Life in Tehran Toronto

As recounted by some ordinary folks--who, post G20, have a somewhat different take on "Serve and Protect" than they once did.

Can't happen here? Already has.

[H/t Let Freedom Reign]

"Ungodly to look at"

That would be the Turkish flag, pictured above.

The management of an Oshawa apartment complex has, for the second year running, ordered a Turkish-born resident to remove the flag from his balcony, where he had placed it to celebrate Republic Day.

Quoth the building manager, one "Diane":

It was a huge red flag in the middle of the living room window, in the middle of the balcony. It was very ungodly to look at."

When Mahmut Bak protested that other residents were permitted to place flags on their balconies, this is what the manager circulated to all residents of the building:

Could you please remove your flag from your balcony. This is a result of asking the person . . . to take his Turkish one down. He is yelling discrimination.

At least one tenant displaying a Canadian flag protested. Two days later, it was all a terrible mistake:

Gerald Ash was asked to take down the small Canadian flag he had affixed to the inside of his balcony with a plastic tie.

“I just had a little one, the kind you fly outside your car. I’ve been here seven and a half months and no one has said squat about it. Now, all of a sudden, some guy puts a Turkish flag up and I have to take mine down. That’s ridiculous,” Ash said.

But now, two days after the memo went out, management says it’s all a big misunderstanding. Erika Bradbury, a senior property manager for Valiant, said the policy has always been that residents cannot make holes in the building exterior to hang any object and that items cannot dangle over the balcony edge.

She sent Ash an email Thursday stating that management “does not, nor has it ever had, anything against properly displayed flags on tenant balconies.”

It’s good news for Ash who’s eager to put his flag back up for Remembrance Day in honour of his great-grandfather who fought in World War I.

Perhaps needless to say, however, Bak has received no such email. Welcome to Stephen Harper's Canada, 2010.

[H/t Emre]

Halifax Security Forum : Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran

And not just their nuclear site, but pre-emptive bombing of their navy, their air force, their army.

Political leaders and security and defence officials and generals are in Halifax from November 5 to 7 for the second Halifax International Security Forum, presented by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and hosted by Airshow MacKay. Airshow is credited by GMFUS with having the idea for these annual security conferences.

Attending : Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Homeland Security; Condoleezza Rice; Senators John McCain, Lindsay Graham, Mark Udall ; Stephen Hadley; Ehud Barak, Minister of Defense, Israel; Amos Gilad, Political-Military Affairs, Israeli Ministry of Defense; Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute; Ron Covais, Lockheed Martin; John Manley, CEO Canadian Council of Chief Executives; Janice Gross Stein, Munk School of Global Affairs; Walter Natynczyk, Chief of Defence Staff; Mark Carney, Governor Bank of Canada; Vic Toews.

I just watched a panel with US Senators Mark Udall and Lindsey Graham, and Norm Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute - introduced by John McCain and moderated by the CBC's Susan Bonner.

Here's Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who sits on the Budget, Armed Forces, and Homeland Security committees, supporting pre-emptive bombing of Iran [at half-hour mark]:

"Republicans are looking for a way to support Obama on Iraq and Iran.

My big fear about the Iranians developing a nuclear weapon is not so much they'll put it on top of a missile and send it to Israel, is that those materials can work their way into the hands of people who would use them in a variety of fashion.
The one thing that changes the world as I know it is Iran with a nuclear weapon.
The consequences are enormous, the idea of containment to me is off the table, so that takes us back to the idea of being tough.

And if you use military force, if sanctions are not gonna work - and a year from now it's pretty clear they're not gonna work, [inaudible] what our friends in Israel are gonna do - so I would like the President to make it abundantly clear : all options are on the table. And we all know what that means. My advice to the President : If you take military action against Iran as the last effort to stop their nuclear ambitions, you do open up Pandora's box but if you let them acquire nuclear weapons, you empty Pandora's box.

So my view of military force would be not to just neutralize their nuclear program, which would probably disperse and harden, but to sink their navy, destroy their air force, and deliver a decisive blow to the Revolutionary Guard.

In other words - neuter that regime, destroy their ability to fight back, and hope the people within Iran would have the chance to take back their government and be good neighbours to the world in the future. So that's what I mean by being tough."

Democratic Senator Udall did not entirely disagree but remained hopeful that sanctions will work : "This may be Agenda Item #1 for every person in this room."

Later, Graham explained that NATO's place at the table is all about "values".
Unfortunately the panel ended before he could get around to discussing precious bodily fluids.

Good God, how low can the Con government go?

Seriously.

Blacklisting Sisters in Spirit, who made the rest of the country aware of hundreds of missing Aboriginal women? Giving the money to--the RCMP, who sat on their thumbs for years, when they weren't terrorizing Aboriginal communities?

What a miserable gang of racist goofs the Cons are. There really is no other way to put it.

NS cross-burning: the Right in disarray

Canadian conservatives don't quite know what to make of the hate-crime conviction of Justin Rehberg--if the thundering silence at Blogging Tories is any indication. Even the Speech Warriors™ appear to have been struck dumb by the case, whether out of sympathy for Rehberg or embarrassment at where their ideology insists on taking them. Or perhaps they're just out of breath from cheering Keith Olbermann's ouster. Yes, let's be generous--perhaps that's it.

But all this may change shortly. An intrepid reporter for DawgNews was recently privy to a wide-ranging conversation among anxious peons at Conservative Talking-Points Central who were discussing the appropriate spin. Here is the transcript of their off-the-record (hah!) discussion:

First voice: I think we need to come out swinging on this one. Branded a hate criminal for exercising freedom of expression? Come on.

Second voice: We can't be that obvious--people will call us racists.

Third voice: So what? They're even using the n-word over at Free Dominion now.

F&SV: Shhh!

SV: Let's try a different approach. These were just young kids, having some fun that might have gotten a little out of hand. It's not like anyone was physically injured. Just some hurt feelings and a lot of "what-ifs" from a liberal prosecutor.

FV: Yup. No one rounded up those Legionnaires.

TV: Frankly I found that one funny as hell.

FV: Me too. But back to business. We can't call what those kids did "fun" or we'll open a real can of worms. Thing is, they burned a cross on the lawn of a mixed-race couple. It's bad optics all round.

SV: Hey, that's it! We can strike a blow against property crime, with this as a prime example. They were trespassing. They lit a fire that could have spread. On somebody else's front lawn. Just another reason we need to build more prisons. Crime is rising!

TV: And another reason why we don't need hate legislation.

FV: Fine, so we have our points in order. If the base starts going on about free expression, we can always say there'd be no problemo if they'd burned the cross on their own lawn.

TV: OK, I'll send a note up to Dimitri.

Hassan Diab: next stop on the railroad?

Hassan Diab's formal extradition hearing begins on Monday.

I have blogged about this shameful case before. Diab, accused of bombing a synagogue in France three decades ago, is up against a prosecutor who has successfully entered suspect new handwriting "evidence" as his case fell apart, and who opposed Diab's right to defend himself against it. He also faces a clearly partial judge who allowed that evidence in, who has permitted delay after unreasonable delay in the process, and has refused to ease Diab's onerous and costly bail conditions.

Diab's lawyer is fed up with this unCanadian way of doing things, and has filed a lengthy factum alleging abuse of process. Highlights may be found here. Take the time to read the document.

We shall see what happens on Monday with this application to toss the case. I hope I shall be forgiven for being pessimistic as the mills of the state grind on, crushing ever more Canadians with funny names.

More right-wing stupidity

Check out the photo, and then the oh-so-manly commentary here. Dear readers, when you flinch, do you move towards whatever it is you are flinching from?

Spectator Obama is obviously "in the action." Only a brain-dead conservative blogger (apologies for the tautology) could imagine otherwise.

Needless to say, the Blogging Champion of Delisle and her scabrous commenters are all over this one.

Mirror of the future

If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.
--George Orwell

Take a good look at the picture above. It could be you.

Two BC police officers beat this man, Yao Wei Wu, bloody. The matter was "investigated," and police have now cleared the police of wrongdoing.

Wu was innocent of any crime--indeed, the case was one of "mistaken identity." No one seems to be asking the obvious follow-up question: would this have been acceptable if no mistaken identity issue had been involved?

The police officers were allowed nearly four months to get their stories straight. The "investigation" itself took nine months. Wu's lawyer, Cameron Ward, called the process a "farce."

I disagree. It was more like a tragedy without catharsis.

In other news, Chief William Blair, who oversaw (if that's the correct word) the G20 police riot in Toronto, is now planning to take stern and decisive action against 90 or so police officers who removed their nametags during their attacks on ordinary citizens. Looks like some of them might lose a day's pay over it.

Blair referred to the illegal mass arrests as "preventative detention" before the House of Commons public safety committee yesterday. By all accounts he was given a pleasant reception there by the Librocons.

This is what police unaccountability looks like.

Take another look at the picture.

[H/t pogge]

Ontario's Special Investigations Unit on the job

...turning a professional blind eye to flagrant police abuse. A few examples, courtesy of the Toronto Star:

• A grandmother is run over and killed by a recklessly-driving cop. Cleared by the SIU, no charges, but he's fined $500 under the Police Act. Another cop runs over two teenagers in a park. He, too, is exonerated by the SIU.
  
  
• Two cops shoot a camper preparing his supper. Synchronized notes + SIU incompetence = no charges.
  
  
• SIU clears a police officer of wrong-doing after he breaks a handcuffed suspect's jaw in two places. A judge expresses shock and throws out the case against the suspect.
  
  
• A slightly-built chartered accountant is pulled over for an expired licence sticker--and a cop breaks his arm. The officer leaves his victim by the road, saying he was lucky he didn't get worse. The SIU clears the officers involved.
  
  
• An officer shoots dead a man approaching her armed with a plastic lawnchair. She gets a pass from the SIU.
  

As I noted in an earlier post, police in Ontario have been free for some time to assault and even kill ordinary citizens with impunity. The SIU can be counted upon to sit on their thumbs. Could the G20 police rampage a few months ago be seen as the inevitable result, at least in part, of the unwillingness of this "watchdog" to make police officers accountable for their actions?

UPDATE: And the societal sickness of police impunity is not, by any means, confined to Ontario. Not by a long shot.

Jail Brent Rathgeber now!

Once in a while I enjoy a good pile-on. I'm only human, and the so-and-so got up my nose.

Sound and fury

...but when the smoke cleared and the tumult and the shouting died, the Teabaggers elected all of five Senators (out of 37 races) and 39 Congresspersons (out of 435).

This followed the injection of unimaginably huge sums of cash into their various campaigns (after the Supreme Court had lifted all spending limits), numerous reports of voter intimidation and suppression, and the Rand Paul Stomp.

We didn't see the emergence of the Tea Party as a viable political force. They were routed.

Joe Miller--toast. Witchy Christine O'Donnell--spurned. Sharron Angle has only her Second Amendment remedies left to her. Ken Buck--no cigar.

Take a deep breath, folks. If this is the best that these far-right extremists can do in the ergotized political climate of present-day America, with unlimited financial resources, a lock on talk radio, Faux News, freely available guns, and legions of mouth-breathing columnists, bloghards and Twits, there is hope for the world after all.

I shall sleep soundly tonight.

Harper's Mr. Wright

"The executive of the modern state," Karl Marx and Frederick Engels once famously observed, "is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie." In Canada this delegation now appears to have been dispensed with, as a prominent member of the class in question will now serve directly as Harper's next Chief of Staff.

Nigel Wright is the Managing Director of Onex, a vast conglomerate with fingers in almost every pie you can think of. He will not even give up his Onex job for the duration of his employ. Needless to say, Harper's biddable ethics lapdog Mary Dawson sees nothing whatever to worry about. One is tempted to make some observation about "business as usual," but that would, in the present circumstances, be a little superfluous.

Norman Spector poses the problem clearly:

The Prime Minister’s chief of staff is involved in all government decisions. Everything passes through his office. Mr. Wright swears he will be completely devoted to his job and that he is eager to serve the Government and Canadians. There is no reason to doubt this, but the reality is that he will almost always be in the hot seat, in an uncomfortable position or be handcuffed.

A so-called "ethical wall" has been constructed, allegedly to shield Wright from any conflict of interest. But other than becoming a latter-day anchorite, it is difficult to see how he could avoid it. Onex's huge sweep in the Canadian economy could be seen to impinge in one way or another upon almost every government decision that gets made these days.

Might we be permitted to cite this new Onex acquisition (the PMO) as a striking instance of vertical integration?

Free Mark Steyn (for those with tickets)

To sum up a confusing few days in London, Ontario:

• Celebrated amateur demographer [demagogue, shurely? Ed.] Mark Steyn was invited to speak at the London Convention Centre by the conservative group Strictly Right. He was dis-invited by the managers of the place, who cited "security concerns." This undoubtedly delighted the aforesaid Strictly Right, who had now gained some unexpected free publicity.
  
  
• The Usual Suspects, not excluding Steyn himself, went into a predictable tizzy, said tizzy being fed by unsubstantiated rumours that Islamist Hordes™ had lobbied for the man's exclusion from the LCC. The quick-witted Big City Lib soon put the lie to those claims.
  
  
• The speaking engagement was moved to a different venue, the Centennial Centre--also run, as it happens, by the City of London.
  
  
• Muslims and their leftist handmaidens somehow failed to materialize.
  
  
• 900 pre-approved people, mostly geezers, attended. But a neo-Nazi was denied entry. The organizers cited "security concerns." Steyn proceeded to speak and sing about Islam and free expression.
  
  
• It is not known at this time if he tap-danced as well. But on the free speech issue, his fans could give him lessons.

[H/t ARC, via BCL]

Iran, the merciful

Readers who have been following the case of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman convicted of adultery, will be pleased to learn that the original sentence of death by stoning will not be carried out.

She is to be hanged instead, as early as this Wednesday.

Ashtiani has already been given 99 strokes of the lash because a picture purported to be of her appeared in the Western media: the person photographed was not wearing the obligatory head covering.

No doubt to ensure judicial fairness, Iranian authorities have arrested and detained her son, her lawyer and two German journalists.

Why not send a polite note to the Iranian Ambassador, Mr. Mohammad Lavasani? The gentleman may also be reached by fax (615.232.5712) and telephone (613.235.4726).

UPDATE: Avaaz, via reader Holly Stick, suggests another avenue to explore. There may not be much time, so fill in the form and send the message pronto.

Monday evening duet

Enjoy!

[H/t brebis noire]

Rights and Democracy: secrecy and big spending

The Rights and Democracy farce continues apace.

At last week's Board meeting, the long-awaited forensic audit of the organization, expected to be made public last Spring, was unveiled. But not to the public.

Small wonder. As reported, it uncovered nothing fraudulent. All that sound and fury, not to mention money--a quarter of a million dollars of your taxes and mine--was your classic Parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

The Clown Car brigade presently running the place has had quite a year, though. Fully one-third of the staff has quit or been fired. Meanwhile, Board of Directors' expenses have almost tripled; ditto the money forked over to outside consultants, nearly a million bucks.

Demonstrating their usual generosity of spirit, the Clowns also slashed a memorial tribute to former president Rémy Beauregard in the R&D Annual Report:

After denying in an interview last week that any changes were made to the tribute to Mr. Beauregard, Mr. Latulippe said Monday through a spokesman that the final version was the result of "a normal editing process." Stéphane Bourgon, senior director of communications for Rights and Democracy, said Mr. Latulippe chose the "neutral" published version. "The president took a decision to get the version that would honour the memory of Mr. Beauregard without creating additional turmoil within the organization," Mr. Bourgon said.

Meanwhile, the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs committee, supposedly overseeing the operations of this rogue outfit, has as yet been denied access to the forensic audit report.

"If they’re not accountable to the committee, then who are they accountable to?" asks committee member Paul Dewar. I'd say that's a hell of a good rhetorical question--one that everybody should know the answer to by now.

UPDATE: An insider confirms: "We were told that the report would shed light on wrongdoings at the Centre under Beauregard. Apparently the problems were just governance-related. It's like raiding someone's home to find evidence of murder, but coming out with recommendations on using energy-efficient light bulbs."

Child abuse

Wound and torture a kid, threaten him with gang rape, cage him for nine years, and then go for another forty.

Some Austrian pedophile? Nope: American military officers dispensing American "justice."

Sick-making. But at least we'll have the pleasure of listening to the kangaroos' heads explode and the brass buttons pop off their beribboned chests when they hear that Omar Khadr will be doing eight years instead.

Not that another day in jail could be morally justified under any known standards of justice. But this isn't about justice, of course: it's about revenge and bloody-mindedness by brass hats who would have had him shot at dawn if they'd had their druthers.

It is reported that government prosecutor Jeff Groharing told the "jury" that the world was watching. Indeed we have been. And I think we've seen quite enough.

UPDATE: (November 1) The Omar Khadr show trial.

UPPERDATE: Scott Taylor, editor of Esprit de Corps, weighs in. [H/t reader Briguyhfx]

UPPESTDATE: The plea agreement. As reader jkg notes, Khadr is enjoined (para. 2g) from pursuing litigation against his captors and interrogators. Does this include the CSIS agents who grilled him and handed their findings over to his prosecutors in flagrant violation of his constitutional rights ("any official")?

Not funny

From Washington, D.C., Dr. "Mad" Dawg reports:

A bitterly non-partisan crowd turned out in the US capital yesterday to mock the real world and the people who live in it. Carrying signs such as the one pictured above, each reportedly vetted by grammar Nazis Jeff Deck and Benjamin Herson, the participants, almost certainly fewer than the six billion claimed, listened to music by an Islamist convert and some "comedy" and then went home.

I wonder how these self-conscious boulevardiers of protest would have fared if a platoon of American soldiers who have seen gore in Iraq had parachuted down into their mincing ranks?

In better news, Andrew Breitbart is now settling in as a guest of ABC. He has an impressive record as an editor and producer of documentaries, as well as hosting a website for troubled writers. His commentary on the mid-term elections is bound to shed a ray of light on the proceedings, in which the Kenyan Hitler is about to get his comeuppance, and, if not, there are Second Amendment remedies.

Strange. I seem to recall that I once thought somewhat differently. But with my first glass of water on arrival, the scales fell from my eyes. What is wrong with these people, making fun of the political process and calling for "civil discourse?" Don't they realized there's a war on? That Islamofascism and the African in the White House are enslaving us? We're supposed to talk nicey-nice to liberal bigots who want to tear down churches, build mosques and kill our babies? Damn, that makes me mad!

I can't wait for tomorrow. I'm buying my first Uzi at the local 7/11, and a nice card for Kathy Shaidle.

Mid-term elections: Tea Party thugs out in force

How the American Right does democracy--one kick, punch and false arrest at a time.

[H/t Sister Sage]

Shariah just around the corner! Burqas! Stoning!

Kate McMillan has the goods.

(The fact that every Muslim boy gets the Mohammed moniker might just have something to do with this new name game, but mentioning that would spoil the narrative.)

[Didn't I just use that photo? My bad. --Ed.]