Monday, June 20, 2011

Michael Bubl� to fund campaign to identify Vancouver rioters

Canadian singer whose family were caught up in violence wants to help police find those responsible for trashing the city

Crooner Michael Bubl� is going vigilante. The easy-listening singer is financing a new ad campaign to hunt down the vandals from last week's Vancouver hockey riots, vowing to help the police make arrests and to make sure the guilty parties receive "a very, very special round of applause". "It was gutless and disgusting behaviour," Bubl� said. "I felt sick inside."

Born near Vancouver, Bubl� was back at home for Wednesday night's Stanley Cup final, in which the Vancouver Canucks lost to the Boston Bruins. Although the millionaire singer was on his way to the airport when the rioting began in the city centre, members of his family were much less lucky: Bubl�'s grandmother, mother and other relatives were trapped inside downtown's Queen Elizabeth theatre, amid burning cars and brawling drunks. "They were traumatised," Bubl� told the Globe and Mail. "They weren't allowed to go into the lobby because they were worried people were going to break the windows."

In the aftermath of the pandemonium, Bubl� has launched a newspaper ad campaign asking Vancouverites to come forward with photo evidence of rioters' criminal activity. "Just like everybody else, I was embarrassed, ashamed and angry, and the anger hasn't gone away," he said. He wants to find the people who committed the worst acts ? torching cars, looting shops, throwing bricks. "They're trash," he said. "We have to continue to circulate the faces and names of those guilty parties. Let's get them lots of publicity so that the police can make some arrests."

Bubl� has also reached out to Vancouver's chief of police, offering to use his profile ? and even his pocketbook ? to help with their investigation. "The chief was very appreciative," Bubl�'s manager told the Globe. "He said he was getting tremendous co-operation from the public. And the cops are buoyed up by the outpouring of support from the public."

"I'm disgusted by what the rioters did to the city," the singer said. "[But] it's easy to sit back and complain. Let's do something about it."

Bubl�, 35, was recently listed at number five on Forbes's list of the highest-paid musical acts in the world, ahead of Justin Bieber, Paul McCartney and the Black Eyed Peas.


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