My tax dollars at work part.... 6 (I think)

In yet another amazing way to protect the French language from becoming extinct in "La Belle Province" our elite crack team of Language Police have ensured that yet another culture offender and threat to the French language be punished...

Yes, the bastion of pro-Anglo-anti-French rhetoric know as the Bowl-Mat, a bowling alley in St-Eustache, is being forced by Québec courts to change it's name to "Amusement Bowl-Mat".

We can all sleep soundly in our beds tonight knowing that the language police is hard at work trying to eradicate any trace of subversion to the French language and God knows we're all thankful yet another dangerous bowling alley has been penalized. I applaud the language police and the courts for realizing that whenever I saw the name Bowl-Mat, it immediately made me want to forget any trace of my French heritage and pull my kids out of French school. This is exactly why I pay exorbitant taxes to my provincial government. God bless bill 101...

Please note the sarcasm above.

17 Drunk Driving Convictions and Still Driving.

Actually it's 18 drunk driving convictions now and a total of 114 convictions for Roger Walsh, a repeat (and repeat and repeat) offender who has pleaded guilty in Québec court of hit and run causing death, impaired driving causing death and violating a court order from a previous conviction that barred him from drinking.

This is after he was driving (drunk of course) and hit a girl in a wheelchair killing her instantly. The only reason he even stopped his car is because it went off the road, 8 kilometers later.

The prosecution is now seeking a dangerous offender status for Walsh, stating that if he can't respond to therapy and other court imposed sentences than the courts have to protect the public from this reckless and moronic man. (I added in that last part, but you get the point)

I have no problem with the courts labeling him a dangerous offender. My problems lies with the way the courts handled his previous 17 drunk driving convictions. His latest sentence was that he was barred from drinking. Whoopty-doo... Good job boys, I love seeing my tax dollars at work that way. Whatever happened to tough love? Couldn't you stop him from driving or owning a car? Couldn't you slap an ankle bracelet on him? Couldn't you lock him up for a long long time? Oh yeah I forget this is Canada... More so it's Québec.

We're so lenient with our sentences and our jail time that it makes my stomach turn. While this guy is driving on the road and killing handicapped children, the police seems more concerned with giving me a 48 hour notice for my burnt out brake light than making sure idiots like this aren't anywhere near the road.

So to the courts, the police and the politicians and all those bureaucrats behind the scenes: do your job, keep maniacs like this off the road and stop them from killing our children. Then maybe, just maybe I'll fix my brake light, file my income tax and stop threatening to call my lawyer everytime I get pulled over.

Muchacho Enfermo

Quebec NGO Sues the King and Wins...

Not so long ago I used to see these commercials for Burger King Cressandwhiches which advertised "meat and cheese and meat and cheese" that looked oh so tasty in the eyes of this simple carnivore. But it appears that not everyone felt the same about waking up with the King...

A Quebec organization called "The Coalition québécoise sur la problématique du poids" (Quebec Coalition for weight problems) sued BK for targeting children in their advertising. They did this by advertising a free toy with the purchase of a kid's meal. The best part is they won.

Again I am stupefied at the verdict of the court having now sentenced Burger King to pay 12,000$ after a guilty plea by the burger chain. A few things here are worth considering... WTF is 12,000$ to a huge corporation. Second off, who the heck sues a fast food chain for making them and their kids fat?

You don't want your kids to get fat, don't take them to BK, Mickey D's, Wendy's, A & W, Harvey's or any of the burger joints around the province. If your kids grow up craving junk food, don't blame the commercials, blame yourselves. I eat well, I take care of myself mostly because my parents taught me the value of a well balanced meal. When I need a snack I eat an apple, it's far less costly the BK and much better for you.

I think I'm going to sue Danone for making yogurts geared at kids or those people who make string-cheese... Because hey, it's aimed at kids and that's obviously wrong.

Parent's stop blaming everyone and everything except yourselves for the shortcomings of your offspring. It's not TV, it's not video games, it's not fast food and it's not what they pick up at school; as a parent it's your job to make sure that your child has the proper values to cope and deal with this stuff. And that doesn't start by suing Burger King, it starts by giving your kid milk and fruit and talking to them about their day.

Muchacho Enfermo

Court Rules on infamous "Squirrel Feeder"

In my WTF moment of the day as I was reading the Gazette
and I saw that a Westmount (rich borough of Montreal) had issued a man a ticket for feeding a squirrel.

As was his right he fought the ticket in court. He's a musician so of course he wrote a song about it called "SquirrelGate"...

The man was feeding a squirrel.
He got a ticket for feeding said squirrel.
Two years of trial.
The courts upheld the fine.

This is two and half years of taxpayer dollars that went to waste because Westmount security couldn't just give him a warning and let it go. In an attempt to stop this ludicrous trial the city of Westmount offered to drop the charges if the man agreed to be the city's "Don't Feed the Squirrels" spokesperson.

I don't really have a funny or witty conclusion... I think this just speaks for itself. Once again... my tax dollars at work.

Muchacho Enfermo

My tax dollars at works Part 3

This time it isn't the politicians, nor is it the police... not even close. This time it's the CRA (Canada Revenue Agency), Canada's tax collection agency, that misused my tax dollars. The people we entrust to audit the country's citizens and its corporations, the people that we charge with finding people trying to rob the tax-payers and defraud our government of money destined to social service and the running of this very country.

2 arrests were made yesterday in Revenue Canada's Montreal office, for allegedly falsifying tax documents to help a Montreal construction magnate funnel 1.7 million dollars into two inactive companies. The money seemed to be destined for Switzerland and the Bahamas. Two other CRA employees were suspended today in conjunction with the internal investigation that followed the arrests.

As stated in the Globe and Mail: "construction magnate Tony Accurso “funnelled close to $4.5-million” to Mr. Bruno's numbered company, 3703436 Canada Inc., and another firm co-owned by Mr. Bruno, Entretien Torrelli Inc." ... "The two companies have no commercial activities, are inactive" ... "The resulting tax savings are shared by the scheme's participants to use as payoffs or for personal gain."

This isn't the first time Mr Accurso's name is linked to politician or alleged wrong-doings. Montreal councilor Frank Zampino had been on trips to the Caribbean with him prior to Zampino awarding his company a lucrative city contract.

The level of corruption in our institutions is staggering. We currently have a public hearing into alleged money taken by a former Prime-Minister from a shady businessman, we've had the sponsorship scandal and now we have the tax authorities committing tax fraud.

I am thoroughly disappointed and hope that the media stays on top of this one. An internal probe into wrong-doing by the very organization where said wrong-doing originated from just isn't enough for me. It's high time that my tax dollars did more for me than employ corrupt employees and give them a fat pension fund.

Muchacho Enfermo

Montreal Police FInally Catch the "Real" Criminals (or my tax dollars at work part 2)

In case you were wondering exactly what it is that is going on the upper echelons of the Montreal Police Department, I've got the inside scoop: it's time for operation "look both ways and wait for the light" they're focusing their attention on jaywalkers.

The Montreal Gazette reported this morning that when police attempted to ticket a man for jaywalking in Cotes-Des-Neiges... he ran off. So the brave keepers of the peace chased him all the way back to his apartment where the jaywalker's 17 year old sister hit one of the officers before locking the door. The police called for backup and both were arrested. The jaywalker "is expected to be charged with resisting arrest, while she could face charges of interfering with a police operation and assaulting a police officer."

I think this is a brilliant example of my tax dollars at work, yet again. Seriously people, while Montreal copes with increasing gang violence and the ever present drug dealers at Square Berri (which we can all, with the exception of the police, plainly see) the police are busy running jaywalking operations. They've been doing it all over the city because, clearly, this a threat to public safety.

Granted Montreal is notorious for its jaywalkers, but that doesn't mean that there aren't real criminals out there to catch.I'm not saying that the guy who ran from the cops to avoid a ticket did the right thing and I don't think the officers were wrong for giving chase. I just think the cops shouldn't have been there in the first place. There are betters ways to spend our tax dollars than catching dangerous jaywalkers.

Muchacho Enfermo