Happy New Year From Julian Fantino!

The Veterans Affairs department says some veterans are exaggerating their injuries to continue receiving financial benefits from the government and to avoid joining the work force.

Rumour has it he won't run again, the notion being that if he planned to he would have announced already.

I'm not sure if the CPC would be better with or without him.  Most governments aren't really looking for a "Minister of Being A Douche-bag To Veterans", but this version has gotten so bent from its so-called Conservative Principles that they may find something useful about the guy.

Christian Crossroads Communications: A Bash From The Past

From the CBC archives:

Crossroads Christian Communications founder David Mainse speaking at an anti-gay rights rally in 1979.  Ken Campbell also shows up, suggesting that gays are prone to child molestation.  Not much changes with these guys, does it?

Christian Crossroads Previously Dinged By CBSC For Gay-Bashing Show

Christian Crossroads Communications has been in the news recently over this:

A Canadian Christian communications group that does taxpayer-funded development work in Uganda has rejected allegations that it is anti-gay and shares the east African nation's widely-condemned views on homosexuality.

And though they deny being anti-gay, they are the same folks that produce Its Your Call.  This show got taken to the CANADIAN BROADCAST STANDARDS COUNCIL for, well, here's a bit of the media release:

The CBSC’s Ontario Regional Panel examined the complaints under the Human Rights clauses of the CAB Code of Ethics and Equitable Portrayal Code which prohibit abusive or unduly discriminatory commentary on the basis of sexual orientation, as well as the Religious Programming clause of the CAB Code of Ethics which states that programs shall not convey attacks on identifiable groups.  The Panel noted that religious programs are allowed to declare homosexuality a sin, but that It’s Your Call crossed the line by allowing program participants to accuse homosexuals of a malicious “agenda” to “recruit” and “brainwash” children and of having a propensity to commit violent crimes such as rape targeting straight people.

The Panel also concluded that the program contained inaccurate information about various related issues, such as details about Toronto’s school curriculum.  Those inaccuracies violated the Full, Fair and Proper Presentation clause of the CAB Code of Ethics.

And the decision is here.So I am not sure I believe CCC's denials.

Julian Fantino: I Survived A Personal Holocaust And All I Got Was This Lousy Fake Ministry

Explanation here.

Wha Happened, and Whas It All Mean?

Well, not much, but if you had to summarize in a few lines:

The governing Conservatives and opposition Liberals each narrowly picked up a seat from their next weakest opponent in Monday's by-elections, in a set of results that confounded many pundits, took the pressure off Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff, and will be sending NDP strategists back to the drawing board.

There's more there, but nothing I can really contest. Most confounded among the pundits was clearly John Ibbotson, whose piece on the topic sounds like it was written days ago and then hastily revised as last night's results came in. But, make no mistake, while the quantity of Michael Ignatieff's "woes" didn't change much in either direction with these by-elections, they certainly did not--as per Mr. Ibbotson-- increase. And the results are neither a sign of an impending, GTA based Tory majority or a Western breakthrough by the Libs. They are, more or less, random shit that happened.

The Vaughan story is probably the most interesting. PG offers these thoughts on that unusually close race:

Mr. Fantino was not as « imbattabile » as first thought, or was limited in his growth potential by the controversies surrounding Caledonia, his non-participation in an all-candidates meeting, and his refusal to grant media interviews to the CBC and Toronto Star...

Probably a bit of all those things accounted for Fantino's relatively poor performance. It was certainly an interesting fact that the Tories ran a guy that many Tory partisans were uncomfortable with. For example, this Conservative blogger demanded they be pulled from the BT blogroll to protest the Fantino candidacy.

It was also interesting that they were able to win without the support of their hard-cores.

Tony Genco For Vaughan MP: He Promises To Show Up

...for work. Julian Fantino, on the other hand, works when he wants to.

Everyone Hates Julian Fantino

Well, the cancellation of Christie Blatchford's speech at Waterloo has kicked up a mini-kerfuffle, with the University apologizing and Tory MPPs Randy Hillier and Toby Barrett vowing to stand beside the G&M journo when she makes her triumphant return (see an extract from their letter below)

Now, here's the interesting thing: Blatchford was touring behind her new book, Helpless, in which she among other things slags off CPoC candidate for Vaughan Julian Fantino for creating a two tiered justice system during the Caledonia native occupation, where First Nations lawbreakers were set free, and white protesters arrested for legal acts.

So does this mean that provincial Tories Hillier and Barrett support Blatchford's charges against the Conservative candidate for the federal riding of Vaughan?

Interesting that you should ask, because one of the twists and turns in the Caledonia saga involved criminal charges laid against Fantino of attempting to influence a municipal official --Fantino allegedly warned the Mayor of Caledonian and other local officials against supporting activist Gary McHale (now involved in the newly renamed group Against Fantino).

When these charges were dropped, MPP Barrett complained vociferously:

Toby here,

As you may know, we in the Ontario PC Caucus, and people from across Haldimand, have criticized the fact that the Crown has seen fit to drop charges against Julian Fantino.

In fact, this was only one in a series of complaints by Barrett--back in 2008, for example, he wrote of Fantino's failed attempts at intimidation.

Nor was Barrett's ill-feeling towards the then OPP chief an isolated case. As hinted at in the release above, Tim Hudak, head of the PCPO (Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario) and the leader of the province's official opposition, spoke out on behalf of his party about the charges against Fantino:

What we have called for as a PC caucus is for a prosecutor from outside the province to take a look at the evidence and that way people in Caledonia and across our province know that it was done with objectivity.

There is even some suggestion that anti-Fantino emotions existed among federal Conservatives. MP. Diane Finley allegedly signed this anti-Fantino petition back in 2009 (although if you look here you'll see that attempts to confirm her signature failed)

Now, my own take on Caledonia is that Fantino was in tough and did the best he could in a difficult situation. With two excerpts from Helpless now having appeared in the NP (here and here), the worst examples of native law-breaking Blatch seems to have discovered are driving without a seat-belt and riding an ATV without the appropriate license. Not being a Conservative, however, that isn't my problem. If you are a Conservative, you probably hated Julian Fantino's guts...until about a month ago, when the Prime Minister appointed him to your team. And now your trying to pretend that everything is ice-cream.

Talk Jocks Against Fantino

...or at least CFRB’s Jim Richards.

Hmm. By far the most interesting of the by-elections, and an interesting experiment in how much influence the Tory base can have actually moving voters against a candidate that is politically "impure". In other words, Julian Fantino might become the Canadian tea-party's first victim.

Or he might just sail on through unscathed, forcing political nerds to once again contemplate their abject powerlessness.

PS. I keep hearing this claim that Fantino spent a good part of his career making Ontario day-care centers safe from Satanism. What is that about, exactly?

The Tories "Controversial" Candidate For Vaughan

Conservatives Against Fantino rallies today outside of Julian's campaign HQ in Vaughan. They've managed to pick up a surprising amount of media coverage, and while some have criticized them for their lack of ties to either Vaughan or the CPoC (their leader, Gary McHale ran as an indy in Haldimand Norfolk, I believe, and lost badly), their allegations of Fantino's having established a two-tier justice system around Caledonia in the wake of the First Nations/non-aboriginal standoff there seems to have struck a chord with the Tory base.

In other words, we have a Tory candidate that alot of Tories dislike.

Whether Joe and Jane voter care is another story. I doubt they will, but certainly its clear that Mr. Fantino's campaign is off to something of a rough start.

In related news (related because she is clearly one of Julian Fantino's right-wing non-fans) the ARA managed to get three activists on stage before Christie Blatchford was to address a handful of geezers re her new book on the Caledonia Crisis, and prevent her from speaking.

Maybe not worth the candle, given the number of empty seats.

Conservatives Against Fantino Fail...

...to protest. McHale is fighting for a spot on Haldimand Council; Mark Vandermaas has come down with something, and this Tory hardcore would love to challenge Fantino's alleged theories o' two tiered racial justice if he didn't have to work that day. Hundreds of other loyalists would be there if they gave a shit.

*Sigh*.

The Tory grassroots are a bunch of useless fuckups. Just give him the seat now.

Its Official

h/t

PS. WK wonders if the Libs can hold this seat. I wonder if they can find anyone to run.

Tory Turmoil In Vaughan

Looks like a number of Ontario Conservatives have come out against Julian Fantino's soon-to-be-announced run for Tory MP in the upcoming Vaughan by-election. Their beef--his actions(or lack thereof) in regards to Caledonia and the ongoing clashes between non-natives and natives in the area:

Julian Fantino is a symbol of the Race-Based Policing practices in Caledonia that saw innocent property owners victimized with illegal occupations while OPP officers stood guard for those committing the crimes. His candidacy for the Conservative Party would symbolize that the party has fully embraced racialized policing and the dangerous ideology that innocent victims should be controlled, silenced and targeted for arrest as an alternative to enforcing the law against extremist groups. Julian Fantino has shown scarcely believable bias in favour of native criminals all the while using the full weight of his office to try to intimidate peaceful, law-abiding non-natives into compliance.

The two founders of Conservatives Against Fantino are Gary McHale and Mark Vandermaas. McHale especially is a rabble rouser as much as an activist--several members of the Neo-Nazi Northern Alliance appeared at one of their rallies, and his followers have occasionally described themselves as a militia. Although, that said, he has managed to win several small legal victories against the OPP.

Vandermaas writes a blog devoted the ongoing Caledonia standoff. I don't know what if any previous connection to the CPoC these two might have had before launching their website.

My opinion is that Fantino was in tough in Caledonia, and nothing he could have done would have been beyond criticism. He'll also almost certainly take the seat whatever these two guys get up to. But what the heck. My job here is to upset Conservatives.

Julian Fantino--Federal Tory Candidate In Vaughan?

Becoming an MP sounds like having negative momentum, career wise (unless he was quickly made minister of something), but WK knows what WK knows.