UPDATE – Harriet is interviewed on FoxNews (h/t JT in the comments)
Mary, Mother Of Jesus
While the claim is unconfirmed as of this writing, the controversial Mark Steyn article, over which the British Columbia hearing is being held, was posted to the Catholic Answers message forum. Moreoever, popular Jewish-Canadian blogger Ezra Levant, who is blogging live from the hearing, and who is the subject of his own human rights commission complaint, published a description of the unnamed Catholic forum. Several details match, including the screen names of two participants to the Catholic Answers forum discussion of Steyn’s article.
Imagine that! Canada’s human rights tribunals are now attempting to prosecute a case against an American resident, based upon what an American citizen allegedly posted to a mainstream American Catholic website. What passes for mainstream Catholic discussion in America is now the basis for a hate complaint in Canada.
h/t
Update Confirmation has been received that Catholic Answers is indeed the site named. It’s described thus: “Catholic Answers is one of biggest Catholic media empires in the U.S., and is especially popular among young orthodox Catholics.”
To Our Most Timid Minister Of Justice
An open letter;
But this is what I do know. If the Minister of Justice for Canada is not willing to stand for free speech anywhere, anytime, against anyone, then the Minister of Justice does not deserve to be representing the citizens of Canada in such a capacity, let alone as a Member of Parliament for a democratic state. On the assumption that you even do support us, if you are trying to figure out when to speak out, where to speak out, or how to speak out on such a vital issue to the future of this country, then I say in all honesty and sincerity: there’s something wrong with you.
Before anything else, you are supposed to be defending our freedoms and real Canadian values – values that were bought and paid for on the fields of Flanders not the manufactured ones that serve the perpetually aggrieved communities to which your government is shamelessly pandering. At the very least, you should not be siding with the fraudulent thugs at the HRCs and the fools in your own Department who say that “truth is no defense”. Whatever trick you’re using to sleep at night as Canadian citizens are being financially and emotionally raped and pillaged by these Star Chamber Tribunals would give Somenex a good run for its money, I have no doubt.
Forward it to your friends, along with information on how to contact their MP.
Other dead tree commentary from David Warren, the Vancouver Sun, and National Post.. and a huge round up of links at Free Mark Steyn, too.
While you’re at it, you can contact our most timid provincial premier here;
The Honourable Brad Wall
Premier of Saskatchewan
226 Legislative Building
Regina, Saskatchewan
CANADA S4S 0B3
Telephone: (306) 787-9433
Facsimile: (306) 787-0885
E-mail: premier@gov.sk.ca
Be sure to ask how it came to pass that an individual is considered a “public official” obligated to set aside their Charter rights when performing a state function – but a “private citizen” on the hook for their own legal defense when set up for a human rights sting operation?
Every marriage commissioner (or any other public official) in the province should be thinking long and hard right now about their own personal exposure. Poligamy hasn’t yet been tested in the courts in regards to charter rights – would it be prudent in this legal atmosphere to refuse a ceremony joining a man and his second husband?
(Nichols lawyer is Michael Megaw, should you want to forward a donation.)
Why Don’t They Just Merge The Two Networks?
And save the useful fools the trouble of crossing over one at a time?
Originally a successful radio and television producer, Phillips, who is English, worked in America, Canada, Italy, Russia and the UK for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), before accepting her new role as Al Jazeera English director of foreign bureau and development in Doha, Qatar.
h/t MIssissauga Matt
Damian Penny in the comments: “Why would Al-Jazeera risk being tarnished by the CBC’s legendary anti-American, anti-Israel bias?”
Justin, Son Of Margaret
| Please someone, refresh my memory. Justin Trudeau’s qualifications to speak publicly on the topic of “protecting the earth and the future of Canada’s health care systems, schools and communities” are what, again? Any idea? Oh, that’s right – he won the Lucky Y-Chromosome Lottery. Lucky him. Lucky us. |
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Bitch In The Manger
I don’t think she’s interested in the Vice-Presidency.
I think what she’s interested in is sealing Obama’s fate with that “angry white woman” base, by forcing him to reject her.
A new Pew Research Center poll points to a surging tide of fury, especially among white women. As recently as April, this group preferred Obama over the presumptive Republican John McCain by three percentage points. By May, McCain enjoyed an eight-point lead among white women.
And reject her, he must. Would you allow the Clintons within a “heartbeat of the Presidency”, if it was your heartbeat standing in their way?
Me, either.
h/t
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to SDA Late Nite Radio. Tonight, to celebrate my new role as launcher of the daily Reader Tips entry (see below), here for your delectation is Sniff & the Tears performing Driver’s Seat (1978, 03:46).
Jenny was sweet,
She always smiled for the people she meet.
On trouble and strife:
She had another way of looking at life.The news is blue (the news is blue),
Has its own way of getting to you.
What can I do (what can I do),
When I remember my time with you?Pick up your feet,
Got to move to the trick of the beat.
There is no elite,
Just take your place in the driver’s seat.
Your Reader Tips are of course, as always, welcome in the comments.
The Robson Square Witch Trials
The Accused stands accused of time travel as the national embarrassment known as the BC Human Rights Tribunal picks up speed – the natural consequence of going downhill;
Uh-oh. The chair seems pissed. If you weren’t happy with their disclosure, did you bring an application for further and better disclosure? Well no. {Paraphrasing here.] If they’d given us a list, we’d have looked at whether they were clear enough. But they just said to us, we’re going to enter some documents that you have. As for UN reports, “I’m convinced they’ve churned out five or six in the last half hour. Probably more to come later today.”
Joseph cleverly rebuts: those may be the rules of evidence in a real court, but we’re not in a real court! He’s got a point there… (Well, he didn’t say “real court.” I beleve he said “at the appellate level.”
10:28 AM As for the irrelevance of reports on Islamophobia “across the pond,” well, “Islamophobia does not stop at the waters.” It’s a worldwide phenomenon. Reports were meant to illustrate the impact of Islamophobia, regardless of its precise location. “My friend wants you to judge the evidence before you receive it.” We’re breaking for probably half an hour or so while the panel considers the question.
Here’s my best effort at a direct quote from McConchie, after telling the tribunal how real courts work: that’s “how at least in my experience and my understanding of the law… I accept this tribunal is not bound by the same rules as a regular court, but there are boundaries, there’s a minimal requirement to prove the authority of the document that’s submitted to the tribunal that is represented to be some sort of academic study, and that would ordinarily be done through an expert witness, and not a lay witness who happens to have seen it.”
That’s how a polite man tells a tribunal they don’t know what the hell they’re doing.
Needless to say, not one of the Troika is paying much attention to him, and panellist Tonie Beharrell has her eyes closed for much of it.
(More here).
I suggest folks get busy forwarding both reports to the offices of every MP and MLA in the nation, along with Ezra’s three word solution.
Fire. Them. All.
Update Tarek Fatah writes in Coyne’s comments;
Does anyone remember Sheikh Younus Kathrada, the Imam who preached that Jews were “brothers of monkeys and swine”?
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2005/07/21/cleric-rcmp050721.html
Well, what do you know. The good old “monkeys and swine” imam is part of this convoluted Islamist alliance fighting Mackeans.
How, you ask? Relax. Since none of the esteemed reporters are digging deep enough, let me help them out from Toronto.
The National Post today suggests that Naiyer Habib, unlike Khurrum Awan, gives the trial a “local flavour.”
Most B.C. Muslims would beg to differ…
Naiyer Habib is from Saskatchewan and only moved to Vancouver recently. The Regional Director of the CIC in BC is Luay Kawasme. Where is he? Don’t know.
I am told Naiyer Habib is the father of Adnan Habib. Adnan Habib is a Vancouver lawyer, and the legal counsel for the BC Muslim Association.
Earlier this year the BC Muslim Association hired a new Imam. Guess who? None other than the discraced hate-monger Sheikh Younus Kathrada!
Thee Imam who preached that Jews were “brothers of monkeys and swine” is now lecturing at Masjid al-Iman in Victoria run by an organsiation whose legal counsel is the son of Naiyer Habib!
Convoluted assoications? yes. Guilt by association? Probabaly, but it is not me who is saying all Muslims are one organic body that weeps whenever the boy-band is insulted.
What Would We Do Without Experts?
CTV offers up some of the findings carried in a Tourism Association of Canada report on the “crisis” in the industry that took “a year and a half to create”;
suggested fixes include:
* reducing costs to the Canadian aviation sector;
* securing approved destination status from China; and,
* enhancing government-owned tourism properties like national parks and museums.
CTV’s online readers’ suggested fixes took considerably less time;
“Maybe the anti-American locals who leave snide notes and key US cars might consider the repercussions of their actions. The Internet is rife with such stories, discouraging other Americans from venturing north – and return visits from these same offended tourists.”
“A WEEKEND in Northern Ontario, Muskoka or Great Wolf Lodge is about the same as a WEEK in in an all-inclusive Caribbean. Where would you go?”
“Out in Tofino for example, a site to pitch a tent is $55 a night, if you buy their wood and want a modest 4-5 hour camp fire, add another $35. Park fee’s a day, $10. Ferry to get over there, $70.”
“I would love to stay in Canada and travel but when I can spend $45 on a hotel in the US compared to $120 here in Canada the math is simple. Plus I can fill up for about $20 less. Why would anyone in the US right now want to come up to Canada, with their economy the way it is to pay extra for hotels and gas, you don’t need 2 years to figure this out.”
“All the American bashing is finally having an impact. Chickens are coming home to roost. If you continue to pass moral judgement on your biggest trading partner… Mayor Miller should be the poster child for the tourism colapse.”
Yup. It’s why I do so much of my dog showing in the US right now. Not only is the competition keener, but it’s cheaper than showing in Canada – a fact that’s driven home the first time you’re charged 25 cents for filling your travel mug with coffee.
Seven Year American Recession Watch Remains On High Alert
The economy grew at a faster pace than originally estimated in the first quarter,
… the government said on Thursday, but the nation remained on track for its most stagnant period of growth in five years.
Gross domestic product, a measure of overall economic growth, expanded at an annual rate of 0.9 percent in the first three months of the year, according to the Commerce Department. That was an uptick from the initial estimate, released a month ago, which put the growth rate at 0.6 percent.
“…most stagnant period of growth” is a nice touch, no? Never let good news get in the way of negative spin. Meanwhile, Canada’s economy unexpectedly shrank in the first quarter,
… dragged down by lower automobile exports, giving the Bank of Canada more reason to cut borrowing costs again next month.
Gross domestic product contracted at a 0.3 percent annualized rate in the first quarter to C$1.33 trillion ($1.34 trillion), the first drop in almost five years, Statistics Canada said today in Ottawa. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg said the growth rate would slow to 0.4 percent from 0.8 percent in the fourth quarter. None of the 22 predicted a contraction.
h/t 650CKOM’s Paul Martin
Y2Kyoto: Reality Bites
A new report by Cambridge Energy Research Associates finds that “rising materials costs, engineering challenges, and installation snags threaten European goals to dramatically expand wind power.” The report assesses as unlikely the European Union’s goal of getting 20 percent of its energy from renewables by 2020 without massive new government subsidies.
An article in the New Zealand Herald is blunt: “How to meet the lofty target is a puzzle. Clean renewables are still in their infancy yet will be required to deliver gigawatts of power when many fossil-fuel and nuclear power stations are at the end of their operational life.”
In Sweden, of course, all nukes are at the end of their life thanks to the government’s nearly 30-year ban. In the face of this blunder, Sweden’s government has postponed its 2010 deadline as it scrambles to find a solution to its aging utility infrastructure and emissions ceiling.
Now, Had They Waterboarded Him Between Slices
THAT would have been bravery.
Not to mention, appropriate.
Reader Tips
Thanks to Vitruvius for doing such an admirable job with Reader Tips while I was away. If you’d like him to continue, cast a vote in the comments. It doesn’t mean I won’t throw in my own linkfests, but the late nite radio schtick seems to be popular enough to merit its own category. Let me know what you think.
And my thanks, as always, to the rest of the guest blogging contingent. SDA is a 7 day a week endeavor, so the breaks I get serve as innoculation against burnout. The guest bloggers make it possible. The only alternative is shutting down the place while I’m gone and while that wouldn’t be the end of the world, it’s not my preferred option.
Your tips thread is open.
Truth And Antirevisionism
As a young student, Mr. Ignatieff attended Toronto’s Upper Canada College, arguably the top private “residential school” in the country. At the time, he probably did not know that employees of other Canadian residential schools received little pay and many sleepless nights for their labour. But, as an intellectual and as an MP, he should have searched harder for the available evidence. In Stringer Hall, for example, I was responsible for 85 senior boys between the ages of 12 and 21 for 22 hours a day, six days a week. The work was difficult, even for a strong 21-year-old.
Yet today, the reward for former residential school employees is denigration in the national press by people such as Mr. Ignatieff — and, more surprisingly, by the churches they served. I pray that the Commission will hear a variety of perspectives.
Unfortunately, I do not think this will happen because of the hostile climate that now exists. Few former school employees — both non-aboriginal and aboriginal — will acknowledge that they worked in residential schools, and even fewer will appear before the Commission. They already know that the “truth” has been pre-determined, and that “reconciliation” means financial compensation, which is already being distributed in any event. Few people will praise the residential schools — their administrators, their teachers or their supervisors. Fewer still will dare publicly admit that their residential-school experiences were positive.
Levant, Martin vs Fine
The May 24th debate from the 30th Annual Conference of the Canadian Association of Journalists is up at CPAC.
Update: Reaction in the comments – “HOLYSHIT!”
If Quoting A Norwegian Imam Can Get You In CHRC Trouble
Just think where quoting Ahmadinejad might take you!
“I must announce that the Zionist regime (Israel), with a 60-year record of genocide, plunder, invasion and betrayal is about to die and will soon be erased from the geographical scene,”
Make no mistake – he speaks in the name of Islam;
“I tell you that with the unity and awareness of all the Islamic countries all the satanic powers will soon be destroyed,”
No word from the Obama campaign on a date for their first face-to-face meeting.
The BC Human Rights Tribunal VS Macleans And The Free World
My apologies for not having this up sooner – except for a quick stop at the farm to crash a few hours, I’ve been on the road the last 19 hours or thereabouts. (And offline most of the past 5 days).
Andrew Coyne is liveblogging the Mark Steyn hearing today, as best he can;
9:45 AM PST
The Chair is reviewing the legal history of the complaint. Apparently they have no jurisdiction over the Maclean’s website. So that’s a relief…
9:48 AM
We have friends: the BC Civil Liberties Association and the Canadian Association of Journalists are here as intervenors.
9:54 AM
Lawyers for the two sides are wrangling now over what witnesses the complainants are going to call, and whether “my friend” had properly informed “my friend” as to what “my friend” (the first one) had planned…
I’ll update as I get caught up myself. Your related links and commentary are welcome in the comments. Most of you probably know more than I do at the moment. This is good, though –
10:59 AM
Just coming back from a break. Lots of media interest, it seems: CBC, CTV (I’m told), the National Post, local media, and a guy from the New York Times, who’s doing a piece comparing how the two countries’ legal systems deal with speech cases. Needless to say, he can’t believe what he’s witnessing…
Great discussion in the comments there;
2 June 2008:
Wow ! Heather MacNaughton, who chaired the three-panel BC Human Rights Tribunal in the mixed judgement of the Port Coquitlam Knights of Columbus v. two lesbians, is the same Justice who fined Christian printer Scott Brockie and denied an appeal by Christian teacher Chris Kempling.
This is bound to be interesting ! We couldn’t have asked for a more leftist judge.
Hey, its a “human rights” tribunal. They have no other kind.
Kathy Shaidle has lots and lots as does RJJago on the support rally. (The blank signs were my suggestion. Heh.)
Keith Martin has issued a press release:
“I just returned from the Canadian Association of Journalists AGM in where I attended a debate with a member of the CHRA. After the debate it became even more obvious that the Act needs to be modernized. The CHRA member had little understanding of the deep flaws and misuses of the Act by the Commission and the trampling of free speech that the Commission sometimes engages in,” said Dr. Martin.
Another big round-up at Free Mark Steyn
Update – What we pay them the big bucks for;
CBC journos asked me who I was with? Just an interested observer I replied.
Who is this Steyn guy they asked. Is he a journalist? Who does he write for? He’s right wing isn’t he?
Tony Blair’s Britain
Where the foxes caper unmolested, the government packs your school lunch and one man’s gospel is another constable’s hate crime;
The preachers, both ministers in Birmingham, were handing out leaflets on Alum Rock Road in February when they started talking to four Asian youths.
A police community support officer (PCSO) interrupted the conversation and began questioning the ministers about their beliefs.
They said when the officer realised they were American, although both have lived in Britain for many years, he launched a tirade against President Bush and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Mr Cunningham said: “I told him that this had nothing to do with the gospel we were preaching but he became very aggressive.
“He said we were in a Muslim area and were not allowed to spread our Christian message. He said we were committing a hate crime by telling the youths to leave Islam and said that he was going to take us to the police station.”
A Martyr For His Faith
Is there nothing that Obama won’t do?
Reader Tips
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Reader Tips and SDA Late Nite Radio. One of the problems with a tour de force performance like last night’s SDA Late Nite Radio Classics is: what does one do for an encore? I mean, one’s just used up one’s best material (by definition); what now? Yet it remains the case that there was a notable intensity to all of yesterday’s selections, thus an alternative for tonight is a notably mellow selection. So here, for your delectation, are Mugsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band performing Relaxin’ At The Touro in 1939.
Also, after last night’s show, listener Eeyore wrote in to request due coverage for bagpipes. They’re always on the list, Eeyore. For now you may wish to check out some of the bagpipe links previously available at Small Dead Animals.
More importantly than all that, note that Mr. Andrew Coyne plans to be live-blogging the BCHRT inquisition against Maclean’s magazine and Mr. Mark Steyn starting at about 09:30 PDT today.
Your Reader Tips are of course, as always, welcome in the comments.