On July 1st, Canadians celebrated all of the great things in our nation. For some time now, “freedom” was supposed to be one of them. Apparently there’s a freedom exclusion zone around around Surrey, BC. A family of adults & children were told by armed members of the RCMP that city parks in the city are not allowed to be used for sports without first getting a permit.
Bravo Mayor Hepner and City Council, you’ve effectively turned your community into something more representing Communist China. All bow down to the mighty public sector! Hail Mayor Hepner, Hail!! Good to see that you’re putting your highly paid officers to good work rather than focusing all of their time & energy on issues like this.
Clearly not a racist situation here, but a big “pound me in the arse” government situation going on. Good thing the balls were in the open too, wouldn’t want some individual or family to be “shot up” over concealed soccer balls.
Im glad i dont live in Canada
I’m glad you don’t live in Canada too!!
Look, the city maintains those fields and asks users to get a permit to play. If it was just a group of kids I’m sure there would be no problem, but if it is adults and kids it begins to look like a team practice. The city regulates the fields to prevent damage from over use and teams sneaking in a little extra practice is likely to cause that damage.
Really? So they were actually practicing soccer without authorization????? Oh my, thanks to the eagle eyed law enforcement from RCMP the tragedy was surely avoided. That was a close one, these prols should be educated on overusing a public field, stepping on it, running on it, rolling a ball on it. They in fact are lucky the SWAT team wasn’t called in. You can never be too careful with those soccer players aggressively sliding on the grass and all.
Now look, if you allow ONE group to play soccer on the fields, pretty soon EVERYONE will be playing soccer on the fields!
What the hell do you think soccer fields are for,SOCCER?
These people should just stand respectfully on the edges of the field and gaze awestruck at the beauty of the grass.
This IS “Super,Natural” B.C.,where the motto is ,”look but don’t touch”, same as at Hooters.
I am not sure if they should be standing on the edge of the field, edges are maintained too by courageous city employees and we should be respectful of their noble efforts and not overuse the edges without proper authorization.
The problem is that the cities invest way to much money in these fields and then have to limit usage to protect them. Spending the money on drainage is fine, but less on the surface.
“Papers, please.”
Well, to say the least, I think Surrey’s mayor has got a bit miffed since the transportation referendum was turned down.
It’s the referendum that said, in essence, “Give us another 0.5% in sales tax and we’ll give you UTOPIA!!!”
Now she’s taking it out on the citizens, especially the soccer players.
Ya the city invests way too much money in these fields. I say sell the property to a developer and put up low rental housing complexes. That’ll save them money. Until of course the little ones get big and form gangs for recreation. That’s always a hoot.
Good thing the shootings took place in a cul de sac rather than in a park, otherwise there’d be hell to pay.
I’m not quite sure what a park, replete with soccer goals might be used for if not, um, soccer…
Is walking around slowly in circles permitted? Is walking in straight lines permitted? Is walking briskly forbidden? Or is there a minimum speed so the grass isn’t compressed in one spot?
No, I’m not being sarcastic.
It must be stopped AND NOW. What next? Dads pitching balls to their kids in the empty baseball diamonds? Kids flying kites on school grounds?
Robert – you should do a photo essay on the empty fields of the lower mainland. I can contribute.
BTW: Soccer? Really? I would have kicked them off the field for not having any notion of a good game is.
edit -“notion of a good game is.”
notion of what a good game is.
‘Armed Police!!!’ Really? As opposed to the unarmed variety we so often find in Canada?
Also…nothing against a good rant, but ya lost me with the ‘Heil’ crap. The lefties pull that in anti-Harper comments all the time, and frankly, it’s both stupid and insulting. Insulting to those that actually had to live in, or fight against, an authoritarian state.
We should be raising kids not grass!!!
Well, the cops arrest rate in the gang shootings is pretty dismal but the’ve got a 100% rate in illegal soccer players.
Oh, and incidentally “rat” the city you mentioned are the citizens who pay the taxes to have the parks in the first place.
place.
Bureaucrats wet dream is always to make new regulations. It’s all part of the power trip over the lowly peasant. Unauthorized soccer is a gateway sport that could lead to people getting exercise and enjoying themselves. Heaven knows what that could lead to, but without bureaucratic approval, that’s just too much freedom for the average citizen that requires constant guidance in what they are allowed to enjoy, as well as when and where they are allowed to play. If this transgression goes unchecked, before you know it, kids will be playing in back yard hockey rinks. The horror.
For us kids, any open field or clearing in the bush was a soccer/baseball/football field. We asked nobody for permission. In fact, no adults had any part in organizing the games. We made the rules and whomever showed up played. Didn’t matter how old they were, how good they were or if they were fancy white kids or regular kids like us.
Let the city make up dumb rules. Kids who really want to play will find a way to play.
That’s okay because tonight in Holland Park (Whalley), a concert named FVDED (pronounced:faded) is going on, it will be open to some 15000 people, DJ’d by someone named “Deadmau5”. There will be 3 beer gardens operating, and should a car backfire while driving by, you will see 15,000 people hit the dirt. Maybe because there have been 37 shootings in Surrey since the beginning of March! Don’t know whether police will be present but apparantly there will be security!
With the CO2 regulations, don’t you also need a permit to breath?
The city regulates things because they need the work
You mean to tell me that over the course of a day bureaucrats have jobs other than sitting up straight in their chairs?
You can’t make this stuff up. Bureaucrat city officials look for every angle to hit up citizens with user fees. It seems like the property tax we pay only covers the privilege of living at our address. Everything else like good parks to play and enjoy is extra. God help us and our kids off the couches if we ever want to do something like kick soccer balls around in a well maintained city operated field or park – that would mean that the city is actually providing something useful.
In Calgary we just blew $10MM on what is mostly paint and cheap concrete dividers \ snow catchers to eradicate hundreds of parking spots so a very few number of bike riders can have their own space to commute into work. In addition to the fact that these new bike lanes are almost totally empty most of each day – it also seems that the new setup is resulting in more near miss collisions between bike rider and auto. Another brilliant expenditure where the result seems quite a bit worse than just leaving it alone.
Spending money to look after parks and fields must seem boring to city managers who yearn to brag about how we’re keeping up with the Portland’s, Seattle’s and Davis California’s of the hip set. But wouldn’t it be great if they just managed what they already have better?
The city also provides lots of open space that can be used for pick up games of soccer. The city, through our taxes, maintains the fields but just because you pay the tax doesn’t mean you get unlimited use of it. The fields are built and used for organized sports, and the clubs often pay part of the costs of the fields and rental fees for their use.
Brown Town (Surrey) has a phenomenal rate of multiple murders and the RCMP are out hassling kids playing soccer in parks. The RCMP are beyond useless. Nice to know the fascist cow is in charge, otherwise there might be some illegal hopscotch going on. At least she could recognize what type of Indians they were because normally RCMP shot the North American variety when they feel threatened and a rogue soccer game must have had them peeing their pants.
Only if someone is playing soccer….then there will be hell to pay:)
Are you a real idiot or do you just play one in movies?
Martin, I was pretty skeptical about the downtown bike lanes, but so far I get a definite sense that they’re keeping bikes off the sidewalk, and from my own selfish point of view, that’s an improvement. Mind you, I have no idea how anybody manages to drive around downtown any more, but I’m a pedestrian and it ain’t my problem.