PROTEST WILL CONTINUE ON JAN 11TH! TIM SMITH IN HIS OWN WORDS!!!

Tim Smith email me this note and he wants me to share his views with the readers. This is the reason he's returning to the Capital next week!




Well I don't know about you but I for one do not like the idea that my Provincial government can get away with exploiting 30 Million Dollars a year out of my City alone each and every year and our municipal government is doing nothing to change that fact.

Our own “Mayor Norm MacFarlane” telling his Citizens strait up that
No, NOT one dime of VLT revenues comes back to the City of Saint John and that that is indeed a FACT.



Yet he himself chose to give the Irving Billionaires a 125 Million
Dollar Tax break even though over that same twenty-five year period he could prevent a loss of 30 Million Dollars a Year. That would be 750 Million Dollars in investment monies if he were to abandon the use of VLTs through a separate City Referendum instead of robbing from the “Poor” to give to the “Rich” as we all know that Saint John would overwhelmingly vote to immediately remove all VLTs from this City.

The only real support for the referendum as we all know came from
Northern New Brunswick in support of this Conservative Leader we now call our, Gee we wish we didn’t have him Premier.



I don't know where you live but I live in Saint John N.B. and every
morning on my way out and about I can see what 30 Million Dollars could certainly take care of if it were spent locally.

Might I suggest you take a walk through your area and take a good hard look at it's pockets of despair then think about what advantages you would be enjoying if the money stayed there.



Also take a second to think about this, You may not play vlts or even anybody you know, but you can bet those who do within your community are hurting you as much as themselves and your Government is trying to convince you that this only effects a small
portion of your community and on that same token we all know that every one of our Neighbors on both sides of our fences can tell a few whopping stories about someone they know and the VLT curse.


I’ve had those stories told to me from all level of society when I did my protest in defense of this issue from Politicians ((ALL THREE PARTIES)), Security Personal, Reporters, Police Officers, Business Owners, Bankruptcy Officer,(as far back as 1997), as well as everyday people like you and me.

This has a name and it's call “deceit and exploitation” of the well
being of my and your communities for governmental greed.

It is becoming a modern addiction with Governments all over North
America.

This new addiction of your elected officials has risen in popularity at such an alarming rate that CNN in the U.S. and CTVnewsnet. Here in Canada felt the need to remind the National Public through their "year in review specials" that ran over the holidays on this very issue.

Their message being, if your Governments are addicted to this process and can no longer find a solution to the issue, How in the world are the VLT addicts going to be able to get proper help when they’re fighting their own governments who are as addicted to this as the addicts themselves, and their continually coming up with new and improved ways of reaching deeper and deeper into your communities pockets for that badly needed cash through continuous upgrades to the Machines and Operating Systems.



This will eventually effect you directly when the Government of New
Brunswick has to come good a few more years down the road and make a public statement that it truly will cost you a lot more to fix this problem that they've created.

Statistics show that for every dollar the government receives through vlt revenues it will cost between 2 to 3 dollars to repair the damage.



And finally it's not a matter of; there are many addictions out there.

The main issue here is vlt addiction and the erosion of your
communities are directly run programs of the Government of New Brunswick.

Without guideline or rules of law to stop them there are no boundaries to this Government addiction.

Not one single obstacle stands in their way NOT even advertising.

The only answer to this problem, As this Government has already used the excuse of a very weak referendum and then the loosely termed Entertainment clause - to defend their position on removal or reduction of the vlt machines, then Responsible Regulation of the program with very strict guidelines imposed on this Government and the future governments as well on the dignity of a refined program that is split with the communities with a part of the day when there is NO PLAY available should be immediately imposed as well as other solutions that take place in this regard.



I will be going to Fredericton on January 11th to stand in front of the Legislature and fast for one day to mark one full year since my protest and out of respect for those who have lost their lives to this disease.



As I feel they need their just voice and someone to continue to speak on their behalf of the silent suffering and the nightmares that they had surely endured until their final days until death was their only peace.



a personal madness that most could not comprehend if not afflicted or effected by this disease.

Those who were indeed productive members of society in and on many
level of our communities and are no longer among us but still deserve every ounce of respect as human beings and not be shunned as people with no direction and have done this to themselves as most had direction before this affliction became a reality within their Cities, Towns, and communities.



As well as those who are out there and still silently suffering PLEASE DO-NOT GIVE UP HOPE.

This one is a personal outreach to a couple of different people I am very close to but they cannot Secom to what they believe will be public persecution and are still struggling each and everyday with this addiction.

But my main focus is to remind the public of the broken promises that the Conservative government made one year ago to look into and do a study of a few proposals that were handed to them in the Legislature ofwhich has been quoted by many members of the house on BOTH sides of the floor as being VERY REASONABLE yet NOT one announcement or recommendation has come forth on this issue.



Nor has there been any such apology by this or Government or the
Liberals before them to any New Brunswick Family who has lost a Family member to VLT addiction--Brother, Sister, Mother, Father, Grandparent, Nephew, Niece, cousin or even a close friend or neighbor, Even though it is without a doubt a GOVERNMENT RUN PROGRAM, faults and all.

If, like the Government of New Brunswick likes to claim, this is NOT as big a problem as you might think, then why would four working Ministers in a barely Majority Government remove themselves from their duties to make N.B. Political History by meeting with ONE individual on this issue for at least 45 minutes to an hour other than to quiet the storm that could have been, before it reached a roar of exposure for what it truly is, Exploitation of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and a blatant disregard of life and the well being of your communities as a result of their own
addiction to this disease for profits.



It is well known that the New Brunswick Government has had 12 – 15
years to house these machines in all three Major Cities.

But have purposely chosen the current route, as this is the most
effective method of reaching most addicts just as in the seventies and eighties when it was the drug dealers who ran that very circuit, as well as putting as little as possible into any type of recovery programs.

They used the opportunity of buying time to see what the public
reaction would be over exposure to this deadly addiction issue and after a few months passed without too much public incident, the truth came out and they were exposed for lying on this issue and had NO plans or studies in place or committees to look at any such solutions on the issue of VLT despite Minister Blaney’s E-mails



Assuring myself that they were closing in on an early spring announcement through her conversations with the health and finance Ministers as well as she would make it a personal ambition to get something in place for those effected by this disease and
that I have her personal assurance that she will not quit until such actions have taken place.

They were banking on the weak truly being weak and penniless,
((No vehicle or dignity left to go public with their pain and
suffering)) and not being able to get to Fredericton to gain public support for their dire conditions due to VLT addiction and they also got a unexpected gift in that the Families who lost a member to this disease did not want to come forward because of a personal belief that shame and embarrassment to the Family as a whole may take place instead of standing up to Government for the honor of those individuals who have lost their lives to this Government run program and to keep their name alive for the persons they truly were before this disease.

Nova Scotia has come along way since my protest here in New Brunswick with many creative ideas and implementations such as

A-lowering the time to midnight for shut off time.

B- removing the stop play button as well as

C-slowing the play speed by a whopping 30 percent.

D- removing over 800 machines which by the way-

“D”would be the only infringement on the referendum here in New
Brunswick, all others above would fall under acts of Responsible Regulation.

Also I am trying to put together a poll I have posted briefly in the past on this blog to hopefully get your honest opinion on if any of the selections would serve us as a more Responsible way of regulating the VLT Machines in our Cities and Communities.

Just please have a look at the choices and if you feel one might be a better solution on proper operation of VLTs then please make a choice.

May not appear on site until 9th or 10th of January…

Thank-you

Timothy Smith Saint John N.B.