It's been a busy week, and I've only been able to scratch the surface of the many, many you've sent in. .
2005 Awards for the year's worst reporting!
Now it makes sense why four years ago, Canadian Steamship Lines International, a CSL subsidiary, entered into a deal with Shanghai based Jiangnan Shipyards to build two bulk cargo vessels-at $45- million per ship.
The CBC has been forced to withdraw a Harper bashing cartoon.
"Senior government officials went into panic mode last fall after 46 top-secret cabinet documents went missing."
This incident is a couple weeks old, but it's worth a chuckle.
"Sometimes election campaigns can travel to so many cities and towns in a day it gets hard to remember what time it is or where you are. But Prime Minister Paul Martin appeared to forget what country he was in yesterday. During a series of interviews with Chinese media organizations, Mr. Martin attempted to explain to the interviewer how important the Chinese Canadian community is to the country. In fact, he announced that Canada has geographically moved its borders to be closer to them. "What we really are saying is we're a major Asian country," Mr. Martin told Omni TV, to roars of laughter from the Canadian media watching the interview."
Add your own in the comments.
Posted by Kate at December 21, 2005 10:40 AM
Sorry for length of comment but this is the single most brilliant analysis of Canadian political reality I have seen for some time.
"Why we bash America", by Dan Dunsky, National Post, Dec. 21 (Dunsky is producer ofDiplomatic Immunity, TVO's foreign affairs program--TVO beats CBC and CTV by far)
Excerpts:
...
Traditionally, Canadians distinguished themselves from Americans on the basis of having a different political system. However, over the last half-century, as centrifugal forces threatened to tear the country apart, opinion makers began to distinguish Canadians from Americans on the basis of having a different value system as well.
Alarmed at the rise of nationalism in French Canada and fearful that, as the British empire receded from memory, the United States would replace Great Britain in the affections of English Canadians, a new breed of federal politicians and bureaucrats attempted to erase Canada's very real divisions (and centuries of history) by appealing to a largely imaginary set of "Canadian values" shared by all from sea to sea. Only by appealing to these values, nationalists believed, would Canada overcome its cultural neurosis and emerge as a unified state.
So, where Americans were religious, Canadians were now secular. Where Americans were a martial people, Canadians were now pacifists. Where Americans were conservative, Canadians were now liberal. Where Americans were greedy capitalists, Canadians were now social democrats. And these beliefs -- reinforced by a large contingent of nationalist and anti-American media -- rubbed off...
This pattern shows up in international matters, as well. Canadians are confirmed multilateralists (except when they seize Spanish and Portuguese fishing trawlers on the high seas, bomb Kosovo without UN authorization and unilaterally claim a 200-mile marine exclusive economic zone). Canadians are a "moral superpower" (except when it comes to official development assistance, where Canada's contribution ranks among the lowest of wealthy nations). Canadians are environmentally conscious (except that they've seen their greenhouse gas emissions rise faster than the U.S., despite Canada's putative commitment to the Kyoto protocol). And on and on it goes...
Canada is really three nations: Quebec, the West and its multicultural cities.
Quebec is already separate within Canada. To the average Quebecer, the federal government is essentially irrelevant. Quebecers make almost all their own political and social choices, and international markets are as influential an economic force in the province as is the rest of Canada. Quebecers are more left-wing and statist than their English-Canadian counterparts and more culturally confident, too. The province has a thriving French-language media industry that dominates public tastes, as opposed to the U.S. products which resonate in the rest of Canada...
This leaves Canada's increasingly multicultural cities. Five cities are home to 43% of Canadians, and Toronto alone accounts for 17% of the country's population. Cities are also the primary destination for immigrants and refugees to the country. About 20% of Canada's residents -- and half of Toronto's -- are foreign-born, compared to 11% in the United States and 4% in the U.K. Cities are therefore the testing ground for our multicultural experiment.
However, multiculturalism rejects the idea that a single set of organized cultural beliefs and political principles are foundational to the nation's public life. So multicultural Canada cannot demand, as other countries can, that new arrivals adapt to our traditional forms. As a result, multiculturalism has today become linked to an anti-Western impulse, specifically one that sees the United States as the locus of all evil in the world.
In truth, Canada is now a country of three solitudes...
...contemporary Canada consistently confuses rhetoric with reality, perhaps overcompensating for deep feelings of inferiority vis-a-vis the United States.
This attitude will persist until the status quo of Canadian federalism changes: either by easing regionalist tensions through a greater devolution of power to the provinces, or by breaking apart. Either way, the narcissistic platitudes concerning "Canadian values" and "national unity" -- and the anti-Americanism that inevitably accompanies them -- should cease...'
Mark
Ottawa
Anyone suprised about the shredding of documents?
Posted by: Bruce Randall at December 21, 2005 10:58 AMI don't really know what is meant by "wank-fest" but I would say that in general Blogs are a reasonably poor source of information because they're mostly uninformed opinion that is produced by people who want to feel important. Now this isn't really a comment against the smalldeadanimals.com (or dozens of other well writen blogs) but is directed at the thousands of blogs written by teenagers who listened to the latest Green Day Album and now hate George W.
Posted by: NoOne at December 21, 2005 11:44 AMThat's what happens when leftie Canuckistanner Angus Reid sells out to the Euroweanies at Ipsos.
Who is Darrell Bricker calling a wanker? His job title is pretty humorous -- is everyone who heads one of the "sophistry in a focus group" departments at Logos-Screed a "Chief Executive Officer"?
Hail to the Chief.
Posted by: Plato's Stepchild at December 21, 2005 11:59 AMOpinion — The judicial lynching of Andrée Ruffo
By Beryl Wajsman, The Suburban
Ruffo: built a career on boat-rocking.
Quebec, and indeed all of Canada, witnessed the scales of justice falling and the sword of justice blunted once again this past week. A five-judge panel of the Quebec Court of Appeal ordered the censure and removal of youth court Judge Andrée Ruffo for a litany of offenses that ranged from ordering that two homeless children be driven to the office of the provincial health minister to signing petitions, to appearing in the media and in a VIA Rail ad.
Judge Ruffo’s real crime was activism, an activity limited to a select few Supreme Court judges with track records of not rocking the Canadian boat.
Judge Ruffo built a career on boat-rocking, lending her voice and vision in support of aiding abused youths and blasting a system that has failed them so spectacularly and so often.
This ruling should come as no surprise.
Canada is on the road to becoming fertile ground for McCarthyist witchhunts that encourage innuendo, rumour and the imputation of guilt by association in defence of hidden agendas and powerful vested interests.
As Judge Ruffo put it so well, “We have created codes and perverted our very language to shield a status quo that in so many cases does evil and brings harm to some of the most vulnerable among us.”
Defiant as always, Judge Ruffo intends to challenge this ruling in the Supreme Court. Only one other Quebec judge, Richard Therrien, has been removed for failing to disclose his FLQ past.
The Ruffo affair is as eloquent a testament to the need for radical judicial reform as ever there was. >>> more
http://www.rapp.org/url/?QWYIFLL0
thesuburban.com >>> Montreal
Guess what the Conservative motto is to the French:
Changer pour vrai
or
To change for truth
Moreover when you see the Conservateur sign...
changeons pour vrai
that means:
let us change for truth
And...
debloquer votre voix
means:
debloquer your voice
Finally in this hopefully entertaining notation:
donnez une voix au Quebec
means:
give a voice to Quebec
Mark C: great article, thanks for posting it. Earlier today I read this blog post "How to Annoy the Americans: Part I of Many" from "Obstination", a Progressive Blogger:
"Group sex between consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Wednesday, dismissing arguments that the sometimes raucous activities of so-called "swingers" clubs were dangerous.
Heeee. Gotta love it."
http://www.paulineee.net/blog/2005/12/how-to-annoy-americans-part-i-of-many.html
The SCOC makes a fairly important ruling and the first thing out of this individual's mouth is "Yay, this will piss off The Americans!". Nice pathology, eh?
Posted by: Anonalogue at December 21, 2005 12:08 PMPollsters are being paid to diddle the numbers (in keeping with the wank theme), not tell the truth. Spin is everything, and because of all the stuff being posted on blogs, and increasingly, more people visiting them, there are posts on it that are causing people to think. And, Liberals would rather we worry about whether to pour extra butter on the popcorn, and whether to stick to micro-breweries or go with the big names. Wank away, but don't forget to use a condom, Darrell.
Posted by: Iron Lady at December 21, 2005 12:19 PMMark Collins:
It is a brilliant commentary!
On a lighter note, it reminded of an anthropological study I read a few years ago. (sorry, disremember the author)
She was studying a group of monkeys resident in a local zoo, looking for similarities in human societies. A visitor threw a chocolate bar into the cage. A medium-sized monkey grabbed it first and tore it open. A larger monkey came over and grabbed the chocolate bar, giving him a drubbing in the process. Enraged and helpless, what did the medium-sized monkey do? He ran over to a yet smaller monkey and beat it viciously.
The analogy?
Substitute Ontario for the medium-sized monkey, the US for the big one, and the West for the little one. Southern Ontario is intimidated by Big America in their face, but human nature requires that they still must feel superior to someone...;)
Mehlis is scared sjkluyts: He is getting out. >>>
Asharq Al-Awsat exclusive interview with U.N Chief investigator, Detlev Mehlis
Asharq Al-Awsat ^ | 12/21/05 | Ghida Fakhry / Detlev Mehlis
Posted on 12/21/2005 8:56:58 AM PST by Valin
Asharq Al-Awsat, New York - Asharq Al Awsat exclusively interviews Detlev Mehlis, Head of the United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission established pursuant to Security Council resolution 1595 into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri.
FAKHRY: Let me start, firstly, by asking you about the reasons as to why you are leaving the Investigation Commission. Are you not concerned that it might portray the wrong image about where this investigation is headed?
MEHLIS: No. As I mentioned before, my leaving has nothing to do with the investigation which is running well. All of the investigators [will] stay. It is [for] professional and personal reasons. Also, this very strong security regime I have been subjected…
FAKHRY: Were you subjected to any real threats of any kind?
MEHLIS: Well, of course, it is a difficult situation so that is why some very strong security measures had been taken. I think if you have been subjected to those for seven months, then it is about time to, well, go back home.
FAKHRY: But you knew all along it that [the investigation] would take a long time. Therefore, why did you take up this assignment?
MEHLIS: I took up this assignment because Security Council resolution [1595] mentioned 15 December [2005] as a deadline, which it was, and it was also a deadline for me. I should add that maybe it is not just a disadvantage that I am leaving. It could also be an advantage because at some point for any investigation it can be very positive and profitable, to bring new ideas, to bring in new spirit. So, I would not see it all as negative. Besides, until a successor has been named I will be available. I will return to Beirut within the next days, so I would not be out of this world and the investigation will continue, of course.
FAKHRY: How do you characterize the investigation, at this point? Do you feel it has been derailed to a certain extent?
MEHLIS: No. What has happened is there were some parties –one party in particular- who have tried to derail it. However, is has not…
FAKHRY: Do you mean the witness Mr. Hossam Hossam?
MEHLIS: Yes, for example. Yes, and like someone asking for the report to be rewritten, this is very stupid. So, nothing has been derailed and we continue on the track. Although, some people would wish the investigation would [have been] derailed.
FAKHRY: Do you feel you are on the right track? Do you feel Syria is definitely behind this [Hariri’s] killing?
MEHLIS: Yes. >>>
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1544723/posts
Message:
'Toronto, Canada Monday, December 19, 2005 - On December 2, the Liberal candidate for Mississauga-Erindale, Omar Alghabra, made his victory speech after winning the nomination. In that speech, he reportedly exhorted his audience, "This is a victory for Islam! Islam won! Islam Won! ... Islamic power is extending into Canadian politics".'
From the source (on another political chat forum) this elated Islamic/LIEberal moment is recorded on the local Rogers cable station. It has also been mentioned that the MSM has said/reported nothing! I find it very sad that Canadians are too apathetic to retain control of their own country. Another proud moment when our veterans who fought for our freedom are surely rolling in their graves. Canada--Stand up for Canada!
Just more proof of MSM bias. Seems the CBC is the worst of all. That's serious because I and you know that's where the money missing from our paychecks is going.
Hope the CBC will be abolished. It's worthless as far as I'm concerned.
Posted by: The Canadian Sentinel at December 21, 2005 2:39 PMDoes anyone know how much Govt. (TAX) money that Martins Steam Ship Line got, if I remember correctly I think it was in excess of $100 million, correct me please. Was it repayable or forgivable. Either way it is just another example of the Entitled and their entitlements.
I think Canada is entitled to be rid of this ILK as of Jan. 23/06.
It now appears that the wrong man may have had the comments attributed to him. A number of sources seem now to suggest that pro-Islam comments were made at the Mississauga nomination rally, but not by Mr. Omar Alghabra.
It appears that Markham Ward 7 councillor Khalid Usman took the microphone as Mr. Alghabra was swept up in a throng of jubilant supporters. Mr. Usman seems to have been the one who made the comments.
Posted by: kennethk at December 21, 2005 5:37 PMPosted by: kennethk at December 21, 2005 05:37 PM
In that case, the MP candidate should have done... something!!!!!
Posted by: Josef at December 21, 2005 6:12 PMI'm not trying to apologize for Mr. Usman's remarks, nor for Mr. Alghabra's apparent inaction in response to them -- I too think it would have been better if Mr. Alghabra had corrected Mr. Usman and said that this is a victory for the people of the Mississauga riding.
But there is the possibility still that Mr. Alghabra didn't know exactly what Mr. Usman said -- he was surrounded by a throng of jubilant supporters at the time, and may have been distracted. We don't have all the answers, and the tape is only available in edited form now, so we may never know all the answers.
I agree, however, that assuming he knew of Mr. Usman's comments, Mr. Alghabra should have said something. I'd like to hear his reasons for not doing so before judgement is passed beyond that point.
Posted by: kennethk at December 21, 2005 6:19 PMMe too, kennethk. This Yank's skin crawls when the religious right tries to bully "intelligent design" into our schools and expand government... or put fear into Yank & Canuck heart alike.
I hope the Conservative candidate wins in that riding.
Posted by: Josef at December 21, 2005 6:23 PMcapt bob: PM said he thought it was around 86 thousand and claimed he didn't really know that it was actually closer to 63 million! I know nothink! Nothink!
Posted by: greg at December 21, 2005 7:51 PMThe "BYRD AMENDMENT" is dead. The U.S. Senate voted today to strike it down, it is no longer law. That means that the duties collected in the softwood lumber dispute will be returned and will not go to the American lumber lobby. This is good news for the American consumer and for Americans employed in the construction industry. This is, of course, good news for Canadian lumber producers and workers. This is a victory for NAFTA, the WTO and for free trade worldwide. This also takes away a big part of Paul Martin and the Liberal's campaign strategy. This is the best Christmas present that the USA could give to Canada, a hearty thank you to the American legislaters who made this possible.
Posted by: Bruce Randall at December 21, 2005 7:52 PMSmaul Fartin' claimed it was $47,000, but it was later found that he took $162 million taxpayer dollars for his CSL.
Posted by: Bruce Randall at December 21, 2005 7:56 PMApparently the "BYRD" is on the books until 2007, but it is still essentially finished and no monies are to be disbursed to the American lumber firms.
Posted by: Bruce Randall at December 21, 2005 9:50 PMRosemary Thompson gives away her bias on the CTV election blog:
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