That a-word

Yes, "anti-Semitism"—again. But that silencing weapon in the capable hands of the new McCarthyists is firing paintballs these days, not bullets.

This weekend I was accused of it by a professor at UNB because I had been critical of Peter Kent's unseemly intervention in the matter of the recent attack on a Caracas synagogue. Then commenter Jay Currie accused commenter "psa" of it--read the thread for yourself and weep. (Don't feel badly, "psa": Currie has called me an anti-Semite too.) Now CUPE-Ontario is in the news again for passing a resolution in support of institutional boycotts and divestment campaigns against the state of Israel. And Warren Kinsella is all over that one:

With this move, they have embraced bigotry and anti-Semitism. That is so obvious, it isn't even worth debating, now.

As some of you have observed, however, I'm not into small talk about bigotry. I prefer action. I think we need to show CUPE there are consequences for this one.

First, actively seek to decertify the union, as it has arguably violated its own charter and organized labour charters to which it is a signatory. Second, petition for the termination of collective agreements entered into between CUPE and post-secondary institutions, on the grounds that publicly-funded institutions are not permitted to have contractual relations with entities which actively discriminate. Finally, bring human rights code complaints against them, in as many jurisdictions as possible, because that is the best and most logical forum to confront an outrage like this one.

The resolution reads:

CUPE Ontario will:

1. With Palestine solidarity and human rights organizations, develop an education campaign about the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and the political and economic support of Canada for these practices.

2. Support the international campaign of boycott, divestment and sanctions until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law including the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

3. Call on CUPE National to commit to research into Canadian involvement in the occupation and call on the CLC to join us in lobbying against the apartheid-like practices of the Israeli state and call for the immediate dismantling of the wall.

Because:
· The Israeli Apartheid Wall has been condemned and determined illegal under international law.
· Over 170 Palestinian political parties, unions and other organization including the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions issued a call in July 2005 for a global campaign of boycotts and divestment against Israel similar to those imposed against South African Apartheid.
· CUPE BC has firmly and vocally condemned the occupation of Palestine and have initiated an education campaign about the apartheid-like practices of the Israeli state.

This resolution, as it turns out, has gained support from people who might be somewhat surprised to learn that they are bigots and anti-Semites.

There has been, of course, inflamed rhetoric on both sides when the Middle East is the subject of discussion: there have been too many statements made in anger. But again, there is little even-handedness in the criticism that follows. Over-the-top references to Israel's actions in Gaza as a "holocaust," for example, have been denounced as "anti-Semitic." But, of course, it's only "anti-Semitic" if we do it. An Israeli Deputy* Minister of Defence can threaten a "bigger holocaust" in Gaza, and the Usual Suspects fall all over themselves trying to parse his words. (What part of "shoah" do they fail to understand?)

I don't want to delve once more into the evolution of the term. I really can't add much to what I have written here and here. The device has proven, in the recent past, to be very effective in stifling debate and putting critics of Israel on the defensive. But at this point its overuse has rendered it nearly meaningless--it's devolved, in fact, into little more than a synonym for "poopy-head."

Meanwhile there are real anti-Semites around, who need that label hung around their necks like an anchor. Such as the person who has recorded this sort of thing:

Lest your mind automatically reject the words of Hitler out of some political reflexive habit, remember that he witnessed the decline and fall of another multi-cultural state, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so he knows what he's taking [sic] about...

And:

Here it is, the book you've been waiting for [Holocaust-denier Michael A. Hoffman II's "The Great Holocaust Trial" --DD] that summarizes the entire career of the most persecuted book publisher in the world, from his childhood to his latest activism, German-Canadian revisionist Ernst Zundel.

But the author in question is, alas, untouchable.

*****************

ERRATUM: The resolution quoted above is Resolution 50, no less controversial at the time, but passed in May, 2006. The resolution just adopted is described as an "adjunct" to Resolution 50. While I have not located the exact text, it focuses upon collaborative research on weaponry. As reported:

CUPE university workers will be urged to examine the education and research ties of their own institutions with ones in Israel. If members learn their universities collaborate with Israeli universities engaged in weapons research, they are encouraged — but not forced — to mount a boycott campaign.

Ryan said CUPE will also investigate whether its pension plans are investing in companies developing weapons in Israel which could be used against the Palestinians.

Resolution 50 contains no anti-Semitic language, although one can see why it gave rise to some heated debate by partisans on all sides of the debate on the Middle East. The present resolution, however, seems even further removed from anything that could reasonably be called "anti-Semitism."
_____________________
*Reader shlemazl notes that the official in question was not the Minister of Defence, but the Deputy Minister.

Catch-22 for a dark-skinned Canadian

The Globe and Mail's Paul Koring is hammering at the Abousfian Abdelrazik case again this morning. Abdelrazik, about whom I have posted before, is a Canadian presently marooned in Sudan. He is accused of no crime, but he's been left to twist in the wind for more than five years now by unscrupulous Foreign Affairs officials, the previous Liberal government*, and now the Harper government.

The latest wrinkle in what can only be described as procedural turpitude by the Conservative regime is to offer Abdelrazik--finally--an emergency passport to get him back to Canada. But there's a sadistic catch to it.

To qualify for the passport, he is required to present a fully-paid-for airline ticket. He has no money. The government has warned, however, that it's illegal for anyone to give him the money, under catch-all "anti-terrorist" regulations--despite his having been cleared of any terrorist connections by both the Sudanese government and the RCMP.

As Koring notes, the government had previously offered him the passport if he could obtain an airplane reservation. He did just that last Fall, but then-Minister of Foreign Affairs David Emerson and the weasels in his ministry withheld the promised document and "declined to explain."

And now this latest vicious Catch-22 by a government for whom dark-skinned "Canadians" (to use the shudder-quotes employed by Blogging Tory Raphael Alexander) evidently aren't real Canadians at all. Too bad, as I've said before, that Abousfian Abdelrazik wasn't named "Brenda Martin."

No word as yet from human rights scholar Michael Ignatieff.

_____________________
*Commenter "Sitsonsix" rightly notes that Abdelrazik's predicament did not begin with the Conservatives: I have made the needed correction above. But the cruel cat-and-mouse games that have been played over the past few months are entirely the responsibility of the Harper government.

Hire lerning at UNB

A learned professor at UNB named David Murrell went after me today after a wag posted a message on the mephitic Canadian Coalition for Democracies site yesterday and forged my name to it. (That's twice in one week: the other forgery appeared on a bogus site called Shaidle is a racist. Luckily these things are fairly easily exposed.)

In any case, he checked out a recent post of mine about Peter Kent, and wrote a post of his own entitled: "Dr. Dawg criticizes Peter Kent for his denouncing of synagogue vandalizim." Here are a couple of extracts:

Dr. Dawg, in this rather facile post, conjures up the hypothetical situation of multi-syngogue vandalism taking place in this country -- and that Canadiaans would resent other countries criticisng us for anti-Ssemitic acts going on in this country....

Dr. Dawg's posts are a classic example of "soft", left-wing based anti-Semitism. That is, the voice opposition to criticism of anti-Setmic acts.

He followed this up with a post bearing the title: "Sorry! The mispelled (sic) word is 'vandalism.'"

Tomorrow, presumably, he's back in the classroom.

Rashomon at York

[M]y pamphlet was quite uninfluenced by the teacher, perhaps on this point, indeed, I showed all too great a scrupulosity; from my words one might have thought nobody had ever inquired into the case before, and I was the first to interrogate those who had seen or heard of the mole, the first to correlate the evidence, the first to draw conclusions. When later I read the schoolmaster's pamphlet--it had a very circumstantial title: "A mole, larger in size that ever seen before"--I found that we actually did not agree on certain important points, though we both believed we had proved our main point, namely, the existence of the mole. These differences prevented the establishment of the friendly relations with the schoolmaster that I had been looking forward to in spite of everything. --Franz Kafka, The Village Schoolmaster (1915)

Police were also summoned after a Jewish student was physically assaulted on campus after confronting a group protesting Israeli polices [sic]. It's the latter...that is most illuminating. I haven't been able to verify that it happened at all; everyone I spoke to said that they'd heard about it, but had nothing to offer beyond hearsay and rumour. Nevertheless, the reports of a student being assaulted, even if it was only a minor scuffle, has the Jewish community at York rattled, and rightly so. Such an assault would cross a line that has been very much thinned by the recent heated protests, but which has remained a line nonetheless. If it has been crossed, then it's a whole new ball game, and it speaks to how poisonous the York campus has become for Jews that they are so readily willing to accept this unconfirmed story. No one is shocked at the thought. Indeed, the prevailing sense is one of resignation, of knowing that it was bound to happen sooner or later. Whether or not it has is almost immaterial in that sense – the fact that so many of York's Jewish students feel it could happen is proof enough of a ruinous environment and a fundamentally broken relationship between the students and their university.--Matt Gurney, National Post

I've been fascinated by the tangled tale--tales, rather--about what happened at York University on February 11. And for some reason I'm reminded of Kafka's story of the giant mole that exists only in pamphlets and comments, and Akira Kurasawa's masterpiece, with all of the contradictory witnesses and their competing narratives, which I'll get to in a moment.

I juxtapose an excerpt from Kafka with a piece by Matt Gurney in the National Post because in some ways they are so strikingly similar. Just as the mole never appears in the Kafka story, only a growing (and conflicting) series of accounts of it, so too is the case with a widely-reported incident on the York campus before the February 11 imbroglio. In fact, Gurney, perhaps unwittingly, espouses a surprisingly postmodern view of the construction of history: there are no underlying "objective" events, only accounts of events, and, indeed, the issue of whether an event "really happened" is immaterial.

Back to Kurasawa. I've always thought that Rashomon was about the construction of history, too, and it was pretty postmodern stuff for 1950. And Kafka was at it 35 years earlier. I've seen this sort of thing on the ground, on the West Indian island of Bequia, where no event, however recent, seemed grounded, where no two stories about an occurrence ever seemed to jibe. In fact they were sometimes startlingly different. The characters, the when and where, the supposedly solid details of "something that happened" all shifted and blurred.

This is the quicksand upon which we build our authoritative accounts. And nowhere is that quicksand more treacherous than university campuses when the Middle East comes up for, well, discussion.

I'm not making light of the passions involved. Readers know that I can wax passionate on the subject myself. But this is not an article about the Middle East. Rather, my intent is to sketch out the radical uncertainty at the heart of what we are pleased to call "events," and the manner in which conflicting accounts are inevitably swept up into larger narratives. In a very real sense, we can watch history being made when we look at the discourses of February 12th at York University. And, like the proverbial sausage, the knowledge can make one queasy.

I just happen to like sausages.

Note on method: except to explain references, I am letting others tell their own stories, with a minimum of commentary on my part. I'll write an ending, if not a conclusion.

A Jewish student.

Anyways, as I arrived at the Hillel [a campus club for Jewish students --DD] I was told that a press conference was to be held on the 3rd floor of the Student Center in regards to the Drop YFS [York Federation of students --DD] campaign. A campaign where numerous student groups on campus, some of which are Jewish got together and collected signatures from over 10% of the student population, which is somewhere between 40,000 - 50,000 students, in order to impeach the current student government over their support of the union which went on strike in November and effectively locked-out all students on campus for 3 months.

The student government on the other hand went on the defensive and stated that the reason why the groups involved with the petition to rid them from office was because we as Jews were upset that they passed a resolution condemning Israel for their action in Gaza. Keep in mind that a large majority of the student government is comprised of students who are pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel supporters. The petition did not come about for that reason, while outside politics should not be something that a student government should concern themselves with during a strike which is keeping students out of classes, the petition came about because of the lack of action and commitment to the students during the strike.

So anyways, the Drop YFS campaign was successful and the required signatures were collected, and as a result of the strike, the local media who is constantly interested with the University and will probably be so for the rest of this school year, were invited to a press conference to talk about the campaign and what was done. The press conference as mentioned earlier was being held in a smaller room in the Student Center that may have had a maximum capacity of 50-60 individuals in a standing room style setting. The press conference was open to any and all students who wished to attend and quickly the room began to fill and when it reached capacity there were still close to 100 more students outside who wanted to come in, and the crowd was growing.

While the next bit of information may seem irrelevant, trust me it is.

Anyways, of those who were inside the room the composition of those inside was a mix of students, there were Jewish students, African Canadian students, South Asian students, Asian students, and Middle Eastern students. As the crowd outside became unruly, it became apparent that the crowd outside were students who would consider themselves pro-Palestinian supporters, and were the same students who opposed the Drop YFS campaign. Of those who were inside the room there was a mixed group of pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students of which from both groups some were pro-Drop YFS and some were anti-Drop YFS. But with help from some students, the mob was held back at the door for fear of a fire hazard and it was decided that the press conference was to begin.

Also, just before the press conference started, a Middle Easter pro-Palestinian supporter shouted out loud right next to me, "Let the Colored people in." To which an African Canadian student showed her disgust with this comment and stated to a friend of mine that maybe this pro-Palestinian supporter also wants to place them in the back corner as well. And, after this pro-Palestinian supporter made this comment he followed it up with, "Maybe if my friends bleach their skin they'll be let inside." This comment grew equal disgust as the first by the other students standing around him.

Two minutes into the press conference, loud shouts from outside the room of "Let us in!" and "Zionism is racism," with heavy banging on the walls prompted an immediate halt to the press conference, out of fear that the room may be rushed and people may be hurt. A reasonable response for the situation that was occurring outside of this room.

Now let me preface the rest with me saying that I am a big supporter of free speech and I don't care if there students on campus who wish to support Palestine and even shout anti-Israel slogans but with what happened next went a step beyond free speech and what was said and the actions taken by this individuals bordered on hate speech and discrimination.

As the room was letting out numerous students with cameras, as well as media present, were taking pictures of what was going on outside of the room where the press conference was being held. I myself who always has a camera and likes taking pictures of these types of events proceeded to do the same. The Middle Eastern student who was shouting the racial slurs earlier stepped in front of where I was taking pictures/videos of what was occurring and when he realized what I was doing, and I believe it was only because I was wearing my Yarmulke (Jewish skull cap), he told me that if I take his picture, that he will take my camera and smash it. He only issued this threat to me and no other student so I believe I am fair to state that this threat to break my camera was only done so because I was Jewish and that I am therefore guilty due to association.

So as the Jewish students proceeded up the stairs to the Hillel lounge the crowd that gathered proceeded to shout anti-Israel slogans at us such as "Zionism is Racism." To which I did not care because like I said, in the nature of free speech, each person is entitled to it, and did not think anything of it. And, about ten minutes later is when things began to grow really ugly.

As the mob did not disperse, on the third floor, a worker in the Hillel decided that it was best to lock the door of the Hillel, and only let the Jewish students inside until the crowd thinned out, just to be on the safe side. Not thinking that anything was going to happen, the students in the Hillel lounge went about there typical business, sitting around and doing school work. Ten minutes passed, and before anyone realized what was happening, the mob that was outside the press conference on the third floor was outside the Hillel office on the fourth floor. The students outside of the Hillel were shouting louder their anti-Israel slogans and banging on the floor and walls so hard that the lights outside the Hillel were flickering. As the students in Hillel began to grow uneasy and the feeling of being safe was diminishing, York security was called in to try and help break up the crowd but as any student who has been to York knows, the campus security is severely limited on the force that they can use and they were unable to break up the crowd. And, as a result we were encouraged by Hillel staff to call the Toronto Police to help disperse the crowd. Some students who had the local non-emergency number called that one but as panic was setting in with other students some called 911 as they were truly scared for their safety.

Just as Toronto Police were arriving on campus, one pro-Palestinian student stood at the glass door of the Hillel, visible to the students in the Hillel, with his Kaffeiyah scarf pulled all the way up to his eyes. This is a tactic used by terrorist organizations such as Hamas and al-Qaeda to intimidate others, and quite frankly I was completely taken off-guard by the sight of this student and at that point fear began to trickle into me as well. This is something that goes beyond free speech and being anti-Israel and is tantamount to racism and discrimination. As the police arrived they stated that in a situation like this there is nothing they can do as they did not feel that there was an actual threat of violence, however, it was their belief that the possibility remained. They then told us that because they could not stand watch at the door all night, that it was highly recommended that we vacate the lounge immediately and they would assist us with safe passage through the crowd so as to prevent anything from occurring. And as 20 Jewish student walked single file through this unruly mob, they were pointing, laughing and chanting that we were "Racists on Campus!"

The interesting thing is this, while all of this occurred, primarily because of the press conference, there was media present watching all of this. Of the three members of the press present one was the Excalibur, the largest campus newspaper, whose editorial board tends to be considered slightly pro-Palestinian, a smaller college affiliated paper was there and The Globe and Mail was there, which is a Canadian national newspaper. All three especially the national newspaper but more interestingly, the campus newspaper showed their complete disgust with what happened outside both the press conference and the Hillel.

I reprinted most of this account, lengthy as it is, because it contains all of the elements that have been taken up in other accounts. The three-month strike at York caused a lot of resentment. The York Federation of Students (the student council) allegedly endorsed the strike--it says it didn't, mind you, referring us to this statement in November (see end of third paragraph)--and a student movement to impeach the lot of them gained some traction on campus.

The YFS also passed a resolution condemning Israel for the recent carnage in Gaza. The two issues became inextricably entangled.

A British blogger.

The press conference was cancelled. “It was way too loud and it was disturbing,” he said. Members of the “Drop YFS” coalition moved upstairs to the Jewish Student Center and were followed by a crowd of chanting protesters. One pro-Israel student described “pro-Palestinian thugs gathered outside the Hillel office, some covering their faces with keffiyahs, chanting hateful statements and using intimidation” in a description posted on Facebook. Matthew Harris [vice-president of the Jewish student club on campus --DD] described Jewish students “barricaded” inside the room.

Campus security and Toronto Police were called and students were escorted safely out of the building. Harris alleges that the York Federation of Students hopes to obfuscate the reasons behind the petition calling for the recall of the executive by connecting it to the issue of Israel and Palestine. He asserts the Federation tried to paint those circulating the petition as pro-Israel lobbyists trying to usurp control from a pro-Palestinian council. “[The student government] tried to convince students that it wasn’t about undergraduate representation, but rather that it was about the Gaza issue,” Harris said. But “it had much more to do with the YFS’s support for CUPE during the strike,” Harris said.

***

At a rally in solidarity with Palestinians on Thursday, a member of the York Federation of Students refuted Harris’s account. “Ever since these individuals involved in the Drop YFS coalition started their campaign there has been an increase in racism and many other forms of discrimination on our campus,” said Krisna Saravanamuttu, the YFS vice president for equity. Saravanamuttu described the gathering that disrupted the press conference Wednesday night as a protest against “racism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and sexism that we’ve seen on our campus in the last two weeks.” The protesting students simply wanted to be a part of the pres conference, Saravanamuttu said. “They just wanted to have their voices heard,” he said.

“There was no anti-Semitism involved with yesterday’s protest. It was a peaceful demonstration,” he said, adding that no one blocked access in or out of the Jewish student center. Saravanamuttu said that most people believe that the Drop YFS campaign is a response by pro-Israel student groups to a YFS resolution denouncing the recent Israeli incursion into Gaza.

Dawg's Blawg commenter "forgottobuytinfoil."

OK, this just pisses me off. On January 22, the York Federation of Students affiliated itself with the Right To Education campaign to condemn Israeli attacks on Palestinian educational institutions. http://www.caiaweb.org/node/1091 By the 26th of January a Drop YFS campaign is forming, ostensibly to protest their support for the strike, but building around anger over their support for Gaza. http://secondgenerationradical.blogmatrix.com/:entry:secondgenerationradical-2009-01-26-0003/ By sometime last week, people are yelling at the YFS president; once girl calls out, "I fucking hate you!" This is indavertently documented in an over-cooked propaganda video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64kOcqRtOOw&feature=related Yesterday, members of the Drop YFS campaign announce their completed petition to depose the YFS leadership, but get yelled at themselves and take shelter at the Hillel centre, complaining of anti-Semitism. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64kOcqRtOOw&feature=related Why does this piss me off? Because I dislike mendacity.

The student newspaper.

“The students united will never be defeated!” No truer words have ever been spoken or chanted from the top of someone’s lungs –seriously or in a half-mocking way. While the slogan itself is one of several political catchphrases used by the current York Federation of Students (YFS) executive, there may be something more to it than merely pumping students up for the next big cause – and trust me, there are many. Democracy, racism, accountability, pro-Palestine, impeachment, pro-Israel, politics, anti-Semitism, conflict, Zionism – a few words that have been tossed around lately, but why? And does anyone know the true motives of Drop YFS or the current – slash “outgoing” – YFS executive? Does anyone care? With cries of racism from both sides, rallies in Vari Hall (disrupting students’ last chance to learn anything lately) and smear campaigns, which side do you trust? Or, even more to the point, which side should you trust? I would be so bold as to suggest neither.

The truth is that these buzz words have been tossed around because of political opportunism on both sides. And, yet again, students are playing pawn to two faces of the same coin. Let’s not beat around the bush. Drop YFS is largely supported by members of Hillel at York as well as the Hasbara Fellowship at York – two Jewish student groups that are part of larger parent organizations in the Greater Toronto Area. In the YFS corner of the ring are the “progressive” voices on campus (often referred to as “the progressive allies”). The York University Black Students’ Alliance (YUBSA), Trans Bisexual Lesbian Gays Allies at York (TBLGAY) and Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) are amongst these voices. Enter good old-fashioned political opportunism.

With such obvious political polarity in the political interests of both sides’ supporters – that is, Hillel and Hasbara versus SAIA – it was only a matter of time before someone cast the first stone. It matters little who struck first. What matters is that something that began as students exercising their democratic right to recall the student government – for engaging in activities that that did not match the interest of some members of the student body – has degenerated into Middle Eastern politics. Like it or not, what students are left with is a choice between a YFS that allegedly supports Palestine through its actions and affiliations and a student group (Drop YFS) that has aligned itself with students who support Israel.

Richard L. Cravatts (author of Genocidal Liberalism: The University’s Jihad Against Israel).

More troubling is the invidious language used in this event, mirroring a surge of unbridled Jew-hatred manifested on campuses, as well as on city streets, worldwide since Israel’s recent defensive incursions into Gaza. Parroting the morally incoherent and factually defective exhortations of Israel-haters elsewhere of "Zionism equals racism!" and "Racists off campus!," the York mob, members of both the York Federation of Students and Students Against Israeli Apartheid, demonstrated once again that what is positioned as “intellectual debate” on campuses about the Israeli/Palestinian issue has devolved into something that is not really a conversation at all; rather, it is something more akin to an ideologically-driven shout fest in which a new version of pro-Palestinian brownshirts, employing a revisionist history in which the dark-skinned, third-world Arabs are the long-standing victims of white, European, colonial Zionists, have escalated the debate far beyond discussion of borders, refugee status, and the rights of both Jews and Arabs to self-determination, statehood, and peaceful coexistence.

So now, supporters of the cult of Palestinianism apparently no longer feel even a bit uncomfortable voicing what is actually on their minds when the subject of Israel comes up: when the York Hillel students were trapped inside of locked offices, surrounded by an increasingly violent and aggressive mob, the intellectual “debate” that day included such invidious and raw slurs as "Die bitch—go back to Israel" and "Die Jew—get the hell off campus." The most vicious anti-Semites have of late been able to conveniently inoculate themselves from what had become socially unacceptable in the modern age— hating Jews—by artfully masking any anti-Semitism on their part by stating, “Oh, no, it’s not Jews that I loathe, only the oppressive, genocidal, and racist policies of Zionism and Israel.”

The inflammatory slogans cited above have been reproduced all over the Internet, but I have been unable to track down when--or by whom--they were supposedly uttered. Maybe, as Gurney might say, it's not important if they were or weren't.

Visual Account.

[This has, oddly enough, been removed by YouTube for allegedly breaching its Terms of Service. Bizarre--it was just an account. --Ed., November 9, 2010]



Laura Rosen Cohen.

Last week, word broke that Jewish students were verbally accosted by anti-Israel protesters at York University. An eyewitness account of the melee, published here, described a hostage-like situation, where in Orwellian fashion, the Jewish victims of the campus intimidation were punished and asked by security to stop their event -- ostensibly for their own safety.

---

This is not a Jewish issue – it is a Canadian one. Do we want our university and college campuses to continue on their unfettered deterioration into hopeless cesspools of intimidation where Jews need to wear special T-shirts declaring they are not afraid to be present, or to exist?

Will the Jewish community leadership, in conjunction with our secular, elected government officials finally say enough is enough? Will they finally take a cold hard look at the clearest examples of Judenhass in recent Canadian history and do something about it, or will we be doomed to watch our leaders continue to pursue the ostrich route, continually allocating precious community resources in pursuit of ‘hateful words’ instead of taking on the hateful souls and ideologies that would happily destroy us? Time will tell.

Another good reason...

...to run with the Canadian Cynic crowd. You might get invited over to LuLu's, as I was last evening, for the best damned lasagna ever made. And drink wine till it hurts. And have non-stop, engaging, frequently humorous and always witty conversation with LuLu (who wore her famous boots) and the Cynic himself about the world we live in and the curious folk who inhabit it.

Light blogging today: it's the celebration of my stepdaughter's thirtieth, and I'm cooking for seven after cleaning the house. Maybe I'll pop in for a snarky comment or two, but that'll be pretty well it until tomorrow.

OK, Ottawa City Councillors...

...you've got a choice to make.

Because this is not the municipal government that we voted for in 2006:














...and that's not going to change when we vote again in 2010.

Got that, Marianne Wilkinson?

To serve and protect [updated]

Two gunmen burst into your home and one shoots your brother three times after ordering you both to kneel. You wrestle the gun away and shoot one of the assailants in an obvious case of self-defence.

Whom do the police arrest?

If you live in Vancouver and your name is "Amir Mohammed"--you.

UPDATE: (February 19) Contrary to earlier reports, Amir has been released and does not at this time face any charges:

Amir's lawyer, John Turner, told The Province that Amir was released about 12:30 Wednesday afternoon.

"He was released with no charges — that's what I understand," said Turner. "It seems to me they've spoken to everyone involved and decided not to charge him. But I can't say whether the police will charge him in the future."

Turner said the family is holding up relatively well given the traumatic events.

"I've spoken with the family, I've spoken with his mother," he said. "His brother [Aleem] is very seriously ill — no one's given the family any information about his condition."

Turner said he spoke with Amir three hours after the 2 p.m. shooting.

"He seems to be doing reasonably well under the circumstances," said Turner.

"He's only a kid."

This would appear to support my point, if admittedly tenuously. Asking Amir to come downtown and give a statement is one thing. Maybe even offer him some counselling while you're at it. Hauling the traumatized kid off in handcuffs is quite another.

Dancing with Republicans

Worth framing:

I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an agreement on dinner plans with your date, and you suggest Italian and she states her preference would be a meal of tire rims and anthrax. If you can figure out a way to split the difference there and find a meal you will both enjoy, you can probably figure out how bipartisanship is going to work the next few years. --John Cole, Balloon Juice

[via David Ljunggren]

Welcome to Ottawa, Mr. President. Nice to get away for a bit, eh?

Atheist ads: fear and loathing at OC Transpo [updated]

Ottawa has joined two other cities--Victoria and Halifax--in an Axis of Benightedness.* The decision has been made: no atheist ads on our buses.

Canadian Cynic has a good account of OC Transpo official John Donaldson's prevarications. But thanks to Councillor Alex Cullen and the Ottawa Citizen, we can, thankfully, cut to the chase.

OC Transpo discriminates.

It turns out that the wretched officials over there have already approved religious bus ads, which could be appearing shortly.

In 2007, OC Transpo approved ads for Bus Stop Bible Studies, a campaign on panels inside buses quoting scripture and asking life’s big questions. Roughly 2,400 ads have run in Calgary, Burlington and Toronto, but the sponsor has not yet raised enough money to place the ads on Ottawa buses.

The sponsor of the ads seems like a stand-up guy:

Though the group hasn’t yet run the Bible-quoting ads in Ottawa, its founder is puzzled city staff’s rejection of the atheists ads.

“I don’t follow the logic,” said Bus Stop Bible Studies founder David Harrison. “Why would they approve ours and not theirs? If we don’t stand up for (the atheists’) rights, ours will be trampled too.”

Meanwhile, Donaldson continues to make it up as he goes along :

OC Transpo frequently rejects ads that might be considered sexist or show “inappropriate body images,” Donaldson said.

“We receive complaints about advertising material of all kinds of different subjects,” Donaldson said. “The same thing applies — if people are offended, and let us know about it, then there’s a provision in the contract to ...remove it.”

But clearly this sexist tripe** is perfectly all right with him.

Now OC Transpo's blatant double standards have been dragged into the pitiless glare of the noontime sun, this story may soon be concluded. But in the meantime, why not send an email (John.Donaldson@ottawa.ca) to let OC Transpo know what you think of their rank hypocrisy. And don't forget to copy it to Councillor Alex Cullen, Chair of Ottawa City Council's Transit Committee (Alex.Cullen@ottawa.ca).

UPDATE: (February 18) The Ottawa City Council Transit Committee has met. By a vote of 3 to 3, and for want of a majority, Councillor Alex Cullen's motion to permit atheist advertising on buses was defeated. On the side of the angels--so to speak--were Councillors Cullen, George Bedard and Jacques Legendre. The knuckle-draggers who prevailed were Rainer Bloess, Doug Thompson and Marianne Wilkinson.

The matter is going to the full City Council on March 11. For God's sake Please write to the Ottawa City Councillors and the Mayor, and remind them about the benefits of public debate in a democracy, the problem with OC Transpo's blatant double standards, what century we're living in, etc.

UPPERDATE: (February 19) CC got to it first, but this comment from the fossilized Marianne Wilkinson deserves quoting, without further comment:

I don’t think we should be demeaning people in advertising at OC Transpo. I think the words are offensive to everyone who believes in God, regardless of what religion they are. To me, as a Christian, it is demeaning. It grates on me.

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*Three other cities, in fact. Somehow I missed Vancouver. [H/t commenter beluga2]

**Virgin Radio has now pulled its ads voluntarily--no thanks to the selective censors at OC Transpo.[H/t The Fifth Column]

The Silence of the Speech Warriors™

My alma mater, not so alma in my eyes at the moment, has just banned the poster reproduced here from display during Israeli Apartheid Week. This is just the latest example of the suppression of pro-Palestinian voices on Canadian campuses.

The poster is provocative, certainly, although not in the same league as the Holocaust porn being peddled by the "pro-life" folks at the moment. Carleton University's administration, however, believes that the "image could be seen to incite others to infringe rights protected in the Ontario human rights code." For the life of me, I can't see how. As a reader of mine notes, "If it's OK for a cartoon to depict Mohammed as a terrorist, what's wrong with this?"

My goodness. A campus ban on free expression. Even a tasty mention of a "human rights code!" Tailor-made for the Speech Warriors™, and they've boldly leapt into action...

Er, no.

Perhaps they're still tired after orgiastic late-night partying to celebrate the punishment of the Canadian Arab Federation because its leader called Jason Kenney a name.

[H/t reader "forgottobuytinfoil]

UPDATE: (February 19) More. And the Western Standard's Terrence Watson rises to the challenge. (But he's different.)

And do check out Kateland's riposte at Dust My Broom. I'd like to respond, but I'm banned there.* Suffice it to say that her account is flawed in a number of respects: it uses dubious testimony, and incidents elsewhere, to justify the suppression of a poster on the campus of Carleton University. One doesn't have to be a free speech absolutist to see where that kind of argument leads us.

UPPERDATE: Silent no more. Speech Warrior™ Deborah Gyapong is outraged. Shorter Gyapong: "The CBC calls this a free speech issue? But...but...the human rights commissions!"
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*Whoops--it was cross-posted from her place, which is where I shall respond.

Feminists, go to Hell

...you're needed.

"The men, it seems, are the ones whose souls end up being pelted with fire and brimstone, while the women's souls are more likely to be broken on a wheel."

Maybe Richard Dawkins has a point after all.

A professional whore lashes back

Jason Kenney, our Minister of Immigration, is poised to slash funds for a resettlement program in Toronto that teaches new immigrants language and job-seeking skills. Was it not functioning properly? Was the money being misspent?

Not at all. Kenney is upset because the head of the Canadian Arab Federation, the recipient of the grant, called him a name.

95% of those who benefit from the CAF's Toronto program are non-Arab, not that that is in any way relevant. This petty, vindictive act of tyranny would hardly be more palatable if it struck only at one ethnic group. But it goes to show how cavalierly and arbitrarily the Minister is exercising his remit. It is clearly reminiscent of the cancellation of arts programs before the last election, done explicitly because the Cons didn't like the politics of some of the recipients. Nothing, it seems, has changed.

Of course, the Speech Warriors™ are going to the wall to defend...ah, no, they're not. Demonstrating the unbearable lightness of principle for which they have become notorious, they're lustily cheering on the sidelines for Jason Kenney, presently nursing his hurt feelings. As Ed Anger might say, these folks are having it both ways with more abandon than delegates at a swingers' convention.

So now it's out in the open--recipients of government grants are to be muzzled. They might have met all the written criteria for the programs in which they applied, winning their funding fair and square, but they will be singled out for rejection solely on political grounds.

At least Kenney's being honest and upfront about it. That's more than can be said for the aforementioned self-appointed defenders of free speech, who lose no time defending state suppression of it when it's Muslims rather than their neo-Nazi poster children who are at the receiving end.

Animal tales

...somehow the drunk fits quite naturally into this narrative. Pure poetry. Great concluding line.

Does not compute

From time to time, a few of us have unkindly referred to Stephen Harper and his ministers as robots. We didn't mean it literally, of course. But could it be that we've inadvertently stumbled onto something?

From Aaron Wherry via Chris Selley, and worth repeating here:

Mr. Paul Crête (Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, BQ):

Mr. Speaker, despite endless urging from the opposition parties and members of all sectors of civil society, the Conservative government is still stubbornly refusing to repatriate young Omar Khadr to Canada. Worse yet, the Prime Minister refuses to even raise the matter with President Obama when he visits, according to one of his spokespersons. We are talking here of a child soldier, imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay for more than six years now and subjected to acts of torture.

Does the Prime Minister understand that he has a moral duty to discuss with President Obama the arrangements for repatriating this young Canadian citizen, Omar Khadr?

Will he do this or will he sink—

The Speaker:

The hon. Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Deepak Obhrai (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, our position regarding Mr. Khadr remains unchanged. Mr. Khadr faces serious charges that include murder, attempted murder and terrorism.

We continue to closely monitor this situation, including the work of the American committee formed to study the fate of the detainees, including Mr. Khadr. Any speculation is premature at this time.

Mr. Paul Crête (Montmagny—L'Islet—Kamouraska—Rivière-du-Loup, BQ):

Mr. Speaker, the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions comes into effect on March 18, 2007. Guided by Quebec, Canada signed that convention along with 95 other countries.

Since the United States has not yet signed, does the Prime Minister intend to put this on the agenda when he meets with President Obama, in order to convince him to sign the convention?

Mr. Deepak Obhrai (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, CPC):

Mr. Speaker, I will say this again. Our position regarding Mr. Khadr remains unchanged. Mr. Khadr faces serious charges, including murder. We continue to closely monitor the situation, including the work of the American committee formed by President Obama to study the fate of detainees, including Mr. Khadr.

The whole series of exchanges is worth a read (scroll down). Mr. Data, please report to the infirmary.

A conservative manifesto

...with feeling. And a conservative book praising white supremacists. Meanwhile the Usual Suspects™ witter on about that phantasmal, oxymoronic contruction, "liberal fascism."

Starting to look mighty like a diversion, folks.

[H/t Vanity Press and LGF via CC.]

Tainted meat inquiry

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency whistleblower who told his union last summer about plans to cut already-stretched resources for meat inspection is still unemployed. CFIA scientist Luc Pomerleau found the information on a server accessible to 5,000 people or so, and was fired for passing the item on to his union for discussion at a labour-management joint consultation session.

Because Stephen Harper doesn't want the public to know the danger they're in. Bad for business.

By no coincidence, that document surfaced just as Canadians were being poisoned and killed by tainted meat products: the listeriosis scandal. This appears, in fact, to be an on-going problem. But no lessons have been learned, it seems: even more "self-regulation" is planned, this time in the poultry industry, and senior veterinarians are sounding the alarm.

Meanwhile, there are two parallel inquiries about the listeriosis outbreak in play at the moment, a fake one and a real one.

The fake one, naturally, is happening under the aegis of the Conservative government. My old friend Bob Kingston has all the gory details of the current inspection regime here, and he's not too impressed with a behind-closed-doors investigation by a gagged researcher without the power to subpoena witnesses or to compel testimony. The redoubtable Sheila Weatherill is not only without the tools to do her job properly--she's in a clear conflict of interest as well. Like some of the uninspected products leaving our processing plants, this "investigation" simply doesn't pass the sniff test.

Here's the real one. Given the support of all three opposition parties on the House of Commons agriculture committee, it's likely to be approved later this week. In the meantime, before you tuck into that yummy sandwich, you just might want to consider using a Conservative as an official taster.

Soft drinks on parade

Just drink it, already, and stop complaining. OK, you can have this one instead.

Anyone wonder why I stick to beer?

No, not that beer.

I won! I won!

...and that's not, of course, without its risks. But I've been nominated (which seems to mean the same thing as actually winning) for something called a Premio Dardos award. This arrives courtesy of none other than The Phantom Observer, who lives on the other side of the aisle.

The award is "a blogging achievement that is given for recognition of cultural, ethical, literary, and personal values transmitted in the form of creative and original writing."

The rule, for this ill-concealed meme, is to pick five other bloggers to receive the award, each of whom must display the illo and pick five more bloggers, and....I smell a Ponzi scheme in there somewhere, but here goes.

Given Phantom's even-handedness, this author feels compelled to wander across the spectrum in search of his five characters. Let me start with the handsome stylist Dred Tory, who avoids all pigeonholes--a red Tory who likes Baudrillard--and whom I wish would post more often. Come on, Sir Francis, it's been nearly a month now! Maybe this award will be the fillip he needs.

And no such list would be complete if Stageleft and Balbulican were omitted. Not only is the writing consistently excellent over there, but the combox discussions are generally at a level of sophistication that shows what is possible when there is goodwill on all sides.

And in that same vein, although I doubt he will pass to nominations of his own, I nominate David Thompson, a British "muscular liberal" commentator (on the Right, where I sit, although he objects to that description) who runs one of the most elegant blogs in the 'sphere, truly a thing of beauty. I agree with barely a word the man says, but he says it so well.

Jon Swift deserves the nod, too. Grace, style, a satirical wit, and I don't believe his claim to be conservative for one minute. And I'm a sucker for the lolcatz thing, as old a ploy as it may be by now.

Dear me! Not very gender-balanced here. And so many fine people will inevitably be left out. It's like choosing five people from your grade-school class to go to your birthday party. As I said, there are risks in this enterprise. I may lose friends over this. But I can't quit now.

Back to gender. No list of this sort would be complete without the addition of CathieFromCanada. She sings unnoticed, like a bird, pulling the kernels off the daily cob for our reading pleasure (or displeasure). A good, meaty review of the world, loads of good links, and it should be on everybody's must-read list.

Well, that's it! So much for my get-back-to-work resolution.

*ducks*

UPDATE: Whoops! I didn't consult my co-blogger!

*ducks*

Sunday bits and pieces

A few stray threads in life's rich pattern. Then I really must get some work done, with some forays into comboxes, mind you.

• Downturn in Dubai. Foreigners flee the emirate in droves to avoid debtors' prisons.The airport has become a huge used car lot, some of the vehicles containing notes of apology and maxed-out credit cards.
  
  
• Now God, stand up for (Fascist) bastards! [Via JJ] A disruptive student sues everyone in sight after a professor stops him in the middle of a homophobic rant with a memorable phrase that makes me feel positively nostalgic.
  
  
• Bleeding fingernails: the Coleman saga continues. But could the Minnesota Senatorial election be a tie?
  
  
• Graft in Iraq: who knew? An investigation is underway. All that and one million dead Iraqis. Oh, and Blackwater. And Abu Ghraib. And Haditha. Suck air and grab clusters, Iraqi survivors, knowing that you "have been about as thoroughly liberated as it is possible for a [people and a country] to be."
  
  
• Where is running in an election undemocratic? Why, in Venezuela, of course. Hugo Chávez wants the right to run for a third term (or more), and the Venezuelans are voting today in a referendum that would allow that. A third term? Undemocratic! Are you listening, Mr. Harper?

What's in a name?

According to Blogging Tory and sometime writer for the National Post Raphael Alexander, it's the difference between being a "Canadian" and a real Canadian.

Some years ago Peter Gzowski (hmm, that last name...I don't know...) famously asked CBC listeners to complete the following sentence in 25 words or less: "As Canadian as..." The winning entry was, "As Canadian as possible under the circumstances." I still get a chuckle out of that, but it's an artful dodge. What makes us Canadian? How do we distinguish Canadians from, well, other people?

Could names be the touchstone? I invite readers to submit names that are "real" Canadian names, as opposed to merely "Canadian" names, and explain what makes those names Canadian. I'm looking forward to this.

Top Censored Stories for 2009

Project Censored has released its annual list of news suppressed--or at least underreported or ignored--by the corporate media.

Grab a coffee and start reading. From one million post-invasion deaths in Iraq, to increasing US subversion in Latin America, to the truth about American food aid, there's enough here to make a progressive's anger turn incandescent. Welcome to the ugly underbelly of globalization, in a world ruled by one superpower.

[H/t StraightGoods.com]

UPDATE: Project Censored is not without its progressive critics. As commenter "forgottobuytinfoil" notes, story #24 is a Trutherist piece, interesting only because it reveals the growth of that industry in Japan. Stories are ranked by a panel of judges, but not chosen by them: rather, the choices are made by students and faculty at Sonoma State University. Caveat lector.

Canadians in faraway places

To begin with, a success story. The slow Canadian takeover of the planet continues: first, it was the sixth President of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga; now it's the new Prime Minister of Somalia, Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke, a Carleton University graduate twice over. A pesky clause in the US Constitution precludes one of our own from being President--for now--but we still control the American airwaves.

However, we are also making a habit of marooning ordinary Canadians in far-off lands, with no such prospects of success. I have written before about Abousfian Abdelrazik, Omar Khadr and Bashir Makhtal. Now we can add another name to the list: Abdihakim Mohamed, the autistic son of Canadian Anab Mohamed Issa.

Mohamed has been stranded in Kenya for three years, while the benighted bureaucrats running Passport Canada have been making one wild excuse after another for refusing to issue him a passport. No, he didn't "lose" his original one: his mother, worried that something might happen to it, brought it back to Canada with her--and it was promptly confiscated by Canadian officials at the Ottawa airport. (It is illegal to carry a passport that does not belong to you.) And that passport has now expired.

Read the whole miserable story here. Odd how this sort of thing never seems to happen to white Canadians, isn't it?

But if we keep exporting our citizens to run other countries, perhaps we can close the circle. Starting in Somalia: Prime Minister Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke, meet your fellow Canadian Abousfian Abdelrazik.* He can use a little help right about now.

UPDATE: Reader Raphael Alexander comments: these people aren't real Canadians--look at their funny names! Alexander, a Blogging Tory, currently writes for the National Post.

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*Er...no. I can't believe no one else picked this up, but I must with some embarrassment note that Somalia and Sudan are obviously different countries, separated by Ethiopia. While I have no reason to suppose that the new Somalian President's generosity of spirit would preclude a 1,000-mile journey to visit Mr. Abdelrazik in Khartoum, that wasn't exactly what I had in mind. Mea culpa.