Outright Liars

Jason Kenney is a liar. So is his puppy, James Bezan. So says the commander of Standing NATO Maritime Group 2.

Kenney and Bezan are claiming a close encounter between HMCS Fredericton and Russian surface combatants and aircraft. Supposedly, they got that information from the commanding officer of Fredericton.

Not bloody likely.

There is a near zero chance that the captain of Fredericton sent anything but a factual report of a distant visual sighting of Russian ships and aircraft. To do otherwise would prompt Rear Admiral Brad Williamson, commander SNMG2, to boot HMCS Fredericton to a safe area, well away from any activity. Excitable frigate captains who embellish contact reports are not an asset in such situations - they are an extreme liability.

The fact that HMCS Fredericton remains on station with SNMG2 is solid evidence that the ship is performing and reporting in accordance with the well-practiced doctrine established by the officer in tactical command.

That makes Kenney, Bezan and anybody who repeats their words, liars.

From the same group of thugs who brought you the Temporary Foreign Workers fiasco ....

The Trojan Horse! (Or horses, if you like). Ever heard of the International Mobility Program? How about Inter-Company Transfers, whereby foreign companies are permitted to bring their own foreign workers in to do work on Canadian soil?

No?

Off to Creekside where Alison had done an amazing amount of heavy lifting. It may be the most important post you've read this year.

The Harper Government's latest Big Lie

Well, it has a bag-load hauled out at those times when it is tactically expedient. This one however, is a slam-dunk.

Remember Jason Kenney telling us all how the rules on foreign workers were going to be tightened up? Well it turns out they were ... and they weren't. Canadians now go to the head of the line for non-union sex-work. For anything else, you wait until the union's busted by flooding the market with slave labour.

Go read Simon.  

Update: Not to be missed, Alison weighs in.

Jail the fat white man with the disgusting hat

Jason Kenney believes that the Charter of Rights, established under the Constitution of this country is something stupid. 

"I'm sure they'll trump up some stupid Charter of Rights challenge. That's democracy. They're welcome to object. "

In short, he has expressed the belief that the governing party trumps the Constitution.

Every bullet fired from the barrel of a police pistol was my bullet. If you call that murder, then I am the murderer. Finally I alone created, on my own initiative, the State Secret Police Department. This is the instrument which is so much feared by the enemies of the State, and which is chiefly responsible for the fact that in Germany and Prussia today there is no question of a Marxist or Communist danger.

Herman Goering

Jail him now. Don't bother with a trial. Don't concern yourself with his rights. If it's a problem for him he can make a stupid Charter challenge. That's democracy. He spends time in jail and we ignore him until he resurfaces. 

Let's see Jason Kenney take this test

Yet another reason that Jason Kenney should not be allowed to touch anything important - he's an imbecile. Apparently he has yet to realize that all immigrants don't come from foreigneristan or sound like the terrorists that movie by the South Park guys. A large percentage of immigrants to Canada come from countries where English or French is a national language. And $280 bucks to take an English proficiency test that determines whether you can be a citizen? That is - how you say in English? - a complete rip off.
Nevertheless, I'd love to see how the average CPC backbencher or voter scores on a TOEIC or TOEFL.

Jason, Jason, Jason... you bloody liar...

Single combat! That's an offer!!!

It doesn't get better than that.

This is NOT a duel. This is a challenge between us warriors. We will use our skills at combat.

The best part is, we represent everything our side has to offer. You represent bigotry and I represent... everything that isn't you.

The winner tells the other guy's army to go away. And they will do that because the loser is a piece of dead hamburger. (Funny how that works.)

So, Jason, naval cutlasses on a swinging bridge. Unless, of course you would like to do something more difficult. No problem. I'm up for it, sport. I am, after all, a warrior and a veteran. I do battle with great reluctance.

But dispatching you, sonny, would be something I would consider a duty as a citizen.

And consider the alternative: If you win, you get to be as Hitlerarian as you want to be.

How cool is that?

I don't intend to lose. Just so you know.

Of course, we can point out that you, and Dimitri, are both rank cowards.

If you read nothing else today...

You will read Montreal Simon.

You will be disgusted.

I offer something in the way of an apology. Not for Simon. For forcing you to accept that the government you allowed to exist, under Steve Harper, is so blinkered by its own ideology.

It will kill us as a nation.

We used to be so strong. People would come to us to seek answers to the most difficult questions this world could ask.

Now, we have Jason Kenney. Harper's mouthpiece.

Call him a racist, a pig or anything you like. But a Canadian, willing to act as an honest broker? Never!

Canada's gone!

Once we had a seat in the back row of the World Stage. But we used to have one helluva marker.

Enjoy your hockey game. That's the only thing that separates you from being an American now.

Jason Kenney's Guyed For New ConserCanadians

.

GO

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h/t Holly Stick at Bread 'n Roses

The Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism

In February, Bernie Farber CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, and 10 other Canadian parliamentarians attended the London Conference on Combating Anti-Semitism.

From Farber's Feb 25 article at CJC :

"Of all the strategies and tactics reviewed, one stood out for broader emulation. It was the development of all-party enquiries into the state of anti-Semitism in individual countries. Such a committee establishes a clear focus and accountabilities, a specific timeline for co-ordinated action by government ministries, agencies and law enforcement groups and a political check against any attempts at appeasement.

It ensures that the fight against anti-Semitism becomes validated by all parties, and avoids anti-Semitism serving as a wedge issue among politicians. It puts the onus for leadership of the battle on non-Jews who have the most credibility in pushing this agenda within civil society. "

And voilà! : The Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism is born. (h/t Dr. Dawg)

The coalition will conduct a national inquiry into antisemitism in Canada.
Today’s announcement is intended to signal that in this country, legislators of all parties are deeply concerned about what seems to be a rising international tide of renewed antisemitism, on a scale not seen in my lifetime.

There will be hearings. There will be witnesses. You can make a submission by July 31.

The FAQs page assures us this is not an attempt to muzzle criticism of Israel.

Yet even as Farber noted in his column "the rise of new forms of anti-Semitism" such as "the linkage of anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism", he informs us, apparently without irony or noticing the significance himself (italics mine):

"The U.K. Community Security Trust (CST), which co-hosted the London conference, has developed one of the leading evidentiary methodologies for tracking and understanding anti-Semitic incidents. Last week, it noted that a decrease in anti-Semitic incidents in 2008 (for the second year running) was totally overshadowed by an unprecedented rise during and after the Gaza operations."

Odd coincidence, that.

You know, if some of you guys would knock off conflating criticism of Israel's carnage in Gaza with anti-Semitism yourselves, like this recent nonsense concocted by Farber to punish Zerbisias, Jason Kenney's success in barring George Galloway from entering Canada, and Steve going all Godwin on us last year :

Criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic, Harper says

Mike Souza, Canwest News May 09 2008

Some of the criticism brewing in Canada against the state of Israel, including from some members of Parliament, is similar to the attitude of Nazi Germany in the Second World War, Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned yesterday.

"I guess my fear is what I see happening in some circles is (an) anti-Israeli sentiment, really just as a thinly disguised veil for good old-fashioned anti-Semitism, which I think is completely unacceptable," Harper said in an interview with CJAD radio.

... it would go some distance towards striking a blow against the actual anti-Semitism that really does need combating.

.

Critics of Israel's policies know anti-Semitism exists and we support legitimate attempts to combat it.

What we do not support is the weasely conflation of anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism/criticism of Israel by Israel's defenders in the underhanded attempt to muzzle any criticism of the policies of the State of Israel by calling all of it, in Steve's happy phrase, "good old-fashioned anti-Semitism".

Unfortunately I fear that whatever McCarthyite machinations are being brewed up in this parliamentary committee of Farber and Kenney's will only serve to further blur that line.
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Grade 5 composition; Grade 10 social studies

Over at Creekside, Alison provides information most people had received via the public education system by the time they were 15. If they had stayed in school.

I have one more item to add.

No matter how one views the George Galloway controversy, if one is going to frame a petition, or in this case, a counter petition, one should be certain that the opening does not contain a heinous error in the salutation. (For those who were absent that day in grade 5, that would be the person or persons directly addressed.)

Jason Kenney is not The Right Honourable. Officially, as a Canadian minister of the Crown (and not the prime minister), the correct honorific is "The Honourable". Kenney is not entitled to the socially superior reference. That's basic secondary school stuff.

Notwithstanding, there are many other things we could call Jason Kenney with complete accuracy.

George Galloway runs afoul of the Canada-Israel "border"

Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, has stated repeatedly that the banning of George Galloway from Canada is not his responsibility.
Well of course it isn't.
It's the responsibility of the Canadian Border Services Agency under Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan.

Say, how's that Canada-Israel "homeland security" border coming along?

State of Israel - Ministry of Public Security :

"On November 17-26, a delegation from the Ministry of Public Security visited the United States and Canada on an official visit. The visit was within the framework of the joint work team with the American Department of Homeland Security on Science and Technology.

In March 2008 a Declaration of Intent was signed between the Israeli Ministry of Public Security and the Canadian Ministry of Public Safety in order to promote mutual interests in the fields of the battle against organized crime, human trafficking, terrorist financing, managing crisis situations, border security, crime prevention and other aspects of homeland security.

The first work meetings of the two sides were held on November 24-26 in Ottawa, Canada, with the aim at forming a framework for the implementation of the agreement signed between the two countries.

The meetings were attended by the Deputy Director General of the Ministry, the Chief Scientist, representatives of the Israel Police and the Israel Prison Service, a representative of the Counter Terrorism Division in the Office of the Israeli Prime Minister, and representatives of the Canadian Ministry of Public Safety, the Canadian Police and Canadian Prison Service.

The meetings focused on the following fields:

• Security of strategic facilities
• Border control
• Emergency preparedness
• Correction facilities and services
• Crime and delinquency
• Science and technology – including law enforcement and counter terrorism
  technologies.

During the meetings the two parties surveyed their primary activities in their fields and examined potential projects of mutual interest. The meetings concluded by deciding on primary principles of the operational and technological cooperation between the two countries in the above fields. "

.
Public Safety Canada :
Declaration of Intent Between the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada and the Ministry of Public Security of the Government of the State of Israel :

To establish a Management Committee that would:
Be comprised of the Deputy Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness of Canada, and the Director General of Public Security for the Government of the State of Israel;
Meet annually and as needed to develop and approve a program of work, consistent with the scope and objectives of this Declaration, for that upcoming year;

To achieve the following objectives:
Build on their shared commitment to facilitate and enhance cooperation to protect their respective countries’ population, assets and interests from common threats;

Integrate and coordinate of the identification, prioritization, and implementation of cooperative efforts between themselves in the area of public safety;

I'm guessing somewhere amongst all that "shared commitment" and "enhanced cooperation", George Galloway fell under the heading of "aspects of homeland security : projects of mutual interest" and "common threats" at a CBSA "program of work".

.
Harper is seen above on Thursday "urging all Canadians to confront what he calls a 'rising tide of anti-Semitism' around the world" :

Harper, who was joined by Conservative MP Peter Kent, who represents the area, urged all Canadians to "confront" anti-Semitism as a "moral evil."

Speaking of "moral evil", Harper has previously joined George Bush in publicly attempting to blur the lines between criticism of Israel and anti-Semitism.
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Presumably he's referring in his speech Thursday to people like this or this or this or this .
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What can you do? L-Girl has a list of actions.

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Cross-posted at Creekside

RepubliCons : One Big Happy Family, Part %$*&#

Jason Kenney spokesthingey AlyKhan "pee on the carpet" Velshi is an interesting fellow in his own right.
So outrageous was his debut on Channel Four News to explain why Canada is banning British MP and Viva Palestina! leader George Galloway from entering Canada, I thought I'd look him up.

Here he is in 2006 fondly reminiscing about his days at the American Enterprise Institute :

"Ambassador Kirkpatrick, until fairly recently, was a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, where I interned last year, and her office was only a few steps away from my bay on the 11th floor. She later went on to help found the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies."

And then the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies went on to employ Alykhan Velshi ... along with Clifford May, Richard Perle, Newt Gingrich, William Kristol, James Woolsey, Charles Krauthammer, Michael Ledeen, Gary Bauer ... You get the idea ... if you signed the PNAC letter, you're in.

Here he is at FDD touting a 2007 article he co-wrote for National Review Online - "The law and terrorist charities" :

"There is, however, a compelling basis for a government ban on any assistance — even self-described humanitarian aid — to terrorists. Because terrorist organizations are not known as models of corporate transparency, there is no way of knowing whether a terrorist entity’s humanitarian arm is funneling money to its militant one."

Gosh, isn't that just what his new boss Jason Kenney thought he was up to two days ago when he stripped federal funds to the Canadian Arab Foundation for providing language training to new immigrants and the Canadian Islamic Congress for providing sensitivity training sessions to the Canadian Air Transportation Security Authority? [h/t Stageleft]

Do the Cons get all their ideas from ex-American Enterprise Institute interns?

Be sure to drop our Minister of Multiculturalism a line and tell him what you think : Kenney.J@parl.gc.ca or minister@cic.gc.ca.
Libby Davies and Olivia Chow have already done so.

Courtesy of L-Girl, there's Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=62965075809 and a petition.

Cross-posted from Creekside

Send me a memo. I'll look into it.

Israel is a nation state. Nothing more; nothing less.

When that nation state violates the rule of international law, behaves in a way which the world finds abhorrent, and reacts to an insurgency which is as much their own creation as it is that of the insurgents they are attempting to defeat, with unreasonable state-sanctioned force, we have every right to demand they be held to account.... without the functionaries of a minority government slapping their lips together in the name of a theocracy.

If I were an Arab leader, I would never sign an agreement with Israel. It is normal; we have taken their country. It is true God promised it to us, but how could that interest them? Our God is not theirs. There has been Anti - Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault ? They see but one thing: we have come and we have stolen their country. Why would they accept that?

David Ben-Gurion
Prime Minister of Israel
1948 -1953, 1955 - 1963

Now... go read stageleft.

Jewish Canadians Concerned About Suppression of Criticism of Israel

Once upon a time it actually meant something to accuse someone of anti-Semitism; lately it has just come to mean 'Shut up.'

Challenging the Commonplace :

This statement was rejected by both the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail (as an op-ed). Please help this important statement get into broad circulation - pass it on to your networks (faculty, community, MPs, university presidents, unions, etc.). You might also write to the papers, expressing your dismay that they have chosen not to publish it.

March 10, 2009
Over 150 Jewish Canadians have signed a statement expressing their concerns about the campaign to suppress criticism of Israel that is being carried on within Canada. The signatories include many prominent Canadians, including Ursula Franklin O.C., Anton Kuerti O.C., Naomi Klein, Dr. Gabor Mate, and professors Meyer Brownstone (recipient of Pearson Peace Medal), Natalie Zemon Davis (former president of the American Historical Association), and Judy Rebick.

The signatories are particularly concerned that unfounded accusations of anti-Semitism deflect attention from Israel's accountability for what many have called war crimes in Gaza. They state that B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have led campaigns to silence criticism of Israel on university campuses, in labour unions and in other groups. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff unquestioningly echo the views of these particular Jewish organizations.

The signatories strongly state that they are against all expressions of racism. While firmly committed to resisting any form of prejudice against Jewish people, their statement explicitly states that these spurious allegations of anti-Semitism bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. The statement underlines the immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people due to the severe poverty, daily humiliations, and military invasions inflicted by the State of Israel.

Statement: Jewish Canadians Concerned about Suppression of Criticism of Israel

We are Jewish Canadians concerned about all expressions of racism, anti-Semitism, and social injustice. We believe that the Holocaust legacy "Never again" means never again for all peoples. It is a tragic turn of history that the State of Israel, with its ideals of democracy and its dream of being a safe haven for Jewish people, causes immeasurable suffering and injustice to the Palestinian people.

We are appalled by recent attempts of prominent Jewish organizations and leading Canadian politicians to silence protest against the State of Israel. We are alarmed by the escalation of fear tactics. Charges that those organizing Israel Apartheid Week or supporting an academic boycott of Israel are anti-Semites promoting hatred bring the anti-Communist terror of the 1950s vividly to mind. We believe this serves to deflect attention from Israel's flagrant violations of international humanitarian law.

B'nai Brith and the Canadian Jewish Congress have pressured university presidents and administrations to silence debate and discussion specifically regarding Palestine/Israel. In a full-page ad in a national newspaper, B'nai Brith urged donors to withhold funds from universities because "anti-Semitic hate fests" were being allowed on campuses. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff have echoed these arguments. While university administrators have resisted demands to shut down Israel Apartheid week, some Ontario university presidents have bowed to this disinformation campaign by suspending and fining students, confiscating posters, and infringing on free speech.

We do not believe that Israel acts in self-defense. Israel is the largest recipient of US foreign aid, receiving $3 million/day. It has the fourth strongest army in the world. Before the invasion of Gaza on 27 December 2008, Israel's siege had already created a humanitarian catastrophe there, with severe impoverishment, malnutrition, and destroyed infrastructure. It is crucial that forums for discussion of Israel's accountability to the international community for what many have called war crimes be allowed to proceed unrestricted by specious claims of anti-Semitism.

We recognize that anti-Semitism is a reality in Canada as elsewhere, and we are fully committed to resisting any act of hatred against Jews. At the same time, we condemn false charges of anti-Semitism against student organizations, unions, and other groups and people exercising their democratic right to freedom of speech and association regarding legitimate criticism of the State of Israel.

Signatories


Related quote :

"Two years ago, an American friend took me on a helicopter ride from Jerusalem to the Golan Heights over the Palestinian West Bank. He wanted to show me how vulnerable Israel was, how the Arabs only had to cross 11km of land to reach the sea and throw the Israelis into it. I got this message but I also came away with another one. When I looked down at the West Bank, at the settlements like Crusader forts occupying the high ground, at the Israeli security cordon along the Jordan river closing off the Palestinian lands from Jordan, I knew I was not looking down at a state or the beginnings of one, but at a Bantustan, one of those pseudo-states created in the dying years of apartheid to keep the African population under control."
~Michael Ignatieff, The Guardian, April 19, 2002

Republicans and Cons - just one big happy cross-border party

G&M :

Americans living in Calgary are being asked to help fund Republican efforts to elect John McCain through the visit of an influential Republican senator who doubles as one of Mr. McCain's campaign co-chairs.

Kansas Senator Sam Brownback is being invited to the city in August by a well-known Tory supporter and lawyer, Gerry Chipeur, who also has significant links to the U.S. Republican Party.

The funds raised by Americans attending the event will be used to help defray costs incurred by the Republican nominating convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul in September, as well as help elect a Republican the next president, said Mr. Chipeur in an interview.

Those wanting to hear Mr. Brownback speak at a dinner will be asked to pay $1,000, said Norman Leach, executive director of the Western Canadian division of the American Chamber of Commerce, which is helping Mr. Chipeur organize the event.
About 80,000 Americans live and work in Calgary, he said."

Possibly the best part is that the proceeds from the proposed $1000 a plate Brownback dinner will go to Friends of Science, Tim Ball's oil industry-funded anti-Kyoto "charity", whose funding was laundered through the University of Calgary by Harper's buddy, Prof. Barry Cooper, before the U of C put a stop to it.

Gerry Chipeur, a dual citizen himself, is an anti-SSM ReformaTory Alliance lawyer and supporter with ties to the evangelical movement on both sides of the border.
Here he is, for instance, on Bill O'Reilly's US talk show, The O'Reilly Factor, ragging on about activist judges and how Canada is a secular society.

Once upon a time however, Chipeur was much more coy about Canadian Con ties to US Republicans :

From: Paul Weyrich
[co-founder of the Moral Majority and the Heritage Foundation]
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2006 9:38 AM
To: Bob Thompson
[a staffer at Weyrich’s Free Congress Foundation]

Subject: Message from Canada
Importance: High

Please get this message to the Stanton, Family Forum and Wednesday lunch groups:
I received a call last night from Gerald Chipeur, an important figure in Canada’s Conservative Party. He told me that Conservatives are with-in striking distance of electing an outright majority in Parliamentary elections Monday.

He said the Canadian media, which is trying to save the current Liberal government, has a strategy of calling conservatives in the USA in the hopes that someone will inadvertently say something that can be hung around the Conservatives.

Canadian voters have been led to believe that American conservatives are scary and if the Conservative party can be linked with us, they perhaps can diminish a Conservative victory.

Chipeur asks that if Canadian media calls, please do not be interviewed until Monday evening at which point hopefully there will be reason to celebrate.

Many thanks.

When contacted by Canadian Press about the email, Weyrich denied any personal involvement but later on his website, he bragged about his "small victory" in the Canadian elections, recounting the entire email incident as true after all.

More recently Chipeur was credited with introducing Republican Frank Sensenbrenner to Canadian embassy officials at the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004, attended by Stockwell Day, Alberta MP Jason Kenney and John Reynolds, co-chair of the Tory 2006 election campaign.
Sensenbrenner had attended Reform party conventions and Stockwell Day insisted he be hired by the Canadian Embassy. Sensenbrenner was subsequently alleged to have leaked the Canadian memo which wounded Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama in the Naftagate leak.

Republicans and Cons - just one big happy cross-border party.

h/t files from Polunatic, Tilting at Windmills, Toe at Bread 'n Roses

Cross-posted at Creekside

It's either Sensenbrenner or Mr.Mustard in the Library

Days after an internal probe by the Clerk of the Privy Council Office Kevin Lynch failed to determine the source of the Naftagate leak, James Travers at The Star reported that "Multiple sources say the Canadian note questioning the Democrat frontrunner's public promise to reopen NAFTA was leaked from the Prime Minister's Office" to Frank Sensenbrenner, a Republican who worked at the Canadian embassy in Washington.

Now Sensenbrenner's father, James, introduced the notorious U.S. Patriot Act as chair of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, but just how did his son Frank appear in our midst?

"[Frank] Sensenbrenner was introduced to senior embassy officials by Gerry Chipeur, a Calgary-based lawyer who was once legal counsel to the Reform and Canadian Alliance parties, the antecedents of today's Conservative party.
Chipeur, a dual citizen who headed the Republicans Abroad Canada, also has deep ties to the evangelical community in both countries and prominent U.S. Republicans, including Kansas Senator Sam Brownback.

The entrée of Sensenbrenner into Canadian diplomatic circles was forged at the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004, where members of the Canadian embassy and Conservative officials such as Day, Chipeur, Alberta MP Jason Kenney and John Reynolds, co-chair of the Tory 2006 election campaign, all attended.
Sensenbrenner had cut his political teeth in Canada, attending private college in the Toronto area and attending early Reform party conventions where he first befriended those in then-leader Preston Manning's inner circle.
The push to get him on the payroll came particularly from Day, sources said, when he took over the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative file, the name given to the Republican move to require all Canadians crossing the U.S. land border to carry passports or secure driver's licences."

~ Tim Harper at The Star

I had no idea Day, Kenney, and Reynolds attended the U.S. Republican National Convention but I can't say I'm surprised. You'll recall that Day is currently steering his own version of the Patriot Act through our parliament. This old boys network is already so 'deeply integrated' they can't imagine what's taking the rest of Canada so long to catch up.

Frank Sensenbrenner has since denied having a role in the leak of the Canadian consular memo, so due to that internal Privy Council Office probe which protects the Cons from having to answer any difficult questions, we're back to Mr. Mustard in the Library again.

h/t Jennifer at Runesmith's Canadian Content for the Star links
Cross-posted at Creekside

Everything was going just swimmingly until...

Non-violence best answer, Dalai Lama says

"Avoiding violence in places like Afghanistan and Iraq is the best way to counter the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Dalai Lama said before meeting the prime minister in Ottawa on Monday.
Speaking on the second day of his visit to Canada, the spiritual leader of Tibet said he would tell Stephen Harper, if the subject were to come up, that “using violence to counter violence” can exacerbate problems.

“I always believe non-violence is the best way to solve problems,” he said in response to reporters' questions about Canada's role in Afghanistan.
A clearly uncomfortable Multiculturalism Minister Jason Kenney stood close by, trying to interrupt without success and tugging at the holy man's elbow."

Tugging at the holy man's elbow? That's really classy, Jason.
Not much on the whole non-violence thing though really, our Minister of Multiculturalism.
Regular readers will recall Jason came this close to winning the coverted Certificate of Hitlertude just this past February.
Cross-posted at Creekside

The Amero....again.

Globe&Mail :
"Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge says North America could one day embrace a euro-style single currency. (snip)
The idea of a common currency has long been a subject of curiosity, particularly among Canadian academics, who see it as a way to escape sharp gyrations in the exchange rate. (snip)
Some proponents have dubbed the single North American currency the “amero.”
It is more likely, however, that a common currency would mean that Canada and Mexico would adopt the U.S. dollar, giving up significant economic control to a central bank dominated by the United States."

In 1999, former Alliance MP Herb Grubal wrote a paper for the Fraser Institute entitled The Case For the Amero : The Economics and Politics of a North American Monetary Union .

In it he describes how in March of 1999, Reform Party members Rob Anders, Rahim Jaffer and Jason Kenney "spearheaded a debate in parliament over the issue of monetary union for North America. In the process, they asked the Prime Minister to form a committee of parliament to study the subject."

Well, so much for "being a subject of curiosity, particularly among academics".

Interesting how far back the public record on this idea goes among the gnugovs, although they do say they were expecting "some resistance".
In endnote #39 to "The Case For the Amero", Grubal notes : "Resistance to the amero will be lessened by continuing to call it officially a "dollar" in the United States and Canada."

Oh come on now, Reformers, you know you really want to call it the "The Almighty Dollar" - in honour of, you know, "Him".
However, given the current US trade deficit with China, a very good reason among many other very good reasons for Canada not to consider this idea at all, they might have to settle for the "Almighty Yuan".

(cross-posted at Creekside)

BACKFIRE!

Via Far and Wide and Scott's DiaTribes comes a Decima Research poll which proves how out of touch with Canadians the Conservatives really are:

A new poll suggests Canadians are not impressed by Conservative party TV ads that attempt to discredit new Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.

The survey by Decima Research found that 38 per cent of respondents -- out of a sample of more than 1,000 -- recalled seeing the attack ads.

But among the 388 Canadians who remember watching the unusual, non-election-period political advertising, 59 per cent said the ads were not fair in how they described Dion. Only 22 per cent felt the ads were fair.

Fully two thirds of the respondents said the information in the ads was not relevant to their choice in the next federal election, compared with 26 per cent who said it was relevant.

And, yes, that would be a bust in the advertising and marketing world. But it's really a lot more than that. While both Steve V and Scott have excellent points, my take is a little different.

Jason Kenney's attempt to run a game on Dion, one which would require the full approval of Harper, was something which most Canadian political strategists, given the timing, would have rejected. If Harper and Kenney really understood the minds and sensitivities of Canadians generally, they would have known that the results would have cast them and not their opponent in a bad light.

Canadians generally don't like political attack ads during an election campaign. It should have been manifestly obvious that most Canadians would find Kenney's vitriolic tactic both distasteful and outside the bounds of propriety and fair-play. And therein lies my point.

That Harper and Kenney clearly did not know how their little strategy would play out with Canadians and did not restrain themselves shows how far out of touch they are with the Canadian psyche.

Running an attempted attack campaign outside of an election might have worked in some other countries. It has all the earmarks of a Frank Luntz/Karl Rove style maneuver. It was a very US Republican move which should tell us all where the Harperites are buying their political advice.

Jason Kenney displays his American tendencies

Via Jeff at BCer in TO. Macleans quotes multiculturalism minister Jason Kenney:

It’s a great testament to [Khan] that, within a week of moving to government caucus, [he has] the Prime Minister and Canada’s First Lady, Ms. Harper, in [his] constituency," Kenney said. "This is a sign that Wajid is already getting things done.

How very American of Kenney. This is a minister of the Crown who has no idea that the spouse of the First Minister of The Crown is as common as the First Minister, a first among equals. Canada doesn't have a First Lady.

I guess we couldn't expect much else from such a blathering idiot.

If there was an award for making an idiotic statement, this guy would get it.

Libby Davies
referring to Jason Kenney

Her statement is as true now as it was then. I suspect, as multiculturalism minister, one of Kenney's greatest wishes is to be allowed to build a fence... somewhere.