Supporters of the Falun Gong are being ordered to take down a protest display outside the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver. Jack Layton is certain to show up to express his solidarity for those oppress … oh, nevermind.
Michael McCullough;
The mainstream media in general had no problem seeing Clinton going to church with a Bible prominently in hand because they knew that it was a phony act calculated to gain sympathy. Clinton talked about his faith, but the press gave him a pass because they knew that it was just a political ploy and that his actions never reflected his talk.
A “secret” NAFTA Super Highway? Sounds like a great idea to me.
Fisking Fisk, Canadian style.
Shaidle;
The “poor” don’t like “foreigners”. They don’t like white, university educated young troublemakers, either. They don’t give a shit about how “oppressed” anybody is. The poor care about cheap smokes, lottery tickets, beer, sleeping, tatoos, big dogs and satellite tv. Leftists are talking exclusively to themselves — that’s part of the fun of watching them drone on and on like this.
Add your own in the comments.
Just in case anyone was wondering:
“We’ve got more roads per capita than any jurisdiction in Canada,” says Highways Minister Eldon Lautermilch. “All one has to do is look at the map of Saskatchewan, and it tells you we built an awful lot of infrastructure that we perhaps would rethink if we had to do it over again.”
More here: http://www.cbc.ca/sask/story/sk-highways060612.html
Funny how bush thinks he can build a superhighway to Winnipeg.
Doesn’t he know once it’s in retarded manitoba we’ll put lights up all over the friggin place and the last thing people will call it as they slow down for the lights is a superhighway.
You can drive from the gulf of mexico to the manitoba border without having to stop then in manitoba…
Winnipeg the largest city in north america without an expressway.
Did T.O. Mayor David Miller Give Exclusive Heads-Up to TorStar On Terror Raids?
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2006/06/did-miller-give-exclusive-heads-up-to.html
disinvite Margaret Sommerville? Seen at bottom of Rabble.ca main page…
“Disinvite Margaret Somerville
Margaret Somerville is a McGill University ethicist who is renowned for her controversial views on same-sex rights. She is slated to receive an honourary degree from Ryerson University on June 19. Her views on reproductive rights are anti-feminist. She holds anti-gay sentiments and is an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage and families. This award seems contradictory to the human rights and anti-oppression policies Ryerson University strives to stand for. Please sign this petition. ”
But I guess Giving Henry Morgantaler an honorary degree at UWO is juuusssst fine.
(this guy survived the holocaust, and he kickstarted abortion in canada. Does anyone ever wonder if he catches the irony?)
Assuming that this proposed highway ends up anywhere in Canada besides Toronto, wait for the screaming and gnashing of teeth from poor Ontario.
I have to think about this some more to see if I think this is a good idea or not. I’m a little slow, so it could take me a while.
Kate, you and your website, SDAs is truly the best thing since “sliced bread”. It seems to me that your underlying theme is HOAX BUSTER. and today the world, and especially Canada desperately needs more hoax/scam busters. The MSM media is guilty by perpetuating the myths and by deliberately not reporting on the real story. ie, crop circles, Y2K, Oil For Food Scandal, UN’s One World Governance. The MSM is living in a never-never land and they are being exposed.
Here is the broad picture of what is happening in Afstan that our media generally ignore; they seem intent on creating the impression that basically it’s just us and the Americans. Hmm. And note the Canadian angle.
“NATO Goes Global: A Cold War alliance adapts to the war on terror”, WSJ, June 13
Excerpts:
‘…
NATO’s mission in the age of terror was the subject of a chat last week with Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer at NATO’s rambling headquarters here…
Afghanistan is NATO’s first mission outside Europe and a crucial test of the alliance’s relevance in a post-Cold War world. Defense ministers meeting in Brussels voted Thursday to proceed with a plan to increase alliance forces in Afghanistan to 17,000 from 9,000 and to expand into the violence-plagued south. “We are going into complicated territory in the south,” Mr. Scheffer says. “Taliban heartland. The Taliban is testing us–playing on public opinion in the nations committing forces.” He doesn’t demur when I mention that a retired U.S. general told me he believes insurgents had deliberately targeted the four Canadians who were killed in April with the aim of getting Ottawa to withdraw its troops.
Do the allies have the stomach for a fight? “I’m convinced there is the resolve,” he says. Consider what would happen “if we were to lose Afghanistan again to the Taliban. . . . That country would be the net exporter of terrorism to the world once again. Where would the consequences of that terrorism land? On U.S. doorsteps and on European doorsteps.”..
Mr. Scheffer stresses the need to work more closely with non-NATO countries. In Afghanistan, NATO leads a coalition of 37 nations, including Australia and New Zealand, whose defense ministers attended last week’s ministerial meeting for the first time (as did the Afghan defense minister)…’
Mark
Ottawa
Has nobody heard of the CANMEX highway, from Grand Prairie to Mexico. This has been mostly completed except for 10 miles going thru Milk River, AB, where there has been years of arguing about whether it should go west of town, east of town or thru town. Millions have been spent acquiring land west of Milk River, forcing farmers to move, businesses to re-locate etc. The cpr lines have to be moved, several new bridges built etc. This is a four lane highway except for the 10 miles around Milk River. This highway was to handle all the increased traffic due to free trade. This contraversy is one reason an Alliance member was elected in the last election. A new customs building was built on the border, used by both the US and Canada. Coutts was fenced off from the highway. And I mean fenced off with a very high chain link fence. Now we find out they plan another highway bypassing Alberta.
Meanwhile, the inimitable Ibbitson of the quagmire-mongering Globe writes (“Stopping Iggy will not be easy”, full text not online) that:
“Bob Rae…is…presenting himself as the candidate who has all Michael Ignatieff’s smarts, eloquence and bilingual fluency, but who, unlike Mr. Ignatieff, isn’t prepared to risk turning Afghanistan into Canada’s own little Vietnam, which many Liberals now fear that engagement could become…”
Funny, I haven’t seen any news stories of Liberals linking Afstan with Vietnam (yet). A Google News search doesn’t turn up anything either. Now some Liberals may indeed be thinking quagmire, but why is Mr Ibbitson highlighting this so strikingly?
And it wouldn’t just be “Canada’s own little Vietnam”. It would be the US’s, NATO’s, indeed that of the coalition of 37 countries (see comment above). Funny also that the Canadian media so rarely mention the breadth of the international military commitment.
Mark
Ottawa
If the plotters can’t have contact with their lawyers, how do the lawyers know they are being tortured. Wonder what kind of treatment the 8 arrested in the boxing day shooting get. Will they be put in a small cell. I think all the words coming from the plotters lawyers mouths have done them more harm than good. They are not getting the cdn public to feel sorry for their clients. Gee, another murder in TO last night, on a BB court no less. Thought the answer to gang violence was more bb courts.
Saskatchewan can ask for the bits of asphalt left in the bottoms of the trucks to pave their highways.
Oh gawd, Shaidle’s on her ‘poor’ kick again? As someone who can currently count himself as ‘poor’ (in the middle of a failed career change and now starting up a new business based on the ‘old’ career), I’m feeling a bit impugned. It’s not about how much money you have. It’s about whether or not you’re willing to take steps towards self-improvement.
And while I’m NOT a Christian, I’m fairly certain that Jesus would not be impressed with Kathy’s attitude towards the poor from what I’ve learned of the fellow (seems like a nice guy — too bad he’s not real).
Dear Diary,
Those weekly protests the Vancouver Art Gallery were really bumming me out. We just couldn’t get passersby fired up about Canada’s rape and pillage of Haiti. I swear, some of them were biting their cheeks to keep from laughing at us!
But now once again I have a reason to get out of bed.
The Toronto 17.
12 more than The Skwamish 5 and easier to spell.
che che mcdowell- Mobilization Against War & Occupation – MAWO- Poster and Taping arranger
Note to self: set snooze button to 30 minutes instead of 60
mary t- they CAN have contact with their lawyers. My understanding is that the contact is not private, i.e., there is an officer there.
But torture? It’s getting to be a farce, not merely their abuse of our criminal system.
“Has nobody heard of the CANMEX highway, from Grand Prairie to Mexico. This has been mostly completed except for 10 miles going thru Milk River, AB…”
Don’t forget the Indian Reserve west of Valleyview – that’s still narrow 2 lane for 30 km (probably hopeless). Also there’s a few more stretches still being built – maybe another 30 or 40 km to go
But even if they build another highway it doesn’t matter. That highway to Grande Prairie and beyond is busy night and day, and nothing will slow it down unless The GoreBeast gets in and shuts down business for good!
The Fulong Gong Gang have it all wrong. They should have Palesinian and mohawk warrior flags flying. That would guarrantee them three or more months of government inaction.
Shades of four legs good, two legs bad.
Is a lawyer allowed to say just about anything?
Can the crown/state go after these guys post-trial if (when) it is found that no torture took place?
Some of these lawyers remind me of Harry Kopyto – off their rocker.
WRT the situation in Vancouver with the Falun Gong being suppressed, I remember a post I did on the eve of the Tiananmen Square Massacre.
Go to the comments there and follow the links provided by the TSM denier, a claimed “Bobby Fletcher”, who has a blog claiming it is a hoax. The guy also has a blog defending organ harvesting, believe it or not.
http://thecanadiansentinel.blogspot.com/2006/06/chinese-us-rude-to-mention-tiananmen.html
It incenses me greatly how so many folks are blind to the colossal evil of the Chinese empire. Not to mention its apparent imperialistic aims which increasingly resemble those of the Third Reich, IMHO.
I meant the eve of the anniversary of the massacre, btw. Obviously.
I thought it was Falun Gong. Is there a new movement?
I read the piece (http://www.rabble.ca/babble/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic&f=31&t=000554)from the ‘Movement Against War and Occupation’ and thought to myself, boy these guys sure like write long, boring and ludicrous ‘manifestos’. Not too connected with reality, but at least they’re consistent.
Regarding the torture claims, they are taken directly from an Al Quaeda training manual that can be found here: http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/aqmanual.pdf
See page 137 for specifics.
Alienated, you trying to make fun od dyslexic commentors?
Actually, goggling both turns up same info so I imagine that the Chinese have a hate on for both groups.
Thanks Kate for posting this bit about the Falun Gong’s last adventures with serial oppression from the commies right here in Vancouver.
It’s obvious that Beijing’s long arm has made its way to the Mayor’s office who caved in and ordered the Falun Gong to take down their commemmorative wall.
Let the Falun Gong speak out about their torturing and that of their brothers and sisters in China. The world needs to know the atrocities committed by the chinese dictators and the influence they exert on our government officials at all levels.
Mayor Sullivan’s decision is tainted in red–he should know better than to cater to the commies. This move can’t be good for his political career. Last time I checked Canada was part of the free world.
Yes, it’s a worry that so many are blind to the colossal evil of the Chinese empire, as Canadian Sentinel says. Worse still, many who are disenchanted with America’s act want to see China as the next world superpower. Little do they know.
The latest example of Beijing poking its nose into Canadian business is the decision by Mayor Sullivan to order Falun Gong to dismantle its five-year appeal site outside the Chinese consulate in Vancouver, where they’ve been raising awareness about the torturing and killing of their family members and fellow practitioners back in China since the persecution started seven years ago. Similar pressure tactics on Toronto and Ottawa mayors didn’t work–they stood their ground and let the protest sites remain. The previous Vancouver mayor resisted it too. But alas, Sullivan folded last week. It’s a sad day for those of us who believe that the dictators in Beijing shouldn’t be allowed to throw their weight around in Canada.
The Canadian Left is about to go ape-shit:
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas/story.html?id=c53fc4cd-528a-42a9-b092-2b7b0ccce158&p=1
This kind of open to Canada for Mexican goods and migration is not a good idea.
There are varied opinions on the Falun Gong. I happen to believe that it is a cult and therefore, don’t support it. I find its axioms about alien powers, about Li’s supernatural powers, about morality – very irrational and untenable.
I also support China’s strongly developing capitalism, which will result in its movement into democracy.
I don’t want to see China as the ‘world superpower’. I want to see a global world, with all countries democratic and networked. Isolating and hating China won’t enable the dev’t of democracy there.
Kate, do you have any literary suggestions (political or otherwise) for those of us looking to expand our libraries? Or maybe an open thread so we can discuss such things?
I totally recommend “Sorry, I Don’t Speak French” by Graham Fraser, by the way; it’s a fascinating look at official bilingualism.
So, looks like it was a Hamas mine in the beach the other day, not Israeli artillery. Do NOT hold your breath waiting for front page retractions.
http://www.honestreporting.com/articles/45884734/critiques/Gaza_Beach_Libel.asp
Election day in Nova Scotia. Live returns available here:
http://www.cbc.ca/nsvotes2006/ridings/
Looking like a weakened PC minority at this point but it’s razor-close with the NDP. Rodney Mac threw this one away by dissolving the legislature without passing his budget, methinks.
Well the issue of Falun Gong is not a hoax. In fact I have known some of those people who have come out of those torture camps in China simply because they practice meditation. I also know one of the lawyers who defended them and was thrown out of his career and the country because of it and Human Rights. Our medical system and our doctors are now seeing the people here who obtained organ transplants over in China that were taken from live and healthy Falun Gong people. Our people paid the Chinese Communist Party large sums of money for these organs and now they have more medical problems because it was not done right and are taxing our medical system. This is showing up in your doctor office today! So think twice before you critize Falun Gong. We should all be like them!
I think ET’s interpretation of Falun Gong doesn’t do it justice and serves to defame the group. However, I’d like to add that no one needs to embrace their belief system to help with stopping the persecution in China and overseas through the tentacles of 32 (chinese) Consulates worldwide.
It’s worth mentioning that engagement with China hasn’t shown any sign of improvement in the last decades, but from China human rights watchers’ persective, apparently quite the opposite is happening. One example of this would be the illegal harvesting of organs from live Falun Gong practitioners and cremating the bodies to hide the evidence. I don’t wish that on anybody. As the persecution is peaking in China so is the CCP harassment increasing in Canada and other countries.
The “Free Trade Corridor” is not something new.
It involves a lot more than roads…..
I have worked with proponents analysts and planners on telecom related issues. I think its an idea that makes sense and I’m glad to see the idea has not died.
As for CBC and Fisk..no surprise he was welcomed warmly at our “BBC Lite”. I’m sure he fealt right at home and just a bit smuggly superior with our collection of Libcomsimps.
I watched Fisk the Fabricator and Propagandist for Islamofascists on CBC this weekend…….appalling!
What can you say about anyone as twisted as Fisk?
THIS POST REPRESENTS PROPAGANDA BIG TIME
LIKE FROM UNDER A ROCK TYPE
ANN COULTER AND ALL HER TYPES, ETC. ABSOLUTELY CHARMING, NOT
Why do some in Canada look the other way when it comes to China ? Are they taking advice from someone ? google Maurice Strong.
I think Falun Gong is very good, and to remove the truth-clarification wall is wrong, Vancouver has to prove to the Chinese Communist Party that as Canadians we defend what is Right, and Good.
My husband’s theory is that Morgenthaler got into abortion as a way to get back at non-Jews. It’s just a theory, but it explains Morgenthaler as well as anything I can think of. The Holocaust seemed to either make people really glad to be alive (e.g., Frankl) or break them (see: Maus) or go further and twist them and set them onto revenge, either in a semi-healthy (Weisenthal) or unhealthy (as, in this theory, Morgenthaler) way. War has a way of doing that, genocide even more so.
Bill Roggio now embedded with PPCLI in Afghanistan.
Troops say they are warriors.
Remember the Battle of Kapyong,the Medak Pocket.
I dunno that all we care about is ” cheap smokes, lottery tickets, beer”. Don’t drink gamble or smoke.
BUT
Having some money from the little the state leaves us to raise and educate our kids then some day retire and not have to live on Gaines Burgers would be nice.
I’m going to register what’s probably going to be an unpopular opinion here, but Falun Gong are a) a crazy cult and b) very aggressive. Every now and then I run into their members trying to drill their philosophy into me, and every time, I haven’t failed to feel at least slightly threatened. Try going to the Chinese consulate in Vancouver — you probably would too.
Their protest is also very much in contravention of city bylaws. Good on Sullivan this time. (And it’s worth remarking that Sullivan represents the right in this city… I’ll let you render your own judgements on that.)
You can add “aiding and abetting” to the Caledonia protest. Only this time it isn’t just a bunch of protesters. The band is doing it on the reserve.
http://www.hamiltonspectator.com/breaking%20news/breaking%20news_3019836.html
Not only should the negotiations be stopped until the occupation ends and the warrants are executed, now that the entire six nations community is involved we should cut off funding and access to the entire reserve until they decide to obey the same laws everyone else does.
ET & Eugene, while you may believe that Falun Gong is a cult, and that is your perogative, there is a big difference between tolerating/ignoring certain groups and throwing them in jail for being members. After all, we have had moonies (the white shirt cult), hari krisnas at airports and those alien believers with the comet. I just don’t recall any Falun Gongers with explosives tied around their bodies. This reminds me of that little Sh*t from Shewinnigan who had the Mounties get rid of the BC protestors. I may also be wrong but I haven’t heard of any violent actions by the Gongers.
cut off funding? HA!! this is
our tax dollars hard at work
Ok, while doing the dishes I just thought of a really lame joke but I’ll share it with y’all:
“What did The Bodyguard say when his spaceship broke down?”
“Whitney Houston, we have a problem!”
Yeah, I know… thought I’d throw that one out there, lol
First of all the Falun Gong have a verbal permission from the City and all they need is a written permit — so the bylaw issue is a non-issue. So the Mayor is bluffing if you ask me to cover up something.
Secondly the cops have not once had a complaint about their peace vigil in front of the Consulate. However, Chinese officials from the Consulate have harassed the FG and taken pictures of them for their own records and to blacklist them.
Thirdly, Mayor Sullivan used to support Falun Gong before he was elected. That is telling–why suddenly the change of heart I ask you? Especially when Larry Campbell, the mayor before him, openly admitted to the media this week that he had been pressured by the Consulate to shut down the site.
It’s not hard to imagine that this pressure comes from the top — the Communist Party that is — they are the ones who harbour a special hatred for Falun Gong, they don’t hesitate to threaten officials overseas and in China…well we all know that they kill the Falun Gong like flies without even recording the deaths. It is merely an extension of the Cultural Revolution, no more no less.
The Cities of Toronto and Ottawa have been hit with the same kind of pressure but guess what — they stood up their grounds and said no to the commies and yes to the Canadian values of free speech, human rights and democracy.
Well, it’s not as if I’m 100% in support of the Consulate, either. Both sides are exaggerating and spewing out absolute crap, as far as I’m concerned, and it’s rare that one side will be 100% right in a political dispute, especially one of this magnitude. (Though I might make an exception for softwood lumber 🙂 …) The problem I have — besides FG being a cult, which I’ve mentioned already — is with FG’s aggressiveness and also their claim that the government is targetting them specifically.
The government targets any political threat, including Christians, FGers, people with money, people with enough power to cause problems, or members of any other group strong enough to pose a threat to their stability. You don’t see any of the other groups the Chinese government goes after acting as aggressively as FG does, do you? The whole idea that FG are the only people the Chinese government goes after is a load of crap.
By the way — before anybody says “we should be more like Falun Gong”, I suggest they actually have a look at what FG says. The government isn’t perfect, and they might not be handling this in the best way possible. On the other hand, some cults are dangerous (see Scientology; FG has a propaganda department of about the same size).
On a more general note on China, the government has made quite a few strides in recent years. Hell, even private ownership of property is possible now (if you want to jump through twenty layers of bureaucracy, that is).
Now, I’m going to China soon myself, so I better shut up now. 😉 (Uh, for those who have their humour switched turned off and also can’t see the smiley face, that was a joke.)
The “poor” don’t like “foreigners”. They don’t like white, university educated young troublemakers, either. They don’t give a shit about how “oppressed” anybody is. The poor care about cheap smokes, lottery tickets, beer, sleeping, tatoos, big dogs and satellite tv. Leftists are talking exclusively to themselves — that’s part of the fun of watching them drone on and on like this.
The linked-to site’s punctuation and organization defeat me: to whom is being accounted the view that ‘The poor care about cheap smokes, etc.’
Leftists?
Their opponents?
Others?
Help me out here.
Hope this helps Stephen
Kathy (the blogger) claims to have grown up under the poverty-line. She appears to be a right winger who grew up a leftist.
She is ranting about this site: “Mobilization Against War and Occupation-MAWO” who made the statement: “The Toronto 17, already found guilty of “terrorism” by the anti-Muslim smokescreen of the government of Canada and the mainstream media, represent something important for working, poor and oppressed people in Canada.”
Specifically the working poor part. Your question about cheap smokes etc appears to be her opinion of the environment of “poor” having grown up there.
She also seems to claim that the poor do not care about the terrorism any more than the rest of us. That left wing activists are speaking for the poor, putting word in their mouths, that they have no interest in saying.
Eugene,
Although I don’t agree with your views, I’m not sure if you care to explore some facts of the persecution, but just in case you do, I would suggest this link.
http://www.fofg.org/persecution/persecution_bknd.php?cat_id=38&PHPSESSID=da3150f4818b25724ea2bdcab5c781a2
I’d like to add that this (see below) is why practitioners think that they are targeted by the CCP, because of this order given by the then dictator–it is no small threat. And the massive killing that ensued sure confirms that this order was carried out to this day at all levels of public security.
“In the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners, Jiang has used the “6-10 Office” to carry out orders such as, “Defame their reputations, bankrupt them financially, and destroy them physically.” Practitioners have been detained, fired from jobs, expelled from school, evicted from their homes, fined, arrested, beaten, brainwashed, tortured, and even killed. Their family members, neighbors, friends, colleagues, and employers are also implicated by association. The propaganda machine of the entire country is geared to fomenting lies and producing hatred-inciting materials with the intent of forcing the populace into opposing Falun Gong.”
The scope of the persecution is well documented at the UN, Amnesty Int., Human Rights Watch, Freedom House, etc. The Falun Gong Human Rights Working Group have accurate evidence of the persecution. I wish all of this were a simple exaggeration but unfortunately it’s the sad reality.
Why is this news? Bush is ADVANCING the plan. The NAFTA Highway has been planned since at least the early 1990’s. Why is every thing a conspiracy with Bush?