World Travel Watch: Stay Outta T.O.

Residents complained of the stench and visitors were surprised to see the mounds of trash throughout the city that is known for its cleanliness.

Other destinations on the "Don't Go There!" list include North Africa and Honduras. Under mayor Miller, Toronto really has become "world class".

Harper At The G-8

G-8, G-20...who cares? When you gotta go, you gotta go.

(PS. Who'd have thought I would be able to use the same gag twice in one year?)

Dean Steacy Gets Another Opportunity To Sue People

Russ Hiebert, Conservative nobody for South Surrey-White Rock-Cloverdale, repeats charges to the effect that Mr. Steacy committed a criminal act:

Further, uncontradicted expert evidence presented before the hearing demonstrated that investigator Steacy illegitimately used an unsuspecting private citizen's wireless Internet service to post his offensive comments.

...charges that the RCMP and Privacy Commission dismissed several months back.

And the fact that Hiebert's piece seems as though it was ghost-written by Ezra (note the "uncontradicted...evidence" silliness that appears several times on Levant's blog) doesn't help Mr. Hiebert's claim that he is building his case from tribunal documents.

And, finally, a note to Mr. Steacy: sue these pricks. Sue as many of them as you want. I'll put up a donation button and slip you $5 myself.

Buckets gives Mr. Hiebert a thorough deconstructing here.

HRCs Cleared Again!

Comments re HRC "abuse" of power pulled from CRTC policy opinion. Opinion's author clearly read Shakedown a 2nd time, realized--"Hey! This is all bullshit!" Speechies left sucking rocks. Booyah!

Do They Hate Gays, Or Just Torontonians, Or Just Gay Torontonians?

But in his criticism of his colleague, [Brad Trost] did not mention his government funds Saskatoon's Pride parade. The Saskatoon Diversity Network received $9,000 from Canadian Heritage this year for last June's Pride Festival.

h/t Roy in comments.

Anyone know if Trost appeared at this?

Brad The Impaler

When he's not sticking it to his fellow Tories, how does Brad Trost, Conservative Member of Parliament for the riding of Saskatoon—Humboldt, spend his days?

Trying to defund International Planned Parenthood, of course. He's got a petition to the HOC going that would cut their government funding. One thing he's pissed off about:

The IPPF does not support physicians' freedom to practice according to their conscience and/or religious beliefs regarding abortion referral.

Note we're talking abortion referral here, not abortion per se. Brad thinks Christian docs should be able to refuse to even tell women seeking abortions where they might get one. IPP's declaration on the matter reads:

5.3 Health care professionals have the right to conscientious objection with regard to providing contraception and abortion services only if they can refer the client to health professionals willing to provide the service immediately. No such right exists in emergency cases where lives are at risk.

But that ain't good enough for Brad.

Note that IPP is funded through CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency). That's Bev Oda's department...for now. Keep your head down, Bev.

Is The Calgary Stampede Next?

After Diane Ablonczy got herself politically perished for handing out government cash to the gays, the Harper Tories are moving to ensure something like that doesn't happen again:

“We’re in the midst of doing a review of the program and that review is to ensure that the funding is providing genuine stimulus to the economy and we’ll have to look at it in that light,” [Darren] Cunningham [spokesperson for Industry Minister Tory Clement] said, noting that federal support of the Calgary Stampede and the Vancouver Jazz Festival, for example, are all facing the same review.

Say no more. Say...no...more.

More Dennis Gruending On Lifesite

The controversy may appear to be an internal Catholic matter (it has received virtually no coverage in the mainstream media) but it has broader implications. The nature of Lifesite’s attacks could well hamper the way in which D&P [Development and Peace] conducts is development work in poor countries. Lifesite insists that agencies described as Catholic should be prohibited from being involved in projects related to family planning of any kind, including contraception – and that Catholic groups be prohibited from associating with other organizations who are so involved. Such a policy, if enacted, would prevent Catholic groups from working for justice in many circumstances. This would be a victory for the Catholic right and would signal a return to a form of triumphalism that was supposedly discarded by Vatican II in the 1960s. Accepting this protocol would also set back the cause of women’s rights by decades and place Catholic organizations in the company of some of the world’s most religiously fundamentalist regimes.

Gruending's usual good read.

Alberta Politics Gets More Interesting

The Alberta Alliance

...was a right wing political party in Alberta, Canada. Many of its members were former supporters of the now-defunct Canadian Alliance federal political party and its predecessor, the Reform Party of Canada.

[...]

On January 19, 2008, the party voted to change its name to the Wildrose Alliance Party of Alberta (WAPA) when it merged with the Wildrose Party

Since the merger, Alliance members appear to have turned their old website into a fundraising "tool" for the newly merged political entity.

(Warning! Click At Your Own Risk!!!)

http://albertaalliance.ca/

People have wondered how a small party such as WAPA could raise funds at nearly the same rate as the Alberta PC. Has their secret been discovered? Moreover, WAPA is currently in the midst of a leadership campaign. Will any of the potentials be offering a demonstration?

Its still not enough to get me to move to Calgary, but its a start.

h/t Buckets, who stumbled upon this during the course of...well, I don't know what he was doing, but I'm sure it was legal.

PS. The original emailed link goes to a full-motion advert displaying a couple of Conservative activists showing off the features. Copied, the same link goes to product info. It says alot about the Alberta Zeitgeist, incidentally, that they would name a sex-toy after the "Fleshjack", a small Partridge indigenous to the Fort Mac area. I hear they're good eating.

Has Diane Ablonczy Been Demoted For Being Too Gay Friendly?

Ms. Ablonczy is Canada's Minister of State (Small Business and Tourism). She is also the lady who announced that the Federal government would fund Toronto Pride Week to the tune of $400,000. Now Brad Trost, Conservative Member of Parliament representing the riding of Saskatoon—Humboldt, is saying that this decision has cost her:


Speaking to LifeSiteNews.com from his riding office in Saskatoon today, the 36-year-old Conservative said, "The pro-life and the pro-family community should know and understand that the tourism funding money that went to the gay pride parade in Toronto was not government policy, was not supported by - I think it's safe to say by a large majority - of the MPs. This was a very isolated decision."

Trost also hinted that Minister Diane Ablonczy, who was responsible for the funding, lost the file as a consequence of the embarrassment to the Party. Protesting more than once that there was no "official connection," he said, however, "it should be noted that the file has been reassigned to a different Cabinet Minister since that announcement was made." He added, "The whole tourism program and funding for major tourism events is being reviewed."

Trost claimed that "almost the entire Conservative caucus" including "most of the Prime Minister's Office were taken by surprise at this announcement."


Not sure what "lost the file" means in this context, but the most obvious explanation is that the "Tourism" part of the Small Business and Tourism portfolio has been redistributed to somebody else in what I suppose you might describe as micro-cabinet shuffle.

Also, is "touristic" a word? I think it should be.

PS. Interesting that there is absolutely no mention of this alleged demotion in the MSM. Typically, Lifesite has been used as a kind of Tory back-channel to the SoCon base that they don't really expect anyone else to read. This could well be a load of hooey meant to appease the faithful.

PPS. Ms. O'Malley thinks there might be something to it.

Update: Akin weighs in.

More Fun At York U: Peter Kent, Peter Shurman, And York's Student Elections

The CNW news release is entitled Conservative Politicians and York University Administrators Revealed Interfering in York Student Elections and it kicks off with:

TORONTO, July 6 /CNW/ - Emails secured through a recent Freedom of Information request revealed that Conservative MP Peter Kent, MPP Peter Shurman, and senior York University administrators were interfering in this year's general elections of the York Federation of Students (YFS).

That sounds a bit overblown to me. Picking quickly though the .pdf, it looks like a number of Jewish or perhaps pro-Israeli candidates raised several issues re the "badly flawed electoral process" employed during the 2009 York student elections with MP Peter Kent and MPP Peter Shurman. In response, they made some inquiries with Robert Tiffin, York University's Vice-President of Students, and that's about as far as it went. No results were overturned.

Weird though the Tories are that obsessed with goings-on at York.

Very Much A "Don't Do"

And why the pasternoster has been largely replaced by more modern forms of passenger elevator.

They've Survived The Purge...So Far

But folks aren't happy in Hillier country:

Here is a photo [...] of the Ontario PC Party in the Toronto Pride. … how can you people possibly support such a party.

Any PCPO Reds worried about the impending Day Of The Rope can seek shelter here. Cost you $10.

FreeD John Doe Hires Doug Christie

Farimir (Jason Bertucci), one of the eight anonymous posters involved in Richard Warman's defamation suit against Free Dominion, writes:

I can give a brief update. Doug Christie will be representing me and we will be drafting my statement of defense. And that it is now officially costing me money - I guess that is what RW wanted to happen all along.

Good Luck. You'll need it. Defamation isn't really Christie's thing. This is Christie's thing.

Who Would The Canadian Pirate Party Hurt?

When Conservative MP Rahim Jaffer narrowly lost his seat to the NDP's Linda Duncan in 2008, no less than four groups claimed or were assigned credit for the defeat: radical Islamists, the vote-swapping AnyonebutHarper people, George Soros, and--with at least as much credibility as any of these--Michael Geist's gang of copyright warriors.

Now, The Pirate Party--a Swedish organization dedicated to loosening copyright laws and tightening laws related to Internet and real world privacy-- is contemplating a move into Canada:

Right now, they're a handful of loosely-organized individuals spread across the country. But they want to become an official federal political party within the next few years and get enough support to persuade Parliament to relax proposed copyright laws they say are heavy-handed and a violation of personal privacy.

It would be a mistake to dismiss the impact such a party might have on the Canadian electoral landscape. On September 10th, 2001, probably the biggest news story on the planet was the fate of Napster. Unfortunate events served to wipe their legal problems off the front pages, but as Mr. Geist's rise to prominence in the last couple of years has shown, in Canada there exists a block of potential voters for whom copyright issues are near and dear. One per cent of the populace? Maybe, some day down the road. In June's European Parliament elections The Pirate Party drew a little over seven percent of the Swedish vote, enough for a seat in the EU parliament, after being in existence barely three years.

And its interesting to try and game out which of the extant national parties this addition might hurt. You would think the usual suspects--ie the perennially hapless NDP--but on the other hand Michael Geist has suggested that copyright reform brought out many traditional non-voters during the 2008 election. And there is even a Libertarian slice of the CPoC (Conservative Party of Canada) who might be swayed by their message.

And while, like the Green Party, it is highly unlikely the Pirates could achieve a seat in the House of Commons anytime soon, they might well--like the Green Party--be able to effect some degree of policy change from outside of this venue.

Interesting times indeed.

But The L.A. Times Says NO!

Sarah Palin not under FBI investigation, agency spokesman says

Ah but something's fishy. We'll know what in a day or two.

Sarah Palin Busted For Embezzlement?

Right Here.

My prediction for the media week ahead: Michael Jackson who?

PS. More details here.

Christie Pits: The Garbage Juice Thickens!

Another day without a pesticide spray! City's contracted pesticide guy issued footware not up to toxic swamp inside inner city open air landfill, otherwise known as Christie Pits!

Meanwhile:

...Evidence of an active fly infestation was detected in that fly larvae and adult flies were observed in the exposed putrescible garbage.

Meanwhile, what's Mayor Miller up to? Whatever, it sure hasn't damaged his hair. I mean, that's nice hair. Very thoroughly coiffed.

She Still Doesn't Quite Get This "Murder Is Wrong" Thing

First of all, I'd like to say to Scott Roeder: Just shut up.

You killed a man and lost just about all of your credibility. Quit while you're ahead. Please!

Just about all?

Musical Interlude

...while we wait for some news to happen.

Tom Morello's new band The Street Sweeper's Social Club. Like cut-rate RATM with a different rapper. Video's a bit cheezy.

Free Advise For CUPE Local 416: Kill Your Twitter Feed, Its Counterproductive

Dear children... how is your summer so far? Miss your parks? You don't have to - play with the garbage! Tell your folks local416 sez its OK!

See what I mean? Its been hijacked a la.

(PS. Twitter, You Blow So Hard. The Iranians probably got their asses kicked cuz of you.)

Caledonian MilitiaMan Wins In Court

Gary McHale's name comes up a lot when you're reading about the on-going troubles between native and non-native in Caledonia, usually in a negative context, as for example when Northern Alliance Members show up at his rallies. But one of the tactics that McHale and his followers have employed--laying private charges against native protesters, and against OPP officers who have allegedly failed to arrest or in fact aided native protesters--seems to have borne fruit. The full ruling is here, and the money passage below:

Now, my early morning pre-coffee reading of this ruling suggests it is fairly limited in scope. The police have been telling McHale and co. that, look, these charges are just going to get stayed, so we won't let you lay them in the first place. The judge is saying "no", these are two separate events, and the 2nd (where the charges get stayed) follows the 1st only after a certain amount of processing by the justice system.

So, while the charges McHale files will still get tossed eventually, he will be able to use the justice system to lay a hassle on the police and natives on the other side of the barricades.

Up Next: Silly Hats Made From Asbestos Shingles

More than a little creepy. You can almost imagine Justin carving a flesh strip from a live, squealing seal-pup. What a smile, though!