looking for him," Dale said. Vancouver Police spotted George standing with Dale last month on Hastings St. across from the First United Church. They grabbed him. They told him they were sending him back to where he'd come from; George had always claimed he had been born in the U.S. and had Canadian status. The police took the cheap handcuffs George carried with him -- he claimed to be an under cover FBI agent, which would explain the handcuffs -- and handcuffed his shopping cart to Dale's, creating a headache for Dale. The police told George, "You've been threatening people," Dale recalls. "The cops were laughing at him."

Lies Telus Tells

Remember the hippopotamus who used to prance across the tv screen in Telus commercials, the one who eventually ended up dead due to poor treatment. That's my neighbour.

I warned her not to order internet from Telus. But she went ahead, saying they were cheaper than Shaw, and besides she'd had a Telus telephone land line for 20 years.

But after ordering internet service from Telus, she couldn't get the service up and running because she couldn't get through to the technical support line. Her friend who is more tech savy had offered to spend a Sunday evening at her house to help her set it up, but he too became frustrated that they couldn't get through to the tech help line.

My neighbor phoned Telus the following week and cancelled the service. An agent told her she now owes Telus a $120 cancellation fee, that she had a verbal contract with Telus that she must honor.

She says Telus did not honor their verbal contract with her: the contract to provide technical service. She says she emphasized her need for technical service when she spoke to the Telus agent Jeremy who sold her the Telus internet service. Jeremy even checked with one of their technical staff to make certain they could meet her technical needs. He got back to her saying, "They'll walk you through it; just phone the number that comes in the box with the modem."

When she disputed the $120 cancellation fee, a young female agent transferred her to a department with an Orwellian name, "Loyalty and Retention".

Natalie was the agent who took the call in Loyalty & Retention. She had what my neighbor guessed was an Australian accent. Natalie told the customer that she would give her a special phone number -- other than the official one printed on the instructional disk that comes with the modem -- to phone for technical support. "It's like they have this special number to give people who are ready to cancel after they've been put on hold for too long," said my neighbour. Too little to late. "I had packed up the modem and all the cords; everything was back in the box." Telus had lost my neighbour's loyalty.

Natalie was domineering, says my neighbour. "She said I'd be billed the $120 disconnect fee. The customer told her that she had never for one minute actually had an internet connection. Natalie said the internet signal had been running through her line all this time.

My neighbor told Natalie that she was going to fight this as she hadn't agreed to anything, she hadn't signed anything committing to a $120 cancellation fee. But in the interim she felt she couldn't pay her telephone bill because that money might be applied to the disputed internet cancellation fee. "She said I had to pay it or it would be sent to Collections."

Natalie asked her if she wanted to cancel her phone service. She told her she could do it right then and there. "I'll cancel it right now!", she said. That's the loyalty they have to a 25 year customer. "I thought if I cancelled I'd lose my voice mail," says my neighbour, "I had important messages saved and I didn't want to lose them." So she told Natalie, "I'd like to speak to a supervisor first." Natalie said there was no supervisor to speak to, that she was the end of the line. "She was mad", says my neighbour. Natalie asked several times if she wanted her telephone service terminated. "She had her finger on the button", says my neighbour. Disloyalty and Detention.

I later told my neighbour, "Phone back and bypass Natalie." She talked to a young male agent and told him she was afraid to pay her telephone billl for fear the money would go to the disputed $120 fee. He told her to just send the modem back to the Alberta address and give Telus the tracking number so they could confirm it was received. He assured her that then the $120 charge would be taken off her bill. She had no idea he was lying.

She phoned back a week later and gave the tracking number to a female agent. The agent reminded her that she owed a $120 fee. My neighbor explained that the previous man had told her that the cancellation fee had been waived. The agent assured her that she understood and would now waive the cancellation fee. My neighbour had no idea she was lying.

When the customer got her telephone bill, the $120 fee was owing. So she phoned Telus today. She got a female agent with a french accent who said there was a note on the file from Natalie saying that this customer had admitted entering into a verbal contract to pay a $120 cancellation fee. :"I didn't tell her that," my neighbor says.

It was this agent with the french accent who revealed that the previous front-line agents had been lying. She said those agents did not have the authority to waive any fee over $100 and they knew that. My neighbour concludes, "They were just telling me what I wanted to hear and getting me off the line".

Today's agent explained that only the Help Desk can authorize the cancelling of the $120 fee. She went off the line and asked then if they would do it. No way, was their response, the $120 stands. My neighbour asked for the name of the person who had made that decision, so that a record could be kept. The agent said she could "not divulge" that information. She told my neighbour that somebody from" higher up" -- sounds like Loyalty & Retention -- would get back to her today or tomorrow either by telephone or email. Nobody has contacted her yet. But she suspects one thing:

The future is not friendly.