1) Regulations are part of law and are defined in the statutes.

2) All impound may be reviewed both by the OSMV and the courts (aka: due process). Wrongful impoundments will bring financial compensation.

3) Theft is depriving someone of something without colour of right. This is not a theft under the law because of the legislation.

4) The “legal system” in the case of impaired driving seems to me to be geared toward taking money from the accused and transferring it to the lawyers.

5) You’ve never been touched by the actions of an impaired driver, have you?

Why does this matter? Well, in the case of using impoundment, it is basically making a presumption of guilt without any due process of law. The decision is made on the spot by an officer, who becomes the whole legal system contained in one person. There is no justice available to the victim of such police action. There is no calling upon common law tort or the criminal code for theft of one’s vehicle, because it is an offically (but not legally) sanctioned theft.

It is trends like this that lead to a police state. Are we following our friends south of the border, where that country is already well-acknowledged by many as a fascist state? Surely Canada is above that kind of violation of human dignity, no?

Has no one noticed that these changes all seem to be coming along with budgetary changes to cut costs and increase revenues? It is all about money, not saving lives. Do people not realize that this impaired driving thing is just one more excuse for another little protection racket to suck a little more blood from the people? Is impounding vehicles going to make anyone safer? I really doubt it.

But bit by bit it is just such things that are slowly gnawing away at what used to be a free country — a country that is looking more and more like the beginnings of communist Russia or Nazi Germany. Is this really what we want for our future and our children’s futures?

…..August 23, 2010
Dear BC Conservative Party Members, the president, and Board,
It is with deep regret that I wish to inform you that I am resigning effective immediately from the Provincial Board of Directors as Director at Large, and cancelling my membership in the party.
I have lost confidence in the leadership of the party and the direction it has chosen to follow.
I have been deeply concerned by the backroom dealings and the amount of power that has transferred into the hands of an unelected group of self ordained political brokers to guide the party. Those of us who were actually elected back in September are being trampled and moved out of the way in favour of appointed, unelected people who are now controlling the party.
I would have thought the party would have learned its lesson from 2004 where operatives working for both the BC Liberals and the federal Conservatives came in and caused maximum disruption and prevented BC Unity from merging with the BC Conservative Party.
The Party is now dominated with mostly political appointments by the TAG group and their leader Randy White. The Provincial board has been taken over by those closely allied to the federal Conservative Party and their members currently involved in the BC Liberal Party.
I cannot and will not support this type of activity in the party. Some of our finest talent in the party is being marginalized because of their opposition to the HST.
Chris Delaney is the most public figure in our party and the leadership regards him as though he is a liability to the party. His treatment by the TAG leader Randy White, President Wayne McGrath, and Conservative MP John Cummins can only be described as disrespectful and disingenuous.
The one person who could point thousands of people to our party and has, with his involvement as a leader in the Fight HST organization, helped to demolish the BC Liberals, is considered by these unelected newcomers as not good enough to side with or mention his name in conjunction with the BC Conservative Party name. Shame!
I can no longer support a party that sides with the BC Liberals and the federal Conservative Party over the HST and over the people of BC. The people of BC have spoken and the party leadership in the BC Conservative Party will not listen. Pretending to listen is not listening.
We all know where the HST policy is going to come from; it will be developed by federal Conservatives as a watered down version that still accepts the HST to make sure their political masters in Ottawa are satisfied. I know the people of BC will not approve.
The party is now in the hands of outside, unelected interests which contradicts one of our most important constitutional philosophies – representing the interests of British Columbians first above all others.
The party leadership considers working with failed BC Liberal politicians and federal Conservatives who supported the HST, over attracting the hundreds of thousands of people in BC who oppose the HST, and oppose those who gave it to us. I for one will not be part of watching the party be taken over by a group of people, only to see them bring forth the same type of top down, backroom, undemocratic politics we were trying to replace in the BC Liberal Party.
I believe the choices made by the leadership of the party, including the TAG leader Randy White and the Fed Cons will fail, and the BC Conservative Party will collapse into obscurity.
I will continue to work together with all others of good faith for the betterment of British Columbia to ensure BC stays in the hands of the people of BC, and out of the clutches of those who would use her for their own ends.
Regrettably,
Blake MacKenzie
Former elected Director at Large and member of the BC Conservative Party since 1998.

~Link here; http://billtieleman.blogspot.com/2010/08/bc-conservative-party-rocked-by.html

Reading through comments at various online sites, one finds occasional statements supporting the BC Liberal’s surprise imposition of HST. Those not commissioned by our big business friends, I suspect, come from the $4,000 a month media monitors at the Public Affairs Bureau in Victoria. It still surprises me when comments downplay the new tax as unlikely to make a difference to individuals.

Personally, I think any revenue neutral tax measure that annually saves business $1.9 billion is going to cost consumers precisely $1.9 billion, which means over $1,860 for an average BC couple and their 2.4 children.

Here is one of those little talked of issues related to HST. Under rules laid down by BC Liberals, HST will apply more broadly than the old provincial sales tax. Investment management fees will be subject to HST and British Columbia has never before taxed those services. For example, mutual fund investors pay annual fees for management of financial assets.

By the way, in Canada, we pay the highest fund management fees in the world because laws protect the financial industry from low-cost competition and allow high domestic prices to be maintained. One survey showed Canada’s average asset-weighted expense ratio for equity funds was 2.56%, compared to 1.11% in the USA. So, don’t hold your breath waiting for lower fees because investment managers save a few dollars provincial tax on bathroom supplies.

Suppose you are 45 years old and deposit $200,000 in an RRSP retirement account. At 2.56%, the annual fund management fee would be $5,120 plus $614 HST. Since you paid GST under the old system, the new BC share of tax is $358. Ignoring increases from fund appreciation, the $358 would be payable in each of 20 years by the time you retired, or $7,168.
Nice, eh?
POSTED BY NORM FARRELL AT 11:54 PM Link here; http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/2010/08/hst-hit-is-serious-for-many-investors.html
~Endangered.

Canada’s annual inflation rate increased to 1.8 per cent for July, boosted by the HST, after a one per cent rise in June.
Prices were affected by the introduction of the harmonized sales tax in Ontario and British Columbia, and a two-percentage-point increase in Nova Scotia’s HST, Statistics Canada said Friday.
In Ontario, consumer prices were up 2.9 per cent from a year earlier after June’s 1.6 per cent increase. Prices for gasoline, electricity, and passenger vehicle insurance premiums went up, and consumers also paid more for homeowner’s replacement costs.

In B.C., consumer prices rose two per cent for the 12-month period to July after a 0.5 per cent increase in June. Consumers saw a 36.7 per cent price increase in the cost of electricity, while restaurant prices increased 7.5 per cent….

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/08/20/inflation-july.html#ixzz0yFkjWKTR
~ The 1.9 billion tax cut to corporations has effectively been “SPENT” (lost revenue) and now has to be recovered so any addition EXEMPTIONS will merely increased the deficit created by the Corporate tax cut and increase government service cuts.
~Endangered.

Note- “It may only be done if there is an available lane on the right” and “Roadway means the portion of the highway that is improved, designed or ordinarily used for vehicular traffic, but does not include the shoulder.”

He then goes on to state that “While the shoulder may be wide and unobstructed, the cyclist is still forbidden from passing overtaken traffic on the right while they are riding here.”

So the roadway includes the shoulder or not? I’m confused! If a cyclist is on the shoulder are they constituted to not be on the roadway? This is part of the law that is confusing. The laws need to be updated to be more friendly to cyclists, instead of treating them like second class citizens.

In my books if the shoulder is not classified as part of the roadway then passing on the right is safe and legal. Your obstructing traffic that is faster and you are just using natural momentum to do so.

Thanks to Endangered’s research please follow the link above to show that the HST will cost approximately $26.00/ month per household. I know it seems like a great opportunity to get your digs in on the government Gloria, but perhaps you should take a few moments to get your facts right before you start spouting off and hurling personal insults on people. Secondly you should also consider the fact that it is your friendly neighbor the grocer that greedily cranks the prices out of control… last time I checked Campbell and Hansen do not work at the grocery store. It seems as though you have been grossly misinformed once again (where do you get your info??) . Gordon Campbell is the 34th Premier of BC! If you still think he is a grocer you can check on line. If you feel the need to lash out at someone about Grocery prices both of our stores are locally owned… SO LET ‘EM HAVE IT… it’s not like they don’t have it coming.

If you do happen to google “Gordon Campbell” to check my facts, you may also want to check out some additional tidbits of information while you are there: Campbell was not the driving force behind Hurricane Katrina, he did not form the iceberg that sunk the Titanic, he did not drop the bomb on Hiroshima, he did not pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger and he is not responsible for the fact that you are so angered about coming up with an additional $26/month to pay for social services that we all want and demand. However, he and the Liberal government are huge contributing factors behind the fact that we were so quick to pull out of the recession and why as BCers we were reasonably unscathed. Because of the same leadership it is relatively easy to earn a good living and still balance our lives with many recreational and social options. You can thank Campbell, his administration and the Liberal government for these positive things in your life. As far as the oil spill goes…I’m pretty sure that was not Campbell, but I’m sure you’ll find some way to blame him for it!