Your Daily Nazi: Important News On Your Ward News

I wrote last year:

So there's an T.O. East End Newspaper called Your Ward News.  From what I gather its mostly a direct mail affair; the publisher, a guy named Leroy St. Germaine, has Canada Post deliver it to folks down in Ward 31 (The Beaches).  It has apparently always been a bit flaky/racist, but the last couple of issues have seen a guy named James Sears gradually taking over, until recently he was appointed "Editor in Chief". And he has taken the publication "Full Nazi": articles promoting holocaust denial by old Heritage Front members; articles praising Adolf Hitler; articles promoting "white pride". The works.

Since then various people have taken various actions to make these guys stop publishing or get Canada Post to stop delivering them.  For example, local businesses advertising in the paper were contacted and asked to pull their classifieds.  This worked, more or less;  Sold space within the publication has declined.  But Your Ward has continued, and Canada Post has continued to distribute it.

Last week Canadian Civil Rights lawyer Richard Warman filed a human rights complaint against Canada Post, supported by numerous other luminaries.   You can find the actual paperwork at WK's place through the last link.  My favorite bit from it is:

It looks better if you click on the image, I think.

Anyway, this may be an interesting lesson in how to file this kind of complaint after the repeal of Section 13 of the CHRA.  Lets do a quick walk-through of the sections invoked.

Section 5:

5 It is a discriminatory practice in the provision of goods, services, facilities or accommodation customarily available to the general public

(a) to deny, or to deny access to, any such good, service, facility or accommodation to any individual, or

(b) to differentiate adversely in relation to any individual,

on a prohibited ground of discrimination.

This is invoked, as I understand it, to cover the discriminatory treatment of members of the public who are forced to receive the hate mail in question.

Section 7:

7 It is a discriminatory practice, directly or indirectly,

(a) to refuse to employ or continue to employ any individual, or

(b) in the course of employment, to differentiate adversely in relation to an employee,

on a prohibited ground of discrimination.


1976-77, c. 33, s. 7; 1980-81-82-83, c. 143, s. 3(F).

This suggests an infringement on the rights of the letter carriers forced to deliver the hate-mail.  It's worth noting that CUPW supports Warman's complaint.

Sections 12 & 14:

12 It is a discriminatory practice to publish or display before the public or to cause to be published or displayed before the public any notice, sign, symbol, emblem or other representation that

(a) expresses or implies discrimination or an intention to discriminate, or

(b) incites or is calculated to incite others to discriminate

if the discrimination expressed or implied, intended to be expressed or implied or incited or calculated to be incited would otherwise, if engaged in, be a discriminatory practice described in any of sections 5 to 11 or in section 14.

1976-77, c. 33, s. 12; 1980-81-82-83, c. 143, s. 6.

&:

14 (1) It is a discriminatory practice,

(a) in the provision of goods, services, facilities or accommodation customarily available to the general public,

(b) in the provision of commercial premises or residential accommodation, or

(c) in matters related to employment,

to harass an individual on a prohibited ground of discrimination.

12 concerns discriminatory notices.  If you are willing to publish/distribute this level of anti-semitic, anti-black, anti-whatever hate, its basically indicating to the people you deliver it to that you will likely discriminate and that they should too.

And, again, he various subsections of 14 cover discriminating against those members of the public who receive and must deliver this hate literature.

*

So it will be interesting to see how this all plays out, in the absence of the now repealed Section 13 of the CHRA.  Richard does not instigate frivolous complaints.  As for Your Ward, finding the on-line version is easy enough if you want to take a look.

I imagine getting it delivered to your mailbox is like recieving uncovered, unsolicited pornography (indeed some of the images in the publication shade towards porn).  Its basically a sick joke being played by a few white supremicists on the folks down in The Beaches.  Hopefully this will put an end to it.

Should Anonymous Identify Rehtaeh Parsons' Tormentors?

WK ignited a crap storm yesterday when he tasked the hackivist group Anonymous with finding the identity of  four male teens who allegedly assaulted Miss. Parsons. Anon now claims to have done just that.  Furthermore, they have threatened to name names should it become apparent that the Nova Scotia authorities intend to do nothing further in what appears on the face of it to have been a case of gang-rape and subsequent cyber-bullying of the rape victim.

Some writers, like Chris Selley, have suggested that Kinsella and others are engaged in dangerous vigilantism.  I don't think so.

One thing that seems to have been overlooked is that much of the bullying took place over Facebook and other on-line forums.  Presumably Anon has IDed the four by digging through their on-line traces, and presumably, should they reveal their identities, they will do this on the basis of the material they have found, perhaps by re-publishing it.  If so, they will merely be regurgitating public statements made by the four suspects. I see nothing wrong with that.  I certainly don't see how it qualifies as vigilantism.

In fact, I think Selley and co. are ignoring the free speech angle in all of this.  They are essentially telling Anonymous (or whoever might identity the four males, as apparently there is more that one group looking for them) to self-censor the results of their on-line investigative work.  This is particularly hypocritical in Selley's case; he has always ready to go to the wall for the right to spew hate speech.  He is now asking that folks who may be in a position to forward the cause of Justice to keep their mouths shut.  That's hypocrisy of the worst sort.

PS. Dawg has a good post on this.

Rise Teenage Jesus...Or Fall!

WK says Justin Trudeau is going to run!  Great news?  Potentially.  If the guy can perform long-term.  But Justin's fucked a few things up in his time as MP, in ways that have made folks (me included) question his maturity and readiness. I won't get into specifics, but history may be repeating itself. WK says:

I am told the Trudeau campaign will make a point of insisting that all of the team (or its bosses) are under age 40. If accurate, that is the stupidest idea I have ever heard.

So the guy supposed to save the LPoC is going to, as his first act as a  leadership potential, step on a rake and smack himself in the head, according to WK.  Don't do it Justin!  And if you insist, Liberals should consider voting for The Spaceman.  Less hair, more gravitas.

Far Right Head Exploding Device

Richard Warman watching Warren Kinsella's band play for the troops at Camp Pendleton‏.  I have warned Warren about playing that kind of music in front of men with guns, but its not my problem.  Also, congrats to Richard on his recent promotion.

Nathan Cullen Testifies

The most LPoC friendly Dipper lays it out:

[Nathan Cullen's] proposal is simple: In the next campaign, the goal would be to choose joint candidates in the ridings now held by Tory MPs. The decision about whether to co-operate with another party would be left up to the local riding association.

If it works, card-carrying New Democrats, Liberals and Greens would gather in their constituency to choose a single candidate from one of the parties to run head-on against the Conservative.

"If it works" is a big if.  In my extremely limited experience of riding level politics, the further you go down in the party structure the bigger the divas get, clutching their tiny allotment of power close and closer.  It wouldn't surprise me if the local riding associations reject this scheme en masse, preferring to fight the good fight under whatever party banner and lose rather than compromise and win.

No.  A merger of parties has to be like a merger of companies. The lower-downs don't get a choice.   Efficiencies have to be achieved and, unfortunately, people have to be fired or otherwise wrenched from their entitlements.  Like Harper did with the Alliance and the Federal PCs. 

Its painful.  I'm not sure how much some of the merger cheerleaders realize this.

Kicking Ass In Canadian Politics

Alright, I'm a bit late to this.  Warren K carves Brian Lilley a new one in this Sun TV interview.  Notice though how hard it is to cut through an ignorant asshole's (Lilley's) stream of bullshit.  Many progressives think it can be done via elegant erudition.  It can't .  WK knows you gotta be there for the whole 15 rounds, or six plus minutes or so, and keep pounding them.  Politics isn't like chess, where you check-mate 'em.  It's like WWI, where you slowly crush their will to resist.

Too bad this interview didn't happen on CBC or CTV or the yuletide log channel where people might see it.  Kudos to WK nevertheless.

WK Explains

...why the Steve Paiken puff-piece in the G&M is crap.  A couple of points I would add.

1) Kathy Shaidle is not a conservative.  She's a racist.  The evidence for that is overwhelming.  Mr Paiken and the writers at the G&M do conservatives no favours by eliding the distinction.

2) I have no problem with anyone attempting to deny Ms. Shaidle a pay-cheque or a soap-box, and  I'd like to think I've got her tossed out of a venue or two in my time.  My taxes pay Mr. Paiken's salary, and it appalls me that he would use them to promote trash on TVO.

3)  WK is talking about taking this case to the Ontario Press Council.  I say do it.  Pigs don't regulate themselves.

Reality Stomps On Tory Good News Story Of The Day!

Real gross domestic product decreased 0.2% in February following a 0.5% increase in January. Manufacturing and, to a lesser extent, wholesale trade were the main sources of the decline. The decrease in manufacturing resulted in a 0.6% decline in goods-producing industries.

Actually, one months data doesn't mean much, but nevertheless every piece economic good news in the hands of a party that's running on its economic record  is a weapon.  Instead, the last weekend before election 41 Stephen Harper just got handed the equivalent of a bag full of crap. 

Interesting too, that growth going forward is expected to be pretty sub-standard, all based on high-gas prices and a lousy U.S. housing market.  If I were Jack Layton, I might want to let the Tories bleed a little before dropping them and forming the Layton/Rae coalition. 

Or perhaps, because he says he's going to run for something, the Layton/Kinsella coalition.

What Goes Around, Comes Around, And Then Goes Around Again, And Then Comes Back Up

Somewhere on a beach in Florida, the Dark Prince is laughing.

PS. I note that a pic exists from the actual awards ceremony!

Does Jason Kenney ever shave before 6PM?

Vaughan By-Election Poll

Haven't seen this graphic make the rounds too much. It's from here, from a couple of days ago. I mention it because, while listening to WK play at Cherry Cola's last night, one of his Lib insider buddies told me the poll was horsehit and Fantino would carry the seat based on the support of suburban Rob Ford types. Maybe. I thought, however, that Julian F. would be up by a mile in any published survey, and so I will interpret this one as good news.

As for SFH, they're not bad at all. WK sells them short a bit, I think. Also, he was playing a pretty violin shaped bass like the one McCartney used...you know, the cute Beatle. Also: nice t-shirts.

Sell Your Shares In Quebecor NOW!!!

CALGARY, ALBERTA, Oct 22, 2010 (MARKETWIRE via COMTEX) -- Gemini-nominated journalist Krista Erickson, and columnist Ezra Levant are the latest additions to the growing SUN TV NEWS team. Pierre Karl Peladeau, President and CEO of Quebecor Inc., Quebecor Media Inc. and Sun Media Corporation made the announcement today speaking to the Economic Club of Canada in Calgary. Krista Erickson joins the hard news team as a reporter and daytime news anchor. Ezra Levant will bring his outspoken nature to prime time as a straight talk host.

Gentleman, start your lawsuits...

Seriously, though, I have a thousand jokes where the punchline is "Ezra Levant". If I use three a day, I will probably be getting near the end when the whole sad Fox News North spectacle takes its final shit and dies.

And Kinsella will get clear of it somehow. That's the good news. He'll probably be loaning the other FNN crew money when the whole thing goes TU because of his generous nature. Although so far I personally have seen none of this fabled generous nature of his. Not even one beer. But whatever.

Warren Kinsella Boards The Hindenburg

I am informed that Warren is independently wealthy (though personally I have seen no evidence of this. Nada! Not a sniff!), so I suspect that he will be able to rise, phoenix-like, from the flames and smouldering ruin that Fox News North will quickly become. And when Warren is at the cottage next summer, his feet up and his time once again unencumbered by journalistic duties, he will look back upon his experience with the new and yet utterly defunct network and file it away under "fleeting, very fleeting".

Good Luck Warren! May you be spared the humiliation and failure that will soon descend upon Fox News North like a dark blanket of night!

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.

CHRC Against Census Changes

Not that this will change minds among the recalcitrants. But worth noting anyway.

First, You Must Kill Warren Kinsella...

...if you (the LPoC) want to get back the Evangelical vote.

From "Canadian Evangelical Voting Trends by Region, 1996–2008", on why Evangelical voters have trended Tory:

First, when the Canadian Alliance was formed in 2000, it elected Stockwell Day, an evangelical Christian, as its leader. During the 2000 general election campaign, Liberal Party representative Warren Kinsella appeared on Canada AM, a popular national television program, with a Barney the Dinosaur doll and mocked Stockwell Day’s creationist beliefs, saying, “I just want to remind Mr. Day that The Flintstones was not a documentary.”13 Kinsella would go on to boast, “Of all the things I have done in politics, over many, many years, probably nothing has had the impact of those few seconds on Canada AM.”14 While Evangelicals hold various views on Creation, most understood this as an attempt to denigrate their faith.

While this and other explanations offered in the paper seem a list of the authors' personal set of bitches, whines, and complaints, the fact that Evangelicals have trended Tory over the past ten years seems unassailable. Gruending, for example, has made the same point from a different perspective.

IMHO, the real questions are:

1) are there enough Evangelicals out there to justify a special attempt at outreach?

2) Have the Libs abandoned Evangelicals, or vice versa? Stockwell Day/Preston Manning sold their Evangelicalism as part of the political package you would get out of Reform if you voted that way. Most were unimpressed, but some bought into a point on the ideological spectrum that was not, if I am remembering correctly, previously on offer in Canada, at least not federally. To me, that explains most of the shift (and why, with Evangelicals now firmly in their camp, the Tories cannot break the 40% majority level).

Kinsella Will Be Displeased

Warren gave me crap once for suggesting that Bill C-32, An Act to amend the Tobacco Act, which would prohibit the sale of flavoured tobacco products in Canada, was light-weight stuff in the grand scheme of Politics. Now, my favorite Tory Senator, Elaine McCoy, has expressed more substantive doubts over the legislation:

As to cigarillo consumption, specifically, Health Canada only has two years of data and therefore trend lines cannot be reliably discerned as yet. However, the latest survey clearly demonstrates that most Canadians who buy and consume flavoured tobacco products are of legal age to do so. The other incontrovertible fact that CTUMS reveals is that 12,100 fewer children smoked cigarillos in 2008 as compared to 2007. And although cigarillo consumption increased overall, the only age cohort which escalated its usage in this time period was young adults between the ages of 20 and 24.

On the other hand, I find myself in general agreement with this analysis from her comment section:

...not so much wrong as based on a hypothesis or two (for which they don't YET have data): that big tobacco MAY use ads to target young people, which would INCREASE smoking rates, and THUS to prevent this, the legislation is required.

I think these hypotheses are not completely unfounded; evidence LIKELY exists (I'm guessing here, not having looked into this) that sweet, fruity alcoholic drinks (fizzy drinks) had similar studies/issues raised about them.

The "precautionary principle" is likely hard at work here (where Health Canada is concerned).

So the real debate may be more about whether one feels the precaution is worth the curtailing of rights. I'm fine with it, myself.

Mind you, its still small-bore stuff.

Chasing Kinsella

Remember the "cat's meat" mini- scandal and the CCCA (Chinese-Canadian Conservative Association), that did so much to keep it in the news:

The unidentified CCCA member, however, said the group actually had been contacted by the PMO with suggested "talking points" and asked to hold the press conference.

The PMO did that? Don't they have an economic collapse to manage or something?

(PS. Overall, a good piece on the news behind the news, as it were. I always like reading about the various community groups and how they interact/connect-up with the larger political parties. This one is run by Alex Yuan, P.C. candidate for Richmond Hill).

Ezra Invokes The Elders Of Zion

Apparently, they're the ones that stepped in and got Kinsella fired from the CJC:

That letter is an after-the-fact attempt at spin by Kinsella. In February, he threatened to blackball and bad-mouth the Canada-Israel Committee, a sister organization to the Canadian Jewish Congress. The Jewish community's central advocacy agency ordered Kinsella off the CJC. He asked to 'resign' instead of being fired, just to save face. But fired he was.

Yo Ez, who exactly is on the Jewish community's central advocacy agency? Freud? Jesus? Wittgenstein? Ron Jeremy? And do they live on UFOs over the Jewish quarter of Montreal, or what? And as a non-Jew, can I join? Do I get a cash card that never runs out? What's the deal?

Ezra Caught In Another

No, The CJC did not fire Kinsella.

Caught in two really. Here we have a case from the BCHRT in which the complainant was ordered to pay costs (full decision, which I have not read yet, can be found here) to the respondents for a specious claim. But wait! According to The Ez, that isn't supposed to happen!

As well, the natural check on American-style over-litigation – the financial, time and emotional cost of suing, and the risk of costs being awarded to the defendant – were not in play. The government of Alberta carried the investigation against us, and, had the case not been dismissed, would have prosecuted us before a tribunal. The complainants didn’t have to spend a dime or a minute – and the law prohibited me from collecting costs when I won.

Actually, I thought Ezra had scored a legitimate point with this argument. And I am still unsure of how the various HRCs may or may not be allowed to ding a complainant if their case does not meet the standard. But apparently it can happen.

Kinsella Speaks To Jewish Defense League

I attended the JDL open meeting last night and wanted to report that there was a surprise special guest who came to check it out and speak briefly to the audience: WARREN KINSELLA. Mr Kinsella spoke about the Galloway affair, the disturbing escalation of antisemitism in Canada and around the world, and the connection between radicalization of societies coinciding with economic recessions. There was also a Liberal party MPP there. I highly recommend to those of you who live in the GTA region to come out to one of these meetings - you never know who might turn up!

WK hinted at this yesterday, and I am sure he knows what he is doing. But the JDL looks imho to be a gang of nutters, and their leader Meir Weinstein, well, a nutter with something of a dark streak.

Recent events have shown that I don't have a particularly deep insight into the Jewish character, nor into the interplay between and among the various groups/individuals interested in these issues, like WK, the CJC, BB, JDL and so forth.

Someone explain this to me, please.

Update: I am told this was NOT a JDL gathering, but a "public meeting at the Zionist Centre".

Update 2: Yariv from the comments:

The problem for the most part with the Canadian version of the JDL is that it wears the cloak of its American counterparts.

In the USA the JDL is seen as a terrorist group. It has no such history here. It is to be sure well right of centre but it has as well a curious Canadian type of history. For example back in the days of Zundel, Keegstar and the Heritage Front the Canadian JDL marched arm in arm with ARA in ridding Toronto streets of neo-Nazis.

Its just not that black and white BCL. So while I am no fan of the JDL, given the upsurge in anti-Semitism there are many Jews wanting to take more direct action than their mainstream representatives like the CJC. So a small but vocal group gravitate to the JDL. I have seen nothing to date that would label the Canadian version as extremist or racist in their latest incarnation. To be sure they are strongly Zionist very much on that bright flank of Zionism. But then again so are many other Jews. The JDL is only a loud and very vocal expression of that and if they cross over the line, even the mainstrema has spoken out.

Look at the time that someone at a JDL rally tried to compare Sid Ryan with Hitler (Ryan is many things but a Hitler?), the CJC went on record to denounce such a comparision.So while I may not have counseled WK to attend this meeting, that he has does not put him outside the pale in my view.