Here’s another reason to fear tanning salons.

It’s quite impressive to watch hundreds of Harleys in this 2002 video of the Bandidos. It’s also interesting to note that the worst massacre in the club’s history – when eight members were murdered by others with the Bandidos – involved Bandidos who had previous little to do with motorcycles. The Toronto chapter, which was wiped out by the April 2006 murders, never had more than three bikes on the road at one time. The Winnipeg probationary chapter, which took part in the murders, didn’t even have three bikes.

It’s dizzying to try to follow the B.C. gang wars, that included the murder of Jonathan Bacon in Kelowna. There has been another hit and another bystander hurt and this violence will almost certainly fuel further attacks. It’s funny how this article whines in the last paragraph about the police and media fueling and sensationalizing the violence. Should the stories be boring when reporters write about public executions?

When I covered the G20 protests in June 2010 in Toronto, there were violent attacks on the Starbucks downtown. As the protest dragged on, Starbucks further and further outside the city core also came under attack. This was a particular concern to me, as I had hoped to file stories and photos there, with their free Internet and strong Americano.

Now it seems that the anarchists aren’t the only ones with a bone to pick with the coffee giant. A biker war can also trace its origins to the home of the $5 latte.

Perhaps they should push the decaf a little harder.

Be careful what you wish for. Lorenzo LoPresti wanted to be like his father, murdered Montreal mob boss Joe LoPresit. Lorenzo, who was tied to the Rizzutos, was shot to death while smoking on the balcony on his condo this week.

My head snapped when I heard on CBC Radio today the term “one per center” used to refer to the richest one per cent of society. It was during a discussion of the grass roots protests against banking and financial institutions that’s currently underway.

Readers of this blog likely associate the term “one per center” with outlaw bikers: the ones who identify themselves with “1 %” crests on their colours.

So it seems that, after snaring most of society’s money, our ultra-rich are also getting the coveted term that bad-ass bikers use to identify themselves. When will the pillaging stop?

Quitting the Hells Angels and speaking at schools against gangs wasn’t enough to keep a former top Winnipeg Hells Angel from getting 60 months in prison. Thomas Winget formerly played for Victoria in the Canadian Junior Football League, whose mission statement is to “foster community involvement and yield a positive environment by teaching discipline, perseverance and cooperation.” When his football ended, he found himself short of money and turned to drug dealing. Now, he says, he’s once again a changed man.

The Eastern Ontario chapter of the Hells Angels has apparently been dismantled.  If the Toronto experience is any example, it’ll drag on for years.

It’s easy for Canadians to forget that there are still Bandidos around the world and that many of those Bandidos are well organized. There’s a saying that the man makes the patch and not vice versa and it certainly makes sense. These European Bandidos seem light years ahead of the Canadian crew that self destructed.

A leaked report states that there’s widespread corruption in the construction industry in Quebec. The only thing surprisingly about this is that it was leaked. Corruption in Quebec construction is like wetness in the St. Lawrence River: a fact of life for as long as anyone can remember. Former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney was a lawyer on the Cliche Commission into violence in the construction industry back in the mid-1970s. The mobsters and Hells Angels now pulling in graft from construction aren’t inventing the wheel; they’re carrying on an ignoble tradition. So are the politicians who are denying the problem and/or balking at actually cleaning things up.