Say A Prayer Tonight...Please Hatred and intolerance has attacked our Canadian family. I hope everyone will say a prayer for and with our Muslim brothers and sisters and fellow Canadians tonight after the shootings in Montreal. This is at its core an act of a coward, a bigot and the act is the essence of hatred blinded by ignorance. How can this happen in Canada? Well once I could honestly say that I believed tolerance and kindness was our go to motto in this country. I believe also; that bigotry is shedding its mask and those with hatred in their hearts have been empowered lately by those who wish to divide us by using our fears, and lack of understanding.I see evidence of intolerance seeping out and tonight the act of a coward has highlighted this bubbling hatred, but now the hatred has taken innocent lives of our family. Be careful hatred is all around, ask those who perpetuate hate to open their hearts, because we know they have closed their minds.. The American election has inflamed the bigots and empowered them, be careful you do not become as them

This is a letter I posted to Impark

I have received 5 tickets in about 2 weeks ever since I phoned to ask why I received a ticket in my own stall thet I pay almost 400.00 per month for. The lady I talked to was rude and never returned my call then number 28 from Impark started coming around, and around.

THIS IS A LETTER I SENT TO THE IMPARK PRESIDENT AND HEAD OFFICE.

Dear Sirs,


I do not understand,

Well I guess your organization are either Bullies or Number 28 of your Edmonton office is a bully. I received a ticket in my stall; yes in my own stall that I pay for every month, for not having my sticker displayed... interesting. so I called gave the young lady that answered your phone the information and she said she would get back to me.

Instead your number 28 came back and issued me another ticket in the same stall..I figured he or she couldn't see the sticker as it was on the dash. It's funny that alternatively over the past 2 years someone has been parked in my stall over 20 times and never was ticketed even after calling you, but now it seems number 28 has been to my lot and particularly my stall five times. I guess this person is going to show me who's, who and how dare I question their authority.

I pay for the stall and I don't call you if someone is in it, When I first started here if I did call almost without fail the car or truck was still there at the end of the day with no ticket. Usually I just left them a note and it seemed to fix the problem. Now I am having the privilege of being ticketed day in and day out because I dare question number 28, wow that is wonderful. I am going to ask my employer to cancel the stall for me as it is insulting, cruel and spiteful that I have such preferential treatment from your number 28. I guess he/she also wont look on the dash because the sticker is on the dash as the hook is broken on the sticker.

I hope that your company is proud of these petty actions and I guess somehow this helps the prestige of your business by this type of behavior. I on the other hand would be embarrassed if this was my employee. I paid for the stall, I just want to be left alone, stop this cruelty and maybe number 28 can focus on the illegally parked phoned in complaints rather than continually harassing me.

I am surprised that a company that has grown to such stature condones this type of behaviour, but lately I have been disappointed too often with the growing ruthlessness of corporate Canada/America.

Yours truly,

Big, Bad Muni Wolf huffs and puffs...

Do you like bullies? Well if you don't we have something in common,I really don’t. In fact I hate bullies even more that can use money and glitz to get their way. I think in Edmonton that is what almost what was the case.

I did a little test the other day, just because an issue was bugging me and I needed some answers. What I did was have my son and I walk from my offices in down town Edmonton to the city Centre, in all encompassing about four city blocks. The day was sunny and warm and people were out in droves to catch some of the few remaining hot days. What we did is, ask each of the people that could spare a minute if they could answer a few quick questions for a poll that we were doing. In all we talked to 62 people.

The first question was easy.
Have you ever used the Municipal Airport for anything?

Out of the number we asked that day and maybe it was coincidence only 2 had flown out of it but not since the Calgary flights were abandoned years ago. About 4 had been to the Indy races.

The next question was.
Do you think we should have a municipal airport?

About 20 said yes.

Then we tricked them and asked.
Why?

Well the answers I heard were not what I expected about an issue that seemed to be getting a ton of press. In fact the answers weren’t very original; almost all of them were based on the rhetoric we were hearing from the save the airport group.

You know the rhetoric, the lives that would be jeopardized by the loss of Medi –vac services. There would be massive job losses, the Indy races would be lost. (Now losing that money maker would be a real loss, yup)

My question was, why would we lose any of that, except maybe the races? Don’t we have another airport connected by a new freeway system that is just outside of town. So the Medi-vac question, hmmm let me see; how fast does a helicopter fly? To a helicopter that flies so much faster than a car can drive; the difference from the Muni to the International is what minutes at most? Just for the record I don’t think it will matter in the least. In fact why can’t the helicopters just land right at the hospitals? Silly me they do!

The argument is; we will lose the zillions of jobs lost by losing the gateway to the north! Why would that be? By losing the Muni airport is that mean we are going to move the whole city out of the way so that we won’t be the hub of transportation to the northern communities? So just from my perspective if I had to move my business out to a more modern sophisticated place like the International airport, will I still not need my staff? Why would there be any job loss?

The couple of answers I really enjoyed were interesting because of the two young gentlemen that didn’t want to lose the Indy races. They really liked them. When I asked if they had ever went, neither of them had. In fact they both said other than the races they have never even thought of using the airport and that they didn’t care about the rest of the issues.

My standard line to folks when I am asked is; look at the Edmonton down town, wouldn’t it be nice to not have our down town, squished against the river? Wouldn’t it be nice to eliminate that huge land locked tract of property and have it available to city for planners so they could plan our down town and maybe we could eliminate the traffic congestion the airport causes as all thoroughfares have to go around it? Wouldn’t it be nice to allow for development of some of the higher buildings that have been restricted for decades, because of an airport few of us ever use? Wouldn’t it be nice to spread some of the office towers out of the core without the fear of a Cessna crashing into the building? Wouldn’t it be nice to have a new fresh community just north of down town instead of a huge tract of land that very few of us ever use, in fact most will never use, turned into a vital part of our Edmonton landscape?

I was surprised that even in my own office the couple of young people that were recruited to get the petitions had never used the airport but had bought in to the nonsense about their freedom was being jeopardized by allowing elected members of council decide on the airports fate. They believed somehow that the airport issue was a slight against the voters of Edmonton. This issue more than ever has convinced me that with enough money you can bully just about anybody into anything. So congratulations city council and Mayor Mandel, tell the bullies to pack up their money bags and stop trying to flog this dead horse. I was really convinced of the power of money when they were even going to pay community leagues off, to get signatures... wow ... now that is democratic.

My grandparents, until they passed had a house in Sherbrook just north of the airport. I can’t begin to tell you the conversations that were interrupted, the TV shows that were drowned out and the telephone calls that you had to cover the receiver so the person on the other end wouldn’t hear the sound of the jets engines as it landed in the airport. The noise was incredible. My Grandparents were so excited when the big jets finally stopped landing at the airport.

I really am disgusted by the subtle and effective PR campaign of these rich bullies. I have to give them credit though; they had and have so many people confused as to what the real issue is. This is not about our civil liberties; this is not an issue of endangering Medi-Vac and human lives. This is about how many of us will ever have any real benefit from having that silly airport in our back yard, strangling our down town and using up huge vital tracts of land, subsidized by all of us for a few of us.

I wish they would be this passionate about the fact that half the real charities in this city aren’t making ends meet, because of huge government charities are swallowing up every available dollar. Maybe, they should have spent the enormous amount of cash they spent on this ridiculous cause, and instead probably supply a hot lunch programs for the inner city schools for about 20 years. No they want their way and they have money, and they want that airport. So no matter what; they will bully, push coerce and baffle with bull manure the people of this city until they get their way. Well Thank God our mayor and city council don’t like bullies either, at least that is how I see it.

once upon a time............

..... in the far away land of Alberta, there was this cruel and nasty couple that abused horses, so as in all good faerie tales ... along came some towns people and reported them to the SPCA, well you know how these faerie tales go; the knight in shining armor (SPCA) showed up and stopped the evil couple... yup these people got showed real good by the SPCA. Yes sirree the SPCA gave these people heck! Not hell even but I think they maybe scolded them well not very hard or effective they didn't want to hurt feelings, even though these people are regulars in the complaint department of the SPCA' but they did not even get fines.... just heck. WOW. About as effective as a fly swatter against a bear.

Now back to the tale.....then because all the nasty caring and concerned people who wanted to help the horses put pressure on this couple, the couple decided to turn the horses out to pasture and let them run free with the rest of the herd. Now isn't this where I am supposed to say ... the story ends well and they lived happily ever after.... right?

No this is the twisted ending to keep us all in suspense. The stud horses they let out were so under weight they could barely keep alive... but now they have been turned into a herd of Mares open and willing.... and these poor studs will probably allow mother nature to take over and I expect these poor creatures to breed themselves to death.

I guess it's better than dying in a 12 by 12 pen with no water at 30 degrees heat or freezing to death with no shelter, I am sure though the end will come. We know the Morgan association is aware of this couple through another concerned friend, and they have done as little as the SPCA they haven't even sanctioned the couple... I guess in this faerie tale everyone isn't happy ever after .. but the authorities are because they don't have to do anything and it will all blow away, they are just horses anyway right...

Well; that's not how all the people that have tried so hard to save these wonderful horses feel; but we do feel betrayed and let down, again, remember those poor souls The Rescue One Hundred Society had two years ago ... over 100 dead and dying horses and that's after the ones needed to got put down were taken care of. Well unlike good faerie tales these horses are doomed but I pray at least that these studs have a quick death... not a slow one.. at least that is what it seems from where this cowboy sits.

They are still there! No Help Hmmmmmm?

Well funny thing is I have been phoned by everyone, even got some emails, thank you. The problem is the abusers are still in control of these animals and they are mad as hornets at everyone who won't mind their own business.

Get this straight; any abuse that goes unchecked slanders everyone in the horse business, these type of breeders should find a way to get into another business, not continue to brand all of us with these types of actions.

The owners of these horses are mad, so what.

The people who helped these so called breeders propagate this and let them continue to abuse them are mad, so what.

The enforcement agencies are upset we are making noise drawing attention to there inability to help these wretched, starved creatures, so what.

If you have a problem with me having my opinion about this shameful business, so what.

Then bloody well do something about these poor creatures then; and if you can't; don't take it out on those of us who are trying to help these animals, at least that's the way it looks from where this cowboy sits.

horse cruelty picture

To get pictures of the poor emaciated creatures email me at crossingrafterranch@yahoo.ca