Topsy Turvy in Vancouver

So I was cycling back home last night and I ended up at one of those intersections where the lights are controlled by inductive loops in the pavement and button-pushing.  So I went over where the pedestrian light was controlled by a push button, pushed that button, and crossed the street when the light indicated that it was safe for me to do so.

 Only it wasn't!  A police cruiser making a left turn was heading right for me and I was thinking up assuming the curl-up-into-a-ball position, but he finally saw me and slammed on the brakes.  Happens to most car drivers at some point.  Just make an apologetic face or even better say 'Sorry" and the world goes on.

Not so apparently in the North Vancouver Police. After he almost ran me over, the cop lets down his passenger side window and says "It's not a good idea to cycle here; someone will run you  down."
WTF ?????
 What if I had been a pedestrian?  I was crossing a pedestrian crossing and the light was green for me. What is he saying?  Pedestrians and cyclists are fair game for car drivers now, even for cop cars?
BTW, did you ever notice that cops are very vocal about hunting down car drivers that use handheld devices while driving.  I guess the fact that an instrumental tool in this is the laptop mounted in the passenger seat of most cop cars. 

So how does the police justify their opinion that staring at a screen in the passenger seat while driving is MUCH safer than into a smaller screen closer to the line of sight and movement.


This morning I read a news item about the transit plebiscite in Vancouver.  One sentence caught my eye: Sarah Rosenthal made a special trip to the office after she was notified by Elections BC that she had forgotten to fill out part of her ballot.

Are you saying someone looked at a ballot and could identify the voter?  What happened to anonymity in voting?