When I started this blog last year, one of my fears was that someone would take exception to my views on immigration and have me charged under Canada's so-called "hate speech laws". I don't know if my concern is warranted or not. I'm not a lawyer and haven't taken the time to study the cases in which people have been charged with promoting hatred.
My limited knowledge of the subject comes from reading news articles about people like Ernst Zundel. I don't know how relevant the Zundel case is to someone like me who blogs about immigration. While I strongly believe Zundel and others like him have a right to free speech, I do understand why people are offended by what he says about the Holocaust. I would hope nothing I write here is comparable to the material he put out. That said, different people are offended by different things. You can't express an opinion on anything without offending someone. In fact, this is one of the key problems with hate-speech laws. Deciding what is hateful is a subjective judgment.
Let me give an example.
Several years ago a race relations committee at Toronto city hall examined the case of a Ukrainian store that was selling a book that some Jews found offensive. During the course of the proceedings someone pointed out that there were Communist bookstores in the city selling material denying that Stalin had murdered millions of Ukrainians during the 1932-3 artificial famine. One of the committee members, himself Ukrainian, suggested that the Holocaust and the famine weren't comparable. That, of course, is something people in a free society should be able to argue about, but once you introduce "hate-speech" laws, the state is put in the position of having to decide whether or not a famine organized by Stalinists has the same status as a genocide committed by Nazis. What about the Turkish massacre of Armenians at the end of World War I? Was it a genocide on the same order as the Holocaust? I don't want the state deciding questions like that.
The paragraphs I've written so far are an extended introduction to a discussion about a dilemma I faced today while preparing material for this blog. A Muslim organization called CAIR-CAN has launched a letter-writing campaign to protest against an article that Mark Steyn wrote for Maclean's:
(Ottawa, Canada – Oct 31, 2006) The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-CAN) is asking all people of conscience to write to Maclean’s Magazine.
In the October 23rd issue of Maclean’s, a provocative and Islamophobic article by Mark Steyn was printed entitled, “The future belongs to Islam.” The article’s fear mongering tone focuses on the influx of Muslim immigrants into Europe and North America through an analysis that parallels Samuel Huntington’s infamous book, “The Clash of Civilizations.”
Read the whole action alert.
I want to blog about this attempt to silence Steyn, but to do that properly I must be able to say what I really think about Muslim immigration. Namely, I need to say Muslim immigration is bad for Canada. Rightly or wrongly, I believe Islam is incompatible with liberal democracy and I fear that given enough power, many Muslims would eagerly replace Canada's democratic system with a form of government based on sharia law. I realize my beliefs are debatable and it's possible that given more information my views might at some point change. But not today and maybe never. At this moment I am against all Muslim immigration to Canada. However, because we have "hate speech" laws, I don't know if I have the legal right to say what I've just said. Maybe I'm worrying about nothing. Maybe a closer look at the laws in question would reassure me. I don't know. However, I resent being put in the position of having to worry about whether I can say what I really think on my own blog. I resent the fact that the government has given bullies like CAIR-CAN a legal weapon they can use to silence people who don't like Islam and Muslim immigration. When a citizen has to worry about whether it's legal for him to openly express his opinion on an important question of public policy, that citizen is no longer living in a free society.
See also:
Haroon Siddiqui: "a growing realization that freedom of speech is circumscribed"
Globe and Mail: Saudis funding Muslim institutions in Canada
Canadian foreign minister issues statement on Mohammed cartoon controversy. MacKay says freedom of expression 'must be exercised responsibly.'
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration freedom of speech free speech hate speech law censorship political correctness Islam Muslims Muslim CAIR-CAN sharia liberal democracy
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Is it legal to say Muslim immigration is bad for Canada? For that matter, is it even legal to ask the question?
Acting police chief says Edmonton club shooting was "a random, senseless act of violence"
From the Globe and Mail (Club slayings likely 'random,' police say by Katherine Harding, October 31):
The three dead victims of an unsolved shooting at a packed Edmonton nightclub early Sunday were most likely innocent partygoers, and not connected to gang activity as first believed, according to police.
[Hyphenated Canadian: A source told the Calgary Sun that while he agreed with police that the shootings weren't gang-related, two of the victims had gang ties. The source, who asked not to be named, was identified by the Sun as a "member of the black church community" who was friends with one of the vicims, an 18-year-old Sudanese refugee by the name of Thomas Tipo Orak.]
"This is something that is worrying to our service and obviously to the public," acting police chief Mike Bradshaw told reporters yesterday about the slayings of three young men, including an 18-year-old Sudanese refugee, at the Red Light Lounge.
He said that despite early speculation, the crime "may not be gang related.
"This, to me, is a random, senseless act of violence. And unfortunately this is something we see all too often in this city," acting chief Bradshaw added. "I have a hard time, even in my own mind, making up a reason why this type of a situation would arise."
[. . .]
This was the third nightclub shooting in Edmonton during the past year.
The triple homicide brings the city's count this year to 32. Last year, Alberta's capital city reached a record 39 homicides -- smashing the previous high of 28 set in 1990 and 2004.
Acting chief Bradshaw said finding solutions to the growing program of gun-related violence in Edmonton will require "soul-searching" by the community.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Which community would that be? Are all segments of Edmonton society equally implicated in the "random, senseless violence" or are certain demographic groups more likely to be involved than others? What, if anything, does immigration have to do with the recent surge of violence in Edmonton?]
[. . .]
Read all of Katherine Harding's article.
See also:
Three dead in Edmonton club shooting - "It was a thing between the black guys and a couple guys from the north side, white guys"
Technorati tags: Canada Alberta Edmonton crime police club shooting gun violence gangs
The three dead victims of an unsolved shooting at a packed Edmonton nightclub early Sunday were most likely innocent partygoers, and not connected to gang activity as first believed, according to police.
[Hyphenated Canadian: A source told the Calgary Sun that while he agreed with police that the shootings weren't gang-related, two of the victims had gang ties. The source, who asked not to be named, was identified by the Sun as a "member of the black church community" who was friends with one of the vicims, an 18-year-old Sudanese refugee by the name of Thomas Tipo Orak.]
"This is something that is worrying to our service and obviously to the public," acting police chief Mike Bradshaw told reporters yesterday about the slayings of three young men, including an 18-year-old Sudanese refugee, at the Red Light Lounge.
He said that despite early speculation, the crime "may not be gang related.
"This, to me, is a random, senseless act of violence. And unfortunately this is something we see all too often in this city," acting chief Bradshaw added. "I have a hard time, even in my own mind, making up a reason why this type of a situation would arise."
[. . .]
This was the third nightclub shooting in Edmonton during the past year.
The triple homicide brings the city's count this year to 32. Last year, Alberta's capital city reached a record 39 homicides -- smashing the previous high of 28 set in 1990 and 2004.
Acting chief Bradshaw said finding solutions to the growing program of gun-related violence in Edmonton will require "soul-searching" by the community.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Which community would that be? Are all segments of Edmonton society equally implicated in the "random, senseless violence" or are certain demographic groups more likely to be involved than others? What, if anything, does immigration have to do with the recent surge of violence in Edmonton?]
[. . .]
Read all of Katherine Harding's article.
See also:
Three dead in Edmonton club shooting - "It was a thing between the black guys and a couple guys from the north side, white guys"
Technorati tags: Canada Alberta Edmonton crime police club shooting gun violence gangs
Immigration reform, not Afghanistan, is the key to national security
From the Globe and Mail (More troops at risk, general warns by Paul Koring, October 31):
More Canadian soldiers will be killed but the cost in blood must be paid in Afghanistan unless Canadians want to fight Islamic jihadists at home, Brigadier-General David Fraser said yesterday as he prepared to hand over command of NATO and Canadian forces in war-torn southern Afghanistan.
[Hyphenated Canadian: We already are fighting Islamic jihadists at home. Doesn't the general know about this summer's anti-terrorist sweep in Toronto?]
[. . .]
"I don't want my sons to be doing what I'm doing here on the shores of Canada," the general said in an interview.
"This is the home of the Taliban, the Taliban are a threat to nations around the world, including our own," Gen. Fraser said.
[Hyphenated Canadian: The Taliban allowed al-Qaeda to create training bases in Afghanistan, but removing those bases didn't prevent the 2004 Madrid train bombings or the 2005 7/7 terror bombings in London. Muslim extremists are establishing themselves in Somalia. Does NATO plan to invade that country too?]
It's "naive of us to think that Canada is not a pathway to get to America and that Canada would not be the next objective," he said, insisting that Canada risked its national security unless its soldiers fought in Afghanistan.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Of course, Canada is the pathway to America, which is why we need to change the immigration and refugee policies that allow terrorists to operate here. A good place to start would be a moratorium on immigration as suggested by security analyst David Harris.]
[. . .]
Read all of Paul Koring's article.
Technorati tags: Canada Afghanistan immigration national security Islam Muslims
More Canadian soldiers will be killed but the cost in blood must be paid in Afghanistan unless Canadians want to fight Islamic jihadists at home, Brigadier-General David Fraser said yesterday as he prepared to hand over command of NATO and Canadian forces in war-torn southern Afghanistan.
[Hyphenated Canadian: We already are fighting Islamic jihadists at home. Doesn't the general know about this summer's anti-terrorist sweep in Toronto?]
[. . .]
"I don't want my sons to be doing what I'm doing here on the shores of Canada," the general said in an interview.
"This is the home of the Taliban, the Taliban are a threat to nations around the world, including our own," Gen. Fraser said.
[Hyphenated Canadian: The Taliban allowed al-Qaeda to create training bases in Afghanistan, but removing those bases didn't prevent the 2004 Madrid train bombings or the 2005 7/7 terror bombings in London. Muslim extremists are establishing themselves in Somalia. Does NATO plan to invade that country too?]
It's "naive of us to think that Canada is not a pathway to get to America and that Canada would not be the next objective," he said, insisting that Canada risked its national security unless its soldiers fought in Afghanistan.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Of course, Canada is the pathway to America, which is why we need to change the immigration and refugee policies that allow terrorists to operate here. A good place to start would be a moratorium on immigration as suggested by security analyst David Harris.]
[. . .]
Read all of Paul Koring's article.
Technorati tags: Canada Afghanistan immigration national security Islam Muslims
Social worker convicted of gun-smuggling faces drug charges
From the Toronto Sun (Drug court woes not over for social worker by Sam Pazzano, October 31):
A former social worker who was sentenced last week for her limited participation in a slick scheme to import firearms into Canada will be back in court in two weeks.
Sara Villella returns to Superior Court Nov. 15 to face allegations she and her husband sold a pound of cocaine and Ecstasy while she was on bail for the gun charges.
[. . .]
It's alleged she and her 32-year-old spouse, Ali Niroumand-Rad, sold a pound of cocaine to a Montreal man in Gananoque on July 28, 2004, and trafficked cocaine and ecstasy in Grimsby in July 2005.
[. . .]
Read all of Sam Pazzano's article
Technorati tags: Canada Toronto crime gangs
A former social worker who was sentenced last week for her limited participation in a slick scheme to import firearms into Canada will be back in court in two weeks.
Sara Villella returns to Superior Court Nov. 15 to face allegations she and her husband sold a pound of cocaine and Ecstasy while she was on bail for the gun charges.
[. . .]
It's alleged she and her 32-year-old spouse, Ali Niroumand-Rad, sold a pound of cocaine to a Montreal man in Gananoque on July 28, 2004, and trafficked cocaine and ecstasy in Grimsby in July 2005.
[. . .]
Read all of Sam Pazzano's article
Technorati tags: Canada Toronto crime gangs
Monday, October 30, 2006
France is Europe's canary-down-the-mine on Muslim integration
From the National Post (At war with radical Islam by Lorne Gunter, October 30):
Daily, police are stoned by groups of angry, balaclava-wearing Muslim youth standing behind barricades. "You no longer see two or three youths confronting police," explained Mr. Thoomis. "You see whole tower blocks emptying into the streets to set their 'comrades' free when they are arrested."
France is Europe's canary-down-the-mine on Muslim integration. At nearly 9%, Muslims are a greater portion of the French population than they are of the population of any other European state.
If France can't manage to incorporate Muslims into its societal mainstream, there is little chance any nation can.
Read all of Lorne Gunter's column.
See also:
More comparisons between Toronto and Paris
Does Muslim alienation start in high school?
Soccer violence. Is Toronto one out-of-control celebration away from a major riot?
Technorati tags: Europe France Paris banlieues suburbs police crime riots unrest immigration immigrants Muslims Muslim Islam jihad intifada integration
Daily, police are stoned by groups of angry, balaclava-wearing Muslim youth standing behind barricades. "You no longer see two or three youths confronting police," explained Mr. Thoomis. "You see whole tower blocks emptying into the streets to set their 'comrades' free when they are arrested."
France is Europe's canary-down-the-mine on Muslim integration. At nearly 9%, Muslims are a greater portion of the French population than they are of the population of any other European state.
If France can't manage to incorporate Muslims into its societal mainstream, there is little chance any nation can.
Read all of Lorne Gunter's column.
See also:
More comparisons between Toronto and Paris
Does Muslim alienation start in high school?
Soccer violence. Is Toronto one out-of-control celebration away from a major riot?
Technorati tags: Europe France Paris banlieues suburbs police crime riots unrest immigration immigrants Muslims Muslim Islam jihad intifada integration
Robert Spencer - another neocon who wages war from the safety of his computer
[UPDATE and APOLOGY: When I wrote this message I assumed Robert Spencer supported waging war to bring democracy to Iraq and Afghanistan. I'm no longer sure my assumption was correct. Having looked through some of Spencer's writing on Islam and democracy, I now think I may have confused Spencer's views with those held by others. Mr. Spog may have been right when he wrote in the comments section of this blog: "I get the impression he is skeptical about the prospects for democratizing Muslim countries." I found one article that supports Mr. Spog's suggestion that Spencer is sceptical about promoting democracy in Afghanstan and Iraq. In March of this year, Spencer wrote a column for FrontPage magazine, Dying for Freedom, in which he points out that the new Afghan constitution restricts freedom of religion. Spencer writes:
The Abdul Rahman case is indeed an opportunity for the British and American governments to refine and clarify what exactly they mean by freedom: is it simple one-person one-vote self-determination, which has elected exponents of political Islam in large numbers recently in the Palestinian Authority, Iraq, Egypt and elsewhere? Or is it Western concepts of universal human rights and freedoms, as derived from the Judeo-Christian tradition and encapsulated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
It would seem that I am, at the very least, guilty of criticizing Spencer without taking the time to make sure I knew what his views were. For that I apologize to Mr. Spencer and readers of this blog.]
ORIGINAL BLOG ENTRY starts here:
Robert Spencer runs a website called Jihad Watch which has a lot of useful information about Islam and Muslim extremism. Spencer is also the author of several books about Islam, two of which I read and found informative.
However, despite the useful information Spencer provides, the man is a neoconservative and like other neocons he is far too eager to have other people risk their lives for his pet causes. Today on his website he posted a cheap and shameful insult directed at British soldiers in Afghanistan. In introducing a news story that describes how British soldiers are in lockdown because of the threat of suicide bombers, Spencer writes:
There was a time when the British were made of sterner stuff.
What kind of man says something like this? What kind of person presumes to criticize soldiers who are risking their lives in a foreign country because their government ordered them to? When was the last time Robert Spencer risked his life on the battlefield? When was the last time he spent time on the frontlines in a war zone? An ideological fanatic who wages war from the safety of a computer has no right to criticize the men who are doing the fighting, and the dying, in Afghanistan.
See also:
Afghanistan - how many Canadian casualties? Why are we even there?
Technorati tags: Afghanistan British soldiers military Jihad Watch Robert Spencer neocons neoconservatives
The Abdul Rahman case is indeed an opportunity for the British and American governments to refine and clarify what exactly they mean by freedom: is it simple one-person one-vote self-determination, which has elected exponents of political Islam in large numbers recently in the Palestinian Authority, Iraq, Egypt and elsewhere? Or is it Western concepts of universal human rights and freedoms, as derived from the Judeo-Christian tradition and encapsulated by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights?
It would seem that I am, at the very least, guilty of criticizing Spencer without taking the time to make sure I knew what his views were. For that I apologize to Mr. Spencer and readers of this blog.]
ORIGINAL BLOG ENTRY starts here:
Robert Spencer runs a website called Jihad Watch which has a lot of useful information about Islam and Muslim extremism. Spencer is also the author of several books about Islam, two of which I read and found informative.
However, despite the useful information Spencer provides, the man is a neoconservative and like other neocons he is far too eager to have other people risk their lives for his pet causes. Today on his website he posted a cheap and shameful insult directed at British soldiers in Afghanistan. In introducing a news story that describes how British soldiers are in lockdown because of the threat of suicide bombers, Spencer writes:
There was a time when the British were made of sterner stuff.
What kind of man says something like this? What kind of person presumes to criticize soldiers who are risking their lives in a foreign country because their government ordered them to? When was the last time Robert Spencer risked his life on the battlefield? When was the last time he spent time on the frontlines in a war zone? An ideological fanatic who wages war from the safety of a computer has no right to criticize the men who are doing the fighting, and the dying, in Afghanistan.
See also:
Afghanistan - how many Canadian casualties? Why are we even there?
Technorati tags: Afghanistan British soldiers military Jihad Watch Robert Spencer neocons neoconservatives
Ontario school boards use ESL funds for other purposes
From the Auditor General of Ontario's 2005 report (See chapter 3.07):
We found that while the Ministry provides school boards with approximately $225 million a year of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and English-Literacy-Development (ELD) grants, it had no information about whether students whose first language is not English were achieving appropriate proficiency in English. In addition, the Ministry had no information on how much school boards were actually spending on ESL/ELD programs. Information we received from one board indicated that more than half of its ESL/ELD funding was spent on other areas.
This lack of oversight of ESL/ELD program delivery resulted in some concerns similar to those raised in our 1993 audit report on Curriculum Development. Specifically, the considerable discretion that school boards and in some cases individual schools have with respect to ESL/ELD programs increases the risks of students with similar needs being provided with different levels of assistance depending on which school or board is delivering the program. In addition, the lack of a centrally co-ordinated process to develop ongoing training programs for teachers and various instructional aids results in under-investment in these areas and may lead to some duplication of effort by school boards.
Apparently schools in Ontario are so strapped for funds that they can't use ESL money to teach immigrant students English, but the Toronto District School Board does have enough money to educate illegal immigrants. This is one of the reasons why sob stories about illegal immigrants make me so angry. These emotionally manipulative propaganda pieces focus on the pain felt by the illegal immigrants, but ignore the costs that illegal immigration has on taxpayers and on the most vulnerable Canadians. There's no free lunch. The money spent educating illegal immigrants is money that can't be spent on teaching legal immigrants English. What's more, the money spent on special programs for legal immigrants is money that can't be used to address social problems such as poverty. I understand full well that most of the world is poor. I don't blame foreigners for wanting to come to Canada, but if we don't limit immigration, both legal and illegal, we will destroy the very qualities that attract immigrants in the first place.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto education funding ESL immigration immigrants Auditor General
We found that while the Ministry provides school boards with approximately $225 million a year of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) and English-Literacy-Development (ELD) grants, it had no information about whether students whose first language is not English were achieving appropriate proficiency in English. In addition, the Ministry had no information on how much school boards were actually spending on ESL/ELD programs. Information we received from one board indicated that more than half of its ESL/ELD funding was spent on other areas.
This lack of oversight of ESL/ELD program delivery resulted in some concerns similar to those raised in our 1993 audit report on Curriculum Development. Specifically, the considerable discretion that school boards and in some cases individual schools have with respect to ESL/ELD programs increases the risks of students with similar needs being provided with different levels of assistance depending on which school or board is delivering the program. In addition, the lack of a centrally co-ordinated process to develop ongoing training programs for teachers and various instructional aids results in under-investment in these areas and may lead to some duplication of effort by school boards.
Apparently schools in Ontario are so strapped for funds that they can't use ESL money to teach immigrant students English, but the Toronto District School Board does have enough money to educate illegal immigrants. This is one of the reasons why sob stories about illegal immigrants make me so angry. These emotionally manipulative propaganda pieces focus on the pain felt by the illegal immigrants, but ignore the costs that illegal immigration has on taxpayers and on the most vulnerable Canadians. There's no free lunch. The money spent educating illegal immigrants is money that can't be spent on teaching legal immigrants English. What's more, the money spent on special programs for legal immigrants is money that can't be used to address social problems such as poverty. I understand full well that most of the world is poor. I don't blame foreigners for wanting to come to Canada, but if we don't limit immigration, both legal and illegal, we will destroy the very qualities that attract immigrants in the first place.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto education funding ESL immigration immigrants Auditor General
Three dead in Edmonton club shooting - "It was a thing between the black guys and a couple guys from the north side, white guys"
From the Globe and Mail (Three killed in Edmonton nightclub shooting by Joe Friesen, October 30):
Three people were killed and another was seriously injured as a result of a shooting at an Edmonton nightclub early yesterday morning.
Witnesses said a gunman opened fire in the Red Light Lounge hip-hop club at around 2:30 a.m. Two men died at the scene, and a third died in hospital. It is believed that the injured man worked as a bouncer at the nightclub.
[. . .]
Yegor Maizlin was in the Edmonton police station when suspects were waiting to be interviewed, and spoke to a friend who was there.
He said his friend was covered in blood and had comforted one of the victims as he lay dying.
"He was pretty shaken up," Mr. Maizlin said.
He was told the shooting was gang related.
"It was a thing between the black guys and a couple guys from the north side, white guys," he said. "A guy walked in and started banging."
[. . .]
Read all of Joe Friesen's article.
When I read about this shooting yesterday, I noticed that it happened at a hip-hop club and wondered whether the people involved were black, but there was no mention of that in the first articles I read. Finally, near the bottom of the Globe story we have some mention of race. We still don't know much about what happened, but it looks like there was a racial component to this shooting. It will be interesting to see what the facts turn out to be.
See also:
Asian gangs in Alberta
Rival Somali and Jamaican girl gangs connected to seizure of .44 Magnum at Thistletown Collegiate
Celebrating Canada's multicultural tapestry: Filipino boy beaten to death by Indo-Canadians.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Alberta Edmonton shooting crime violence gangs hip-hop club scene nightlife race relations racial conflict
Three people were killed and another was seriously injured as a result of a shooting at an Edmonton nightclub early yesterday morning.
Witnesses said a gunman opened fire in the Red Light Lounge hip-hop club at around 2:30 a.m. Two men died at the scene, and a third died in hospital. It is believed that the injured man worked as a bouncer at the nightclub.
[. . .]
Yegor Maizlin was in the Edmonton police station when suspects were waiting to be interviewed, and spoke to a friend who was there.
He said his friend was covered in blood and had comforted one of the victims as he lay dying.
"He was pretty shaken up," Mr. Maizlin said.
He was told the shooting was gang related.
"It was a thing between the black guys and a couple guys from the north side, white guys," he said. "A guy walked in and started banging."
[. . .]
Read all of Joe Friesen's article.
When I read about this shooting yesterday, I noticed that it happened at a hip-hop club and wondered whether the people involved were black, but there was no mention of that in the first articles I read. Finally, near the bottom of the Globe story we have some mention of race. We still don't know much about what happened, but it looks like there was a racial component to this shooting. It will be interesting to see what the facts turn out to be.
See also:
Asian gangs in Alberta
Rival Somali and Jamaican girl gangs connected to seizure of .44 Magnum at Thistletown Collegiate
Celebrating Canada's multicultural tapestry: Filipino boy beaten to death by Indo-Canadians.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Alberta Edmonton shooting crime violence gangs hip-hop club scene nightlife race relations racial conflict
Toronto Star reporters live in a parallel universe
Sometimes I wonder what universe Toronto Star reporters live in. It can't be the same one we inhabit, because the Star describes a Toronto in which crime is a minor issue, while I live in a Toronto where crime is a huge and growing problem. The only explanation I have for the apparent discrepancy is this. Star reporters live in a parallel universe where there is another, better Toronto - a healthy, vibrant city where crime isn't a big deal. We, on the other hand, are stuck in this dimension where our Toronto is plagued by gangs, drugs, stabbings, machete attacks and a whole bunch of other crimes that don't exist in that other better Toronto where Star reporters live.
Technorati tags: Toronto crime reporting media Toronto Star parallel universe
Technorati tags: Toronto crime reporting media Toronto Star parallel universe
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Japanese-Canadians object to building's name
From CanWest News Service (Building's name sparks racism controversy by Jack Aubry, October 28):
Several Conservatives and at least one Liberal senator are coming to the defence of a former long-time Vancouver Tory MP whose name may be erased from a federal building in Vancouver because of racist comments he made around the Second World War.
Liberal Senator Larry Campbell, the former mayor of Vancouver, said it would be a mistake for Public Works Minister Michael Fortier to replace the name of the now-deceased Howard Green on the prominent federal building even though the Japanese-Canadian community in British Columbia objected after the naming ceremony in September.
The National Association of Japanese Canadians and the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens Association for Human Rights have asked Fortier to erase Green's name from the building. Newspaper stories from the '30s and '40s document Green's campaign to oust Japanese-Canadians from B.C.
[. . .]
Read all of Jack Aubry's story.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian politics multiculturalism race relations Japanese Canadian
Several Conservatives and at least one Liberal senator are coming to the defence of a former long-time Vancouver Tory MP whose name may be erased from a federal building in Vancouver because of racist comments he made around the Second World War.
Liberal Senator Larry Campbell, the former mayor of Vancouver, said it would be a mistake for Public Works Minister Michael Fortier to replace the name of the now-deceased Howard Green on the prominent federal building even though the Japanese-Canadian community in British Columbia objected after the naming ceremony in September.
The National Association of Japanese Canadians and the Greater Vancouver Japanese Canadian Citizens Association for Human Rights have asked Fortier to erase Green's name from the building. Newspaper stories from the '30s and '40s document Green's campaign to oust Japanese-Canadians from B.C.
[. . .]
Read all of Jack Aubry's story.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian politics multiculturalism race relations Japanese Canadian
Indo-Canadian studies centre opens in BC
From the Vancouver Sun (Indo-Canadian studies centre opens by Michael Scott, October 28):
Construction dust is sifting on to tabletops and shelves, and painters are cursing a blue streak in a corner office, but Satwinder Bains sits unperturbed, her navy-blue suit still immaculate.
This suite of half-painted offices and meeting rooms on the campus of University College of the Fraser Valley, in Abbotsford, had to be ready by this morning to receive its first guests as the new Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies. While decorators and cleaners rushed to meet the deadline, Bains, who is the director, and D. J. Sandhu, who runs an overseas component of the centre in Chandigarh, India are all smiles. They can afford to relax a little: the hard work of establishing the centre is behind them.
What began more than two years ago as a local initiative to increase the number of Indo-Canadian classes on the UCFV curriculum, has turned into a project of regional and international significance.
[. . .]
Two years later, the school offers 16 courses with Indo-Canadian content, and Bains says she hopes to see the number rise to 24, the level at which students could declare a minor concentration in Indo-Canadian studies.
[. . .]
The provincial government agreed to provide $1.25 million in permanent endowment if the school provided an equal amount. There was just one catch: it couldn't be money the university had already raised.
So Bains and her board got to work. In just over a year, they had collected more than enough -- $1.4 million. The single largest donation was $50,000 from Richmond developer Lucky Janda, who came to Canada from from Punjab as a teenager.
[. . .]
Read all of Michael Scott's article
See also:
India poised to become Canada's top source of immigrants. Is this what Canadians want?
"As numbers have grown . . . there is a much greater comfort level in embracing South Asian identity and even religious identity."
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrants multiculturalism Indo-Canadians Indo-Canadian Indian diaspora India Chandigarh
Construction dust is sifting on to tabletops and shelves, and painters are cursing a blue streak in a corner office, but Satwinder Bains sits unperturbed, her navy-blue suit still immaculate.
This suite of half-painted offices and meeting rooms on the campus of University College of the Fraser Valley, in Abbotsford, had to be ready by this morning to receive its first guests as the new Centre for Indo-Canadian Studies. While decorators and cleaners rushed to meet the deadline, Bains, who is the director, and D. J. Sandhu, who runs an overseas component of the centre in Chandigarh, India are all smiles. They can afford to relax a little: the hard work of establishing the centre is behind them.
What began more than two years ago as a local initiative to increase the number of Indo-Canadian classes on the UCFV curriculum, has turned into a project of regional and international significance.
[. . .]
Two years later, the school offers 16 courses with Indo-Canadian content, and Bains says she hopes to see the number rise to 24, the level at which students could declare a minor concentration in Indo-Canadian studies.
[. . .]
The provincial government agreed to provide $1.25 million in permanent endowment if the school provided an equal amount. There was just one catch: it couldn't be money the university had already raised.
So Bains and her board got to work. In just over a year, they had collected more than enough -- $1.4 million. The single largest donation was $50,000 from Richmond developer Lucky Janda, who came to Canada from from Punjab as a teenager.
[. . .]
Read all of Michael Scott's article
See also:
India poised to become Canada's top source of immigrants. Is this what Canadians want?
"As numbers have grown . . . there is a much greater comfort level in embracing South Asian identity and even religious identity."
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrants multiculturalism Indo-Canadians Indo-Canadian Indian diaspora India Chandigarh
Saturday, October 28, 2006
High-rise development - a good reason to treat immigration as a municipal election issue
The Greater Toronto Area is growing rapidly because of immigration. Canadians have a low birth rate but a 100,000 immigrants a year settle in the GTA. As a result, farmland is being eaten up by urban sprawl. The provincial government's solution to the problem is a so-called smart growth plan that includes the creation of a greenbelt that would protect large areas from development. (The plan has met some resistance.) Instead of sprawl, the government proposes what urban planners call 'intensification'. The government wants Toronto to build upwards instead of outwards. Even now before the policies are fully in place, established neighourhoods find themselves faced with proposals for new highrises. This has become an issue in the municipal election campaign now underway.
From the Globe and Mail (High-rise development election 'sleeper issue' by Jennifer Lewington, October 28):
In ward races across the city, candidates running for council this Nov. 13 are picking up a "sleeper" issue at the door: high-rise development.
"They are very conscious and feel strongly about high-rise condos," said Ed Shiller, who has been knocking on doors since March in his bid to unseat David Shiner in Willowdale. "What concerns them is the impact on their daily lives," he added, citing traffic concerns.
Meanwhile, in the hotly contested open race in Trinity-Spadina, candidate Adam Vaughan said that concern about "tall buildings and condo development" is one of the top three topics at the door. His chief opponent, Helen Kennedy, said she is not hearing that from voters, but is among many calling for reforms in how Toronto integrates tall buildings into the urban landscape without destroying local neighbourhoods.
[. . .]
Over the past three years, Councillor Karen Stintz (Eglinton-Lawrence) has fought several developments in her ward, including an eight-storey condo project on Avenue Road. She is skeptical that a fresh policy on tall buildings will allay residents' fears that developers are in charge of the process.
"It's a tough sell to the community to say we are going to cure urban sprawl by putting up 100 units in your backyard," she said, calling high-rise development "a sleeper issue".
"Intensification has not improved anything for anyone in the city yet," she contended, citing crowded streets and cramped TTC service. "What does intensification mean to my neighbourhood? It has to mean something positive and right now it does not."
[. . .]
Read all of Jennifer Lewington's article
Of course, high-rise condos in old neighbourhoods wouldn't be an issue if Canada had a sensible immigration policy. There's no good reason for bringing in so many new people. Immigration on the scale of 100,000 people a year in the GTA (250,000+ in the country as a whole), let alone the even higher levels mused about by Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper, doesn't serve the common good, even if it is great for the Liberal Party and developers. Why isn't immigration an issue in the city elections? Sure, immigration policy is set by the federal government in Ottawa, but that's not a reason for municipal politicians to avoid the subject. The mayor and city council should be using their bully pulpits to demand immigration reform before bad policy completely ruins the city they govern. They should be doing that instead of putting out inane ideas about giving non-citizens the vote.
See also:
Toronto is running out of space, but immigrants keep pouring in. Enough already! It's time to end this madness
Urban sprawl: another problem that could be solved by a moratorium on immigration
Immigration and new skyscrapers: population growth is transforming Toronto, but not for the better
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto immigration politics elections population growth urban sprawl urban planning high-rise development greenbelt smart growth
From the Globe and Mail (High-rise development election 'sleeper issue' by Jennifer Lewington, October 28):
In ward races across the city, candidates running for council this Nov. 13 are picking up a "sleeper" issue at the door: high-rise development.
"They are very conscious and feel strongly about high-rise condos," said Ed Shiller, who has been knocking on doors since March in his bid to unseat David Shiner in Willowdale. "What concerns them is the impact on their daily lives," he added, citing traffic concerns.
Meanwhile, in the hotly contested open race in Trinity-Spadina, candidate Adam Vaughan said that concern about "tall buildings and condo development" is one of the top three topics at the door. His chief opponent, Helen Kennedy, said she is not hearing that from voters, but is among many calling for reforms in how Toronto integrates tall buildings into the urban landscape without destroying local neighbourhoods.
[. . .]
Over the past three years, Councillor Karen Stintz (Eglinton-Lawrence) has fought several developments in her ward, including an eight-storey condo project on Avenue Road. She is skeptical that a fresh policy on tall buildings will allay residents' fears that developers are in charge of the process.
"It's a tough sell to the community to say we are going to cure urban sprawl by putting up 100 units in your backyard," she said, calling high-rise development "a sleeper issue".
"Intensification has not improved anything for anyone in the city yet," she contended, citing crowded streets and cramped TTC service. "What does intensification mean to my neighbourhood? It has to mean something positive and right now it does not."
[. . .]
Read all of Jennifer Lewington's article
Of course, high-rise condos in old neighbourhoods wouldn't be an issue if Canada had a sensible immigration policy. There's no good reason for bringing in so many new people. Immigration on the scale of 100,000 people a year in the GTA (250,000+ in the country as a whole), let alone the even higher levels mused about by Michael Ignatieff and Stephen Harper, doesn't serve the common good, even if it is great for the Liberal Party and developers. Why isn't immigration an issue in the city elections? Sure, immigration policy is set by the federal government in Ottawa, but that's not a reason for municipal politicians to avoid the subject. The mayor and city council should be using their bully pulpits to demand immigration reform before bad policy completely ruins the city they govern. They should be doing that instead of putting out inane ideas about giving non-citizens the vote.
See also:
Toronto is running out of space, but immigrants keep pouring in. Enough already! It's time to end this madness
Urban sprawl: another problem that could be solved by a moratorium on immigration
Immigration and new skyscrapers: population growth is transforming Toronto, but not for the better
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto immigration politics elections population growth urban sprawl urban planning high-rise development greenbelt smart growth
Sara Villela case - social worker gets two years for gun-running
[Spelling error in headline: Social worker's name is Sara Villella - two double l's]
From the Toronto Sun (Woman 'exploited' in gun scheme by Sam Pazzano, October 28):
A social worker who counselled drug-addicted teens and then participated in a "sophisticated scheme" to import firearms into Canada received a sentence of just under two years imprisonment yesterday.
[. . .]
Villella was convicted by Trafford in July of 13 weapons charges, including conspiracy and importing prohibited firearms, as well as pot possession.
"She had no link to, or knowledge of, the Malvern Crew and its gang activity in Scarborough, nor did she have a leadership role in the conspiracy," said Trafford, who also placed Villella, 27, on two years probation after her two years less two weeks jail term.
[. . .]
Read all of the Sam Pazzano's article.
See also:
Social worker smuggled guns - woman linked to Malvern Crew street gang
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto Scarborough Windsor Detroit crime gun guns smuggling street gangs gang Malvern Crew US border
From the Toronto Sun (Woman 'exploited' in gun scheme by Sam Pazzano, October 28):
A social worker who counselled drug-addicted teens and then participated in a "sophisticated scheme" to import firearms into Canada received a sentence of just under two years imprisonment yesterday.
[. . .]
Villella was convicted by Trafford in July of 13 weapons charges, including conspiracy and importing prohibited firearms, as well as pot possession.
"She had no link to, or knowledge of, the Malvern Crew and its gang activity in Scarborough, nor did she have a leadership role in the conspiracy," said Trafford, who also placed Villella, 27, on two years probation after her two years less two weeks jail term.
[. . .]
Read all of the Sam Pazzano's article.
See also:
Social worker smuggled guns - woman linked to Malvern Crew street gang
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto Scarborough Windsor Detroit crime gun guns smuggling street gangs gang Malvern Crew US border
Friday, October 27, 2006
When did everything become 'iconic'?
Is it my imagination or are journalists using the word 'iconic' a lot more than they used to? I was reading a Toronto Star article about Justin Trudeau and there was that word again:
He also took a swipe at Trudeau — whose late father, iconic Liberal prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, held views similar to those expressed by his son — dryly noting, "I didn't realize he was a constitutional thinker. He should try making that speech in Iraq, or Lebanon."
When did everything become 'iconic'? Inquiring minds want to know.
Technorati tags: iconic odd words strange vocabulary news media journalism bad writing
He also took a swipe at Trudeau — whose late father, iconic Liberal prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, held views similar to those expressed by his son — dryly noting, "I didn't realize he was a constitutional thinker. He should try making that speech in Iraq, or Lebanon."
When did everything become 'iconic'? Inquiring minds want to know.
Technorati tags: iconic odd words strange vocabulary news media journalism bad writing
The media's selective concern for free speech: Ernst Zundel and the Dixie Chicks
Peter Howell reviews the movie Shut Up and Sing in today's Toronto Star (Shut Up: Dixie defiance, October 27). For those who don't know, the movie is about a popular country group called the Dixie Chicks who became the object of controversy when in 2003 just before the invasion of Iraq, lead singer Natalie Maines told a London audience:
Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.
This didn't sit well with a lot of country music fans who like George Bush and his policies. (At least they did until recently.) Howell writes:
The Dixie Chicks, on the other hand, have struggled for the past three years to regain ground lost when they were abandoned by country radio and many of their American fans (Canadians remained loyal) for daring to seem unpatriotic by dissing the president in a time of war.
The mistake Maines made, if you want to call it that, was not realizing that in the age of the Internet and unfiltered partisan blogs, a wisecrack made on a London stage can ricochet around the world without benefit of context or explanation, destroying a reputation before the victim realizes what's happened.
[. . .]
But if ever there were a case of the punishment not fitting the crime, this was it. The Dixie Chicks became the object of hatred across America in a campaign fed by the radical right, which scorned Maines and her band mates Martie Maguire and Emily Robison as "traitors" and "Saddam's Angels."
Suddenly the best thing people could say about them, as the title implies, is that they should just shut up and sing. But there is no better way than adversity to test a person's mettle, and one of the many remarkable things about this film — including the bravery of allowing unfettered access to the filmmakers — is watching the band evolve as a result of an unplanned and apparently inconsequential remark. (Read the whole review)
I'm not a fan of George Bush. I've always thought it was a bad idea to invade Iraq. Also, while I believe in patriotism, I don't subscribe to the idea of "my country, right or wrong" if by that we mean mindlessly following the government. Constructive criticism of political leaders is a patriotic act. If the state has policies that hurt the country, patriots should object.
I haven't really followed the Dixie Chicks controversy, but it seems like there was an overreaction to a throw-away remark made at a concert. Natalie Maines doesn't like George Bush? Big deal. I would say that even if I did like the guy, which I don't. I haven't seen the movie and don't know how much of a professional and psychological cost the group has paid for not backing down to pressure, but I do know that the Chicks, unlike some other objects of controversy, have received a lot of support.
When I read Peter Howell's review, I immediately thought about Ernst Zundel. It's very easy for the media to defend someone who criticizes Bush. Country music fans may love the guy, but there are an awful lot of influential people who don't. No one is going to go to jail for attacking him. Ernst Zundel, on the other hand, has gone to jail for his beliefs. He was deported from Canada because of his opinions.
If the media really believes in free speech, why didn't it object to the way Ottawa treated Zundel? Let me be clear. I'm not defending Zundel's opinions. The Holocaust is a historical fact and I'm not interested in arguing with people who say it didn't happen, but I'm also not interested in putting those people in jail. If we really believe in free speech, we must be ready to defend those who say things we don't like. We must be willing to fight for those who offend us. It doesn't take any courage to defend the Dixie Chicks. The real test of a person's belief in free speech is the willingness to defend people like Zundel. If you're not ready to do that, please don't tell me you believe in free speech, because you don't.
Technorati tags: US USA freedom of speech free speech hate speech law censorship political correctness George Bush Iraq Dixie Chicks Shut Up and Sing country music Ernst Zundel Holocaust denial Holocaust deniers
Just so you know, we're ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas.
This didn't sit well with a lot of country music fans who like George Bush and his policies. (At least they did until recently.) Howell writes:
The Dixie Chicks, on the other hand, have struggled for the past three years to regain ground lost when they were abandoned by country radio and many of their American fans (Canadians remained loyal) for daring to seem unpatriotic by dissing the president in a time of war.
The mistake Maines made, if you want to call it that, was not realizing that in the age of the Internet and unfiltered partisan blogs, a wisecrack made on a London stage can ricochet around the world without benefit of context or explanation, destroying a reputation before the victim realizes what's happened.
[. . .]
But if ever there were a case of the punishment not fitting the crime, this was it. The Dixie Chicks became the object of hatred across America in a campaign fed by the radical right, which scorned Maines and her band mates Martie Maguire and Emily Robison as "traitors" and "Saddam's Angels."
Suddenly the best thing people could say about them, as the title implies, is that they should just shut up and sing. But there is no better way than adversity to test a person's mettle, and one of the many remarkable things about this film — including the bravery of allowing unfettered access to the filmmakers — is watching the band evolve as a result of an unplanned and apparently inconsequential remark. (Read the whole review)
I'm not a fan of George Bush. I've always thought it was a bad idea to invade Iraq. Also, while I believe in patriotism, I don't subscribe to the idea of "my country, right or wrong" if by that we mean mindlessly following the government. Constructive criticism of political leaders is a patriotic act. If the state has policies that hurt the country, patriots should object.
I haven't really followed the Dixie Chicks controversy, but it seems like there was an overreaction to a throw-away remark made at a concert. Natalie Maines doesn't like George Bush? Big deal. I would say that even if I did like the guy, which I don't. I haven't seen the movie and don't know how much of a professional and psychological cost the group has paid for not backing down to pressure, but I do know that the Chicks, unlike some other objects of controversy, have received a lot of support.
When I read Peter Howell's review, I immediately thought about Ernst Zundel. It's very easy for the media to defend someone who criticizes Bush. Country music fans may love the guy, but there are an awful lot of influential people who don't. No one is going to go to jail for attacking him. Ernst Zundel, on the other hand, has gone to jail for his beliefs. He was deported from Canada because of his opinions.
If the media really believes in free speech, why didn't it object to the way Ottawa treated Zundel? Let me be clear. I'm not defending Zundel's opinions. The Holocaust is a historical fact and I'm not interested in arguing with people who say it didn't happen, but I'm also not interested in putting those people in jail. If we really believe in free speech, we must be ready to defend those who say things we don't like. We must be willing to fight for those who offend us. It doesn't take any courage to defend the Dixie Chicks. The real test of a person's belief in free speech is the willingness to defend people like Zundel. If you're not ready to do that, please don't tell me you believe in free speech, because you don't.
Technorati tags: US USA freedom of speech free speech hate speech law censorship political correctness George Bush Iraq Dixie Chicks Shut Up and Sing country music Ernst Zundel Holocaust denial Holocaust deniers
Anti-Muslim backlashes which never happened
From Martin Kelly: Anti-Muslim Backlashes Which Never Happened
Technorati tags: Islam Muslims anti-Muslim backlash Islamophobia
Technorati tags: Islam Muslims anti-Muslim backlash Islamophobia
Ottawa won't grant amnesty to illegal immigrants
From the Globe and Mail (Ottawa rules out amnesty for 200,000 illegal workers by Marina Jimenez, October 27):
Ottawa has ruled out amnesty for the estimated 200,000 undocumented workers toiling in Canada's underground economy, saying it would not be fair to those who have applied legally and are waiting in line, according to a letter obtained by The Globe and Mail.
[Hyphenated Canadian: They are illegal immigrants, damn it! By calling them "undocumented workers", Marina Jimenez is showing her bias. Ottawa is right. Allowing queue-jumpers to stay is unfair to legal immigrants. It's also unfair to native-born Canadians whose wages are being depressed. In many cases, illegal workers actually take jobs away from Canadians because the illegals are hired through informal ethnic networks that Canadians workers can't access. For example, in my neighbourhood, there are a lot helped-wanted signs written in Portuguese. If someone doen't know the language, he doesn't know work is available. More than that, some of the signs specifically say Portuguese workers wanted. ]
Allowing illegal workers to stay would likely "encourage more illegal immigration," noted Linda Arseneau of Citizenship and Immigration Canada's ministerial enquiries division in an Oct. 18 letter to the Universal Workers Union.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Of course, it would encourage more illegal immigration. Every amnesty, every decision to allow illegal aliens to stay here on compassionate grounds invites foreigners to ignore the law in hopes of eventually being allowed to stay.]
"Even a small increase in the number who decide to come here and stay here illegally based on the hope of regularization would simply recreate the very problem the proposal is supposed to fix," the letter says.
The decision is a bitter disappointment to Portuguese and Hispanic groups, home-builder associations and unions in Ontario that have lobbied CIC to allow undocumented workers in the construction industry to regularize their status.
[Hyphenated Canadian: All the usual special interest groups. Employers want cheap labour. Ethnic lobbies want to help their own, other Canadians be damned. Again with the biased language: "regularize their status." Oh sure. Ottawa wouldn't be rewarding law-breakers, it would only be "adjusting their status" - a minor administrative matter. Nothing to look at here. Is Marina Jimenez a reporter or a propagandist? And I'm sorry if this is impolitic to ask, but is her Latino ancestry the reason her stories about illegal immigration so one-sided?]
[. . .]
Read all of Marina Jimenez's article
See also:
The Toronto Star's shameless (and shameful) campaign on behalf of illegal immigrants
About that family Ottawa just deported: most countries wouldn't even consider a refugee claim made by Costa Ricans
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian federal government politics immigration illegal immigrants immigrant aliens migrants migration undocumented workers amnesty
Ottawa has ruled out amnesty for the estimated 200,000 undocumented workers toiling in Canada's underground economy, saying it would not be fair to those who have applied legally and are waiting in line, according to a letter obtained by The Globe and Mail.
[Hyphenated Canadian: They are illegal immigrants, damn it! By calling them "undocumented workers", Marina Jimenez is showing her bias. Ottawa is right. Allowing queue-jumpers to stay is unfair to legal immigrants. It's also unfair to native-born Canadians whose wages are being depressed. In many cases, illegal workers actually take jobs away from Canadians because the illegals are hired through informal ethnic networks that Canadians workers can't access. For example, in my neighbourhood, there are a lot helped-wanted signs written in Portuguese. If someone doen't know the language, he doesn't know work is available. More than that, some of the signs specifically say Portuguese workers wanted. ]
Allowing illegal workers to stay would likely "encourage more illegal immigration," noted Linda Arseneau of Citizenship and Immigration Canada's ministerial enquiries division in an Oct. 18 letter to the Universal Workers Union.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Of course, it would encourage more illegal immigration. Every amnesty, every decision to allow illegal aliens to stay here on compassionate grounds invites foreigners to ignore the law in hopes of eventually being allowed to stay.]
"Even a small increase in the number who decide to come here and stay here illegally based on the hope of regularization would simply recreate the very problem the proposal is supposed to fix," the letter says.
The decision is a bitter disappointment to Portuguese and Hispanic groups, home-builder associations and unions in Ontario that have lobbied CIC to allow undocumented workers in the construction industry to regularize their status.
[Hyphenated Canadian: All the usual special interest groups. Employers want cheap labour. Ethnic lobbies want to help their own, other Canadians be damned. Again with the biased language: "regularize their status." Oh sure. Ottawa wouldn't be rewarding law-breakers, it would only be "adjusting their status" - a minor administrative matter. Nothing to look at here. Is Marina Jimenez a reporter or a propagandist? And I'm sorry if this is impolitic to ask, but is her Latino ancestry the reason her stories about illegal immigration so one-sided?]
[. . .]
Read all of Marina Jimenez's article
See also:
The Toronto Star's shameless (and shameful) campaign on behalf of illegal immigrants
About that family Ottawa just deported: most countries wouldn't even consider a refugee claim made by Costa Ricans
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian federal government politics immigration illegal immigrants immigrant aliens migrants migration undocumented workers amnesty
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Like father like son. Justin Trudeau dismisses nationalism as an "old idea"
From Canadian Press via the Globe and Mail (Trudeau says Quebec nationalism an ‘old idea', October 26):
The eldest son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau is belittling nationalism as an “old idea from the 19th century” that is not relevant to today's Quebec.
“Nationalism is based on a smallness of thought,” Justin Trudeau said in an interview broadcast on CTV's Canada AM on Thursday.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Oh brother. Imagine, if we all hold hands and sing Kumbaya, the racial, ethnic, tribal and religious divisions that cause people to hate each other will disappear like magic. Yup. It'll happen. Real soon. Any day now.]
“(It) builds up barriers between peoples, that has nothing to do with the Canada we should be building.”
[Hyphenated Canadian: This is a silly comment which reveals a lack of understanding of history and the nature of liberal democracy - the same lack of understanding his father exhibited. In order for a democracy to work, people living together in a society need to have a shared sense of national identity. This doesn't mean they can't have other identities: religious, social, regional, etc. but at some level there has to be a feeling that all citizens are united and share a common destiny. When you don't have that sense of shared identity, you get Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan - societies torn apart by groups that hate each other. This is why I'm opposed to multiculturalism. Contrary to what political theorists like Will Kymlicka say, multiculturalism encourages ethnic groups to remain separate. It undermines social cohesion.]
He was being interviewed about a new book about his father titled Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Given the embarrassing cult of Trudeau that lingers on among Canadian baby boomers, it will probably sell well by Canadian standards.]
[. . .]
“Unfortunately, some people these days are wrapped up in this idea of nation for Quebec, which stands against everything my father ever believed,” Mr. Trudeau said. “We need to start looking forward.”
[Hyphenated Canadian: Look forward to what exactly? The benevolent rule of one world government? A world dominated by multinational corporations whose power is unchecked by strong nation-states?]
[. . .]
Read all of the Canadian Press article
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Quebec politics federalism independence sovereignty separatism nationalism national identity Liberal Party leadership race Michael Ignatieff Pierre Elliott Trudeau Justin Trudeau
The eldest son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau is belittling nationalism as an “old idea from the 19th century” that is not relevant to today's Quebec.
“Nationalism is based on a smallness of thought,” Justin Trudeau said in an interview broadcast on CTV's Canada AM on Thursday.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Oh brother. Imagine, if we all hold hands and sing Kumbaya, the racial, ethnic, tribal and religious divisions that cause people to hate each other will disappear like magic. Yup. It'll happen. Real soon. Any day now.]
“(It) builds up barriers between peoples, that has nothing to do with the Canada we should be building.”
[Hyphenated Canadian: This is a silly comment which reveals a lack of understanding of history and the nature of liberal democracy - the same lack of understanding his father exhibited. In order for a democracy to work, people living together in a society need to have a shared sense of national identity. This doesn't mean they can't have other identities: religious, social, regional, etc. but at some level there has to be a feeling that all citizens are united and share a common destiny. When you don't have that sense of shared identity, you get Bosnia, Iraq and Afghanistan - societies torn apart by groups that hate each other. This is why I'm opposed to multiculturalism. Contrary to what political theorists like Will Kymlicka say, multiculturalism encourages ethnic groups to remain separate. It undermines social cohesion.]
He was being interviewed about a new book about his father titled Citizen of the World: The Life of Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Given the embarrassing cult of Trudeau that lingers on among Canadian baby boomers, it will probably sell well by Canadian standards.]
[. . .]
“Unfortunately, some people these days are wrapped up in this idea of nation for Quebec, which stands against everything my father ever believed,” Mr. Trudeau said. “We need to start looking forward.”
[Hyphenated Canadian: Look forward to what exactly? The benevolent rule of one world government? A world dominated by multinational corporations whose power is unchecked by strong nation-states?]
[. . .]
Read all of the Canadian Press article
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Quebec politics federalism independence sovereignty separatism nationalism national identity Liberal Party leadership race Michael Ignatieff Pierre Elliott Trudeau Justin Trudeau
Quebec's status as a nation - "it's unanimous. It's a given among political leaders"
Seven years ago Peter Brimelow wrote:
"A nation has been allowed to develop in Quebec, and it is utterly unnatural for free nations to exist in the same state." English Canada, I said, "is being led into a battle where victory is itself defeat." The result of trying to bribe, bamboozle and bludgeon francophone separatism into quiescence: "English Canada's energies would be totally absorbed."
My conclusion: "If Quebec can't be persuaded to secede from Canada, it should be expelled." (Unthinkable? Well, the Czechs have subsequently expelled the Slovaks in just this manner. So there!)
Where are we today in 2006?
From the Globe and Mail (Resolution on Quebec sparks fears by Bill Curry, October 26):
A resolution declaring Quebec as a nation is dividing Liberals who fear the potentially "disastrous" consequences of debating such a sensitive issue in the midst of a leadership campaign.
The resolution must be put to a vote at the party's Nov. 29 leadership convention in Montreal after it was passed this weekend by the party's Quebec wing as a priority.
Former Liberal minister Liza Frulla, a supporter of Michael Ignatieff who has embraced the divisive concept, warned it would be disastrous for Canada and the Liberal Party in Quebec if leadership candidates attack the resolution.
Ms. Frulla, who joined the federal cabinet under former prime minister Paul Martin, had previously been a provincial Liberal cabinet minister in Quebec. She noted that Quebec Liberals unanimously endorsed a motion in Quebec's National Assembly stating that Quebec is a nation.
"In Quebec it's unanimous. It's a given among political leaders," she said.
[. . .]
Read all of Bill Curry's article.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Quebec politics federalism independence sovereignty separatism nationalism national identity Liberal Party leadership race Michael Ignatieff
"A nation has been allowed to develop in Quebec, and it is utterly unnatural for free nations to exist in the same state." English Canada, I said, "is being led into a battle where victory is itself defeat." The result of trying to bribe, bamboozle and bludgeon francophone separatism into quiescence: "English Canada's energies would be totally absorbed."
My conclusion: "If Quebec can't be persuaded to secede from Canada, it should be expelled." (Unthinkable? Well, the Czechs have subsequently expelled the Slovaks in just this manner. So there!)
Where are we today in 2006?
From the Globe and Mail (Resolution on Quebec sparks fears by Bill Curry, October 26):
A resolution declaring Quebec as a nation is dividing Liberals who fear the potentially "disastrous" consequences of debating such a sensitive issue in the midst of a leadership campaign.
The resolution must be put to a vote at the party's Nov. 29 leadership convention in Montreal after it was passed this weekend by the party's Quebec wing as a priority.
Former Liberal minister Liza Frulla, a supporter of Michael Ignatieff who has embraced the divisive concept, warned it would be disastrous for Canada and the Liberal Party in Quebec if leadership candidates attack the resolution.
Ms. Frulla, who joined the federal cabinet under former prime minister Paul Martin, had previously been a provincial Liberal cabinet minister in Quebec. She noted that Quebec Liberals unanimously endorsed a motion in Quebec's National Assembly stating that Quebec is a nation.
"In Quebec it's unanimous. It's a given among political leaders," she said.
[. . .]
Read all of Bill Curry's article.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Quebec politics federalism independence sovereignty separatism nationalism national identity Liberal Party leadership race Michael Ignatieff
Drug raid at church. Mayoral candidate arrested.
From the Toronto Sun (Drug raid at church by Rob Lamberti, October 26):
Toronto's drug squad raided the Beach's Assembly of the Church of the Universe yesterday for allegedly illegally selling the marijuana its members consider a sacrament.
Among the more than two dozen people arrested at the Queen St. E. centre near Woodbine Ave. was its leader, Rev. Peter Styrsky, 48, a Toronto mayoral candidate.
He's been charged with trafficking and conspiracy to traffic.
It's the second time police raided the church within a year for allegedly breaching the limits of its licence allowing it to possess marijuana.
[. . .]
Read the whole story.
I guess religious accommodations have their limits after all.
Technorati tags: Toronto crime religion
Toronto's drug squad raided the Beach's Assembly of the Church of the Universe yesterday for allegedly illegally selling the marijuana its members consider a sacrament.
Among the more than two dozen people arrested at the Queen St. E. centre near Woodbine Ave. was its leader, Rev. Peter Styrsky, 48, a Toronto mayoral candidate.
He's been charged with trafficking and conspiracy to traffic.
It's the second time police raided the church within a year for allegedly breaching the limits of its licence allowing it to possess marijuana.
[. . .]
Read the whole story.
I guess religious accommodations have their limits after all.
Technorati tags: Toronto crime religion
The sexualization of children
Sexualization of children continues apace
"Tesco has been forced to remove a pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website after it was accused of 'destroying children's innocence'.
If this is what Western culture has become, maybe we can cut Muslim women some slack for wearing veils and burkas. Immigration and multiculturalism are my big issues, but there are things happening within our own culture that are just as damaging.
"Tesco has been forced to remove a pole-dancing kit from the toys and games section of its website after it was accused of 'destroying children's innocence'.
If this is what Western culture has become, maybe we can cut Muslim women some slack for wearing veils and burkas. Immigration and multiculturalism are my big issues, but there are things happening within our own culture that are just as damaging.
Cultural cohesion and a common national identity are prerequisites for liberal democracy
John Tierney on the real problem in Iraq
When the U.S. invaded Iraq, American optimists invoked Germany and Japan as models for their democratization project, but Iraq didn’t have the cultural cohesion or national identity of those countries. The shrewdest forecasts I heard came not from foreign policy experts but from anthropologists and sociologists who noted a crucial statistic: nearly half of Iraqis were married to their first or second cousins.
See also:
Dream on neocons - Afghanistan will never be a democracy
Hockey nationalism in Quebec - Guillaume Latendresse and the Montreal Canadiens
Technorati tags: US foreign policy Iraq democracy culture multiculturalism nationalism national identity cultural diversity Steve Sailer
When the U.S. invaded Iraq, American optimists invoked Germany and Japan as models for their democratization project, but Iraq didn’t have the cultural cohesion or national identity of those countries. The shrewdest forecasts I heard came not from foreign policy experts but from anthropologists and sociologists who noted a crucial statistic: nearly half of Iraqis were married to their first or second cousins.
See also:
Dream on neocons - Afghanistan will never be a democracy
Hockey nationalism in Quebec - Guillaume Latendresse and the Montreal Canadiens
Technorati tags: US foreign policy Iraq democracy culture multiculturalism nationalism national identity cultural diversity Steve Sailer
Happy anniversary to me!
One year ago today, I posted my first message on this blog. Cyberspace will never be the same again.
Thanks to Vdare, Steve Sailer, Kevin Michael Grace, Kathy Shaidle, Martin Kelly and Snouck Hurgronje for noticing Hogtown Front at the beginning.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit.
Blogging is fun and I intend to keep at it.
Only one thing bothers me. I've been blogging for a whole year and Ottawa still hasn't changed its immigration policies. What will it take to convince the government of the wisdom of my views? :-)
Thanks to Vdare, Steve Sailer, Kevin Michael Grace, Kathy Shaidle, Martin Kelly and Snouck Hurgronje for noticing Hogtown Front at the beginning.
Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to visit.
Blogging is fun and I intend to keep at it.
Only one thing bothers me. I've been blogging for a whole year and Ottawa still hasn't changed its immigration policies. What will it take to convince the government of the wisdom of my views? :-)
"As numbers have grown . . . there is a much greater comfort level in embracing South Asian identity and even religious identity."
From the National Post (Party puts the spotlight on Desi culture by Katie Rook, October 25):
A more pronounced confidence among Indo-Canadian youth in their roots does not surprise Arti Dhand, a professor of South Asian studies at the University of Toronto.
Prof. Dhand says attitudes toward Indian culture have certainly evolved in the 25 years she has lived in Canada.
"Twenty, 30 years ago, there was a huge pressure to conform to mainstream, white-Canadian lifestyle, to assimilate.
[Hyphenated Canadian: We can't have that now, can we? If immigrants assimilated English-speaking Canadians might actually share a common culture and identity. Oh, the horror! The horror!]
"As numbers have grown and associations have grown, as [a new] generation is really coming into its own educationally, in terms of occupations and so forth, there is a much greater comfort level in embracing South Asian identity and even religious identity."
[Hyphenated Canadian: Goody.]
Prof. Dhand celebrated Diwali last Saturday with her family in Toronto. Of the nine guests her son invited to the park for fire-crackers, none was Desi.
[Hyphenated Canadian: On the one hand, I think it's good that Indo-Canadians are socializing with other Canadians, because one of my fears is that large-scale non-white immigration will lead to a racially-balkanized society. If whites and non-whites are socializing and getting along, that bodes well for social harmony. On the other hand, I don't want to assimilate to Indian culture. I have no problem wishing people who celebrate Diwali well, but I wouldn't want to live in a Canada where Diwali was as important as Christmas. I don't want Canada to lose its European identity. I don't want to see Canada's European heritage reduced to being just one minority culture out of many.]
"You'd be astonished at the number of people who came up to us and said, 'Happy Diwali' and shook our hands and congratulated us," she says.
"This is the wonderful thing about being in Canada. There really is a culture of predominantly of wanting to celebrate and participate in each other's major events."
[Hyphenated Canadian: I don't like this statement at all. It's presumptuous, because the professor makes it sound as if all holidays are of equal importance in Canada. I don't want to be part of a mix-and-match culture where foreign celebrations like Diwali are considered as important as traditional Canadian holidays like Christmas.]
[. . .]
Read all of Katie Rook's article.
Do most white Canadians realize how quickly immigration is changing this country? Are they prepared for those changes? Are they ready to wake up one morning and realize that they are now the minority? Is this what they want? Why is this demographic transformation happening without any public debate?
See also:
India poised to become Canada's top source of immigrants. Is this what Canadians want?
New work of fiction based on real-world Indo-Canadian gangs in BC
Indo-Canadians demand apology for the Komagata Maru incident
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration immigrants assimilation integration multiculturalism cultural diversity Indo-Canadians Indo-Canadian South Asian South Asians Desi culture Desis Diwali Hinduism
A more pronounced confidence among Indo-Canadian youth in their roots does not surprise Arti Dhand, a professor of South Asian studies at the University of Toronto.
Prof. Dhand says attitudes toward Indian culture have certainly evolved in the 25 years she has lived in Canada.
"Twenty, 30 years ago, there was a huge pressure to conform to mainstream, white-Canadian lifestyle, to assimilate.
[Hyphenated Canadian: We can't have that now, can we? If immigrants assimilated English-speaking Canadians might actually share a common culture and identity. Oh, the horror! The horror!]
"As numbers have grown and associations have grown, as [a new] generation is really coming into its own educationally, in terms of occupations and so forth, there is a much greater comfort level in embracing South Asian identity and even religious identity."
[Hyphenated Canadian: Goody.]
Prof. Dhand celebrated Diwali last Saturday with her family in Toronto. Of the nine guests her son invited to the park for fire-crackers, none was Desi.
[Hyphenated Canadian: On the one hand, I think it's good that Indo-Canadians are socializing with other Canadians, because one of my fears is that large-scale non-white immigration will lead to a racially-balkanized society. If whites and non-whites are socializing and getting along, that bodes well for social harmony. On the other hand, I don't want to assimilate to Indian culture. I have no problem wishing people who celebrate Diwali well, but I wouldn't want to live in a Canada where Diwali was as important as Christmas. I don't want Canada to lose its European identity. I don't want to see Canada's European heritage reduced to being just one minority culture out of many.]
"You'd be astonished at the number of people who came up to us and said, 'Happy Diwali' and shook our hands and congratulated us," she says.
"This is the wonderful thing about being in Canada. There really is a culture of predominantly of wanting to celebrate and participate in each other's major events."
[Hyphenated Canadian: I don't like this statement at all. It's presumptuous, because the professor makes it sound as if all holidays are of equal importance in Canada. I don't want to be part of a mix-and-match culture where foreign celebrations like Diwali are considered as important as traditional Canadian holidays like Christmas.]
[. . .]
Read all of Katie Rook's article.
Do most white Canadians realize how quickly immigration is changing this country? Are they prepared for those changes? Are they ready to wake up one morning and realize that they are now the minority? Is this what they want? Why is this demographic transformation happening without any public debate?
See also:
India poised to become Canada's top source of immigrants. Is this what Canadians want?
New work of fiction based on real-world Indo-Canadian gangs in BC
Indo-Canadians demand apology for the Komagata Maru incident
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration immigrants assimilation integration multiculturalism cultural diversity Indo-Canadians Indo-Canadian South Asian South Asians Desi culture Desis Diwali Hinduism
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
One clause in anti-terrorism law ruled unconstitutional. Khawaja trial will proceed
From the Globe and Mail (Portion of law on terror struck down by Alex Dobrota and Gloria Galloway, October 25):
A judge has quashed the part of Canada's anti-terrorism law that defines terrorist activities as crimes motivated by politics, religion or ideology, on the grounds that it violates the Charter of Rights.
Legal experts said yesterday's decision will make it easier to obtain convictions under the controversial legislation introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Douglas Rutherford was ruling in the case of Mohammad Momin Khawaja, a 27-year-old Ottawa computer programmer who was the first person charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Mr. Khawaja was charged with a number of terrorism-related offences after he was implicated in a plot to blow up people in England.
[. . .]
Read all of the Globe article
See also:
Khawaja case: Crown defends anti-terrorism act
Ottawa Muslim on trial in Britain for bomb plot
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian UK Britain national security law constitution Charter of Rights immigration terrorism terrorists Islam Muslims Mohammad Momin Khawaja
A judge has quashed the part of Canada's anti-terrorism law that defines terrorist activities as crimes motivated by politics, religion or ideology, on the grounds that it violates the Charter of Rights.
Legal experts said yesterday's decision will make it easier to obtain convictions under the controversial legislation introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Douglas Rutherford was ruling in the case of Mohammad Momin Khawaja, a 27-year-old Ottawa computer programmer who was the first person charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
Mr. Khawaja was charged with a number of terrorism-related offences after he was implicated in a plot to blow up people in England.
[. . .]
Read all of the Globe article
See also:
Khawaja case: Crown defends anti-terrorism act
Ottawa Muslim on trial in Britain for bomb plot
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian UK Britain national security law constitution Charter of Rights immigration terrorism terrorists Islam Muslims Mohammad Momin Khawaja
Money raised in Canada is going to the enemy in Afghanistan - Stockwell Day
From the National Post (Group gets funds here to kill our troops by Stewart Bell, October 25):
An armed Islamic group in Afghanistan that is blamed for attacks against Canadian soldiers has allegedly been raising money in Canada, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said yesterday.
Mr. Day told the National Post in an interview the government has evidence that Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, which is allied with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, has received financial support from within Canada.
Evidence of a suspected fund-raising pipeline to the pro-Taliban faction was one of the reasons Cabinet ministers agreed on Monday to put the group on Canada's official list of terrorist organizations, Mr. Day said.
"We have information that leads us to believe that fundraising possibly is taking place in Canada, which has gone to this particular group in Afghanistan," said Mr. Day, the lead minister in the government's fight against terrorism.
"And these and other concerns make it readily obvious to us that the group needs to be listed so that anybody who associates with, in a direct way, or assists this group would face criminal charges.
[. . .]
Read all of Stewart Bell's article
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration terrorism terrorist groups group national security Afghanistan Afghan war fundraising Taliban al-Qaeda Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
An armed Islamic group in Afghanistan that is blamed for attacks against Canadian soldiers has allegedly been raising money in Canada, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said yesterday.
Mr. Day told the National Post in an interview the government has evidence that Hezb-e Islami Gulbuddin, which is allied with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, has received financial support from within Canada.
Evidence of a suspected fund-raising pipeline to the pro-Taliban faction was one of the reasons Cabinet ministers agreed on Monday to put the group on Canada's official list of terrorist organizations, Mr. Day said.
"We have information that leads us to believe that fundraising possibly is taking place in Canada, which has gone to this particular group in Afghanistan," said Mr. Day, the lead minister in the government's fight against terrorism.
"And these and other concerns make it readily obvious to us that the group needs to be listed so that anybody who associates with, in a direct way, or assists this group would face criminal charges.
[. . .]
Read all of Stewart Bell's article
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration terrorism terrorist groups group national security Afghanistan Afghan war fundraising Taliban al-Qaeda Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Refugees want Ottawa to eliminate $550 landing fee
From the Globe and Mail (Refugees to press Ottawa on $550 landing fee by Marina Jimenez, October 24):
A procession of refugee children will arrive Wednesday in Ottawa to ask the Immigration Minister to eliminate a $550 landing fee that refugees must pay within six months if they want to become permanent residents of Canada.
The processing fee is beyond the means of many refugees, according to organizers of the “Drop the Fee” campaign. And, once refugees miss the 180-day deadline, they are forced to apply for landed immigrant status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. They must explain the delay, and be processed in a different stream, which takes as long as three years.
“This is a huge bureaucratic headache and a disaster for refugees. Many simply do not have $550 saved up within six months of arriving here,” said Geraldine Sadoway, staff lawyer with Parkdale Community Legal Services in Toronto who will be at Wednesday's “Drop the Fee” rally on Parliament Hill. “We have dozens of clients in this situation.”
Refugees may not begin the process of sponsoring their spouses and children left behind in their homeland until they are permanent residents. So a failure to pay $550 within six months can result in a delay of several years to re-unite with their loved ones, said Ms. Sadoway. Refugees without permanent residency also cannot vote or travel and it is more difficult to find long-term employment.
[. . .]
Read all of Marina Jimenez's article
This is ridiculous. Canada's refugee system is a joke. Most of the people we accept as "refugees" are queue-jumpers who have found a backdoor way into Canada. The Immigration and Refugee Board is staffed by overpaid political hacks without experience and training. I've blogged about a couple of scandals. See here and here.We accept as refugees categories of people such as homosexuals and women claiming spousal abuse that few other countries accept. We allow people who have already found refuge in democratic countries to make a refugee claim here. This is known as asylum-shopping. We allow failed claimants to appeal endlessly even when our security agencies consider them threats to national security. Ottawa loses track of people whose claims have been rejected. Some of the people we accept as refugee go on to commit horrific crimes. See here and here.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrants refugees
A procession of refugee children will arrive Wednesday in Ottawa to ask the Immigration Minister to eliminate a $550 landing fee that refugees must pay within six months if they want to become permanent residents of Canada.
The processing fee is beyond the means of many refugees, according to organizers of the “Drop the Fee” campaign. And, once refugees miss the 180-day deadline, they are forced to apply for landed immigrant status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds. They must explain the delay, and be processed in a different stream, which takes as long as three years.
“This is a huge bureaucratic headache and a disaster for refugees. Many simply do not have $550 saved up within six months of arriving here,” said Geraldine Sadoway, staff lawyer with Parkdale Community Legal Services in Toronto who will be at Wednesday's “Drop the Fee” rally on Parliament Hill. “We have dozens of clients in this situation.”
Refugees may not begin the process of sponsoring their spouses and children left behind in their homeland until they are permanent residents. So a failure to pay $550 within six months can result in a delay of several years to re-unite with their loved ones, said Ms. Sadoway. Refugees without permanent residency also cannot vote or travel and it is more difficult to find long-term employment.
[. . .]
Read all of Marina Jimenez's article
This is ridiculous. Canada's refugee system is a joke. Most of the people we accept as "refugees" are queue-jumpers who have found a backdoor way into Canada. The Immigration and Refugee Board is staffed by overpaid political hacks without experience and training. I've blogged about a couple of scandals. See here and here.We accept as refugees categories of people such as homosexuals and women claiming spousal abuse that few other countries accept. We allow people who have already found refuge in democratic countries to make a refugee claim here. This is known as asylum-shopping. We allow failed claimants to appeal endlessly even when our security agencies consider them threats to national security. Ottawa loses track of people whose claims have been rejected. Some of the people we accept as refugee go on to commit horrific crimes. See here and here.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrants refugees
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Prosecutors say racial confrontation led to student being beaten to death in Hamilton. Two of the accused are immigrants from Cambodia
From the Toronto Star (Unconscious man still beaten, witness says by Bob Mitchell, October 24):
A stocky “Oriental” man struck Matthew Daly three times in the head and once in his neck as the Burlington college student lay motionless on the ground, the jury at a high-profile murder trial has heard.
Daly’s girlfriend, Erin Keller, told a Brampton court today that Daly, the captain of his high school footbhall team, was already unconscious after being kicked, punched and beaten with clubs in the early morning attack of May 19, 2001, when the last assailant delivered the final vicious blows before running away in the darkness.
[. . .]
Stephen Papadopoulos, 26, Sam Nop, 24, Fadil (Neil) Mujku, 23, and Vuthy Chak, 23, all from Hamilton, have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Daly's death.
[. . .]
Crown prosecutors contend that Daly was ambushed, and beaten in retaliation for being part of a group of young men who hurled racial slurs at several other young men who crashed the Nelson High School graduation party that Victoria Day holiday weekend.
Nop and Chak are from Cambodia but several crown witnesses have testified that as many as five uninvited guests, including three Asians, went to the party at the Fielding mansion about midnight.
[. . .]
Read all of Bob Mitchell's article.
See also:
Is it open season on white teenagers in Toronto?
Manslaughter case: another ugly example of racial tension in Toronto high schools
Trinidad-born killer apologizes for brutally murdering white student
Technorati tags: Canada Ontario Hamilton Burlington immigration immigrants crime race relations racial conflict cultural diversity Cambodia Cambodian
A stocky “Oriental” man struck Matthew Daly three times in the head and once in his neck as the Burlington college student lay motionless on the ground, the jury at a high-profile murder trial has heard.
Daly’s girlfriend, Erin Keller, told a Brampton court today that Daly, the captain of his high school footbhall team, was already unconscious after being kicked, punched and beaten with clubs in the early morning attack of May 19, 2001, when the last assailant delivered the final vicious blows before running away in the darkness.
[. . .]
Stephen Papadopoulos, 26, Sam Nop, 24, Fadil (Neil) Mujku, 23, and Vuthy Chak, 23, all from Hamilton, have pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in Daly's death.
[. . .]
Crown prosecutors contend that Daly was ambushed, and beaten in retaliation for being part of a group of young men who hurled racial slurs at several other young men who crashed the Nelson High School graduation party that Victoria Day holiday weekend.
Nop and Chak are from Cambodia but several crown witnesses have testified that as many as five uninvited guests, including three Asians, went to the party at the Fielding mansion about midnight.
[. . .]
Read all of Bob Mitchell's article.
See also:
Is it open season on white teenagers in Toronto?
Manslaughter case: another ugly example of racial tension in Toronto high schools
Trinidad-born killer apologizes for brutally murdering white student
Technorati tags: Canada Ontario Hamilton Burlington immigration immigrants crime race relations racial conflict cultural diversity Cambodia Cambodian
McGuinty says landed immigrants won't get vote
From the Toronto Star (Immigrants can't vote, premier says by Rob Ferguson, October 24):
Premier Dalton McGuinty has poured cold water on Mayor David Miller's push to let Toronto's 200,000 landed immigrants vote in municipal elections.
Although the premier's own municipal affairs minister, John Gerretsen, has said he's willing to look pros and cons of the idea, McGuinty ruled it out today.
"I know very well new immigrants are eager to gain this right," McGuinty said in French heading into the Liberals' weekly caucus meeting at Queen's Park.
[Hyphenated Canadian: If they are so eager, why is voter turnout so low? An immigrant becomes eligible for citizenship after living in Canada for three years. Most immigrants in Toronto have been here longer than that.]
"But it's a right that comes with citizenship."
[. . .]
See also:
Mayor David Miller wants to give non-citizens the vote
Municipal Affairs minister says he'll look at allowing landed immigrants to vote
Technorati tags: Canada Ontario Toronto immigration politics elections David Miller Dalton McGuinty
Premier Dalton McGuinty has poured cold water on Mayor David Miller's push to let Toronto's 200,000 landed immigrants vote in municipal elections.
Although the premier's own municipal affairs minister, John Gerretsen, has said he's willing to look pros and cons of the idea, McGuinty ruled it out today.
"I know very well new immigrants are eager to gain this right," McGuinty said in French heading into the Liberals' weekly caucus meeting at Queen's Park.
[Hyphenated Canadian: If they are so eager, why is voter turnout so low? An immigrant becomes eligible for citizenship after living in Canada for three years. Most immigrants in Toronto have been here longer than that.]
"But it's a right that comes with citizenship."
[. . .]
See also:
Mayor David Miller wants to give non-citizens the vote
Municipal Affairs minister says he'll look at allowing landed immigrants to vote
Technorati tags: Canada Ontario Toronto immigration politics elections David Miller Dalton McGuinty
Fringe mayoral candidate rants and raves about racism. Just another day in the new and improved multicultural Toronto
From the Toronto Sun (Rant delays debate by Kevin Connor, October 24):
A fringe candidate in the race for the city's top job held up a mayoral debate for well over an hour last night as he screamed allegations of racism and shot out sexual slurs.
Kevin Clark, who claims to be homeless, took over the podiums at the Youth Votes 2006 debate in Hart House at the University of Toronto in protest over not being invited to debate with the top three contenders for mayor.
[. . .]
Clark accused Miller of preventing him from joining the election because he is black.
"(Miller) has put me in jail and in the mental ward. This is the wrong race to enter race," he said, flailing a broom about the stage.
[. . .]
Read all of Kevin Connor's article
I should tell readers outside of Toronto that the broom is a reference to the previous municipal election where David Miller used it to symbolize his intention to clean up City Hall.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto politics elections election mayor David Miller multiculturalism University of Toronto
A fringe candidate in the race for the city's top job held up a mayoral debate for well over an hour last night as he screamed allegations of racism and shot out sexual slurs.
Kevin Clark, who claims to be homeless, took over the podiums at the Youth Votes 2006 debate in Hart House at the University of Toronto in protest over not being invited to debate with the top three contenders for mayor.
[. . .]
Clark accused Miller of preventing him from joining the election because he is black.
"(Miller) has put me in jail and in the mental ward. This is the wrong race to enter race," he said, flailing a broom about the stage.
[. . .]
Read all of Kevin Connor's article
I should tell readers outside of Toronto that the broom is a reference to the previous municipal election where David Miller used it to symbolize his intention to clean up City Hall.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto politics elections election mayor David Miller multiculturalism University of Toronto
Ah, that explains it
According to Wikipedia David Miller was born San Francisco.
To any readers in California: Take him back. Please.
Technorati tags: Toronto politics mayor David Miller San Francisco California
To any readers in California: Take him back. Please.
Technorati tags: Toronto politics mayor David Miller San Francisco California
Police say fire in Muslim building "probably a hate crime"
From the Toronto Star (Fire in Muslim building 'hate crime': Police by Tamara Cherry, October 24):
A Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of a north Toronto building used by a Turkish Muslim organization, in what police are calling a hate crime.
No one was injured in the incident, which caused about $25,000 worth of damage.
By the time the broken window in the second storey was found Monday evening, the last night of Ramadan, the flames inside were out, Toronto Police Sgt. John Irwin said this morning.
“It’s kind of a sad day when people are doing this stuff to a religious institution,” Irwin said. “Good people doing good things and somebody decides to cause them a lot of grief.”
[. . .]
“At this point, we think it’s probably a hate crime,” Irwin said.
[. . .]
Read all of Tamara Cherry's article
The article doesn't say why police think it's a "hate crime." Is there now a presumption that if crime is committed against a member of a minority group it was motivated by racism? I hope not. The last thing Toronto needs is a politically correct police force.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto crime police immigration immigrants Muslims Turks Turkish multiculturalism cultural diversity racism race relations
A Molotov cocktail was thrown through the window of a north Toronto building used by a Turkish Muslim organization, in what police are calling a hate crime.
No one was injured in the incident, which caused about $25,000 worth of damage.
By the time the broken window in the second storey was found Monday evening, the last night of Ramadan, the flames inside were out, Toronto Police Sgt. John Irwin said this morning.
“It’s kind of a sad day when people are doing this stuff to a religious institution,” Irwin said. “Good people doing good things and somebody decides to cause them a lot of grief.”
[. . .]
“At this point, we think it’s probably a hate crime,” Irwin said.
[. . .]
Read all of Tamara Cherry's article
The article doesn't say why police think it's a "hate crime." Is there now a presumption that if crime is committed against a member of a minority group it was motivated by racism? I hope not. The last thing Toronto needs is a politically correct police force.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto crime police immigration immigrants Muslims Turks Turkish multiculturalism cultural diversity racism race relations
Municipal Affairs minister says he'll look at allowing landed immigrants to vote
From the Toronto Star (Let immigrants vote: Miller by Vanessa Lu, October 23):
Municipal Affairs Minister John Gerretsen says he'd be prepared to look at the idea after the November ballot, when the Municipal Elections Act will undergo a regular review.
"We'll take a look at all the pros and cons of it. We'll do so after the election and undoubtedly get input from the city and from any other city that has a great number of landed immigrants," he said, adding that any change would have to be province-wide.
There is precedent for it. More than two dozen cities in Europe extend the municipal ballot to immigrants, said Prof. Myer Siemiatycki of Ryerson University.
Until the 1988 municipal election, British subjects from Commonwealth countries were allowed to vote, but the rules were changed to ensure uniformity. In the Nov. 13 election, only Canadian citizens 18 and older who live in or own property in the city may vote.
Miller also touted a new agreement on immigration settlement signed this month involving the city, province and federal government. While it doesn't mean extra funds to Toronto, which receives the largest share of Canada's new immigrants, Miller said it gives the city more say on immigration issues.
[. . .]
Read all of Vanessa Lu's article.
See also:
Mayor David Miller wants to give non-citizens the vote
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto Ontario immigration immigrants municipal elections David Miller mayor
Municipal Affairs Minister John Gerretsen says he'd be prepared to look at the idea after the November ballot, when the Municipal Elections Act will undergo a regular review.
"We'll take a look at all the pros and cons of it. We'll do so after the election and undoubtedly get input from the city and from any other city that has a great number of landed immigrants," he said, adding that any change would have to be province-wide.
There is precedent for it. More than two dozen cities in Europe extend the municipal ballot to immigrants, said Prof. Myer Siemiatycki of Ryerson University.
Until the 1988 municipal election, British subjects from Commonwealth countries were allowed to vote, but the rules were changed to ensure uniformity. In the Nov. 13 election, only Canadian citizens 18 and older who live in or own property in the city may vote.
Miller also touted a new agreement on immigration settlement signed this month involving the city, province and federal government. While it doesn't mean extra funds to Toronto, which receives the largest share of Canada's new immigrants, Miller said it gives the city more say on immigration issues.
[. . .]
Read all of Vanessa Lu's article.
See also:
Mayor David Miller wants to give non-citizens the vote
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto Ontario immigration immigrants municipal elections David Miller mayor
Project Flicker - Ardwick Blood Crew gang member sentenced to 41/2 years
From the Toronto Star (Jail for `Blood' member on DVD by Betsy Powell, October 243):
It was a soft-spoken and contrite man who pleaded guilty to gangsterism yesterday, looking and sounding nothing like the bombastic "hoolagoon" seen proudly pointing to bullet holes in a Toronto housing complex door on a DVD that police say fuelled a gang war.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Soft-spoken maybe. Contrite? I somehow doubt it.]
Yesterday, Justice Leslie Pringle sentenced Daren Johnson, 24, who admitted belonging to the Ardwick Blood Crew, to 4 1/2 years in a federal penitentiary, taking into account the 13 1/2 months he has served in pre-trial custody.
[. . .]
Johnson, whose street name was Deebo, was rounded up with dozens of other suspects Sept. 15, 2005 as part of a police anti-gang crackdown called Project Flicker. Preliminary hearings are underway in Scarborough for some of the other accused. Johnson is the third person facing charges relating to the investigation to plead guilty.
Project Flicker targeted the Ardwick Bloods who operated in the "geographic territory" of Ardwick Blvd. and Finch Ave. W., the location of a townhouse complex in which "this group is historically based," according to an agreed statement of fact.
[. . .]
Read all of Betsy Powell's article
See also:
Toronto Star article paints a frightening picture of gang life in this city
Los Angeles police chief on race, crime and gangs
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto crime police gangs Ardwick Bloods Crew Project Flicker
It was a soft-spoken and contrite man who pleaded guilty to gangsterism yesterday, looking and sounding nothing like the bombastic "hoolagoon" seen proudly pointing to bullet holes in a Toronto housing complex door on a DVD that police say fuelled a gang war.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Soft-spoken maybe. Contrite? I somehow doubt it.]
Yesterday, Justice Leslie Pringle sentenced Daren Johnson, 24, who admitted belonging to the Ardwick Blood Crew, to 4 1/2 years in a federal penitentiary, taking into account the 13 1/2 months he has served in pre-trial custody.
[. . .]
Johnson, whose street name was Deebo, was rounded up with dozens of other suspects Sept. 15, 2005 as part of a police anti-gang crackdown called Project Flicker. Preliminary hearings are underway in Scarborough for some of the other accused. Johnson is the third person facing charges relating to the investigation to plead guilty.
Project Flicker targeted the Ardwick Bloods who operated in the "geographic territory" of Ardwick Blvd. and Finch Ave. W., the location of a townhouse complex in which "this group is historically based," according to an agreed statement of fact.
[. . .]
Read all of Betsy Powell's article
See also:
Toronto Star article paints a frightening picture of gang life in this city
Los Angeles police chief on race, crime and gangs
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto crime police gangs Ardwick Bloods Crew Project Flicker
Monday, October 23, 2006
Mississauga candidate Adnan Hashmi denies impersonating policeman
From the Toronto Star (Council candidate denies dirty tricks by San Grewal, October 23):
A Mississauga city council candidate charged last week with intimidation and impersonating a police officer after allegedly trying to force a rival candidate to quit says he didn't do it.
At a news conference this morning, Adnan Hashmi told the crowd gathered inside his Ward 10 campaign office on 10th Line that his family has received numerous death threats over the last three months, suggesting that rival candidates are trying to squeeze him out of the race.
[. . .]
Read all of San Grewal's article.
See also:
Mississauga candidate charged with impersonating a police officer and intimidation - Man edits Urdu newspaper
Politics in Brampton, Ontario: "non-ethnics" need not apply
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto Mississauga Peel region police municipal city election elections immigration multiculturalism Adnan Hashmi Pakistani-Canadian Pakistani-Canadians Urdu South Asian newspapers
A Mississauga city council candidate charged last week with intimidation and impersonating a police officer after allegedly trying to force a rival candidate to quit says he didn't do it.
At a news conference this morning, Adnan Hashmi told the crowd gathered inside his Ward 10 campaign office on 10th Line that his family has received numerous death threats over the last three months, suggesting that rival candidates are trying to squeeze him out of the race.
[. . .]
Read all of San Grewal's article.
See also:
Mississauga candidate charged with impersonating a police officer and intimidation - Man edits Urdu newspaper
Politics in Brampton, Ontario: "non-ethnics" need not apply
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto Mississauga Peel region police municipal city election elections immigration multiculturalism Adnan Hashmi Pakistani-Canadian Pakistani-Canadians Urdu South Asian newspapers
Here's a surprise. NDP opposes dual citizenship review
From the Globe and Mail (Put an end to citizenship review, NDP says by Petti Fong, October 21):
The Harper government's review of dual citizenship is creating unnecessary worry for people holding two passports and should be stopped, the NDP says.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Dual citizenship review? How dare they? Doesn't Harper know that Canada is an officially multicultural country in which any expression of concern over immigration is morally suspect. Tsk. Tsk. How dare the Conservatives suggest there might be problems with our citizenship policies? This is Canada. This kind of talk is not allowed.]
Revoking dual citizenship would force many Canadians to make a difficult choice, said Bill Siksay, the New Democratic Party's citizenship and immigration critic.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Uh, isn't deciding to move to a different country a difficult choice? Immigration shouldn't be too easy. Immigrants should know that choosing to live permanently in Canada requires commitment. People, including myself, are lucky to have Canadian citizenship. If they don't value it enough to give up their old national identity, they shouldn't have the privilege of being Canadian citizens.]
It would also decrease mobility, make international travel more difficult and hurt tourism and immigration, he added.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Is there any evidence to support this claim? I don't believe it.]
"Many immigrants made their decision to come to Canada because we have dual citizenship. They chose Canada for that reason," Mr. Siksay said.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Those kinds of immigrants we don't need. We need people whose primary loyalty will be to Canada not to the old country. By allowing dual citizenship we've encouraged immigrants to regard Canadian citizenship as a convenient piece of paper rather than as a sign of loyalty.]
"We put people in a terribly difficult position if we make them choose at this point. Dual citizenship has served us well. The benefits far outweigh the problems."
[Hyphenated Canadian: Ha! Dual citizenship didn't serve Canada well in Lebanon where Ottawa spent $85million dollars rescuing citizens of convenience with no meaningful ties to Canada.]
[. . .]
Read all of Peter Fong's article.
See also:
Immigrant groups fear dual-citizenship review
Ottawa plans dual citizenship review. Lebanon evacuations cost Canadian taxpayers dearly
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration multiculturalism dual citizenship patriotism nationalism NDP
The Harper government's review of dual citizenship is creating unnecessary worry for people holding two passports and should be stopped, the NDP says.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Dual citizenship review? How dare they? Doesn't Harper know that Canada is an officially multicultural country in which any expression of concern over immigration is morally suspect. Tsk. Tsk. How dare the Conservatives suggest there might be problems with our citizenship policies? This is Canada. This kind of talk is not allowed.]
Revoking dual citizenship would force many Canadians to make a difficult choice, said Bill Siksay, the New Democratic Party's citizenship and immigration critic.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Uh, isn't deciding to move to a different country a difficult choice? Immigration shouldn't be too easy. Immigrants should know that choosing to live permanently in Canada requires commitment. People, including myself, are lucky to have Canadian citizenship. If they don't value it enough to give up their old national identity, they shouldn't have the privilege of being Canadian citizens.]
It would also decrease mobility, make international travel more difficult and hurt tourism and immigration, he added.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Is there any evidence to support this claim? I don't believe it.]
"Many immigrants made their decision to come to Canada because we have dual citizenship. They chose Canada for that reason," Mr. Siksay said.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Those kinds of immigrants we don't need. We need people whose primary loyalty will be to Canada not to the old country. By allowing dual citizenship we've encouraged immigrants to regard Canadian citizenship as a convenient piece of paper rather than as a sign of loyalty.]
"We put people in a terribly difficult position if we make them choose at this point. Dual citizenship has served us well. The benefits far outweigh the problems."
[Hyphenated Canadian: Ha! Dual citizenship didn't serve Canada well in Lebanon where Ottawa spent $85million dollars rescuing citizens of convenience with no meaningful ties to Canada.]
[. . .]
Read all of Peter Fong's article.
See also:
Immigrant groups fear dual-citizenship review
Ottawa plans dual citizenship review. Lebanon evacuations cost Canadian taxpayers dearly
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration multiculturalism dual citizenship patriotism nationalism NDP
In George Bush's America, border patrol agents are prosecuted for doing their job
I cringe every time the media calls George Bush a conservative. He's no such thing. Conservatives are patriots. Bush is an amoral globalist who has used his time in office to wage war against the American people. This assault against the nation has taken the form of a relentless push for an illegal alien amnesty that would reward the millions of Mexican lawbreakers who have invaded the United States with the connivance of corporate America. If Bush had his way the US would become a bilingual, multicultural country (sound familiar?), in which white, English-speaking Americans would be a powerless minority (except, of course, for that tiny fraction of whites at the top of the social pyramid who would be more powerful than ever).
One consequence of Bush's contempt for his own people is the prosecution of two Border Patrol agents guilty of nothing more than doing their duty. Unfortunately, their job of protecting the border conflicts with Bush's goal of abolishing that same border. I have no reason to believe Bush had a direct hand in their prosecution, but his hostility to any form of immigration control helped create the atmosphere which made this unjust prosecution possible. As Joe Guzzardi wrote in Vdare (Border Patrol Two, 9/11 Commission—Whose Side Is Bush On?, September 1):
The question that repeats and repeats in my mind:
Why were Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean prosecuted with such ferocity for doing their jobs that they now face up to 20 years in prison?
[Hyphenated Canadian: This was written in September. The agents have since been convicted, which has stirred outrage among American patriots.]
As Ramos and Compean await their fate, drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila received immunity. As a free man living in Mexico, Aldrete-Davila plans to sue the Border Patrol for $5 million for alleged violations of his civil rights suffered while transporting 743 pounds of marijuana across the border.
Briefly, Ramos and Compean were charged for firing at Aldrete-Davila as he fled back across the border and not reporting the incident.
Those who want to learn more should go to the National Border Patrol Council website. Once on the site, read the excellent columns by Debra Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle [ The Border Patrol Inquisition, August 24, 2006] and by Sara A. Carter of the Ontario (Calif.) Daily Bulletin,[ PDF] posted there.
For perspective, a Border Patrol officer convicted of smuggling illegals while on duty was sentenced in July to just five years—upped by U.S. District Judge John Houston; prosecutors asked for only three.
To return to my question: “Why?”
No matter which roads you travel to find the answer, they all lead to President George W. Bush.
Read all of Joe Guzzardi's article (It has plenty of links)
See also:
Justice for Border Patrol Agents
National Border Patrol Council
Technorati tags: United States US politics George Bush USA Mexico Mexican border illegal immigration immigrants aliens migrants drug smuggling border patrol agents globalism American patriotism nationalism nation-state conservatism neoconservatism
One consequence of Bush's contempt for his own people is the prosecution of two Border Patrol agents guilty of nothing more than doing their duty. Unfortunately, their job of protecting the border conflicts with Bush's goal of abolishing that same border. I have no reason to believe Bush had a direct hand in their prosecution, but his hostility to any form of immigration control helped create the atmosphere which made this unjust prosecution possible. As Joe Guzzardi wrote in Vdare (Border Patrol Two, 9/11 Commission—Whose Side Is Bush On?, September 1):
The question that repeats and repeats in my mind:
Why were Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean prosecuted with such ferocity for doing their jobs that they now face up to 20 years in prison?
[Hyphenated Canadian: This was written in September. The agents have since been convicted, which has stirred outrage among American patriots.]
As Ramos and Compean await their fate, drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila received immunity. As a free man living in Mexico, Aldrete-Davila plans to sue the Border Patrol for $5 million for alleged violations of his civil rights suffered while transporting 743 pounds of marijuana across the border.
Briefly, Ramos and Compean were charged for firing at Aldrete-Davila as he fled back across the border and not reporting the incident.
Those who want to learn more should go to the National Border Patrol Council website. Once on the site, read the excellent columns by Debra Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle [ The Border Patrol Inquisition, August 24, 2006] and by Sara A. Carter of the Ontario (Calif.) Daily Bulletin,[ PDF] posted there.
For perspective, a Border Patrol officer convicted of smuggling illegals while on duty was sentenced in July to just five years—upped by U.S. District Judge John Houston; prosecutors asked for only three.
To return to my question: “Why?”
No matter which roads you travel to find the answer, they all lead to President George W. Bush.
Read all of Joe Guzzardi's article (It has plenty of links)
See also:
Justice for Border Patrol Agents
National Border Patrol Council
Technorati tags: United States US politics George Bush USA Mexico Mexican border illegal immigration immigrants aliens migrants drug smuggling border patrol agents globalism American patriotism nationalism nation-state conservatism neoconservatism
Mayor David Miller wants to give non-citizens the vote
From the Toronto Star (Miller backs vote for non-citizens by John Spears, October 23):
Immigrants should have the right to vote in municipal elections even if they haven’t yet become citizens, Mayor David Miller says.
"It’s time to allow landed immigrants to vote in municipal elections," Miller told the Star’s editorial board in a question and answer session today.
"We allow people who don’t live in Toronto to vote, simply because they own property here," Miller said.
"It’s not like a national election; you’re not determining issues of what this country should do or shouldn’t do," he said. "You’re determining issues that directly affect people’s lives."
[. . .]
Read the whole article.
You only have to live in Canada for three years before you can become a citizen. That's hardly an onerous requirement. I see all sorts of problems with allowing non-citizens to vote. First, there's the symbolism. By further blurring the distinction between Canadian citizens and foreigners, you lend ammunition to the extremists who want to remove all limits on immigration. I worry that some Canadians are forgetting that this country belongs to us, not the world, and we have the right to control our borders in the interest of protecting our quality of life. Second, we already have a problem with unscrupulous ethnic leaders directing members of their group to support one candidate or another. People who are new to the country, who don't understand the system and who don't speak the language are easily manipulated. There are many other problems as well.
See also:
Disillusionment on the campaign trail: "I can't talk to anybody. None of them speak English."
One in five on Ontario municipal voter lists may not be citizens
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto local municipal city election elections immigration immigrants multiculturalism cultural diversity citizenship David Miller
Immigrants should have the right to vote in municipal elections even if they haven’t yet become citizens, Mayor David Miller says.
"It’s time to allow landed immigrants to vote in municipal elections," Miller told the Star’s editorial board in a question and answer session today.
"We allow people who don’t live in Toronto to vote, simply because they own property here," Miller said.
"It’s not like a national election; you’re not determining issues of what this country should do or shouldn’t do," he said. "You’re determining issues that directly affect people’s lives."
[. . .]
Read the whole article.
You only have to live in Canada for three years before you can become a citizen. That's hardly an onerous requirement. I see all sorts of problems with allowing non-citizens to vote. First, there's the symbolism. By further blurring the distinction between Canadian citizens and foreigners, you lend ammunition to the extremists who want to remove all limits on immigration. I worry that some Canadians are forgetting that this country belongs to us, not the world, and we have the right to control our borders in the interest of protecting our quality of life. Second, we already have a problem with unscrupulous ethnic leaders directing members of their group to support one candidate or another. People who are new to the country, who don't understand the system and who don't speak the language are easily manipulated. There are many other problems as well.
See also:
Disillusionment on the campaign trail: "I can't talk to anybody. None of them speak English."
One in five on Ontario municipal voter lists may not be citizens
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto local municipal city election elections immigration immigrants multiculturalism cultural diversity citizenship David Miller
Some military families want Canadian troops out of Afghanistan
From CanWest News Service via the National Post (Military families against Afghan mission speak out by Allan Woods, October 23):
Families of some Canadian soldiers say the escalating body count in Afghanistan, and lack of success the international community has had bringing security to the Afghan people, has convinced them the Harper government should pull Canadian troops out of the war-torn country.
This is believed to be the first time Canadian military families of those serving in Kandahar, or set to be deployed there, have publicly expressed their anti-war sentiments.
In exclusive interviews with CanWest News Service, parents and siblings say they are concerned about the dangerous fighting with the Taliban. They are also unsettled by the war-focused nature of the mission, and see no end goal that will define when, and under what conditions, Canadian troops will come home for good.
''I am completely opposed to my son being used as ground fodder for an undisclosed reason,'' says Chris Craig, from Victoria. ''I want to know why we're there. The arguments that have been thus far presented don't do it for me. They do not explain why my son and his friends should be maimed or killed in a far-away country.''
[. . .]
A poll conducted by Ipsos Reid in late September found public backing for the war had rebounded after it fell during the summer months, with 57 per cent of Canadians in support of the use of combat troops in Afghanistan.
The survey suggested public support has an expiry date, with 51 per cent of respondents saying Canada should withdraw its troops when the current military commitment ends in 2009, regardless of the level of success achieved.
[. . .]
Read all of Allan Woods' article.
See also:
Afghanistan - how many Canadian casualties? Why are we even there?
Dream on neocons - Afghanistan will never be a democracy
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian foreign policy national security military Afghanistan casualties
Families of some Canadian soldiers say the escalating body count in Afghanistan, and lack of success the international community has had bringing security to the Afghan people, has convinced them the Harper government should pull Canadian troops out of the war-torn country.
This is believed to be the first time Canadian military families of those serving in Kandahar, or set to be deployed there, have publicly expressed their anti-war sentiments.
In exclusive interviews with CanWest News Service, parents and siblings say they are concerned about the dangerous fighting with the Taliban. They are also unsettled by the war-focused nature of the mission, and see no end goal that will define when, and under what conditions, Canadian troops will come home for good.
''I am completely opposed to my son being used as ground fodder for an undisclosed reason,'' says Chris Craig, from Victoria. ''I want to know why we're there. The arguments that have been thus far presented don't do it for me. They do not explain why my son and his friends should be maimed or killed in a far-away country.''
[. . .]
A poll conducted by Ipsos Reid in late September found public backing for the war had rebounded after it fell during the summer months, with 57 per cent of Canadians in support of the use of combat troops in Afghanistan.
The survey suggested public support has an expiry date, with 51 per cent of respondents saying Canada should withdraw its troops when the current military commitment ends in 2009, regardless of the level of success achieved.
[. . .]
Read all of Allan Woods' article.
See also:
Afghanistan - how many Canadian casualties? Why are we even there?
Dream on neocons - Afghanistan will never be a democracy
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian foreign policy national security military Afghanistan casualties
Political debate in the Canadian blogosphere
Most political discussion in the Canadian blogosphere can be summarized in one sentence: My team is better than your your team. I exaggerate, of course, but not much.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian politics political blogs blogosphere
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian politics political blogs blogosphere
A play Mark Foley will definitely want to see
I saw this headline and for some reason Mark Foley's name popped into my head:
Harry Potter star Radcliffe to bare all in Equus
On a more serious note, Ben Stein has some thoughts about the cultural environment that contributed to the Foley scandal. See Pedophile nation
Technorati tags: US USA American politics Republicans Mark Foley sex scandal Ben Stein
Harry Potter star Radcliffe to bare all in Equus
On a more serious note, Ben Stein has some thoughts about the cultural environment that contributed to the Foley scandal. See Pedophile nation
Technorati tags: US USA American politics Republicans Mark Foley sex scandal Ben Stein
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Afghanistan - how many Canadian casualties? Why are we even there?
From the London Free Press (Canadians in Afghanistan: What's the real cost? by Kathleen Harris, October 22):
Military brass don't officially track numbers of enemy casualties, but the Canadian death toll stands at 43 and the injured count at about 211, though the Defence Department concedes the tally is not exactly current. There are no statistics available from the department on how many wounds were serious enough to leave permanent injury.
But an article to be published this week in Esprit de Corps magazine chronicles the incidents of death and injury to Canadian troops based on internal "serious-incident reports" obtained through access to information. It suggests Canadians are getting a "sanitized" version of events. The authors count 274 casualties -- 43 killed, including Trooper Mark Wilson, a Londoner, and 231 wounded -- and insist the official reports of "non-life-threatening injuries" don't tell the real story about the human cost of war in Afghanistan.
"We hear that phrase and we go back to sleep," said magazine editor Scott Taylor, a former soldier. "We don't realize in some cases it's a bullet to the throat and the guy is paralysed from the chest down, or he's lost an arm. They realize when they stabilize these guys they're not going to die, but 'non-life-threatening injury' doesn't reflect the actual severity."
Read all of Kathleen Harris' article.
I think those Canadians, including neoconservatives, who support our presence in Afghanistan have noble motives, but that doesn't change the fact that we don't belong there. Turning an ethnically-divided tribal society into a liberal democracy is an impossible task. I'm not a pacifist. I believe Canada should have a strong military and there are causes worth fighting for. Bringing democracy to Afghanistan just isn't one of them. Soldiers shouldn't be killed or permanently maimed trying to do what can't be done.
All the resources we are squandering in Afghanistan should be redirected to reforming our immigration system so that there are no more Ahmed Ressams. What's the point of fighting terrorism in Central Asia when our legal system doesn't allow us to deport people deemed by CSIS to be threats to our national security?
What about the Tamil Tigers? In March of this year, Human Rights Watch issued a report urging Ottawa to investigate the use of extortion by Tamil fundraisers in Toronto. I'm sure the RCMP, CSIS and other agencies could use more resources in their efforts to control Tiger extortionists.
Presumably we went to Afghanistan because the Taliban allowed al-Qaeda to set up shop there, but knowledgable people say that our own terrorist problem is so bad we need a moratorium on immigration. Canadian soldiers are dying in Afghanistan; meanwhile, Somali-Canadians are helping to establish an Taliban-like regime in Somalia. We don't have to go to Afghanistan to find Muslim extremists. They're right here in Toronto.
Our priorities are wrong. We shouldn't be in Afghanistan when we have so many problems at home to fix. Terrorism? National security? It's the immigration, stupid!
See also:
Dream on neocons - Afghanistan will never be a democracy
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration terrorism foreign policy national security military Afghanistan casualties democracy neocons neoconservatives
Military brass don't officially track numbers of enemy casualties, but the Canadian death toll stands at 43 and the injured count at about 211, though the Defence Department concedes the tally is not exactly current. There are no statistics available from the department on how many wounds were serious enough to leave permanent injury.
But an article to be published this week in Esprit de Corps magazine chronicles the incidents of death and injury to Canadian troops based on internal "serious-incident reports" obtained through access to information. It suggests Canadians are getting a "sanitized" version of events. The authors count 274 casualties -- 43 killed, including Trooper Mark Wilson, a Londoner, and 231 wounded -- and insist the official reports of "non-life-threatening injuries" don't tell the real story about the human cost of war in Afghanistan.
"We hear that phrase and we go back to sleep," said magazine editor Scott Taylor, a former soldier. "We don't realize in some cases it's a bullet to the throat and the guy is paralysed from the chest down, or he's lost an arm. They realize when they stabilize these guys they're not going to die, but 'non-life-threatening injury' doesn't reflect the actual severity."
Read all of Kathleen Harris' article.
I think those Canadians, including neoconservatives, who support our presence in Afghanistan have noble motives, but that doesn't change the fact that we don't belong there. Turning an ethnically-divided tribal society into a liberal democracy is an impossible task. I'm not a pacifist. I believe Canada should have a strong military and there are causes worth fighting for. Bringing democracy to Afghanistan just isn't one of them. Soldiers shouldn't be killed or permanently maimed trying to do what can't be done.
All the resources we are squandering in Afghanistan should be redirected to reforming our immigration system so that there are no more Ahmed Ressams. What's the point of fighting terrorism in Central Asia when our legal system doesn't allow us to deport people deemed by CSIS to be threats to our national security?
What about the Tamil Tigers? In March of this year, Human Rights Watch issued a report urging Ottawa to investigate the use of extortion by Tamil fundraisers in Toronto. I'm sure the RCMP, CSIS and other agencies could use more resources in their efforts to control Tiger extortionists.
Presumably we went to Afghanistan because the Taliban allowed al-Qaeda to set up shop there, but knowledgable people say that our own terrorist problem is so bad we need a moratorium on immigration. Canadian soldiers are dying in Afghanistan; meanwhile, Somali-Canadians are helping to establish an Taliban-like regime in Somalia. We don't have to go to Afghanistan to find Muslim extremists. They're right here in Toronto.
Our priorities are wrong. We shouldn't be in Afghanistan when we have so many problems at home to fix. Terrorism? National security? It's the immigration, stupid!
See also:
Dream on neocons - Afghanistan will never be a democracy
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration terrorism foreign policy national security military Afghanistan casualties democracy neocons neoconservatives
Hockey nationalism in Quebec - Guillaume Latendresse and the Montreal Canadiens
From the Toronto Star (This province really not like the others by Mark Abley, October 14):
If you want proof that Michael Ignatieff is on the right track with his controversial policy toward Quebec, just look at the Montreal Canadiens. In particular, look at a burly young forward named Guillaume Latendresse.
Here's what you need to know about Latendresse: He's 19; he weighs a good 220 pounds, perhaps more; he played his junior hockey for the Voltigeurs of Drummondville, one of the grittiest, least fashionable towns in Quebec; he can score pretty goals; he can also deliver bruising checks.
[. . .]
In the end, the choice for the final position on the Canadiens' roster came down to Latendresse or Andrei Kostitsyn, a gifted 21-year-old forward from Belarus. If the choice had been made strictly on its merits, Kostitsyn may have had the edge. But when you're talking about Les Glorieux — an old, sadly inaccurate nickname for the Montreal franchise — merit is not the only factor.
[. . .]
Now, if we were discussing any other middle-of-the-pack team — the Maple Leafs, for instance — it would be absurd to worry about a player's birthplace. So what if Bates Battaglia, from Chicago, made the squad while Kris Newbury, from Brampton, did not?
[Hyphenated Canadian - this isn't completely true. Don Cherry favours English Canadian players and while some snobs don't like Cherry, he's popular with ordinary fans.]
But Gainey has to face a barrage of daily comment from journalists and broadcasters like Réjean Tremblay, Jean Pagé and Michel Bergeron (the longtime coach of the extinct Quebec Nordiques). And much of their talk has a fiercely nationalist edge.
[. . .]
Read all of Mark Abley's article.
See also:
Canada: This Union Can’t Be Saved
Quebec: Keeping it in Canada is impossible . . . and undesirable
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian politics Quebec nationalism constitution Liberal Party leadership race Michael Ignatieff hockey Montreal Canadiens Guillaume Latendresse
If you want proof that Michael Ignatieff is on the right track with his controversial policy toward Quebec, just look at the Montreal Canadiens. In particular, look at a burly young forward named Guillaume Latendresse.
Here's what you need to know about Latendresse: He's 19; he weighs a good 220 pounds, perhaps more; he played his junior hockey for the Voltigeurs of Drummondville, one of the grittiest, least fashionable towns in Quebec; he can score pretty goals; he can also deliver bruising checks.
[. . .]
In the end, the choice for the final position on the Canadiens' roster came down to Latendresse or Andrei Kostitsyn, a gifted 21-year-old forward from Belarus. If the choice had been made strictly on its merits, Kostitsyn may have had the edge. But when you're talking about Les Glorieux — an old, sadly inaccurate nickname for the Montreal franchise — merit is not the only factor.
[. . .]
Now, if we were discussing any other middle-of-the-pack team — the Maple Leafs, for instance — it would be absurd to worry about a player's birthplace. So what if Bates Battaglia, from Chicago, made the squad while Kris Newbury, from Brampton, did not?
[Hyphenated Canadian - this isn't completely true. Don Cherry favours English Canadian players and while some snobs don't like Cherry, he's popular with ordinary fans.]
But Gainey has to face a barrage of daily comment from journalists and broadcasters like Réjean Tremblay, Jean Pagé and Michel Bergeron (the longtime coach of the extinct Quebec Nordiques). And much of their talk has a fiercely nationalist edge.
[. . .]
Read all of Mark Abley's article.
See also:
Canada: This Union Can’t Be Saved
Quebec: Keeping it in Canada is impossible . . . and undesirable
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian politics Quebec nationalism constitution Liberal Party leadership race Michael Ignatieff hockey Montreal Canadiens Guillaume Latendresse
How many more Somali refugees are coming to Toronto?
From the Toronto Star (Thousands crowd camp by Michelle Shephared, October 22):
Somali passports are not internationally recognized, making it particularly difficult to resettle these refugees. The best hope for most is to return one day to Somalia — but peace in one of the most anarchic countries in the world seems elusive.
"They have had enough here," says UNHCR camp director Nemia Temporal. "We need to keep the hopes of people alive — the hopes to return, because that's all they hang on to for now."
Many of the lucky few who do leave go to Toronto, believed to be home of the largest Somali diaspora outside of Africa. Statistics of the actual population vary, but most believe there are more than 100,000 Somalis now calling Toronto home.
And the ties that bind Canada to Somalia are strong. Some Somali-Canadians have returned home to try and help with the country's transformation. A former Toronto grocer is now one of the Islamist leaders, and several Canadians hold positions within the cabinet of the transitional government.
During a recent visit to the camp by the Star, many spoke of their Canadian relatives, and a few asked for help in joining them.
It's a plea Canadian Karin Michnick will hear often as the camp's new resettlement officer. After leaving a job with Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board, Michnick arrived a month ago to take on the daunting task of trying to find placements for the refugees, some of whom have never known another home. Among those who weren't born here, many spent weeks travelling most of the way to the camp on foot. On one day during the Star's recent visit, about 685 refugees arrived after having walked across a Somali-Kenyan border marked only by truck tire tracks in the sand and a concrete post obscured by a thorn bush. Most refugees come from Mogadishu, Kismayo or Baidoa.
Read all of Michelle Shephard's article.
See also:
Former Toronto grocery store owner helps lead Taliban-like group in Somalia
More about the former Toronto man who helps lead an Islamic extremist group in Somalia
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration immigrants migrants refugees refugee cultural diversity multiculturalism Somali Somalis Somalia Muslims Muslim Africa African Islam Islamic fundamentalism fundamentalists extremism Islamism Islamists Islamofascism
Somali passports are not internationally recognized, making it particularly difficult to resettle these refugees. The best hope for most is to return one day to Somalia — but peace in one of the most anarchic countries in the world seems elusive.
"They have had enough here," says UNHCR camp director Nemia Temporal. "We need to keep the hopes of people alive — the hopes to return, because that's all they hang on to for now."
Many of the lucky few who do leave go to Toronto, believed to be home of the largest Somali diaspora outside of Africa. Statistics of the actual population vary, but most believe there are more than 100,000 Somalis now calling Toronto home.
And the ties that bind Canada to Somalia are strong. Some Somali-Canadians have returned home to try and help with the country's transformation. A former Toronto grocer is now one of the Islamist leaders, and several Canadians hold positions within the cabinet of the transitional government.
During a recent visit to the camp by the Star, many spoke of their Canadian relatives, and a few asked for help in joining them.
It's a plea Canadian Karin Michnick will hear often as the camp's new resettlement officer. After leaving a job with Canada's Immigration and Refugee Board, Michnick arrived a month ago to take on the daunting task of trying to find placements for the refugees, some of whom have never known another home. Among those who weren't born here, many spent weeks travelling most of the way to the camp on foot. On one day during the Star's recent visit, about 685 refugees arrived after having walked across a Somali-Kenyan border marked only by truck tire tracks in the sand and a concrete post obscured by a thorn bush. Most refugees come from Mogadishu, Kismayo or Baidoa.
Read all of Michelle Shephard's article.
See also:
Former Toronto grocery store owner helps lead Taliban-like group in Somalia
More about the former Toronto man who helps lead an Islamic extremist group in Somalia
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration immigrants migrants refugees refugee cultural diversity multiculturalism Somali Somalis Somalia Muslims Muslim Africa African Islam Islamic fundamentalism fundamentalists extremism Islamism Islamists Islamofascism
Quebec wing of the federal Liberal party votes to recognize the province as a nation
From CBC News (Quebec as 'nation' divides Liberal candidates, October 21)::
The Quebec wing of the Liberal party voted Saturday to recognize the province as a nation, and agreed to work to make that official if the Liberals are elected in the next federal election.
The move, approved by two-thirds of the delegates at the Montreal meeting, underlined divisions among Liberal leadership candidates during the subsequent debate.
"I speak for those who say Quebec is a nation, but Canada is my country," front-runner Michael Ignatieff said.
But leadership candidates Bob Rae and Stéphane Dion argued against the position. Rae said the party shouldn't reopen constitutional questions, and focused on the Quebec economy rather than the province's status.
Dion also said province's status was a "symbolic" question and shouldn't divert attention from real issues.
[. . .]
Read the whole CBC article.
See also:
Is Quebec nationalism "civic" or "ethnic"?
'Federalist' Charest believes Quebec has the right to separate
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Quebec Quebecois Liberal Party leadership race contest politics nation nationalism separatism Michael Ignatieff constitution
The Quebec wing of the Liberal party voted Saturday to recognize the province as a nation, and agreed to work to make that official if the Liberals are elected in the next federal election.
The move, approved by two-thirds of the delegates at the Montreal meeting, underlined divisions among Liberal leadership candidates during the subsequent debate.
"I speak for those who say Quebec is a nation, but Canada is my country," front-runner Michael Ignatieff said.
But leadership candidates Bob Rae and Stéphane Dion argued against the position. Rae said the party shouldn't reopen constitutional questions, and focused on the Quebec economy rather than the province's status.
Dion also said province's status was a "symbolic" question and shouldn't divert attention from real issues.
[. . .]
Read the whole CBC article.
See also:
Is Quebec nationalism "civic" or "ethnic"?
'Federalist' Charest believes Quebec has the right to separate
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Quebec Quebecois Liberal Party leadership race contest politics nation nationalism separatism Michael Ignatieff constitution
Saturday, October 21, 2006
The reason Canadians hate politicians and the media
With all the serious problems facing Canada, why are politicians and journalists spending so much time talking about this?
Pressure on Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay to apologize for purportedly calling former girlfriend Belinda Stronach a dog intensified Friday, as she demanded a formal apology and the opposition called on the prime minister to curb his minister.
The House of Commons is nothing but a giant kindergarten full of overgrown crybabies.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ottawa federal politics Parliament House of Commons Peter MacKay Belinda Stronach
Pressure on Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay to apologize for purportedly calling former girlfriend Belinda Stronach a dog intensified Friday, as she demanded a formal apology and the opposition called on the prime minister to curb his minister.
The House of Commons is nothing but a giant kindergarten full of overgrown crybabies.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ottawa federal politics Parliament House of Commons Peter MacKay Belinda Stronach
More about the former Toronto man who helps lead an Islamic extremist group in Somalia
[January 3, 2007: I updated the links to Michelle Shephard's Star article.]
Yesterday, I posted an excerpt from a Toronto Star article about Abdullahi Afrah, a former Somali refugee had been living in Toronto. Afrah, also known as Asparo, returned to Somalia where he joined the leadership of the Union of Islamic Courts.
Today's Toronto Star has more about this man. Michelle Shephard writes. (Mogadishu: The Canadian Connection, October 21):
Instead, to most here, Canada, and Toronto in particular, is known as the safe place where refuge was granted 15 years ago when the government was overthrown. Although the statistics vary, most believe more than 100,000 Somalis live in Toronto and Ottawa, making Canada host to the largest diaspora of Somalis outside Africa. Now that the country appears to be on the cusp of change, many have returned.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Lucky us. The article doesn't mention the negative impact this mass migration had on Toronto and Canada. There's no mention, for example, of violent Somali girl gangs or the Somali rapist with a long list of deportable offences. How much did this flood of Somali refugees cost taxpayers in welfare costs?]
Asparo, the Canadian senior member of the Islamists, holds much power here. What he left behind was a modest life at Weston Rd. and Keele St., working at a variety of jobs, including a position he says he once held as a security supervisor for Toronto's Catholic school board.
He left Somalia in 1986 on a scholarship for his master's degree in crop sciences at Texas State University and then two years later came to Canada as a refugee. Soon after, he acquired his citizenship.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Why didn't he apply for asylum in the US? More importantly, why did Canada allow him to make a claim here? Under international law refugees are supposed to apply for asylum in the first safe country they enter. If he was studying in the US, Canada had the right to send him back to that country to file his claim there. Also, what percentage of the Somali refugees in Canada hold extremists views similar to this man's?]
Before he left Toronto in 1997, Asparo says he owned a halal food store at Dundas and Bloor Sts. and ran a local branch of a wire transfer network known as the Al-Bakarat. Without any banks in Somalia, Al-Bakarat was the only channel of money for the diaspora, and by 2001, it operated in 40 countries around the world.
Al-Bakarat banks were shut down after 9/11, due to allegations that the wire transfer service was funnelling money from the diaspora into the coffers of African terrorist organizations.
Somalis largely dismiss the restrictions as counterterrorism rhetoric — a perception only bolstered now by the fact that five years after Al-Bakarat went out of business, there haven't been any successful prosecutions linking the financial institution to terrorism.
Read all of Michelle Shephard's article
See also:
Talk to the elder first. African tribal custom comes to Toronto
Somalis claim discrimination. Security guard company says the real problem is drugs
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration cultural diversity multiculturalism Somali Somalis Somalia Muslims Muslim Africa African Islam Islamic fundamentalism fundamentalists extremism Islamism Islamists Islamofascism
Yesterday, I posted an excerpt from a Toronto Star article about Abdullahi Afrah, a former Somali refugee had been living in Toronto. Afrah, also known as Asparo, returned to Somalia where he joined the leadership of the Union of Islamic Courts.
Today's Toronto Star has more about this man. Michelle Shephard writes. (Mogadishu: The Canadian Connection, October 21):
Instead, to most here, Canada, and Toronto in particular, is known as the safe place where refuge was granted 15 years ago when the government was overthrown. Although the statistics vary, most believe more than 100,000 Somalis live in Toronto and Ottawa, making Canada host to the largest diaspora of Somalis outside Africa. Now that the country appears to be on the cusp of change, many have returned.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Lucky us. The article doesn't mention the negative impact this mass migration had on Toronto and Canada. There's no mention, for example, of violent Somali girl gangs or the Somali rapist with a long list of deportable offences. How much did this flood of Somali refugees cost taxpayers in welfare costs?]
Asparo, the Canadian senior member of the Islamists, holds much power here. What he left behind was a modest life at Weston Rd. and Keele St., working at a variety of jobs, including a position he says he once held as a security supervisor for Toronto's Catholic school board.
He left Somalia in 1986 on a scholarship for his master's degree in crop sciences at Texas State University and then two years later came to Canada as a refugee. Soon after, he acquired his citizenship.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Why didn't he apply for asylum in the US? More importantly, why did Canada allow him to make a claim here? Under international law refugees are supposed to apply for asylum in the first safe country they enter. If he was studying in the US, Canada had the right to send him back to that country to file his claim there. Also, what percentage of the Somali refugees in Canada hold extremists views similar to this man's?]
Before he left Toronto in 1997, Asparo says he owned a halal food store at Dundas and Bloor Sts. and ran a local branch of a wire transfer network known as the Al-Bakarat. Without any banks in Somalia, Al-Bakarat was the only channel of money for the diaspora, and by 2001, it operated in 40 countries around the world.
Al-Bakarat banks were shut down after 9/11, due to allegations that the wire transfer service was funnelling money from the diaspora into the coffers of African terrorist organizations.
Somalis largely dismiss the restrictions as counterterrorism rhetoric — a perception only bolstered now by the fact that five years after Al-Bakarat went out of business, there haven't been any successful prosecutions linking the financial institution to terrorism.
Read all of Michelle Shephard's article
See also:
Talk to the elder first. African tribal custom comes to Toronto
Somalis claim discrimination. Security guard company says the real problem is drugs
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration cultural diversity multiculturalism Somali Somalis Somalia Muslims Muslim Africa African Islam Islamic fundamentalism fundamentalists extremism Islamism Islamists Islamofascism
Globe and Mail: Studies undermine belief that multiculturalism promotes integration
From the Globe and Mail (Canada's welcome mat worn, immigrant studies find by Marina Jimenez, October 20):
Five new studies of immigrants of visible-minority background reveal cracks in Canada's ability to integrate newcomers, undermining the long-held consensus that multiculturalism has been an overwhelming success.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Long-held consensus? There may be such a consensus in academic and media circles, but there has never been a consensus among the general public. This remark just goes to show how out of touch many in those groups are with ordinary Canadians.]
The studies, released yesterday at an international conference in Toronto on the role of diasporas, illuminated the many challenges that Afghan, Colombian, Eritrean, Ethiopian and Jamaican diasporas in Toronto face, from racism, social and economic exclusion, to a continued identification with their homeland, instead of with Canada.
[Hyphenated Canadian: That "diasporas" continue to identify with their homelands is evident every World Cup when Toronto is awash in foreign flags.]
[. . .]
In the study of 176 Ethiopian youths living in Toronto, two-thirds identified themselves as Ethiopians first, raising questions about dual identity and the meaning of being a Canadian, and the exclusion felt by some newcomers. Only 27 per cent identified themselves as Canadians, even though most were born in Canada or immigrated here when they were very young.
“It makes you wonder if multiculturalism is really working for more recent immigrants,” said Maraki Sikre Merid, who co-authored the study with several other Ethiopian-Canadians from a group called Young Diplomats. “We talk about Toronto being a mega melting pot, but it is really a lot of segregated communities. Is there something more Canada can do to give people a sense of what it means to be Canadian?”
[. . .]
Read all of Marina Jimenez's article
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration multiculturalism cultural diversity Globe and Mail Marina Jimenez
Five new studies of immigrants of visible-minority background reveal cracks in Canada's ability to integrate newcomers, undermining the long-held consensus that multiculturalism has been an overwhelming success.
[Hyphenated Canadian: Long-held consensus? There may be such a consensus in academic and media circles, but there has never been a consensus among the general public. This remark just goes to show how out of touch many in those groups are with ordinary Canadians.]
The studies, released yesterday at an international conference in Toronto on the role of diasporas, illuminated the many challenges that Afghan, Colombian, Eritrean, Ethiopian and Jamaican diasporas in Toronto face, from racism, social and economic exclusion, to a continued identification with their homeland, instead of with Canada.
[Hyphenated Canadian: That "diasporas" continue to identify with their homelands is evident every World Cup when Toronto is awash in foreign flags.]
[. . .]
In the study of 176 Ethiopian youths living in Toronto, two-thirds identified themselves as Ethiopians first, raising questions about dual identity and the meaning of being a Canadian, and the exclusion felt by some newcomers. Only 27 per cent identified themselves as Canadians, even though most were born in Canada or immigrated here when they were very young.
“It makes you wonder if multiculturalism is really working for more recent immigrants,” said Maraki Sikre Merid, who co-authored the study with several other Ethiopian-Canadians from a group called Young Diplomats. “We talk about Toronto being a mega melting pot, but it is really a lot of segregated communities. Is there something more Canada can do to give people a sense of what it means to be Canadian?”
[. . .]
Read all of Marina Jimenez's article
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration multiculturalism cultural diversity Globe and Mail Marina Jimenez
Dream on neocons - Afghanistan will never be a democracy
Debris Trail at the Celestial Junk blog writes:
Millions of Afghans have embraced democracy
Do neocons actually believe this? Are they really that naive? I'd be surprised if millions of Afghans even knew what democracy was. Afghanistan is a tribal country run by warlords who make their living growing opium. It will never be a democracy. If the goal of the Canadian mission is the creation of a democratic Afghanistan, we may as well pull out now. Democracy requires a cultural foundation. It also requires a shared sense of national identity. A country divided by tribes that don't speak the same language and where most people are uneducated cannot be a democracy in any meaningful sense. There's more to democracy than filling out at a ballot every few years. Democracy requires the kind of civil society Afghanistan doesn't have. People who believe that the West has an obligation to export democracy to non-western societies aren't conservatives.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian foreign policy military Afghanistan democracy conservatives neocons neoconservatives
Millions of Afghans have embraced democracy
Do neocons actually believe this? Are they really that naive? I'd be surprised if millions of Afghans even knew what democracy was. Afghanistan is a tribal country run by warlords who make their living growing opium. It will never be a democracy. If the goal of the Canadian mission is the creation of a democratic Afghanistan, we may as well pull out now. Democracy requires a cultural foundation. It also requires a shared sense of national identity. A country divided by tribes that don't speak the same language and where most people are uneducated cannot be a democracy in any meaningful sense. There's more to democracy than filling out at a ballot every few years. Democracy requires the kind of civil society Afghanistan doesn't have. People who believe that the West has an obligation to export democracy to non-western societies aren't conservatives.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian foreign policy military Afghanistan democracy conservatives neocons neoconservatives
Friday, October 20, 2006
Maher Arar case - Judge strikes down law used to justify RCMP raids on reporter's home and office
From CanWest News Service via the National Post (Judge denounces RCMP's treatment of reporter by Don Butler, October 20):
An Ontario Superior Court judge has struck down a law used to obtain search warrants that authorized controversial RCMP raids on Ottawa Citizen journalist Juliet O'Neill's home and office in January, 2004.
Judge Lynn Ratushny ruled yesterday parts of Section 4 of the Security of Information Act are unconstitutional because they violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
She also found the RCMP abused proper process by using the warrants to threaten Ms. O'Neill with criminal prosecution unless she revealed the source of leaked information in a Nov. 8, 2003 story about Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen whom U.S. authorities arrested and deported to Syria in October, 2002.
Ms. O'Neill has never been charged, but the Crown had held out the possibility charges could be laid. That ended, however, with yesterday's ruling.
[. . .]
Read all of Don Butler's article.
See also:
Wikipedia article about the Juliet O'Neill case
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian law courts constitution Charter of Rights and Freedom press freedom media newspapers Ottawa Citizen RCMP Juliet O'Neill Maher Arar government secrecy
An Ontario Superior Court judge has struck down a law used to obtain search warrants that authorized controversial RCMP raids on Ottawa Citizen journalist Juliet O'Neill's home and office in January, 2004.
Judge Lynn Ratushny ruled yesterday parts of Section 4 of the Security of Information Act are unconstitutional because they violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
She also found the RCMP abused proper process by using the warrants to threaten Ms. O'Neill with criminal prosecution unless she revealed the source of leaked information in a Nov. 8, 2003 story about Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen whom U.S. authorities arrested and deported to Syria in October, 2002.
Ms. O'Neill has never been charged, but the Crown had held out the possibility charges could be laid. That ended, however, with yesterday's ruling.
[. . .]
Read all of Don Butler's article.
See also:
Wikipedia article about the Juliet O'Neill case
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian law courts constitution Charter of Rights and Freedom press freedom media newspapers Ottawa Citizen RCMP Juliet O'Neill Maher Arar government secrecy
New work of fiction based on real-world Indo-Canadian gangs in BC
From CBC News (New book on Indo-Canadian gangs stirs controversy, October 16):
A new book on life inside Indo-Canadian gangs is creating a clash of opinions within the Lower Mainland's South Asian community.
The author says the novel Daaku is a fictionalized account of one young man's life in the world of Indo-Canadian gangs, based on fact.
Ranj Dhaliwal told CBC News that some of his friends growing up in Surrey were used by Sikh temple leaders to rough up their opponents in temple elections.
[. . .]
Dhaliwal says he is breaking a code of silence in Surrey's Indo-Canadian community because he has had friends killed in gang warfare and because he believes many Indo-Canadian parents are unaware of their children's true lives.
[. . .]
Read all of the CBC story.
See also:
India poised to become Canada's top source of immigrants. Is this what Canadians want?
Indo-Canadians demand apology for the Komagata Maru incident
Sikh extremists in Canada: a culture of fear and intimidation
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian BC British Columbia Vancouver Surrey immigration immigrants multiculturalism India Indian diaspora Indo-Canadians Sikh Sikhs gangs crime violence literature books fiction culture
A new book on life inside Indo-Canadian gangs is creating a clash of opinions within the Lower Mainland's South Asian community.
The author says the novel Daaku is a fictionalized account of one young man's life in the world of Indo-Canadian gangs, based on fact.
Ranj Dhaliwal told CBC News that some of his friends growing up in Surrey were used by Sikh temple leaders to rough up their opponents in temple elections.
[. . .]
Dhaliwal says he is breaking a code of silence in Surrey's Indo-Canadian community because he has had friends killed in gang warfare and because he believes many Indo-Canadian parents are unaware of their children's true lives.
[. . .]
Read all of the CBC story.
See also:
India poised to become Canada's top source of immigrants. Is this what Canadians want?
Indo-Canadians demand apology for the Komagata Maru incident
Sikh extremists in Canada: a culture of fear and intimidation
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian BC British Columbia Vancouver Surrey immigration immigrants multiculturalism India Indian diaspora Indo-Canadians Sikh Sikhs gangs crime violence literature books fiction culture
Refugee claim rejected - Pakistani man found complicit in crimes against humanity
From the Toronto Sun (Refugee claim rejected by Kathleen Harris October 16):
A federal court has upheld Canada's decision to reject a Pakistani man's refugee claim because he was complicit in crimes against humanity.
Tariq Syed was first deported from Canada in 2000, but he sneaked back in a year later using a fake passport. According to federal court documents, Syed was a member of the Karachi police force and the Pakistani Criminal Investigation Agency -- considered two of the most brutal forces in the world.
[. . .]
Read all of Kathleen Harris' article.
Now that a federal court has ruled that Tariq Syed was complicit in crimes against humanity, you might reasonably think this is the end of the story. He will be deported and that will be that. Unfortunately, things aren't that simple inside Canada's dysfunctional refugee system. Deporting a failed refugee claimant can be a long, difficult process if that claimant chooses to drags things out.
Take, for example, the case of Manickavasagam Suresh a man believed by Canada's spy agency to be a fundraiser for the Tamil Tigers - a group that Ottawa considers a terrorist organization. He has been fighting deportation for more than a decade. Then there's Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad, a CONVICTED Palestinian terrorist who has managed to stay in Canada for eighteen years. More recently, Federal Court Judge Andrew MacKay ruled that an Egyptian man implicated in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa can't be sent home because he might be tortured there. Nope. Tariq Syed isn't going anywhere soon. He will be with us for a while to come:
But Syed's lawyer Lorne Waldman said his client has other options to try to avoid deportation, including a humanitarian application or a risk assessment. There are many "extenuating circumstances" in the case, he said.
See also:
Canadian asylum seekers regularly visit the countries allegedly persecuting them
Human rights extremists threaten Canada's national security
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrant immigrants refugee refugees human rights law deportation Pakistan Pakistani South Asians crimes against humanity
A federal court has upheld Canada's decision to reject a Pakistani man's refugee claim because he was complicit in crimes against humanity.
Tariq Syed was first deported from Canada in 2000, but he sneaked back in a year later using a fake passport. According to federal court documents, Syed was a member of the Karachi police force and the Pakistani Criminal Investigation Agency -- considered two of the most brutal forces in the world.
[. . .]
Read all of Kathleen Harris' article.
Now that a federal court has ruled that Tariq Syed was complicit in crimes against humanity, you might reasonably think this is the end of the story. He will be deported and that will be that. Unfortunately, things aren't that simple inside Canada's dysfunctional refugee system. Deporting a failed refugee claimant can be a long, difficult process if that claimant chooses to drags things out.
Take, for example, the case of Manickavasagam Suresh a man believed by Canada's spy agency to be a fundraiser for the Tamil Tigers - a group that Ottawa considers a terrorist organization. He has been fighting deportation for more than a decade. Then there's Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad, a CONVICTED Palestinian terrorist who has managed to stay in Canada for eighteen years. More recently, Federal Court Judge Andrew MacKay ruled that an Egyptian man implicated in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Africa can't be sent home because he might be tortured there. Nope. Tariq Syed isn't going anywhere soon. He will be with us for a while to come:
But Syed's lawyer Lorne Waldman said his client has other options to try to avoid deportation, including a humanitarian application or a risk assessment. There are many "extenuating circumstances" in the case, he said.
See also:
Canadian asylum seekers regularly visit the countries allegedly persecuting them
Human rights extremists threaten Canada's national security
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrant immigrants refugee refugees human rights law deportation Pakistan Pakistani South Asians crimes against humanity
Former Toronto grocery store owner helps lead Taliban-like group in Somalia
[January 3, 2007: I updated the links to Michelle Shephard's Star article.]
From the Toronto Star (From T.O. to Mogadishu by Michelle Shephard, October 20):
Canadian Abdullahi Afrah, or Asparo as he’s known to most, left Toronto nine years ago to return to his birthplace to see an end to the years of civil war that has consumed the country since the government collapsed in 1991.
That journey has brought him to the Union of Islamic Courts, which swept into Mogadishu in June, defeating the reigning warlords with cunning military prowess.
Like the Taliban, they immediately invoked strict adherence to sharia law and have presided over public executions of criminals, floggings of women who fail to wear the hijab and censorship of the media.
And like the Taliban, their authoritarian rule has brought stability to a war-weary people. In a series of rare interviews, the Star spoke with the union’s leaders including Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the Islamists’ wily military commander and religious head credited for the takeover of this city and much of southern Somalia.
Aweys, nicknamed the “Old Fox” for his flaming red-dyed beard and shrewd nature, is regarded as one of the more radical members of the group’s leadership and is listed by both the United Nations and U.S. State Department as a “supporter of terrorism.”
Read all of Michelle Shephard's Star story.
See also:
Somali-"Canadians" fighting for Taliban-like group in Africa
Toronto Somalis want Ottawa to intervene in their former homeland
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration cultural diversity multiculturalism Somali Somalis Somalia Muslims Muslim Africa African Islam Islamic fundamentalism fundamentalists extremism Islamism Islamists Islamofascism
From the Toronto Star (From T.O. to Mogadishu by Michelle Shephard, October 20):
Canadian Abdullahi Afrah, or Asparo as he’s known to most, left Toronto nine years ago to return to his birthplace to see an end to the years of civil war that has consumed the country since the government collapsed in 1991.
That journey has brought him to the Union of Islamic Courts, which swept into Mogadishu in June, defeating the reigning warlords with cunning military prowess.
Like the Taliban, they immediately invoked strict adherence to sharia law and have presided over public executions of criminals, floggings of women who fail to wear the hijab and censorship of the media.
And like the Taliban, their authoritarian rule has brought stability to a war-weary people. In a series of rare interviews, the Star spoke with the union’s leaders including Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the Islamists’ wily military commander and religious head credited for the takeover of this city and much of southern Somalia.
Aweys, nicknamed the “Old Fox” for his flaming red-dyed beard and shrewd nature, is regarded as one of the more radical members of the group’s leadership and is listed by both the United Nations and U.S. State Department as a “supporter of terrorism.”
Read all of Michelle Shephard's Star story.
See also:
Somali-"Canadians" fighting for Taliban-like group in Africa
Toronto Somalis want Ottawa to intervene in their former homeland
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration cultural diversity multiculturalism Somali Somalis Somalia Muslims Muslim Africa African Islam Islamic fundamentalism fundamentalists extremism Islamism Islamists Islamofascism
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Polish immigrants in the UK
From Scotsman.com (Scotland's new cultural cousins by Sarah Roe, October 17):
Cenzor is the latest Polish venue to open in the Scottish capital in recent months. The city now has a few new Polish delis, which stock an array of the favourite homeland foods. Recently a Polish restaurant and bar have opened their doors and a series of organised Polish parties that can attract as many as 400 people have been held in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. The Polish rock band MySlovitz played to a packed club of mainly Polish fans in Edinburgh in July.
This sudden tendency for all things Slavic is the product of a new wave of immigration since Poland joined the European Union (EU) in 2004. Many have arrived as a result of the Scottish Executive's Fresh Talent scheme, which now advertises in Poland to encourage people to come and work here. Since 2004 approximately 20,000 Poles have registered as residents of Scotland, injecting new talent and enthusiasm into the country. However, the real estimate is closer to 50,000 when non-registered Poles are included. (The Home Office says 264,000 Poles have registered as UK residents since 2004. Registration is not required.
Read the whole article
Vdare, as always, offers its own take on Polish immigration to UK:
Open borders enthusiasts have been quick to point out the story’s bright side. The vast majority of the new arrivals are young, few bring children or elderly relatives with them, and a remarkable 97 percent are employed full-time. The Slavic invasion of Britain, they conclude, has been a smashing success.
And yet the latest numbers couldn’t come at a worse time for Tony Blair. Over the past year, Blair’s government has been wracked by an ever-deepening series of immigration-related scandals. At the same time, the ongoing threat of homegrown Islamic extremism has led a number of public figures to question the value of diversity and multiculturalism in ways that would have been unthinkable just five years ago.
Read all of the Vdare article
See also:
Poland's Polish Plumbers
Technorati tags: immigration multiculturalism immigrants migration cultural diversity Europe UK Britain England Scotland Edinburgh EU European Union expansion member states
Cenzor is the latest Polish venue to open in the Scottish capital in recent months. The city now has a few new Polish delis, which stock an array of the favourite homeland foods. Recently a Polish restaurant and bar have opened their doors and a series of organised Polish parties that can attract as many as 400 people have been held in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness. The Polish rock band MySlovitz played to a packed club of mainly Polish fans in Edinburgh in July.
This sudden tendency for all things Slavic is the product of a new wave of immigration since Poland joined the European Union (EU) in 2004. Many have arrived as a result of the Scottish Executive's Fresh Talent scheme, which now advertises in Poland to encourage people to come and work here. Since 2004 approximately 20,000 Poles have registered as residents of Scotland, injecting new talent and enthusiasm into the country. However, the real estimate is closer to 50,000 when non-registered Poles are included. (The Home Office says 264,000 Poles have registered as UK residents since 2004. Registration is not required.
Read the whole article
Vdare, as always, offers its own take on Polish immigration to UK:
Open borders enthusiasts have been quick to point out the story’s bright side. The vast majority of the new arrivals are young, few bring children or elderly relatives with them, and a remarkable 97 percent are employed full-time. The Slavic invasion of Britain, they conclude, has been a smashing success.
And yet the latest numbers couldn’t come at a worse time for Tony Blair. Over the past year, Blair’s government has been wracked by an ever-deepening series of immigration-related scandals. At the same time, the ongoing threat of homegrown Islamic extremism has led a number of public figures to question the value of diversity and multiculturalism in ways that would have been unthinkable just five years ago.
Read all of the Vdare article
See also:
Poland's Polish Plumbers
Technorati tags: immigration multiculturalism immigrants migration cultural diversity Europe UK Britain England Scotland Edinburgh EU European Union expansion member states
Dutch trade union federation withdraws proposal to create a national Muslim holiday
Snouck Hurgronje reports that a Dutch trade union federation has withdrawn its proposal to create a national Muslim holiday in the Netherlands. Snouck writes:
The offices of the Christian Labour Union were overwhelmed by hundreds of phonecalls from irate members, who were often "in an highly emotional state"
Dhimmi Watch has more about this story.
I wonder if Dutch trade unionists read books written by Canadian academics.
Technorati tags: immigration multiculturalism cultural diversity religion Christianity Islam Muslims labor unions Europe Netherlands Dutch Eurabia dhimmi Jihad Watch Clash of Civilizations
The offices of the Christian Labour Union were overwhelmed by hundreds of phonecalls from irate members, who were often "in an highly emotional state"
Dhimmi Watch has more about this story.
I wonder if Dutch trade unionists read books written by Canadian academics.
Technorati tags: immigration multiculturalism cultural diversity religion Christianity Islam Muslims labor unions Europe Netherlands Dutch Eurabia dhimmi Jihad Watch Clash of Civilizations
Globe and Mail: Immigration backlog growing
From the Globe and Mail (Immigration board short of staff as backlog grows by Gloria Galloway, October 18):
The number of immigrants and refugees waiting for permission to stay in Canada has grown since the Conservatives took power last February, the chairman of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada told a Commons committee yesterday.
"This year, the IRB has a complement of 156 members. As of today, we have 40 vacancies," Jean-Guy Fleury said at a meeting of a parliamentary immigration committee.
When he appeared before the committee in May, Mr. Fleury said he was optimistic that the backlog of cases would drop below 20,000. And it did fall to 19,800 a short time later, he said yesterday.
But, because there are not enough people to hear cases, it has since climbed to 20,500 and Mr. Fleury said he expects it will quickly hit 24,500.
The government, meanwhile, has made just eight new appointments and 12 reappointments since the January election, he said.
[. . .]
Read all of the Globe article.
See also:
Another refugee board scandal - this time in Quebec. Isn't $125,000 a year enough?
Canada's refugee determination board is staffed by amateurs. Some adjudicators barely speak English
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrants refugees refugee board Globe and Mail
The number of immigrants and refugees waiting for permission to stay in Canada has grown since the Conservatives took power last February, the chairman of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada told a Commons committee yesterday.
"This year, the IRB has a complement of 156 members. As of today, we have 40 vacancies," Jean-Guy Fleury said at a meeting of a parliamentary immigration committee.
When he appeared before the committee in May, Mr. Fleury said he was optimistic that the backlog of cases would drop below 20,000. And it did fall to 19,800 a short time later, he said yesterday.
But, because there are not enough people to hear cases, it has since climbed to 20,500 and Mr. Fleury said he expects it will quickly hit 24,500.
The government, meanwhile, has made just eight new appointments and 12 reappointments since the January election, he said.
[. . .]
Read all of the Globe article.
See also:
Another refugee board scandal - this time in Quebec. Isn't $125,000 a year enough?
Canada's refugee determination board is staffed by amateurs. Some adjudicators barely speak English
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrants refugees refugee board Globe and Mail
Globe: Immigrant groups fear dual-citizenship review
From the Globe and Mail (Immigrant groups fear dual-citizenship review by Petti Fong, October 19):
A number of Canadian immigrant groups say fear is building in their communities over whether a federal review of dual citizenship will lead to people having to choose which passport to keep.
They say Canadians with dual citizenship will face excruciating personal decisions if the government revokes the practice.
[. . .]
The federal government has not specifically said it is looking into revoking dual citizenship, which allows people to hold more than one passport, but a spokeswoman in the office of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration said a review is under way.
[. . .]
Since 1977, Canada has allowed citizens to live and maintain citizenship in other countries without losing their passport. An estimated 500,000 Canadians living in Canada have dual citizenship, according to Statistics Canada, but there are no figures of how many Canadians with dual citizenship live outside of the country.
There are approximately 50,000 Lebanese-Canadians who live in Lebanon and of the 15,000 evacuated during the conflict, about half have reportedly returned to that country. In Hong Kong, where about a quarter of a million Canadians live, reports of changes to dual-citizenship requirements have been on the front page of newspapers and on radio programs.
[. . .]
Immigration lawyer Joshua Sohn said he doubts the Canadian government will consider revoking dual citizenship. About 90 countries allow it, and the number of Canadian passport holders who are citizens of two other countries tripled between 1991 and 2001, according to Statistics Canada.
[. . .]
Read all of Petti Fong's article
See also:
Ottawa plans dual citizenship review. Lebanon evacuations cost Canadian taxpayers dearly
India promotes dual loyalties; Toronto Star, surprise, thinks this is wonderful
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrants multiculturalism dual citizenship nation nationalism patriotism national identity globalization World migration migrants lawyers Globe and Mail
A number of Canadian immigrant groups say fear is building in their communities over whether a federal review of dual citizenship will lead to people having to choose which passport to keep.
They say Canadians with dual citizenship will face excruciating personal decisions if the government revokes the practice.
[. . .]
The federal government has not specifically said it is looking into revoking dual citizenship, which allows people to hold more than one passport, but a spokeswoman in the office of the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration said a review is under way.
[. . .]
Since 1977, Canada has allowed citizens to live and maintain citizenship in other countries without losing their passport. An estimated 500,000 Canadians living in Canada have dual citizenship, according to Statistics Canada, but there are no figures of how many Canadians with dual citizenship live outside of the country.
There are approximately 50,000 Lebanese-Canadians who live in Lebanon and of the 15,000 evacuated during the conflict, about half have reportedly returned to that country. In Hong Kong, where about a quarter of a million Canadians live, reports of changes to dual-citizenship requirements have been on the front page of newspapers and on radio programs.
[. . .]
Immigration lawyer Joshua Sohn said he doubts the Canadian government will consider revoking dual citizenship. About 90 countries allow it, and the number of Canadian passport holders who are citizens of two other countries tripled between 1991 and 2001, according to Statistics Canada.
[. . .]
Read all of Petti Fong's article
See also:
Ottawa plans dual citizenship review. Lebanon evacuations cost Canadian taxpayers dearly
India promotes dual loyalties; Toronto Star, surprise, thinks this is wonderful
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrants multiculturalism dual citizenship nation nationalism patriotism national identity globalization World migration migrants lawyers Globe and Mail
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
New Edmonton Islamic school has corporate support
From the Edmonton Journal (New Islamic school open in Edmonton, October 14):
The $23-million Edmonton Islamic Academy is up and running after years of fundraising and construction.
At 12,500 square metres and with capacity for 1,000 students, it is billed as the largest stand-alone Muslim academic school in North America
[. . .]
Local Muslim families and corporate donors -- including Atco Group, The Brick, Triple Five Corp. and Dairy Queen -- have donated $10 million towards the project, fundraising chairman Sine Chadi said. A similar amount remains to be raised.
[. . .]
Read all of the Edmonton Journal article
See also:
Edmonton Islamic Academy website
Saudis funding Muslim institutions in Canada
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Alberta Edmonton immigration immigrants multiculturalism religion religious Islam Islamic Muslims school education
The $23-million Edmonton Islamic Academy is up and running after years of fundraising and construction.
At 12,500 square metres and with capacity for 1,000 students, it is billed as the largest stand-alone Muslim academic school in North America
[. . .]
Local Muslim families and corporate donors -- including Atco Group, The Brick, Triple Five Corp. and Dairy Queen -- have donated $10 million towards the project, fundraising chairman Sine Chadi said. A similar amount remains to be raised.
[. . .]
Read all of the Edmonton Journal article
See also:
Edmonton Islamic Academy website
Saudis funding Muslim institutions in Canada
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Alberta Edmonton immigration immigrants multiculturalism religion religious Islam Islamic Muslims school education
India poised to become Canada's top source of immigrants. Is this what Canadians want?
From the National Post (India poised to overtake China as top source of immigrants by Peter O'Neill, October 18):
Canada's racial face is about to change as immigration from China slides while newcomers from India increase, internal documents obtained by Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland suggest.
"Everybody thinks China is going to be a top source country every year in the years to come," Mr. Kurland said yesterday. "The data is showing the trend is already reversed. The supertanker has turned away from our shore."
He said the change has been triggered by increased economic opportunity in booming China, frustration over long waiting times in the backlogged system facing Chinese in recent years, and fallout from the change in the points system in 2002 that gave French- and English-language speakers easier access to Canada.
China remains by far the largest source country with 44,075 permanent residents coming from that country in 2005, compared with 33,146 from second-place India.
The Philippines was a distant third at 17,525.
But Mr. Kurland said a change is in the offing, citing internal Citizenship and Immigration Canada documents he obtained through the Access to Information Act.
[. . .]
Read all of Peter O'Neill's article.
What are the social implications of this radical shift in Canada's demography? Is mass immigration from India really a good thing? Will Indian immigrants and their descendants assimilate or will they form a permanent racial minority with its own set of interests and grievances? Given that Canada has a policy of multiculturalism that discourages assimilation and that India has been promoting dual loyalties in what it calls the diaspora, assimilation doesn't seem likely. Canada is well on the road to racial balkanization.
See also:
The Canadian Government Is Electing a New People
Indian women who've been abandoned by their Indo-Canadian husbands
Indo-Canadians demand apology for the Komagata Maru incident
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrants multiculturalism Indo-Canadians Indian diaspora India China National Post lawyers
Canada's racial face is about to change as immigration from China slides while newcomers from India increase, internal documents obtained by Vancouver immigration lawyer Richard Kurland suggest.
"Everybody thinks China is going to be a top source country every year in the years to come," Mr. Kurland said yesterday. "The data is showing the trend is already reversed. The supertanker has turned away from our shore."
He said the change has been triggered by increased economic opportunity in booming China, frustration over long waiting times in the backlogged system facing Chinese in recent years, and fallout from the change in the points system in 2002 that gave French- and English-language speakers easier access to Canada.
China remains by far the largest source country with 44,075 permanent residents coming from that country in 2005, compared with 33,146 from second-place India.
The Philippines was a distant third at 17,525.
But Mr. Kurland said a change is in the offing, citing internal Citizenship and Immigration Canada documents he obtained through the Access to Information Act.
[. . .]
Read all of Peter O'Neill's article.
What are the social implications of this radical shift in Canada's demography? Is mass immigration from India really a good thing? Will Indian immigrants and their descendants assimilate or will they form a permanent racial minority with its own set of interests and grievances? Given that Canada has a policy of multiculturalism that discourages assimilation and that India has been promoting dual loyalties in what it calls the diaspora, assimilation doesn't seem likely. Canada is well on the road to racial balkanization.
See also:
The Canadian Government Is Electing a New People
Indian women who've been abandoned by their Indo-Canadian husbands
Indo-Canadians demand apology for the Komagata Maru incident
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrants multiculturalism Indo-Canadians Indian diaspora India China National Post lawyers
Social worker smuggled guns - woman linked to Malvern Crew street gang
From the Toronto Sun (Jekyll and Hyde counsellor by Sam Pazzano, October 18):
A beautiful "Jekyll and Hyde" social worker who counselled drug-addicted teens and then took drugs and conspired to import an arsenal of firearms deserves 10 years of prison, a Superior Court heard yesterday.
Crown attorney Nevina Crisante described Sara Villella as a "merchant of death" involved in a gun-smuggling outfit linked to the violent Scarborough street gang, the Malvern Crew, in March 2004.
[. . .]
Villella, her ex-boyfriend and John Butcher, formerly known as Rockin' Johnie B., were busted with 23 guns at the Windsor-Detroit border in March 2004.
Villella was convicted by Trafford in July of 13 weapons charges, including conspiracy and importing prohibited firearms and pot possession.
[. . .]
Read all of Sam Pazzano's article.
See also:
Toronto Star article paints a frightening picture of gang life in this city
Gang shootout at Regent Park
Jamestown Crew: Christian Science Monitor reports on Toronto's gang crackdown
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto Scarborough Windsor Detroit crime gun guns smuggling street gangs gang Malvern Crew US border
A beautiful "Jekyll and Hyde" social worker who counselled drug-addicted teens and then took drugs and conspired to import an arsenal of firearms deserves 10 years of prison, a Superior Court heard yesterday.
Crown attorney Nevina Crisante described Sara Villella as a "merchant of death" involved in a gun-smuggling outfit linked to the violent Scarborough street gang, the Malvern Crew, in March 2004.
[. . .]
Villella, her ex-boyfriend and John Butcher, formerly known as Rockin' Johnie B., were busted with 23 guns at the Windsor-Detroit border in March 2004.
Villella was convicted by Trafford in July of 13 weapons charges, including conspiracy and importing prohibited firearms and pot possession.
[. . .]
Read all of Sam Pazzano's article.
See also:
Toronto Star article paints a frightening picture of gang life in this city
Gang shootout at Regent Park
Jamestown Crew: Christian Science Monitor reports on Toronto's gang crackdown
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto Scarborough Windsor Detroit crime gun guns smuggling street gangs gang Malvern Crew US border
Province won't raise mininum wage
From Canadian Press via the Toronto Star ($10 minimum wage ruled out, October 17):
Ontario can't afford to raise the minimum wage to $10, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara said today as more than 100 people rallied outside the legislature demanding the government help those living in poverty.
The Ontario Coalition for Social Justice — made up of labour unions and anti-poverty groups — rallied on the front lawn of the legislature to demand that the government raise the minimum wage from $7.75 to $10 and increase social assistance by 46 per cent.
The NDP introduced a private members' bill today to boost the minimum wage to $10, but Sorbara said it's a non-starter. Increasing the minimum wage by such a significant amount would kill jobs and increase poverty even more because small businesses would not be able to afford it, he said.
"If you were to raise the minimum wage by that large a leap, the net result in this economy would probably be significant job loss," he said. "Those who were earning a lower minimum wage would have no wage at all."
[. . .]
Read the whole article.
Raising the mininum wage doesn't help the working poor if employers have the option of hiring illegal immigrants willing to work for less.
See also:
Civic leader says working poor a "smouldering crisis"
Princeton sociologist: "Toronto is becoming increasingly segregated along racial and economic lines"
Doug Saunders says Canada needs a million poor Africans
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Queen's Park provincial government Greg Sorbara minimum wage working poor poverty immigration illegal immigrants
Ontario can't afford to raise the minimum wage to $10, Finance Minister Greg Sorbara said today as more than 100 people rallied outside the legislature demanding the government help those living in poverty.
The Ontario Coalition for Social Justice — made up of labour unions and anti-poverty groups — rallied on the front lawn of the legislature to demand that the government raise the minimum wage from $7.75 to $10 and increase social assistance by 46 per cent.
The NDP introduced a private members' bill today to boost the minimum wage to $10, but Sorbara said it's a non-starter. Increasing the minimum wage by such a significant amount would kill jobs and increase poverty even more because small businesses would not be able to afford it, he said.
"If you were to raise the minimum wage by that large a leap, the net result in this economy would probably be significant job loss," he said. "Those who were earning a lower minimum wage would have no wage at all."
[. . .]
Read the whole article.
Raising the mininum wage doesn't help the working poor if employers have the option of hiring illegal immigrants willing to work for less.
See also:
Civic leader says working poor a "smouldering crisis"
Princeton sociologist: "Toronto is becoming increasingly segregated along racial and economic lines"
Doug Saunders says Canada needs a million poor Africans
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Queen's Park provincial government Greg Sorbara minimum wage working poor poverty immigration illegal immigrants
Mississauga candidate charged with impersonating a police officer and intimidation - Man edits Urdu newspaper
From the Toronto Star (Council candidate charged by Sam Grewal, October 18):
A Mississauga City Council candidate has been charged with impersonating a police officer and intimidation after a rival candidate alleged he tried to force her and other candidates out of the race.
Ishrat Nasim, a candidate in Ward 10, claims Adnan Hashmi, 32, went to her Mississauga residence Sunday afternoon in an attempt to get Nasim's landlady to say she doesn't actually live there and is therefore ineligible to run.
Hashmi, editor of the Urdu-language Sunday Times newspaper, denies the allegations. "It's all lies," he told the Toronto Star.
There are 23 candidates running in the newly created ward for the Nov. 13 municipal election. But it's the back story of possible dirty tactics used by one Pakistani-Canadian candidate against others of similar backgrounds that has turned the race into a police investigation.
[. . .]
"Some of the people who come here to Canada from Pakistan try to play the same games," says freelance journalist Javed Zaheer, who knows all the parties involved in the story. "This is what they know. They try to suppress the other candidates, to pressure them to sit out of the race or dig up some dirt."
[. . .]
Read all of Sam Grewal's article
See also:
Disillusionment on the campaign trail: "I can't talk to anybody. None of them speak English."
Politics in Brampton, Ontario: "non-ethnics" need not apply
90 percent of pupils in Mississauga school come from non-English-speaking homes
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto Mississauga Peel region police municipal city election elections immigration multiculturalism Adnan Hashmi Pakistani-Canadian Pakistani-Canadians
A Mississauga City Council candidate has been charged with impersonating a police officer and intimidation after a rival candidate alleged he tried to force her and other candidates out of the race.
Ishrat Nasim, a candidate in Ward 10, claims Adnan Hashmi, 32, went to her Mississauga residence Sunday afternoon in an attempt to get Nasim's landlady to say she doesn't actually live there and is therefore ineligible to run.
Hashmi, editor of the Urdu-language Sunday Times newspaper, denies the allegations. "It's all lies," he told the Toronto Star.
There are 23 candidates running in the newly created ward for the Nov. 13 municipal election. But it's the back story of possible dirty tactics used by one Pakistani-Canadian candidate against others of similar backgrounds that has turned the race into a police investigation.
[. . .]
"Some of the people who come here to Canada from Pakistan try to play the same games," says freelance journalist Javed Zaheer, who knows all the parties involved in the story. "This is what they know. They try to suppress the other candidates, to pressure them to sit out of the race or dig up some dirt."
[. . .]
Read all of Sam Grewal's article
See also:
Disillusionment on the campaign trail: "I can't talk to anybody. None of them speak English."
Politics in Brampton, Ontario: "non-ethnics" need not apply
90 percent of pupils in Mississauga school come from non-English-speaking homes
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto Mississauga Peel region police municipal city election elections immigration multiculturalism Adnan Hashmi Pakistani-Canadian Pakistani-Canadians
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Liberal leadership race: why all this fuss over a foreign country?
The average Canadian voter has more immediate concerns than Israel. Why then do federal politicians seem obsessed with the country? I have nothing against Israel. On the contrary, I sympathize with the difficult position it finds itself in. However, I'm not an Israeli citizen and I don't understand why some of my fellow Canadians act as if they are. Is it really too much to ask that they put Canada first?
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ottawa federal politics Liberal leadership race foreign policy Israel Michael Ignatieff
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ottawa federal politics Liberal leadership race foreign policy Israel Michael Ignatieff
How many protestors at Caledonia last Sunday?
Most media reports said there were only a couple of hundred people at last Sunday's protest march in Caledonia. The Voice of Canada blog says it was more. They have pictures. Judge for yourself. According to the blog, CityPulse 24 estimated the crowd at over 1,000. After looking at the pictures, I'd say that number looks about right.
Technorati tags: Canada Ontario Caledonia Six Nations aboriginal land claim dispute
Technorati tags: Canada Ontario Caledonia Six Nations aboriginal land claim dispute
Will Kymlicka, Canada's world-renowned "expert" on multiculturalism, suggests replacing Easter with Ramadan
Yesterday, I blogged about Will Kymlicka who is widely recognized as a leading authority on multiculturalism and minority rights. For Kymlicka, multiculturalism is all about fairness and equity, though some might quarrel with his interpretation of those concepts. Below is another excerpt from his book Finding Our Way - Rethinking Ethnocultural Relations in Canada (ISBN 0-19-541314-8). On page 48, he writes:
Of course, the requirements of fairness are not always easy to identify. Consider the issue of religious holy days. It seems unfair that Christian holy days are recognized as public holidays, while those of other religions are not. But what is the fair remedy for this problem? It is not feasible to treat all religious holidays as public holidays - there are simply too many of them. Should we instead drop one of the Christian holidays (Easter, say) from the list of public holidays, and instead recognize one important holiday from each of the other two largest religions - say, Yom Kippur and Ramadan? I think there is much to be said for such a solution. It would not only reduce the burdens felt by two particular groups, and redistribute these burdens in a more equitable way, but also provide an important symbolic recognition that like Christianity, Judaism and Islam are 'Canadian' religions. Such a change might encourage all Canadians to learn something about the beliefs and practices of other religious groups.
Oh great teacher, oh wise one, teach yourself! Ramadan isn't a holiday. It's a lunar month in which Muslims fast. Unbelievable. How does a man who makes his living teaching others about multiculturalism get something so basic wrong? How much real-world experience with cultural differences does this man have? Reading his books, I'm left with the impression that Kymlicka has spent a lot more time theorizing about ethnicity and culture than he has living in a multicultural environment.
Kymlicka says "the requirements of fairness are not always easy to identify." Nonsense. In this case, the requirements of fairness are obvious. Canada was founded by Christians. The overwhelming majority of Canadians have a Christian background even if they no longer go to church. Fairness demands that immigrants understand that Canada is a historically Christian society and therefore, Christian holidays are recognized in a way that the holidays of other religions aren't.
Leaving aside the glaring mistake of identifying Ramadan as a holiday, Kymlicka's solution leaves out a lot of other religious groups: Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, Satanists, to name a few. What about the poor atheist who despises all religion? How would recognizing Muslim and Jewish holidays be fair to him? Where do the followers of Santeria fit in? Should the Prime Minister periodically sacrifice a chicken to honour their contribution to the cultural mosaic? If it's wrong to give preference to the holidays of Canada's Christian majority, why wouldn't it be equally wrong to grant Muslims and Jews recognition denied to other groups? How would giving three groups special recognition be more just than giving it to only one group? Either way a lot of groups are left unrecognized. My preferred solution would be to make every day a religious holiday. That way none of us would ever have to work again.
And I wouldn't worry about Canadians not having the chance to learn "about the beliefs and practices of other religious groups." Newspapers are filled with treacly articles about those traditions. Maybe if Kymlicka took the time to pick up a newspaper now and then, he would know that Ramadan is a month not a holiday. I wish the media would spend half as much time talking about the meaning of Easter as it does about Diwali.
See also:
Anthony Giddens on Will Kymlicka and Canadian multiculturalism
The War Against the Nation-State
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian multiculturalism cultural diversity religion Christianity Islam Easter Ramadan Will Kymlicka
Of course, the requirements of fairness are not always easy to identify. Consider the issue of religious holy days. It seems unfair that Christian holy days are recognized as public holidays, while those of other religions are not. But what is the fair remedy for this problem? It is not feasible to treat all religious holidays as public holidays - there are simply too many of them. Should we instead drop one of the Christian holidays (Easter, say) from the list of public holidays, and instead recognize one important holiday from each of the other two largest religions - say, Yom Kippur and Ramadan? I think there is much to be said for such a solution. It would not only reduce the burdens felt by two particular groups, and redistribute these burdens in a more equitable way, but also provide an important symbolic recognition that like Christianity, Judaism and Islam are 'Canadian' religions. Such a change might encourage all Canadians to learn something about the beliefs and practices of other religious groups.
Oh great teacher, oh wise one, teach yourself! Ramadan isn't a holiday. It's a lunar month in which Muslims fast. Unbelievable. How does a man who makes his living teaching others about multiculturalism get something so basic wrong? How much real-world experience with cultural differences does this man have? Reading his books, I'm left with the impression that Kymlicka has spent a lot more time theorizing about ethnicity and culture than he has living in a multicultural environment.
Kymlicka says "the requirements of fairness are not always easy to identify." Nonsense. In this case, the requirements of fairness are obvious. Canada was founded by Christians. The overwhelming majority of Canadians have a Christian background even if they no longer go to church. Fairness demands that immigrants understand that Canada is a historically Christian society and therefore, Christian holidays are recognized in a way that the holidays of other religions aren't.
Leaving aside the glaring mistake of identifying Ramadan as a holiday, Kymlicka's solution leaves out a lot of other religious groups: Buddhists, Hindus, Wiccans, Satanists, to name a few. What about the poor atheist who despises all religion? How would recognizing Muslim and Jewish holidays be fair to him? Where do the followers of Santeria fit in? Should the Prime Minister periodically sacrifice a chicken to honour their contribution to the cultural mosaic? If it's wrong to give preference to the holidays of Canada's Christian majority, why wouldn't it be equally wrong to grant Muslims and Jews recognition denied to other groups? How would giving three groups special recognition be more just than giving it to only one group? Either way a lot of groups are left unrecognized. My preferred solution would be to make every day a religious holiday. That way none of us would ever have to work again.
And I wouldn't worry about Canadians not having the chance to learn "about the beliefs and practices of other religious groups." Newspapers are filled with treacly articles about those traditions. Maybe if Kymlicka took the time to pick up a newspaper now and then, he would know that Ramadan is a month not a holiday. I wish the media would spend half as much time talking about the meaning of Easter as it does about Diwali.
See also:
Anthony Giddens on Will Kymlicka and Canadian multiculturalism
The War Against the Nation-State
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian multiculturalism cultural diversity religion Christianity Islam Easter Ramadan Will Kymlicka
Judge rules Mahmoud Jaballah can't be deported to Egypt despite evidence he was involved in 1998 US embassy bombings
From the Globe and Mail (Torture fears stop deportation of suspect by Colin Freeze, October 16):
Mahmoud Jaballah may well be a terrorist who had a behind-the-scenes “communications relay” role during al-Qaeda's deadly U.S. embassy bombings in Africa. Even so, the Egyptian can't be deported from Canada to his homeland, since he would almost certainly be tortured there.
That was the ruling Federal Court Judge Andrew MacKay released Monday as he tried to settle the question of whether Canada can send terrorists back to the torture states from which they fled.
Although the quandary has been befuddling Canadian judges for many years, the latest decision was stark and unequivocal: The Immigration Minister “may not exercise the discretion to remove Mr. Jaballah to any country where and when there is a substantial risk of torture,” Judge MacKay ruled.
[. . .]
Read all of Colin Freeze's article.
See also:
If Ottawa can't remove an al-Qaeda suspect linked by CSIS to two major terrorist bombings who can it deport?
Human rights extremists threaten Canada's national security
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrant immigrants refugee refugees human rights law torture deportation terrorism terrorist terrorists US embassy bombings Tanzania Kenya Al Qaeda War on Terror
Mahmoud Jaballah may well be a terrorist who had a behind-the-scenes “communications relay” role during al-Qaeda's deadly U.S. embassy bombings in Africa. Even so, the Egyptian can't be deported from Canada to his homeland, since he would almost certainly be tortured there.
That was the ruling Federal Court Judge Andrew MacKay released Monday as he tried to settle the question of whether Canada can send terrorists back to the torture states from which they fled.
Although the quandary has been befuddling Canadian judges for many years, the latest decision was stark and unequivocal: The Immigration Minister “may not exercise the discretion to remove Mr. Jaballah to any country where and when there is a substantial risk of torture,” Judge MacKay ruled.
[. . .]
Read all of Colin Freeze's article.
See also:
If Ottawa can't remove an al-Qaeda suspect linked by CSIS to two major terrorist bombings who can it deport?
Human rights extremists threaten Canada's national security
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration immigrant immigrants refugee refugees human rights law torture deportation terrorism terrorist terrorists US embassy bombings Tanzania Kenya Al Qaeda War on Terror
Monday, October 16, 2006
Anthony Giddens on Will Kymlicka and Canadian multiculturalism
Anthony Giddens writes on the Guardian's Comment is free blog:
Multiculturalism simply does not mean what most of its critics think. The original home of multiculturalism is Canada. Canadian philosophers and policy-makers have done most to define and elaborate the concept, since Canada is quintessentially an immigrant society. There, multiculturalism does not mean, and has never meant, different cultural and ethnic groups being left alone to get on with whatever activities they choose. It actually means the opposite. Policy-making in Canada stresses active dialogue between cultural groups, active attempts at creating community cohesion, and the acceptance of overarching Canadian identity. As a leading Canadian writer, Will Kymlicka, puts it, multiculturalism in Canada "encourages the members of different immigrant groups to interact, to share their cultural heritage, and to participate in common educational, economic, political and legal institutions".
Read all of Giddens' article.
Here we have so much nonsense compacted into a single paragraph it's hard to know where to start.
Maybe I can begin by noting that I'm not sure what Giddens means when he describes Canada as "quintessentially an immigrant society." If he's saying immigration has played an important role in our history, I wouldn't disagree, though I would point out that until the 1960s almost all immigrants were Europeans. The recent flood of non-white immigrants is a radical departure from traditional immigration policy.
On the other hand, if Giddens is repeating the hoary myth of Canada being a "nation of immigrants," I strenuously disagree. As I've pointed out before, the British settlers who created Canada were not immigrants. An immigrant is someone who moves from one country to another. Pioneers who carve a new society out of the wilderness are not immigrants. Calling them that distorts Canadian history and demeans their achievement.
I'm familiar with Will Kymlicka's work. In fact, on my desk beside my computer along with my Maple Leafs hockey flag is a copy of his book Finding Our Way - Rethinking Ethnocultural Relations in Canada (ISBN 0-19-541314-8).
Kymlicka presents an idealistic view of multiculturalism that bears little resemblance to reality. He presents it as a policy intended to make it easier for immigrants to integrate. He argues that if public institutions make accommodations for foreign customs such as wearing a turban, immigrants will be more likely to participate in those institutions. Conversely, not making those accommodations will encourage the very marginalization that critics accuse multiculturalism of promoting. From Kymlicka's point of view, the critics have it backwards: multiculturalism promotes integration, rejecting multiculturalism promotes marginalization.
I don't see much integration in my Toronto neighbourhood. How can there be integration when people don't speak the same language? If immigrants are so well-integrated why is their voter turnout so low? Why are these supposedly loyal immigrants flying foreign flags during the soccer World Cup? If multiculturalism promotes an "overarching Canadian identity" why is one of the biggest events in my neighbourhood Portugal Day while Canada Day passes by virtually unnoticed? This year the people in my community celebrated our national holiday by driving recklessly up and down the street waving the Portuguese flag.
And it's not just the Portuguese in my neighbourhood. If multiculturalism is doing such a wonderful job of encouraging immigrants to think of themselves as Canadians, why are Somali-Canadians returning to Africa to fight for Islamic extremist groups? Why are rival Somali and Jamaican girl gangs rioting in the schools? Why are 14-year-old girls packing heat? Why are Serb and Croatian soccer fans fighting in the stands?
Of course, Kymlicka categorically rejects the notion that we shouldn't be allowing people with radically different customs from coming here in the first place. On page 57, he writes:
Having an explicit multiculturalism policy not only provides a framework within which these issues can be debated: it also has an important symbolic value, particularly in countries like Canada that have had a history of racial or ethnocentric bias in the selection of immigrants (which is to say, in virtually all countries). Adopting multiculturalism is a way for Canadians to say that never again will we view Canada as a 'white' country (and hence deny entry to Asians or Africans, as both Canada and Australia did earlier this century); never again will we view Canada as a 'British' country (and hence compel non-British immigrants to relinquish or hide their ethnic identity, as both Canada and Australia used to do). It is a way for Canadians to explicitly denounce these historical practices and to renounce forever the option of returning to them.
Instead, we have recognized and affirmed the fact that Canada is a multiracial, polyethnic country, in which full citizenship does not depend on how close one's ethnic descent or cultural lifestyle is to that of the historically dominant group. This may seem of merely symbolic value, but the symbolism is very important, and is genuinely appreciated by those immigrant groups that historically have been the object of racial exclusion and cultural oppression.
The first thing to note here is that multiculturalism was imposed on Canadians by the political elite. We never had a referendum on this revolutionary change to our official national identity. All three major parties embraced the policy right away and consequently, Canadians have never been presented with the option of rejecting it. On the contrary, the elite has used its power to denounce anyone who dissents from the new multicultural orthodoxy. To talk about multiculturalism as if it reflects the will of Canadians is at best an oversimplification, at worst, a gross distortion. The political, corporate and media elite all seem to agree that multiculturalism is a good idea. The ordinary citizen who might have reservations is easily silenced by these powerful forces.
Second, Kymlicka doesn't tell us what is wrong with defining Canada as a British or a white country. He simply assumes Canadians share his belief that a multiracial, polyethnic society is a good thing. Canada is a sovereign country. It has the right to control its borders. Canadians have a right to decide who they will allow to join their society. A white-majority society has every right to preserve its European culture and identity. Once we make the decision to allow an outsider to live among us, we have an obligation to treat that person with the same dignity we accord other legal residents, but we have no obligation to allow foreigners from any particular region to move here in the first place. Canada has a right to say we will prefer European immigrants over Asians and Africans. We also have a right to say we don't want any immigration at all.
I, for one, don't share Kymlicka's Pollyannish view of multiculturalism. I look at the racial tension in Toronto and I see a disaster in the making. How can I support multiracial immigration when that immigration has given us violent black gangs and when I see a white high school student like Andrew Stewart brutally murdered by a brown-skinned mob? It's hard to be upbeat about multiracial immigration when a white girl is sexually abused by black students at a Catholic high school or when there's evidence some schools are virtually controlled by gangs. And it's not just whites who are suffering. What about Jomar Lanot a Filipino boy who was beaten to death by Indo-Canadians in Vancouver?
This is some multiracial paradise Will Kymlicka and his ilk have constructed.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto Britain UK England immigration multiculturalism Will Kymlicka Anthony Giddens
Multiculturalism simply does not mean what most of its critics think. The original home of multiculturalism is Canada. Canadian philosophers and policy-makers have done most to define and elaborate the concept, since Canada is quintessentially an immigrant society. There, multiculturalism does not mean, and has never meant, different cultural and ethnic groups being left alone to get on with whatever activities they choose. It actually means the opposite. Policy-making in Canada stresses active dialogue between cultural groups, active attempts at creating community cohesion, and the acceptance of overarching Canadian identity. As a leading Canadian writer, Will Kymlicka, puts it, multiculturalism in Canada "encourages the members of different immigrant groups to interact, to share their cultural heritage, and to participate in common educational, economic, political and legal institutions".
Read all of Giddens' article.
Here we have so much nonsense compacted into a single paragraph it's hard to know where to start.
Maybe I can begin by noting that I'm not sure what Giddens means when he describes Canada as "quintessentially an immigrant society." If he's saying immigration has played an important role in our history, I wouldn't disagree, though I would point out that until the 1960s almost all immigrants were Europeans. The recent flood of non-white immigrants is a radical departure from traditional immigration policy.
On the other hand, if Giddens is repeating the hoary myth of Canada being a "nation of immigrants," I strenuously disagree. As I've pointed out before, the British settlers who created Canada were not immigrants. An immigrant is someone who moves from one country to another. Pioneers who carve a new society out of the wilderness are not immigrants. Calling them that distorts Canadian history and demeans their achievement.
I'm familiar with Will Kymlicka's work. In fact, on my desk beside my computer along with my Maple Leafs hockey flag is a copy of his book Finding Our Way - Rethinking Ethnocultural Relations in Canada (ISBN 0-19-541314-8).
Kymlicka presents an idealistic view of multiculturalism that bears little resemblance to reality. He presents it as a policy intended to make it easier for immigrants to integrate. He argues that if public institutions make accommodations for foreign customs such as wearing a turban, immigrants will be more likely to participate in those institutions. Conversely, not making those accommodations will encourage the very marginalization that critics accuse multiculturalism of promoting. From Kymlicka's point of view, the critics have it backwards: multiculturalism promotes integration, rejecting multiculturalism promotes marginalization.
I don't see much integration in my Toronto neighbourhood. How can there be integration when people don't speak the same language? If immigrants are so well-integrated why is their voter turnout so low? Why are these supposedly loyal immigrants flying foreign flags during the soccer World Cup? If multiculturalism promotes an "overarching Canadian identity" why is one of the biggest events in my neighbourhood Portugal Day while Canada Day passes by virtually unnoticed? This year the people in my community celebrated our national holiday by driving recklessly up and down the street waving the Portuguese flag.
And it's not just the Portuguese in my neighbourhood. If multiculturalism is doing such a wonderful job of encouraging immigrants to think of themselves as Canadians, why are Somali-Canadians returning to Africa to fight for Islamic extremist groups? Why are rival Somali and Jamaican girl gangs rioting in the schools? Why are 14-year-old girls packing heat? Why are Serb and Croatian soccer fans fighting in the stands?
Of course, Kymlicka categorically rejects the notion that we shouldn't be allowing people with radically different customs from coming here in the first place. On page 57, he writes:
Having an explicit multiculturalism policy not only provides a framework within which these issues can be debated: it also has an important symbolic value, particularly in countries like Canada that have had a history of racial or ethnocentric bias in the selection of immigrants (which is to say, in virtually all countries). Adopting multiculturalism is a way for Canadians to say that never again will we view Canada as a 'white' country (and hence deny entry to Asians or Africans, as both Canada and Australia did earlier this century); never again will we view Canada as a 'British' country (and hence compel non-British immigrants to relinquish or hide their ethnic identity, as both Canada and Australia used to do). It is a way for Canadians to explicitly denounce these historical practices and to renounce forever the option of returning to them.
Instead, we have recognized and affirmed the fact that Canada is a multiracial, polyethnic country, in which full citizenship does not depend on how close one's ethnic descent or cultural lifestyle is to that of the historically dominant group. This may seem of merely symbolic value, but the symbolism is very important, and is genuinely appreciated by those immigrant groups that historically have been the object of racial exclusion and cultural oppression.
The first thing to note here is that multiculturalism was imposed on Canadians by the political elite. We never had a referendum on this revolutionary change to our official national identity. All three major parties embraced the policy right away and consequently, Canadians have never been presented with the option of rejecting it. On the contrary, the elite has used its power to denounce anyone who dissents from the new multicultural orthodoxy. To talk about multiculturalism as if it reflects the will of Canadians is at best an oversimplification, at worst, a gross distortion. The political, corporate and media elite all seem to agree that multiculturalism is a good idea. The ordinary citizen who might have reservations is easily silenced by these powerful forces.
Second, Kymlicka doesn't tell us what is wrong with defining Canada as a British or a white country. He simply assumes Canadians share his belief that a multiracial, polyethnic society is a good thing. Canada is a sovereign country. It has the right to control its borders. Canadians have a right to decide who they will allow to join their society. A white-majority society has every right to preserve its European culture and identity. Once we make the decision to allow an outsider to live among us, we have an obligation to treat that person with the same dignity we accord other legal residents, but we have no obligation to allow foreigners from any particular region to move here in the first place. Canada has a right to say we will prefer European immigrants over Asians and Africans. We also have a right to say we don't want any immigration at all.
I, for one, don't share Kymlicka's Pollyannish view of multiculturalism. I look at the racial tension in Toronto and I see a disaster in the making. How can I support multiracial immigration when that immigration has given us violent black gangs and when I see a white high school student like Andrew Stewart brutally murdered by a brown-skinned mob? It's hard to be upbeat about multiracial immigration when a white girl is sexually abused by black students at a Catholic high school or when there's evidence some schools are virtually controlled by gangs. And it's not just whites who are suffering. What about Jomar Lanot a Filipino boy who was beaten to death by Indo-Canadians in Vancouver?
This is some multiracial paradise Will Kymlicka and his ilk have constructed.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto Britain UK England immigration multiculturalism Will Kymlicka Anthony Giddens
Disillusionment on the campaign trail: "I can't talk to anybody. None of them speak English."
From the Toronto Star (Translating a campaign into votes by Jim Byers, October 16):
Anxious to play a role in local democracy, a young woman volunteered to help Toronto city council candidate Alejandra Bravo by contacting a group of residents. It was supposed to be a fun and rewarding experience, but the volunteer instead came back to Bravo close to tears.
"It was very disheartening. She went through a list of voters and called them but she came back to me and said, `I can't talk to anybody. None of them speak English.' "
Welcome to the GTA, where candidates for local office face enormous challenges to make themselves understood to a huge variety of ethnic groups. Toronto's remarkable multiculturalism is a blessing, but it's a decided challenge for anyone seeking public office, particularly in areas heavily populated with new immigrants.
[. . .]
Politics is all about making personal connections, and that's hard when you don't speak the same language as would-be voters, said Hratch Aynedjian, who's running for a council seat in Ward 41, Scarborough-Rouge River.
"Almost 50 per cent of my ward is Chinese-speaking," he said. "We have five Chinese candidates running in the ward, but they'll have difficulties, too. We have people here who are Tamil, Urdu, Punjabi, as well as Palestinian and Egyptian."
[. . .]
Toronto Councillor Adam Giambrone (Ward 18, Davenport) said 35 per cent of his ward speaks Portuguese. His office operates in English and French and also has two Portuguese speakers. "We have people who can make calls in 11 languages. I recently had a couple of people volunteer who are from Bangladesh and Turkey. I'll have them go through the list of voters and tag any names that might be Turkish, for example. We'll start talking to them in English, then switch to Turkish if we have to."
[. . .]
Read all of Jim Byers' article.
Many years ago I belonged to the NDP. My duties as a party member included election canvassing in Davenport. Like the young woman in the Star story, I was frustrated by the fact that so many voters didn't speak English. How can you have real democracy when there is no common language? How can citizens communicate with each other when one speaks Cantonese, another Portuguese, another Turkish, etc? This lack of a common language doesn't just undermine democracy. It also makes it impossible to have any sense of community. Language is a quality of life issue. Human beings are social creatures. People need community. By swamping neighbourhoods with newcomers who don't speak English, immigration policy destroys local communities. To add insult to injury, when a Canadian tries to express the sense of loss that comes from having his neighbourhood flooded with immigrants, the politicians who are supposed to represent him turn around and tell him he's a racist. Somewhere along the line, something went terribly wrong in Canadian politics. The immigration system we have today is cruel and barbaric. It is designed to serve the needs of the Liberal Party at the expense of the Canadian people. Unfortunately, Stephen Harper's Conservatives are just as bad. Harper still hasn't figured out that immigrants don't vote Conservative.
See also:
Local immigrants less likely to vote in municipal election
Language chaos in Peel Region courts: 4,000-5,000 court cases alone requiring Punjabi translation
Immigration, language and local democracy
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto local municipal city election elections immigration immigrants multiculturalism cultural diversity language English
Anxious to play a role in local democracy, a young woman volunteered to help Toronto city council candidate Alejandra Bravo by contacting a group of residents. It was supposed to be a fun and rewarding experience, but the volunteer instead came back to Bravo close to tears.
"It was very disheartening. She went through a list of voters and called them but she came back to me and said, `I can't talk to anybody. None of them speak English.' "
Welcome to the GTA, where candidates for local office face enormous challenges to make themselves understood to a huge variety of ethnic groups. Toronto's remarkable multiculturalism is a blessing, but it's a decided challenge for anyone seeking public office, particularly in areas heavily populated with new immigrants.
[. . .]
Politics is all about making personal connections, and that's hard when you don't speak the same language as would-be voters, said Hratch Aynedjian, who's running for a council seat in Ward 41, Scarborough-Rouge River.
"Almost 50 per cent of my ward is Chinese-speaking," he said. "We have five Chinese candidates running in the ward, but they'll have difficulties, too. We have people here who are Tamil, Urdu, Punjabi, as well as Palestinian and Egyptian."
[. . .]
Toronto Councillor Adam Giambrone (Ward 18, Davenport) said 35 per cent of his ward speaks Portuguese. His office operates in English and French and also has two Portuguese speakers. "We have people who can make calls in 11 languages. I recently had a couple of people volunteer who are from Bangladesh and Turkey. I'll have them go through the list of voters and tag any names that might be Turkish, for example. We'll start talking to them in English, then switch to Turkish if we have to."
[. . .]
Read all of Jim Byers' article.
Many years ago I belonged to the NDP. My duties as a party member included election canvassing in Davenport. Like the young woman in the Star story, I was frustrated by the fact that so many voters didn't speak English. How can you have real democracy when there is no common language? How can citizens communicate with each other when one speaks Cantonese, another Portuguese, another Turkish, etc? This lack of a common language doesn't just undermine democracy. It also makes it impossible to have any sense of community. Language is a quality of life issue. Human beings are social creatures. People need community. By swamping neighbourhoods with newcomers who don't speak English, immigration policy destroys local communities. To add insult to injury, when a Canadian tries to express the sense of loss that comes from having his neighbourhood flooded with immigrants, the politicians who are supposed to represent him turn around and tell him he's a racist. Somewhere along the line, something went terribly wrong in Canadian politics. The immigration system we have today is cruel and barbaric. It is designed to serve the needs of the Liberal Party at the expense of the Canadian people. Unfortunately, Stephen Harper's Conservatives are just as bad. Harper still hasn't figured out that immigrants don't vote Conservative.
See also:
Local immigrants less likely to vote in municipal election
Language chaos in Peel Region courts: 4,000-5,000 court cases alone requiring Punjabi translation
Immigration, language and local democracy
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto local municipal city election elections immigration immigrants multiculturalism cultural diversity language English
Stephen Harper - world statesman
From the website of the Prime Minister of Canada:
All too often, family pets such as dogs and cats find themselves in shelters as a result of being abandoned or rescued.
The Harpers are proud to support and participate in the Ottawa Humane Society’s Foster Program, which provides temporary homes for pets in the community who are not yet ready for adoption.
The program fosters out animals with mild health or behaviour issues who need individual care and nurturing to help them recover before they are adopted by new, loving foster families.
Laureen and Stephen have been foster parents to many cats during the past year. At any given time, the Harpers have provided foster care to numerous cats at their Ottawa home.
[. . .]
Read the whole pathetic statement, if you must.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ottawa federal government politics Prime Minister Stephen Harper
All too often, family pets such as dogs and cats find themselves in shelters as a result of being abandoned or rescued.
The Harpers are proud to support and participate in the Ottawa Humane Society’s Foster Program, which provides temporary homes for pets in the community who are not yet ready for adoption.
The program fosters out animals with mild health or behaviour issues who need individual care and nurturing to help them recover before they are adopted by new, loving foster families.
Laureen and Stephen have been foster parents to many cats during the past year. At any given time, the Harpers have provided foster care to numerous cats at their Ottawa home.
[. . .]
Read the whole pathetic statement, if you must.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ottawa federal government politics Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Two arrests in Caledonia, but march otherwise peaceful
From Canadian Press via the Toronto Star:
A standoff between police and hundreds of people protesting an aboriginal occupation has come to an end with two arrests.
The protesters were taking part in a march in the southern Ontario town of Caledonia, where a housing development has been the site of an aboriginal land occupation since February.
Although the organizers of the march did not plan to approach the police line, several large groups broke away from the main march and tried to enter the occupation site.
[. . .]
See also:
Wikipedia article: Caledonia land dispute
Caledonia Wake Up Call
Citizens of Caledonia
Canada Ontario Caledonia Six Nations aboriginal land claim dispute
A standoff between police and hundreds of people protesting an aboriginal occupation has come to an end with two arrests.
The protesters were taking part in a march in the southern Ontario town of Caledonia, where a housing development has been the site of an aboriginal land occupation since February.
Although the organizers of the march did not plan to approach the police line, several large groups broke away from the main march and tried to enter the occupation site.
[. . .]
See also:
Wikipedia article: Caledonia land dispute
Caledonia Wake Up Call
Citizens of Caledonia
Canada Ontario Caledonia Six Nations aboriginal land claim dispute
Immigration wisdom from our neighbours in Buffalo
From Vdare's Patrick Cleburne:
Congratulations to The Buffalo News, which was not distracted by shoveling all that snow from publishing an admirable brief guest editorial against unrestrained immigration.
Maybe I should explain to visitors from outside North America that Buffalo, which is the second largest city in New York state, is just across the border from southern Ontario, not far from Niagara Falls. Torontonians grow up watching Buffalo television stations. Unfortunately, some people up here have a condescending attitude towards Buffalo that doesn't reflect well on us. The condescension partly comes from the fact that for some reason Buffalo newscasts used to feature a lot of fires. Buffalo TV news doesn't show the city in its best light. That said, given Toronto's problems with gang violence, we have no business sneering at other urban centres. We need to stop congratulating ourselves so much. We have too many of our own problems.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto American United States Buffalo New York immigration
Congratulations to The Buffalo News, which was not distracted by shoveling all that snow from publishing an admirable brief guest editorial against unrestrained immigration.
Maybe I should explain to visitors from outside North America that Buffalo, which is the second largest city in New York state, is just across the border from southern Ontario, not far from Niagara Falls. Torontonians grow up watching Buffalo television stations. Unfortunately, some people up here have a condescending attitude towards Buffalo that doesn't reflect well on us. The condescension partly comes from the fact that for some reason Buffalo newscasts used to feature a lot of fires. Buffalo TV news doesn't show the city in its best light. That said, given Toronto's problems with gang violence, we have no business sneering at other urban centres. We need to stop congratulating ourselves so much. We have too many of our own problems.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto American United States Buffalo New York immigration
Congratulations Mats! Hogtown's favourite Swede gets his 500th
No. 500 magical for Sundin
Sundin, taking his innate flare for the dramatic to a new level, had just potted the winner in a 5-4 victory over the Calgary Flames.
It was in overtime. It was a slapshot from the blue line blown past, arguably, the best goaltender in the world. It came while the Leafs were shorthanded. It was his third goal of the night.
And, oh, did we mention it was the 500th goal of his career.
It was magical. The building exploded with the kind of ecstasy usually saved for playoff wins or an appearance of Wendel Clark on the scoreboard.
Read the whole article.
I don't watch as much hockey as I used to. It gets frustrating when your team hasn't won the Cup since Canada's Centennial. (1967 was Canada's last good year. In 68, Trudeau became Prime Minister and it's been all downhill since.)
That said, I still have a Leafs flag on my desk next to the computer. I used to have a neighbour from Calgary who always wore a Flames cap during the playoffs. He couldn't understand Toronto's devotion to the Leafs. He said to me once that Leaf fans were part of a big blue cult.
Technorati tags: Canada Toronto Sweden Swedes sports hockey
Sundin, taking his innate flare for the dramatic to a new level, had just potted the winner in a 5-4 victory over the Calgary Flames.
It was in overtime. It was a slapshot from the blue line blown past, arguably, the best goaltender in the world. It came while the Leafs were shorthanded. It was his third goal of the night.
And, oh, did we mention it was the 500th goal of his career.
It was magical. The building exploded with the kind of ecstasy usually saved for playoff wins or an appearance of Wendel Clark on the scoreboard.
Read the whole article.
I don't watch as much hockey as I used to. It gets frustrating when your team hasn't won the Cup since Canada's Centennial. (1967 was Canada's last good year. In 68, Trudeau became Prime Minister and it's been all downhill since.)
That said, I still have a Leafs flag on my desk next to the computer. I used to have a neighbour from Calgary who always wore a Flames cap during the playoffs. He couldn't understand Toronto's devotion to the Leafs. He said to me once that Leaf fans were part of a big blue cult.
Technorati tags: Canada Toronto Sweden Swedes sports hockey
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Reodica inquest concludes, but the saga continues. The implications for race relations are ominous
The coroner's inquest into the police shooting of Jeffrey Reodica has ended and the four-member jury has issued its recommendations. As might be expected in a case like this, no one is satisfied.
Reodica was a Filipino teenager shot to death by Det. Const. Dan Belanger during a confrontation between police and an armed mob composed mainly of Filipino youth in May 2004. The day before the shooting, which occurred in a part of Scarborough sometimes called Ben Jungle, there had been a confrontation between some Filipinos and whites. The next day, a mostly Filipino group went looking for revenge. They were chasing a group of white boys when police were called. Reodica was shot while police tried to bring this dangerous situation under control. A detailed if somewhat one-sided account of the event can be found in a Toronto Star story by Isabel Teotonio and Jim Rankin.
Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, which is responsible for investigating police shootings, concluded in September, 2004 that Belanger's actions were justified. The family, however, didn't accept the SIU's conclusion. Neither did their lawyer, Barry Swadron, who has since accused the police of racism. Filipino advocacy groups have also latched onto the case. According to an article in the Toronto Sun:
"We have a number of concerns about anti-Filipino systemic racism," lawyer Michael Leitold said during a break in the inquest, where he represents the Community Alliance for Social Justice, a Filipino umbrella organization founded in the wake of Reodica's death.
Reodica's family and lawyers, as well as various political agitators, treated the coroner's inquest as a trial of Det. Const. Dan Belanger even though that was never the purpose of the proceedings. In the words of Sun editor Lorrie Goldstein:
An inquest examines the circumstances of a death and how similar deaths can be prevented. It doesn't lay blame. It's not a criminal trial. It doesn't use the same rules of evidence.
But this inquest increasingly resembles, in my view, an unfair trial of the Toronto plainclothes officer who fatally shot Reodica, 17, in May 2004, even though the officer, Det.-Const. Dan Belanger, has not been charged with any offence.
Of course, since Reodica's family and lawyers wanted the inquest to do something it wasn't intended to do, namely find Belanger guilty of an unjustified shooting, they aren't satisfied. From a story in Saturday's Toronto Star (Reodica findings blasted by Isabel Teotonio, October 13):
Willie Reodica, the teen's father, called the recommendations "garbage" and declared there had been a serious "miscarriage of justice."
"This was a waste of taxpayers' money," said Reodica. "The police are the winners - it's as if they've done nothing wrong."
Reodica family lawyer Barry Swadron explained that while the recommendations were helpful, his clients were extremely disappointed because presiding coroner Dr. Bonita Porter warned the jury they might not have sufficient information to make recommendations about the civilian Special Investigations Unit - which concluded the officer who shot Reodica acted correctly.
"The most disappointing element of the inquest is that the SIU has got off unscathed," Swadron said outside court. "There were all kinds of mistakes the SIU made and for some reason this coroner made a ruling that insulated the SIU from any accountability, and that's one of the most unfortunate things."
And so the saga continues:
Swadron plans to ask Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin to investigate the SIU's handling of the case and said he is considering applying for a judicial review of Porter's charge to the jury. Meanwhile, the family's $5.4 million civil suit against the officers, the Toronto Police Services Board and former chief Julian Fantino - recently appointed to head the OPP - continues.
Sometime ago, I asked whether Canada's changing racial demography was important or not. Of course, it's important and the Reodica case gives us an example of why. We are seeing more and more accusations of racism against the police. We are seeing defendants play the race card to get lighter sentences. We are witnessing violent confrontations between different racial groups, some of which lead to people people being killed. In fact, it was just such a violent confrontation that led to Reodica's shooting.
As Toronto and Canada become more diverse, racial tension will become worse. We are going to see more accusations of racism levelled against the police and other authorities. By deliberately altering the country's demography, our political class has undermined social stability and put our society on the road to permanent racial conflict. Demography is destiny, but our leaders are too blinded by multicultural ideology to see it. God help Canada.
See also:
More racial tension: 2004 shooting created rift between Toronto police and Filipinos
Lawyer accuses police of 'racism'
Is the officer presumed guilty because he is white?
Lorrie Goldstein on the Reodica inquest
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto crime police immigration multiculturalism race relations racial conflict racism racial profiling Filipino Filipinos Reodica
Reodica was a Filipino teenager shot to death by Det. Const. Dan Belanger during a confrontation between police and an armed mob composed mainly of Filipino youth in May 2004. The day before the shooting, which occurred in a part of Scarborough sometimes called Ben Jungle, there had been a confrontation between some Filipinos and whites. The next day, a mostly Filipino group went looking for revenge. They were chasing a group of white boys when police were called. Reodica was shot while police tried to bring this dangerous situation under control. A detailed if somewhat one-sided account of the event can be found in a Toronto Star story by Isabel Teotonio and Jim Rankin.
Ontario's Special Investigations Unit, which is responsible for investigating police shootings, concluded in September, 2004 that Belanger's actions were justified. The family, however, didn't accept the SIU's conclusion. Neither did their lawyer, Barry Swadron, who has since accused the police of racism. Filipino advocacy groups have also latched onto the case. According to an article in the Toronto Sun:
"We have a number of concerns about anti-Filipino systemic racism," lawyer Michael Leitold said during a break in the inquest, where he represents the Community Alliance for Social Justice, a Filipino umbrella organization founded in the wake of Reodica's death.
Reodica's family and lawyers, as well as various political agitators, treated the coroner's inquest as a trial of Det. Const. Dan Belanger even though that was never the purpose of the proceedings. In the words of Sun editor Lorrie Goldstein:
An inquest examines the circumstances of a death and how similar deaths can be prevented. It doesn't lay blame. It's not a criminal trial. It doesn't use the same rules of evidence.
But this inquest increasingly resembles, in my view, an unfair trial of the Toronto plainclothes officer who fatally shot Reodica, 17, in May 2004, even though the officer, Det.-Const. Dan Belanger, has not been charged with any offence.
Of course, since Reodica's family and lawyers wanted the inquest to do something it wasn't intended to do, namely find Belanger guilty of an unjustified shooting, they aren't satisfied. From a story in Saturday's Toronto Star (Reodica findings blasted by Isabel Teotonio, October 13):
Willie Reodica, the teen's father, called the recommendations "garbage" and declared there had been a serious "miscarriage of justice."
"This was a waste of taxpayers' money," said Reodica. "The police are the winners - it's as if they've done nothing wrong."
Reodica family lawyer Barry Swadron explained that while the recommendations were helpful, his clients were extremely disappointed because presiding coroner Dr. Bonita Porter warned the jury they might not have sufficient information to make recommendations about the civilian Special Investigations Unit - which concluded the officer who shot Reodica acted correctly.
"The most disappointing element of the inquest is that the SIU has got off unscathed," Swadron said outside court. "There were all kinds of mistakes the SIU made and for some reason this coroner made a ruling that insulated the SIU from any accountability, and that's one of the most unfortunate things."
And so the saga continues:
Swadron plans to ask Ontario Ombudsman Andre Marin to investigate the SIU's handling of the case and said he is considering applying for a judicial review of Porter's charge to the jury. Meanwhile, the family's $5.4 million civil suit against the officers, the Toronto Police Services Board and former chief Julian Fantino - recently appointed to head the OPP - continues.
Sometime ago, I asked whether Canada's changing racial demography was important or not. Of course, it's important and the Reodica case gives us an example of why. We are seeing more and more accusations of racism against the police. We are seeing defendants play the race card to get lighter sentences. We are witnessing violent confrontations between different racial groups, some of which lead to people people being killed. In fact, it was just such a violent confrontation that led to Reodica's shooting.
As Toronto and Canada become more diverse, racial tension will become worse. We are going to see more accusations of racism levelled against the police and other authorities. By deliberately altering the country's demography, our political class has undermined social stability and put our society on the road to permanent racial conflict. Demography is destiny, but our leaders are too blinded by multicultural ideology to see it. God help Canada.
See also:
More racial tension: 2004 shooting created rift between Toronto police and Filipinos
Lawyer accuses police of 'racism'
Is the officer presumed guilty because he is white?
Lorrie Goldstein on the Reodica inquest
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto crime police immigration multiculturalism race relations racial conflict racism racial profiling Filipino Filipinos Reodica
Somali-"Canadians" fighting for Taliban-like group in Africa
From the National Post (Somali holy warriors coming from Canada: experts by Stewart Bell, October 14):
A number of young Somali-Canadians have returned to their homeland and joined a hardline Islamic militia that some call Africa's Taliban, sources have told the National Post.
[Hyphenated Canadian - Uh, if they're Somali-"Canadians", wouldn't their homeland be Canada? I guess if a country is multicultural, loyalty is optional.]
The Shabbab, a Somali youth militia whose leader is believed to have been trained by al-Qaida in Afghanistan, includes several Canadians in its ranks, the sources said.
Somali-Canadians are also said to be serving in other militias, as well as in senior positions in Somalia's interim government and its opponent, the Islamic Courts Union.
The Canadians are described as refugees who moved to Toronto and Ottawa in the 1990s, some of them university students, who have returned to Somalia over the past two to three years.
"Some of the militia members of the Shabbab are young diaspora members who returned to Somalia from Canada," a leading Somalia expert, who asked not to be identified, told the Post this week.
"The Somalis who are here, and others who have recently been in, confirm that quite a few of the Shabbab are in fact diaspora members, not just from Canada, but quite a few have come back from places like Pakistan."
[. . .]
Read all of Stewart Bell's article.
See also:
Toronto Somalis want Ottawa to intervene in their former homeland
Somalis claim discrimination. Security guard company says the real problem is drugs
Toronto high school students who speak Portuguese, Spanish or Somali drop out at higher rates
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration cultural diversity multiculturalism Somali Somalis Somalia Muslims Muslim Africa African Islam Islamic fundamentalism extremism Islamism Islamists Islamofascism
A number of young Somali-Canadians have returned to their homeland and joined a hardline Islamic militia that some call Africa's Taliban, sources have told the National Post.
[Hyphenated Canadian - Uh, if they're Somali-"Canadians", wouldn't their homeland be Canada? I guess if a country is multicultural, loyalty is optional.]
The Shabbab, a Somali youth militia whose leader is believed to have been trained by al-Qaida in Afghanistan, includes several Canadians in its ranks, the sources said.
Somali-Canadians are also said to be serving in other militias, as well as in senior positions in Somalia's interim government and its opponent, the Islamic Courts Union.
The Canadians are described as refugees who moved to Toronto and Ottawa in the 1990s, some of them university students, who have returned to Somalia over the past two to three years.
"Some of the militia members of the Shabbab are young diaspora members who returned to Somalia from Canada," a leading Somalia expert, who asked not to be identified, told the Post this week.
"The Somalis who are here, and others who have recently been in, confirm that quite a few of the Shabbab are in fact diaspora members, not just from Canada, but quite a few have come back from places like Pakistan."
[. . .]
Read all of Stewart Bell's article.
See also:
Toronto Somalis want Ottawa to intervene in their former homeland
Somalis claim discrimination. Security guard company says the real problem is drugs
Toronto high school students who speak Portuguese, Spanish or Somali drop out at higher rates
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration cultural diversity multiculturalism Somali Somalis Somalia Muslims Muslim Africa African Islam Islamic fundamentalism extremism Islamism Islamists Islamofascism
Friday, October 13, 2006
Sudden increase in demand for religious accomodations in Quebec schools
From the Globe and Mail (Quebec looks for answers for religion in schools by Rheal Seguin, October 13):
Quebec's public school boards received a sudden increase in demands from various religious groups after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled last March that a Sikh student could carry a ceremonial dagger to class. The decision was immediately hailed as a victory for religious freedom in the country.
Schools have been obliged by the Supreme Court ruling to find "reasonable accommodation" for religious groups, but some have had difficulty defining the term "reasonable."
Solutions were found in some instances -- for example, in the case of three Muslim teenaged girls who asked to be excused from swimming class because their religion bans the sharing of a pool with boys. The school administered a separate test for the three girls.
In another instance, a school faced accusations of racism after a seven-year-old Filipino boy was reprimanded for his eating habits that excluded the use of a knife. The school's treatment of the boy created an uproar among Filipinos.
"In these cases, we need to find a reasonable accommodation," Mr. Fournier said. "But in other cases, we must avoid accommodations that could be viewed as unreasonable."
Read all of Rheal Seguin's article
Of course, things would be simpler if immigration hadn't brought people from every part of the world into Quebec. I know professional multiculturalists like Will Kymlicka see all this diversity as dazzling, but I mostly see tension and conflict. All these battles over group rights undermine community and social solidarity. Diversity for the sake of the diversity doesn't make sense. In the case of the Filipino boy mentioned in the article the Filipino community asked for and got help from the Filipino ambassador. A local conflict between a family and school officials became an international incident!
See also:
Muslim girls allowed private swim tests
Ambassador defends Filipino boy against dastardly Montreal school board officials
Protests in Manila over vital Montreal school spoon-fork issue
Us and them in Toronto's Catholic school system
Technorati tags:: Canada Canadian Quebec education schools human rights law religion cultural diversity multiculturalism immigration
Quebec's public school boards received a sudden increase in demands from various religious groups after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled last March that a Sikh student could carry a ceremonial dagger to class. The decision was immediately hailed as a victory for religious freedom in the country.
Schools have been obliged by the Supreme Court ruling to find "reasonable accommodation" for religious groups, but some have had difficulty defining the term "reasonable."
Solutions were found in some instances -- for example, in the case of three Muslim teenaged girls who asked to be excused from swimming class because their religion bans the sharing of a pool with boys. The school administered a separate test for the three girls.
In another instance, a school faced accusations of racism after a seven-year-old Filipino boy was reprimanded for his eating habits that excluded the use of a knife. The school's treatment of the boy created an uproar among Filipinos.
"In these cases, we need to find a reasonable accommodation," Mr. Fournier said. "But in other cases, we must avoid accommodations that could be viewed as unreasonable."
Read all of Rheal Seguin's article
Of course, things would be simpler if immigration hadn't brought people from every part of the world into Quebec. I know professional multiculturalists like Will Kymlicka see all this diversity as dazzling, but I mostly see tension and conflict. All these battles over group rights undermine community and social solidarity. Diversity for the sake of the diversity doesn't make sense. In the case of the Filipino boy mentioned in the article the Filipino community asked for and got help from the Filipino ambassador. A local conflict between a family and school officials became an international incident!
See also:
Muslim girls allowed private swim tests
Ambassador defends Filipino boy against dastardly Montreal school board officials
Protests in Manila over vital Montreal school spoon-fork issue
Us and them in Toronto's Catholic school system
Technorati tags:: Canada Canadian Quebec education schools human rights law religion cultural diversity multiculturalism immigration
You know it's winter . . .
when it snows:
The Fort Erie and Welland areas of southwestern Ontario are digging out from as much as 30 centimetres of snow following a powerful pre-winter storm.
The region may receive up to 15 more centimetres before a let-up to what Environment Canada terms “significant snowfalls of historic proportions.”
[. . .]
I can't wait for the outdoor skating rinks to open, especially Harbourfront.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto weather winter sports skating
The Fort Erie and Welland areas of southwestern Ontario are digging out from as much as 30 centimetres of snow following a powerful pre-winter storm.
The region may receive up to 15 more centimetres before a let-up to what Environment Canada terms “significant snowfalls of historic proportions.”
[. . .]
I can't wait for the outdoor skating rinks to open, especially Harbourfront.
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto weather winter sports skating
Source tells Globe a second refugee board member faces sexual misconduct complaint
From the Globe and Mail (Another IRB member faces sex complaint, source says by Marina Jimenez, October 13):
Another member of the Immigration and Refugee Board is no longer hearing refugee cases after complaints of misconduct of a sexual nature against him, The Globe and Mail has learned.
Dominique Forget, spokeswoman for the IRB, confirmed yesterday that Toronto IRB member Lloyd Fournier is no longer hearing refugee cases. Ms. Forget would not divulge the reason, citing privacy concerns.
A source who did not want to be identified told The Globe there has been a complaint of misconduct of a sexual nature against Mr. Fournier, which arose last month.
Ms. Forget said she cannot speak to the allegations of misconduct.
[. . .]
Read all of Marina Jimenez's Globe article.
Are you keeping count? This is the third Immigration and Refugee Board scandal I've blogged about: scandal #1, scandal #2. This latest one makes three. Maybe I should start another blog just to keep track of refugee board corruption.
See also:
Fraser Institute Report: Canada's Dysfunctional Refugee Determination System
Canada's refugee determination board is staffed by amateurs. Some adjudicators barely speak English
Mounties charge refugee board judge accused of asking for sex from claimant
CTV News: Refugee board judge offers asylum seeker visa in exchange for an affair
Another refugee board scandal - this time in Quebec. Isn't $125,000 a year enough?
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration refugee refugees board scandal
Another member of the Immigration and Refugee Board is no longer hearing refugee cases after complaints of misconduct of a sexual nature against him, The Globe and Mail has learned.
Dominique Forget, spokeswoman for the IRB, confirmed yesterday that Toronto IRB member Lloyd Fournier is no longer hearing refugee cases. Ms. Forget would not divulge the reason, citing privacy concerns.
A source who did not want to be identified told The Globe there has been a complaint of misconduct of a sexual nature against Mr. Fournier, which arose last month.
Ms. Forget said she cannot speak to the allegations of misconduct.
[. . .]
Read all of Marina Jimenez's Globe article.
Are you keeping count? This is the third Immigration and Refugee Board scandal I've blogged about: scandal #1, scandal #2. This latest one makes three. Maybe I should start another blog just to keep track of refugee board corruption.
See also:
Fraser Institute Report: Canada's Dysfunctional Refugee Determination System
Canada's refugee determination board is staffed by amateurs. Some adjudicators barely speak English
Mounties charge refugee board judge accused of asking for sex from claimant
CTV News: Refugee board judge offers asylum seeker visa in exchange for an affair
Another refugee board scandal - this time in Quebec. Isn't $125,000 a year enough?
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian immigration refugee refugees board scandal
Report shows non-whites less likely to vote in city elections
From the Toronto Star (Without a voice at the polls by Laurie Monsebraaten, October 13):
If you are an immigrant and also happen to be non-white, chances are high that you didn't vote in the 2003 municipal elections.
That's the finding of a new study on municipal franchise and social inclusion in Toronto to be released today. The study by Ryerson University urban politics professor Myer Siemiatycki is the first in Canada to look at voter demographics at the municipal level.
The report shows that in Toronto, where a disappointing 38 per cent of voters turned up at the polls in 2003, immigrants and visible minorities voted in significantly lower numbers than white Canadian-born residents — regardless of their socio-economic status.
[. . .]
Siemiatycki, who has long suspected that newcomer and visible-minority voters were staying away from the polls, used City of Toronto demographic data on 140 neighbourhoods and cross-referenced it with polling-station results from 2003 to test his theory.
He found to his surprise that turnout rates among eligible voters were 65 per cent higher in neighbourhoods where most voters are white and Canadian-born than in communities with high percentages of immigrant and visible-minority citizens.
Neighbourhoods with the lowest turnout include such high-immigrant areas as Rexdale's Jamestown, Mount Dennis in the old borough of York, the Scarborough communities of Malvern and Agincourt, Kensington-Chinatown in Toronto, and Flemingdon Park in North York.
Turnout averaged about 28 per cent in those communities.
[. . .]
Read all of Laurie Monsebraaten's Star article.
See also:
Local immigrants less likely to vote in municipal election
215,000 people on municipal voters list haven't confirmed their Canadian citizenship
One in five on Ontario municipal voter lists may not be citizens
Technorati Tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto municipal election municipal elections elections election voters voter voter turnout cities city immigration immigrants
If you are an immigrant and also happen to be non-white, chances are high that you didn't vote in the 2003 municipal elections.
That's the finding of a new study on municipal franchise and social inclusion in Toronto to be released today. The study by Ryerson University urban politics professor Myer Siemiatycki is the first in Canada to look at voter demographics at the municipal level.
The report shows that in Toronto, where a disappointing 38 per cent of voters turned up at the polls in 2003, immigrants and visible minorities voted in significantly lower numbers than white Canadian-born residents — regardless of their socio-economic status.
[. . .]
Siemiatycki, who has long suspected that newcomer and visible-minority voters were staying away from the polls, used City of Toronto demographic data on 140 neighbourhoods and cross-referenced it with polling-station results from 2003 to test his theory.
He found to his surprise that turnout rates among eligible voters were 65 per cent higher in neighbourhoods where most voters are white and Canadian-born than in communities with high percentages of immigrant and visible-minority citizens.
Neighbourhoods with the lowest turnout include such high-immigrant areas as Rexdale's Jamestown, Mount Dennis in the old borough of York, the Scarborough communities of Malvern and Agincourt, Kensington-Chinatown in Toronto, and Flemingdon Park in North York.
Turnout averaged about 28 per cent in those communities.
[. . .]
Read all of Laurie Monsebraaten's Star article.
See also:
Local immigrants less likely to vote in municipal election
215,000 people on municipal voters list haven't confirmed their Canadian citizenship
One in five on Ontario municipal voter lists may not be citizens
Technorati Tags: Canada Canadian Ontario Toronto municipal election municipal elections elections election voters voter voter turnout cities city immigration immigrants
Craig Bromell comments on defendants playing the race card
On Wednesday I blogged about a 17-year-old black youth who got a lenient sentence after beating up an old man who later died in hospital. The teenager claimed that the man had provoked the beating by throwing a punch and uttering a racial slur. The judge believed the youth and treated this as a mitigating factor.
Craig Bromell, who used to head Toronto's police union and now hosts a radio show, has posted some comments about the case on his blog, No Bull Zone:
While there is no excuse for racial slurs of any sort, there is absolutely no excuse for beating anyone in any circumstance. In this case, the mitigating factors are irrelevant. This was a brutal and vicious assault on a vulnerable segment of society. In this case it appears as though the accused has more rights than the public.
Read all of Bromell's comments
Bromell's show airs on AM640 Toronto Radio. I like this station, but some left-wing radicals don't. They've plastered hydro poles in my neighbourhood with posters calling the station "hate radio." Of course, in Toronto anyone who isn't political correct ends being accused of promoting "hate." Seeing these posters just made more curious about the station. Anything these left-wing bozos don't like has to be good.
See also:
Is it open season on whites in Toronto? Black teenager who brutally attacked old man plays race card and gets 18-months as a youth offender
Marijuana grow-up case tossed out because of 'racial profiling'
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto crime police justice system law racism race relations multiculturalism talk radio Craig Bromell
Craig Bromell, who used to head Toronto's police union and now hosts a radio show, has posted some comments about the case on his blog, No Bull Zone:
While there is no excuse for racial slurs of any sort, there is absolutely no excuse for beating anyone in any circumstance. In this case, the mitigating factors are irrelevant. This was a brutal and vicious assault on a vulnerable segment of society. In this case it appears as though the accused has more rights than the public.
Read all of Bromell's comments
Bromell's show airs on AM640 Toronto Radio. I like this station, but some left-wing radicals don't. They've plastered hydro poles in my neighbourhood with posters calling the station "hate radio." Of course, in Toronto anyone who isn't political correct ends being accused of promoting "hate." Seeing these posters just made more curious about the station. Anything these left-wing bozos don't like has to be good.
See also:
Is it open season on whites in Toronto? Black teenager who brutally attacked old man plays race card and gets 18-months as a youth offender
Marijuana grow-up case tossed out because of 'racial profiling'
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto crime police justice system law racism race relations multiculturalism talk radio Craig Bromell
The History of Hockey (Marxist-Leninist edition)
Hockey: A People's History
Whoever came up with this title should be sentenced to a lifetime of hard labour in the GULAG.
Technorati Tags: Canada Canadian ice hockey hockey CBC
Whoever came up with this title should be sentenced to a lifetime of hard labour in the GULAG.
Technorati Tags: Canada Canadian ice hockey hockey CBC
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Immigrants account for two-thirds of tuberculosis cases in Canada
From the Toronto Star (A disease of the past still lingers in Canada by Megan Ogilvie, September 30, 2006):
In North America and Western Europe, TB is considered a disease of the past because the antibiotics to treat it became available about 1950 and brought it under control.
In Canada, it's most likely to infect people who have the poorest access to health care: native communities, the homeless and immigrants who come to Canada from countries where tuberculosis spreads unchecked.
[. . .]
Ontario is the only province that does not have a tuberculosis control program, even though almost half of Canada's annual 1,600 TB cases arise in Ontario.
[. . .]
Between 1974 and 2004, the number of foreign-born patients with tuberculosis increased from 18 to 68 per cent, according to Long, who says that immigrants account for two-thirds of TB cases in Canada.
This is an especially difficult group to treat because immigrants may not be familiar with the health-care system, may not speak English, and may not want to see a doctor for fear of deportation.
[. . .]
Read all of the Star story.
The next time a special interest group tells us we need mass immigration because immigrants supposedly do the work Canadians won't do (a lie - businesses just want cheap labour), ask yourself about the hidden costs. How much is a country almost free of tuberculosis worth? What is being lost by allowing people infected with TB to live here?
Legal immigration is bad enough. Tolerating illegal immigration is worse.
Illegal immigrants, unlike the legal variety, aren't given a health check when they decide to live here. While they aren't legally entitled to government healthcare, there is an underground market in stolen and false documents that allows them to get it. Let's not kid ourselves. Illegal immigrants are receiving healthcare at taxpayer expense. Canadians are subsidizing the cheap labour that is putting them out of work. Ottawa's refusal to address this problem shows how little politicians of all parties care about the people they govern. The Canadian people have been betrayed by their leaders.
See also:
Canada: The Disease Dimension
Illegal immigrants "most vulnerable to infectious diseases such as typhoid, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV."
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration health care public health tuberculosis disease
In North America and Western Europe, TB is considered a disease of the past because the antibiotics to treat it became available about 1950 and brought it under control.
In Canada, it's most likely to infect people who have the poorest access to health care: native communities, the homeless and immigrants who come to Canada from countries where tuberculosis spreads unchecked.
[. . .]
Ontario is the only province that does not have a tuberculosis control program, even though almost half of Canada's annual 1,600 TB cases arise in Ontario.
[. . .]
Between 1974 and 2004, the number of foreign-born patients with tuberculosis increased from 18 to 68 per cent, according to Long, who says that immigrants account for two-thirds of TB cases in Canada.
This is an especially difficult group to treat because immigrants may not be familiar with the health-care system, may not speak English, and may not want to see a doctor for fear of deportation.
[. . .]
Read all of the Star story.
The next time a special interest group tells us we need mass immigration because immigrants supposedly do the work Canadians won't do (a lie - businesses just want cheap labour), ask yourself about the hidden costs. How much is a country almost free of tuberculosis worth? What is being lost by allowing people infected with TB to live here?
Legal immigration is bad enough. Tolerating illegal immigration is worse.
Illegal immigrants, unlike the legal variety, aren't given a health check when they decide to live here. While they aren't legally entitled to government healthcare, there is an underground market in stolen and false documents that allows them to get it. Let's not kid ourselves. Illegal immigrants are receiving healthcare at taxpayer expense. Canadians are subsidizing the cheap labour that is putting them out of work. Ottawa's refusal to address this problem shows how little politicians of all parties care about the people they govern. The Canadian people have been betrayed by their leaders.
See also:
Canada: The Disease Dimension
Illegal immigrants "most vulnerable to infectious diseases such as typhoid, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV."
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Toronto immigration health care public health tuberculosis disease
Quote of the Day: Bush is not reality-based
Paul Craig Roberts tells us:
Bush, of course, is not reality-based, and he knows that any unfavorable news is "enemy propaganda." That’s what the neocons who pull his strings tell him, and that is what he believes.
Technorati Tags: American politics George Bush Iraq foreign relations US USA neocons neoconservatives
Bush, of course, is not reality-based, and he knows that any unfavorable news is "enemy propaganda." That’s what the neocons who pull his strings tell him, and that is what he believes.
Technorati Tags: American politics George Bush Iraq foreign relations US USA neocons neoconservatives
Mounties charge refugee board judge accused of asking for sex from claimant
From Canadian Press via the Toronto Star (Immigration judge charged, October 12):
A refugee judge has been charged by the RCMP after a South Korean woman alleged he offered to assist her in her refugee claim in return for sexual favours.
The woman and her boyfriend secretly videotaped a conversation she had with a man she said was 47-year-old Stevan Ellis, a Toronto-based adjudicator with the Immigration and Refugee Board.
A copy of the tape was sent to IRB chair Jean-Guy Fleury, who suspended Ellis and forwarded the information to the RCMP.
[. . .]
Read the whole article
A radio report said he is being suspended WITH PAY. I don't know about you, but I want to be a refugee board judge. Darn it! I guess I ruined my chances with this blog. My mom always told me I should become a political hack. Why didn't I listen?
See also:
Refugee board judge offers asylum seeker visa in exchange for an affair
Another refugee board scandal - this time in Quebec. Isn't $125,000 a year enough?
Canada's refugee determination board is staffed by amateurs. Some adjudicators barely speak English
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian refugees refugee immigration RCMP law
A refugee judge has been charged by the RCMP after a South Korean woman alleged he offered to assist her in her refugee claim in return for sexual favours.
The woman and her boyfriend secretly videotaped a conversation she had with a man she said was 47-year-old Stevan Ellis, a Toronto-based adjudicator with the Immigration and Refugee Board.
A copy of the tape was sent to IRB chair Jean-Guy Fleury, who suspended Ellis and forwarded the information to the RCMP.
[. . .]
Read the whole article
A radio report said he is being suspended WITH PAY. I don't know about you, but I want to be a refugee board judge. Darn it! I guess I ruined my chances with this blog. My mom always told me I should become a political hack. Why didn't I listen?
See also:
Refugee board judge offers asylum seeker visa in exchange for an affair
Another refugee board scandal - this time in Quebec. Isn't $125,000 a year enough?
Canada's refugee determination board is staffed by amateurs. Some adjudicators barely speak English
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian refugees refugee immigration RCMP law
Vdare is being censored by corporate software. The website needs your help
James Fulford has written a troubling article. He reports on Vdare that the website is being censored by corporate software:
Many businesses, government agencies, and universities use software that's designed to block "inappropriate content." This is called Censorware. Unfortunately, their notion of what's inappropriate includes legitimate political debate. Like Vdare.com for example.
Recently, we've been getting notices that various readers can't access Vdare.com from work or public computers, because a software company somewhere "has a little list."
Read the whole article.
Canadian readers unfamiliar with Vdare should know that it is a leading voice for immigration reform. It is one of the main reasons immigration is at the top of the American political agenda. Vdare was founded by Peter Brimelow who in 1992 wrote an influential cover story about immigration for National Review. Brimelow went on to write the now classic immigration book Alien Nation. Although Vdare's focus is the US, it also covers Canadian immigration.
The internet is a marvellous invention. I've been waiting for this technology my whole life. I'm showing my age here, but when I was a boy we didn't have computers on our desks. Computers were huge machines that filled specially built air-conditioned rooms. The first calculator I bought cost $50 and was the size of a walkie-talkie. Even though I've been using the internet for a decade, I'm still amazed by what computers allow me to do.
Free speech concerns me, because human rights tribunals and so-called hate speech laws have made Canada into a repressive country where even Catholic bishops can be forced to defend themselves against bureaucrats simply for teaching church doctrine about sexual morality. I'm referring to the case of Bishop Henry of Calgary. Even where the government doesn't involve itself directly, media gatekeepers use their power to suppress discussion of vital issues like immigration and race.
The internet came at the right time. Just when the war against free speech was heating up, new information technology came along to provide dissidents with the means to circumvent the gatekeepers blocking their heretical thought. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before the gatekeepers fought back.
We can't let them get away with this. I don't want my access to information being controlled by mediocre minds who don't understand half of what they're censoring. Fulford's article offers suggestions for helping Vdare. Please read it and consider helping if you can.
Technorati tags: Vdare internet censorship free speech immigration
Many businesses, government agencies, and universities use software that's designed to block "inappropriate content." This is called Censorware. Unfortunately, their notion of what's inappropriate includes legitimate political debate. Like Vdare.com for example.
Recently, we've been getting notices that various readers can't access Vdare.com from work or public computers, because a software company somewhere "has a little list."
Read the whole article.
Canadian readers unfamiliar with Vdare should know that it is a leading voice for immigration reform. It is one of the main reasons immigration is at the top of the American political agenda. Vdare was founded by Peter Brimelow who in 1992 wrote an influential cover story about immigration for National Review. Brimelow went on to write the now classic immigration book Alien Nation. Although Vdare's focus is the US, it also covers Canadian immigration.
The internet is a marvellous invention. I've been waiting for this technology my whole life. I'm showing my age here, but when I was a boy we didn't have computers on our desks. Computers were huge machines that filled specially built air-conditioned rooms. The first calculator I bought cost $50 and was the size of a walkie-talkie. Even though I've been using the internet for a decade, I'm still amazed by what computers allow me to do.
Free speech concerns me, because human rights tribunals and so-called hate speech laws have made Canada into a repressive country where even Catholic bishops can be forced to defend themselves against bureaucrats simply for teaching church doctrine about sexual morality. I'm referring to the case of Bishop Henry of Calgary. Even where the government doesn't involve itself directly, media gatekeepers use their power to suppress discussion of vital issues like immigration and race.
The internet came at the right time. Just when the war against free speech was heating up, new information technology came along to provide dissidents with the means to circumvent the gatekeepers blocking their heretical thought. Unfortunately, it was only a matter of time before the gatekeepers fought back.
We can't let them get away with this. I don't want my access to information being controlled by mediocre minds who don't understand half of what they're censoring. Fulford's article offers suggestions for helping Vdare. Please read it and consider helping if you can.
Technorati tags: Vdare internet censorship free speech immigration
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Canadian Muslim Congress wants action against fundamentalist threats
From CanWest News (Moderate Muslims demand action on fundamentalists’ threats):
A Canadian Muslim group wants Ontario to stop fundamentalist Muslim leaders from making what they call "thinly veiled death threats" against moderate Muslims.
"We have been subjected to a hate campaign by conservative and Islamist groups with allegations of being anti-Islam (or) smearing Islam, which is tantamount to being accused of blasphemy or apostasy," Farzana Hassan, president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said Wednesday.
"Non-Muslims may scoff at these allegations, but within the Muslim community these allegations are understood to be thinly veiled death threats, without actually uttering them."
[. . .]
Read all of the CanWest News story.
See also:
Saudis funding Muslim institutions in Canada
Sufi imam says Toronto bomb plotters became radicalized
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Islam Islamic fundamentalism Muslims religion immigration multiculturalism
A Canadian Muslim group wants Ontario to stop fundamentalist Muslim leaders from making what they call "thinly veiled death threats" against moderate Muslims.
"We have been subjected to a hate campaign by conservative and Islamist groups with allegations of being anti-Islam (or) smearing Islam, which is tantamount to being accused of blasphemy or apostasy," Farzana Hassan, president of the Muslim Canadian Congress, said Wednesday.
"Non-Muslims may scoff at these allegations, but within the Muslim community these allegations are understood to be thinly veiled death threats, without actually uttering them."
[. . .]
Read all of the CanWest News story.
See also:
Saudis funding Muslim institutions in Canada
Sufi imam says Toronto bomb plotters became radicalized
Technorati tags: Canada Canadian Islam Islamic fundamentalism Muslims religion immigration multiculturalism
More tensions in Caledonia. Province won't stop rally
From Canadian Press via Globe and Mail (Tension rises in Caledonia by Chinta Puxley, October 11):
The mayor of Haldimand County is prepared to declare a state of emergency in Caledonia, Ont., this weekend after the province said it won't stop a potentially dangerous rally and it's counting on police to prevent bloodshed.
Mayor Marie Trainer said she'll be on standby and hopes rain might deter people from participating in a rally at the former housing development site that has been occupied by aboriginal protesters since February.
[. . .]
Premier Dalton McGuinty dismissed rally organizers as publicity hounds and said they should consider protesting at the Ontario legislature to prevent any potential for violence.
“There is a particular individual who thrives on the oxygen of publicity,” he said.
[. . .]
Read all of the CP story.
Talk about double standards. McGuinty ignores aboriginal criminality, but then turns around and complains when other Canadians try to defend their rights. I wish I belonged to an officially designated victim group. It must be great being able to do whatever you want. Just imagine what it must be like. Commit a crime and have the government ask how it can help you. The more crimes you commit, the more officials feel sorry for you. Indian status. Priceless.
See also:
Wikipedia article about the Caledonia land dispute
Caledonia Wake Up Call
Citizens of Caledonia website
Six Nations Indians want to stop Caledonia protest
Technorati tags: Canada Ontario Dalton McGuinty Caledonia Six Nations OPP
The mayor of Haldimand County is prepared to declare a state of emergency in Caledonia, Ont., this weekend after the province said it won't stop a potentially dangerous rally and it's counting on police to prevent bloodshed.
Mayor Marie Trainer said she'll be on standby and hopes rain might deter people from participating in a rally at the former housing development site that has been occupied by aboriginal protesters since February.
[. . .]
Premier Dalton McGuinty dismissed rally organizers as publicity hounds and said they should consider protesting at the Ontario legislature to prevent any potential for violence.
“There is a particular individual who thrives on the oxygen of publicity,” he said.
[. . .]
Read all of the CP story.
Talk about double standards. McGuinty ignores aboriginal criminality, but then turns around and complains when other Canadians try to defend their rights. I wish I belonged to an officially designated victim group. It must be great being able to do whatever you want. Just imagine what it must be like. Commit a crime and have the government ask how it can help you. The more crimes you commit, the more officials feel sorry for you. Indian status. Priceless.
See also:
Wikipedia article about the Caledonia land dispute
Caledonia Wake Up Call
Citizens of Caledonia website
Six Nations Indians want to stop Caledonia protest
Technorati tags: Canada Ontario Dalton McGuinty Caledonia Six Nations OPP
Talk to the elder first. African tribal custom comes to Toronto
Last night I was at a meeting of a local community group. The main topic of discussion was crime, which is a growing problem both in our neighbourhood and Toronto as a whole. At the meeting, in between presentations on drugs, gangs, guns and knives, I talked to an acquaintance who works with the police on community projects. One of the officers he works with used to be stationed in Flemingdon Park, which is an immigrant neighbourhood with a high crime rate. On Monday a security camera in that neighbourhood captured a woman being shot in the face, while back in July a boy was beaten to death in full view of neighbourhood residents who didn't bother to call police. My acquaintance said that when police working in the area want to interview a Somali they first need to get permission from the clan elder. If the elder doesn't approve the Somali won't talk to the police.
Some people still talk about multiculturalism as if it's all about folk dancing and colourful clothes, but cultural differences run a lot deeper than that. Not all foreign cultures are equally compatible with Canada's. When Trudeau introduced official multiculturalism, Canadians were almost entirely European in origin. The cultural differences separating two white Christian groups say, Italians from Anglo-Saxons, while far from trivial, were relatively minor compared to the differences separating Muslim Somalis from Presbyterian Scots. Multiculturalism was introduced just when the Third World floodgates were beginning to open. Thirty-five years later, we still don't know all the consequences of combining state-sponsored multiculturalism with mass immigration from non-European countries, but we are starting to find out.
Technorati tags: Canada Toronto Flemingdon Park immigration multiculturalism police
Some people still talk about multiculturalism as if it's all about folk dancing and colourful clothes, but cultural differences run a lot deeper than that. Not all foreign cultures are equally compatible with Canada's. When Trudeau introduced official multiculturalism, Canadians were almost entirely European in origin. The cultural differences separating two white Christian groups say, Italians from Anglo-Saxons, while far from trivial, were relatively minor compared to the differences separating Muslim Somalis from Presbyterian Scots. Multiculturalism was introduced just when the Third World floodgates were beginning to open. Thirty-five years later, we still don't know all the consequences of combining state-sponsored multiculturalism with mass immigration from non-European countries, but we are starting to find out.
Technorati tags: Canada Toronto Flemingdon Park immigration multiculturalism police
Is it open season on whites in Toronto? Black teenager who brutally attacked old man plays race card and gets 18-months as a youth offender
From the Toronto Star (Youth 'clearly went too far' by Peter Small, October 11):
A youth who punched and repeatedly kicked a senior citizen, sending him to a hospital where he later died, has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and been sentenced to 18 months in jail.
"This was a brutal and vicious assault on a vulnerable segment of society," Crown prosecutor Jon McGrath told youth court yesterday.
Although Justice Gail Dobney agreed, she cited mitigating factors that victim Bob Tracey, 68, was reported to have flung a racial epithet at the black youth as he walked along Sheppard Ave. E. at Warden Ave. last Jan. 13, and tried to land the first blow. The youth had the right to defend himself, but "clearly went too far," Dobney said.
Outside court, Tracey's relatives immediately questioned part of a statement of facts submitted by both the Crown and defence lawyer Ugo Cara. It described the retired electrician as bumping into the youth and calling him and his two female friends "f----n' n----rs" before unsuccessfully trying to punch him.
[. . .]
Read all of Peter Small's Star story.
They were talking about this case today on the Craig Bromell show on AM640. Bromell who used to be an outspoken and controversial police union chief said that there was a growing trend of defendants playing the race card.
See also:
Is it open season on white teenagers in Toronto?
Trinidad-born killer apologizes for brutally murdering white student
Marijuana grow-up case tossed out because of 'racial profiling'
Canada Toronto Toronto crime Canada multiculturalism
A youth who punched and repeatedly kicked a senior citizen, sending him to a hospital where he later died, has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and been sentenced to 18 months in jail.
"This was a brutal and vicious assault on a vulnerable segment of society," Crown prosecutor Jon McGrath told youth court yesterday.
Although Justice Gail Dobney agreed, she cited mitigating factors that victim Bob Tracey, 68, was reported to have flung a racial epithet at the black youth as he walked along Sheppard Ave. E. at Warden Ave. last Jan. 13, and tried to land the first blow. The youth had the right to defend himself, but "clearly went too far," Dobney said.
Outside court, Tracey's relatives immediately questioned part of a statement of facts submitted by both the Crown and defence lawyer Ugo Cara. It described the retired electrician as bumping into the youth and calling him and his two female friends "f----n' n----rs" before unsuccessfully trying to punch him.
[. . .]
Read all of Peter Small's Star story.
They were talking about this case today on the Craig Bromell show on AM640. Bromell who used to be an outspoken and controversial police union chief said that there was a growing trend of defendants playing the race card.
See also:
Is it open season on white teenagers in Toronto?
Trinidad-born killer apologizes for brutally murdering white student
Marijuana grow-up case tossed out because of 'racial profiling'
Canada Toronto Toronto crime Canada multiculturalism
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Another refugee board scandal - this time in Quebec. Isn't $125,000 a year enough?
From Canadian Press via the Globe and Mail (More frauds surface in immigration, October 9:
The federal Immigration and Refugee Board has identified nearly two dozen suspect cases handled by a Quebec adjudicator who has admitted to being on the take, according to internal department documents.
Overall, the board's legal team in Montreal reviewed 565 files handled by Yves Bourbonnais, say documents obtained by The Canadian Press using access-to-information laws.
Of those, the legal team identified 23 suspect files but the board will not automatically review the cases, said a department official. Rather, it will be up to applicants or the minister to appeal the decisions in those cases.
[. . .]
Read all of the Canadian Press article.
Refugee adjudicators, most of whom are political hacks, are paid $125,000 a year. A profitable industry has grown up around Canada's supposedly compassionate refugee system. This is a major obstacle to reform. Meaningful reform of the refugee system would put a lot of parasites out of business.
See also:
Refugee board judge offers asylum seeker visa in exchange for an affair
Canada's refugee determination board is staffed by amateurs. Some adjudicators barely speak English
immigration Canada Canadian immigration immigration refugees Canada Quebec
The federal Immigration and Refugee Board has identified nearly two dozen suspect cases handled by a Quebec adjudicator who has admitted to being on the take, according to internal department documents.
Overall, the board's legal team in Montreal reviewed 565 files handled by Yves Bourbonnais, say documents obtained by The Canadian Press using access-to-information laws.
Of those, the legal team identified 23 suspect files but the board will not automatically review the cases, said a department official. Rather, it will be up to applicants or the minister to appeal the decisions in those cases.
[. . .]
Read all of the Canadian Press article.
Refugee adjudicators, most of whom are political hacks, are paid $125,000 a year. A profitable industry has grown up around Canada's supposedly compassionate refugee system. This is a major obstacle to reform. Meaningful reform of the refugee system would put a lot of parasites out of business.
See also:
Refugee board judge offers asylum seeker visa in exchange for an affair
Canada's refugee determination board is staffed by amateurs. Some adjudicators barely speak English
immigration Canada Canadian immigration immigration refugees Canada Quebec
Boy who stabbed other boy sent home to parents. Too young to be charged
Yesterday, I linked to a story about an 11-year-old boy who had stabbed a 13-year-old in the back in Jane-Finch. According to today's Toronto Sun the boy has been sent home.
From the Toronto Sun (Boy, 11, can't be held in knifing of child by Chris Doucette, October 10):
A boy believed to be only 12 or 13 years old was seriously injured when he was stabbed near a playground at a North York townhouse complex yesterday.
But his alleged attacker won't be doing any time behind bars because he's even younger than the victim.
"Charges won't be laid," Toronto Police Staff-Sgt. Ralph Beeler of 31 Division said last night. "The Criminal Code doesn't pertain to anybody under 12."
[. . .]
Investigators received little help, at least initially, from residents of the townhouse complex. An officer at the scene said there were about 200 people in the area when police arrived but "nobody saw anything."
A small blue pocketknife was found at the scene.
Read the whole article.
Can you imagine the uproar if a police officer protecting himself from this miniature menace to society was forced to shoot the little bugger as happened in the Jeffrey Reodica case?
Toronto Toronto crime Jane and Finch
From the Toronto Sun (Boy, 11, can't be held in knifing of child by Chris Doucette, October 10):
A boy believed to be only 12 or 13 years old was seriously injured when he was stabbed near a playground at a North York townhouse complex yesterday.
But his alleged attacker won't be doing any time behind bars because he's even younger than the victim.
"Charges won't be laid," Toronto Police Staff-Sgt. Ralph Beeler of 31 Division said last night. "The Criminal Code doesn't pertain to anybody under 12."
[. . .]
Investigators received little help, at least initially, from residents of the townhouse complex. An officer at the scene said there were about 200 people in the area when police arrived but "nobody saw anything."
A small blue pocketknife was found at the scene.
Read the whole article.
Can you imagine the uproar if a police officer protecting himself from this miniature menace to society was forced to shoot the little bugger as happened in the Jeffrey Reodica case?
Toronto Toronto crime Jane and Finch
New study by 'Bowling Alone' author: Ethnic diversity breeds mistrust
From the Daily Telegraph (Ethnic diversity 'breeds mistrust' by Peter Wilson, October 10):
ETHNIC diversity seriously undermines the trust and social bonds within a community, according to important new research that casts a gloomy shadow over optimistic theories about the benefits of the social melting pot in immigrant societies such as Australia.
The worrying findings about the effects of ethnic diversity were developed by Robert Putnam, a Harvard University political scientist whose previous research on community dynamics has been highly influential among policymakers in the US and cited by Australian prime ministerial aspirants Peter Costello and Mark Latham.
Professor Putnam has delayed releasing the results of his research for fear of the impact it could have on politicians and other policymakers, but he revealed its thrust yesterday in an interview with London's Financial Times newspaper.
[. . .]
Read the whole Daily Telegraph article.
This certainly has been my experience in Toronto. It's hard to create a sense of community when you don't have a common language as is the case in my neighbourhood. Even when people do speak the same language, there can be tensions if there is no shared identity. Speaking the same language didn't prevent Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims from slaughtering each other during the recent Balkan wars. This is the reason the World Cup celebrations worry me so much. Different groups waving different foreign flags is a visible sign of different identities. It's a blatant demonstration of just how ethnically balkanized Toronto has become. That the media treats this aggressive tribalism as nothing but a big harmless street party goes to show just how out of touch with reality a lot of journalists are. Toronto is an explosion waiting to happen.
See also:
Diversity Causes "Bowling Alone"
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
ETHNIC diversity seriously undermines the trust and social bonds within a community, according to important new research that casts a gloomy shadow over optimistic theories about the benefits of the social melting pot in immigrant societies such as Australia.
The worrying findings about the effects of ethnic diversity were developed by Robert Putnam, a Harvard University political scientist whose previous research on community dynamics has been highly influential among policymakers in the US and cited by Australian prime ministerial aspirants Peter Costello and Mark Latham.
Professor Putnam has delayed releasing the results of his research for fear of the impact it could have on politicians and other policymakers, but he revealed its thrust yesterday in an interview with London's Financial Times newspaper.
[. . .]
Read the whole Daily Telegraph article.
This certainly has been my experience in Toronto. It's hard to create a sense of community when you don't have a common language as is the case in my neighbourhood. Even when people do speak the same language, there can be tensions if there is no shared identity. Speaking the same language didn't prevent Serbs, Croats and Bosnian Muslims from slaughtering each other during the recent Balkan wars. This is the reason the World Cup celebrations worry me so much. Different groups waving different foreign flags is a visible sign of different identities. It's a blatant demonstration of just how ethnically balkanized Toronto has become. That the media treats this aggressive tribalism as nothing but a big harmless street party goes to show just how out of touch with reality a lot of journalists are. Toronto is an explosion waiting to happen.
See also:
Diversity Causes "Bowling Alone"
Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community
Monday, October 09, 2006
More violence in Flemingdon Park. Man shoots woman in face.
From the Toronto Star (Security camera captures shooting of woman by Linda Nguyen and Joanna Smith, October 9):
A security camera filmed a man shoot a woman in the face outside a Flemingdon Park plaza, then another camera captured his image confronting a security guard after breaking into a nearby building just minutes later.
Someone at a shop on Don Mills Rd. near Gateway Blvd. flagged down two officers on routine patrol around 3:45 a.m. Monday, when they found a woman shot in the face lying outside the plaza.
The woman was taken to hospital in serious condition has not yet been identified.
A security video later revealed the victim was with another woman and a man outside the plaza when the man shot her in the face and ran away, police said.
[. . .]
Read all of the Star article.
It looks like the community barbecue didn't solve the crime problem.
See also:
Residents watched as teen was stripped down, beaten and stabbed to death
Technorati tags: Toronto Toronto crime Flemingdon Park
A security camera filmed a man shoot a woman in the face outside a Flemingdon Park plaza, then another camera captured his image confronting a security guard after breaking into a nearby building just minutes later.
Someone at a shop on Don Mills Rd. near Gateway Blvd. flagged down two officers on routine patrol around 3:45 a.m. Monday, when they found a woman shot in the face lying outside the plaza.
The woman was taken to hospital in serious condition has not yet been identified.
A security video later revealed the victim was with another woman and a man outside the plaza when the man shot her in the face and ran away, police said.
[. . .]
Read all of the Star article.
It looks like the community barbecue didn't solve the crime problem.
See also:
Residents watched as teen was stripped down, beaten and stabbed to death
Technorati tags: Toronto Toronto crime Flemingdon Park
Here's another way to celebrate Thanksgiving. 11-year-old stabs 13-year-old
From the Toronto Star:
An 11-year-old boy is in custody after a 13-year-old boy was stabbed in the back with a pocket-knife in the city’s northwest end today.
Emergency crews called to Driftwood Ave. near Jane St. and Finch Ave. W. found the boy conscious and breathing, but “bleeding profusely” just before 5 p.m., Toronto Ambulance Duty Officer Rod Hicks said.
[. . .]
I think it's nice young folks have found a way to amuse themselves on this festive day. The article doesn't say what part of the cultural mosaic these playful lads hail from, but I suspect their amusement is another one of those multicultural things. Jane and Finch? Probably black. Just a guess, mind you. Wouldn't want to stereotype, would I?
See also:
Globe and Mail series about Jane and Finch neighbourhood
Toronto schools - "The escalation of guns and violence has made lockdown practices as necessary a routine as recess"
An 11-year-old boy is in custody after a 13-year-old boy was stabbed in the back with a pocket-knife in the city’s northwest end today.
Emergency crews called to Driftwood Ave. near Jane St. and Finch Ave. W. found the boy conscious and breathing, but “bleeding profusely” just before 5 p.m., Toronto Ambulance Duty Officer Rod Hicks said.
[. . .]
I think it's nice young folks have found a way to amuse themselves on this festive day. The article doesn't say what part of the cultural mosaic these playful lads hail from, but I suspect their amusement is another one of those multicultural things. Jane and Finch? Probably black. Just a guess, mind you. Wouldn't want to stereotype, would I?
See also:
Globe and Mail series about Jane and Finch neighbourhood
Toronto schools - "The escalation of guns and violence has made lockdown practices as necessary a routine as recess"
Thanksgiving Day in the new multicultural Canada
Today is Thanksgiving Day in Canada. Some of my neighbours are celebrating the occasion by doing very noisy construction work on their houses. Hey, it's not like Thanksgiving is an important holiday or anything. It's not like Portugal won a soccer game or something else really meaningful. It's not as if Thanksgiving is a time-honoured Canadian tradition like Diwali.
This is wrong. Egyptian baby born in Canadian airspace given citizenship.
From CTV News (Baby born on plane given Canadian citizenship, September 25):
Rabab Ahmed may have a new definition for the term "airborne." She gave birth to a baby girl on a British Airways flight that made an emergency stop at the Halifax International Airport.
Ahmed went into labour while traveling from Boston to her home in
Rabab Ahmed may have a new definition for the term "airborne." She gave birth to a baby girl on a British Airways flight that made an emergency stop at the Halifax International Airport.
Ahmed went into labour while traveling from Boston to her home in