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Western Canada’s largest auto event, the 2008 Vancouver International Auto Show, March 29 – April 6 at BC Place Stadium, will feature a brand new competition that salutes the greatest automobiles in history.

The “Best Of The Best” will showcase three of the rarest and most valuable privately held vehicles in B.C.

1906 ZUST

Representing the Langley Good Times Cruise-In will be one of the rarest cars in the world — the 1906 ZUST that participated in the Great Race from New York to Paris in 1908.

“This is extremely exiting to have the ZUST on display,” says McGeachie.

“This car is a one-of-a-kind, and we’re thrilled our show guests will be able to see it in person.”

The ZUST, owned by a private collector in Ladysmith, B.C., will also be on display at 100th anniversary of the Great Race in New York.

The car will also be showcased at the Langley Good Times Cruise, September 6th, 2008 in Langley.

1936 Ford Club Cab

Representing the Annual Downtown Port Coquitlam Car Show will be a spectacular 1936 Ford Club Cab.

The car, owned by Al Cameron of Merritt, is one of only 4,400 built.

One of the great British Marques of the 1930’s, the LG 45 was the first model produced under the direction of W. O Bentley after he joined Lagonda in 1935.

Approximately 25 Drop Head Coupes were produced.

Acquired and completely restored by a private collector in Vancouver, the ’36 Lagonda has received numerous awards, including First In Class at the Pebble Beach Concours d’ Elegance and First Place, Senior Class; Classic Car Club of America, Grand Classic.

Read more - http://www.southasianpost.com

Vancouver’s historic Sun Tower office building has been sold to new owners with plans to restore the iconic structure as “one of the most beautiful architectural jewels in the city.”

Philip Kim, owner of the Sun Capital Corp. and new co-owner of the Sun Tower offered that glowing assessment of its aesthetic attributes.

Sun Capital and Argo Ventures Inc. have purchased the building, according to a press release from the selling agent, Cushman & Wakefield LePage.

The price of the transaction was not disclosed.

Argo Ventures owner Jason Hong said that with downtown office vacancies at historic lows, “it is a great time to own office buildings in Vancouver, especially ones as unique as the Sun Tower.”

Calling the Sun Tower a “provocative landmark,” that looks as if inspired by Michaelangelo, Kim said the new owners will spruce up the building’s interior and exterior to “provide funky loft office space and upscale commercial space similar to office buildings in the SoHo district of New York.

The Sun Tower, located at 100 West Pender Street, sits in the middle of what is now referred to as Cross-town, the neighbourhood between Gastown and Yaletown, which “is going through extensive renovation and repositioning,” according to Jeff Rank, Cushman & Wakefield’s managing director in Vancouver.

The 17-storey Sun Tower was Vancouver’s tallest building, and tallest in the British Empire, when it was completed in 1912.

It has gone through several identities. It opened as the World Building, became the Sun Tower in 1924 as home to The Vancouver Sun, which remained there until 1964.

From http://www.canada.com/vancouversun

David Duchovny says the controversy over remarks he made about Vancouver was a “newspaper-generated false non-existent controversy” – and that the idea for criticizing the city on Late Night with Conan O’Brien came from the talk show, not him.

Mr. Duchovny addressed the controversy – now more than a decade old – at a news conference held in Vancouver Wednesday afternoon. It was called so producers of the coming X-Files movie could “express their gratitude” to the city, where production on the film is just wrapping, and where the series was shot for five years in the 1990s – before Mr. Duchovny famously lobbied to have the production moved to Los Angeles.

“It was really a tempest in a teapot,” Mr. Duchovny, dressed in a blue sweatshirt and ripped tan jeans, told reporters.

“I love this city. I love coming back here. I always loved this city. That was the unfortunate part; [it] was kind of a misrepresentation of my feelings about the city.”

In 1997, Mr. Duchovny made headlines locally after going on Mr. O’Brien’s show and criticizing Vancouver’s weather.

“Vancouver is a very nice place if you like 400 inches of rainfall a day,” he said.

But Wednesday, Mr. Duchovny said Mr. O’Brien’s producers approached him with the idea of poking fun at Canada. They suggested that after he made his comments about Vancouver, they would cut to the audience and show a Mountie, a hockey player and a bear dabbing at their eyes with handkerchiefs.

“To me, a bear crying is funny,” he said Wednesday.

Mr. Duchovny finished shooting the X-Files film Wednesday morning and stopped by the news conference on his way to the airport to return home. Co-star Gillian Anderson, who was supposed to be there, cancelled due to illness.

Producers have been trying to keep details of the second X-Files film (title TBA) hush-hush, using a false name for the production in an attempt to fool the paparazzi (it didn’t always work) and referring to Agent Fox Mulder in the script and call sheets as “Larry” – the name of a producer’s dog.

Still, some minor plot points were revealed Wednesday: the film will not centre around the alien conspiracy that the series (and the first movie) were focused on and instead will be more of a stand-alone story. The characters will be six years on from when the series ended (as in reality). And Pemberton, B.C., the city north of Whistler where the film shot for three weeks, will stand in for a city in the north-eastern U.S.

When asked about photos of the shoot circulating online that show Mulder and Scully kissing, Mr. Duchovny said the writers have always described the film – and the whole series – as a love story, whether chaste or sexual. “That’s half the show.”

X-Files creator Chris Carter and screenplay co-writer Frank Spotnitz said they owe a lot to Vancouver - to the crews who grew up with the show, and to the city’s physical beauty.

“Vancouver gave the show its original look, which I would call moody,” said Mr. Carter, who still maintains a home here. “I think that was one of the secrets to our success - not so secret, as it turns out.”

From http://www.theglobeandmail.com

The marijuana leaf emblem above Marc Emery’s Cannabis Culture Headquarters in YVR.

photo from http://flickr.com/photos/chadedward/2153428786/

Marijuana crusader Marc Emery is blaming a clash of judicial cultures for delays in a plea bargain that would send him to prison briefly in the United States before serving several years in Canada.

The so-called Prince of Pot’s extradition case was put over Wednesday until April 9 at the request of his lawyer and a federal prosecutor representing the U.S. Justice Department.

No reason was given but Emery said outside B.C. Supreme Court that there’s a disagreement about the legality of the deal in Canada.

“What’s at stake is the Canadian prosecutorial service doesn’t think that it’s possible to make a deal where a Canadian judge is compelled to do something specific, like put me in jail for a minimum length of time or set some kind of parole date,” he said.

“The Canadian government says that’s not legal in Canada and that’s what they’ve told the U.S. prosecution and so the Justice Department in the United States is saying that our deal’s not possible - that they have to actually put in writing - because the Canadians aren’t playing ball, so to speak.”

The Vancouver-based pot-legalization advocate and co-accused Greg Williams and Michelle Rainey are charged in the U.S. with selling marijuana seeds over the Internet.

A plea bargain was in the works that would see charges dropped against Williams and Rainey while Emery would plead guilty and receive a prison sentence.

Emery said if negotiations can’t produce an agreement that would put him in prison for about five years - with only a few months to be served in U.S. custody - then an extradition hearing would likely go ahead in the fall.

He said his lawyers have advised him that a joint submission is almost always accepted by a judge and could include a set parole date.

“That would satisfy the Americans’ need to have an in-custody incarceration for up to five years,” he said.

Emery said that in the U.S. system a non-violent first-time offender like him would normally be released in about 20 months but American authorities refuse to accept that.

He said the U.S. wants a Canadian judge to be bound by the agreement for a minimum prison sentence, he said.

The deal being negotiated would see him convicted on both sides of the border, Emery said. He would serve three to six months in a U.S. prison before being transferred to a Canadian institution for the balance of his sentence.

Emery said he finds the whole process odd.

“The Canadian government could just have me charged and that would lay the matter to rest and they wouldn’t have to be concerned because some judge would come to a determination as to whether I should be incarcerated,” he said.

“This to me is more like collaboration with the United States. It’s like outsourcing our justice system to the United States.

“I don’t consider I should have to go to jail at all. I’m doing this to save my two co-accused and to somewhat resolve the matter.”

Emery has been a thorn in the side of Canadian authorities for years, holding highly publicized pot “smoke-ins” in a drive to legalize the drug.

His efforts have included a cross-Canada tour when he smoked cartoon-sized joints in front of city police departments. He spent two months in a Saskatoon jail after one of his pro-pot protests.

American authorities started the extradition process three years ago when a U.S. federal grand jury indicted Emery on conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds into the United States over the Internet.

From http://canadianpress.google.com

British Columbia’s official probe into the use of Tasers is now underway, and Attorney-General Wally Oppal says he is willing to consider a complete ban on the use of stun-guns, if that’s what the inquiry recommends.Oppal says many police forces across the continent are having second thoughts about Tasers, and he wants a full and comprehensive opinion as to what police in this province should be doing.

The findings will only affect municipal forces, sherriffs and corrections staff however, not the Mounties, which are federally regulated.

What is taser?

An electroshock weapon is an incapacitant weapon used for subduing a person by administering electric shock aimed at disrupting superficial muscle functions. One type is a conductive energy device (CED), an electroshock gun popularly known by the brand name “Taser”, which fires projectiles that administer the shock through a thin, flexible wire. Other electroshock weapons such as stun guns, stun batons, and electroshock belts administer an electric shock by direct contact.

Electroshock weapon technology uses a temporary high-voltage low-current electrical discharge to override the body’s muscle-triggering mechanisms. The recipient is immobilized via two metal probes connected via metal wires to the electroshock device. The recipient feels pain, and can be momentarily paralyzed while an electric current is being applied. It is reported that applying electroshock devices to more sensitive parts of the body is even more painful. [1] The Maximum Effective Areas for stun gun usage are upper shoulder, below the rib cage, and the upper hip. The relatively low electric current must be pushed by high voltage to overcome the electrical resistance of the human body. The resulting ’shock’ is caused by muscles twitching uncontrollably, appearing as muscle spasms. Experts generally agree that the ‘margin’ of safety in this case is highly dependent on the overall health of the person subjected to the shock. The higher the voltage, the more adverse it is.

According to the many sources, a shock of a half-second duration will cause intense pain and muscle contractions, startling most people greatly. Two to three seconds will often cause the subject to become dazed and drop to the ground, and over three seconds will usually completely disorient and drop an attacker for at least several seconds.TASER International warns law enforcement agencies that “prolonged or continuous exposure(s) to the TASER device’s electrical charge” may lead to medical risks such as cumulative exhaustion and breathing impairment.[5] Because there is no automatic stop on a taser gun, many officers have used it repeatedly or for a prolonged period of time, thus potentially contributing to suspects’ injuries or death.

Vancouver BC Canada - sunny day in February

Photo from http://flickr.com/photos/vancouvergo/2275023066/
Our provincial government has no plans to give us a new holiday in February despite the fact many people in several provinces have enjoyed today off. Labour Minister Olga Ilich says B.C. isn’t likely to join that list.

In Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta, it’s ‘Family Day’ and in Manitoba, it’s ‘Louis Riel Day’. But it’s a routine Monday here in B.C. Labour Minister Ilich says we have nine statutory holidays every year, and the other provinces are just catching up. In B.C., Remembrance Day is a holiday.

The provincial government says they examined the issue and claims every day off costs about $370 million in terms of lost productivity.

From http://www.news1130.com/news 

Star actors Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law are reportedly coming to Vancouver to take the place of Heath Ledger in the film The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus.The movie was starting shooting here when Ledger was found dead in his Manhattan apartment in January from an accidental drug overdose.

All three stars will share Ledger’s character of Tony, the love interest in the Terry Gilliam-directed fantasy film, Reuters reported.

Kirk Shaw, CEO of Vancouver’s Insight Film Studios, called the decision to cast three actors to replace Ledger “brilliant.”

Adding one love interest in the story - in which Dr. Parnassus offers his daughter’s hand in marriage to whoever can beat the devil at seducing souls - might not make sense, whereas adding three would, he said.

“I think Terry Gilliam has done a really good job of rethinking his film to keep the footage that is already shot with [Ledger],” Shaw said.

Filming had just finished in London and had moved to Vancouver when Ledger died.

“I actually think it was brilliant thinking on Gilliam’s part on how to alter his story line to introduce new love interests in the film,” Shaw said. “And I don’t know how he’s done it, but I know that’s what he’s doing.”

The addition of the three big names will not necessarily blow the film’s $30-million budget out of the water, as all three are rumoured to have agreed to a pay cut in tribute to Ledger, who was best known for his role as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.

But the new faces could mean a bigger payday for the film because “when they release this film, they’ve got a huge story,” Shaw said.

And that’s great for the future of B.C. film-making, he added.

When a successful film is made in B.C. - like Juno, which has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including best picture - “it shows the quality of work that can be done with the crews here,” and that attracts more productions to the area, he said.

Pete Mitchell, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of  Vancouver Film Studios, said the really good news is that the film was proceeding.

“We all expected it to die,” Mitchell said. “It’s good news for crews, it’s good news for suppliers and it is good news for the industry to have high-profile actors of any kind, especially a Johnny Depp.

“You’ve got Johnny Depp in town, it creates a lot of interest and [raises the profile of] Vancouver as a place to shoot,” he said.

Peter Leitch, president of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of B.C., agreed the film will “showcase the province” and should be a boon to the industry.

“It’s always positive. We’ve done some shows here in Vancouver that have been successful at the box office, and that’s bodes well here,” he said.

“More importantly, it shows we’re producing world-quality productions that are being shot in Vancouver. … A lot of these are star-driven, which can be good for the industry.”

Infinity Features, which is producing the film, referred questions to its public relations agency in California, which was closed for the U.S. Presidents’ Day holiday.

From http://www.canada.com/

The B.C. Ministry of Health will provide crack-pipe mouthpieces to people who smoke crack, as part of the province’s harm-reduction strategy.

Dr. Perry Kendall, the province’s chief medical officer, said the simple mouthpieces made from surgical tubing will be distributed though needle exchanges and other community health services as early as April.

The program is intended to cut down on the transmission of blood-borne diseases such as hepatitis C, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and syphilis that can be spread by smokers sharing glass crack pipes, said Kendall.

Crack smokers often have burns and sores on their lips, he said, so when users share a pipe, they will be able to use their own mouthpiece and reduce the risk of disease transmission.

Crack is a cheap and highly addictive illegal drug made from cocaine.

From http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia

Photo from http://flickr.com/photos/christinelind/222499107/

A giraffe born at the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove late last week is still under close surveillance.

The baby giraffe wasn’t feeding right away, and Zoo spokesperson Jody Henderson says feeding is still a problem, “He sometimes likes the bottle, he sometimes doesn’t take the bottle. We’re getting food into him, there hasn’t been any fluctuations in weight. And so every day, we just go day by day and [we’re] hoping for, obviously, the best outcome all around.”

She says this is a sensitive time for the baby, calling the two-week mark a “milestone.”

The survival rate for giraffes born in captivity is estimated to be around 50%.

Photo from http://flickr.com/photos/marshsu/78311296/

Laid-back shopper Curtis Bennett of Vancouver held his Boxing Day purchase over his head and grinned.

Thirty minutes after starting his foray into the hustle and bustle of Boxing Day buying, the 19-year-old University of B.C. forestry student said he was finished shopping.

And he didn’t break a sweat or even spend much time lining up.

“I’ve been shopping around before Christmas so I had scoped out what I wanted,” said Bennett, standing outside The Boardroom on Fourth Avenue, where he scooped up the snowboard he wanted at a reduced price.

Indie rock music piped through the store’s sound system onto the street where clusters of teens stood Wednesday, contemplating their discounted purchases.

It was a far cry from the elbow-to-elbow squeeze of local malls, big box stores or Robson Street, where some people lined up for hours.

Bennett waited about two minutes to get in the store, he said, and another 15 to 20 minutes to get to the cashier. The white, 2008-model board, decked out with a wolf motif — and discounted by just 10 per cent — was the only Boxing Day purchase he intended to make. “I knew what I wanted,” Bennett said with a shrug.

It was a different scene in the Robson Street shopping district Wednesday afternoon. Thousands of well-heeled, bargain-driven shoppers pushed through the downtown core, lining up outside stores such as Coach, Lululemon, Zara and Lacoste.

People started lining up at Future Shop on Robson Street at 8:30 p.m. Christmas Day, said spokeswoman Susan Kirk, adding that the store expected more than one million shoppers at its 131 stores Wednesday, about 10 times more than an average shopping day.

Read more at http://www.canada.com