Tom Flanagan Child Porn Comments Update

The PMO takes him out to the woodshed:

MacDougall is this guy. Wow!  That blew up bigger than I expected!  Who says Idle No More is washed up?

Wow x 2!  Wildrose condemns and, essentially, fires Flanagan.  Did INM take down Tom Flanagan?

Wow x 3!  Fired by CBC.

Idle No More Strikes Back!

So Chris Slothouber notes that someone one is mucking with twitter to get that Flanagan video to trend. I think its this fellow, who uploaded the footage.  Interestingly enough, he claims to have a connection to the folks at Idle No More, who have good reason to be unhappy with Mr. Flanagan. In fact, the question that triggered Flanagan's unfortunate response seems to have been a deliberate attempt to catch the man out.  Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Tom Flanagan On Child Pornography

I'm still trying to decide if this is shocking or not.  To be a bit less cryptic: is he making that "interesting argument" or just presenting it?

Warman On Whatcott

More through the links below.  I've discussed the Warman/Lemire case, referenced in point six, here and here:

2. This unanimous 6-judge decision upholds the 20+ year old majority decision from the Supreme Court in Canadian Human Rights Commission v. Taylor that Canadian human rights laws on hate propaganda are constitutional. The unanimous Whatcott decision now includes Chief Justice McLachlin who had previously led the minority 4 judge dissent in Taylor arguing the parallel federal human rights restriction on hate propaganda was unconstitutional. This is a tectonic judicial shift.

3. The Supreme Court’s decision confirms that existing hate speech case law has been following the earlier guidance from then Chief Justice Dickson in the Taylor case to deal only with the most extreme examples of hate speech. The SCC’s decision cites 4 of my cases with a particular emphasis on the ‘Hallmarks of Hate’ from the crackerjack Canadian Human Rights Tribunal Member Karen Jensen in the Warman v. Kouba decision which brought together a cogent analysis of the indicia that will demarcate legal expression from illegal hate speech.

An interesting point, here.  Now both the SCC and Richard Moon have exonerated the behavior of HRC employees.  That is to say, they have not pursued frivolous cases, only the worst examples.


4. The Supreme Court has affirmed the social destruction caused by hate speech & emphasizes “the added impact of the Internet”.

5. The decision largely cements the legal test in the Taylor case as the governing law for the indefinite future and I believe confirms the current de facto state of the law.

6. Warman & CHRC v. Lemire – Justice Mosley of the Federal Court ruled in October of 2012 that he was obliged to follow the Supreme Court’s guidance in Taylor and uphold the constitutionality of s. 13 (the federal human rights act provision prohibiting Internet hate speech in Canada). Marc Lemire’s frivolous appeal of that decision is done.

Marc Lemire: obscurity is calling you.  Time to return to it.

PS.  Bernie Farber has weighed-in.

Whatcott Decision, Condensed

The Saskatchewan Human Rights Code is mostly constitutional:

 For the same reasons set out in the s. 1 analysis in the case of freedom of expression, the words “ridicules, belittles or otherwise affronts the dignity of” are not rationally connected to the legislative purpose of addressing systemic discrimination of protected groups, nor tailored to minimally impair freedom of religion.  The remaining prohibition of any representation “that exposes or tends to expose to hatred” any person or class of persons on the basis of a prohibited ground is a reasonable limit on freedom of religion and is demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

Woth noting that in testimony, reps from the Sask. Tribunal said that, in looking at a case, the real weight fell on the clause judge to be constitutional.  So no great loss.

And two of four of Whatcott's pamphlets constituted hate speech; two were merely offensive:

The tribunal’s conclusions with respect to the first two flyers were reasonable.  Passages of these flyers combine many of the hallmarks of hatred identified in the case law.  The expression portrays the targeted group as a menace that threatens the safety and well‑being of others, makes reference to respected sources in an effort to lend credibility to the negative generalizations, and uses vilifying and derogatory representations to create a tone of hatred.  The flyers also expressly call for discriminatory treatment of those of same‑sex orientation.  It was not unreasonable for the tribunal to conclude that this expression was more likely than not to expose homosexuals to hatred.

                    The tribunal’s decision with respect to the other two flyers was unreasonable and cannot be upheld.  The tribunal erred by failing to apply s. 14(1)(b) to the facts before it in accordance with the proper legal test.  It cannot reasonably be found that those flyers contain expression that a reasonable person, aware of the relevant context and circumstances, would find as exposing or likely to expose persons of same‑sex orientation to detestation and vilification.  The expression, while offensive, does not demonstrate the hatred required by the prohibition.

Suck on it Bill!  Suck on it Speechys!

PS.  Also, Bill is out $7,500 and a whole whack for costs.

PPS.  Another good bit, re the issue of whether the speech in question reflects a sincerely held belief:

[143]                      Apart from that concern, the fact that a person circulates a hate publication in the furtherance of a sincere religious belief goes to the question of the subjective view of the publisher, which is irrelevant to the objective application of the definition of hatred. Allowing the dissemination of hate speech to be excused by a sincerely held belief would, in effect, provide an absolute defence and would gut the prohibition of effectiveness.

Being A Quebecer Means Looking Sexxxy When The Cops Bust You

From the Que. student protests, which I don't know what they're even about anymore but who cares really?  Awesome t-shirt...black on white like the whole issue is about metaphysics.  Very aesthetic looking.  Did Mitsou show up for this protest thing?  Because I would think it would be her kind of thing.  And why is it when people protest in Ontario they all look like this or, god help us, this?

Kathleen Wynne Should Bring Bill 55 Into The Light

FWIW, I've read the relevant sections of Bill 55, the Strong Action for Ontario Act, and I don't see anything in it near as egregious as what the federal Tories did with their the Navigable Waters Protection Act.  Certainly, it does not seem to be a nefarious scheme to hand the province over to wind-farm developers, as a few of the more paranoid have suggested.  But its hard for someone like me to understand the real-world consequences of the bill's legalese.  That's why a good public bashing out between expert and counter-expert would be a useful exercise, and why burying what are possibly substantive changes to the province's environmental laws in a big omnibus bill, as the Ontario government has done, is a bad idea.  That is all. 

If You Haven't Written Off Martha Hall Findlay For LPoC Leader

...now is the time:

It’s time for the Liberal Party of Canada to stop ignoring Alberta. That was the message leadership candidate Martha Hall Findlay brought to Fort McMurray during a Friday tour of the oilsands, where she reaffirmed her support of the oilsands, as well as the Northern Gateway, Keystone XL and west-to-east pipelines.

She trashes the old NEP, endorses the new, Alberta-centric one.  If chosen LPoC leader, she wouldn't get a single vote in B.C.

You Don't Get Credit For Choices Forced Upon You

And therefore Peter Kent gets no credit for announcing, for about the third time now, that Canada will follow U.S. emissions standards for heavy duty vehicles made in this country.  Because Canada's demand for such vehicles is so small that makers of them could not survive if shut out of the U.S. market. This is not about matching or outdoing the Obama administration's efforts.  Its about reacting, in as minimalist a fashion as possible, to actions your lobbyists were unable to stave off.   

Doug Christie, Lawyer For Canada's Far Right, Has Been Diagnosed With Liver Cancer

This post came to my attention yesterday, from Christie client Arthur Topham, who I have written about on several occasions:

Today it is my misfortune to have to share with you some very sad news regarding one of Canada’s foremost advocates in the struggle to retain our right to freedom of speech, Mr. Douglas H. Christie.

Yesterday, February 22, 2013 I received an email from Doug’s office assistant in Victoria, B.C., Jeremy Maddock, marked “Urgent”. Upon opening the email I read:

“Dear Arthur:

I regret to advise that Mr. Christie has been diagnosed with an advanced form of liver cancer, and has received medical advice that he cannot practice law any further at the present time. In these circumstances, it will be necessary for you to seek other counsel as soon as possible.”

Among Mr. Christie's other accomplishments beyond defending white supremacists was his creation of the Western Canada Concept, one of Canada's first Western Separatist parties and a precursor of the Reform Party. 

So, a storied career, then.

Be interesting to see what happens should Mr. Christie retire.  There are not too many people in this country willing to do his job.  In fact I think there is just one.

Law Repealing Hate Speech Provision Stuck in Senate

This story tallies with what I've been hearing.  A number of senate Tories aren't down with the repeal of S-13,  the hate speech provision in Canada's Human Rights Act.  After 2nd reading, it may disappear for months in committee.  It may never re-emerge.   Just maybe the notion that "limitations on expression should be subject to the built-in protections of real courts through libel and slander laws and hate speech provisions in the Criminal Code" is looking less persuasive after this and this.

Andrea Horwath Will Scream Coverup

...but not bring down the OLP government over the discovery of more gas-plant cancellation related docs, because, she claims, she's so damn straight.  Her party has also fallen into 3rd place in the polls. Make of all this what you will.

On Hair, Ancient And More Ancient

Janet Stephens, the "hair dressing archaeologist", has been much in the news of late for having successfully recreated the hair-style worn by ancient Rome's Vestal Virgin priestesses.

Here's how she got her start:

 “One day, I was killing time at the Walters Museum in Baltimore while my daughter was at a music lesson and I ended up in the Ancient Roman collection,” says Stephens. “They were making changes in the gallery and they had set some of the portrait statues in the middle of the gallery and I got to see the back of the head and that is where all the hairdressing happens.  Usually, they are pushed up against a wall because they expect you to be most interested the face but I’m a hairdresser--I don’t care about her face, I want to see the hair.  I looked at the back of these heads and mentally started dissecting the style.”

Once home, Stephens pulled out a long hair mannequin and got braiding and weaving, using reverse engineering and her hairdresser smarts to recreate the shape.

Since then she has managed to recreate many ancient styles, and debunk many previous theories about how these elaborate dos were put together. It turns out, for example, that many them really were the result of styling and not, as previously thought, wigs.  The one below is "classical Greek" (5th c. BC Athenian)

Some of Stephen's more elaborate recreations can be seen at her youtube channel here.  More on the archaeological significance of her research can be found here.

Is Sun News TV Canada's REAL State Broadcaster?

So if you watch this story on Sun News enough times (and believe me I'm not recommending you do it) the ads that introduce it

...are this one for Immigration Canada, or this one for Canada's Economic Action Plan...

...or this one for Canada's Economic Action Plan

...or a third one for Canada's Economic Action Plan that I haven't bothered to screen cap, or

...this ad for the Dodge Journey...but only very occasionally.  You also will see a shout-out to the Sun Facebook Page.

Of course CEAP plugs are everywhere, but recently it looks as though they account for well over half of the adverts on the Sun TV website.  Does this amount to a government subsidy...the Harper Gov. throwing money to a message friendly news service?  And if so, does that make Sun TV Canada's REAL state broadcaster?

Wind Power And Hair

If anyone was wondering why the feds have decided to delay and revise their study on the health effects of wind turbines, it is to collect hair samples, the chemical composition of which can be used as a biological marker of chronic stress.  Why this din't do this first go round is beyond me.

Jason Kenney Is Being Lied To

From Canadian Jewish News:

A recent Canadian billboard campaign in Hungary targeting would-be Roma asylum-seekers to Canada with the message that new immigration laws severely limit their ability to seek refuge from persecution here led [Hungarian film-maker Adam] Csillag to contact The CJN to alert Canada’s Jewish community to the situation in his country.

[...]

“Hungary is lying to Canadian politicians when it says it is democratic,” he said. “Jobbik and its paramilitary [groups] are doing terrible things to Roma. I witnessed serial killings of Roma in 2008. The police are against the Roma.”

In a recent phone interview from his home in Budapest, with his daughter Anna translating, he said public discourse in Hungary has reached the point where “a disturbing amount” of people are unabashed about insulting minorities, particularly Jews and Roma.

He said he’s now advising his daughter and all Jewish youth in Hungary to leave for their own safety and a better future.

Anna, who is half-Jewish on her father’s side, confirmed that for the past few years while attending university, her friends and classmates have never been shy about telling her how much they like her “despite” her heritage.

Pumped Storage To Back Up Wind

The graphic shows it all, but the accompanying story is here.  The Provincial Liberals have been talking about projects like this before the last election.  In fact, I think one got a mention in their 2011 election platform. Which is to say that they haven't been totally winging it on Green Energy initiatives over year or so.

CAPP And The Government

Nancy on the coordination of polling research between the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and Environment Canada:

Why is this interesting? Government public opinion research must be non-partisan. But here, the government was able to access partisan-oriented research.

Second, Postmedia obtained this information via a federal access to information request. Guess CAPP's stuff made its way in there enough to be covered by the request.

All not appropriate. Some official types should look into this.

That is all.

Parsing The Martha Hall Findlay Apology

Dear Justin,

 My campaign for LPoC leader is so fucking doomed right now that its pathetic, and  afterwards I'll have nothing to show for it but debt.  Debt, debt, and more debt. And just when I'd managed to shovel my way out the first time, too.  Not that you'd know about what that's like, you pampered little...  

But anyway.  I beg you to forgive my harsh words of the other night, and also to consider me for a position in some future government.  A small thing.  Minister of String, Cans and Jars might be suitable.  Or a Senate appointment. Now that would be sweet.  I could sell my principal residence and pay off the angriest of my money men.  I would eat for free in the Senate cafeteria, and sleep in my seat, the way the other Senators do.  Otherwise I fear that when you next see me I will be pushing a shopping cart up Yonge Street, speaking into a toy telephone and living in a cardboard box under a bridge somewhere. 

Again, I cannot tell you how very, very... very sorry I am, Justin.  Sweet, beautiful, glorious Justin.  If you can see your way clear to forgiving this silly gal, and offering me some small but decently compensated post in what will surely be  a reign of historic greatness, I would be eternally grateful.

Yours,
Martha Hall Findlay

Tar Sands Contaminated Ground Water Headed For Athabasca River!

...though it hasn't got there yet.  No good way to sugar-coat this (though the shill from CAPP makes a good attempt in the linked article):

Two unsurprising facts noted in Mike DeSouza's twitter feed.  The Harper government knew about this last year, and they've told the scientists who reported it to STFU.  Give it up for Mike DeSouza, the only enviro reporter in Canada worth reading.