When You've Lost The Prison Guards...

...or at least their union....well. I don't know what happens.  But this surely can't be good news for the Harper gov.:

KITCHENER, ON, May 22, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - Dozens of correctional officers working in Ontario penitentiaries who are affiliated with the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO-SACC-CSN) will be going door to door in the riding of Kitchener-Centre on Saturday, May 23, to urge voters not to support the Conservative Party of Canada in the next election. 

My favorite bit:

"The Conservative government claims it's tough on crime. This tough on crime agenda is nothing but smoke and mirrors aimed at reassuring voters," said Robert Finucan, UCCO-SACC-CSN's Ontario regional president.

The Conservative government cut $355 million from the Correctional Service's budget. Hardest hit by these cuts is the inmate training program. One of the consequences of this decision is that penitentiaries have become more dangerous for correctional officers.

That's Stephen Woodworth's riding.  An NDP win might be a stretch, but it used to be LPC...

Rachel Notley Does A Smart Thing

No real budget until fall.  Until after the federal election, Alberta treads water.  And the federal NDP takes no heat for any unpopular measures said budget might contain.  The politics of it can be criticized.  Nevertheless its pretty clever.

Sunday Morning Thought

The Real World also drips. https://t.co/zBAEFSfP47

— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) May 17, 2015

That is all.

NDP Governments Are Always Fun!

Gawd! This gal from the new  Alberta provincial NDP government is giving me flashbacks to Rae Days. Although I don't think Bob Rae had a death-metal chick in caucus, just some guy that posed topless.   Anyway, six months from now her federal counterpart might be Finance Minister. Who knows?  Life is like a box of chocolates, or assorted nuts, when the Orange Wave washes into town.

Your Daily Nazi: PCPO MPP Monte McNaughton In Nazi Leaning Local Newspaper?

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.

Back in March several mail carriers complained to Canada Post about having to deliver the publication, but company lawyers told them it was legal.  Since then the language in Your Ward News has grown more extreme, the Nazi references more obvious.  CP might want to revisit their decision.

In any case the thing is full of ads.  If the post office doesn't reconsider, a move against the publication would surely involve trying to convince some of the people behind these ads to discontinue them in future.

What interests me in particular is their February issue.  At this point they hadn't gone entirely mad yet, but for example Sears' Neo-Nazi New Constitution Party has already taken out a full page ad (back page), and there's an article about the perils of "uncontrolled mass immigration" which concludes:

A peak at their website tells you these folks are crazy.  Apparently, they're the people who recently distributed racist pamphlets up in Brampton.

And then there's this, an anti-wind piece from MPP Monte McNaughton, MPP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex and one time contender for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario:

So, a question that one might put to Mr. McNaughton, or indeed to his new boss PCPO leader Patrick Brown, is: what the hell? McNaughton's campaign was all about catering to the hard right, but this is crazy.  Did he actually pay money to have campaign lit appear in this rag?

I should note that yesterday evening I sent Mr. McNaughton a tweet asking about his relationship to Your Ward News. As of this morning I have not heard back from him.

That Poll...

Its just one poll, and a preliminary result as well.  But pretty damn interesting.  And not entirely surprising given Notley's victory out West.  It will be important to see the regionals.  Given my previous analysis I would not be surprised if the NdD national number depends heavily on gains in the Western provinces.  

The problem for both the LPC and CPC is that the Notley effect--for surely Mulcair and the federal NDP has little to do with this sudden surge--will probably last until after election day, especially if the new Alta. gov. doesn't do anything crazy in its first budget next month.  Not that they won't get attacked by the usual suspects anyway, but they would do well by their federal cousins to present as small a target as possible.  Save the mass beheading of tar-sands executives until next year.

As for the LPC, well, being in a statistical tie a few months out from E-Day is hardly a disaster, and now the Tories may have to start spreading around some of their attack ad money.  Some are advocating panic.  On the other hand my counsel is to maintain a stiff upper lip and plow onward.  

Right Wing Mag Sacks Michael Coren!

His problem?  The Interim could no longer countenance the guy's heterodoxy!  So: Boom!  Coren's outta there, and apparently being replaced by some dude who will natter on endlessly about Free Speech for unborn babies.  Man, its that heterodoxy gets you every time!

Is CBC Hate Speech Story Bullshit?

WK thinks its bullshit, and he's mostly right.  It would be really, really difficult to use CDN hate-speech laws to go after the BDS movement, for reasons he cites.  And there is a long chain of inferences leading from the actual facts as stated in the CBC story to the writer's conclusions.  But on the other hand, why would the ministry explain what "zero tolerance" of the BDS movement meant by referencing "a detailed list of Canada's updated hate laws"?  That is rather odd.

PS.  I had similar concerns as those expressed in the story a few years ago.  I am enlightened in the comments section.

PPS. Reading the thing more closely, I note:

But in response to specific questions about what "zero tolerance" of BDS means, and how it will be enforced, Blaney aide Josee Sirois gave CBC News a much clearer picture of the government's intent.

"I can tell you that Canada has one of the most comprehensive sets of laws against hate crime anywhere in the world," wrote Sirois.

She highlighted what she termed "hate propaganda" provisions in the Criminal Code criminalizing the promotion of hatred against an identifiable group, and further noted that "identifiable group" now includes any section of the public distinguished by "among other characteristics, religion or national or ethnic origin."

She also referred to Criminal Code provisions requiring that a judge consider hate, bias or prejudice when sentencing an offender.

"We will not allow hate crimes to undermine our way of life, which is based on diversity and inclusion," she concluded.

OK now that does sound as though the governments does intend to use our nation's hate speech laws as per the CBC story's assertion.  If so, that's insane. It also won't work; the barriers to moving a case forward are incredibly high and the BDS movement simply does not employ the kind of extreme language that would make the cut.

Patrick Brown's Piss Poor Prospects

Kid's already got issues.  A PCPO exodus has already started:

I’ve been a member of the Ontario PCs more or less continuously since about 1972 and have voted for them in every general election, and in the odd by-election, since then. But I must admit that the selection to lead the party of an obscure federal back-bencher with little or nothing in the way of accomplishments is just too much for me to swallow.

I’m a conservative and will only ever vote for a party which promises fiscal conservatism, so I can’t say I’ll never vote for a Brown-led Ontario PC party. I will not, however, remain a party member.

On the other hand, there's this:

— Steve Paikin (@spaikin) May 9, 2015

OMG!!!  Look at all them brown-skinned folk!  But really:

This will be his problem.  He's reaching out to certain minority groups by pandering to latent homophobia in them.  https://t.co/wZv521hCOd

— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) May 10, 2015

The problem is Brown's "outreach" in this direction will prevent outreaches in other equally necessary directions.

Has Stats Canada Screwed Up job Numbers?

#ldnont has never had a month where 4000 people left the labour force. This month's data? 5000 gone. It's an error. @LFPress @KevinLabonte

— Mike Moffatt (@MikePMoffatt) May 8, 2015

Same day we got new warnings about bad data in the census.

Alberta: What It All Means

1) Its not great news for the LPC.  Though federal NDP leader Angry Tom is entirely without The Notley Charm, some residual glow from her victory will surely fall upon him.  Trudeau's Liberals now face a reinvigorated party on their left.  Although see below.

2)  Its not great news for the CPC.  In parts of the West federal voters swing from NDP to CPC without ever stopping at Liberal.  There its the Harper Tories who are most likely to see their vote siphoned off by a newly relevant federal NDP. The good news is that one can even see the possibility of a Liberal coming up the middle in a riding or two...  

3) Its great news for the NDP.

Life In Scarborough: Today, A Curse Was Laid Upon Me...

...by a little old lady in Sunday-Morning-Churchy gear.  She was walking towards my bus shaking her fist at the sky.  When it slowed to pick her up, she pointed and began hurling imprecations. Naturally, the driver accelerated away.

In spite of this, I hope to have a pretty good day.

Ontario Sex Ed Curriculum As A Federal Issue

When I first read that Team Trudeau was blaming its recent slide in the polls on the new Ontario Sex Education curriculum, I didn't buy it.  But Lo!, here is Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne suggesting that this is indeed the case:

"That, by the way, is going to be an issue in the federal election," Wynne said Thursday during a speech in Ottawa where an audience member congratulated her for overhauling the program for Ontario's schools.

[...]

Wynne said she has heard federal Conservatives might try to mobilize opposition to the Liberal sex ed. program in attempts to hurt federal Liberal candidates on the campaign trail later this year.

One federal Conservative who has unquestionably tried this approach is Brampton–Springdale MP Parm Gill;  he has sent out letters to his constituents on the topic.  And if one were to infer, one would infer that the CPC thinks it has identified a streak on anti-gay sentiment in several of the ethnic communities around the GTA, and intends to exploit it federally in the months ahead.

Something to be prepared for, as our dear Premier notes.

The New Abacus Poll...

...gives the Tories an 8 point edge nationally.  This can be won back, but given the CPC's $ advantage pre-campaign, I wouldn't be surprised if it holds up until the writ drops and its worth the LPC  returning fire with advertising of their own.  And when I say it can be won back, that is not to say it will. When the election is called the score is reset and it all comes down to one month where everyone gets equal time on the television, and all that money LPC supporters have been giving the party over the past four years fuels a very bonfire of ad spending, back-slapping and baby kissing from sea to shining sea.  And in the end, we will find glory here on Earth, or drink with our  ancestors again in the halls of Valhalla.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT! Rob Ford To Run For CPC Against Bill Blair?

OMG!!!  OMG!!!OMG!!!

Sooo @towhey says that Doug Ford talked this morning about Rob Ford running against Bill Blair for Scarborough Southwest federal seat
— Siobhan Morris (@siomo) April 26, 2015

So the CPC would counter Justin's marijuana legalization position by running a crack smoker?  Hard to imagine.  But we can always hope.

Alta Liberal Leader David Swann: I'll Just Lay Here And Bleed, Thank You Very Much

If you can't vote Liberal, vote for someone else?  That's his message?  Not: we're Liberal and we've got great, progressive ideas?  No!  It's:  WE'RE LAME!  KICK OUR ASS!  PLEASE!  BETTER YET: KILL US! WE'RE TIRED OF THE WHOLE FUCKING TAWDRY SPECTACLE!!!  And that's the kind of message that gets your party mentioned in paragraph 19 of a 22 paragraph story.

A Hard Luck Campaign For Minister Penis...I Mean Denis

Just some notes recycled from twitter:

@davecournoyer @a_picazo Prentice to self: "I'll just call an early election.  What can possibly go wrong?"
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) April 25, 2015

And:

@a_picazo @davecournoyer This is same guy had to deny he defaced his own signs to read "penis" for "denis".  Rather poor luck this campaign.
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) April 25, 2015

And:

@pierrebourque @bourque This is this guy: http://t.co/nk2lU8eslJ  He's had a rough campaign. #cdnpoli
— Bigcitylib (@Bigcitylib2) April 25, 2015

Just to come clean here.  I thought the Prentice budget was an honest attempt by Albertans to enter the modern world of governance.  But it went over like a drowning duck off the top of Niagara Falls.  But whatever.  I hate Alberta the way everyone else in Canada hates Toronto.  So let Chaos reign!  Either the NDP or WRP rule OK by me.

New LPC Ad Is Pretty Clever

They've bought space during some of  tonight's hockey games, apparently.  Probably for just a night or two, and then they'll hope The Net spreads word a bit further.  They'll get good media coverage out of it.  It's clever and positive and on point.  Just one shot in the battle, but nicely aimed.

NEW NANOS NEGATES NERVOUS NELLY-ISM!!!!

As you may know, Nanos does internal ballot tracking every week. Based on the four week rolling average, the Liberals are at 34 per cent, the Conservatives at 29 per cent, the NDP at 25 per cent, the Greens at eight per cent and the BQ at four per cent. Please take note of the bonus chart in this specific release. Ballot preferences are part of the Nanos Party Power Index weekly tracking study.

Someone be sure to tell this guy.  He the nervous nelly-est of them all these days.  

Of course the budget's just come out; the gov should get a positive bump out of that.  But it's all about positioning, baby.  And the LPC is positioned not goddamn bad if I do say so myself.  Not goddamn bad at all.

Ostrander Point Wind-Farm Case Goes Back To Tribunal

The decision is here.  Put briefly, the case will now get bounced back down to the Ontario ERT, where Ostrander Point Wind Energy will have a chance to convince the tribunal that their proposed remedy, a series of fences and gates that will block public access to the roads around the wind-farm, are enough to prevent "irreversible" harm to the local population of endangered turtles.

Some background can be found here, here, and here.

The Brown Retort

Since Patrick Brown looks set to become PCPO leader, its good to start looking for sources of intel on him now.  The Brown Retort has material on the PC MP that I hadn't heard.  From the latest post (a couple of months old now):

In a photo submitted to The Brown Retort...a criminally convicted supporter of Barrie MP Patrick Brown, is pictured at the opening of Brown's provincial leadership campaign headquarters in Brampton.

Good to get in on the ground floor, so when Oppo Leader Brown goes up in flames like an oily bag full of greasy rags, you can say: "I helped do that."

Oh Alberta! NDP Way In Front?

Even the pollsters involved don't quite buy it.  And they are using "google surveys" to compile their results, so make of that what you will. 

As an aside, sure he's wildrose but I've met Derek Fildebrandt once or twice and he seems a decent enough fellow.  

What's Going On In Alberta (Federally)?

From that EKOS poll:

And of course we pros form the base of the Liberal Party.  Lawyers, doctors, hit-men (and women!), dentists, Real Estate Agents, private security specialists,  Where the local culture is not rich enough to support a large professional class, the LPC does poorly.

Die Media Die: Toronto Sun Rumors

Sun Staff outta 333 King by end of '15.  National Post to become a tabloid:

I remember serious rumblings 2-3 years ago that PM management wanted to turn the Post into a tabloid. One of the hurdles, of course, would have been that Canada already has a chain of urban tabs....

But what if you made the Post a tab and used whoever is left from the Suns in each market (a skeleton crew of a couple editors and maybe half a dozen writers) to fill the local news and sports pages within the Post?

With the TO Sun staff being moved into a broom closet at the Post building by the end of the year, that would make a lot of sense. 

Other rumors have 333 being turned into a radical mosque slash paintball facility, and have The Post building down to one set of bathrooms for the entire staff to save money.  Employees have been asked to bring their own toilet paper.  Some have taken to crapping out open windows so as to avoid the interminable line-ups.

Update:  The first rumor is in fact fact.

Gruending On Canada's Role In The War Against The Islamic State

Despite the warrior rhetoric from some of our politicians, Canada is not a robust military power. We do, however, have experience and credibility —  although it has been diminished recently — in diplomacy, humanitarian assistance and the resettlement of refugees. 

There's about 26 or 27 nations in the anti-ISIS coalition, and about half of them are dropping bombs. IMHO Canada would be more useful to what is clearly going to be a multi-generational conflict by being one of the coalition members not currently dropping bombs.  There will be lots of roles to play in the years and yes decades ahead.

Is Ezra Pulling Down His Duffy Interviews?

This fellow thinks he did:

@davidakin Why did Ezra delete his 2012 Sun interviews with #Duffy? e.g. http://t.co/69klWXtzp9
— Deep Climate (@DeepClimate) April 9, 2015

I was skeptical, so I asked:

@Bigcitylib2 @davidakin Neighbouring episodes from 2012/07 are still there http://t.co/tMDbCqX1n8 e.g.http://t.co/fBCr2ILiTk
— Deep Climate (@DeepClimate) April 9, 2015

The interview he's talking about concerned the CBSC (Canadian Broadcast Standards Council), which Ezra typically had issues with because he lacks standards.

Meanwhile, more interesting connections between Ole' Duff, The Ez, and Vivian Krause continue to emerge:

@Bigcitylib2 @MikePHager From #mikeduffy diary on Jan 8, 2012: "Email exchange & telcon - Ezra re: Vivian Krause"
— Mike De Souza (@mikedesouza) April 9, 2015

It's in late January of 2012 when Ezra begins to work Ms. Krause' research into his Sun News diatribes.  During that same month his astroturf group launches its "Our Decision" website, speaheading a campaign to "expose the foreign lobby groups working to sabotage and paralyze the hearings into the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline".  There is talk of "helping" Ms. Krause, though she has claimed to have received no money from them:

Who? Ezra Levant as well as the folks behind http://t.co/lsIlNluaii They obviously used my work but I was never paid a cent. @BrettMineer
— Vivian Krause (@FairQuestions) November 19, 2014

Ezra Levant Out 72 Large

...for costs brought about by losing the defamation case brought against him by Khurrum Awan:

Meanwhile, some interesting bits of info emerged from the Duffy trial.  One is this daily itinerary for
February 8, 2010:

A meeting for pizza with Ez and the PM's wife.  Also this:

Repeated appearances in the Duffy Diaries to helping Vivian Krause (@FairQuestions), who researched enviro charities such as Tides.
— Glen McGregor (@glen_mcgregor) April 8, 2015

Vian Krause originally did some pretty shoddy research purporting to show that Canadian enviro groups were taking foreign money to aid Alaskan salmon fisherman at the expense of B.C. aqua farmers.  Ezra Levant later repurposed this research to argue that enviro groups were taking foreign money to aid U.S. oil companies, not entirely with Ms. Krause' blessing.

So: connections...

Best Thing I've Read On ISIS

It's run by Saddam's old gang from the Baath party.  The best bit:

Rayburn questions whether even some of the foreign volunteers realise the extent to which they are being drawn into Iraq’s morass. Some of the fiercest battles being waged today in Iraq are for control of communities and neighborhoods that have been hotly contested among Iraqis for years, before the extremists appeared.

“You have fighters coming from across the globe to fight these local political battles that the global jihad can’t possibly have a stake in.”

Speaking of Old Saddam, he's looking downright gentlemanly these days.  My tribute to him can be found here.

BCLSB Exclusive: James Lunney's Principles Of Evolution

CPC MP James Lunney has quit the party so as to more freely pursue and elaborate his own theory of biological change.  He spoke in the HOC yesterday afternoon, but was rudely cut off before he could fully state his beliefs.  However, an opposition "source" found the full text of his presentation in a trash-can outside the East wing.   I have reproduced some excerpts below:

The question is not: did Jesus ride a dinosaur?  The question is: what kind of dinosaur did Jesus ride? Reasonable men may differ, but I lean towards Carcharodontosaurus.  It was hardy and even-tempered.  Also damn fine eatin'.

[...]

The wheel of Ezekial was in fact a UFO, which brought the dinosaurs to Earth, including Stegron and Barney. Also, Ezekial was  called "Easy" by his friends.  Not many people know this.

[...]

The Id forms the very ground for the SuperEgo, always and everywhere permeating the structure of it.  Oops.  That's Freud.  Wrong theory.

[...]

There is no theory of evolution.  There are only the animals that Chuck Norris has allowed to survive.

[...]

The lower back supports the spinal column and brain-case.  It also supports the chiropractor.  But I am rambling now.

[...]

When the End Times come, and they are coming, those who scoff will find themselves swept into a lake of burning fire, while believers ascend to Heaven and a life of infinite happiness.  Personally, I look forward to playing ping-pong with Jimi Hendrix.

So there you have it.  Our government appears to have lost a thinker of the highest order.

Just A Forum Poll

Takes them until par 8 to finally, grudgingly admit that the LPC is still slightly ahead:

The Liberals under Mr. Trudeau were the first or leaning choice for 34 per cent of the survey’s respondents, compared to 31 per cent who said they would or would likely vote Conservative and only 23 per cent who favoured the NDP, the poll found.

Instead they prefer to spend a ton of ink talking about how Mulcair's fortunes have improved without much moving the gauge on the horse-race question.  Which is sort of like losing, but winning a moral victory.  Which means losing.

Dr. Dawg Fundraising Efforts, Part II

...start with the auctioning of :

"Emergency Measures" (Sono Nis, 1976). "'Emergency Measures' establishes John Baglow as one of the few North American poets with vision, intelligence, wit, linguistic equipment and technical competence to command serious reading and response anywhere on Earth. In any language." ~J. Michael Yates 

A rare first edition, personally autographed for the successful bidder.

Baglow is of course the name Dawg uses out in the material world.

Put your bids in here.

I wrote about efforts to help the good dawg with his legal expenses here.

KerMotherFuckin'Flooey!

Danielle Smith, up in flames.  Gals, we only keep rulin' cause you keep believing our lies.  And by the way Jim Prentice does us old white guys proud.  He looks blank, he moves slow, but in reality he's slick as snot. 

Fear Mongering A Bust For CPC

Or at if its moved the dial at all in the latest Abacus poll its been in the wrong direction; the LPC is a wee bit ahead in this one.  I'm not entirely surprised.  People might agree with the government re the Niqab, but still see through the rhetoric and perhaps resent the attempt to get them riled.  Or they may see the Hiqab as a 3rd tier issue that won't move their vote one way or another.

As for the LPC position on our ISIS mission, one day I think people will come to look upon Justin Trudeau as the Wayne Gretzky of Canadian politics, who saw not where the polls were, but where they would be on election day.

You're Not Helping

I am conflicted re Bill C51.  Michael Geist is a pretty smart guy; the information sharing provisions do seem overly broad.  But since the Snowden revelations never impressed me (its all meta-stuff about spies spying), I sometimes find myself wondering if at least some of the complaints over C51 are similarly over-egged.

And so then Connie Fournier of (the relaunched) Free Dominion comes along and writes this for Open Media:

The part of the Bill that concerns me most is that provides CSIS with the power to "disrupt" groups of Canadian citizens. This word sets off alarm bells for a couple of reasons.

First, it is a word that was used in a "Five Eyes" PowerPoint presentation that was released some time ago by Edward Snowden. The "Five Eyes" countries include Canada, the USA, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand. This presentation was given to the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group and it was entitled, "The Art of Deception: Training for Online Covert Operations".

[...]

Secondly, this is where it becomes personal. Beginning in the Spring of 2006, government operatives began signing up on our discussion forum, Free Dominion. We have since identified operatives from the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC), the Department of Defence, at least one Police Department, and many, many posters using proxies who posted divisive or racist comments in our forum. In 2007 we received a Section 13 complaint with regard to a link that was posted on our site. We reacted strongly and publicly to the complaint and it was later dropped.

[...]

We don't believe that it is any coincidence that the self-described strategy of the government employee who sued us four times and ultimately caused the forum to be closed, is called "Maximum Disruption". The fact that that same word shows up in the "Five Eyes" powerpoint, and that it also shows up in Bill C-51 is, to say the least, chilling.

OK,  now we've hopped the train to crazy town.  And just to address one point.  FreeD's problem with racist comments didn't stem from undercover cops, "operatives" from the CHRC, or anonymous posters.  They were typically contained in diatribes by the likes of long-time regulars such as Ed Kennedy, Bill Whatcott, Marc Lemire, and EdS.  You can google their names.  They were hate-mongering lunatics, and all members in good standing at FreeD until they became too toxic to keep around.

Of course, nobody reads Open Media but, arguably, people read The Tyee, so its particularly disappointing to see the same kind of nonsense expressed over there.

In brief, if you are dealing with thr Fourniers you're dealing with kooks.  Having these people on board the anti-C51 cause will not help it.

Lawrence Solomon, Anti-Vaxxer: Part Bazillion

Enter Lawrence Solomon. You remember Lawrence Solomon, don’t you? He’s what I referred to last summer as a rising star in the antivaccine movement. A conservative columnist for the Financial Post, when first we met him he was complaining about a “conservative failure of skepticism” on vaccines because, apparently, conservatives haven’t been antivaccine enough for his liking. (Maybe he’s happier with more recent developments.) Indeed, Solomon used some seriously brain dead arguments about herd immunity indistinguishable from the nonsense they regularly spew over at the antivaccine crank blog.

I've said it before; The Star published one piece suggesting that Gardisil might have some hidden dangers and the whole media shit.  Quite properly, too, and The Star issued a grovelling apology. Because The Star is a class act where people worry  about accuracy and journalistic standards.  What kind of crap newspaper must The National/Financial Post be to offer this guy an ongoing platform for spouting dangerous gibberish.  Do these people have absolutely no shame?

Help Out With Dr. Dawg's Legal Bill

Richard Warman has launched an Indiegogo campaign to help pay some of the legal expenses Dr. Dawg incurred during his legal battle with the Fourniers and others at FreeDominion.  You can find out more about it here.  They've collected about $400 in a couple of hours.  And I too will be donating $.  Very soon.  As soon as we pay for my dear mother's eye.  She threw it at dad and it broke against his head.

As for the Dawg's case, it's got even the lawyers confused.  Richard says:

In the weird world of libel law, the judge found that John had been defamed, but that because John had supported basic legal rights for child soldier Omar Khadr, the comment that John was a supporter of the Taliban was 'fair comment' and therefore legally okay.

As for me,  my understanding is that  a defamatory statement states a false fact and therefore cannot support an opinion protected by fair comment. The judgement in this case says both that the statement was defamatory AND that it was protected by fair comment, which sounds contradictory.

So I don't get it.

Tommorow's Tory Bozo Eruption?

Radio show host Bill Murdoch worries #Niqab wearing #terrorists might sneak into citizenship ceremonies. Lead. @cbcasithappens
— carol off (@caroloffcbc) March 17, 2015

Sure he's retired.  And when you do that the mind immediately starts to go.  And he was always a bit nuts; this is the guy that wanted to kick Toronto out of Ontario.  But...

My CBSC Complaint Against Sun TV Fades Quietly Away

Curses!   I inquired today, thinking maybe there was still a chance to give Ezra one last kick in the ass as he was going out the door.  But apparently the CBSC has no authority over broadcasters after they go TU; they have to let  my complaint slide.  Ah well.  I've found a whole new way of punishing people for having the wrong opinions...you bet I'm gonna file another complaint against somebody real soon!  Its just one of a range of "actions" I have planned for 2015.  Another is to convince Trojan to stop using petroleum oil from the tar sands in their petroleum jellies.  I call it my "Ethical Rubbers" initiative.  I've written them a couple of times already about this.  First time they forwarded my email to their "research" dept.  but the after the third email they stopped answering.  I'll keep at it, though.

The National Post Should Fire That Anti-Vaxxer Prick

National Post columnist Lawrence Solomen is now running an anti-vaxxer website.  You can see it here.  This is from the "About us" section:

VaccineFactCheck, headed by Lawrence Solomon, is a project of Consumer Policy Institute.

The "Consumer Policy Institute" is also just more Solomon, another part of his "Energy Probe" network of  astro-turf groups pushing various corporate causes.

Now, Solomon probably wouldn't call it an anti-vaxxer site; he'd probably just claim he was trying to "teach the controversy".  But that is, of course, bullshit.  And after that whole thing with The Star's Gardisil article I thought the whole nation had come to the conclusion that this kind of ant-vaccine  fear mongering was beyond the pale.  But not the National Post, apparently.

So here's a call out to Andrew Coyne, who is apparently some kind of editorial big-wig over there at the NP these days:  fire Lawrence Solomen.  Ditch the kook.  Show some class.

Mike Godwin (of Godwin's Law) Give's Trudeau Speech Thumbs Up!

He didn't like Blaney's response quite so much.  Read that bit here.

Trudeau's Speech: The Reaction In The Jewish Community

CIJA offers some mild approbation, and repeats a Kenney talking point from here.  B'nai Brith is mildly perturbed.

O Glorious Justin!: Trudeau's Speech

"It is a cruel joke to claim that you are liberating people from oppression by dictating in law what they can and cannot choose to wear"
— Paul Wells  (@InklessPW) March 10, 2015

I didn't hear it live, but all accounts say its old-timey Liberalism.  So people will yell about it.  Which is good.  Justin and the LPC need to poke a few people in the eye, get the debate a bit more livened up than its been.  The above is what he said about the niqab in Quebec thing. True, and prettily phrased.

This is what he said about C-51.

Why support C51, Trudeau asked. Contains concrete measures,' that will make Cdns safer,' he responds
— Michael Den Tandt (@mdentandt) March 10, 2015

It's important to note again  that the NDP position on C-51 is empty posturing.  Given the nature of our political system, it will pass in whatever manner the government chooses.  After that happens, Mulcair has admitted that he will merely amend, not kill, the bill, should he ever become PM.  The only difference between the NDP and LPC is therefore the individual clauses they would choose to delete.  So why  is the NDP making a futile attempt to kill a bill they obviously see some good in? Anyway: good answer, Justin.

Richard Warman Vs. David Icke: Warman Wins Again

From Richard's website:

DAVID ICKE SETTLES LIBEL ACTION
5 March 2015

British conspiracy writer David Icke and co-defendants have paid Canadian human rights lawyer Richard Warman $210,000 CDN (117,000 GBP) in damages and legal costs to settle a libel action against them.

In 1999-2000, Warman had worked with various Jewish and anti-racism groups to notify public venues in Canada of discriminatory elements within Icke’s mishmash of conspiracy theories. After being provided with material from Icke’s own writings, a number of these venues withdrew permission for Icke to use their facilities in his tours.

In retaliation, Icke included false allegations in his 2001 book Children of the Matrix that Warman was seeking to suppress Icke’s purported exposure of Satanic child abuse and murder.

David Icke, if you don't know, is this guy.  If you want to hear him sound-off re the The Reptilians and other matters, this is a Youtube interview.  I haven't listened to it, but typically  he sounds kind of interesting for a few minutes, and then you gradually realize he's an unhinged babbler.  Although apparently one with a substantial following, having sold 55,000 copies of the book in question.

As an aside, the Fourniers attempted to use an Icke television appearance in one of their defamation cases; I can't remember if the judge allowed it or not, but I can't imagine how it would have helped their cause.  Also,  Seeker's Books, where I still occasionally go shopping, got caught up  this lawsuit. Pity.  Last time I was in there I listened the proprietor lament the state of the book business.

The Book On Pope Francis

Dennis Gruending judges.  The result: Pope F is pretty good when it comes to gays, the poor, and the Climate (very good there, actually, IMHO).  Not so good when it comes to wymen.  Also hasn't done much to roust out the Church Pedos.  But better than the last guy, who was 100% a dick. 

Anti-Turbine Families Can Suck It Up

There's no way you are going to initiate a legal action without having been told what the costs might be if you lose.  And if your case is a constitutional challenge based on a "novel reading of the law", you have almost certainly been told in addition that the chances of success are not large.  These people are just trying to get out of paying the money they owe.  I have no sympathy for them.  Nor, I suspect, will the judge.

Harper Gives Exclusive Interview To CostCo Magazine, Gets Bumped From Cover By Sarah Style

What's more hilarious? @pmharper giving an "exclusive" interview to @costcocanada, or that it's not the cover story? pic.twitter.com/79nYDyKWpv
— Elias Makos (@eliasmakos) February 26, 2015

And they say Justin lacks gravitas.

Note On New Poll From Ipsos Reid

BOOYAH!  BOOYAH!  BOOYAH!! VICTORY OR VALHALLA!!!

IPCC Chair Rajendra K Pachauri Steps Down

The right thing to do, whatever the truth of the sexual harassment charges against him.  And in this case it was starting to look like there might have been some fire under all that smoke.

Very Little Separates The Parties On Bill C-51

A twitter argument I had with NDP MP for Newton - North Delta  Jinny Sims:

She retreated then, knowing perhaps that her ass had been kicked.

But the bottom line is that before the bill's inevitable passage the NDP will do a little dance like this, and the LPC will do a little dance like that.  In a sense the LPC's position is the more honest of the two.   The NDP clearly sees some good in the bill, otherwise they would promise something beyond a mere tweaking once they got in power.  But then why try to kill it now and have to start all over again to achieve an mostly identical result?

Life In Scarborough: Mormons In The Storm

Waiting for a bus that had got stuck behind a line of plows this afternoon, way out in Scarborough, I ran into a couple of Mormons who were using the occasion to proselytize at the TTC stop.  "Have you ever had a chance to read The Book of Mormon?" one of them asked me.  "I did,' I said.  "I turned it down."

Ouch! Spring Election Coming?

Retail sales fell 2.0% to $42.1 billion in December. This was the largest decline since April 2010.

A bad Xmas season means more layoffs at, closures, bankruptcies, and etc.  You notice the Harper  gov. doesn't talk economics much anymore?  You notice how they've switched to Muslim bashing and fear mongering?  Look ye above for one of the reasons.

The Pat Martin Affair: Straight Talk, Lost Gonch

So Pat Martin arrives in the HOC today looking disgruntled, uncomfortable.  In the middle of this morning's session, during a vote on a motion to salute Canada's Crappie fishermen, he sneaks out, comes back a little bit later...at ease and smiling!  Turns out his underwear was too tight, but they're better now!  So what happened during the missing minutes?  Nobody from the Media Party has bothered to inquire!  Did Pat Martin discard his gonch?  Does his junk-catcher haunt the halls of Parliament?  Was he walking around all afternoon commando style?

And on issues like this is where we start to miss the Sun News Network.  If they'd been around, Brian Lilley would have led in a whole team (wearing Hazmat suits!) to search for the missing, like he did when CBC lost a chair in '011. And, shit, if it had been rumored that the underwear had fled to Budapest to join ISIS, SNN would have sent David Akin over to spy out the place for a couple of weeks, staying at fine hotels, eating street food in the markets.  Because SNN did news, man, don't say otherwise.  And when they did news they did it hard.

I'm really starting to miss those guys.

Death Of Sun News Addendum: Management Severance Pay Demands Sank Deals, Pt II?

Mr. Asper is said to have thought SunTV operated “very expensively for what it was” and was unwilling to take on the employment contracts and severance costs of its staff, most notably the executives...

This is the second story that has claimed that excessive executive severance packages were behind the ultimate failure of SNN to find a buyer before it folded.  Shameful: someone in upper management let their own greed doom the jobs of over 150 employees.

Jonathon Kay On The Death Of Sun News

It's the most brilliant thing he's ever written, because he links back to me, which gives the piece credibility.

Its Only Forum, But... LPC Back On Top!

TORONTO February 11th, 2015 - In a random sampling of public opinion taken by the Forum Poll™ among 1018 Canadian voters, almost 4-in-10 will vote Liberal if the election were held today (39%) compared to just less than a third who will vote Conservative (32%). Fewer than a fifth will vote for the New Democrats (17%). These findings represent a contrast to last month, when the two leading parties were tied (Liberals - 34%, Conservatives - 35%) and the New Democrats had a full fifth of the vote (January 28 - 20%).

Maybe fear is a less effective motivator than some would imagine.

Also interesting that The Star hasn't slathered it over the front of their website.  Not enough drama to it, I suppose.

PS.  Pulled down from original site.  Don't think we were supposed to see it.

DIe Media Die: Sun News Network is DEAD DEAD DEAD

YES!!!    YES!!!!  YES!!!   BOOOYAH!!!!!!   BOOYAH!!!!!!   BOOYAH!!!!!   YES YES YES YES!!!!!!!   BOOYAHBOOYAH BOOYAH!!!!!!   WHOSE YOUR DADDY??  WHOSE YOUR DADDY?   IZE YOUR DADDY AND IM GONNA SPANKY SPANKY SPANKY YOUR 

“@CBCAlerts: @CBCNews has learned that Sun TV will be shutting down tomorrow.” #cdnmedia #journalism
— Joanna Smith (@smithjoanna) February 13, 2015

HATESPEECHIN REDNECKIN ASS MISTER HONKY MOFO!!!!!    YES YES BOOYAH BOOYAH!!!!  AIIEEEEEE!!!!WHOOP WHOOP WHOOP!!!! BACK TO LETHBRIDGE WITH YOUR TIGHT BEEFY ASS, EZRA.   YOU AND KORY CAN SHARE A room IN DADDY'S BASEMENT while YOU LEARN HOW TO FLIP BURGERS!!!  BOOYAH BOOYAH!!!!!!!!!!

Die Media Die! February 13th Is Last Day For Sun News Network?

A sad, sad scene.  Kory is home sulking.  Ezra is out on the sidewalk hawking pencils to pay-off his latest defamation suit.  When they lower the shutters its gonna resemble the "lights out" sale at Target.  You wanna lap-top?  Hang out around back at 25 Ontario Street and some guy will bring you one with the SNN label stuck on its side.  Cheap!  

Andrew Weaver Vs. The National Post: Linking To Defamation In Canada

A number of stories have already appeared re the successful lawsuit launched by climate scientist (and now Green Party MLA) Andrew Weaver against writers at The National Post.  Here's a pretty good one, and the decision in its entirety can be found here.  I can't add much to what has already been said, but the case has a couple of interesting facets beyond what people have generally noted.

One is how this case elaborates on the SCC decision in Crookes v. Newton.  Back then I wrote that the Supreme Court seemed to be providing a blanket exemption for linking to defamatory material. That is, if you simply linked to the offending material without describing it, independent of the context around your link, you were in the clear.  I argued:

I publish a post which says:

"John Doe is a murderer."

I am soon approached by Mr. Doe's lawyers.  But then Bob writes a post which says

"BCL finally tells the truth about John Doe."

Not having repeated any of the defamatory content, the SCC ruling lets Bob off Scot free.  Now, you might argue that's fine.  Bob doesn't control what's at the other end of the link.  Maybe it's been changed in the meantime.  Why should he be responsible? And etc.

Okay, but lets assume that Bob knows exactly at the other end of the link and is in clearly endorsing the defamatory content. And lets assume that in context it is absolutely clear that Bob's intent is to ruin the reputation  of John Doe, as much as mine was.

The defamatory content was not repeated in his post, so he suffers no consequence.  Period.  End of story.  Several justices dissented on this point, suggesting that context should be taken into consideration, and endorsing defamation should be considered defamation.  The majority seems to have said NO.

If you read the original, there is some back and forth on this in the comments.  After all, several judges in concurring opinions invoked the notion of "context".  But these nuances didn't make the majority decision, and isn't that what the law becomes?

So, Crookes v. Newton is mentioned about a dozen times in the Weaver decision.  In particular, the NP lawyers argue that "...republication cannot be a mere hyperlink as stated in Crookes. Thus, the “story tools” on the National Post website do not qualify as authorization. The evidence established these are merely permitted hyperlinks back to the original article."  And while noting that there is room for "nuance" in deciding whether someone can be liable for hyperlinking Judge Burke seems to accept this reasoning.  Or at least accepts that this is what the SCC decided:

[270]     In Crookes at para. 20, the Supreme Court of Canada acknowledged the defence of innocent dissemination, which developed in an earlier era for secondary distributors such as booksellers, will likely come into play with secondary Internet publications. The Court recognized however that, on the Internet, courts must be careful to develop the law in a way that does not unduly stifle the free exchange of ideas. As such, in Crookes, the Court held hyperlinks are not publications.

[271]     The Supreme Court of Canada in Crookes concluded while the legislator has created a specific presumption a publication in respect of broadcast, it has not done so in respect hyperlinks and therefore the court should refrain from creating a new one: at para. 108.

So there you have it.  For reasons given above, I think the SCC made a bad call in Crookes v. Newton.  But under current Canadian law, you can link to defamatory material even where circumstances indicate that you are doing so out of evil intent.

Blast From The Past: What's Andrew Lawton Up To These Days?

He's having his show suspended from AM980 for Facebook posts like:

 "Emerging Leaders used a push poll to try to paint Londoners as intolerant of the LGBTQ community.   

Number of sexual-orientation motivated hate crimes in Canada per year: 185

Number of HIV/AIDS infections from men having sex with men in Canada per year: 1450 

Who is the real enemy?

And here's the grovellling apology.

As for Andrew, we met a few times on Coren's old show, and have  had a few run-ins otherwise. He is not a homophobe.  A pasty, pimple faced punk maybe.  But not a homophobe.  He may even, for all I know, be an avid cellist.

Levant Loses Another!

It's been awhile since Lorna Pardy has been in the news.  Back in 2008, she was verbally assaulted by comedian Guy Earle at Zesty's Comedy Club in Vancouver.   She took him to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal, and won. At the time, some, Ezra Levant in particular, were pushing the notion that this case was about the exercise of free speech.  It wasn't.  It was more about a lowly restaurant functionary going off on a customer.  In any event, Ezra said things.  And Ms. Pardy commenced a civil action against him.  However, the suit lay still-born for a number years until, in 2013, after the various appeals of the original wound up, Ms. Pardy served Ezra with a notice of civil claim.  Ezra moved that the case be dismissed due to the long delay but, on January 29th of this year, the judge said no.  So, throw another lawsuit on the pile; Ezra's going back to court.  And when Ezra goes to court, Ezra tends to lose.

Nenshi Elucidates

Congratulations, then, to the best mayor in the world.  My bad with the error.  Please work on getting the fluoride back in the local water supply,

Da Youth Iz Down With Surveillance

And the kids have a point.  The Internet used to be for porn; now it's also for spying. Stalking  old girl-friends, digging up embarrasing tweets from enemy politicians,tracking your husband's movements through the GPS on his cell-phone, using honeypots to trick pedos into revealing their IP addresses.  Little brother spies on little brother.  The Corporate World spies on the Consumer. 

The younger you are the more you have grown up in this reality.  So why not allow the nation's security service to do what Walmart's already doing?  And, really, if you want be radical and get away with it?  Well fuck don't brag about your crimes on Facebook. 

Levant Lawsuit Lurches Towards Conclusion

Buckets has emerged from cryo-sleep to give us this post.  After no less than two computer forensics companies declared that Richard Warman's computer had not even been turned on the day of the infamous "Cools Post", the judge has decided to put an end to at least this portion of the discovery phase.  Don't worry if you don't know what that means in detail, but the implications for Ezra's defense are pretty clear; he accused Warman of posting the Cools material, and his case relies on Warman's having done so.  Since there is no evidence of that on Warman's computers ("It's not there,"says the decision), we may assume with a good deal of confidence that when the case finally gets to a courtroom, Ezra will lose again.  And badly.

CPC Bounce Begone

Grenier notes that Nanos' latest has some actual voting intention numbers rather than their typical index thing:

Nanos's weekly index report has voting intentions numbers in it: 35% LPC, 31% CPC, 24% NDP, 6% GPC, 3% BQ (pg 22) http://t.co/VDSJUwPihr
— Éric Grenier (@308dotcom) January 28, 2015

Here's a cap from the NANOS website that shows the relevant trendline:

(Click on it to make it bigger.)

Pretty clearly the CPC "security bounce" has faded.  Whether it returns is probably more dependant on what happens on the home from than overseas.  I just can't see Harper and Co., try as they might, turning the country into a bunch of rootin' tootin' cowboys over the deployment of a few hundred of our guys in Iraq.  I can see them milking another "terrorist" attack.  Here's hoping for a peaceful year.

Fox News North Deal Stalls As Teneycke Balks?

From Canadaland:

Multiple sources tell CANADALAND that Sun News Network (SNN), the Quebecor-owned cable news channel that launched in 2011, is on the verge of closing.

Couple of weird things.  One is this:

As recently as three weeks ago, sources say that SNN management told several employees that negotiations with Zoomer looked promising and that a deal was close. But a dispute over potential severance packages for SNN executives (including Teneycke) who would not continue on with the network in the event of an acquisition has led to an impasse. 

If I am reading it correctly, the deal has gone sideways because Teneycke (among others) is demanding a bigger payout.  In other words, if his financial demands aren't met, he's threatening to stay.

The second is: who is The Source or sources?  Well shit one of them might be Ezra "The Source" Levant himself!  He was on the Canadaland podcast today...and suddenly this is news.  Did he blab, advertently or inadvertently? (talking on his cell in the john, for example?)

As a last note, I hope they hold up long enough for the CBSC to process my complaint.  It would be an end most fitting if these guys' last act as a news network was to run an apology for screwing up.

Gruending On John A. & Clearing The Plains

Since James Daschuk's Clearing The Plains came out last year Canadian's have been forced to reassess  John A. MacDonald's place in the pantheon of Canadian heros.  Among a fair bit of back-and-forth on the subject, Dennis Gruending's short piece stands out.  My favorite bit from it:

In Macdonald’s case, his attitude about the inferiority of indigenous people was commonplace at the time, but the scope of his actions presents a problem for his defenders. Did he use starvation and near starvation as a weapon against indigenous people in Western Canada whose communities had been decimated by loss of the bison? Daschuk says he did and that the deliberate withholding of food to hungry people led to hundreds of deaths by starvation, and also created the conditions for a tuberculosis epidemic in indigenous communities.

I have heard no worthy refutation of Daschuk’s claim.  In fact, he has been awarded the Sir John A. Macdonald Prize for a Canadian book of history judged to have made the most significant contribution to an understanding of our past.  This is highly ironic but it also means that Daschuk has written a good book.

Incidentally, on the whole notion of  presentism; all we have to do to refute that charge in this case is to find a few folk back in John A.'s day who might have voiced moral objections to his policy.  And indeed we do find them, among the Canadian People themselves.  Apparently, MacDonald stopped just short of starving the native population to death due to worries this might cause a scandal in Eastern Canada.  From this we can conclude that at least some people back in the 1880s had qualms about refusing to provide readily available food to whole populations.  If they were allowed their doubts about John A.'s policy, so too can we be.

LPC Potential Nominee For Thunder Bay-Rainy River Is Very Hot

This is of course irrelevant to reasoned political discourse, but I thought I would mention it here. 

 I'd vote for her.  In a minute.  

Break The Law And Aussie Cops Will Make You Listen To Nickelback!

Oi Oi Oi Indeed. 

Should I Join "Ello!"?

Got an invite yesterday from some dude named "Lucian".  I've heard its like Facebook for hipsters, & with hotter women.  On the other hand, I was in one of my favorite Scarborough blue-collar pubs the other day and overheard some young fellow bragging about how he had just signed up.  He works on a City of T.O. road repair crew, and his nickname is "Pylon".

Notes On Obama's 2015 State Of The Union Address

Are you kidding me?  I'm not watching that crap.  You people think I'm stupid?  I gotta life.  I'm watching Guardians of The Galaxy for the 15th time, to maybe be followed by Godzilla 2014, for the 22nd time.  As for the speech itself, social media says The Big O is acting pretty Liberal.  Go Big O! The rich are just a giant ATM that the rest of us should be able to withdraw from free of charge.  Tax 'em up the fucking wazoo!

John Baird Pelted With Eggs: The Video

...is here.  And it is good.
Baird 'egged' in West Bank from Sasa Petricic on Vimeo.

I might poach a few tonight in celebration.  Or no: in sadness at a Palestinian people who have never missed a chance to miss a chance.  Just kidding: in celebration.

It Was Like Walking Through An Abandoned Walmart...

Target Canada has closed its doors.  I won't have much to remember them by, because they never had the product  I went to there to purchase, even when it was in their latest flyer.  And the staff seemed to be playing a store-wide game of hide & seek.  But I will think warmly of them whenever I throw my coat on the coat-stand I bought that one time.  I went there looking for pillows, but they had no pillows. They did however have this nice coat rack near where the pillows should have been, which I bought, and have been mightily pleased with ever since. 

Ezra / 8 or: Corbella Corrects

Licia Corbella has very quietly walked back her earlier figure for Ezra's court costs when he went up against the AHRC:

His offices were never bombed, but he was forced to spend about $100,000 defending himself before the kangaroo court of the human rights commission after Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy lodged a complaint against him.

Worth pointing out that that figure is likely bullshit as well.  But it is at least 8 times less bullshit than the estimate Corbella gave previously.

That is all.

Ezra X 8

Licia Corbella has a pretty bad piece up, about how anyone who didn't publish the Charlie Hebdo covers after the shootings in Paris ought to go get fitted for their Burka, and so forth.  She reiterates the same old nonsense about Ezra Levant's being the bravest of men, etc., and then drops this:

The only publisher of the Danish cartoons at the time was Ezra Levant in his now-defunct publication, The Western Standard. His offices were never bombed, but he was forced to spend about $800,000 defending himself before the kangaroo court of the human rights commission after Calgary Imam Syed Soharwardy lodged a complaint against him.

Now, Ezra's claims re his HRC costs were always dubious, but Corbella manages to wildly inflate them even more.  Here the amount quoted, taken from his book Shakedown, is $100,000.  Here, again, Ezra claims $100,000.  And here again, same figure.  Be interested to know if Ezra provided Ms. Corbella with an upwardly revised amount, or if she just pulled it out of the air.

Martyred For Crap? And Other Reflections On The Shootings In Paris

Some media outlets have decided to reproduce the cartoons that got Charlie Hebdo in Dutch with the Islamists.  Some have suggested that they were just playful satire , although  this one looks like nothing more than crude race baiting.  If it were up to me I probably wouldn't do it; we after all have soldiers fighting in Muslim countries, and I'm not sure it  helps their mission if Canadian newsies insist on displaying this kind of stuff.

On the other hand, some feel reproducing the images is essential to telling the story behind this horrible crime.  Fair enough.

But one argument for showing the images needs addressing: that those who choose not to do so are acting out of cowardice.  Dan Gardner puts it like this:

@Bigcitylib2 Yes. I am. I was in the thick of newsrooms in the 2005 debate and that fear is exactly what underlay all the rationalizations.
— Dan Gardner (@dgardner) January 8, 2015

OK, so lets just respond by noting that any  journalist who actually fears retaliation here, in Canada, is smoking something.   And anyone who is publishing because they think it makes them braver than their non-publishing fellows should really get over themselves.

Similarly, if any news making decisions in 2005 were actually driven by fear of retaliation, than those people must have started believing the nonsense in their own papers.  And no when Ezra Levant published the cartoons back then he was not being "brave"; the only practical effect of his acts was to increase the amount of hate speech directed towards Calgary area mosques.

And of course the effects of republishing these cartoons will most likely be similar.  Already we have Christie Blatchford praising a deranged lunatic:

The day Charlie Hebdo was attacked, I had a story in the paper about an Ontario man named Eric Brazau being jailed another year for, at least in part, spouting off on a Toronto subway train about the Qur’an and Islam.

Yeah, Blatch, the other part of the reason he's serving time is for criminal harassment.  But in the wake of the shootings lets make these type of folks feel justified, shall we?

Gotta Get Me One Of Them Aztec Death Whistles

...'cuz it really does sound like the ‘scream of a thousand corpses’.  I can see these things being a great Halloween novelty, or maybe a stocking stuffer around Xmas.

I Am The Chicken, And You Are My Prey

Noted without comment, other than the obvious: never...ever..mess with an angry chicken.

Ezra Tells Scottish Police To Fuck Off on Twitter, Deletes Tweet In "Shit Flying Out Pant-Leg" Panic

But you can't find it online anymore, just some of the responses to it and, thankfully, a screen-cap made by one of Ezra's avid fans.

And so 2015 begins as 2014 ended, with Ezra in trouble.

Source.

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.