Guilty - 48 charges

70 witnesses and 500-plus exhibits and over 7 months of trial.
The Bandidos trial is finally over and as expected all of the suspects have been found guilty and face lengthy jail sentences.

The RCMP were positive that the shootings were a cleansing and after all of this time they were proven right.

Norton Commando's are beginning to roll off of the production line. It's been over 20 years since the Donington Park factory had motorcycles produced there. The newly resurected company has already sold 200 special edition Commando's to celebrate their relaunch.

Norton Motorcycles says they have secured enough orders to begin production. Here in Canada, Sam Agha is the new CEO of Norton Canada Ltd. Agha and he owns Canada's largest Suzuki dealership

I hope you all have a wonderful day and if you are lucky enough to be riding, please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP A.I.M. Can
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Proud to be Canadian...

Anyone who knows me, knows I am proudly Canadian.

I get pretty passionate about the things I love and I scare some people off with that passion.

Well, if you are faint of heart go read someone elses blog today because I am about to get really passionate. If you are of ethnic origin and do not want to hear the truth about what living in Canada means - go read someone elses blog...

I got a copy of an article that appeared in the Calgary Sun in March of this year.

I can not find the original article to link to, but it is such a powerful, eloquent and thoughtful article on being Canadian that I am going to share it with you, along with my thoughts on this subject - section by section... Thanks to R. Dean of Wembley AB for sending this article to me.

Mahfooz Kanwar, PHD, is a Sociologist and an Instructor Emeritus at Mount Royal College.   This very wise, educated gentleman is a first generation Canadian whose parents immigrated from Pakistan.  He is also Muslim, but truly understands what it is to be Canadian first, even though he and his parents are from another country.

By Mahfooz Kanwar, For The Calgary Herald, March 30, 2009 Copyright (c) 

The Calgary Herald

Canada's Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is getting flak from the usual suspects, but he deserves praise instead.

Recently, Kenney pointed that out while at a meeting in Toronto.  Members of Canada's Pakistani community called on him to make Punjabi one of Canada's official languages.  It makes me angry that such an idea would enter the minds of my fellow and former countrymen, let alone express them to a Minister of the Crown.

(I am with Mr Kanwar here, it is unthinkable, yet people are and have tried)

A few months ago, I was dismayed to learn that Erik Millett, the principal of Belleisle School in Springfield, N.B., limited playing our national anthem because the families of a couple of his students objected to it.  

(I was not dismayed by this teacher's behaviour, I was totally incensed - Our National Anthem is a beautiful one and EVERY child who lives here, who is raised here should know it and sing it PROUDLY!)

As a social scientist, I oppose this kind of political correctness, lack of assimilation of new immigrants to mainstream Canada, hyphenated-Canadian identity, and the lack of patriotism in our great nation.

(Again, I am in 100% agreement, You are either a Canadian, about to become Canadian or a visitor)

Increasingly, Canadians feel restricted in doing things the Canadian way lest we offend minorities.  We cannot even say Merry Christmas without fear of causing offence.  It is amazing that 77 per cent of the Canadian majority are scared of offending 23 per cent of minorities.  We have become so timid that the majority cannot assert its own freedom of expression.  We cannot publicly question certain foreign social customs, traditions and values that do not fit into the Canadian ethos of equality. Rather than encouraging new immigrants to adjust to Canada, we tolerate peculiar ways of doing things.  We do not remind them that they are in Canada, not in their original homelands.

 (It is high time we start reminding them as to why they moved here - in MANY cases what was going on in their country of origin wasn't working for them so well...)

In a multicultural society, it is the responsibility of minorities to adjust to the majority.  It does not mean that minorities have to totally amalgamate with the majority.   They can practice some of their cultural traditions within their homes -- their backstage behavior.  However, when outside of their homes, their front stage behavior should resemble mainstream Canadian behavior.  Whoever comes to Canada must learn the limits of our system. We do not kill our daughters or other female members of our families who refuse to wear hijab, niqab or burka which are not mandated by the Qur'an anyway.  We do not kill our daughters if they date the "wrong" men.  A 17-year-old Sikh girl should not have been killed in British Columbia by her father because she was caught dating a Caucasian man. 

(Again - the traditions and culture that many have moved to Canada to get away from should not be being relived and reaffirmed here in this country - 100% behind you so far Mr Kanwar)

We do not practice the dowry system in Canada, and do not kill our brides because they did not bring enough dowry.  Millions of female fetuses are aborted every year in India, and millions of female infants have been killed by their parents in India and China.  Thousands of brides in India are burned to death in their kitchens because they did not bring enough dowry into a marriage.  Some 30,000 Sikhs living abroad took the dowries but abandoned their brides in India in 2005. This is not accepted in Canada.

(We Canadian women have a lot to be thankful for - I wished more of the women who move here really embraced the freedoms we have here.)

 

In some countries, thousands of women are murdered every year for family or religious honour.  We should not hide behind political correctness and we should expose the cultural and religious background of these heinous crimes, especially if it happens in Canada. We should also expose those who bring their cultural baggage containing the social custom of female circumcision.  I was shocked when I learned about two cases of this barbaric custom practiced in St. Catharines, Ont.  a few years ago.

(I agree, whole heartedly with this man thus far, women should not be marginalized in these ways)

I have said it on radio and television, have written in my columns in The Calgary Herald, and I have written in my latest  book, Journey to Success, that I do not agree with the hyphenated identity in Canada because it divides our loyalties. My argument is that people are not forced to come to Canada and they are not forced to stay here. Those who come here of their own volition and stay here must be truly patriotic Canadians or go back.

(HERE, HERE to that! If you don't like it here, if you want to live the way you did in the Old Country or the Mother Country - then go BACK!)

I am a first-generation Canadian from Pakistan.  I left Pakistan 45 years ago. I cannot ignore Pakistan, because it is the homeland of my folks, but my first loyalty should be and is to Canada.  I am, therefore, a proud Canadian, no longer a Pakistani-Canadian.  I am a Canadian Muslim, not a Muslim Canadian.

(Wow - if we could get everyone of any ethic origin to feel that way - to feel that kind of pride, wouldn't that be fabulous? Our children might again feel some pride in being Canadian) 

I do not agree with those Canadians who engage in their fight against the system in their original countries on Canadian soil.  They should go back and fight from within.  For example, some of the Sikhs, Tamil Tigers, Armenians and others have disturbed the peace in Canada because of their problems back home.  Recently, a low-level leader of MQM, the Mafia of Pakistan, came to Canada as a refugee and started to organize public rallies to collect funds for their cause in Pakistan.  On July 18, 2007, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that MQM is a terrorist group led by London-based Altaf Hussain, their godfather.  As a member in the coalition government of Pakistan, this terrorist group is currently collaborating with the Taliban in Pakistan. That refugee was deported back to Pakistan. 

(If you love your home country so much that you want to see change, he's right, go HOME and effect that change from within, don't fight your wars and bring your ageless feuds with you here)

Similarly, I disagree with newcomers who bring their religious baggage here.  For example, Muslims are less than two per cent of the Canadian population, yet in 2004 and 2005, a fraction of them, the fundamentalists, wanted to bring Sharia law to Canada. If they really want to live under Sharia, they should go to the prison-like countries where Sharia is practiced.

(This man is on the mark. I agree with every word he has said so far...and you? How does this article make you feel so far?)

I once supported multiculturalism in Canada because I believed it gave us a sense of pluralism and diversity.  However, I have observed and experienced that official multiculturalism has encouraged convolution of the values that make Canada the kind of place people want to immigrate to in the first place.
Here, we stand on guard for Canada, not for countries we came from.  Like it or not, take it or leave it, standing on guard only for Canada is our national maxim. Remember, O Canada is our national anthem which must not be disregarded by anybody, including the teacher in Springfield, N. B. 

Mr Kanwar, I tip my hat to you for telling it like it is. I wished that more people, naturalized or otherwise loved Canada the way you obviously do. Many immigrants come here for a new life. What they left was not working for them. Embracing something new, something different HAS to be part of changing your life and coming to a new country - why else would you come here? To live more of the same but have indoor plumbing and other mod cons while doing more of the same?

I am with Mr Kanwar - you need to be CANADIAN first if living here in a country of relative freedom and abundance is at all important to you.

Thank you sir for having the guts and the pride to tell it like it is!

Mahfooz Kanwar, PHD, Is A Sociologist and an Instructor Emeritus at Mount Royal College.

If you are fortunate enough to be riding today, please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty

National VP A.I.M.Can

www.aim-can.com

www.beltdrivebetty.com 

 

So Harley is not alone...

Cycle Canada is reporting that Yamaha is bleeding so much red ink that their President is handing over the reins to the Chairman. Apparently their losses for 2009 are going to be around 2.1 Billion dollars US.

I am unclear how changing the upper echelon yet leaving the same people at the table will change the ebb of money - that remains to be seen.

And Harley has quashed the hopes and dreams of Buell riders everywhere.

According to reports from the various news sources like Cycle Canada, that a group of private people wanted to buy Buell. In an announcement, H-D's spokeswoman Pat Sweeney said H-D will NOT sell Buell to anyone. "We chose not to sell Buell, and simply end production, simply because of the interdependencies that exist between Buell and Harley-Davidson. That is the decision we made, and that is not a reversible decision."

Hmmm,  I have, over the years seen big companies get dismantled and sold. Big companies with intricate interdependence issues...it makes me wonder about what else might be going on that we the general public won't hear about for months. If money is really an issue, why would you not want to sell? It appears to me that something else is in the works here.

Not much else in the news really worth noting so far today. The Hell's Angels/Bandido's jury will be deliberating - when we hear of the verdicts we'll let you know.

Until tomorrow, please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP A.I.M. Can
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Many thanks

Many thanks to the people on my Facebook who answer the questions I pose here with so much thought and care.

The last round of questions regarding leathers really answered some questions for me.

Perhaps I should have you guys and dolls as a screening committee. Before an advertiser is approved to advertise with us they should have to answer questions on their products or something...

Poor Brad Pitt got his new chopper all banged up trying to get away from the paparazzi in LA the other day. What a life that must be - living in a fish bowl. It's bad enough living in a smaller centre with busy bodies...

Anyway, I have event calendars and ads to work on so...
If you are fortunate enough to be riding today, please ride like everyone around you is blind and can not see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP A.I.M.Can
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com

Congratulations are in order!

Have you read the newsfeeds over on www.beltdrivebetty.com today?

If not you should! Our very own Jay Burnham from Freakshow Choppers has been invited to the Playboy Mansion in California to display his bikes for Halloween!

Pretty impressive stuff for a guy who only a few short years ago wasn't even a blip on the custom bike building scene.

Congrats Jay, your dedication, hard work and meticulous attention to detail are gaining you a great name in the business.

Speaking of business...

How many of you shop at your local bike shop/dealer for leathers?

Do you go to independent shops or custom leather shops?

Do you go to chain stores like Boutique of Leathers & their Open Road stores?

Do you wear leather of Kevlar theses days?

These are but a few of the burning questions I have...can yah help me out?

I share this blog to my Facebook page - and many people get in on the discussion there.
I periodically copy the comments from there to my blog here as I feel that the comments made by my Facebook network warrant being shared. If you comment here on my blog, those comments get shared with Facebook. Maybe one day Facebook will let us share the other way, but until they do, when I have time I will copy some of the comments here so you too can get in on the discussion.

Have a great day and IF you are fortunate enough to be riding today, please - ride like everyone around you is blind and can't see you.

Belt Drive Betty
National VP AIM-Can
www.aim-can.com
www.beltdrivebetty.com