Rex Murphy: The Contemptible Concept of ‘White Privilege’ is Just Ugly, Angry Racism
Posted: March 12, 2018 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Activism, Canada, Identity Politics, Jordan Peterson, Marxism, propaganda, race, Racism, SJW, Social justice 1 Comment
Maxime Bernier is right: Identity politics dissolves community, reduces a country to subsets of clans, and obscures the diversity of individual lives.
Then there is Justin Trudeau inviting the fanatically anti-Alberta-oil Bill Nye to Ottawa for a public chat on science, the highlight of which was the signal revelation of the centrality of breastfeeding to the scientific method — delivered by our PM. When baby wails and the milk flows, can Planck’s constant be far behind?
As well: Jaspal Atwal, failed Sikh assassin, holding what he ludicrously called a press conference. The only takeaway: his lawyer is scarier, though not necessarily more competent.
Minister of Immigration Ahmed Hussen shares the stage with Parliamentary Secretary MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes, centre, and Heritage Minister Melanie Joly during a Black History Month reception at the Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., on Feb. 12, 2018. Justin Tang/CP
More fertile than them all however was the brisk, chippy, and entitled Twitter blast levelled by Liberal MP and person of colour, Celina Caesar-Chavannes (Whitby, Ont.), at Conservative MP Maxime Bernier (Beauce, Que.).
Bernier had criticized an earlier tweet by Ahmed Hussen in which the Immigration Minister said the federal budget was historic for “racialized Canadians.”
Bernier said he deplored that tweet’s “awful jargon,” the pitch to “racialized” Canadians, and put out a plea for “colour blindness,” character over skin colour. His critics, Bernier said, implied (he was) a racist because “I want to live in a society where everyone is treated equally and not defined by their race.”
“Please check your privilege and be quiet.”
— MP Celina Caesar-Chavannes
The parliamentary pigeons were duly agitated. Instanter, Caesar-Chavannes fired off her Twitter blast: Read the rest of this entry »
Former Official: Obama Admin ‘Systematically Disbanded’ Units Investigating Iran’s Terrorism Financing Networks
Posted: June 9, 2017 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Foreign Policy, Global, History, Politics, Self Defense, Terrorism, White House | Tags: Canada, DC, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Memorial Day, Obama, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, United States Department of State, United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Washington 1 Comment
Susan Crabtree reports: The Obama administration “systematically disbanded” law enforcement investigative units across the federal government focused on disrupting Iranian, Syrian, and Venezuelan terrorism financing networks out of concern the work could cause friction with Iranian officials and scuttle the nuclear deal with Iran, according to a former U.S. official who spent decades dismantling terrorist financial networks.
David Asher, who previously served as an adviser to Gen. John Allen at the Defense and State Departments, told the House Foreign Affairs Committee Thursday that top officials across several key law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the Obama administration “systematically disbanded” law enforcement activities targeting the terrorism financing operations of Iran, Hezbollah, and Venezuela in the lead-up to and during the nuclear negotiations with Tehran.
“Senior leadership, presiding, directing, and overseeing various sections [of these agencies] and portions of the U.S. intelligence community systematically disbanded any internal or external stakeholder action that threatened to derail the administration’s policy agenda focused on Iran,” he testified.
Asher now serves on the board of directors of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies‘ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance and is an adjunct fellow at the Center for New American Security, two national security think tanks.
He attributed the motivation for decisions to dismantle the investigative units to “concerns about interfering with the Iran deal,” a reference to the nuclear deal forged between the U.S., five other world powers, and Iran during the final years of the Obama administration.
As a result, “several top cops” retired and the U.S. government lost their years of expertise. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Deer Runs Over Man
Posted: April 10, 2017 Filed under: Humor, Mediasphere | Tags: Canada, Deer, video Leave a comment
Alix Tichelman DEPORTED: Prostitute Who Gave Fatal Heroin Shot to Google Exec Deported Back to Canada
Posted: April 8, 2017 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Law & Justice, U.S. News | Tags: Alix Tichelman, Canada, Deportation, Google executive, Heroin, Immigration 2 Comments
SAN FRANCISCO – Federal immigration officials said Friday they were deporting a California prostitute to Canada after she completed a jail sentence for involuntary manslaughter for giving a fatal heroin shot to a Google executive she had been entertaining aboard his yacht.
[PHOTOS] The Siren of Silicon Valley: Prostitute Pin-Up Perp Alix Tichelman Gallery
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman James Schwab said a judge ordered Alix Tichelman, 29, deported to Canada because of her felony convictions connected to the accidental overdose death of Forrest Hayes in November 2013. She also pleaded guilty to a felony charge of administering drugs.
Immigration agents arrested her after she finished her jail sentence on March 29.
Schwab declined to disclose Tichelman’s immigration status in the United States or whether she was represented by an immigration attorney.
The San Jose Mercury News reported Wednesday that Tichelman holds a permit to permanently work and live in the United States. The paper reported that Tichelman was raised in Georgia and spent little time in Canada.
Police said a surveillance video at the harbor showed Tichelman at first panicking and trying to revive Hayes. Then it showed her casually step over Hayes’ body, finish a glass of wine and lower a blind before leaving the yacht. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] What’s Wrong With Canada’s Islamophobia Motion? A Muslim Answers
Posted: April 6, 2017 Filed under: Censorship, Law & Justice, Mediasphere | Tags: Canada, Clarion Project, Free speech, Freedom of Expression, Islam, Islamofacsism, Islamophobia, Jihadism, Muslim Brotherhood, Raheel Raza, Sharia Law, video Leave a commentClarion’s Raheel Raza is unhappy with what she sees as a challenge to free speech, something enshrined in Canadian law.
New MDMA Trials Moving Forward To Test Ecstasy As Treatment For PTSD
Posted: December 1, 2016 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, Science & Technology | Tags: Canada, Clinical trial, Food and Drug Administration, Listeria, MDMA, New York University, Phases of clinical research, Posttraumatic stress disorder, Prescription drug, The New York Times Leave a comment
New research may have found a more efficient way of treating patients who suffer from PTSD: by using MDMA, which is ecstasy in its purest form. The assisted drug treatment could be approved by the FDA.
“The medicine allows them to look at things from a different place and reclassify them. Honestly, we don’t have to do much. Each person has an innate ability to heal. We just create the right conditions.”
— Ann Mithoefer, psychiatric nurse
MDMA, the pure form of ecstasy, will be employed in treating . The drug is also tested for its properties when it comes to treating terminally ill patients.
[Read the full story here, at Tech Times]
The tests conducted for possible have had positive outcomes and researchers consider the approval of MDMA as a prescription drug sometime in the near future.
However, more tests should be carried out before this. The Food and Drug Administration already approved a Phase III trial as part of the procedure.
MDMA – Possible Medical Solution To PTSD
The first two studies treated patients for 12 weeks, in the form of psychotherapy sessions and MDMA sessions. The MDMA sessions lasted eight hours each, during which the . After being given the drug, the patients would sit in a relaxing environment, surrounded by chill music, flowers and candles in order to suggest a calm state of mind to balance the euphoric effects of the drug. Read the rest of this entry »
‘His Schedule Doesn’t Permit it’
Posted: November 29, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Global, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Canada, Cuba, Cuban Revolution, Cubans, Donald Trump, Fidel Castro, Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, United States Leave a comment
Outrage and mockery about Trudeau’s fond words for Castro has threatened to end the Liberal leader’s long honeymoon.
OTTAWA (Reuters) – Andrea Hopkins reports: Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will not attend the funeral of Fidel Castro, his office said on Monday, days after Trudeau’s warm comments about the late Cuban leader sparked a backlash.
Trudeau referred on Saturday to Castro as a “remarkable leader” and expressed his sorrow at the death of “Cuba’s longest serving president.”
Trudeau acknowledged on Sunday that Castro had been a dictator as political opponents called on him to boycott the funeral.
Outrage and mockery about Trudeau’s fond words for Castro, who had been an honorary pallbearer at the funeral in 2000 of Trudeau’s father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, has threatened to end the Liberal leader’s long honeymoon.
Noting the “many questions” about whether Trudeau would attend the funeral, spokeswoman Andree-Lyne Halle said in an email the prime minister would skip the event. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Ralph Peters: ‘Trudeau Has the Intellectual Heft of Cotton Candy’
Posted: November 28, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Diplomacy, Education, Health and Social Issues, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Canada, Cotton Candy, Fidel Castro, Justin Trudeau, media, news, Ralph Peters, video Leave a comment
Justin Trudeau Backtracks, Explains
Posted: November 27, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Diplomacy, Humor, The Butcher's Notebook | Tags: Canada, Communism, Death of Fidel Castro, Dictatorship, Fidel Castro, Justin Trudeau, Left Wing, Marxist Sympathizer, Mass murder, One Party Rule, Prison, Socialism, Torture, Tyranny Leave a comment
Heartache for the Global Left: The Great Man Progressives Loved to Love
Posted: November 26, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, History, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Belgium, Canada, Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, Cuba, Cuba–United States relations, Cuban exile, Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuban Revolution, Donald Tusk, European Union, Fidel Castro, Havana, Jean-Claude Juncker, Jeremy Corbyn, Justin Trudeau, Miami, President of Cuba, President of the European Commission, Prime Minister of Canada, Raúl Castro Leave a comment
CNN mourns: Fidel Castro Ruz, the political personality, has died. Fidel Castro, the historical persona, has been born. He passes from the present into the past, to serve as an enduring historical subject of debate and dispute, about whom dispassion will be impossible for years to come. Fidel Castro was not a man about whom one is likely to be neutral.
NRO‘s Andrew Stuttaford writes:
Fidel is a metaphor. He is a Rorschach blot upon which to project fears or hopes. A prism in which the spectrum of colors refracted out has to do with light that went in. He is a point of view, loaded with ideological purport and political meaning. A David who survived Goliath. A symbol of Third World intransigence against First World domination.
But it is also possible to discuss the historical “essences” of Fidel Castro. He emerged out of a history shaped by a century of Cuban national frustration, heir to a legacy of unfulfilled hopes for national sovereignty and self-determination, aspirations that put Cuba on a collision course with the United States. Read the rest of this entry »
Toronto Reporter Ginella Massa Becomes Canada’s First Hijab-Wearing News Anchor
Posted: November 25, 2016 Filed under: Global, Mediasphere, Religion | Tags: Anti-Muslim sentiment, Broadcast Journalism, Canada, CityNews, Ginella Massa, Hijab, ISIS, Islam, journalism, Left Wing, Muslim, Network News, news, Pro-muslim, propaganda, Sharia Law, Toronto Leave a comment
A journalist at one of Toronto’s major news broadcasters is believed to be Canada’s first anchor to don a Muslim head scarf.
Ginella Massa was asked to fill in on the anchor desk for CityNews’ 11 p.m. broadcast last week. She created a buzz after the broadcast ended and she tweeted: “That’s a wrap! Tonight wasn’t just important for me. I don’t think a woman in hijab has ever anchored a newscast in Canada.”
“I’ve talked to many women who are journalists in the U.S. who work behind the scenes, and they’ve told me that they face multiple challenges trying to get on air. They’ve been told because of their hijab, that’s not going to happen. That makes me really sad because they’re being held back by someone else’s idea of what the public can or cannot handle.”
Massa, 29, said Friday that she became Canada’s first hijab-wearing television news reporter in 2015 while reporting for CTV News in Kitchener, Ontario, west of Toronto. She moved back to Toronto, where she grew up, this year to take a reporting job at CityNews.
“But this is all the more reason in today’s climate to see positive images of Muslim women. They are a symbol of Islam when they wear the hijab, and that carries a powerful image. It’s so important to see positive images of us in the media.”
Massa said in an interview that it took her editor to point out the larger significance. “It wasn’t until my editor said, ‘Hey, great job! Was that a first for Canada? A woman in a hijab?’ And I said yes. Read the rest of this entry »
Network Security Company CEO Forced to Resign After ‘Joking’ About Killing Trump
Posted: November 15, 2016 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Administrative leave, Alexis Tsipras, Apple Inc, Barack Obama, Canada, CNN, Donald Trump, Facebook, Hillary Clinton, Josh Earnest, Melania Trump, Michelle Obama, Republican Party (United States), White House Leave a comment
Trump-Hating Cuckoo Bananas Matt Harrigan of PacketSled Loses His Mind, Makes Public Death Threats, Declares on Facebook, ‘Bring it, Secret Service’
Sean Gallagher reports: Matt Harrigan, the CEO of San Diego-based network security startup PacketSled, resigned yesterday after a flurry of comments he made on Facebook went viral over the weekend, prompting the company to place him on administrative leave and to report his comments to the Secret Service. Harrigan’s comments weren’t the usual sort of executive meltdown—they amounted to a declaration that Harrigan was going to assassinate President-elect Donald Trump.
In a Facebook thread about last week’s presidential election, Matt Harrigan wrote, “I’m going to kill the President Elect.”
“Bring it secret service,” he wrote.
While those may have been rage posts stemming from the election last week, Harrigan went on to describe how he was going to buy a sniper rifle and hunt down Trump when he moved into the White House. “Getting a sniper rifle and perching myself where it counts,” he wrote in one of a series of comments on a thread about the election. “Find a bedroom in the whitehouse [sic] that suits you motherfucker. I’ll find you.”
CEO Matt Harrigan who posted “sniper attack” post below has been placed on administrative leave.#tcot #PJNET
.https://t.co/7GSzYixxcB
. pic.twitter.com/d5YlHS14PJ— vanguard ninja (@INTJutsu) November 14, 2016
[Read the full story here, at Ars Technica]
The comments went viral in screenshots, being posted first on Reddit’s The_Donald subreddit. On Sunday, Harrigan apologized on his company’s blog for the comments, saying that his rant “was intended to be a joke, in the context of a larger conversation, and only privately shared as such.” Read the rest of this entry »
Open ‘Safe Places’ in Seattle, King County for Heroin Use, Task Force Says
Posted: September 15, 2016 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, U.S. News | Tags: British Columbia, Canada, Carfentanil, Dow Constantine, Drug overdose, Emergency medical services, Government of Canada, Heroin, Justin Trudeau, Kentucky, King County, King County Executive, Seattle, The Seattle Times, University of Washington, Vancouver, Washington Leave a comment
A task force is recommending the creation of sites in King County to provide medical supervision for people using illegal drugs like heroin, which would be the first in the U.S.
Vernal Coleman reports: The task force formed to help fight a heroin epidemic in the Seattle area has recommended the opening of public, supervised sites where addicts can use heroin.
The sites, supported by both King County Executive Dow Constantine and Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, would be the first of their kind in the country.
“If it’s a strategy that saves lives … then regardless of the political discomfort I think it is something we have to move forward,” Constantine said during a Thursday news conference.
Murray said he would support establishing the sites if it can be done “in a way that reduces the negative impacts” on neighborhoods.
The recommendations released Thursday call for a pilot program to establish two “community health-engagement locations” in targeted areas where users can inject heroin under medical supervision as an alternative to public restrooms, alleys and homeless encampments like The Jungle.
[Read the full story here, at The Seattle Times]
The committee called for putting one site in Seattle, and another outside of the city in an area where a high number of heroin overdoses have been recorded.
“One of the driving ideas behind this is creating a safe space where we can get people the medical, prevention and treatment services already provided elsewhere,” said Brad Finegood, committee co-chairman and assistant director of the King County Behavioral Health and Recovery Division. Read the rest of this entry »
Referring To The Only Skill He Has, Obama Blames Poor Communication Skills for Electoral Losses
Posted: April 30, 2016 Filed under: Mediasphere, Politics, White House | Tags: Barack Obama, Canada, Cape Breton Island, Democratic Party (United States), Dunham House, European Union, HBO, Hillary Clinton, The Hollywood Reporter, United States 1 Comment
Democrats might have held onto one or both houses of Congress if only Americans better understood the strength of the economic recovery, President Barack Obama said in an interview published Thursday.
“I mean, the truth of the matter is that if we had been able to more effectively communicate all the steps we had taken to the swing voter. Then we might have maintained a majority in the House or the Senate.”
“I mean, the truth of the matter is that if we had been able to more effectively communicate all the steps we had taken to the swing voter,” Obama remarked in a New York Times Magazine interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin, “then we might have maintained a majority in the House or the Senate.”
The U.S. economy is in a better state after the recession than the American people realize, Obama suggested.
“I actually compare our economic performance to how, historically, countries that have wrenching financial crises perform,” he said. “By that measure, we probably managed this better than any large economy on Earth in modern history.”
“I can probably tick off three or four common-sense things we could have done where we’d be growing a percentage or two faster each year. We could have brought down the unemployment rate lower, faster. We could have been lifting wages even faster than we did.”
The president also expressed regret that, in three successive years, his administration was not able to kick-start “a massive infrastructure project,” adding that 2012, 2013 and 2014 “was the perfect time to do it; low interest rates, construction industry is still on its heels, massive need — the fact that we failed to do that, for example, cost us time.
“It meant that there were folks who we could have helped and put back to work and entire communities that could have prospered that ended up taking a lot longer to recover,” Obama said. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Gavin McInnes’ Guide to How to Move to Canada (if Trump Becomes President)
Posted: April 28, 2016 Filed under: Art & Culture, Entertainment, Humor, Mediasphere | Tags: Actor, Canada, Donald Trump, Fox & Friends, Gateway Pundit, Gavin McInnes, Hillary Clinton, Lena Dunham, United States, Vancouver Leave a comment
Canadian writer and comedian, Gavin McInnes, offers advice to Americans who are planning to move to Canada if Donald Trump becomes the next president.
Source: likecool.com
[VIDEO] North Korea’s Satellite-Launch Plan Condemned
Posted: February 3, 2016 Filed under: Asia, Diplomacy, Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: Beijing, Canada, China, Kim Jong-un, Korean Central News Agency, Media of South Korea, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, North Korea, Pyongyang, South Korea Leave a comment
The U.S., South Korea and Japan condemned North Korea’s plan to launch a long-range rocket that Pyongyang says is carrying an earth-observation satellite. Photo: Airbus Defense & Space and 38 North satellite imagery.
#GOPDebate: The Trump-Cruz Duet
Posted: January 14, 2016 Filed under: Breaking News, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: 2016 Presidential Campaign, 2016 Presidential Election, Birther, Canada, Donald Trump, Fox Business Channel, GOP, GOP Debate, Iowa, media, New York, news, Ted Cruz, Television, United States Leave a comment
[VIDEO] BREAKING: FBI on #SanBernardino Shooting: ‘We Are Now Investigating These Horrific Acts as an Act of Terrorism’
Posted: December 4, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, Mediasphere, Terrorism | Tags: al Qaeda, Canada, David Bowdich, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, ISIS, Jihadism, Life imprisonment, Los Angeles, New York, San Bernardino Massacre, Toronto, Train, United States 1 Comment
BREAKING: FBI on #SanBernardino shooting: “We are now investigating these horrific acts as an act of terrorism.”
Dark Clouds on Horizon as Canadian Left Sweeps Election, Trudeau to Become PM
Posted: October 20, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Global, Mediasphere, Politics | Tags: Barack Obama, Canada, Canadian Election, Chris Alexander (politician), David Axelrod, Keystone XL Pipeline, Refugees of Iraq, Refugees of the Syrian civil war, Socialism, Stephen Harper, Syria, Syrian civil war, Trudeau, United Nations Leave a comment
Robert Kraychik reports:
…Trudeau’s campaign channeled rhetoric reminiscent of President Obama’s presidential reelection campaign in 2012, as well as that of his 2008 campaign while still a senator. His campaign promised “real change,” spoke regularly about the nebulous “middle class,” and framed the consensus of the United Nations as representative of Canada’s international reputation. His campaign also focused on reaching out to young voters. Perhaps most importantly, Trudeau’s campaign has incorporated sophisticated technology for hi-tech GOTV efforts used and proven successful by the Obama campaigns.
“Canada’s state-broadcaster – the CBC – is likely glad to have been promised even greater funding above and beyond the over $1 billion currently flowing into its coffers annually.”
Both the Liberals and NDP hired advisors who were alumni of President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. Cross-pollination of left-wing political strategy across the Canada/U.S. border is not entirely new; David Axelrod advised failed former Ontario Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty. McGuinty is now a lobbyist. Read the rest of this entry »
BREAKING: Justin Trudeau Headed for Victory in Canada
Posted: October 19, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Global, Politics | Tags: Canada, Canadians, Conservative Party (UK), Democratic Party (United States), Justin Trudeau, Liberal Party of Canada, New Democratic Party (Canada), Stephen Harper, Thomas Mulcair Leave a comment
Mr. Trudeau has unseated the Conservative prime minister, Stephen Harper, according to a projection Monday night by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp….(read more)
Source: The New York Times
Canada’s Left-Wing Liberal & New Democratic Parties on the ‘Wrong Side of History’?
Posted: October 4, 2015 Filed under: Global, Politics, Religion | Tags: British Columbia, Canada, Canadians, Citizenship, Conservative Party (UK), Election, Face Veil, Muslim, New Democratic Party (Canada), niqab, Parliament, Stephen Harper, Vancouver Leave a comment
Face Veil Controversy Rocks Canada’s National Elections.
John Fund writes:
Vancouver, British Columbia — Canada holds national elections on October 19, and the race there has taken a surprising turn. The ruling Conservative party is making political hay over a court decision that killed its ban on women wearing the niqab — or face veil — while taking the oath of citizenship. The opposition left-wing Liberal and New Democratic parties have been pounded relentlessly for not opposing use of the niqab. Conservatives have moved from third place into first place in the polls and are currently the only party with a shot at winning a majority of seats in Parliament. A full 83 percent of voters back the Conservatives’ position on the Muslim face veil….(read more)
Source: National Review Online
Mission Accomplished: U.S. Drops to 16th on ‘Economic Freedom’ List, Behind Canada, Chile
Posted: September 14, 2015 Filed under: Economics, Global, Mediasphere, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: Anti-Americanism, Canada, Cato Institute, Chile, Economic freedom, Economic Freedom of the World, Fraser Institute, Hong Kong, Property, Russian Empire, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Examiner, United Kingdom, United States 1 Comment
The top 10: Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, Mauritius, Jordan, Ireland, Canada, with the United Kingdom and Chile tied at 10.
“The United States, once considered a bastion of economic freedom, now ranks 16th in the world after being as high as second in 2000.”
Paul Bedard reports: The United States, ranked second in worldwide economic freedom as recently as 2000, has plummeted to 16th, according to a new report of world economies.
“A weakened rule of law, the so-called wars on terrorism and drugs, and a confused regulatory environment have helped erode economic freedom in the United States, which remains behind Canada and other more economically free countries such as Qatar, Jordan and the U.A.E.”
— Fred McMahon, Fraser Institute
The Fraser Institute’s annual report, Economic Freedom of the World, showed that the country’s drop started in 2010, the second year of the Obama administration.
“Economic freedom breeds prosperity and economically free countries like Canada offer the highest quality of life while the lowest-ranked countries are usually burdened by oppressive regimes that limit the freedom and opportunity of their citizens.”
— Fred McMahon, Fraser Institute
The world-recognized report showed that the U.S. fell in several areas, including legal and property rights and regulation.
“The United States, once considered a bastion of economic freedom, now ranks 16th in the world after being as high as second in 2000,” said the report issued Monday morning. Read the rest of this entry »
Canada Participates in Just 3% Coalition Airstrikes Against ISIL in Iraq and Syria
Posted: August 11, 2015 Filed under: Diplomacy, Space & Aviation, War Room | Tags: Canada, Canadian Forces, Economy of Canada, Elizabeth May, Freedom of information laws by country, Justin Trudeau, Michael Fallon, Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), New Democratic Party (Canada), Saanich—Gulf Islands, Stephen Harper, Syria, Thomas Mulcair, United Kingdom, United States Secretary of Defense Leave a comment
Fight Doesn’t Match Tory Rhetoric: Canadian military aircraft have flown 1,320 sorties, or individual missions, over Iraq and Syria since last year. That accounts for 2.7 per cent of the 47,705 total sorties flown by coalition aircraft since the war against ISIL started.
Despite Conservative warnings about the “horrific” threat posed by the ISIL, new figures show Canadian military aircraft have conducted less than three per cent of all coalition missions in Iraq and Syria.
“Comparing Canada’s contribution to other allies is difficult because each participating country reports differently. But defence expert David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute says Canadian aircraft flew about six per cent of all coalition missions during the war in Libya, and about 10 per cent in Kosovo.”
The war against ISIL figured prominently on the campaign trail Monday as Prime Minister Stephen Harper used a stop in Markham, Ont. to pledge that a re-elected Conservative government would provide more assistance for religious minorities and refugees in the Middle East.
Harper went on to criticize Liberal leader Justin Trudeau and NDP leader Tom Mulcair for promising to end Canada’s participation in the U.S.-led bombing campaign against ISIL, saying that humanitarian aid alone won’t solve the crisis.
“What is happening in the areas controlled by (ISIL) is really something we have not seen in millennia. It’s just beyond horrific,” he said, adding, “We are a country that can contribute militarily and in the humanitarian sense, and we are doing both.”
But a Citizen analysis raised questions about whether Canada’s military contributions in the fight against ISIL match Harper’s warnings.
Defence Department figures show Canadian military aircraft have flown 1,320 sorties, or individual missions, over Iraq and Syria since last year. That accounts for 2.7 per cent of the 47,705 total sorties flown by coalition aircraft since the war against ISIL started.
Comparing Canada’s contribution to other allies is difficult because each participating country reports differently. But defence expert David Perry of the Canadian Global Affairs Institute says Canadian aircraft flew about six per cent of all coalition missions during the war in Libya, and about 10 per cent in Kosovo. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Frequently-Wrong Meteorologist Arrested While Doing Weather Forecast, Columnist Paul Krugman Fears He’s Next
Posted: July 25, 2015 Filed under: Mediasphere, The Butcher's Notebook, Humor | Tags: Canada, New York Times, Paul Krugman, Celsius, National Weather Service, satire, Meteorology, Greece, Fahrenheit, Thunderstorm, Resource Description Framework, Royal Newfoundland Constabulary, AccuWeather, Weather Forecast Leave a commentLaw enforcement is so fed up with the miserably cold, cloudy, and damp weather in Newfoundland, Canada that it has arrested two local broadcast meteorologists.
CBC News meteorologist Ryan Snoddon was the first to take the fall for the anomalous chill. You can watch his arrest – part of an apparent sting operation – below:
Next in the hopper was NTV meteorologist Eddie Sheerr, arrested while delivering the forecast on the evening news.
Both Snoddon and Sheer were charged with impersonating a meteorologist, failing to provide the essentials of summer – sunshine, good forecasts and blue skies – and trafficking of rain, drizzle, and fog.
Prior to their arrest, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary had issued a statement to the media noting Snoddon and Sheerr were persons of interest given the following state of affairs:
SUMMER was last seen in early August of 2014. When last seen, SUMMER was described as being between 20-30 degrees Celsius (68-86 degrees Fahrenheit), blue skies with a bright and warm source of light in the sky. There have been sporadic sightings of this bright object, but these sightings have been rare since May 2015.
Frequently-wrong New York Times columnist Paul Krugman is reportedly afraid to appear on television, due to fears of being arrested. Krugman has never been held accountable for his dishonest statements and failed predictions.
Sheerr – who is from the U.S. – faces possible deportation, the arresting officer said.
Of course, the arrests were just a humorous stunt – the Canadian’s way of coping with conditions that are egregious even by their own standards. Read the rest of this entry »
Micro-Marketing? Marvel is Promoting ‘Ant-Man’ In The Teeniest, Tiniest Town In Canada
Posted: July 15, 2015 Filed under: Art & Culture, Comics, Entertainment, Humor | Tags: Actor, Alberta Health Services, Ant-Man, Baie Verte Peninsula, BBC News, Canada, CBC News, Clerk (municipal official), Edmonton, Marvel, Michael Douglas, Paul Rudd Leave a comment
With tiny, little billboards, of course.
Daniel Roberts writes: Marvel’s big summer superhero blockbuster of the moment is “Ant-Man,” starring Paul Rudd, and the studio is working to get billboards for the movie placed in a Canadian town—of six residents.
“It’s a perfect match, in our minds. We’ve had this interesting campaign where we have these mini-sized billboards… It crossed our minds that wouldn’t it be fantastic to have the smallest billboard in Canada in the smallest town, which is Tilt Cove.”
— Disney marketing exec Greg Mason
As part of Marvel Canada’s marketing strategy for the film, it has placed more than 2,500 miniature billboards (a nod to the size of the character, who can shrink to an ant’s level) all over the country so far. They range in size, and the smallest of them is just one-foot tall.
[Read the full story here, at Fortune]
But Marvel Canada is especially interested in placing one of those billboards in Tilt Cove, Newfoundland, CBC News reports. Marvel Canada tweeted its wishes:
Help us get one of these #AntManMiniBoards to Canada’s smallest town #TiltCove #Newfoundland. pic.twitter.com/uONLMX94yO
— Marvel Canada (@MarvelEntCA) July 14, 2015
“It’s a perfect match, in our minds,” Disney marketing exec Greg Mason told CBC in an on-air interview. Read the rest of this entry »
Mark J. Perry: The Essential Hayek
Posted: June 18, 2015 Filed under: Economics, Think Tank | Tags: Alberta, Barbara Mitchell, Canada, Canadian Institute for Health Information, Education, Extracurricular activity, Fraser Institute, Friedrich Hayek, Homeschooling, Quebec, single payer health care, United States Leave a comment
Mark J. Perry writes: Nobel laureate economist Friedrich Hayek (1899 – 1992) is one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century and his work still resonates with economists and scholars around the world today. Two decades after Hayek’s death, his ideas are increasingly relevant in an era where governments grow ever larger and more interventionist.
Essential Hayek is a project of the Fraser Institute (Canada’s leading public policy think tank) and includes a new book by George Mason Professor Don Boudreaux (The Essential Hayek, with a forward by Vaclav Klaus, available here), an Essential Hayek website including a great collection of Hayek resources and a series of videos (watch two below and there are more here), that aim to explain Hayek’s ageless economic ideas in common, every-day language. Read the rest of this entry »
Sean Davis: Is The Clinton Foundation Just A Foreign Laundering Scheme?
Posted: April 29, 2015 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Politics, Think Tank | Tags: American Marketing Association, Bill Clinton, Canada, Charitable organization, Clinton Foundation, Democratic Party (United States), Donation, Emotion, Frank Giustra, Hillary Clinton, The New York Times, United States Department of State 2 Comments
The Clinton Foundation looks more and more like a foreign laundering operation than a charitable organization.
Sean Davis writes: BloombergPolitics reported this morning that the Clinton Foundation refused to disclose the identities of at least 1,100 donors, most of whom are not U.S. citizens, to a Clinton Foundation affiliate. The donations were routed through the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (Canada), or CGEPartnership, a 
Canadian charitable organization. That organization then effectively bundled the foreign donations and sent them along to the Clinton Foundation itself, and it did all of this without ever disclosing the individual foreign sources of the income.
[Read the full text here, at The Federalist]
If that sounds to you like more of a laundering operation than a charitable organization, that’s because it certainly looks like more of a laundering operation than a charitable organization. In this case, however, rather than taking cash from blatantly illegal activities (as far as we know) and then cleaning it up by running it through legitimate businesses before it ends up at its final destination, the Clinton Foundation mops up cash from wealthy foreigners, bundles it within a larger organization to hide the money’s original source, and then funnels the cash from that legitimate charity right into the Clinton Foundation coffers.
“While Canada does include a ban on the release of donor information in the course of commercial activity, it specifically exempts fundraising from that definition.”
After the New York Times uncovered the connections between uranium mining magnate Frank Giustra, his Canadian charitable organization, the Clinton Foundation, and official actions taken by Secretary of State 
Hillary Clinton that benefitted Giustra’s global uranium mining operations, the Clinton Foundation immediately entered spin mode.
According to Clinton Foundation executives, CGEPartnership was banned by federal law in Canada from releasing any donor names without the prior consent of the donor. However, an extensive analysis of Canada’s federal privacy laws by The Federalist found that the Clinton Foundation’s claim had zero merit.
“And because the public disclosure of a donor’s name doesn’t include any transaction or consideration, it’s not considered to be commercial activity.”
Multiple Canadian tax and privacy law experts contacted by The Federalist, the Washington Post, and BloombergPolitics said there was no such blanket prohibition on public disclosure of charitable donor identities. While Canada does include a ban on the release of donor information in the course of commercial activity, it specifically exempts fundraising from that definition. And because the public disclosure of a donor’s name doesn’t include any transaction or 
consideration, it’s not considered to be commercial activity.
“The Clinton Foundation’s deliberate misinterpretation of Canadian privacy law in order to rationalize its secrecy raises several questions, chief among them: why?”
“Federal law prohibits disclosure related to commercial activity: things like selling, renting, or bartering of a list. Fundraising is not a covered activity under PIPEDA, the federal privacy law,” Adam Aptowitzer, a Canadian charitable organization attorney, told The Federalist.
“I don’t see how the public disclosure of a donor’s name constitutes commercial activity,” Aptowitzer concluded. “There’s no transaction; there’s no consideration.”
“The scheme works like this: collect millions of dollars in foreign money, dump it into a foreign charity, pretend that the law prohibits you from ever disclosing the identities of those foreign donors to the foreign charity, then have the foreign charity bundle all the cash and send it to the Clinton Foundation.”
The Clinton Foundation’s deliberate misinterpretation of Canadian privacy law in order to rationalize its secrecy raises several questions, chief among them: why? Why go to all this effort to hide years’ worth of million-dollar donations from foreign citizens and foreign governments? Donations which were almost certainly being made while Hillary Clinton was serving as Secretary of State, and almost certainly with the intent to influence her decisions? Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] ‘Reunion of Giants’: Official Lancaster UK Tour Trailer
Posted: April 25, 2015 Filed under: History, Mediasphere, Space & Aviation, War Room | Tags: Aircraft, Avro Lancaster, Avro Lancaster bomber, Canada, Canadian Warplanes, Daniel Thwaites, John Key, Lancaster UK Tour, Reunion of Giants, World War II Leave a commentIt has been 50 years since two Avro Lancaster bombers flew side by side. The Canadian Warplane.
Coming Summer 2015 – Worldwide TV release followed by DVD/Blu-ray (all formats).
Men More Likely Than Women To Go Back In Time And Kill Hitler
Posted: April 9, 2015 Filed under: Health and Social Issues, History, Think Tank | Tags: Adolf Hitler, American Association of University Women, Canada, Colgate University, Emotion, Ethical dilemma, NPR, Ontario, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, University of Cologne, University of Texas at Austin, Waterloo, Wilfrid Laurier University, World War II 1 Comment
The Hitler question was among a range of moral questions asked of 6,100 people in a study conducted by U.S., Canadian and German researchers.
Jim Algar writes: Here’s a question; if you could go back in time and kill Hitler – likely saving millions of lives – would you do it? Your answer, researchers were surprised to find, might depend on your gender.
New research published by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology suggests that, given such a question, men seem more willing to accept the need for harmful actions for the sake of the greater good than do women.
“Women were more likely to fall into the deontology camp and agonize for a long time over a decision, while men were somewhat more likely to lean toward utilitarianism and make a quick decision.”
The Hitler question was among a range of moral questions asked of 6,100 people in a study conducted by U.S., Canadian and German researchers.
“Women seem to be more likely to have this negative, emotional, gut-level reaction to causing harm to people in the dilemmas to the one person, whereas men were less likely to express this strong emotional reaction to harm.”
— Lead research author Rebecca Friesdorf
Although both men and women carefully considered the consequences of their potential decision, women said they found it harder to commit murder and were more likely to let Hitler survive, the study found.
“Women seem to be more likely to have this negative, emotional, gut-level reaction to causing harm to people in the dilemmas to the one person, whereas men were less likely to express this strong emotional reaction to harm,” says lead research author Rebecca Friesdorf. A master’s degree student in social psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, Friesdorf analyzed 40 data sets from previous studies.
“Although both men and women carefully considered the consequences of their potential decision, women said they found it harder to commit murder and were more likely to let Hitler survive.”
In the study participants were asked 20 questions, all of them involving a moral dilemma centering on such things as murder, torture, abortion, lying or the morality of animal research. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Wild Motorcycle Pursuit Through Canadian Shopping Mall Goes Viral
Posted: March 13, 2015 Filed under: Entertainment, Mediasphere | Tags: Adar, British Columbia, British Columbia Highway 16, Canada, Guildford Town Centre, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Security guard, Surrey, The Canadian Press Leave a commentVideo compiled by Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigators of a motorcycle pursuit through a mall in Surrey, British Columbia was accidentally released and subsequently went viral on the internet….(read more)
Cameron Gray: Something Remarkable is Happening in Canada that will Change the Future of News Media
Posted: March 10, 2015 Filed under: Breaking News, Censorship, Mediasphere | Tags: @TheRebelTV, Cameron Gray, Canada, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, crowdfunding, CTV Television Network, Ezra Levant, Justin Trudeau, Postmedia Network, Quebec, Ricochet, Sun News Network, TheRebel.media 2 CommentsDon’t Like the News? Crowdsource Your Own
They are crowdfunding cameras, crowdfunding reporters, even crowdfunding Red Bull and pizza for the staff…
[read the full text here, at Ricochet]
Ezra Levant, with a crowdfunding update:
For Ricochet, Cameron Gray reports: On Feb. 13, Sun News Network went dark, as did the jobs of about 200 employees, including very talented people like Ezra Levant, Brian Lilley, and Faith Goldy. Sun News was often called Canada’s Fox News, featuring reporting and analysis from a conservative point-of-view, and serving as a balance to very liberal Canadian news outlets.
“All of this should scare the heck out of the mainstream media, in any country. Here in America, we are seeing the dinosaur media with record low viewership, while alternative online news sources are thriving…”
The shutdown was not unexpected. Sun’s eventual downfall started in August 2013, just two years after the network debuted. Unlike it had for the CBC and CTV, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) denied it a spot on basic cable TV packages nationwide.
“…No longer do people have to rely on the traditional gatekeepers of media. And as The Rebel in Canada is showing, people will help pay for quality, accurate journalism. This is a fantastic thing that should, and will, be replicated, a lot.”
This severely limited the amount of viewers Sun could attract. From the Globe and Mail’s Steve Ladurantaye:
The unprofitable (and controversial) channel won’t get any financial help from Canada’s broadcast regulator, throwing its future into doubt just two years after it went to air with a promise of “hard news and straight talk.”
The controversial all-news channel hoped to be forced onto basic digital television subscriptions across the country, but the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission rejected its application….(read more)
The next nail in Sun’s coffin occurred in October 2014. From Huffington Post Canada’s Sunny Freeman:
The struggling Sun News Network suffered another blow this week after Canada’s broadcast regulator ruled against it in a payment dispute with Rogers, the country’s largest cable company….(read more)
After years of uphill battles and unsuccessful negotiations to sell the network, Sun set.
But out of the ashes of Sun News Network, a phoenix is rising.
It all started with a tweet:
Sun News was beautiful, but it’s gone. See what @ezralevant is doing next: http://t.co/QFeSNfnJg7 #cdnpoli #tcot #roft
— The Rebel (@TheRebelTV) February 14, 2015
And a YouTube video by Ezra Levant called: “Help us crowdfund TheRebel.media”
And with that, The Rebel was born.
A true rebel. A rebel not started by a major media conglomerate or Fortune 500 business. Read the rest of this entry »
Criminal Speech? The Weibo Posts That Could Send Chinese Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang to Prison
Posted: January 28, 2015 Filed under: Asia, Censorship, China, Law & Justice | Tags: Ai Weiwei, Bank account, Beijing, Canada, China, Chinese art, Communist Party of China, Diplomatic cable, Hong Kong, List of diplomatic missions of Canada 1 Comment
Josh Chin, with Yang Jie: Chinese human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang has never been one to hold his tongue. A document from a law firm that began circulating online Tuesday night shows how police are trying to use that outspokenness to send him to prison.
“Pu Zhiqiang has already he was responsible for posting most of these messages. The question is whether writing and posting them falls within the realm of free expression or constitutes a crime.”
Mr. Pu, a hard-charging attorney and Tiananmen Square veteran known for defending high-profile dissidents such as artist Ai Weiwei, was detained in May. The following month, he was formally arrested on suspicion of illegally obtaining personal information and picking quarrels, and in November prosecutors added charges of inciting ethnic hatred and inciting separatism. The last three charges are related to messages posted online by Mr. Pu and detailed in the document.
Mr. Pu’s lawyer, Shang Baojun, confirmed the authenticity of the document to China Real Time on Wednesday, saying it was a copy of posts compiled by his law firm from a list of evidence provided by prosecutors.
Police resubmitted Mr. Pu’s case to prosecutors earlier this month after their initial investigation was rejected for insufficient evidence, Mr. Shang said. Police and prosecutors have repeatedly ignored or declined to respond to requests for comment on Mr. Pu’s case.
The document lists 28 messages posted on the Weibo microblogging site between 2011 and 2014 from 12 different accounts belonging to Mr. Pu. (Dissidents in China often post from multiple accounts in order to evade censors.) The posts cover a range of topics, from China’s dispute with Japan over contested islands in the East China Sea to terrorist attacks attributed to Xinjiang separatists to Communist Party icon of do-goodery Lei Feng. Many of the posts, including those that deal with the issue of terrorism, appear to come in response to Weibo posts from other users or news organizations.
“Pu Zhiqiang has already he was responsible for posting most of these messages. The question is whether writing and posting them falls within the realm of free expression or constitutes a crime,” Mr. Shang said. “On this, we understand things differently (than the authorities).”
Mr. Shang said he hadn’t seen any evidence beyond the posts relating to the three charges. If indicted and found guilty of all four charges, Mr. Pu could face up to 20 years in prison, he said.
Below are rough China Real Time translations of seven of the posts as they appeared in the document.
2、2013.6.8日12:03:17，账号9 “六十年来最大谎言之一是雷锋，他骗了我二十年！他主动迎合推手，日记都集体创作。每月七八块津贴能成百块捐，若非腐败便是只能是编，那年月饿死三千多万人，我六五年的人只照过一次相，他半夜不睡装逼闹鬼，躺被窝打手电学毛选，都有人照相！身后有数千张照片！北京公安真抓推手，去抓雷锋的推手吧。”
2) June 8, 2013: One of the biggest lies of the last 60 years is Lei Feng. He hoodwinked me for two decades, actively pandering to his promoters, his diaries a collective creation. A monthly allowance of seven or eight yuan and he’s making 100-yuan donations – either that’s fiction or there’s corruption involved. Back then 30 million died from starvation, people my age might have taken a single photograph, and yet when he’s up late at night studying Mao with a flashlight, there are people taking pictures! He left thousands of photos behind! Beijing police, if you want to arrest hidden forces, go arrest the hidden forces behind Lei Feng. Read the rest of this entry »
First Espresso in Space
Posted: November 24, 2014 Filed under: Food & Drink, Mediasphere, Science & Technology, Space & Aviation | Tags: Canada, Earth, EUROPE, European Space Agency, International Space Station, Japan, Low Earth orbit, NASA, Paris, Space station 1 Comment
This Is the First Espresso Machine In Space
The International Space Station is getting a fresh jolt with the first coffee machine aboard the station. The world of instant powdered coffee is giving way in low earth orbit to freshly brewed Italian espresso.
Canada’s Cheerful View of U.S. Election Results: GOP ‘Bitter Exploiters’ Taking Control
Posted: November 4, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Global, Humor, Mediasphere, Politics, U.S. News | Tags: 2014 Election, Bitter Clingers, Canada, Democrats, GOP, media, National Post, U.S. Election Results Leave a comment
UPDATE: Bitter Progressives Vow Revenge, Advance Game Plan for Authoritarian Agenda
Ottawa Sun Cover: ‘PM Harper’s Vow After Heart of Canadian Democracy Attacked’
Posted: October 23, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Global, Mediasphere, War Room | Tags: Canada, Islamism, Jihadism, media, Ottawa, Prime Minister Harper, Terrorism 1 Comment
‘Religious Awakening’: Ottawa Shooter; Son of a jihadist and a Social Justice Warrior
Posted: October 22, 2014 Filed under: Crime & Corruption, Politics, Religion, War Room | Tags: Burnaby, Canada, Eastern Canada, Islamism, Jihadist, Libya, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, Middle East, Montreal, Ottawa, Terrorism, Zehaf-Bibeau 1 Comment
Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the slain 32-year-old suspected killer of a Canadian Forces soldier near Parliament Hill, was a labourer and small-time criminal – a man who had had a religious awakening and seemed to have become mentally unstable.
Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau was born in 1982 and was the son of Bulgasem Zehaf, a Quebec businessman who appears to have fought in 2011 in Libya, and Susan Bibeau, the deputy chairperson of a division of Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board. The two were divorced in 1999.
Ms. Bibeau did not answer e-mails Wednesday, and staff at her offices declined to comment. No one answered the door at her Montreal townhouse. Mr. Zehaf also could not be reached.
Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau grew up in Eastern Canada, including Ottawa and Montreal, and had spent time in Libya before moving to Western Canada to become a miner and labourer, according to friend Dave Bathurst.
Mr. Bathurst said he met Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau in a Burnaby, B.C., mosque about three years ago. He said his friend did not at first appear to have extremist views or inclinations toward violence – but at times exhibited a disturbing side. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Ottawa Shooting: Institutions Locked Down; A Soldier and a Shooter Are Dead
Posted: October 22, 2014 Filed under: Breaking News, Crime & Corruption, War Room | Tags: Canada, Canadian Parliament Building, Ottawa, Quebec, Remembrance Day, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Stephen Harper, Tony Clement, Toronto 1 CommentShots Fired Inside Canadian Parliament Building
Paul Vieira And Alistair MacDonald – Updated Oct. 22, 2014 1:57 p.m. ET OTTAWA—Canada’s Parliament building and other government offices were locked down after an armed attack left at least one soldier dead at the country’s main war memorial.
One shooter was also killed, according to a person familiar with the matter. Ottawa police said that there were “possibly three” shooters and that shots had been fired at three separate locations in the capital, including inside Parliament.
Police were searching for the assailants as armed officers locked down the Canada’s Parliament building and Prime Minister Stephen Harper was moved out of the area. Mr. Harper canceled planned appearances in Toronto after the Ottawa shootings.
Tony Clement, a senior cabinet minister, tweeted that at least 30 shots were fired. “I’m safe with two colleagues but we’re still at risk,” he said.
The shooting left downtown Ottawa locked down, including the U.S. Embassy there, and provincial parliaments elsewhere in Canada tightened their security as heavily armed police combed the Canadian capital.
The war memorial in Ottawa, which honors Canadian forces’ service abroad, is the site of the Canadian government’s annual official Remembrance Day ceremony
Medics could be seen attending to a person on the ground near the memorial, which is close to Canada’s House of Commons, before the person was taken away in an ambulance. A witness said she heard four shots and saw a person running away with a rifle. Read the rest of this entry »
[VIDEO] Kenneth Meshoe: Is Israel an ‘Apartheid State,’ as its Enemies Claim?
Posted: October 13, 2014 Filed under: History, Mediasphere, Politics, War Room | Tags: Apartheid in South Africa, Canada, Israel, Israel and the apartheid analogy, Kenneth Meshoe, Middle East, Nelson Mandela, Prager University, Pretoria, South Africa 1 Comment“We all need to recognize that those who say that what is happening in Israel is like apartheid South Africa are minimizing the suffering that black South Africans endured. They are taking the sting out of the pain that we suffered in South Africa. If South African apartheid was what people are seeing in Israel, there would never have been any need for an armed struggle. There would never have been any need for a Nelson Mandela to go to prison because he would have all the rights Arabs in Israel have.”
Who better to answer that charge than a Black South African who lived through apartheid? Kenneth Meshoe, a member of the South African parliament, fits that bill. He examines the evidence against Israel and draws a compelling conclusion.
Transcript
There is widespread allegation — really a slander — that Israel is an apartheid state.
That notion is simply wrong.
It is inaccurate and it is malicious.
And it will not help to promote peace and harmony in the Middle East. Its only purpose is to demonize Israel, and to isolate her in an attempt to de-legitimize Israel’s existence.
And because it is so inaccurate, it betrays the memory of those who suffered through a real apartheid.
As a black South African, who was born under apartheid, in the administrative capital of South Africa, Pretoria, I know what apartheid is. I’ve experienced it. My parents experienced it.
But having been to Israel on a number of occasions, I know that nothing is happening in that country — that I have either seen or read — that can be compared to apartheid in South Africa.
Let’s remember the major reason Nelson Mandela went to prison — why he was involved with the armed struggle. He was fighting for the right to vote, for the right to choose the leaders who one believes in, for the right to move and travel freely, to live wherever one wants, to be educated, and to be admitted to the hospital or medical facility of your choice. Read the rest of this entry »
pundit from another planet 