Brian Lilley and Ezra Levant wonder why political action groups are allowed to register as charities:

There are strange happenings at Los Angeles City Council this week, lead by councilwoman Jan Perry.
Quite telling was this tweet from Ms. Perry’s office:

Well, if she fails to get reelected next time around, undoubtedly she’d be well qualified to work for these guys and continue on the long tradition of suppressing the free speech of Canadians. 🙁

Goes horribly wrong….

At time of posting, the letter can still be successfully edited – despite the message that appears on the website, the cc I received in my email confirms that my words were the ones sent.
Let me know when that changes. Heh.
Update: Sen. Nicole C. Eaton responds.

Today David Suzuki launched a form-letter style write-in campaign against my Senate Inquiry into the interference of foreign foundation in Canada’s domestic affairs and their abuse of Canada’s existing Revenue Canada charitable status. Ironically, he even made it possible for foreigners to participate by providing a “Not in Canada” option.

You can thank her here.

Now is the time at SDA when we schadenfreude!
2004;

“Democrats need to embrace Hollywood because this is where they need to come to learn how to tell a story.” – Michael Moore

2012;

*

University! (Via email).

I am the President of McGill Friends of Israel, a new and growing student club. To counterbalance the demonization of Israel during Israel Apartheid Week, our club decided to host Israel Peace Week.
This initiative’s largest event was “Israel: A Party”, an obvious play on words to show our rejection of those terms. This was a festive event, with wine and appetizers, largely apolitical. The keynote speakers were journalist Barbara Kay and the Israeli consul-general in Montreal, Joel Lion, but we also had representatives from all three national parties condemning IAW and showing us their support.
In the days leading up to the event, we received interrogation as to why we chose the name we did, and were soon faced with an official “Equity Complaint”. We were asked to change the name (or face consequences such as revocation of official club status) by student union representatives. Said a student union representative: “we feel that the title “Israel A-party” makes too much light of the convictions and experiences of students such as the claimant of this complaint”, and “In the interest of both freedom of speech and safer space, therefore strongly encourage MFI to re-title the event on all promotional material immediately”.
McGill is a “safe space” for the promoters of Israel Apartheid Week, but not for pro-Israel students.

McGill’s student union equity policy (pdf).
Plenty more from Barbara Kay.

Most Canadians are quite familiar with this classic from Tom Connors:

But the Sudbury Catholic School Board has some suggestions for young girls about what should constitute a “fun” Saturday night.

Out of California, yet another step “forward” with “progressivism”. What’s next, mandatory sexual organ measurements?

“Left-wing hypocrisy doesn’t stop at the U.S. borders,” Glenn astutely observed before issuing the following stern warning to our Canadian neighbors: “You are dealing with George Soros.”

Yeah, we know.
h/t Syd

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, now trying earnestly to deal with a decades old immigration integration problem, is accused of using “extreme right-wing rhetoric” by his moral superiors on the Left.
If memory serves, wasn’t similar rhetoric used by the Red Star when Jason Kenney decided to ban veils at citizenship ceremonies?

The public school teachers of British Columbia are not working today, as part of an initial 3-day strike. The Vancouver Sun’s Janet Steffenhagen has published a “Fact vs. Fiction” piece that is a must-read for anyone wishing to understand what this strike is all about. Her blog page is probably the most comprehensive resource on the subject, with new items being added daily.
I have lots of friends who are public school teachers. My heart goes out to them individually. But my head remains resolute that there is only so much money that can be removed from the pockets of the citizenry. So what is a fair wage for a teacher? Is $50K/yr too little? Is $1M/yr too much? Who’s to say what is “fair”?
The bigger question is why so-called “professionals” belong to a union. Other professions, such as engineers, aren’t allowed to belong to a union. Couldn’t many of the current problems be solved by legislation that states that joining the BCTF is optional? Then individual teachers could negotiate individual salaries & benefits just like everyone else in the non-union private sector.
This situation in B.C. seems strangely similar to what happened in Wisconsin last year. Unfortunately, Premier Christy Clark ain’t no Scott Walker!
Correction: It was my understanding that Canadian engineers could not belong to a union. I was misinformed on this point and have deleted the pertinent sentences above.

In a fascinating new column, George Jonas, provides a recent history of examples of socialism & communism in Europe. He ponders what the actual difference is between these two groups. Not much, it seems, other than that socialists offer a short window of opportunity for citizens to voluntarily comply with the same imposed measures.

Some say Europe is in trouble because the poor want to live as well as the rich. Close, but no cigar. If Europe’s in trouble, it isn’t because the poor want to live as well as the rich, but because some do. They live as well as the rich without having bothered to become rich first.
A bad idea is for poor people to live as well as the rich while they’re still poor. Even living half as well is a bad idea unless they are, in fact, half as rich. It’s bad because it can’t be done. At least, it can be done only until somebody presents the bill, which is currently happening in Europe.

Infamous Democrat Congressman Dennis Kucinich will not be running for re-election in his Ohio district this November.

Michael Coren & Laura Rosen Cohen discuss the not so tolerant Left (including a reference to Kate McMillan at 7:00) :

h/t Mississauga Matt

Leftists the world over love to blather on & on about how “conservatives want to control your life”. In reality though, its the underlying notion of the Leftist mindset to shape everything around them into their view of Nirvana. This is done, at first, through a never-ending series of Rules & Regulations and Penalties. Here’s an example of the “Welcome” sign that greets visitors to the beaches of Santa Monica, California:

Original site, which for some reason neglects to post the letter that prompted the reply. Funny, that.
To answer the question, yes, I’m shocked! Shocked that the Gov’t recognizes these wing-nuts aren’t in it for Canada, our economy, or the jobs that support the teat they are suckled to. Shocked that the Gov’t recognizes the disastrous policy of relying on the United States as the single consumer of our oil and for the vast majority of our product.
I respectfully ask that you go right on shocking me, Mr. Prime Minister.

From BCF with a h/t to @kshaidle.

The Telegraph’s Charles Moore has just published a most interesting column. Here’s a snippet:

Given that health service reform is unpopular, and that politicians like to win elections, you would think that governments would avoid reform. So when they keep coming back to it, it must be for a reason.
That reason is as simple as the question above, but it can never be publicly stated by the reformers. They cannot even admit it in their heart of hearts (assuming they have such an organ), because it is a politically unthinkable thought. It is that the National Health Service is, always has been and always will be a rotten way of doing things.
This is hard to see because the NHS arose from a good idea – that people should be able to get good health treatment without financial worry. Unfortunately for Britain, this was acted upon at a time when centralised state socialism was at its height. So the NHS was constructed to carry out Whitehall commands. It was even imagined that these commands could be so efficiently obeyed that the cost of care would actually fall. The thing was a fantasy of the state planner. It is the reality, not the fantasy, which strikes the patient – and the patient’s friends and relations – every day.

Meet Montreal’s most dangerous man, Lawrence Klepper. Charles Adler shakes his head and asks his audience for insight in this matter.

30yr olds can’t afford birth control.
She’s going to have to put the Georgetown’s Comptroller on speed dial though, after all, before she spreads them she going to need to find out if the payment will be in cheque, cash or credit card.
No, Michelle, she’s not a slut. There’s another word for people who ask for money to have sex.