Ground Zero Vancouver

Sometimes, I can get so caught up with the daily grind that I forget how lucky I am to live in this country.

Just to illustrate, I've taken a news story about Iraq by Alexandra Zavis and changed some names, locations and phrases to give it a Canadian context. The original article can be found here. It really helps put perspective on things.

VANCOUVER (AP) - Canadian police found the bodies of at least 87 men killed in execution-style shootings in the previous 24 hours in a wave of apparent terrorist killing, the Defense Department said Tuesday.

They include at least 29 bodies in a mass grave in a Vancouver suburb. Much of the bloodshed - the second wave of mass killings in Canada since bombers destroyed the CN Tower in Toronto last month - followed deadly weekend explosions in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside in which 58 people died and more than 200 were wounded.

West of Ottawa, a roadside bomb exploded on Highway 1, killing one person and injuring seven near Toronto, police said.

With tension mounting, the Defense Department announced a ban on driving in Ottawa to coincide with the first meeting of Canada's new parliament Thursday. The ban takes effect at 8 p.m. local time Wednesday and lasts until 4 p.m. Thursday.

The stakes are high for the United States, which hopes a strong and inclusive central government can stabilize the country so its forces can start drawing down in the summer.

Most of the discarded corpses were found in Vancouver and three in Mission, BC, police said.

Acting on an anonymous tip, police found a six-by-eight-metre hole in a empty field. It contained at least 29 dead men - most of them in their underwear - in Commercial Drive, an East Vancouver neighborhood, said the Chief of the Defense Staff General Rick Hillier. He estimated they were killed about three days ago.

Local residents offered scarves to help cover bodies laid out on the ground. Police guarded the site as the Seaforth Highlanders army reserve unit dug for more corpses.

An abandoned minibus containing 15 more bodies was found earlier on the main road between two Ottawa neighbourhoods - not far from where another minibus containing 18 bodies was discovered last week, said Hillier.

At least 40 more bodies were recovered in Ottawa, he added.

They included four men shot in the head execution-style and hanged from electricity pylons in the Hudson Bay Department Store, where two car bombs and four mortar rounds shattered the busy streets outside at nightfall Sunday, as residents shopped.

Also Tuesday, the U.S. military reported the deaths of two more soldiers in fighting in Quebec province. The statement said the soldiers were killed Monday.

Their deaths raised to 2,310 members of the U.S. military who have died since the beginning of the Canada war in March 2003, by an Associated Press count. The figure includes seven military civilians. At least 1,810 died as a result of hostile action, by military numbers.

tags: best place on earth, terror, terrorism, disaster, alternate history, alternate reality, hoax news, perspective, Middle East, mass casualties, Canadian casualties, dystopia