WOE, CANADA - A candid look at Canada and the politics of moral relativism

Canadian Liberation of Holland - 60 Years Ago

2005-05-03T19:31:00.000-07:00

Canadians, Dutch honour war dead

CANADIAN PRESS

GROESBEEK, Netherlands — The last time John McConachie saw his big brother Bill, he had driven his tank right to the doors of the Dutch hospital where he lay recovering from a leg wound suffered in the early days of the campaign to liberate the Netherlands.

Four months later, on Feb. 26, 1945, Bill McConachie and his entire tank crew were killed by German fire near the town of Nijmegen.

Today, John McConachie returned to Holland for the first time in 60 years and sat just metres away from his brother’s grave during an emotional memorial ceremony at the Canadian War Cemetery in the small village of Groesbeek.

“It’s very touching,” McConachie, 83, of Montreal, said following the sombre event held on a damp, overcast day to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands.

“I didn’t think it would be quite as emotional to see the grave as it was.”

McConachie, a veteran representing the Royal Montreal Regiment, still holds fond memories of the brother he described as a rebel, whose swagger he could distinguish from afar because he insisted on carrying two .45-calibre weapons for protection instead of the single gun most soldiers wore.

“He was like Billy the Kid,” recalled McConachie.

Today’s ceremony, which drew about 1,500 veterans and about 6,500 others, mainly grateful Dutch citizens, was held to honour the 2,338 Canadians buried there.

It was one of the biggest events in a week of activities planned to honour the survivors and remember the more than 7,600 Canadians killed in the nine-month campaign to free Holland from its Nazi occupiers.

With many veterans on the trip now in their mid-to-late 80s, Veterans Affairs expects this to be the last large-scale pilgrimage it organizes.

Canada's Pathetic African Policy - Take a Pill, Africa!

2005-05-02T14:19:00.000-07:00

May 2, 2005.
Thomas Walkom
Africa still awaits Canadian drugs - not a single pill exported, doctors say

Legislation was passed year ago

DENNIS BUECKERT
CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA—Almost a year after Canada won global praise for passing legislation to provide cheap drugs for poor countries, the law hasn't resulted in a single pill being exported.

Government officials say the Jean Chrétien Pledge to Africa Act has been stalled by technicalities. Critics say it is fatally flawed and will never have any real impact.

"We're still in a waiting game," said Tony Parmar of Doctors Without Borders, which had hoped the bill would be a lifeline for countries devastated by AIDS, malaria and other treatable diseases.

"The conclusion we can draw is that one year later, not a single drug has been exported," Parmar said. "We're hopeful we can do that in the future but there's no guarantees at this point. To be honest, there hasn't been a whole lot of interest for the generic drug makers to use this legislation."

Read the whole thing [here].

This reminds me in a painful, shameful way of the breathless manner in which PM Dithers announced Canada would help the tsunamai victims. Two weeks later our "emergency team" were still packing their underwear while the US and Aussie's were on the ground saving lives.

Canadian Utopia or Opiumtopia?

2005-04-30T13:41:00.000-07:00

For all those who wish they lived in Canada's "open and free climate" imagine your tax dollars literally going up in smoke like this.

Alarming News has this story about free crack pipes being given out in Ottawa to prevent users getting infections. Read it [here].

Canadian and German Spy Justice vs. Islam

2005-04-30T13:17:00.000-07:00

Confidential German sub plans offered to covert Mountie in coffee shop

JIM BRONSKILL Sat Apr 30, 9:30 AM ET

(CP) - The military confidences of a European country were peddled to an enigmatic man posing as a Chinese agent in a most unlikely setting: a tranquil southern Ontario coffee shop.

An RCMP officer assuming the role of a Chinese spy nabbed a Toronto-area woman when she agreed to sell him pages from a German submarine manual, The Canadian Press has learned.

The remarkable meeting in the neighbourhood cafe was part of an elaborate sting operation that turned Michaela Gile's life upside down and led to her eventual conviction in Germany for attempted treason.

It also shattered any faith Gile and her husband had in the Canadian justice system.

The eye-opening case also sheds some rare light on the undercover activities of the RCMP's secretive national security division.

The international espionage saga began in 2003 when Gile, a German-born translator, had a payment dispute about her work on a confidential manual for the weapons system of the U-212A submarine, equipped with six torpedo tubes.

Designed in Germany, the advanced vessel is renowned for a quiet propulsion system powered by hydrogen fuel cells that helps it elude enemy subs.

--- Ed - Shattered her husband's faith in the justice system? Wah? ---

... But the caller was persistent, saying he was just around the corner. He told her to look for an Asian man in a suit at a nearby coffee shop.

Gile agreed.

Incredibly, the agent who met her was sporting the red, yellow and blue of the RCMP on both his tie clip and wristwatch, Gile recalls. She would recognize them as the Mountie colours only much later, after she had been arrested, when she spotted them on a sign.

At one point, the undercover officer, apparently noticing the gaffe, tugged his sleeve over his watch. ..

--- Ed - can you imagine more inept security work than wearing the RCMP colours? ---

...Gile spent a difficult Sunday night behind bars. At a bail hearing the next day Crown lawyer Ruthanne Bowker confirmed that an undercover Mountie had met her at the coffee house.

Meanwhile once back in Germany...

...Gile spent weeks in a small cell with three other women at a prison in the western city of Koblenz... Gile received a suspended sentence of one year, meaning she would not have to serve any more jail time...

Read the whole thing [here].

And Now for Something Completely Different:

Yemen: Young mother faces execution for crime committed when 16

A 21-year-old woman, the mother of a toddler, reportedly faces execution on Monday (2 May) in Yemen, despite being only 16 when the death sentence was passed, said Amnesty International today. The Yemeni Penal Code expressly prohibits the execution of anyone convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18. She had reportedly been tortured to force her to confess, and has since maintained her innocence.

Amina Ali Abduladif only escaped the firing squad in 2002 because the executioners noticed she was pregnant, according to reports from her lawyer.

She was reportedly raped by one of the guards at al-Mahaweet prison. As a result she gave birth to a child, who is with her in Sana'a Women Central prison and is now very nearly two years old.

Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said:

"We have only four days to stop the execution of Amina. I hope the people and government of the UK will join Amnesty in its campaign to prevent this unnecessary death.

"Amina was only sixteen when her husband was killed. She maintains that she is innocent and that her confession was tortured out of her.

If you want to fight with one hand time behind your back, the outcome is predictable.

Happy, Birthday Sadaam!

2005-04-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, its the big guy's birthday! I wonder what he's got planned? Perhaps a stretch in the yard. ..

Moussaoui - Aint so Tough Now, Huh?

2005-04-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

Moussaoui Pleads Guilty in Terror Plot

By Jerry Markon, Washington Post Staff Writer

Zacarias Moussaoui pleaded guilty yesterday to taking part in a broad al Qaeda conspiracy that resulted in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, saying Osama bin Laden personally instructed him to fly an airplane into the White House...

The balding, bearded Moussaoui, 36, dressed in a green Alexandria jail jumpsuit, blasted his attorneys, calling one of them a "Judas," and said he expects "no leniency from the American" when his case comes to the sentencing phase. As he was being led from the courtroom by a team of security officers, he shouted in a thick accent, "Lord! God curse America!"

(The brave warrior of Allah, right? Read on Ed.)

Moussaoui, while indicating that he had initially asked for a sentence of death, yesterday vowed to fight to save his life.

"I have significantly changed my position following the advice I receive from you," he told Brinkema. "I will not apply for death. . . . No, Moussaoui will fight every inch against the death penalty."

Ah, not so quick to face up now that the gavel is coming down, eh? There is further talk of taking him to Germany to testify against a Moroccan who was released due to a lack of evidence. Clearing your throat to start singing like a bird...

Full story [here].

Mark Steyn, the Gomery Inquiry and more

2005-04-27T10:09:00.000-07:00

Banned in Canada

Monday, 2 May 2005
Mark Steyn

A decade or so back, I was in London and switched on the radio and the top story on the BBC News that morning ran as follows: “A Conservative MP has been found dead in . . . unusual circumstances.”

That’s annoying enough--like those people who rush up to you and say, “You’ll never believe what I just heard . . . no, wait, I’m not supposed to tell you, forget I mentioned it.” But worse was to come. The news bulletin ended and the anchor on the morning show came on and he had with him the chairman of the Tory party, Norman Fowler, and an equivalent panjandrum from Labour, and they proceeded to discuss for 15 minutes the unusual death of the aforementioned MP without giving us a hint as to the aforementioned unusual circumstances. “These are the kind of, ah, circumstances that could occur to, ah, any member in any party,” said Sir Norman, anxious to make plain that whatever the unusual circumstances were the unusualness of them was strictly non-partisan.

I had a headache by the time the segment ended. Here were a bigshot BBC host plus two political heavyweights having a public conversation in which they all knew what they were talking about but the listening millions were entirely in the dark and the conversation was being conducted in a code explicitly intended to keep them in the dark.

Well, the fate of poor Stephen Milligan, MP didn’t stay veiled in obfuscatory unusualness for long. He had been found dead on his kitchen table naked except for a pair of lady’s stockings on his legs and a third one tied round his arm, a satsuma and amphetamines in his mouth, and on his stomach traces of what the FBI crime lab during their analysis of Monica’s black dress took to calling genetic material. The honourable member had died of “auto-erotic asphyxiation,” and that’s too good a story for the Fleet Street tabs to go along with any of this genteel “unusual circumstances” hooey. Mr. Milligan’s notoriety has faded now, but I’ve never forgotten that initial BBC tiptoe round his two lips and the memorable contents within. The political and media class carrying on a private conversation based on their privileged access to facts the citizenry were unaware of seemed to sum up everything that’s wrong with public discourse in too many democratic societies.

You may have noticed something similar is going on with the rulers of our own diseased Dominion right now. I don’t mean that the Liberal Party of Canada has been found dead of auto-erotic asphyxiation with a couple of pharmacologically enhanced Timbits in its mouth and Sheila Copps’ fishnets on its limbs, though it may yet come to that. What I mean is that everybody’s talking about something without really talking about it at all. During the Gomery commission’s investigation into the Liberals’ waste of even more of our money than usual, someone is alleged to have allegedly alleged something. Allegedly. And I can’t put it any plainer than that--or not without the RCMP kicking the door down.

Read the rest to get to the best part. The Western Standard newspaper - very interested. La Presse in Quebec - owned by Paul Demerais, the virtual Godfather of the Liberal Behemoth.

Read it [here]

China under the radar

2005-04-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

Japan PM Apologizes for WWII Aggression

By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer

Friday, April 22, 2005

(04-22) 09:56 PDT JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) --

Japan's prime minister apologized Friday for his country's World War II aggression in Asia in a bid to defuse tensions with regional rival China, but a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said the apology needed to be backed up with action after Japanese lawmakers made a controversial visit to a war shrine.

Just hours before Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologized, a Cabinet minister and more than 80 Japanese lawmakers visited a Tokyo shrine to Japan's war dead. China's Foreign Ministry expressed "strong dissatisfaction over the negative actions of some Japanese politicians" in visiting the Yasukuni Shrine, which also honor's Japan's executed war criminals.

So why is this a story and why do I even care? Because this is a highly orchestrated campaign by China to take pressure off themselves and put pressure on regional rival Japan. And why is that important? Because China is poised to become the premiere world power and eclipse the United States. They deal with Sudan for oil, Venezeula for oil, do a huge amount of trade with the US and Canada. Why is this bad? Because they are a totalitarian state and the world is asleep in not seeing that the two biggest powers are on a collision course. The day will come, and it will be a surprise.

Perspective

2005-04-24T09:20:00.000-07:00

I'm shocked to have read this at Yahoo news today. A succinct and historically correct account of Hitler's final days and how WW2 ended. The only reason I'm posting about the subject is that it is important to put things in perspective and context. To have freed a country of 25 million people with 1500 casualties is astounding and unprecedented in world history and yet the MSM sees the war in Iraq as a catastrophe. The Red Army lost 78,000 dead in the final assault on Berlin over the course of a week. Freedom ain't free.

Full story [here].

The Perfidious French

2005-04-19T07:51:00.000-07:00

France's role in Lebanon
By GEORGE SASSINEUNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Paris, France, Apr. 18 (UPI) -- France, Lebanon's former patron, is trying to avoid internationalizing the Lebanese crisis, which erupted following the Feb. 14 assassination of former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
France is opposed to an international conference on Lebanon, to sending international forces to its former mandate or dispatching foreign observers to oversee the general elections scheduled for May. The move, it worries, would push Lebanon out of France's political orbit.
French President Jacques Chirac, Hariri's close friend and ally, convinced U.S. President George W. Bush last June to co-sponsor U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, aimed at forcing Syrian military and intelligence personnel out of Lebanon. He was also the first to call for an international investigation into Hariri's assassination.
Resolution 1559 called for the withdrawal of foreign forces from Lebanon but did not name Syria, which has forces in the country; the dismantling of foreign and local militias, in reference to Hezbollah and armed Palestinian factions; for expanding the state's authority over all Lebanese territory; and for deploying the Lebanese army along the border with Israel. The resolution divided the Lebanese political world.

Read the story [here].

Okay. So the hopes and dreams of freedom and democracy for millions of Lebanese people should be shelved to ensure that France maintains its influence in the Middle East. Lets just be clear about this. While there is a realpolitik aspect that can't be discounted, since France lost their other best friend when Sadaam was pulled out of a hole in the ground, lets call a spade a spade. The French are heartless cowards.

Juxtapositioning

2005-04-18T11:31:00.000-07:00

The war in Iraq is an immoral invasion that only serves Haliburton and oil interests from Texas says the Left. No war, Bushitler!

The discovery of two sites with up to 7,000 bodies may be used to help build tribunal cases against former Baathists accused of mass murder
BAGHDAD — Two mass graves that appear to contain the remains of as many as 7,000 people killed by Saddam Hussein’s government have been discovered in southern Iraq, an Iraqi government minister said Friday. The new government may use the finds to help build its case against alleged war criminals, including Hussein, Human Rights Minister Bakhtiar Amin said.

Full story [here].

7,000 civilians. Let's see, that's about 4 times as many brave servicemen who gave their lives for freedom. It's also a drop in the bucket compared to the estimated 300,000 Iraqis who were murdered by Sadaam's rein and found in other mass graves. Add in the estimated 1,000,000 people who lost their lives in the needless Iran-Iraq war, and it makes the 100,000 lost during Gulf War I seem like a walk in the park. Peace, indeed.

The Elephant in the Room

2005-04-18T08:41:00.000-07:00

Corriveau denies funnelling money

Brian Daly Canadian Press

Friday, April 15, 2005 MONTREAL -- Jacques Corriveau, accused of funnelling at least $1.1 million in sponsorship money to the federal Liberals, denied any role in the alleged conspiracy Friday and shifted the heat back to his accuser, ad man Jean Brault.
"No,'' Corriveau replied when he was asked by Bernard Roy, counsel for the sponsorship inquiry. "Never.''
The retiree suggested Roy direct his questions to former Liberal fundraiser Alain Renaud, who Brault says was a party operative planted at Brault's Groupaction firm to steer cash to the party.
"The one who was closest to Mr. Brault was Mr. Renaud,'' said Corriveau. "I had no such relations with Mr Brault.''
Brault has implicated Corriveau and promoter Luc Lemay in the wide-ranging scheme that allegedly used Groupaction to secretly funnel the money to the party's debt-ridden Quebec wing.
Brault has testified he paid Corriveau, a friend of former prime minister Jean Chretien, $494,000 under one bogus contract, and alleged Corriveau sent the cash to the party.
But Corriveau denied under cross-examination from Liberal party lawyer Doug Mitchell that he sent any of his income to the Liberals.
He added Brault approved every one of the payments under the contract. Corriveau added the payments were compensation for wresting major sponsorship deals from a competitor, Groupe Everest.
"The formula of the bills was given to me by Mr. Brault, as well as the amounts that appear on the bills.''

Read the whole thing [here].

The elephant in the room is the unspoken understanding in Canada that french Quebec politics is a cesspool of corruption and backroom dealings the likes of which the United States hasn't seen since Prohibition era Chicago. Try to fathom how this would have played out in the US if this had been Bush and Texas and millions going to "friends of the government" in Texas.

The absolute worst part is that due to the altar of multiculturalism and (even worse) multilingualism, we cannot stand up and say a word about this without being shouted down as bigots, anti-french and right wing fools. I'm not against french people, I'm against theft and treason.

More Kyoto Nonsense

2005-04-18T08:28:00.000-07:00

Fiction fuels global warming

Myth of Jurassic proportions has world mired in false State of Fear

By Licia Corbella -- Calgary Sun

Since facts and science can't seem to debunk the faulty notion of global warming being caused by humans, perhaps fiction can.

Virtually every month, new reports by the world's top climate scientists debunk the correlation between increasing CO2 emissions and the warming of the Earth.

Just this past week, as the federal Liberal government announced its plan (if you can call it that) to meet its impossible Kyoto targets, a weighty group of North America's top climatologists, paleoclimatologists, astrophysicists and oceanographers launched a video that points out the scientific flaws behind the premise that so-called greenhouse gases (GHGs) are behind global warming.

Indeed, they even question whether the earth is warming at all and point out that, even 25 years ago, scientists were predicting global cooling!

The video, put out by the University of Calgary in co-operation with The Friends of Science Society, quotes: Dr. Tim Patterson, Professor of Paleoclimatology at Carleton University; Dr. Ian Clark, Professor of Hydrogeology and Paleoclimatology at the University of Ottawa; Dr. Vincent Gray, climate scientist and official IPCC reviewer from New Zealand; Dr. Sallie Baliunus, astrophysicist and climate researcher in Boston; Dr. Tad Murty, a former senior research scientist for Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, past director of the National Tidal Facility of Australia and a current researcher at Carleton University; and Dr. Timothy Ball, Canada's first climatology PhD and a recently retired professor of Climatology at the University of Winnipeg, amongst others.

But the release Wednesday of their highly informative and science-based video received not a peep by the media sheep who continue to parrot ignorant politicians and environmentalists who are preparing to waste billions of dollars on something that is not a risk while real environmental problems get swept aside and human catastrophes, like the AIDS epidemic in Africa, remain ignored and underfunded.

Read the whole thing [here].

Only in Canada, you say? Pity. A pity that the Canadian public are so ill-informed on such a major issue by our lazy, liberal media. Kyoto also neatly fits into the generally liberal Canadian tendency to want to feel good about something and perhaps cut a cheque. Global warming is one of the least understood issues in the modern world but the media have decided which side they are on and further research is unworthy of reporting.

Al Reuters and Israel

2005-04-14T07:20:00.000-07:00

Israeli Soldiers Kill Militant, Straining Truce
World - Reuters
By Atef Sa'ad
NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian militant in a raid in a West Bank refugee camp on Thursday, straining a de facto truce already battered by renewed violence.
The killing aggravated tensions in the region following a Texas summit between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and President Bush intended to provide impetus for Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip this summer.
The circumstances of the shooting in the Balata camp, a militant stronghold near the West Bank city of Nablus, were in dispute.
The Israeli army said soldiers tried to arrest a wanted man suspected of plotting to carry out a shooting attack in Jerusalem, and shot him only after he opened fire on them.
Palestinians said Israeli undercover troops jumped from a car and started shooting without provocation, killing the militant in an ensuing gunbattle.
The dead man was identified as Ibrahim Isneiri, a member of al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' ruling Fatah faction.
"This is a provocative attack by the Israeli army in order to foil the whole attempt to reach a peaceful solution," Nablus governor Mahmoud el Aloul told Reuters.
But Israeli officials said the raid was justified because the army had reserved the right to continue going after "ticking bombs" -- militants planning imminent attacks.
It was Israel's first killing of a militant in more than a month and followed Sharon's accusations that Abbas was not doing enough to rein in militants as he had promised.
Israel and the Palestinian Authority reached a ceasefire deal in early February and militants agreed with Abbas in March to extend their suspension of attacks on Israelis.

RENEWED VIOLENCE
But the truce has frayed recently. Israeli troops killed three Palestinian youths in disputed circumstances in Gaza on Saturday and militants retaliated by raining mortar fire on Jewish settlements in the coastal strip.
The last Palestinian attack inside Israel was a suicide bombing that killed five Israelis in Tel Aviv on Feb. 25.

Where to begin? According to the Israeli Defense Forces, there were ONLY 133 terrorist acts in the month of March, 2005 compared to January's 405. And yet, according to Reuters, Israel is "straining the truce". Truce? Is this a joke? Their intelligence services line up a known terrorist; they take him out and a major worldwide news wire breathlessly reports that Israel is straining a truce.

A Day of Rest at Vimy Ridge

2005-04-14T06:39:00.000-07:00

April 13th, 1917 marked the fall of the last prominent German position at Vimy Ridge. On this day, 87 years ago, the Canadian army dug in and licked their wounds after completing perhaps the most astounding allied attack of the First World War.

The Battle

German soldiers surrender to advancing Canadian troops

It was at Vimy, in 1917, that all four Divisions of the Canadian Corps attacked simultaneously for the first (and last) time, about 100,000 men taking part in the battle. Vimy Ridge was an important part of the Germans' defences, barring the way to the mines and factories in the Douai plain which had been of great use to them in their continuation of the war. The very nature of the Ridge gave it strong, built-in defence, but these natural defences had been supplemented by strong-points, elaborate trench-systems and underground tunnels linking natural caves. All previous Allied attempts to capture the Ridge had failed, and there was a strong body of opinion among the Allied commanders that the Ridge was possibly impregnable and incapable of ever being taken by a direct attack.

Preparations for the battle were thorough and extremely detailed. Behind their lines, the Canadians built a full-scale replica of the ground over which their troops would have to attack, giving all units the chance to practice their attacking movements and so understand what they (and neighbouring units) were expected to do on the day. Regular reconnaissance patrols, assisted by information gathered from aerial photography, meant that records of changes to the German defences on the Ridge were always up-to-date. Tunnellers dug subterranean passages under the Ridge - a total of five kilometres in all on four levels - allowing the attacking troops to move close to their jumping-off positions in some safety. Once the battle had begun, these same tunnels allowed the wounded to be brought back under cover and also provided unseen and safe lines of communications.

The Infantry attack was preceded by a powerful artillery bombardment which lasted almost three weeks, involving about 1,000 guns, including huge, 15-inch howitzers. For the first two weeks, some guns were not fired at all, so that the Germans would not be able to locate their positions but eventually, these guns joined in the bombardment, too.

Although the shelling was aimed at the German trenches and defensive positions on the Ridge, the Canadians also shelled enemy batteries. They had become adept at locating German gun-positions and had identified the positions of 80 per cent of them.

April 9th., 1917 - Easter Monday - dawned cold, with freezing rain and sleet. The ground conditions were very bad, with slippery mud waiting for hamper the Canadians as they began their assault. Heavily laden, the men began to cross the shattered No-Man's Land, skirting as best they could the shell-holes and craters, until they came to the muddy, slippery slopes of the Ridge itself. They advanced behind a creeping barrage - a curtain of falling shells which crept forward just ahead of them. At key places in the advance, fresh troops took over the lead, until by the middle of the afternoon, three of the Canadian divisions had captured most of Vimy Ridge. By the next day, Hill 145 was also in Canadian hands, leaving just a few isolated outposts. By April 12th these, too had been taken and the Canadians' victory was complete.

After three years, the Germans were now driven from Vimy Ridge. There was to be no breakthrough, however, as the Canadians were unable to get their artillery out of their positions and across the muddy, shell-torn ground of the battlefield. However, they had captured more ground, more prisoners and more guns than any previous "British "offensive in the war thus far. It was the greatest Allied Victory yet.
Although the victory at Vimy came quickly, it did not come without cost. Of the 10,602 Canadian casualties, there were 3,598 dead. This is a high and tragic number, but it must be compared with the 200,000 Canadian, British, French and German dead who lie buried on the ridge from earlier, unsuccessful attacks. And the Canadians alone lost 24,000 killed or wounded on the Somme the previous year.
For Canada, the attack on Vimy Ridge marked a turning-point in the country's march towards distinct nationhood.
In the words of Brigadier-General Alexander Ross, DSO, who commanded the 28th (North West) Canadian Battalion at Vimy, "It was Canada from the Atlantic to the Pacific on parade. I thought then that in those few minutes I witnessed the birth of a nation."

The fighting over those 4 days had cost Canada 3,598 killed and 7,004 wounded. Of those wounded, my cousin's father lost a leg.

As a reminder to those who find the "quagmire" of Iraq an unbearable massacre, 1,549 American heroes have fallen over two years liberating a country of 25 million.

Ann Coulter, Marry Me!

2005-04-14T06:33:00.000-07:00

What a breath of fresh air Ann Coulter's articles are - and to see them on Yahoo no less means that otherwise media-blind liberals are faced with her cogent arguments. As any conservative person knows, when you try to have a fact-driven discussion with a liberal you are met with a wall of denial. Its akin to the schoolyard "I know you are, but what am I?" level of debate. After a series of incidents involving people throwing food at conservative public speakers, Ms. Coulter adresses the subject today. Here is a sample, don't miss the whole thing [here].

IT'S ONLY FUNNY UNTIL SOMEONE LOSES A PIE
Wed Apr 13,10:01 PM ET

By Ann Coulter
Liberals enjoy claiming that they are intellectuals, thrilled to engage in a battle of wits. This, they believe, distinguishes them from conservatives, who are religious fanatics who react with impotent rage to opposing ideas. As one liberal, Jonathan Chait, put the cliche in The New Republic: Bush is an "instinctive anti-intellectual" and his administration hostile to "fact-driven debate." In a favorable contrast, Clinton is "the former Rhodes scholar who relished academic debates." Showing his usual reverence for fact-checking, The New York Times' Paul Krugman says the Republican Party is "dominated by people who believe truth should be determined by revelation, not research."

I'm not sure how these descriptions square with the fact that liberals keep responding to conservative ideas by throwing food. (Remember the good old days when liberals' "fact-driven" ideas only meant throwing money at their problems?)
Last October, two liberals responded to my speech at the University of Arizona -- during question and answer, no less -- by charging the stage and throwing two pies at me from a few yards away. Fortunately for me, liberals not only argue like liberals, they also throw like girls. (Apologies in advance to the Harvard biology professors who walked out on Larry Summers in a demonstration of their admiration of "research," not "revelation" -- but this may account for the dearth of female pitchers in Major League Baseball.)

More Gas from Ottawa

2005-04-13T13:31:00.000-07:00

Government to buy greenhouse gas cuts
Climate-change plan relies more on incentives than industry reductions

ANDREW MILLS STAFF REPORTER
OTTAWA—The ads may feature Rick Mercer but the government wasn't kidding about the One-Tonne Challenge.
Canada's latest climate change plan is going to shift much of the load of reducing greenhouse gas emissions away from the 700 companies that produce half of those gases — and closer to you.
The federal government's updated climate change plan, due to be released today, is counting on groups like small businesses, farmers, municipalities and the provinces to pull more weight in the struggle to meet Canada's Kyoto targets, the Toronto Star has learned.
The old plan, presented in 2002, asked some heavy emitters, like oil and mining companies and steelmakers, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by unreasonable amounts that would have put them at a competitive disadvantage.
Not anymore, said Industry Minister David Emerson.
"I think you will find that, in fact, (the plan) is not a threat to competitiveness," he said in a committee meeting yesterday. "If anything it's an opportunity for industry to become more competitive." (ed)
The updated plan being called "Moving Forward on Climate Change," will outline how Canada plans to meet its Kyoto targets by 2012. The government has pledged to cut Canada's greenhouse gas emissions to be 6 per cent below emissions in 1990 by 2008-2012.
Today's plan, estimated to cost taxpayers about $10 billion, will rely heavily on groups like communities and farmers to take financial incentives in return for cutting their own greenhouse gas emissions.
Since late last year, comedian Mercer has been appearing on TV ads promoting the One-Tonne Challenge asking consumers to cut emissions by using less energy, conserving water and reducing waste.

My God, are they really going to try to roll this out? Kyoto is a mythical creature to the left but to the rest of us it is an unproven utopian goal based on increasingly shaky ground. It is also an invitation for the free west to commit mass economic suicide, desperately trying to meet goals that China and India will scoff at.

Further more, as the Liberal Party's goose continues to simmer, large business interests in Canada who did not approve but played ball to grease the wheels will be looking more and more to their own political brothers, the Conservative Party. Perhaps its time for them to come out of the wilderness

Vimy Ridge

2005-04-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

Monday, April 11. 2005

Poll says only One in Four Young Canadians Know About Vimy Ridge

A new poll comissioned by the Dominion Institute and the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute says Canadians overwhelmingly support increased public spending to commemorate the First World War and a greater emphasis on educating youth about veterans' contributions to the country.

Canadians were intensely appreciative of veterans and willing to support a variety of initiatives to honour Canada's First World War legacy.

Despite such goodwill, a significant proportion of the 1,000 randomly chosen Canadians who took part in the survey -- including the vast majority of young people -- knew few of the basic facts of Canada's experience in "The War to End All Wars."

Knowledge of pivotal events and facts is in steep decline, in fact, and there remains only a tenuous identification with our most significant single victory: the capture of Vimy Ridge, which took place 88 years ago today.

Just 33 per cent were familiar with the successful assault on dug-in German positions at Vimy on the morning of April 9, 1917. The battle was instrumental in confirming Canada's sense of nationhood, although the cost was steep -- 10,602 Canadians were killed or wounded, nearly one in three present.

Twenty-six per cent of those under the age of 35 knew about Vimy, and fewer than seven per cent of Quebecers, although the 22nd French-Canadian Battalion, the famous "Van Doos," was present.

Greg Lyle, managing director of Innovative Research Group, Inc., the Toronto firm that conducted this and two previous polls, in 2002 and 1998, said the results indicate the education system is instilling an inadequate appreciation of veterans' achievements and sacrifice.

Only Ontario, Quebec, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island require students to graduate with a course in contemporary Canadian history. Other provinces teach it as a unit of social science, emphasizing relevant themes rather than a detailed chronology of events.

"We know from other (studies) that knowledge drives interest, interest drives knowledge. They're a mutually reinforcing circle (and) the knowledge you leave school with remains relatively stable throughout life," Mr. Lyle said.

"We've stopped learning history the traditional way -- sequentially -- and it seems to be having an effect on Canadians' ability to recall key facts. People who know these facts are more likely to value these facts."

The poll, conducted between March 29 and April 3, is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20, and was released exclusively to CanWest-Global.

Liberals crashing and burning - about time

2005-04-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

If you are unfamiliar with Canadian politics, Canada has been basically a one party state for the last thirty years and the Liberals have pandered to anyone with an open palm - especially in Quebec where they have bought one election after another. Finally, they have had their hands caught in the till, but good. Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of people...

Conservatives surge ahead
Liberals in freefall after devastating Gomery testimony

SUSAN DELACOURT AND ROBERT BENZIE
OTTAWA AND TORONTO

OTTAWA - Conservative Leader Stephen Harper would become prime minister if an election were held today, according to a new Toronto Star poll.

The poll, conducted by EKOS Research Associates, shows the federal Liberals are in a dramatic freefall, even in their usual Ontario stronghold.

EKOS surveyed Canadians immediately following the release of devastating testimony last Thursday by former Montreal ad executive Jean Brault at the inquiry looking into the federal government's sponsorship scandal. Brault alleged gross misconduct in the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal party.

The pollster found that only 25 per cent of respondents nationwide would vote today for the Liberals, compared to 36.2 per cent for the Conservatives. The Liberals won a minority government with about 37 per cent of the vote in June 2004.

In Ontario, the Conservatives now lead with 40 per cent of the vote. The Liberals are at 33 per cent. Prime Minister Paul Martin escaped the indignity of losing the government last year when the party won 74 of the 106 seats in Ontario.

It's not just the sponsorship revelations dragging the federal Liberals down in Canada's biggest province, but also the so-called "fair-share" campaign that has pitted Premier Dalton McGuinty's provincial government against Martin's Liberals.

According to Frank Graves, president of EKOS, last week's scandal revelations only "lit the fuse, igniting resentment over fair-share treatment and ultimately producing a Liberal implosion in Ontario."

EKOS surveyed 1,125 Canadians, 18 years and older, between Thursday and Saturday.

Results from a survey of that size are considered accurate to within 2.9 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

The national results gave the NDP 20.5 per cent of the vote; the Bloc Québécois, running in Quebec only, 12.6 per cent and the Green party 5 per cent.

Standings in the 308-seat House of Commons today are Liberals 133, Conservatives 99, Bloc 54 and NDP 19. There are two independents and one vacancy.

The results suggest the possibility of a spring election, although the opposition parties likely do not want to defeat the government until after the British Columbia election on May 17 and the visit by the Queen to Canada in late May.

And testimony at the sponsorship inquiry, headed by Justice John Gomery, also ends in late May.

For the Liberals, 25 per cent nationally represents a significant drop — 15 percentage points lower than they received in EKOS' last poll in February and 11 percentage points lower than the popular vote they gained in last June's federal election.

Gutless Liberal Government Dealings with Iran

2005-04-02T09:44:00.000-08:00

Canada willing to help Iran, despite Kazemi row
Last Updated Fri, 01 Apr 2005 20:34:41 EST
CBC News

OTTAWA - While publicly denouncing the killing of Zahra Kazemi in July 2003, Canadian officials were also quietly allowing an Iranian government official to visit Canada, according to documents obtained by CBC Radio.

Iran had requested that one of its officials, Seyed Abu Talib Najafi, be briefed on the workings of Canada's new Advance Passenger Information database, designed to identify potential threats to civil aircraft before they board.

According to e-mails obtained under the Access to Information Act, Customs officials were concerned about the visit becoming public. One e-mail said: "We should keep this as low-key as possible."

Two e-mails within Canada Customs suggested there were concerns: "What's our position about the requesting country? ... in view of the current situation with Iran."

Just eight days previously, the Department of Foreign Affairs had recalled Canada's ambassador to Iran because it had refused Canadian inquiries about the Zahra Kazemi case. Kazemi, a Montreal-based photojournalist, was beaten to death after being arrested for photographing a Tehran prison riot. Iran maintains her death was accidental.

Foreign Affairs told Customs officials its only concern was "whether [Najafi] will be able to get his visa in time."

Full story [here].

Where to begin? Why the hell would we want to explain our air security measures to a terror sponsoring state? This is an outrage and yet people just shrug it off.

Kazemi Murder = Canadian Inaction

2005-04-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

OTTAWA (CP) - A doctor’s “gruesome” account of injuries he found on Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi only reinforces Canada’s belief that the woman was murdered in Iran, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said Thursday.

“We know that she was murdered and not the victim of an accident,” the minister said in Toronto. Canada has not given up on the case and will enlist international support against Iran, Pettigrew added. “We will be continuing to work with the international community, put the pressure on Iran so that they render justice,” he said.
Stockwell Day, the Tory foreign affairs critic, suggested the recall of Canada’s ambassador and the imposition of sanctions, but Pettigrew wasn’t enthusiastic. Canada needs an ambassador in Tehran to keep the pressure on, he said.

So basically Iran can do whatever it wants. This is further proof of Canada's diminished place in the world. Gone are our powerful allies and our increasingly squeeky voice is shrugged off because we won't carry our weight internationally.

Seals of Disapproval

2005-04-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

Call for Canadian seafood boycott
March 31, 2005
THE Humane Society International (HSI) has called on Australians to boycott Canadian seafood in protest at its seal hunting season.Thousands of sealers armed with clubs, rifles and spears headed for the ice floes off eastern Canada this week for the world's largest seal hunt.
More than 300,000 baby harp seals are expected to be killed for their fur by May 15 when the season ends.
The hunt is expected to bring Canada's poor coastal communities about $US16 million ($20.86 million) but has been condemned by animal rights activists as barbaric.

Read the story [here]

Now, for those of you who find baby seals awful cute and cuddly, let me bring you up to speed. East coast seals abound in the millions. They are a virtual plague and need about 30 pounds of fish per day to live. For centuries the East Coast fisheries were amongst the most fertile fisheries in the world and an entire region's economy depended on them. Overfishing certainly didn't help any but the seals have had a major part in this. Why get bent out of shape over a species that is nowhere near the risk of extinction? How about the narwhales? Not cute enough?
If you follow the logic of many animal rights groups goal number one is to stop the "slaughter" of (insert cute animal's name here). If we all agreed they'd just move on to goal number two which is usually vegetarianism. Enough is enough. If you can eat veal or year old fish, you can kill seals.

UN Oil for Food Scandal - Canadian Involvement

2005-03-31T07:27:00.000-08:00

And who says that Canadians are irrelevant on the world stage?

Thu, March 31, 2005
UN scandal inquiry has Frechette questions
By GREG WESTON -- Sun Ottawa Bureau
An international commission probing the worst corruption scandal ever to rock the United Nations is training its sights on a former high-ranking Canadian government official.
The Volcker commission recently cited Louise Frechette, a former deputy minister in Jean Chretien's government, for helping to cover up damning internal UN audits of the organization's scandalous Oil-for-Food program.
Now she is back in the spotlight as the commission probes her role in the overall mismanagement of the $80-billion humanitarian scheme, a fiasco threatening to topple UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Frechette has been the UN's first-ever deputy secretary-general and Annan's chief administrator since 1998, making her one of the organization's most powerful mandarins during the worst years of the Oil-for-Food fiasco.
Investigators believe a staggering $8 billion was embezzled or otherwise disappeared from the humanitarian program between 1997 and 2003.
There is no evidence to date that Frechette was in any way connected to the massive wrongdoing that befell the UN program, nor how much she even knew about the widening problem of corruption.
But her key position atop the UN secretariat, and her involvement with internal auditors, have put her in the crosshairs of the Volcker inquiry.
The UN-administered program was intended to allow Saddam Hussein to export about $40 billion of embargoed Iraqi oil in return for a similar amount of desperately needed imports of food, medical supplies and other humanitarian aid for his country.
According to an interim report of the Volcker inquiry, released in February, UN auditors began smelling something amiss early in the program -- and ultimately produced a total of 55 audits of it.
But for almost four years, as the humanitarian scheme became riddled with kickbacks and mismanagement, the auditors were stifled by the program's now-disgraced director, Benon Sevan.
Finally in frustration, the chief spending watchdog announced in late 2000 that future audits would be sent over Sevan's head, directly to the UN Security Council.
This time, it was Frechette who intervened. The Volcker inquiry reports that Frechette personally telephoned the head of audits, "denying this proposal."
"(The auditor) then abandoned the effort to report directly to the Security Council on (oil-for-food) related matters."
The UN audits remained under wraps for another four years until the Volcker inquiry began making them public only weeks ago. (Frechette said recently she believed the audits "were a management tool to be used only by internal managers.")
Frechette was Canada's deputy minister of defence in 1997 when Jean Chretien's government shut down the Somalia inquiry. She is also no stranger to the man heading the Volcker team of 75 investigators and forensic accountants.
Reid Morden is the former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
He was also Frechette's boss in 1993, when she was a diplomat and he was deputy minister of Foreign Affairs.
In a wide-ranging interview with me yesterday, Morden said the inquiry has so far tried to follow the money from the sale of Iraqi oil and purchase of humanitarian aid.
"What we will do now is try to give an overall picture of the management, mismanagement and possible corruption within the program overall," Morden said.
"And in that, we will be following up with Louise Frechette on whatever her role might have been or was not. "What we'll try to focus on is ... was the management structure appropriate and sufficient for a program of that size and complexity? And I think it is more on that side that we will be taking a look at her role."
Stay tuned.

The Littlest Liliputian

2005-03-30T10:44:00.000-08:00

McKenna attacks view that Canadians are anti-American on call-in show
Wed Mar 30,10:38 AM ET
BETH GORHAM
WASHINGTON (CP) - There are a few "loose cannons" in Canada who have disparaged the United States but that doesn't mean the country is anti-American, Ambassador Frank McKenna told a call-in television show Wednesday.
Appearing for a half-hour on C-SPAN, a political cable TV show, McKenna also attacked the "urban legend" that any terrorists involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks crossed into the U.S. from Canada and persistent views that the border is a major security problem.
"The northern border, and it's the only one I can speak about, is not terrorist friendly at all," McKenna said. "We've spent some $10 billion Cdn ourselves as a country to make sure the border is safe."
One caller from Arkansas listed a litany of grievances against Canada, from its refusal to participate in the Iraq war and the U.S. missile defence program to a former prime ministerial aide who called Bush a "moron" and an MP who called Americans "bastards."
"I don't really think Canada is too much without America," said the caller. "Without our trade and without our defence, you guys would be in a bad spot. It just disgusts me and makes me sick when I hear these things."
McKenna noted Americans have also said "some pretty nasty things about Canada," adding that it doesn't reflect badly on relations.
"We have offered support to each other in so many ways that transcend the narrow and parochial comments from a few individuals from time to time."
"We're family and we're friends and we're colleagues and we're allies," he said. "This is an enduring relationship."
McKenna took pains to emphasize trade issues, outlining the devastation caused by the mad cow crisis and noting that Canada is "not going to sit back and abandon its farmers."

Read the full story [here]

What I find funny (in an ironic, painful way) is that here's our new ambassador (all 5'4" of him - and I've stood beside him in an elevator) attacking and barking and waving his finger about all the things Canada does. And yes, it is true that we skipped the Iraq war, and the missile defense shield, and members of the Canadian government have said mean things about the US administration so when are you going to fix the trade irritants like mad cow restrictions and softwood lumber? Well, considering Canada's lack of cooperation, how about never? If you don't want to play ball, just go home, because the ball is not yours.

Calling a Spade a Spade

2005-03-29T06:29:00.000-08:00

His legacy's painted in yellow
By Peter Worthington -- For the Toronto Sun

Although some are disappointed, no one should be surprised that U.S. army deserter Jeremy Hinzman's bid to be a "refugee" has been rejected.
Hinzman himself says he expected this decision from the Immigration and Refugee Board, and will launch his appeal today. It will likely enable him to remain in Canada for years like other illegals.
Looking at it objectively, it's hard to imagine a case weaker than Hinzman. His three main themes for deserting are: 1. Iraq is an "illegal" war (what's a "legal" war, one wonders?); 2. He was afraid he'd have to commit atrocities in Iraq; 3. He decided he was a conscientious objector, even though he volunteered to become a paratrooper in America's most gung-ho unit, the 82nd Airborne.
'Fear of combat'
While good manners dictate that no one wants to come out and say it, it's hard to escape the stark conclusion that Jeremy Hinzman is a coward.

Read the whole thing [here]

Islamist Schooling in Canada and US

2005-03-29T06:02:00.000-08:00

What Are Islamic Schools Teaching?
By Daniel Pipes
CNSNews.com
March 29, 2005

"Shocked" is how Aisha Sherazi, principal of the Abraar Islamic school in Ottawa, described the reaction of the school's administration and board on learning last week that two of its teachers had incited hatred of Jews.And "shocked" was how Mumtaz Akhtar, president of the Muslim-Community Council of Ottawa-Gatineau, described his own reaction to the front-page news about the Abraar school.But they may have been the only two persons on the planet to be "shocked" to learn that teachers at an Islamic school are promoting anti-Semitism or other aspects of the Islamist agenda. The fact is, inquiries into Islamic schools repeatedly discover just such a radical Islamic outlook.

The most prominent American Muslim organizations, especially the Council on American-Islamic Relations, spew anti-Semitism and host a neo-Nazi. The same applies in Canada, where the head of the Canadian Islamic Congress, Mohamed Elmasry, publicly endorsed the murder of all Israelis over the age of eighteen.

Read the whole story [here].

I Love this Guy

2005-03-28T12:44:00.000-08:00

Yes, the author of this piece is Pat Sajak of Wheel of Fortune fame. I think its great that he is openly conservative and makes no apologies about it. The whole article is [here].

Why I've Stopped Arguing with Liberals

by Pat Sajak
Posted Mar 28, 2005

Every time I argue with a Liberal, I’m reminded of quarrels I used to have with my parents. The battles never seemed fair because my folks decided what the rules were and what was out of bounds. In addition, because they were parents, they could threaten me in ways I couldn’t threaten them, and they could say things I could never say.

Recently, for example, I was discussing the United Sates Supreme Court with one of my many Liberal friends out in Los Angeles when she said, without any discernable embarrassment, that Justice Anton Scalia was “worse than Hitler.” Realizing she wasn’t alive during World War II and perhaps she may have been absent on those days when her schoolmates were studying Nazism, I reminded her of some of Hitler’s more egregious crimes against humanity, suggesting she may have overstated the case. She had not; Scalia was worse. As I often did when my parents threatened to send me to my room, I let the conversation die.

Kyoto and the Easter Bunny

2005-03-26T16:40:00.000-08:00

Ottawa set to wield Kyoto blunt object

Peter Foster
National Post
Saturday, March 26, 2005

Full story [here]

On Thursday, with everybody thinking about the Easter Bunny, the Liberals sought to slip through a monumentally significant amendment to the Environmental Protection Act that would effectively identify carbon dioxide as a "pollutant." This would give the government the club it needs to batter big industrial energy users into compliance under Kyoto. The problem -- or rather one of myriad problems -- is that these entities, known collectively as Large Final Emitters, or LFEs, have little or no idea with what they are meant to comply. A blunt instrument is not a plan.

The amendment was strapped onto the bill implementing the 2005 budget. Opposition leader Stephen Harper noted that it would give the government "unlimited power to implement Kyoto without ever bringing a plan forward." Nevertheless, the Liberals may be counting on the fact that the Conservatives -- having not opposed the original budget -- will not now vote against this budget-plus-poison-pill. But this is not merely a procedural issue we are talking about; it's the future of the Canadian economy.

There can be no doubt that Ottawa needs a "mechanism" to enforce the draconian commitments it has made under Kyoto, but this appears to be an extraordinarily slippery way to get one. And it also leaves the question of how, on whom, and in what proportions this mechanism will be used. If ever a policy needed a full public airing, this is it.

However, the Liberals, it seems, are tired of the kind of piecemeal dickering that led to an agreement this week with the big Canadian automakers over greenhouse gas emissions. So far, the details of that agreement haven't been released, apart from the manufacturers' agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.3 megatonnes by 2010. That seems like an awfully large number until you remember that the total amount by which Canada has to reduce emissions to reach its Kyoto target may now be -- due to unforeseen economic growth, which is positively sinful under Kyoto -- up to 300 megatonnes.

And what if the automakers don't make their targets? The idea of "penalizing" them is ridiculous. How could they be punished except by undermining their financial viability, with an inevitably adverse effect on investment and jobs? And that's where we come to the black hole at the centre of Kyoto thinking.

Despite all the bafflegab about the great advantages to be had from being "an environmental leader," Kyoto's success is inevitably synonymous with Canada's economic failure. Thus apart from bogus industry agreements, the Liberals seek to save face and divert attention by addressing one of the wonkier components of an already wonky Kyoto policy: Third World development.

Rumour has it that the Liberals' top priority is to start funnelling money to the Third World under the so-called Clean Development Mechanism, under which Canada can atone for its own growth sins by funding windmills in Burundi. In case this makes no sense, when trying to get a grasp on Kyoto, the place to start is the United Nations.

Implementing the next phase of the Kyoto global regulatory regime is one of the three key elements of current alleged UN "reform." The other two are sinking the farce of the UN Human Rights Tribunal, and acquiring an independent military "peacekeeping" force (The guys who brought you oil-for-palaces in Iraq want their own army).

Kyoto is crucial to the future of the UN because, as the other two reform priorities indicate, it has been an abysmal failure in virtually everything it has ever attempted. Faced with such failure, and with perpetual and pervasive corruption, its only avenue has ever been to move on to bigger and more fantastic schemes. Kyoto is the most fantastic of all, and not merely because it seeks to save the world by regulating the climate, but because it hopes to give a boost to Third World development in the process. Never just fail to do one thing when you can fail to do two. More than any other policy maker on Earth, this double disaster-in-the-making is the dream child of key Paul Martin confidant Maurice Strong.

The only reason why Kyoto has never aroused a public uproar in Canada is that the general public doesn't have the slightest clue about what its "achievement" would entail in terms of lost jobs and the extension of whimsical state power. Again, lost jobs, lower growth and more unaccountable power are not unfortunate side effects of Kyoto, they are its key objectives. Remember that old modern liberal motto: Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. But if you can only do one, do the latter.

If the public just grasped the perversity of Kyoto, then Stephen Harper would have a clear case for bringing down the government. But there's no guarantee that the public does.

This Just In: Baghdad Not Pretty

2005-03-25T18:20:00.000-08:00

Once-Beautiful Baghdad Becomes Eyesore

Wed Mar 23, 4:23 PM ET

By RAWYA RAGEH, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Baghdad, whose name means the "Garden of God," has fallen from grace. Known for centuries as one of the most beautiful cities in the world, its landscape has been marred by concrete blast walls, barbed wire, steel barricades, sandbags and crumbling buildings pockmarked by bullet holes or gutted by explosions.

Saddam himself didn't help with beautification — most of the apartment complexes, government buildings and palaces built under his orders would not have won any architecture prizes. And then there were the dozen of statues and oversized portraits of the Iraqi leader that decorated those buildings.

After the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, the city of 5 million became one large military barricade: Humvees and tanks roaming the streets, helicopters rattling above, checkpoints and soldiers everywhere.

A two-year insurgency attacking homes and government buildings compounded the scars on the city's face, undermining its ailing infrastructure and tattering the remaining grace.

Beautiful date palm groves that lined the 10-mile-long airport road — a visitor's first impression of Baghdad — had to be removed to prevent gunmen from hiding in what has become one of the city's most dangerous battlefields.

The rampant lawlessness has also encouraged people to take over buildings previously occupied by government offices and construct squatter settlements.

Even democracy has taken its toll on Baghdad. Posters and banners of candidates running in the landmark Jan. 30 elections — a collage of mismatching colors — are still plastered everywhere, tainting traffic circles and walls two months after the vote. Huge black banners of religious invocations and photos of Shiite saints — a breakthrough for the country's majority Shiites oppressed under Saddam — are randomly scattered around the city.

Mayor Alaa al-Tamimi has made it his mission to bring back the city's former glory.

After taking office last year, al-Tamimi "relentlessly nagged" coalition officials to remove the security barriers and open blocked roads, said his spokesman, Amir al-Hassoun.

The security situation has also denied residents access to many parts of their city, including the heavily fortified Green Zone that houses U.S. and Iraqi government offices. A virtual fortress, the four-square-mile area is encircled and crisscrossed by 12-foot-high barricades. Its gates are guarded by U.S. Bradley fighting vehicles aimed at passing traffic.

The U.S. military said it realizes the city has suffered but that the measures were necessary.

"Any soldier of Task Force Baghdad would concede the point that concrete blocks, blast walls and barbed wire are ugly security tools that detract from the beauty of any city," said Army Lt. Col. Cliff Kent. "However ... (they) have been important tools in providing secure environments."

Coalition troops have taken steps toward rectifying the damage. Last year, before the handover of sovereignty to the interim Iraqi government, the Coalition Provisional Authority allocated $10 million for beautification projects. The plan included creating parks, erecting sculptures, landscaping and repairing sidewalks.

Scores of Iraqis in orange jumpsuits already have been redesigning the eastern bank of the Tigris along Abu Nawas street, and hammering and the screech of saws can be heard throughout the city — signs residents are beginning to rebuild.

The underlying current of this so-called news story is that things are bad - bad! Baghdad isn't a garden these days. If you read between the lines the news is all good and anyone saying that security barriers - that have proved very effective - should be removed to beautify the city is off their rocker.

Social Engineering from the Left

2005-03-25T17:36:00.000-08:00

Is it time to extend the vote?
Social planning study suggests dropping the voting age to 16
Report also backs giving non-citizens a ballot at the city level

BRUCE DEMARA
CITY HALL BUREAU

The voting age in Toronto municipal elections should be lowered to 16 and non-citizens living in the city should also be allowed to vote, says a study focused on giving residents — especially marginalized groups such as young people and new Canadians — a greater role in city life.

The Inclusive Cities report, released yesterday in concert with others in Vancouver, Edmonton, Burlington and Saint John, N.B., was produced by the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, a non-profit community organization.

"The time, we believe, is right for taking bold steps that will serve to renew city government and make it more reflective of the diversity and the diverse communities that make up our city, and help engage a whole new generation in building our city," said Melles, manager of the community action unit at the Family Service Association of Toronto and president of the African Canadian Social Development Council.

He said there's strong community support for lowering the voting age to 16 to give youth a more active role in civic life.

Councillor Pam McConnell, the other co-chair, said the report's release is particularly timely in light of this week's report from Statistics Canada predicting that visible minorities will make up half of the GTA's population by 2017, when Canada will mark its 150th birthday.

Extending voting rights to new Canadians at the municipal level makes sense in light of those statistics, she said.

"One of the things that we learned from Statistics Canada ... is that the numbers of people (who) are going to be non-citizens are going to move higher and higher," said McConnell (Ward 28, Toronto Centre-Rosedale).

"We can't have a situation where we have more people out of civic engagement than we have in. If we want to empower our communities to make a difference and to have real meaning, then they have to have meaning around the most important decision ... which is who will represent them," McConnell said.

"There are a lot of people disenfranchised in our city, who are not able to vote. They pay taxes, but they don't vote. I think that that's wrong," she added.

McConnell conceded that with only five of its 45 members belonging to visible minorities, city council does not represent the "full diversity" of Toronto.

John Campey, executive director of the Community Social Planning Council, said some European cities offer voting rights to non-citizens. Toronto, in fact, once allowed any Commonwealth citizen to vote municipally.

The report comes out of a group initiative organized among social planning councils in the five cities, in association with the Federation of Canadian Municipalities. Representatives of all five plan to meet in Ottawa in June to discuss a cross-Canada report that highlights similarities and differences between cities and make recommendations to the federal government.

There's only one reason why anyone ever suggests dropping the voter age and that is to harvest the emotional (read leftist) political sympathies of the young. It's only municipal elections one might say but that is just the first step. How long until these so-called social architects would be clamouring to have the same voting rules applied provincially or federally? And having non-citizens vote to be "inclusive"? Hell, why not just let anyone vote.

Rumblings Across the East

2005-03-25T12:13:00.000-08:00

Kyrgyz Opposition Names President, Akayev Defiant

Fri Mar 25,11:46 AM ET

World - Reuters

By Michael Steen

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's opposition, a day after snatching power in a lightning coup, Friday named a new acting president while the ousted leader broke public silence to denounce them as "adventurers and conspirators."

This is the result of yet another country try to throw off its shackles in the wake of rigged elections. While the news services describe this as a violent revolution, the deaths of 2 people shouldn't take the shine of of an otherwise glorious chance for the spread of democracy.

Jew Hatred Taught in Private Muslim School in Ottawa

2005-03-25T12:09:00.000-08:00

If anyone wants to know what the so-called root cause of terrorism is, this sums it up. Teaching small children to hate.

Read the whole story [here].

Rashid Nasim arrives at Abraar Islamic elementary school to pick up his young daughter, and he's upset, he wants answers.

"I want to speak to the principal, I want to speak to teachers. This is not what I want from this school. We didn't have our daughter go here for this. I want to know how this could happen."

Rashid Nasim wants to know why a Muslim pupil at the private school was allowed to get away with a project in which he wrote a stridently anti-Semitic story about Palestinians revengefully killing Jews in the Middle East. He wants to know why two teachers were approving of the completed work. He wants to know why it was put on display in the school as if to be proud of.

Harkat Gets the Boot

2005-03-23T09:06:00.000-08:00

Wed, March 23, 2005
Judge OKs Harkat's removal
Terror suspect lied about ties to extremists
By JOHN STEINBACHS, Ottawa Sun

MOHAMED HARKAT lied about his past under oath and the feds have reasonable grounds to deport him, a federal court judge ruled yesterday. Justice Eleanor Dawson's decision comes as another blow to Harkat who has been fighting allegations of having links to terrorism for two years. Dawson also ruled the legislation being used against him is constitutional...

BIN LADEN FOLLOWER
Harkat was arrested in December 2002 on a special security certificate issued by the government. Since arriving in Canada in the mid-1990s he has been under a cloud of suspicion that he is a member of Osama bin Laden's terror network and worked to help terrorists here in Canada and abroad.
Last year, Harkat and his lawyers tried to fight the security certificate that leaves him facing deportation arguing that it had no foundation.
But in the ruling, Dawson poked holes in the testimony of Harkat basing a portion of her decision on confidential information not released to Harkat or his lawyers.
While that information may have been secret, it was apparently very damaging.
"On the basis of the confidential information it is clear and beyond doubt that Mr. Harkat lied under oath to the court in several important respects," wrote Dawson. "Including his denials that he knowingly supported or assisted Islamic extremists, assisted Islamic extremists who have come to Canada, was associated with Abu Zubaydah, was in Afghanistan and lived in Peshawar."
Dawson wrote that the confidential information the government presented was "credible and reliable information coming from a number of independent sources, many of whom are corroborated."
Dawson also wrote that she has issues with some of Harkat's public testimony he made to the court last summer.
Dawson was particularly concerned with how Harkat was able to obtain a job in Pakistan and save $18,000 while working there. She also raised issue with how he came to be in a car on Hwy. 401 with Ahmed Said Khadr, a known associate of Osama bin Laden.

FALSE PASSPORT

Harkat's lawyers did win one point when the judge gave no weight to evidence obtained from Abu Zubaydah, an accused terrorist held abroad, who allegedly identified Harkat by his photograph. The judge ruled that too many questions about the man's treatment and the photograph he identified made the testimony worthless.

All to the good - except the last part. Abu Zubayday identified Harkat as a terrorist by his photo, yet our justice system decided that there were "too many questions about the man's treatment" thus rendering his photo ID worthless. This is a backhanded slap to the US for the claims they have coerced evidence. Just as surely as US law does not apply outside of US borders, neither does Canadian law and dismissing key evidence because, without a shred of fact to substantiate the claim, it "may" have been obtained coercively.

Blue State/Province Polling

2005-03-22T16:30:00.000-08:00

Martin gets thumbs-up on missiles
THE STAR
Mar. 22, 2005. 06:31 PM

OTTAWA — Canadians are giving Prime Minister Paul Martin an overwhelming thumbs up for his refusal to join the U.S. missile defence project, a new poll suggests. About 57 per cent of Canadians supported Martin's decision and only 26 per cent were opposed, according to a Decima Inc. poll. [Full Story]

What you see here is a phenomenon well known from the recent US election cycle. Polls suggesting things they really don't prove, usually conducted in large, far more liberal cities. Just as the average Nebraskan wouldn't get a phone call if he lived out of the city, neither do vast swaths of Canadians outside the what I call Central Canadian "Media Belt".

Three Amigos?

2005-03-22T11:50:00.000-08:00

Martin sets modest goals on trade, security for Three Amigos summit
Jim Brown Canadian Press
Tuesday, March 22, 2005

OTTAWA (CP) - Paul Martin, who came to power with big ideas on foreign policy, appears to be lowering his sights as he prepares for a summit with the presidents of the Untied States and Mexico.
The meeting Wednesday in Texas among the prime minister, George W. Bush and Vicente Fox will be heavy on trade policy, border security and a host of so-called quality of life issues like environmental protection. But Canadian officials say there won't be any "big bang" announcements on any of those fronts.
Nor do they expect any talk of missile defence - the issue that did more than anything else to sour Martin's relationship with the Bush administration in Washington.

This is the pre-summit Liberal spin intended to blunt any expectations of resolving some of our longstanding trade problems with the US. Its the PM's first face-to-face with Bush - a golden opportunity to cash in on The One Big Issue for Bush - security. Anything that enhances US security moves to the top of Bush's list. If Canada were to tie the missile defense system and perhaps some more robust behaviour at the UN to trade issues, I for one am sure Bush would do his best to help out. Its not often a US president is so focused on a single issue and it is a historic mistake (what else is new) to pass it up to appease the noisy Quebec caucus and urban elites.

What's the Big Deal, Right?

2005-03-21T18:24:00.000-08:00

Mon, March 21, 2005

Beauty vs. bigotry
Miss Canada Pakistan crowned
By CP

TORONTO -- Amid high security, the Miss Canada Pakistan pageant went off without a hitch in Toronto with a packed audience and a dozen nervous contestants -- defying detractors who claimed it dishonoured Islam. Thirteen women braved earlier religious protest as they took to the stage as contestants of the controversial beauty pageant Saturday night.

I'm glad to hear this went off without any incident but its a sad state of affairs that security had to be high in the first place. To be clear the women wore traditional Pakistani clothing - no bathing suits.

Another Toronto Star Whitewash of History

2005-03-21T07:33:00.000-08:00

Today's Toronto Star has an article that attempts to explain the Islamic terrorism in Spain as a result of "Andalusia" having been stolen from the Moors by the evil Christians.

Andalusia's connectionOne year after the Madrid bombings, calls for made-in-Spain imams grow stronger in a region that still reflects on its past Muslim glories

SANDRO CONTENTA
EUROPEAN BUREAU
At the Jamal Islamiya mosque in this seaside town, a Muslim lament of historic proportions is proclaimed in large letters on a framed poster: "In 1492, we lost everything."
For the mosque's leader, and much of the Muslim world, the year marks the traumatic conclusion of Islam's golden age, a time remembered like a collective wound.
It's a period when the last piece of Muslim-held territory in Spain fell to Catholic monarchs, ending almost 800 years of Moorish rule on the Iberian peninsula.
Centuries when poetry, science and architecture flourished under Islamic caliphs expired with bonfires of Arabic manuscripts, mass expulsion and extermination in the Inquisition.
To the east, the Muslim empire of the Ottomans would reign for another four centuries. But many would trace its long decline to the fall of Al Andalus, the Moorish name for Andalusia.
The result is a yearning that today makes Spain, more than any other European country, a battleground in the name of Islam.
"They stole 500 years of history from us," says Omar Checa Garcia, who heads the Jamal Islamiya mosque and cultural centre. "We want it back, but we don't want revenge."
Others are not so accommodating. Osama bin Laden uses what he calls the "tragedy of Al Andalus" as a rallying cry for his deadly brand of Islamic jihad against "the crusaders and Jews."

A quick history lesson for the Toronto Star - Spain was conquered by an invading Muslim army. In 711 a Berber Muslim army, under their leader Tariq ibn-Ziyad, crossed the Strait of Gibraltar from northern Africa into the Iberian peninsula. Roderick, last of the Visigothic kings of Spain, was defeated at the Battle of Río Barbate.

In short, Spain was recaptured by Christian armies that stemmed the tide of Islamic invasion and conquest. The great Charlemagne defeated the Moors in 732 and thus held the Muslim expansion in check.

It is disgraceful to frame the murderous actions of cowardly terrorists in Spain in some sort of soft light of historical injustice.

Oh no, He's Smoking!

2005-03-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

Hidden Message equals Good News

2005-03-20T19:35:00.000-08:00

Middle East - AP
AP
Iraq, Jordan Pull Envoys in Security Spat

Middle East - AP

By RAWYA RAGEH, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraq (news - web sites) and Jordan engaged in a tit-for-tat withdrawal of ambassadors Sunday in a growing dispute over Shiite Muslim claims that Jordan is failing to block terrorists from entering Iraq, while U.S. forces killed 24 insurgents in a clash south of Baghdad.

An American convoy was traveling through the Salman Pak area, 20 miles southeast of Baghdad, when it was attacked, U.S. officials said. The military returned fire and killed 24 militants. Seven militants and six soldiers were also wounded.

Without an American causalty, 24 terrorists met their end. sounds like a pretty good story doesn't it? As a longtime student of military history a 3-2 casualty ratio will insure the lose of a war. A 24 to zero or as in Fallujah, 50 to 1 ratio is an absolute assurance of victory. How come we never hear about this other than in a backhand way in a story that is not focused on the actual fight against terrorism?

The Problem with Peacekeeping

2005-03-20T17:40:00.000-08:00

Peacekeepers Among Dead in Haiti Clashes

World - AP Latin America

By STEVENSON JACOBS, Associated Press Writer

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - U.N. troops and ex-soldiers from Haiti's disbanded army fought two gunbattles on Sunday, leaving two peacekeepers and at least two former soldiers dead in the deadliest day for the 10-month-old U.N. mission, officials said.

The Sri Lankan and Nepalese soldiers who died were the first peacekeepers killed in clashes since the U.N. force arrived in June 2004 to try and stabilize the impoverished, volatile nation, officials said.

The U.N. troops entered Petit-Goave before dawn. Using a loudspeaker, the Brazilian commander of U.N. troops in Haiti, Lt. Gen. Augusto Heleno Ribeiro, tried for 20 minutes to get the former soldiers to surrender peacefully when they opened fire on U.N. troops, Kongo-Doudou said.

"We wanted to resolve this peacefully, but our troops received a hostile response from the insurgents and so they responded with force," he said.

The clashes were the first major confrontation between the 7,400-strong U.N. force and former members of Haiti's disbanded army, who helped oust former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a 1991 coup and again in an armed rebellion a year ago.

Haiti, the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation, has been in turmoil for years. A U.S.-led peacekeeping force was deployed after Aristide was forced into exile in February 2004, and this force was replaced by the U.N. peacekeepers in June. But armed rebels and former soldiers still control much of Haiti's countryside and the peacekeepers have been criticized for failing to curb violence.

U.N. forces detained 35 ex-soldiers following Sunday's gunbattle at the police station, Kongo-Doudou said.

The soldiers, many well into their 50s with fading uniforms and aging rifles, have bucked calls by the interim government and the U.N. force to disarm.

Aristide disbanded the army in 1995, four years after he was ousted. The 1991-1994 coup regime is blamed for the murders, maimings and torture of thousands of Aristide supporters, and today's former soldiers include convicted murderers.

The government plans to pay $29 million to about 6,000 former soldiers. There are no official estimates on how many took up arms last year, but estimates range from several hundred to 2,000.

Okay, lets take a look at what the UN in all its wisdom hath wrot. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and 7,500 peacekeepers can't control this little island, leaving large parts under the control of ex-army gunmen - poorly equiped and not under any real organization.

It would take a week for any serious armed force to disarm the whole island and lock up the gunmen but in typical UN fashion, in over six months they've done basically nothing. The money the ex-army soldiers want has not been paid - a paltry $29 million. Week two they could have paid them out in return for all weapons and equipment and the ex-soldiers would have happily taken the cash in return for weapons they probably can't afford to maintain. In fact, a very simple $ for guns arrangement could take weapons out of the hands of thousands of untrustworthy sorts and today there would be no dead peacekeepers.

Toronto Star Airbrushes Assad

2005-03-19T19:38:00.000-08:00

Syria's Assad a work in progress
President `not a bad guy ... just not a born leader'

Some wonder if political neophyte wields real power
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

DAMASCUS—All the young Bashar Assad wanted to do was give the intransigent old men who run Syria a glimpse of the future.So the modern-minded president-in-waiting called them together, these Soviet-trained relics of a bygone era, and sat them down shoulder to shoulder for a fateful first encounter with the online universe.

Assad, 39, now five years into his fledgling presidency, continues to press the virtues of modernity and, by extension, a more open society for Syria. But those beguiled by his promise of a Damascus Spring learned early on that Syria's state security agents and the political cabals they represent have their own red lines, far less generous than those of the president.

Read the rest here - if you are so inclined.

Pardon me, but is this not a complete whitewash of reality? Assad is some kind of modern, forward-looking leader? The man leads a terrorist state; occupies a foreign country and I'd bet my bottom dollar is sitting on Sadaam's missing WMDs in the Bekaw valley. And yet the Toronto Star wants to cut him some slack.

Tremble before the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF)

2005-03-19T16:40:00.000-08:00

Who are these people? They are some of the dingbat terrorists in the Philippines and allies of the Abu Sayyaf terrorists. The Abu Sayyaf group recently had a very nasty prison riot during which the Philippino police repressed the riot in a very nasty way resulting in the deaths of such famous wingnuts as "Commander Robot".

If you would like to know more about MILF, try typing it into google and pressing enter. I dare you. I also delight in the idea of somebody, someday telling these "hard asses" exactly what 90% of the world thinks MILF stands for.

Unending Liberal Rule

2005-03-19T16:29:00.000-08:00

The Canadian Conservative party are holding their convention this weekend. They are not exactly all that conservative but compared to the Liberals they would be a big change. So we can only hope that they'll get their act together and put an end to the imperial Liberal rule - and then they do things like this:

Conservatives shed some of the vestiges of Reform past in move to centre Canadian Press

There were still some minor divisions between members of the founding parties. An attempt to establish a youth wing of the Conservative party was thwarted. Former Progressive Conservatives such as Belinda Stronach, Peter McKay, John Baird and Tony Clement vigorously defended the need to have active campus associations to foster enthusiasm and develop potential future leaders. Experience around the world shows the correlation between active youth wings and electoral success, said Clement, a former leadership candidate.

"Every successful Conservative party has a youth and campus presence." Younger members of the Conservative caucus told delegates they don't need a youth wing to develop the party.

"They don't want to be segregated off into a sandbox and that was reflected in the vote here today," said Saskatchewan MP Jeremy Harrison, 27.

Liberal and NDP observers to the convention said they were dumbfounded by the decision. They claimed youth delegates infuse energy and new ideas to party debates.

To have no organized campus presence concedes the field to the bevy of liberal and socialist groups on every campus. It also deprives the party of foot soldiers during elections. Not smart at all.

Moonbats by the Thousands - er, Hundreds

2005-03-19T16:14:00.000-08:00

Protests mark second anniversary of U.S. invasion of Iraq

Eilis Quinn
Canadian Press

Saturday, March 19, 2005

MONTREAL (CP) -- Small but noisy protests were held across Canada on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In Montreal, antiwar demonstrator Denis Morton, 48, hoisted a 1.5-metre skeleton on his back as he prepared for the march through downtown. "It represents the death and destruction that the war on terror is bringing us," Morton said of the scythe-wielding puppet. "If I stay home and don't do anything it's like saying I accept (the occupation)."

Organizers said over 3,000 people turned out for the march to the U.S. consulate.

The colourful crowd banged drums, chanted slogans and pumped upside-down American flags in the air as they called for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Marilyn Rheault, 24, travelled from Trois-Rivieres, about 140 kilometres northeast of Montreal, to attend. She said the Jan. 30 elections in Iraq didn't mean life had improved for the average civilian under U.S. occupation. "There's a lot of misinformation -- that (the Iraqis) have chosen their government so things aren't as bad," Rheault said.

"But it's the contrary, it's not really them that have chosen . . . . We have to send that message to the government -- both Canadian and American."

Although the demonstration drew just a fraction of the tens of thousands who clogged downtown Montreal to protest the war in 2003, organizers called the march a success. Raymond Legault, a spokesman for the antiwar group Echec a la guerre, said thousands of Iraqi civilians died in the war and continue to suffer.

"There's no significant improvement in people's lives," he said. "The people are more and more insecure and more divided then ever. For these reasons we think the occupation should stop immediately. That the troops there should leave."

In Toronto, about 500 protesters snaked through the downtown core, shutting down traffic as some shoppers looked on curiously. "I've been protesting for some time now and it does seem to make a little difference," said Beth Learn, whose ex-husband dodged the U.S. draft for the Vietnam War in 1969. "I think Canada ought to open their arms to (draft dodgers). They've nowhere else to go."

Security was especially tight as the crowd marched past the U.S. Consulate. At one point, minor shoving broke out between several protesters and police, but no arrests were made, police said. A similar number of protesters gathered in Vancouver opposite one of the city's armouries in preparation for a march through downtown. The marchers included the well-known Raging Grannies, a singing protest group known for their gingham dresses and colourful hats.

In Ottawa, about 100 protesters, mostly young students, waved signs and took over a major intersection a block from Parliament Hill to protest the war. War is Terrorism with a Bigger Budget, said one sign. Dead Iraqis Don't Vote, said another. Cheryl Clark, 19, said she came to support the Iraqis. "We have to show our solidarity with the Iraqi people who are being killed by the occupation," Clark said. Mark Donald, 18, agreed. "We have to show George Bush that the world opposes what he's doing in Iraq."

Ahem... Bwa-ha-ha! Hundreds of anti-war demonstrators in Toronto, Canada's most populous city? You'd get more people walking in the park than that. My favourite part is the woman who says Canada should welcome US draft dodgers. The US hasn't had a draft in over 20 years...

Canada's Victoria Cross Recipients - all English but one

2005-03-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

As a longtime student of military history, this is the first time I've ever come across this fact. It has been long known that french Canada has opposed external military actions and were bitterly against any involvement in WW2 and conscription. If you follow this link, you will see the names and action reports of all of Canada's 94 Victoria Cross recipients - only one is a french Canadian. Considering that french Canadians make up 20% of the population, you'd expect 20% of the VC recipients to be french, would you not? .001 doesn't look too good does it?

More than anything, Canada's listless, and frankly gutless non-involvement in the War on Terror is explained by our slavish adherence to french Canadian politics.

Here is the listing of Canada's Victoria Cross recipients.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

2005-03-18T18:38:00.000-08:00

A study in contrast:

First we see the Canadian War Memorial in downtown Ottawa. It shows a group of hardened World War One soldiers helping a gun team advance while shouldering their own weapons and gear. An inspirational monument at the foot of which is the grave of an unknown soldier who'se remains were brought home from Europe.

Now we see the recent monument a few blocks away to Canadian Peacekeeping. Is anyone even carrying a gun on this thing? This sums up the difference between a country that more than held its own in times past and is now a mere shadow of its former self, bowing at the altar of the cult of moral relativism.

I never walk by the real War Memorial without stopping to think of the brave men who stood so tall and I never walk past the Peacekeeping monument without grinding my teeth.

Lets not Mince Words

2005-03-18T17:09:00.000-08:00

Fri, March 18, 2005

We're wimps

By PETER WORTHINGTON

WHAT A WIMPY country Canada has become -- and that's putting it gently.

When Palestinian terrorists murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Israel sent Mossad to track down and eliminate the assassins.

It wasn't "law," but it sure was "justice." Rough justice.

When Libya sponsored terrorism and gave sanctuary to terrorists, U.S. President Ronald Reagan in 1986 unleashed F-111 fighter jets to attack Col. Khadaffy -- which persuaded the tyrant to cool such behaviour.

After 9/11, President George W. Bush took action against terrorism (while Canada urged restraint).

After the bomb on Air India flight 182 killed some 320 Canadians in 1985, Canada waited 20 years -- then found the accused "Not Guilty."

This is not to say that Canada should have emulated Mossad and gone after the perpetrators, but a 20-year hiatus resulting in a "not-guilty" verdict is an obscenity of another sort.

Platitudes about "law" being more important than "justice" don't wash in this case.

Twenty years later and a trial of almost two years and a not-guilty verdict that cost $125 million-plus is outrageous and scandalous.

Worthington puts the blame squarely were it belongs - lack of co-operation between CSIS and the RCMP resulting in a complete fiasco.

Cows come home to Roost

2005-03-17T18:52:00.000-08:00

U.S. seeks to open border

Mar. 17, 2005. 08:47 PM

WASHINGTON — U.S. officials announced late today they'll appeal a temporary court-imposed delay on Canadian cattle imports. The move came as a federal judge in Montana, Richard Cebull, set July 27 for a critical hearing on whether the border should be permanently shut.

Permanently shut? Don't anyone for a minute tell me that things wouldn't be better if we cooperated with the US - our long-standing traditional ally and trading partner (largest trading arrangement in world history). Meanwhile, in Australia...

Australia won't rule out replacing Italian troops quitting Iraq

Wed Mar 16, 5:01 AM ET

Mideast - AFP

SYDNEY (AFP) - Prime Minister John Howard refused to rule out sending more Australian troops to Iraq (news - web sites) after Italy's surprise decision to pull its 3,000 soldiers from the war-torn country.

Australia announced last month that it would deploy an additional 450 soldiers to southern Iraq to help protect a Japanese humanitarian project and train Iraqi troops after the withdrawal of 1,400 Dutch military from the area.

That decision was opposed by most Australians and Howard came under sharp questioning in parliament Wednesday over whether he would again boost the number of Australian troops in Iraq to fill the gap left by the Italian pullout.

"We don't have any current plans to increase that number, but I cannot rule out some changes in the future and I don't intend to do so," Howard said, adding that Australia had received no requests for more troops.

What has Canada become? How much damage will our current politicos and MSM abetters do before we return to our traditional friends? It seems that even the word traditional is now out of style in Canada and has been completely replaced by the cult of multiculturalism.

Good to See

2005-03-17T18:48:00.000-08:00

Victoria Cross
Award for Iraq bravery is first since Falklands War, first to a living person since 1965
ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON — A British soldier who saved 30 comrades during a nighttime ambush in Iraq has been awarded the Victoria Cross, becoming the first recipient of the country's top military honour in more than 20 years.

The award citation said Pte. Johnson Beharry, 25, driver of a Warrior armoured vehicle with the Princess of Wales's Royal Regiment, "carried out two individual acts of great heroism by which he saved the lives of his comrades."

CSIS and Air India Terrorism

2005-03-17T13:14:00.000-08:00

Missing CSIS evidence spotlighted in Air India bombing acquittals

Wed Mar 16, 8:45 PM ET

STEVE MERTL

VANCOUVER (CP) - The acquittals of two men accused in the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182 has once again cast a spotlight on the anti-terrorism role of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

The agency erased wiretap and interview tapes, including those of a key witness whose testimony the judge concluded could not be corroborated.

It underscores the dilemma for CSIS, which sees itself as an intelligence-gathering agency but which sometimes finds itself drawn into criminal prosecution in terror-related cases.

Unbelievable. The article goes on to say they couldn't store their audio tapes for storage and logistic reasons. Read the whole article here.

I just had to look

2005-03-16T15:12:00.000-08:00

Following up on the post below, I went in search of "The Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada". Their website is the beyond parody named homesnotbombs.ca. Apparently they are deeply upset with CSIS detaining 5 (count 'em, 5) muslim men CSIS believes to be dangers to the public.

My favourite quote from their bizarre rantings is "Welcome to Canada's Guatanamo Bay". Give your head a shake...

CSIS Accused of Intimidation

2005-03-16T14:51:00.000-08:00

CSIS agents intimidating bail-sureties for security detainees, lawyer says

Colin Perkel
Canadian Press

Wednesday, March 16, 2005

TORONTO (CP) - Canada's intelligence service is deliberately intimidating people who offer to put up bail for those the government deems a risk to national security, a Federal Court heard Tuesday.

The allegation came during a bail hearing for Mohammad Mahjoub, 44, an Egyptian held in a Toronto jail since his arrest as an alleged security threat since June 2000. During his testimony, a consulting engineer to the nuclear industry said he was afraid to visit Mahjoub in jail in light of two unsettling incidents that occurred after he first offered to put up $20,000 in bail money.

In the first incident a year ago, Mohammed Abdelhaleem said Canadian immigration authorities detained him for several hours on his return from Egypt, where he had gone to visit his dying mother.

He was similarly detained without explanation a month ago after returning from her funeral, he told the court.

"I don't know whether it's just scaring people," said Abdelhaleem, who has a security clearance and has never been in trouble with the law.

"Am I going to go through this every time I come to the country? How is this going to work?"

So who is this solid citizen that is being held?

The government alleges Mahjoub, who came to Canada in 1995, was a senior member of the Vanguards of Conquest, a terrorist group subsumed by the Egyptian Al Jihad and later by al-Qaida. An Egyptian military tribunal sentenced him in absentia to 15 years for his association with the organization.

So following the friends of suspected Al Qaeda terrorists as they travel back and forth to the Middle East is outrageous? I'd be outraged if CSIS wasn't doing this.

Now, here's the best part:

Also Tuesday, a long-time peace and rights activist offered to put up $5,000 for Mahjoub and help ensure he abide by any bail conditions.

Matthew Behrens, 40, said he came to know Mahjoub and his family almost four years ago.

The founder of the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada, Behrens said he was "very concerned" about the length of the detention and that Mahjoub had a right to bail.

"I do not believe he poses a threat to the community or anyone," Behrens testified.

Are there really such people? The Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada - truly amazing.

UN Hypocrisy

2005-03-16T07:57:00.000-08:00

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in Ramallah on Monday the United Nations is establishing a register of property damage caused by the security fence, as hundreds of Palestinians protested the barrier outside the Palestinian Authority's Mukata compound in Ramallah.
Israel began building the fence two years ago, saying its aim was to keep out terrorists. Palestinians say the real intention is to grab land and draw a final border without waiting for a peace deal. One-third of the structure has been completed.

A register of property damage? How about a similar registry of damage caused by suicidal terrorists detonating themselves on the other side of the fence? The security fence works which is why it is so hated.

Avoid the Lloyd

2005-03-16T06:08:00.000-08:00

In a response to his out and out ludicrous open letter to Condi Rice, Lloyed Axworthy has a new article marveling at the workings of the blogosphere and internet and has him surprised at the volume of email he has received. When you disrespect one of the most powerful people in the world in print, I'm sure that entitles you to more than a little email, mostly from like-minded moonbats.

As a Canadian who is proud of our martial past I take particular exception to these remarks from his Winnipeg Free Press article of March 10th:

"The message contained in the hundreds of e-mails I have received is that many Americans value Canada's willingness to be a good neighbour -- not as a clone of Bush-administration policies, but as a voice seeking solutions to security problems through collective, multilateral action rather than fear and the unilateral use of military power."

A "voice seeking solutions to security problems through collective, multilateral action..." Well the Liberals may have spent 30 years seeking, but they sure as hell haven't found anything. And just how many nations took part in the coalition in Iraq? Over 30 if memory serves me. Axworthy is an embarassment to the nation.

War on Terror at Home

2005-03-15T18:04:00.000-08:00

Anti-Semitic incidents up in 2004: Jewish group

Terry Pedwell
Canadian Press

March 15, 2005

OTTAWA -- A "chilling'' new audit shows a record number of anti-Semitic incidents in Canada last year.

B'nai Brith Canada's League for Human Rights released a report Tuesday citing 857 incidents across the country.

It's the highest number since the organization began tracking such incidents 22 years ago. And it's up 47 per cent from 2003.

These attacks coincide with the War on Terror. It is hardly a leap of logic to suggest that a sizeable number of the perpetrators are Muslims. Yet, the impression the article leaves you with is one of airbrushed reality. Even where people have been charged there is no examination of the ethnicity of the criminals because that wouldn't be politically correct enough.

I believe that Canada's lack of participation in the War on Terror has led to more attacks rather than fewer as our cowardly stance has emboldened the enemies of democracy. Spain is a perfect example.

Naomi Klein - Historical Half Wit

2005-03-14T18:11:00.000-08:00

I'd be in a neck brace from shaking my head so hard every time I see Naomi Klein put down her granola long enough to spout off about the evil US of A. She was in her element exposing third world corporate misbehaviour back in the No Logo days. Now, with absolutely no background beyond hatred of the US, she graces the pages of The Guardian to share her factless, undocumented rantings.

Here are a few choice statements from her latest screed:

This new story is so contagious, we are told, that it has set off a domino effect akin to the fall of the Berlin wall and the collapse of communism. (Although in the "Arabian spring" the only wall in sight - Israel's apartheid wall - pointedly stays up.)

Apartheid Wall? Are people still saying that?

Meanwhile, Bush's freedom triumphalism glossed over the fact that, in the two years since the invasion, the power of political Islam has increased exponentially, while Iraq's deep secular traditions have been greatly eroded. In part, this has to do with the deadly decision to "embed" secularism and women's rights in the military invasion. Whenever Bremer needed a good-news hit, he had his picture taken at a newly opened women's centre, handily equating feminism with the hated occupation.

Political Islam's power has increased? Exponentially you say? Pardon me for referencing the real world but aren't they getting their asses handed to them on a plate these days? And for how long have women's rights in Islamic countries been a hated development amongst modern feminists? How can anyone, let alone precious Mz. Klein be against women's rights in a fledgling democracy?

The only idea that has ever stood up to kings, tyrants and mullahs in the Middle East is the promise of economic justice, brought about through nationalist and socialist policies of agrarian reform and state control over oil.

Waa? Now we see the "violence inherent in the system!" socialist policies of agrarian reform have stood up to tyrants in the Middle East? When exactly, Naomi, did that happen?

Too Funny

2005-03-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

Stand back, people, the unstoppable army known as Catapult Collective here in sunny Ottawa have a plan to shatter, shatter, G.W. Bush's evil occupation of Iraq. They are planning a march on Saturday to "Take Down SNC!" Yes, well we all know what a household word SNC is so for the few of you who are emerging from comas I will let you in on who SNC are. They are a small Canadian company who amongst other things, sell bullets to the US military. Catapult Collective, in all their merciless splendour will meet this Saturday at the War Memorial (insert ironic snort here) to BRING DOWN SNC! As a long time resident of our nation's capital, I've seen many protests. I guarantee you that this one will be unworthy of even local news coverage. Pathetic.

If you're curious about what Canadian moonbats are like, here is their site. The best part is the statement that CANADIAN IMPERIALISM KILLS. Wow.

Read between the Lines

2005-03-14T17:12:00.000-08:00

PM Martin announces $222 million for health research, including soldier study

JUDY MONCHUK

CALGARY (CP) - The mental-health toll of peacekeeping on Canadian soldiers, brought home by the emotional breakdown of retired general Romeo Dallaire, is one of the projects that will be studied with $222 million in research grants announced Monday by Prime Minister Paul Martin.

Okay, now spending money on research is a good thing and even a stopped clock is right twice a day but for me the incredible thing here is mention of Romeo Dallaire and his emotional breakdown. It wasn't caused by the stress of being on the spot in Rwanda so much as it was being held captive by the UN's lack of courage. Had Dallaire and his men been given the green light to intervene, they could have prevented the Hutus from seizing an arms depot and arming their mass murder. Canadian soldiers have always pulled their weight and even a small force, armed to the teeth with training, weapons and the knowledge they were right could have saved the lives of untold thousands of innocents.

Right on the Money

2005-03-14T12:53:00.000-08:00

Canada needs to improve international clout, says outgoing U.S. ambassador

TERRY PEDWELL

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada needs to boost its clout on the international scene by buying larger military aircraft, increasing its combat-ready forces and taking a more active role in the Middle East peace process, says outgoing U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci.

In the four years he has served as the voice of the United States in Ottawa, Cellucci has argued vigorously for Canada to increase defence spending.

Ottawa needs to target the nearly $13 billion for the military in last month's budget to become a bigger player on the world stage, Cellucci said Monday as he prepared to leave his post this week.

One way to improve its international stature is to buy or directly lease planes big enough to handle what is known as strategic airlift, Cellucci said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

With them, the ambassador argued, Canada could have provided speedy aid to people affected by the devastating Dec. 26 Asian tsunami, which left nearly 150,000 people dead across 11 countries.

When the Disaster Assistance Response Team, or DART, was deployed to Sri Lanka earlier this year as part of an international relief effort, it rented Russian Antonov AN-124 aircraft to transport its equipment overseas.

Read the rest here.

Words of Wisdom

2005-03-14T08:56:00.000-08:00

Another great Steyn article - is there any other kind? If you have to subscribe to the Western Standard to read this, so be it.

We’re doomed

Monday, 14 March 2005
Mark Steyn

It’s in the nature of things that a conservative columnist in Trudeaupia spends much of his time lowering his readers into the abyss of despair. And, to be honest, I get a little disheartened by the amount of correspondence I get beginning, “Great piece on the Martin Liberals! Right on the money!! Do you have any information on emigrating to the U.S.? Or maybe one of those eastern European countries with the 16 per cent flat tax?”

Which I suppose gets to the heart of the matter: is Canada doomed?

Read the rest here

Cedar Revolution = Radio Silence

2005-03-14T08:39:00.000-08:00

I'm still waiting to hear even one word of encouragement from the Canadian government. Considering the large number of Lebanese Canadians here, you'd think they'd at least make a token effort to buy their votes with some hollow words. Not even.

Anti-Syrian Protesters Flood Lebanese Capital

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of anti-Syrian protesters flooded central Beirut on Monday in what witnesses said was Lebanon's biggest demonstration since former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri's killing exactly a month ago.

Flag-waving crowds from across Lebanon packed the capital's Martyrs' Square, near Hariri's grave, and swamped nearby areas to demand an international inquiry into his death, the sacking of Syrian-backed security chiefs and a total Syrian pullout.

Anti Terrorism Canadian Style

2005-03-13T09:12:00.000-08:00

Families await Air India trial verdict

Camille Bains
Canadian Press

Saturday, March 12, 2005

VANCOUVER -- Twenty years after a bomb ripped through an Air India plane, killing 329 people and shattering the lives of their families worldwide, two men accused in Canada's worst act of aviation terrorism are about to learn their fate.

Ripudaman Singh Malik, 58, and Ajaib Singh Bagri, 55, face eight charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder and conspiracy in the June 23, 1985, bombing of Flight 182.

Twenty years...And there is no shortage of evidence to link these terrorists to the crime. Twenty years...

One Year Ago Today

2005-03-11T10:43:00.000-08:00

Today marks the first anniversary of the Madrid bombings in which 191 people were murdered by Islamic terrorists. The always great Charles at Little Green Footballs underscores the politically correct insanity which holds sway in Spain by pointing out that the newly-appointed high commissioner for the Madrid bomb victims has asked the media to refrain from publishing more images of the March 11 attacks.

It is vital to the very real War on Terror that the truth isn't "cleansed" to make people cool off. There is a brief movie clip from the security camera in the train station at Atocha which is being shown at LGF to underscore the need to remember.

http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/weblog.php

More US Bashing from the Liberals

2005-03-11T07:39:00.000-08:00

U.S.-bashing Liberal 'sorry'

By TERRY PEDWELL

OTTAWA (CP) - Liberal MP Marlene Jennings apologized Thursday for comments she made about the trade practices of the U.S. government.

Jennings told a Commons committee earlier this week that Ottawa should "embarrass" the Americans by warning their potential trade partners about Canada's trade difficulties with the U.S.

"Let's embarrass the hell out of the Americans," Jennings told the all-party committee, suggesting the federal government warn potential customers that the U.S. doesn't always treat even its close neighbour and favoured trading partner well.

"They (America) want to expand their markets and other countries are going to be leery" if they hear of Canada's experiences, Jennings said Tuesday.

The Quebec MP made the comments after experts told the committee that political embarrassment of Washington may be a good way to pressure the U.S. into agreeing to fix Chapter 19 of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the section aimed at settling trade wars.

But on Thursday, Jennings said she was sorry for her remarks.

"I would apologize to the members in this House that my comments were a little bit exaggerated," she told the Commons.

"I believe that it is up to our government, and each one of us, to undertake to be constructive in our relationship with (the) United States," she said.

"It is in our interest. It is part of our Canadian values to cherish the relationship with the United States."

Critics called Tuesday's remarks just one more example of how the Liberals are fostering anti-U.S. sentiment in Canada.

"I think it's entirely appropriate to play hardball" with the U.S. over trade disputes, said Conservative MP Monte Solberg.

"But not after weeks, months and now years of sticking (the Bush administration) in the eye every time some cabinet minister or parliamentary secretary decides they're going to quit concealing their anti-Americanism."

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said he accepted Jennings' acknowledgement that she used a "poor choice of words."

You can draw a direct line from the time US-Canada relations went bad to the rise and reign of the current, unending Liberal government. The Liberals pander to anti-American sentiment, particulary in Quebec. The result? A lack of co-operation on trade issues from the US. Why even bother taking Canada into consideration if we constantly run them down and refuse to participate internationally with our traditional allies?

Albertan Tax Dollars Funding Leftist Nonsense

2005-03-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

While trolling around various leftist sites I happened upon oneworld.ca. This haven from reality included the transcript of a speech given at the IFG Forum at the Fifth World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Jan 29, 2005 by Gordon Laxer. His speech was entitled "The US Empire and Popular Sovereignty". Here are a few choice excerpts:

"The 95% of humans who do not live in the United States can be thankful to George W. Bush. He pledged to free us all. “Bomb us into freedom”. Look at how well American style freedom is working in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and for Palestinians. "
The American Empire is spawning its antidote by reinvigorating contestations for sovereignty around the world. Iraqis are fighting a war of national liberation. US officials have long seen economic nationalism, popular national democracy, or regionally supportive groupings of independent states, as their most effective adversaries. First, US governments use strong pressures to defeat them. When those fail, attempts at ruthless suppression usually follow.

Typical leftist clap-trap, no? And who really cares what one aging hippie thinks or spouts off about while on a junket to South America, right? Mr. Gordon Laxer is the head of The Parkland Institute, situated in Edmonton, Alberta. They do a typical garden variety of left wing agitation which is no sin in and of itself. However, The Parkland Institute's office is on the grounds of the University of Alberta. Not only that but in their own words "The Parkland Institute is an Alberta research network situated within the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta".

Very few Albertans would share Mr. Laxer's views on the United States or anti-capitalist agitation. Virtually none would support this group's being based at the publicly owned University of Alberta and living off taxpayers money.

The Parkland Institute's website is located at http://www.ualberta.ca/~parkland/index.html. If you click on the tab for funding, it is strangely blank.

CSIS - inaction

2005-03-09T10:50:00.000-08:00

Don't let the headline fool you, folks. CSIS is still arm-deep in cereal boxes looking for decoder rings.

CSIS eyes mosques suspected in terror
They're being watched, agency says
Believed to be assisting with recruiting
TONDA MACCHARLES
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA—Canada's spy agency is monitoring certain mosques in the country that it suspects are raising funds for terrorist activities and recruiting terrorist sympathizers, a senior CSIS official says.

But wait! Sounds like serious stuff but by the end of the article CSIS is defending itself on the list of things it is making sure it doesn't do:

The appearance of Canada's two top spymasters yesterday revealed several other aspects of CSIS activities:

Judd said Canada's spy agency has never exported or aided another country to ship abroad suspected terrorists for tough interrogations or torture.
Judd denied CSIS had any role in the decision by the United States to deport Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, to his native country where Arar says he was tortured.
But in doing so, he acknowledged there was communication "after" that deportation occurred.
He revealed the service is actively considering whether to recommend the Tamil Tigers be blacklisted as a terrorist organization, but admitted the government does not want to adversely affect the peace process in Sri Lanka.
He disclosed that the intelligence agency's internal list of terror or espionage suspects contains a list of individuals "in the triple digits," although he would not say if it was closer to one thousand or one hundred names.
He revealed that, despite passage of a law last year in response to "urgent" appeals for access to more airline passenger information, CSIS has not yet begun to use airline information to try to cross-reference it and identify terrorist suspects. The explanation? The "technical" aspects of the computer system that would do the work have not been finalized, and "privacy concerns."
"We want to be absolutely scrupulous in how we would proceed with this provision," he said.

Ah, privacy concerns. We wouldn't want to offend anyone afterall.

Canadian Oil for Food Scandal Willfuly Ignored

2005-03-09T07:42:00.000-08:00

How Montreal's Power Corp. found itself caught up in the biggest fiasco in UN history
by Kevin Steel, The Western Standard

Saturday, March 5, 2005

Most Canadian companies look forward to the day they earn themselves a mention on the prime-time news. They hire PR firms and spend thousands to harass news

editors with press releases to tout their latest acquisition, invention or foreign venture in hopes of convincing someone to give them even a passing mention on the national news–never mind the nearly unimaginable publicity of being plugged on a U.S. newscast.

But when Montreal-based Power Corporation of Canada found itself, in late January, the topic of a news story on America’s top-rated Fox News Channel, which draws millions of U.S. and international viewers, executives there probably weren’t thrilled. Unlike most publicly traded firms looking to build their brand on Wall Street, Power Corp. is, at the best of times, a quiet, often obscured company (in the past year it’s issued a total of five news releases). That might seem strange, given the massive size and, well, power wielded by the holding company. Power controls some of Canada’s biggest blue-chip companies, including the Investors Group, the country’s largest mutual fund dealer, and investment firm Mackenzie Financial. It owns insurers Great-West Lifeco, Canada Life and London Life. Power owns several Quebec newspapers, including La Presse. It also holds substantial positions in Chinese airlines and telecom firms and has large stakes in the world’s leading entertainment company, Bertelsmann, as well as a big piece of one of Europe’s largest oil producers. In 2003, Power Corp. reported annual revenues of $16 billion.

But the Fox News story wasn’t prompted by an announcement from Power of some billion-dollar takeover or the appointment of a new senior executive. It was something altogether different: the revelation that the man handpicked by the UN secretary general last April to probe the UN’s scandalized Oil-for-Food program, Paul Volcker, had not disclosed to the UN that he was a paid adviser to Power Corp., a story which had originally been broken by a small, independent Toronto newspaper, the Canada Free Press. Why did the highest-rated cable channel in the U.S. care? Because the more that Americans came to know about Oil-for-Food, which has been called the largest corruption scandal in history, the more the name of this little-known Montreal firm kept popping up. And the more links that seemed to emerge between Power Corp. and individuals or organizations involved in the Oil-for-Food scandal, the more Fox News and other news outlets sniffing around this story began to ask questions about who, exactly, this Power Corp. is. And, they wanted to know, what, if anything, did Power have to do with a scandal in which companies around the world took bribes to help a murderous dictator scam billions of dollars in humanitarian aid out of the UN while his people suffered and starved?

Just a month before the Canada Free Press revealed that Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman, is a member of Power Corp.’s international advisory board–and a close friend and personal adviser to Power’s owner, Paul Desmarais Sr.–a U.S. congressional investigation into the UN scandal discovered that Power Corp. had extensive connections to BNP Paribas, a French bank that had been handpicked by the UN in 1996 to broker the Oil-for-Food program. In fact, Power actually once owned a stake in Paribas through its subsidiary, Pargesa Holding SA. The bank also purchased a stake in Power Corp. in the mid-seventies and, as recently as 2003, BNP Paribas had a 14.7 per cent equity and 21.3 per cent voting stake in Pargesa, company records show. John Rae, a director and former executive at Power (brother of former Ontario premier Bob Rae), was president and a director of the Paribas Bank of Canada until 2000. And Power Corp. director Michel François-Poncet, who was, in 2001, the vice-chairman of Pargesa, also sat on Paribas’s board, though he died Feb. 10, at the age of 70. A former chair of Paribas’s management board, André Levy-Lang, is currently a member of Power’s international advisory council. And Amaury-Daniel de Seze, a member of BNP Paribas’s executive council, also sat on Pargesa’s administrative council in 2002.

Read the whole thing here.

Here's something you don't see every day...

2005-03-08T15:05:00.000-08:00

Nuff said...

Down the Memory Hole

2005-03-08T14:55:00.000-08:00

Only a few weeks ago, on February 18th, Prime Minister Martin said of Syria's occupation of Lebanon that "It’s clear that if the Syrians are in Lebanon it’s because they must keep the peace,” Martin told reporters.

Why so much silence concerning the Cedar Revolution? After years of thumping their chests and proclaiming Canada the world's leader in peacekeeping, the fact is that they'd hate for anyone to get the idea that Canada will say or do anything about a place like Lebanon. I'm not advocating any such thing right now - right now - but the day may come to pass when peacekeepers could be invaluable in preventing a civil war and giving democracy a fighting chance. Better to lay low in advance than risk being called on it some day down the road.

PM reneged: Cellucci

2005-03-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

Canada gave impression 'in very direct way' it would participate in missile shield

Mark Kennedy and Mike Blanchfield

CanWest News Service
Monday, March 07, 2005
OTTAWA - The Martin government long ago gave the "direct" impression to the Bush administration that Canada would join the missile defence program, U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci says.

Read the whole thing here.

Further confirmation that this isn't a simple misunderstanding but is a flat out renege on a previously agreed program.

Gun Registry Lunacy

2005-03-07T09:01:00.000-08:00

Over a billion dollars spent - and to what end?

$1B gun registry branded `useless'
ANDREW CHUNG
STAFF REPORTER
Rochfort Bridge, Alta.—New questions are being asked about Canada's controversial and expensive gun registry, and why it didn't keep a high-calibre assault rifle out of the hands of a man who killed four Mounties in a cold-blooded ambush.
Despite the Firearms Act and its related programs — designed to keep firearms from people who are likely to be a danger to themselves or to others — local farmer Jim Roszko managed to obtain and keep the high-powered weapon, which he used Thursday to kill RCMP constables Peter Schiemann, Leo Johnston, Anthony Gordon and Brock Myrol before turning the gun on himself.

Read the whole thing here

Gospel Truth

2005-03-07T08:21:00.000-08:00

This, from the Calgary Sun - proof that not all of Canada has lost its mind (hat tip to Manyu)

Mon, March 7, 2005
PM should tell truth
Canada has more to lose in game of tit-for-tat than U.S.

By Ezra Levant -- Calgary Sun

Another day, another excuse: So now Ottawa claims we didn't join the ballistic missile defence system because... we're mad at the U.S. for their trade barriers against Canadian beef and softwood lumber.
Yeah, right.
It's not true, of course. Paul Martin -- or Mr. Dithers as the Economist calls him --flipped and flopped his way to his final, anti-U.S. decision as a result of one thing only: The France-like anti-Americanism that infests the key province of Quebec, the province that counts to him more than any other, more than Canada itself, in fact.
Martin knows that Quebecers are pacifists and anti-Americans. He wants to gain seats there. So he rebuked U.S. President George W. Bush to win points in suburban Montreal. Simple as that.
But he should say so. At least it would be honest -- crass and foolish, but honest.
Instead, he ordered our new ambassador to Washington to offer an after-the-fact rationale -- that it was all about softwood lumber and mad cow bans.
We know that's not true. Ottawa has not made the resolution of either of those issues a top priority. They weren't a top priority in the last election campaign; they haven't been a top priority in Parliament. They aren't a priority at all -- gay marriage and national daycare are Martin's priorities. This is an excuse.
But even if it were true, it would be foolish. Canada should make its military decisions based on what we need militarily. Either we need a missile-defence shield or we don't. If we need one, we should support it.
If we don't, we shouldn't. (Though it would be tough to think of why we wouldn't sign on to the U.S. proposal -- they spend all the money, we get half the benefit.)
Other political issues should never interfere with our government's essential responsibility to defend the security of our country.
To do otherwise is to hold hostage our own country's safety -- not a smart way to negotiate. Certainly not a sensible way to run a military.
But even if we weren't dealing with something as important as defence, it wouldn't be smart negotiating anyway.
The U.S. can survive without Canadian co-operation. We can't survive without theirs.
Take the beef ban. The majority of Canadian beef is -- or was -- exported to the U.S.
We can't simply "eat" our way out of that problem. The U.S., on the other hand, could easily "eat" its way out of a reciprocal beef ban, because they have 300 million mouths down there. They don't need our markets.
For everything we export to them, there are a dozen U.S. trade lobbyists trying to kick us out. The Liberal "negotiating" tactic makes their job easier.
We have much more to lose in a game of tit for tat than they do.
These points have been made by others. But there is another point, too: The West's industries are the ones being linked and threatened here. Western beef. Western lumber. Will Western oil be next? (According to the Washington-based Weekly Standard, during his recent trip to China, Martin did sign a declaration offering China favourable access to Ft. McMurray's oil sands.)
Martin's new Parliamentary ally, NDP leader Jack Layton, has expressed a desire to slap an export tax on energy, something the Liberals have experience with.
The Liberals would never play chicken with Ontario cars, or Quebec dairy products. But Western grievances? No problem,especially if the goal is to distract from the real, Quebec-based reason for disparaging the U.S.

There are those who say that the Sun chain of newspapers are tabloids and light on news. If light on news means not having some giant Metro section of meaningless stories, then yes, they are. However, they are an everyman's kind of paper and reflect a lot of common beliefs that the ivory tower inhabitants ignore.

Rare Common Sense from a Rare Source

2005-03-06T12:32:00.000-08:00

This comes from the Toronto Star? It must be a blue moon...

Rick Anderson laments Canadian left's neuroses about our neighbour
Here's a novel suggestion: Instead of continuing to worsen Canada-U.S. relations, how about improving them? Paul Martin didn't start the bungling of U.S. relations — he's merely following in his predecessor's unhappy footsteps. And it's time for Canada to knock it off; we have genuine interests at stake.
First, we need to grow up about the U.S., to get over the phobias, insecurities and neuroses that plague Canadians, especially the left.
Michael Ignatieff said it well, speaking at the Liberal convention: "We face a geopolitical reality unlike any other country: The greatest threat to our sovereignty comes not from our enemies, but from our oldest, closest and dearest friend." And then he added the part the Canadian left doesn't like to hear: "Our independence depends on our being a credible partner in the struggle to keep North America safe." He described anti-Americanism as an "electoral ghetto" in which "we should leave the NDP to rot."
Second, Canadians must decide what's really important to us in U.S. relations. Such as: Open and fair trade, where disputes are more quickly and fairly resolved; a healthy partnership in North American security (the continental approach that outgoing U.S. ambassador Paul Cellucci advocated, only to be cold-shouldered by Jean Chrétien); collaborative forays in selected areas of international affairs, such as spreading freedom and democracy, peacekeeping; modernizing multilateral institutions (the U.N., NATO, G7, G20); countering terror; fighting HIV-AIDS and helping Africa develop.
Implicit in focussing on the important is de-focussing on the less important. Ballistic missile defence should not have become a serious irritant in the relationship. This is a weapons system whose strategic relevance is vague, might well be technologically unworkable, may never get deployed and almost certainly will never get used.
Consider, too, the nonsensical talk in Ottawa about requiring the Americans to call us for permission to fire such missiles. Let's assume North Korea, for example, launches a missile at the U.S. and a ballistic system has been successfully developed that can shoot it down. One supposes it is equally plausible — or not — to imagine the Yanks calling us for permission to shoot it down. What colour is the sky on that planet?
Finally, we need to communicate more clearly.
Martin's bungling of BMD is akin to Chrétien's Iraq debacle: It wasn't so much Canada's decision, or Ottawa's differing views, as the damaging way in which they were communicated. In both cases, the U.S. government was led to believe Canada was onside until virtually the last minute, and in neither case were there last-minute developments that affected our decision. In both cases, domestic political tactics had more influence on the decisions than did substance or principles — or else the substantive and principled differences could have, and should have, been laid out long before.
And we need frankness. Canada's new U.S. Ambassador Frank McKenna is well able to help in this, just as was Cellucci. But instead of doing a collective freakout every time someone speaks plainly — a particular habit of Ottawa's overwrought media — how about considering what is actually said? That's part of a healthy relationship

This Day in Canada's Forgotten History

2005-03-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

Seventy-seven bombers from 6 Group, RCAF, join the 442-aircraft raid against Essen, Germany. The target for tonight is the Krupp factory in that city, which continues to turn out war material -- tanks, bombs, and artillery -- despite being hit twice already. The raid destroys large portions of the target factory.

A Strange Sight

2005-03-06T07:37:00.000-08:00

A commemorative stamp honouring our huge naval effort in World War II. Canada reached the point of having the third largest allied navy in the world. We are currently looking at Quebec-based bids only for patching up the Royal Dingy.

Did you hear about this in the Canadian Press?

2005-03-05T15:22:00.000-08:00

Here is part of an open letter sent March 3, 2005 to PM Dithers by the Christian Coalition International Canada concerning his lack of support for Lebanon and under-reported pro-Syrian statement:

Dear Prime Minister Martin,
We at the Christian Coalition (International) Canada have been following with keen interest the events in Lebanon over the last few weeks.
We were very distressed at the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the many others that were victims of the recent bombing in that Country. Our prayers go out to the families of all of those who were slain.
As a result of a widespread perception that Syria somehow may have been responsible for the bombing and the consequent protests by the Lebanese people, Prime Minister Karami and his government have now resigned.
Whether Syria was in any way responsible is impossible to say at this time, however, the resulting fallout has provided the Lebanese people with an opportunity for new elections, free from foreign interference and fair in representing the will of the people. Such elections would help restore sovereignty to Lebanon and foster democracy in the entire area.
It is the hope and desire of the Christian Coalition (International) Canada that Lebanon finds its way to those elections and to true and lasting democratic rule.
In this volatile and very serious context, the government of Canada is failing to live up to our expectations. We are in agreement with many in the Lebanese community in Canada that you, as Prime Minister, were wrong to characterise the Syrian presence in Lebanon primarily as a peace keeping operation. You and other members of the Liberal government urgently need to develop a deeper understanding of the issues that face Lebanese Canadians, whose families in Lebanon suffer because of Syrian occupation and the activities of groups like Hezbollah.

Read the whole thing here.

If you thought the American legacy press were asleep at the switch, check out the Canadian press. The big issues of freedom and democracy are unworthy of reporting, especially if the Liberals will spoon feed you pap stories from their convention and you won't even have to leave the bar.

Liberal Convention Priorities

2005-03-05T15:04:00.000-08:00

Liberal Party officially endorses gay marriage as protest heats up

Sue Bailey And Joan Bryden

Canadian Press
Saturday, March 05, 2005

Former Liberal cabinet minister Brian Tobin (left) shares a laugh with Immigration Minister Joe Volpe at the Liberal party of Canada's biennial convention in Ottawa Saturday.(CP/Jonathan Hayward)

OTTAWA (CP) - The Liberal Party of Canada overwhelmingly endorsed same-sex marriage Saturday in keeping with the minority Liberal government's bid to legalize gay weddings.
Similar resolutions, all pushed by the party's youth wing, were voted down at three previous conventions.
"Fourth time charmed," beamed Richard Diamond, president of the Young Liberals.
"Attitudes change with education, with awareness and that's what's happened in Canada and certainly what's happened in the Liberal party. And I think this is absolutely wonderful."

Okay, to each his own and I won't start up about gay marriage here (I believe marriage is a privilege granted by society and not a human right) but is this the most pressing issue of our day?

What of Syria? I'm looking, but I'm not finding a whole lot of anything in the news concerning the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon. If Canada has any international strength left or reputation as an honest broker, what harm would it do to strongly endorse Lebanese freedom? Seems like a win-win and goes well with our current philosophy of not backing statements up with action so why no mention?

Apparently freedom and democracy are not worth the trouble of a statement, let alone a policy.

Lloyd Axworthy - Everything that is wrong with Canada

2005-03-04T19:48:00.000-08:00

You have to read this to believe it. David Frum has linked to this story and it is incredible that this man, to use the word lightly, was once our Minister for Foreign Affairs:

Missile Counter-Attack
Axworthy fires back at U.S. -- and Canadian -- critics of our BMD decision in An Open Letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Thu Mar 3 2005

By LLOYD AXWORTHY

Dear Condi,
I'm glad you've decided to get over your fit of pique and venture north to visit your closest neighbour. It's a chance to learn a thing or two. Maybe more.
I know it seems improbable to your divinely guided master in the White House that mere mortals might disagree with participating in a missile-defence system that has failed in its last three tests, even though the tests themselves were carefully rigged to show results.
But, gosh, we folks above the 49th parallel are somewhat cautious types who can't quite see laying down billions of dollars in a three-dud poker game.
As our erstwhile Prairie-born and bred (and therefore prudent) finance minister pointed out in presenting his recent budget, we've had eight years of balanced or surplus financial accounts. If we're going to spend money, Mr. Goodale added, it will be on day-care and health programs, and even on more foreign aid and improved defence.
Sure, that doesn't match the gargantuan, multi-billion-dollar deficits that your government blithely runs up fighting a "liberation war" in Iraq, laying out more than half of all weapons expenditures in the world, and giving massive tax breaks to the top one per cent of your population while cutting food programs for poor children.
Just chalk that up to a different sense of priorities about what a national government's role should be when there isn't a prevailing mood of manifest destiny.
Coming to Ottawa might also expose you to a parliamentary system that has a thing called question period every day, where those in the executive are held accountable by an opposition for their actions, and where demands for public debate on important topics such as missile defence can be made openly.
You might also notice that it's a system in which the governing party's caucus members are not afraid to tell their leader that their constituents don't want to follow the ideological, perhaps teleological, fantasies of Canada's continental co-inhabitant. And that this leader actually listens to such representations.
Your boss did not avail himself of a similar opportunity to visit our House of Commons during his visit, fearing, it seems, that there might be some signs of dissent. He preferred to issue his diktat on missile defence in front of a highly controlled, pre-selected audience.
Such control-freak antics may work in the virtual one-party state that now prevails in Washington. But in Canada we have a residual belief that politicians should be subject to a few checks and balances, an idea that your country once espoused before the days of empire.
If you want to have us consider your proposals and positions, present them in a proper way, through serious discussion across the table in our cabinet room, as your previous president did when he visited Ottawa. And don't embarrass our prime minister by lobbing a verbal missile at him while he sits on a public stage, with no chance to respond.
Now, I understand that there may have been some miscalculations in Washington based on faulty advice from your resident governor of the "northern territories," Ambassador Cellucci. But you should know by now that he hasn't really won the hearts and minds of most Canadians through his attempts to browbeat and command our allegiance to U.S. policies.
Sadly, Mr. Cellucci has been far too closeted with exclusive groups of 'experts' from Calgary think-tanks and neo-con lobbyists at cross-border conferences to remotely grasp a cross-section of Canadian attitudes (nor American ones, for that matter).
I invite you to expand the narrow perspective that seems to inform your opinions of Canada by ranging far wider in your reach of contacts and discussions. You would find that what is rising in Canada is not so much anti-Americanism, as claimed by your and our right-wing commentators, but fundamental disagreements with certain policies of your government. You would see that rather than just reacting to events by drawing on old conventional wisdoms, many Canadians are trying to think our way through to some ideas that can be helpful in building a more secure world.
These Canadians believe that security can be achieved through well-modulated efforts to protect the rights of people, not just nation-states.
To encourage and advance international co-operation on managing the risk of climate change, they believe that we need agreements like Kyoto.
To protect people against international crimes like genocide and ethnic cleansing, they support new institutions like the International Criminal Court -- which, by the way, you might strongly consider using to hold accountable those committing atrocities today in Darfur, Sudan.
And these Canadians believe that the United Nations should indeed be reformed -- beginning with an agreement to get rid of the veto held by the major powers over humanitarian interventions to stop violence and predatory practices.
On this score, you might want to explore the concept of the 'Responsibility to Protect' while you're in Ottawa. It's a Canadian idea born out of the recent experience of Kosovo and informed by the many horrific examples of inhumanity over the last half-century. Many Canadians feel it has a lot more relevance to providing real human security in the world than missile defence ever will.
This is not just some quirky notion concocted in our long winter nights, by the way. It seems to have appeal for many in your own country, if not the editorialists at the Wall Street Journal or Rush Limbaugh. As I discovered recently while giving a series of lectures in southern California, there is keen interest in how the U.S. can offer real leadership in managing global challenges of disease, natural calamities and conflict, other than by military means.
There is also a very strong awareness on both sides of the border of how vital Canada is to the U.S. as a partner in North America. We supply copious amounts of oil and natural gas to your country, our respective trade is the world's largest in volume, and we are increasingly bound together by common concerns over depletion of resources, especially very scarce fresh water.
Why not discuss these issues with Canadians who understand them, and seek out ways to better cooperate in areas where we agree -- and agree to respect each other's views when we disagree.
Above all, ignore the Cassandras who deride the state of our relations because of one missile-defence decision. Accept that, as a friend on your border, we will offer a different, independent point of view. And that there are times when truth must speak to power.

In friendship,
Lloyd Axworthy

Lloyd Axworthy is president of the University of Winnipeg and a former Canadian foreign minister.

Where to begin? This is a classic example of the factless, emotional appeal to anti-Americanism. America is a one party state? Did the US of A not just go through a heavily contested presidential and congressional race? How about Canada where the Liberal party has basically grown roots in government? Lloyd Axworthy is a jackass of cosmic proportions and I am ashamed to live in the same country with this "man", let alone hear his unforgiveable vitriol.

This Day in Canada's Forgotten History

2005-03-04T07:34:00.000-08:00

March 4, 1945

After five days of fierce fighting, German resistance in the Hochwald forest ends. The 2nd Canadian Division passes through the dense forest to find abandoned German equipment and dead everywhere.

I'm starting to sound like a broken record here...

2005-03-04T07:26:00.000-08:00

It's Canadian airspace, but our lives

It's Canadian airspace, but our lives
Mar 4, 2005
Peter A. Brown
Living next to the world's only superpower must be frustrating for the folks north of the border who don't share our views, values and fears.Yet the idea that Canada could demand America consult with its leaders before we shoot down a missile aimed at the United States that is over Canadian soil is the most ridiculous notion I have heard in some time.That, however, is Canada's position entering Tuesday's meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice over the U.S. proposed anti-ballistic-missile system. "This is our airspace; we're a sovereign nation, and you don't intrude on a sovereign nation's airspace without seeking permission," Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said.His stance evidences a childlike quality that assumes Ottawa has the ability to mandate something that it can't possibly enforce -- requiring launch approval for the United States to defend itself. It showcases surprising naiveté about the logistics involved -- most importantly the lack of time -- that would make giving the Canadians such power a practical impossibility.Therefore, it makes it difficult to take the Canadians, who are America's biggest trading partner and historic ally, seriously on the many other matters on which we disagree.If Martin is serious, he ought to have a long talk with himself about the world in which he lives. Even if it evokes the image of the Ugly American popular with U.S. critics, this is one of those times when the United States must heed its national interest. If the Canadians don't like it, too bad. In that real world, there is nothing they can do about it.

Common sense, right? It seems mind boggling that the issue could be seen in any other light and yet there is a sizeable, uninformed segment of Canadian society that has a negative knee-jerk reaction to anything the Americans - and especially the Bush administration - does. I stress the uninformed part because if you engage almost any Canadian on these issues they don't have their facts straight. No names, dates, sources, just a reactive feeling that the US is "wrong".

A Needless White Wash

2005-03-03T07:10:00.000-08:00

This from the Christian Science Monitor, March 3, 2005:

Don't blame Canada for missile-defense snub
By Michael O'Hanlon WASHINGTON
The Liberal Party government of Prime Minister Paul Martin in Canada told the Bush administration last week that it will not endorse the US plan for national missile defense.
Many are viewing this as a slap in the face from Ottawa to Washington, and a change in the position Canada seemed to be taking a year ago. They expect it to poison relations between the two neighbors - ensuring, among other things, that next month's three-way summit with Mexican President Vicente Fox will fail to make progress in broadening NAFTA. It would seem that the knee-jerk liberal Canadians just could not get over their nostalgia for the ABM Treaty, as well as their visceral dislike of missile-defense systems.

This interpretation is badly mistaken. The Bush administration made major diplomatic errors in handling this topic with Canada. It asked for blanket endorsement of an open-ended US missile defense program, rather than for specific help with specific technical challenges and defensive weapons. This was a fundamental mistake, and the US has mostly itself to blame for the resulting fallout.

Read the whole thing at http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0303/p09s02-coop.html

This, my friends, is simplistic, apologist nonsense. The writer is clearly unaquainted with the details of Canadian politics. As stated in previous posts, we have a minority government situation which means the federal government has to walk on egg shells around its shriller members. Add to this an upcoming Liberal policy convention that will feature much anti-Americanism and you have the backdrop for the spineless Canadian position on missile defense.

When people talk of "weaponizing space" they do so to give the alarmist impression of nuclear weapons in orbit just waiting to descend - completely subject to computer malfunction or design flaws. If you were to be honest about any such far-off concepts it would be more like a network of satellites and possible laser platforms capable of detonating or crashing an incoming missile but hardly capable of anything more.

Missile Defense FLASH animation

2005-03-02T07:47:00.000-08:00

(Hat tip, Mr. Neutron)

It is a bit on the rudimentary side but speaking as someone who has worked extensively with FLASH, this took hours to do and shows the strength of a man's convictions:

http://www.piddingworth.com/norad.html

Word Up

2005-03-02T07:36:00.000-08:00

John Gibson
FOX NEWS
March 2, 2005
Constant viewers of this program are probably tired of me slapping the Canadians around like a hockey puck -- but what am I supposed to do when they do such dumb things?
It isn't just me, by the way. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice cancelled a meeting with the Canadians in a fit of frustration and pique -- and now the Canadians are running around madly trying to get an appointment with her, which appears to be scheduled for a week from now. What she is mad about -- and what I am mad about -- is that Canada decided it would pull out of the American-sponsored and American-paid-for North American Missile Defense Program This program involves the U.S. building a missile defense system and hopefully being able to shoot down missiles aimed at America -- presumably from some nut job nation like North Korea. There's no question the danger exists. The North Koreans have built the missiles, they have the bomb and they're mad at us. But mysteriously the Canadians pulled out of the deal because public opinion is so anti-American -- specifically so anti-American military. Now here's the rub: North Korean missiles might very well be coming at America over Canada, and a missile defense system might have to shoot down a missile heading our way over Canada. The Canadian prime minister said, "This is our airspace. We're a sovereign nation and you don't intrude on a sovereign nations' airspace without seeking permission." In other words, George W. Bush, kindly give us a call and get our permission before you defend yourself. We won't shoot down missiles aimed at you using our airspace and you may not either unless we say OK. The proper response from Bush ought to be, "Oh yeah? You and whose army?" See, the Canadians don't believe in spending money on an army. What's the point? The Americans are going to defend the continent anyway. Let the dumb Americans pay for it. But now they want us to give a call and ask permission before we defend a maxi 9/11? Canada, c'mon -- Bush invaded a country without your permission. You think he's going to be worried about your sovereign airspace? The Canadians better hope that if the North Koreans fire a missile at the U.S. they gas it up so it doesn't fall short -- if you get my drift. That's My Word.

While many left-centre Canadians openly scoff at FOX News (Al Jazeera was favoured to be seen on cable here before anyone would consider FOX) they do so at their own peril. The opinion expressed by Mr. Gibson is a widely held one in the US and if Canada - no, strike that, the Canadian government prefers short term gain amongst their noisy leftists, they consign us all to long term pain.

For those of you from outside of Canada the missile defense decision coincides painfully with an upcoming Liberal Party convention that will feature the noisiest and most clueless elements (the youth wing) sounding off right and left. With a minority government, PM Dithers preferred to let our traditional allies twist in the wind (After all the missile defense shield is going to happen anyway) than to alienate a handful of placard waving morons.

Condi Cancels Canada

2005-03-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

CNN - Rice to meet with Canadian diplomats
Tension over Ottawa's stance on anti-ballistic missiles
Tuesday, March 1, 2005 Posted: 1449 GMT
Condoleezza Rice had originally deferred plans to meet with Canada after they opted out of an anti-ballistic missile shield program.

LONDON, England (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice scheduled a meeting Tuesday with Canadian diplomats amid U.S. disenchantment with Ottawa's decision to opt out of an American-led anti-ballistic missile shield program.
President Bush's top diplomat last week had deferred plans to visit America's northern neighbor early in her tenure at the State Department and U.S. officials made no secret of their disappointment over the Canadian stance.
Canadian diplomats requested a short meeting Tuesday with Rice on the sidelines of an international conference on Palestinian reform, a Bush administration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
As to whether the meeting in Ottawa, once tentatively set for mid-April, was canceled out of pique, deputy State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said that scheduling conflicts were the paramount concern.
"We want to meet the Canadians and they want the meeting," Ereli told The Associated Press by telephone Tuesday. "The Canadians are important partners and we're just nailing down the dates," he said.
Canada announced its decision on the missile defense system last week, setting off a prickly exchange between the U.S. ambassador to Canada and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. U.S.-Canada relations were already clouded by strong Canadian opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq.
An early visit to Canada had been among Rice's early priorities as secretary of state. She plans to visit the United States' southern neighbor, Mexico, next week.
Martin said last Friday that the United States must get permission before firing on any incoming missiles over Canada.
"This is our airspace, we're a sovereign nation and you don't intrude on a sovereign nation's airspace without seeking permission," Martin said.
At the same time, he acknowledged that it was the Americans who would ultimately determine whether to shoot down an incoming missile from a terrorist or a rogue state.
"I don't think that anybody else expected that there would be any other finger on the button other than an American," he said.
Outgoing U.S. Ambassador Paul Cellucci had said in late January: "We think it's in Canada's sovereign interest to be in the room to decide what's going to happen when there's an incoming missile."
He denied media reports that Bush had told Martin that a future president might question why American taxpayers were funding Canadian defense if Ottawa wasn't supporting the U.S. missile shield.
Reports indicated that Bush waved off attempts by Martin to explain how contentious the issue was, as leader of a minority government in a country opposed to the U.S. war in Iraq.
Cellucci, who will wrap up his four-year term in March, said he attended the meeting between Bush and Martin on November 30 and called the reports overblown.
"It was not bullying," Cellucci told reporters after giving a speech on U.S.-Canadian relations on January 26. "It was just a discussion. The president was looking at where the opposition was coming from. He was looking for answers."
Stockwell Day, the Conservative Party's foreign affairs critic, ridiculed Martin's position that Washington would have to alert Ottawa before shooting down a missile.
"These missiles are coming in at 4 kilometers ( 2.5 miles) a second, and if the president calls the 1-800 line and gets: `Press 1 if you want English, press 2 if you want French, press 0 if nobody's there ...' I mean, it's crazy."

There is a clear message here, and one that Canadians should pay attention to. This is also a classic example of how in our left-leaning group think, Canadians miss the boat on any number of issues we could resolve with the US. Missile defense cooperation? Well, how about the soft wood lumber problems in the Free Trade agreement? Its called leverage and since the missile defense program is going to go ahead no matter what, why squander it?

More on Missile Defense

2005-02-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

Mon, February 28, 2005
Missile move OK with Yanks?
By MARIA McCLINTOCK, Parliamentary Bureau

Defence Minister Bill Graham insisted yesterday that Canada-U.S. relations won't suffer a setback over the decision not to join the controversial American missile defence program. Graham's argument came as the New York Times yesterday reported that some U.S. policy experts see Prime Minister Paul Martin's rejection of the program differently.
"Of course they would have preferred we sign on, but I don't believe our failure or our decision not to sign on, but to work more actively in other areas, will have a disastrous consequence on our relationship with the United States," Graham said on CTV's Question Period.
"It's a far too textured, far too multi-layered, far too mutually interdependent relationship. Just remember for 38 states of the United States, Canada is their principle trading partner."
Last fall, Graham made public statements indicating it would be a serious mistake for the government not to be at the table with the Americans.
"In a cabinet system where people advocate things, sometimes you win arguments and sometimes you don't. The fact of the matter is I'm very comfortable with the decision the prime minister took," he said.
But a report in the New York Times suggested Martin's decision could tarnish the relationship that he's been attempting to mend.
David J. Bercuson, directory of the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary told the Times that Martin's decision represents a "big departure."
"Anytime we have had a major evolution in North American defence policy since 1940, the two countries have been together," he told the Times.

No worries about alienating our principle allies and trading partner. Hell, we've already completely alienated ourselves so what's one more screw up, right?

Norad? Too bad

2005-02-25T11:38:00.000-08:00

Opting out of missile defence could alter Norad: ex-general

Stephen Thorne

Canadian Press
Thursday, February 24, 2005

OTTAWA (CP) - The federal government's decision to opt out of the contentious U.S. missile defence program will freeze Canada out of critical decision-making in its own defence, says Norad's former deputy chief.
But retired lieutenant-general George MacDonald says while Canada's role in the North American Air Defence Command might ultimately change, it won't end.
"Canadians will not have any participation in the actual decision-making or the rules of engagement or anything to do with ballistic missile defence," the former vice-chief of defence staff and now a consultant says.
"We will simply be feeding the system. And the question that ultimately may be asked is whether this is still an important mission for Norad to do."
At some point, MacDonald says, the U.S. might want to lop off Norad's role in the warning element of missile defence, thereby completely excluding Canada from the process.
An August 2004 amendment expanded Norad's mission, allowing Canadians at Norad headquarters to interpret and transfer U.S. satellite and radar data about incoming missiles to officials at the missile defence system, the United States Northern Command.
The two commands, located side-by-side at Cheyenne Mountain, Col., issued a two-sentence, joint statement Thursday saying Canada's Norad role has not been "diminished."
"U.S. Northern Command will have operational control of the GMD system once the president and the U.S. secretary of defence declare a limited operational capability," said the statement.
The current system employs no ground-based stations on Canadian soil, nor would it necessarily if Canada had signed on, said MacDonald.
"I think over time the Norad mission in this area will atrophy, that it will become less important to the Americans and the Canadians will be gradually eased out of it," he said in an interview.
"If Canadians can only do part of that mission, does it make sense for them to do any of it? I think that will be the ultimate question."
Canada would have played a similar role in nuclear retaliatory decisions of U.S. presidents since the two countries first signed the Norad agreement in 1958, by furnishing information but not decisions, he noted.
What is important for Canada at this stage, he said, is to remain engaged in other elements of defensive co-operation and collaboration - namely anti-terrorism and traditional sea and air surveillance and defence.
"One would hope that the bilateral defence relationship will become even stronger, although the lack of our participation in ballistic missile defence does create some uncertainty."
Informal talks have started on possibly expanding the Norad agreement to include land and sea defences.

And there is barely any talk about how we are slowly cutting our ties with Norad in the Canadian news today. What a surprise.

Sugar Daddy has got the cheque - again

2005-02-25T06:40:00.000-08:00

PM draws fire over missiles

He won't sign on, but wants to be consulted before launches; U.S. ambassador says no.
By BRIAN LAGHI AND DANIEL LEBLANC
Friday, February 25, 2005 - Page A1

OTTAWA -- Prime Minister Paul Martin said yesterday that Canada has to be involved in any U.S. decision to shoot down an enemy missile in Canadian airspace, but the American ambassador said the country had given up its right to be involved in any such decision.
Paul Cellucci, the U.S. ambassador, made the remarks just after Mr. Martin officially announced Canada would not join the controversial missile-defence shield.
"We will deploy," Mr. Cellucci said. "We will defend North America.
"We simply cannot understand why Canada would in effect give up its sovereignty, its seat at the table, to decide what to do about a missile that might be coming towards Canada."
Moments earlier, Mr. Martin had told reporters he expected the United States to consult with Canada.
"Canada is a sovereign nation and we would expect and insist on being consulted on any intrusion into our space," Mr. Martin said.
He did not explain what kind of consultation he expects out of the Americans in the event of a missile attack, and federal officials refused to expand on the scenario.

So lets get this straight. The US will pay to defend us but we want to be consulted before missiles are used? Apart from the obvious pandering to a constituency of small L liberals who want to make granola and not war this is a classic example of the Canadian world "vision". The United States is under nuclear attack but they have to phone us for permission to defend themselves. Maybe we'll convene a bipartisan panel to study the idea. By the time the missiles start slamming home, we might even have a mission statement.

Nevermind that it is a complete given that any force capable of attacking the US with missiles would automatically take out most of Canada to prevent the US using it as a safe haven. Ottawa is just as surely targeted as Washington.

Governor General's Moonbattery

2005-02-24T10:11:00.000-08:00

Stanley Cup should be awarded in women's hockey: Governor General

Canadian Press
February 22, 2005

OTTAWA (CP) -- Gov. Gen. Adrienne Clarkson says the Stanley Cup is important to all Canadians and if the National Hockey League won't award it this year, it should be the top prize in women's hockey.
She thinks the trophy should be awarded to the winner of a showdown between the national women's teams from Canada and the United States, and the winners would get to parade the cup in their hometowns.
"Why not?" she told the Globe and Mail in an interview. "Women's hockey has come along so far in the last few years."
Clarkson holds the office that created the Stanley Cup in 1892, by then governor general Lord Stanley of Preston.
The NHL cancelled the 2004-05 season last week after failing to reach a collection bargaining agreement with its players.
However, under current rules, the Stanley Cup can only be awarded to an NHL team.
Brian O'Neill, one of the two trustees in charge of the Stanley Cup, said there's no legal way the trophy could be awarded for another competition "under the present terms of the agreement we have with the National Hockey League."
"It's really sad not to see it competed for," he said, "but under the terms of our agreement, there's no basis under which we could take it back and say that someone else is going to compete for it.
"The only way it would (happen) was if the league decided it didn't want to compete for it any more -- or the league went defunct," he said.
"Then the Stanley Cup would revert to the trustees and they would have to decide how to deal with it at that point."
Still, Clarkson says the Cup belongs to Canada.
She has already made tentative contact with the cabinet of Prime Minister Paul Martin, although it's hoped her plan would go ahead with good will and not politics.

If there is any possible way to undermine Canadian traditions, you can bet a liberal will bring it up. It takes a minimum of 4 best of 7 playoff series to win the Stanley Cup, the most storied trophy in pro sports history. At best, you'd have to play 16 bone-jarring, high intensity games. At the most, 28. And people want to award the Stanley Cup to the winner of a two team, one shot women's hockey tournament? Disgusting. While women's hockey has made leaps and bounds, our Olympic champion gold medalists were recently shown the door 5-2 against a men's AA midget team made up of 17 year olds.

Purest insanity.

The State of the Nation

2005-02-23T10:14:00.000-08:00

More than a thousand years afterwards, historians still argue about what caused the fall of Rome. That the Roman Empire declined and fell is not in question, but what caused the demise of one of the world’s greatest and most enduring empires is still debated. A strong case can be made that over time, the Romans became complacent and their once iron vigilance abated. The highly disciplined and lethal citizen armies of the early Republic, willing to close with their enemies in hand-to-hand combat slowly over time gave way to armies largely made up of mercenaries and allies. As their material wealth and freedoms grew, they lost the sense that the state could expect their service for the greater good. Without ever noticing the trend, the Romans grew weak and the unthinkable occurred – they were destroyed – not with a single act or event, but over time. The combination of complacency and lack of courage ended their empire. Canada is no empire. One of our country’s greatest strengths is that we seek no empire. We seek to be friends with the world and do business with the world. We have been known as honest brokers and friendly competitors. And yet in the short period of time from the end of World War II to today’s date – a mere 60 years in the course of time, we have become unrecognizable to the country we once were. If you were to tell the brave men that hit the beaches on D-Day that we would one day shun our traditional allies they would have called you mad. If the fathers of those men, who stormed Vimy Ridge were told that the day would come when we would side with France sooner than Britain, they would have said it was a lie – a damnable lie that filled their eyes with tears. And yet, this has come to pass – like the Romans, almost imperceptibly, complacently, and gradually. What man, what soldier, stepping off a troop ship in 1945 to meet his grateful family would ever, in a thousand years, dream it possible that in his grandson’s day the great issues in the public square would be gay marriage and legalizing recreational drugs? Could that man’s family even comprehend the idea of the government ladling out billions of taxpayer dollars to fund a national daycare program? These are not the sole issues of the day but they are very representative of the state of affairs in Canada. Gay marriage, legalized drugs and national daycare all have one common denominator. They are “me” first issues. They represent a society where everything is okay – nothing is wrong or questionable. If I feel a certain way about something – anything – that’s okay. I have the right to “feel” anyway I like. Step back from today’s Canada. Take a look at what we have become. When did we reach the point where we expect the government to coddle us from cradle to grave? When did it become someone else’s responsibility to take care of my children? It sounds ridiculous and it would astound your grandfather if he was told after getting off his troop ship in 1945 but the day will soon come when two gay men can smoke pot at their wedding reception while taxpayer’s dollars pay for their adopted child to be in daycare. Madness? No, sadly it is fact. Who lead us to this sorry point where Canada is now a laughing stock militarily and completely ignored on the world stage? A variety of shortsighted political characters, no doubt, but the citizens of our country shoulder the lion’s share of the blame. How could we permit this to happen? How did we become so slothful and complacent? These questions need answers, but more so, they need actions to remedy the sickness Canada has gradually fallen under. June 6th, 1944 was D-Day. The Canadian contigent on that great day was so large that we not only had our own beach, Juno beach, but also contributed to Sword beach where the British were landing. The 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade of the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division landed on Juno beach. Bear that in mind – a full infantry brigade . We can now barely commit a single battalion anywhere in the world and if we do so, we have to lease the planes from a foreign country to take them to the theatre of war. Perhaps you would prefer to wave me off and shake your head, and go about your business. Suit yourself. After all, being Canadian now means looking after yourself and nobody else, and damn the future. Our grandfathers built a wonderous, free country. What are we going to leave our grandchildren?

Thought we grew a spine there for a minute...

2005-02-22T14:16:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

DID WE SUDDENLY WISE UP?

ANNE DAWSON
CanWest News Service
Wednesday, February 23, 2005

The federal Liberals are poised to make the largest single investment in Canada's cash-strapped military in more than two decades today when Finance Minister Ralph Goodale announces he will boost the Armed Forces budget by more than $12 billion over the next five years.

THEN AGAIN, MAYBE NOT...

ALEXANDER PANETTA
OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin will deliver a firm No to Canadian participation in the U.S. missile defence plan and break a lengthy silence that fomented confusion on both sides of the border.

The announcement, first reported by a radio station and confirmed by federal officials Tuesday night, will come Thursday and end a streak of obfuscation where Martin refused to state Canada's position.
News of the announcement follows a day of confusion on Parliament Hill after Frank McKenna, Martin's choice to be the next ambassador to the U.S., sparked a political firestorm by saying participation in the controversial continental missile defence system is a done deal.
The end of Martin's silence will come as an about-face for a prime minister who had repeatedly stated his support for missile defence when he was a Liberal leadership candidate barely a year ago.

I am shocked - shocked! Prime Minister Martin truly has earned his nickname as Mr. Dithers. But its all in a day's work here in Canada. After all, why pay for expensive things like your own defense when the grow-your-own-clothes set will be livid if we co-operate with the Great Satan?
-----------------------------------------------------

Mark Kennedy and Mike Blanchfield
CanWest News Service


Sue Bailey And Joan Bryden
Canadian Press