The Thought Salesman

I think that it’s safe to say that in Canada, every city has a distinctly different culture. This is due to many things, mainly the distance between major cities, and the relative isolation that exists between every Canadian urban centre.

Toronto is radically different from Ottawa, and Ottawa from Montreal, and Montreal from Halifax, etc.

In 2006 Mayor Larry O’Brien took office in Ottawa, proving that under Ottawa’s unspoken cultural guidelines, a spoiled inexperienced rich-boy could rule the city.

Currently under RCMP investigation for bribery, the Mayor has made a handful of terrible decisions during his short, yet ongoing term. He has lost nearly $300 million in transit money due to his cancellation of the light-rail project, he has compared the homeless with pigeons on live radio, and encouraged people to starve both, but most heinously, he has put the residents of Ottawa in immediate danger.

On April 2nd 2007, Mayor Larry O’Brien had sworn in 39 ‘Special Constables’ to work to rid bus system of stowaways.

These ‘Special Constables’ are considered peace officers, which for those not in the know, means that they have the authority of police officers, in the same way that customs officers and parole officers do.

The main difference between a police officer and a bus cop is that a police officer spends 2-3 years in training to receive a badge; a bus cop spends 6 weeks. Basically, what this means is that the years in theory and ethics training that a police officer undergoes to protect the public from abuses of power, is conveniently turned into maybe a couple of hours, tops.

What the Mayor has done is unleash 39 people with the power to arrest, detain, attack, and fine anyone of their choosing onto the public, with very inappropriate training. Essentially, the situation was a tinder box, ready to ignite.

On March 14th, the tinder box ignited.

Ken Lowen is a man who has become disabled. He is a former Heath Canada Scientist, and in 2005, something happened. It is unknown what happened, doctors aren’t sure if it’s early onset Alzheimer’s, the result of a brain injury, or infection from a virus he was exposed to at Health Canada, but the result was that Ken now suffers from a debilitating neurological condition that has left him unbalanced, prone to confusion, and living off of a disability pension.

Ken had saved his money to buy his wife a gold necklace and cross as an Easter present, and on March 14th he set out to buy the present from the Rideau Centre. After purchasing the gift, he accidentally took the wrong bus home and got lost. Two bus cops then approached him, and asked him if he was drunk. He told them that he wasn’t drunk, but they told him he was. After this exchange, they slammed Ken on the filthy hood of an OC Transpo car, handcuffed him, and threw him in the back seat. After driving Ken home, the officers banged on the door to his house. His wife answered and was greeted with a fine for $65 and a charge for her husband’s public intoxication. They then watched idly as Mrs. Lowen helped a shaken, confused and teary Mr. Lowen into the house with his bag.

In the bag Lorrie Lowen discovered a receipt for the gold necklace and cross, and an empty jewellery box.

Translation: Lorrie Lowen’s Easter gift is now one of the bus cops’ spouse’s Easter gift.

OC Transpo has refused to help the Lowen’s track down the stolen jewellery and treated them with nothing but rudeness and apathy.

This is life in O’Brien’s Ottawa. O’Brien’s brute squads patrol the buses, while the Mayor gets fat, the disabled get beaten and robbed, and the pigeons, like the homeless, are starved.

This is what happens when people elect a rich-boy to office.

This is the new culture of Ottawa.