UPDATE: Actual Defamation Lawyer Ezra Levant posts excerpts of the Kay column at his site.
***
It’s up at FreeDominion, but has disappeared from the Post’s own site.
Was it in the print edition?
Meanwhile, back in Canada…
“Last week when I was on the Hill mingling with some MPs from both the Liberal and the Tory parties, I asked an MP for an opinion on the freedom of speech/ Ezra Levant and Mark Steyn human rights complaints. This particular MP was appalled by it. I asked this individual for a public comment. After a few moments thought, the MP decided not to.
“Then this person mused–alas, I did not have a notebook or my recorder out so I can’t recall the exact words–that some MPs might be afraid to speak out on this issue, afraid their families might be targeted.”
‘I don’t hate Muslims. I hate Islam,’ says Holland’s rising political star
“The Dutch politician, who sees himself as heir to a recent string of assassinated or hounded mavericks who have turned Holland upside down, has been doing a crash course in Koranic study. Likening the Islamic sacred text to Hitler’s Mein Kampf, he wants the ‘fascist Koran’ outlawed in Holland, the constitution rewritten to make that possible, all immigration from Muslim countries halted, Muslim immigrants paid to leave and all Muslim ‘criminals’ stripped of Dutch citizenship and deported ‘back where they came from’.”
Note that, from the Guardian’s viewpoint, the troublemaking infidels were the ones who “turned Holland upside down,” not Van Gogh’s or Pim Fortuyn’s assassins or the harrassers of Hirsi Ali.
“But if Wilders shares positions and aims with others on the far right in Europe, he is also a very specific Dutch phenomenon, viewing himself as a libertarian provocateur like the late Pim Fortuyn or Theo van Gogh, railing against ‘Islamisation’ as a threat to what used to be the easy-going Dutch model of tolerance.
“‘My allies are not Le Pen or Haider,’ he emphasises. ‘We’ll never join up with the fascists and Mussolinis of Italy. I’m very afraid of being linked with the wrong rightist fascist groups.’ Dutch iconoclasm, Scandinavian insistence on free expression, the right to provoke are what drive him, he says.”
More creeping sharia in Canada
“Long-distance telephone marriages can be dialled up under sharia law and then used to sponsor loved ones into Canada, Muslim leaders say.
“Two Muslim leaders have told the Toronto Sun telephone marriages are permissible under Islamic law and require two witnesses and imams here and abroad to conduct the vows, which may have the bride in Pakistan and the groom in Toronto.”
And if these couples are first cousins, which is a commonplace in the UK, their chances of producing unhealthy children increases exponentially.
But so what? Health care is “free”, eh?
Rex Murphy spanks David Suzuki
“We generally look upon it as a backward moment when the Catholic Church put the bridle on Galileo, subjected him to house arrest and the tender rebukes of the Inquisition. So it’s at least mildly disconcerting to hear of a celebrated son of the Enlightenment, in the person of one of Canada’s star communicators, urging a university audience no less, to seek to ‘jail’ those whom he perceives as ‘ignoring science.'”
Record budget for “outdated, ideologically driven sink-hole”
In August 2006, Kate, myself and other bloggers initiated a blogburst against the tax-payer supported, perpetual grievance machine known as Status of Women Canada.
“In September the same year, the Tories announced they had cut $5 million over two years out of the agency’s $23 million annual budget. In December, Heritage Minister Bev Oda said 12 of the agency’s 16 offices were going to be shut down across the country, after a re-evaluation of the program showed it was not offering concrete help directly to women. According to the Public Service Alliance of Canada, 61 of the 131 jobs at the Status of Women were cut.”
But that was then…
“Subsequently, however, the Tories renewed federal funding of the organization. A Parliamentary review of the cuts took place in February 2007. REAL Women told LifeSiteNews.com that the House Committee was stacked with witnesses who opposed the cuts. The 27 witnesses opposed to the cuts were all funded directly by Status of Women and according to their testimony, said they regarded the government grants as their ‘entitlements.'”
(…)
“Verner said the total [2008] budget for the federal organization was $29.9 million, ‘a record for Status of Women Canada’. Under the government’s new Women’s Partnership Fund, the government provided $10 million to the agency in 2007 and has no plans to stop.”
Interview with MP Keith Martin
Audio here.
He talks to Rob Breakenridge about his pro-free speech, private members bill (M-446) to remove 13(1) from the Canada Human Rights Act (that notorious “likely” clause which essentially enshrines “future crime” into Canadian law.)
“I feel I am committed to social justice”
wrote Illinois University rampage killer, a social work major who also listed “peace” and “political violence” among his interests.
(Note that word “feel.”)
Ah yes, “social justice”: the forced application of unworkable solutions to imaginary problems.
So: answer as if you had to bet your life on it — did this guy vote Democrat or Republican?
Unpack to your hearts’ content in the comments.
Ontario Election
Living in Quebec I don’t much care about the Ontario election, but from what I’ve followed of it I know I’d be pretty disappointed at the lack of a real conservative platform to vote for. I notice I’m not alone, here’s John Robson’s opinion:
Then there’s John Tory. We did not need another demonstration that a sophisticatedly amorphous Red Tory approach is as futile in political as in policy terms. We got one anyway. Then he crumpled on his only principle-like position. Thanks for coming out. Now go away.
He concludes the best option is to find the least objectionable marginal candidate and vote for him. If you have a chance to vote for a Libertarian, Freedom Party or Family Coalition Party candidate this might be a good opportunity to park your vote there until there’s a real conservative option.
Speaking of small parties, Kateland at the Last Amazon shares the low opinion of current conservative candidates and opts for an albino candidate standing for The Party for People with Special Needs. Make sense to me.
And as for the referendum on the Mixed Member Proportional representation, it would be worth going to vote just to bury this dumb idea. There’s nothing wrong with our electoral system in my opinion, the problem is with the lousy candidates we elect. Funny enough, John Robson says exactly that, too:
Ontario is slated to hold a “historic” referendum this October on whether to discard our centuries-old system of electing representatives in favour of something called MMP or “mixed member proportional.” Just say No. It’s a bad solution to the wrong problem.
Bruce points out a video on Ontario’s health care system. I’m not sure there’s any real reform of the health system on offer in this election, but the video is interesting nonetheless.
Drop your opinion/links on the Ontario election and referendum in the comments.
Crooks think twice about armed citizens
George Jonas picks up the theme of The Brave One, currently topping the charts:
Some bad guys make the mistake of killing the Jody Foster-character’s intended before her eyes, which triggers (as it were) her shooting spree. This may leave connoisseurs of subtle plots and witty dialogue unenthusiastic, but they’re outnumbered. Everyone else makes a killing — the post-feminist heroine on the screen and the moviemakers at the box office. The only people complaining are urban liberals who are put off intrinsically by both self-defense and guns.
Okay, I’ll make a point to go see this movie.
Liberal feminist makes startling discovery
Language warning, as is standard when a liberal feminist makes a startling discovery, a profanity-laced rant against the state of the world results:
Are you F—— kidding me? With relatively little training, men in my weight class can lift ONE HUNDRED POUNDS MORE THAN ME? Just a few months in, y’all can lift 274 lbs to a woman’s 174? 57% more? A HUNDRED POUNDS? Are you f——- kidding? That much more? I had no idea. You guys are that much stronger? Serious? I got genuinely angry. I still am. I didn’t know, and it is so UNFAIR.
Police are funny that way
A woman complains about how police treated her son:
“They don’t know if they are mentally ill or the things they go through. Evidently, if you see him running around in his shorts smoking dope behind a church, something is wrong with him, even if they do buck up. They should use something different than those Tasers. Tasers kill,” said the man’s mother.
Well, yes, it’s unfortunate the man died. I wonder if she could think of a way her son could avoid getting tasered, though?
Just saying “Don’t tase me, bro” doesn’t seem to be effective, but maybe not running around in his shorts behind a church smoking crack would be a better plan.
Federalism, like it’s 1867
Brigitte Pellerin in Canada’s Journal of Ideas:
If politicians chose to take federalism seriously, they would not spend their time and energy dreaming up national economic or social programs that always seem to pit one part of the country against the others.
Canada was created as a federation for a reason. We should try letting it work as intended sometime.
The 5 Things I saw that make me support the war
Former gang member turned Marine and recipient of the Navy Cross expresses his thoughts after after returning from Iraq:
Liberals often like to say that “violence is senseless.”
That’s wrong.
Violence isn’t senseless. Senseless violence is senseless. And I should know. Before being awarded the Navy Cross and having the privilege of becoming a Marine, I was a gang member. Sometimes it takes having used violence for both evil as well as good to know that there’s a profound moral difference between the two.
Read the whole thing, but especially note this:
But if there was one lesson I learned from my past it is that there is a profound moral difference between using violence to destroy lives and using violence to save lives. Terrorists do the former; soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines do the latter.
Indeed they do. At least those on our side do.
Crushing dissent in China
With the Communist Party’s 17th congress coming up China decides to ban advertising for push-up bras. Of course these sorts of things are the least of China’s human rights sins, but you never know what will finally trigger a revolt.
“Soldiers Hand out Newspapers and Rice”
Michael Totten is right, that doesn’t make for an exciting headline. But when that’s the nature of the mission these days for soldiers around Ramadi, that is good news. Read Michael Totten’s excellent latest report from Iraq for the current situation in Anbar province.
Just another day in Saudi Arabia
Another reminder, as if we needed one, at how equal rights and multicultarism are practiced in Arab countries:
As soon as the clock strikes 12 noon, only Saudis are allowed to buy water from the water distribution plant at Al-Faisaliah district in Jeddah. Two large signs on either side of the entrance state clearly “Expatriates served from 4 a.m. to 12 noon only.” A security guard is also on duty to check IDs.
“I’ve had enough”
A must-read, experience-based rant on the appalling ignorance of Canadians regarding the Afghan mission, by someone who’s been there:
I’ve had enough. Consider this my rant against ignorance; my protest against agendas, half-truths, and lies. For almost two years I have been closely following the news from and about Afghanistan and it has been demoralizing to say the least. I spent a year in Kabul with the Strategic Advisory Team and watched the media only report the deaths our Forces suffered rather than the successes we (not just the SAT) achieved. I have watched “experts”, editorialists, politicians, protesters, activists and pundits mangle facts, misread situations and push agendas. Most of what I have read and seen has been flawed to one degree or another. As a result many Canadians I have spoken to are wholly unaware of what we are doing there and why we are doing it. The debate has been so muddied by poor reporting and incomplete information that most people are stunned when they hear of our successes.
At the same time I have heard only reactive, ineffective whimpers from our establishment. Our government and DND in particular has done a poor job of getting the message out. Granted things are improving but you only have to look at the News Room on the DND website to see that the majority of news releases concerning Afghanistan concern the deaths and injuries we have suffered in Kandahar. In other words we are playing into the media’s “if it bleeds, it leads” approach to coverage.
You really do need to read the whole thing.
The Sound Of Settled Science
Science writers at The Economist explore one of the known problems with climate modeling:
Psychologically, people tend to be Bayesian—to the extent of often making false connections. And that risk of false connection is why scientists like Pascal’s version of the world. It appears to be objective. But when models are built, it is almost impossible to avoid including Bayesian-style prior assumptions in them. By failing to acknowledge that, model builders risk making serious mistakes.
The layman-level example they provide shows just how fundamental an issue this is.
What Keith Martin didn’t tell you…
…about the state of healthcare in Afghanistan, and the Canadian contribution to it.
A snippet:
Nothing is more indicative of the lack of context in Dr. Martin’s piece more than this line, though, as he cites the shortcomings of Afghan medical care:
Afghanistan has an infant mortality rate of 140 per 1,000 births; and the under-five mortality rate of 230 of 1,000 children.
Prior to the fall of the Taliban, Afghanistan had an infant mortality rate of 165 per 1,000 births:
Infant mortality has dropped by 18 percent in Afghanistan since 2001, in one of the first real signs of recovery for the country five years after the ouster of the Taliban regime, health officials said Thursday.
“Despite many challenges, there are clear signs of health sector recovery and progress throughout the country,” said Muhammad Amin Fatimi, the minister of health.
The infant mortality rate – the number of children who die before their first birthday – has dropped to 135 per 1,000 live births in 2006 from 165 per 1,000 in 2001, according to a countrywide survey by Johns Hopkins University, he said. By comparison, the infant mortality rate in France in 2005 was 5 per 1,000, according to Unicef.
That represents a drop of 18 percent and means that 40,000 to 50,000 infants who were dying annually during the Taliban era, are alive today, Fatimi said.
Needless to say, I’m not impressed with his cherry-picking of the facts.