Picture of the Day: Snow!

Many woke up to see a layer of snow on the ground this morning

Vancouver had its first snowfall of the season and year this morning when a few centimetres of the white stuff was strewn on the ground.

The branches of a mini Japanese Maple were covered white

I quickly bundled up to start shoveling the snow on the sidewalk, as I could hear a neighbour doing his civic duty, with the sound of his shovel scraping the ground.

When I got outside, the air was crisp and clean, blue skies and subtle crunch noises from my boots against the snow.

Shoveling the snow wasn't too bad, and was quickly cleared thanks to the relatively thin layer.

We went out to do some errands later in the morning, and it was half snowing, half wet snow. But by the time we got back home at lunchtime, most of the snow had melted, except for the patches were the sun didn't shine directly.

There is a 40 percent chance of snow flurries tomorrow -- if not it'll be rain.

There were many pretty scenes to take pictures of today

What a memorable trip to Vancouver this time! Snow today and a minor earthquake last week!

Lessons Learned from Rocky Ride

One of 22 passengers on AC 088 who was sent to hospital to treat injuries

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada says two investigators are continuing to  look into what happened when severe turbulence hit an Air Canada flight 088 from Shanghai to Toronto where the flight was diverted to Calgary.

Twenty-one passengers were sent to hospital with seriously injuries, while the rest were eventually flown back to Toronto.

Described as "the flight from hell", the 332 passengers and 19 crew experienced 40 minutes of severe turbulence, estimated to be when the plane was over Alaska. Some passengers reported people were thrown out of their seats and hit the ceiling.

At one point oxygen masks came down from the ceiling

If that is the case, then they were the ones who did not wear seat belts. It is believed many of them were probably Chinese.

Several flight attendants have told me over the years how difficult it is to deal with Chinese passengers, particularly from mainland China.

The flight attendants tell stories of parents changing their baby's diapers on the fold down table, or handing plastic cups filled with warm yellow liquid and dirty diapers, and the usual of going to the washroom during turbulence, or jumping out of their seats as soon as the plane touches down.

One who works for a Canadian airline told me today that he has to remind passengers that while he understands they may need to pee, going to the loo while the airplane passes through turbulence puts them at risk.

There was a big mess after the turbulence

He basically said if he was working during severe turbulence like the Air Canada flight, he would not be risking his life to go down the aisle to make sure everyone had their seat belts on. "That's what the seat belt sign is for."

The passengers who were severely injured cannot sue the airline because they were forewarned in Chinese (Putonghua), English and French to wear their seat belts ahead of time.

Hopefully the news of this Air Canada flight will be a strong reminder to all passengers that they really need to buckle up. They aren't necessarily going to fall over, but they might fall out of their chairs and up onto the ceiling...

Chilling Disappearances in Hong Kong

Five people associated with Causeway Books have "disappeared"

Hong Kong people are alarmed about news on how five people associated with an anti-Communist bookstore in Causeway Bay have been mysteriously disappeared from Hong Kong and their families cannot get in contact with them.

The fifth and latest one is Lee Bo, 65, a majority shareholder in Causeway Books disappeared on Wednesday, though his wife has heard from him in a strange phone call.

Local police told Lee's wife they had no record of him leaving the city, and a Chinese media report said that she found his return home permit at home.

However, Lee called his wife the night he disappeared, telling her he was in Shenzhen.

"He said he will not be coming back anytime soon. He said he was assisting an investigation. I asked him if it was about the previous cases, he said yes. It was about the missing [associates]."

The bookseller specialized in books critical of the CPC

She said he later called her again and asked her not to make a scene. "I guess it was the Shenzhen police."

Another thing she found odd was that her husband spoke to her in Putonghua instead of Cantonese, and the caller ID was a Shenzhen number, which made her conclude that Shenzhen police had taken her husband from Hong Kong across the border.

When Lee said "Shenzhen", Mrs Lee said he struggled to finish the sentence and she had a feeling that he was told not to say anything else. She also heard a voice in the background saying, "there will be no problems if you cooperate".

Lee called her again yesterday, and when Mrs Lee said, "Let me talk to them", the phone was immediately hung up.

The four other people who have disappeared are: Gui Minhai, owner of Mighty Current, the publishing house that owns the bookstore, who went missing while on holiday in Thailand; bookstore manager Lam Wing-kei; general manager of the publishing house Lui Bo; and business manager Cheung Jiping.

The situation is chilling and illustrates how "one country, two systems" is not working properly. Under Basic Law, mainland officers have no right to exercise the law in Hong Kong, nor make arrests.

These Shenzhen officers would claim they didn't make any arrests, but detained someone for questioning.

And how does the Hong Kong government react? Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the police were already looking into the case, and the Security Bureau would not comment on "speculative reports".

Hardly supportive.

This is not a good sign for Hong Kong's future -- it is not even 2047 yet and people are being "disappeared" from the city. Also shocking was the case of two Chinese dissidents who had fled to Thailand and had papers that would give them asylum in Canada, and yet were forcibly repatriated back to the mainland.

China's tentacles are reaching far beyond its borders and is only interested in its own affairs without regard for the laws of other countries and cities. In the case of Hong Kong, it seems to have its own definition of what the city's relationship is with the motherland, regardless of the Basic Law.

Dissenters are forewarned -- Freedom of speech and the press are under threat because Hong Kong's mainlandization is happening faster than we expected...

Remembering Dal Richards

The King of Swing Dal Richards died just days before his 98th birthday

While many of us were getting ready to countdown the minutes to the start of 2016, one of Vancouver's icons passed away.

Dal Richards was a big band leader who had performed at 79 consecutive New Year's Eve gigs. He missed witnessing his 80th when he passed at 11.41pm on December 31 at 97.

I had the pleasure of interviewing the King of Swing about 10 years ago in his loft downtown that was full of memorabilia from performing for decades. But what I remember most about him was how full of energy he was even then in his 80s.

He may have physically moved slower, and hearing not so good, but his mind was still very sharp and had quite vivid memories; unfortunately I cannot recount them for you, only that he used to perform at the top of Hotel Vancouver from 1940 that was broadcast live on CBC Radio.

Richards performing with Lorraine McAllister in 1958

"It's Saturday night, at the CBC presents the music of Dal Richards and his Orchestra from the Panorama Roof," he recounted. "High atop the Hotel Vancouver, overlooking the twinkling harbour lights of Canada's gateway to the Pacific, it's music by the band at the top of the town."

How he got into music was really by accident.

Richards was born and raised in Vancouver, and was named after the doctor who delivered him, Dr Dallas Perry.

When Richards was a boy he fell while holding his slingshot and the prong gouged out his left eye. It was replaced by a glass eye, but to recuperate he had to spend long periods in the dark and he became despondent.

Dr Perry suggested the boy learn an instrument and he took to the clarinet. The rest, literally is history. It was during this time he became exposed to jazz and was hooked.

By the end of high school he had his own band and played his first New Year's Eve gig in 1935 and never really stopped working in one capacity or another.

His secret to long life?

"Well, if you find something you like doing in life, pursue it with your heart. That is what I've done with music. I found that it was my love, so I enveloped my life totally."

Richards leaves behind his wife Muriel, and a daughter Dallas with singer Lorraine McAllister, who died in 1984.

Thank you Dal for your boundless energy, optimism and humour, and of course your fabulous music!