The Editor,
Re: "Mayor Watts apologizes for liking Facebook post calling Rasode coward," the Now, Jan. 7.
You'd think that if the Now were in aid of serious journalism, you would ask for a comment from me, since you took the time to selectively choose from my Facebook posts - which I fully stand behind. You elected to escape with just a few statements, when my clear aim was to support a city which you purport to represent. Surrey, specifically Newton, is leaps and bounds better than it was a decade ago - and infinitely safer.
The drug business is correcting itself on Surrey streets as it did in Abbotsford and Vancouver prior to that.Barinder Rasode should be deeply ashamed for trying to score political points when Julie Paskall's body wasn't even cold yet. She claims I don't have all the "facts."
Try these.
Rasode hasn't met a soapbox she hasn't happily straddled, and through her comments that Surrey "hasn't done enough" essentially threw everyone under the bus who's worked hard to support Newton - including Surrey Crime Prevention, the RCMP and Surrey city council. If she was seriously interested in supporting the community, why didn't she co-ordinate her comments with, at least, the rest of council? Instead she took the alarmist, expedient route.
If you'd bothered to do your research, the Now would discover how Rasode is the chair of the police committee and has chaired many meetings in Whalley and Newton. Where was her take away? What did she discover? What were her findings? Recommendations? The RCMP haven't heard from her and neither have her council colleagues. Not a word.
We all weep for Ms. Paskall's death. But using her death to advance in the media? That's well past the limits of disgusting.
Being a productive member of council is one thing, fanning the flames of hysteria and playing off a dead hockey mom are quite another.
A. G. (Alex) Tsakumis, Vancouver