The Legislature Raids

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In a climate of Political Correctness we all recoil from even the hint, let alone the accusation, of racism. And this is a racist society, a racist culture; if you don't believe me ask any First Nations person, any "visible minority" person, any person of colour.

It has been alluded that Basi-Virk-Basi are being set up while possibly blue-eyed people have been given an "out". Well, reverse racism is still racism. It is equally possible there really is a racial link in this grotty mess. For years we've been reading and hearing about "asian" organized crime gangs, of "east indian" drug dealers, of gangland murders, of targeted hits, even the tawdry bull dung of the accuseds' affair with an aging juror -- a woman who was certainly old enough she ought to have known better.

When a group of people are kept marginalized, are denied the possibility of full participation and relegated to the status of "other" it is only inevitable that some of them will rebel by becoming involved in unsavoury dealings.

Both Moe Sihota and Ujjal Dosangh were said to be "the first" this, that, or the next. We have Judi Tyabji's accounts of questionable practices in the Liberal party, we have suggested links between drug dealers and politics and we have enough broken promises to warrant a Royal Commission. And it very well could be no can is being tied to any particular group. It could be quite simply that individuals who are easily identified as being part of a particular group are involved.

For years the charter of the Liberal party expressly forbade membership to certain groups, certain identifiable racial groups. And then, suddenly and with little or no fanfare, those racist exclusions were removed and there was a concerted effort to sign up members of the very groups once banned.

And it well might be that some individuals, more opportunistic than most, surged forward eagerly, determined to make as much hay as they could while the sun still shone. And now it is suggested some of them had their hands in cookie jars.

And no, they weren't the only hands in those cookie jars. I don't believe Basi-Virk-Basi were targeted because of their skin colour or racial affiliations. I think they got caught because they are remoras who thought the big fish would protect them and have since found out the hard way the big fish are the first to swim off claiming family needs them, taking well paying jobs in the private sector, covering their asses and doing their best to do what cats do to their own scat. And the remoras are left swinging in the wind because they were never Really part of the power grabbing money grubbing cohort to begin with.

It isn't a case of prosecuting the minority and pampering the dominant race. It's the inevitable result when hubris replaces generations of experience in avoiding the consequences. If we look at the backgrounds of almost any truly powerful politician, regardless of party affilliation, you'll see the same names of private schools, the same swirling circles of influence. Those who are truly wheeling and dealing in the halls of influence sit on boards of directorships with others who ... it's incestuous, it's how it has been for far too long, and it makes for some strange bedfellows. Provincial or federal, the Old Boys Network is alive and well and emptying our pockets. The same few snouts wind up buried most deeply in the swill in the trough and the inexperienced newcomers only think they are part of the group.

Those charged weren't chosen because they come from "east of suez", nor because they do or don't attend a particular church. They weren't really "chosen" at all. They just didn't have the shithouse slicks to know when the axe was about to fall.

Generations of marginalization deprived them of the chance to learn when to cut and run. They were still standing wrapped in their cloak of self importance and hubris when the Old Boys Network sensed a shift in the wind and effed off down the pike.

We can be reasonably sure someone phoned someone to tip off the media when Glen Clark's home was raided. And I think it is safe to assume someone phoned someone to drop a hint in a listening ear that there was going to be some digging around in compost piles. And those with connections were twigged to the hint and peeled off, suddenly realizing their family missed them, suddenly aware they had, in fact, given birth, suddenly needing more time to fly planes or something.

This is going to drag on and on and on and on until the public, cursed with notoriously short attention span, out and out forgets, the way it has forgotten the Liberal party charter excluded people of certain races, the way it has forgotten the forestry scandal which put a cabinet minister in the slam, the way it has forgotten Bingogate and a host of other slimey shite.

And at that time someone will haul out and present a case for cancellation of the charges because it has taken too long...we have a cop let off the hook on those grounds recently...and the remoras will be given decent jobs in private industry, the band will play on, and the only losers will be the public.

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Anne Cameron writes from Tahsis, where she says the rain is washing away the snow ...

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This may be a good time to mention the fact that I have been warned twice that "they" may be reading everything that is written on my computer. Also, for me to mention that I have been slapped down by the Opposition justice critic. And I have noticed some strange things which may (or may not) indicate hostile interferance with this blog. I'm not especially worried. But I do ask that readers watch, wait, and join any dots which seem not quite right. Bring it out into the open. That's the best protection for society as well as for individuals. These are strange times we're living in. - BC Mary.
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JK tells me that a remora is a little eel with a suction cup lined with teeth for a mouth. It latches onto healthy fish and sucks their blood. Perfect metaphor, he says. Anne Cameron says it this way: Remora are those little fish who live their lives following bigger fish, cleaning algae and parasites from their skin and occasionally getting bits and pieces of scraps of the prey the bigger fish catches...some remora actually attach themselves by "suckers" around their mouths and just move over the surface of, usually, sharks, getting their nourishment by eating shed skin cells, sea lice, and algae...remora are one of the least intrusive of the "parasites" in that they never actually harm their host in any way at all...but they live almost exclusively on crumbs and waste material.

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