A reader emails;
Irwin Cotler is known to have strong views, and is a supporter of the state of Israel. He is usually quite vocal on the subject.
As this link shows, he has recently been in Israel and may be there even at this moment.
So, his comments on everything that is happening right now could be especially relevant.
But, as far as anyone here has been able to tell, he has said zip. No statement from his office, etc.
People are asking why, and wondering if he has been asked to keep quiet so there isn’t any divergence from Bill Graham’s position as far as ‘official’ Liberal policy goes on this.
From the Jerusalem Post link;
Cotler, a staunch defender of Israel who pleads before the High Court in Hebrew, doesn’t make his criticisms in this case lightly. And he’s more circumspect when it comes to castigating Israel on its behavior towards the Palestinians. Having created another multi-point index to calculate the overall protection of human rights – including whether there’s a universal franchise and a democratically elected parliament – he finds that Israel “measures up comparatively well.”
Cotler should know, though he has been criticized by some Canadian elements for being an Israel apologist. The McGill University law professor, who directed the school’s “Human Rights Programme” until he took a leave to run for office, has championed human rights in courts around the world. He has been decorated with the Order of Canada and was the first recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanitarian Award. His roster of celebrity clients includes Nelson Mandela, Natan Sharansky and Egyptian democracy activist Saad Edin Ibrahim. The cases which have been met with success lead the slightly disheveled, amiable 66-year-old to call himself an optimist.
So he presses on. The Liberal Party member, first elected in 1999 with the highest percentage of the vote – 92% – in a Canadian national election in the last century, now serves as the chairman of the Save Darfur parliamentary coalition, continues to liaise with Middle East jurists to push for more justice, and, of course, presses for Israel to quickly absorb the Falash Mura.
Interesting stuff. Interesting question.
TrustOnlyMulder has a link to an earlier Cotler interview that’s worth checking out. Cotler is on the right side of history with this position, of course. It’s the Bill Graham’s of the Liberal Party – those who are exploiting the crisis for domestic partisan politics – that we need to see squirm.
Once a liberal, always…………
Irwin Cotler is an un-abashed schill for Jewish special interest groups.He usually has a left spun position on nearly everything that involves conservativism and is quite vociferous in his house hate-ons for the Conservative government.
Apparently he would rather not be caught admitting the Harper gov’t is right on this issue,that they are doing good,and that it was not his party that had the moral directive to support oft beleaguered Israel.
Mr. Colter’s interview in the Jerusalem Post is excellent. He raises many good points, and I broadly agree with many of his positions. However, I think he may be placing too much confidence in the so-called system of international law.
For example, consider Mr. Dershowitz’ – tinyurl.com/mgwlq – column in today’s National Post.
Is this the I. Cotler referred to? Cotler the good friend of Bill Graham?
Cotler who consorts with persons who say this:
Ms. Jafri thanked the NDP leader Jack Layton for enforcing party discipline and not allowing dissent on this important matter.
Cotler who consorts with people such as :
Tarek Fatah, host of the CTS-TV show, The Muslim Chronicle, criticized
the fear mongering started by some religious institutions against
same-sex marriage.
February 1, 2005: Ottawa – The Muslim Canadian Congress, a Toronto-based grassroots organization, has welcomed the legislation presented by Justice Minister Irvin Cotler that re-defines marriage to include samesex patners, and has urged Muslims and other minority
groups to stand in solidarity with gays and lesbians.
The biggest lie I’ve ever heard a Liberal tell:
Last election during an interview on CBC Irwin Cotler repeatedly claimed (live, on national TV) that the Conservative Party of Canada “stole” their “get tough on crime” platform from the Liberals.
The man speaks poo.
Say, folks, it’s not up to me, of course, but you may want to read the interview before you vent your spleen. That might save you some embarrasment later, you know.
Anyone who uses the usual Leftist lexicon of “Rights” and “international law” without reference to liberty, individual freedom and personal responsibility is highly suspect.
I would gladly wager that Cotler believes the elitists should make all the decisions, including the beloved UN and World Court.
And I read the entire interview.
excerpt:
Q:And do you think Israel’s response has adequately applied the principles of proportionality of use of force and distinction between civilians and militants?
Cotler: If you look at it from the time that Israel withdrew – with not only the hope, but really with the Palestinians under the responsibility not to launch these attacks – I think for a period of time Israel’s response as perceived by the public was restrained and proportional in the light of daily attacks targeting its civilians. When you get to the events of the last two weeks, then you have a situation where Palestinian civilians have been killed under circumstances which I think demonstrate, pursuant to the Israeli inquiries in that regard, that there was no intentionality on the part of Israel to target or harm civilians, unlike what Hamas is doing. But the question still remains whether the principles of proportionality and distinction ended up being respected in all its particulars.
What a wishy-washy double speak elitist statist COMMUNIST!
Cotler reeks of partisan babble. How can he possibly say that Palestinians ‘launch attacks’ against Israel–he is either dead or a Liberal not to know what conditions the Israelis have kept the Palestinians in. Gaza is just a big prison. Friends that have travelled there come back with horror stories about Israeli treatment of Palestinians, on Palestinians own land! Water sources on Palestinian land is controlled by Israel–Palestinians have one hour to collect the water they will need for the entire day–then Israel controls the water. The wall built through Palestinian farm land, cutting Palestinian farmers off from their land–they are starving because their crops are dying on the other side of the wall. Now, however, journalists and visitors are not even allowed into Gaza by the Israelis.
How much more can a people take before wanting to strike back?
Cotler is an ass
Oy. He’s an advocate, Doug. Relax. That’s a perfectly reasonable statement for an advocate to make, even if, in this case, he’s more on your side than against it, in his own elitist statist bureausclerotic way. Computers are binary; people aren’t, and it doesn’t matter whether or not I bold it. You’ve gotta take the eddies with the flow.
Silly libertarian Vitty made the following vaguely condescending false assumption: “Say, folks, it’s not up to me, of course, but you may want to read the interview before you vent your spleen”
You’re not the only one who can read here, propellor head. FWIW, I RTFA, briefly, and regularly post links from the Jerusalem Post here at SDA.
I’ve often found your commentary here and elsewhere enlightening, yet you seem strangely silent on the issue of Israeli occupation of Palestine. I look forward to reading more from you on this matter, if you can manage to get your head around it. After all, it’s sooooooo complicated!
(Is this a sufficiently passive-aggressive response? Can I go watch TV now?)
You better watch out, Bob. You know, we propellor heads rule the world. The politicians, captains of industry, and theologists are just our front men. And we don’t take seriously someone who writes “the man speaks poo”. It’s dialectially useless, rhetorically weak, and completely lacking in wit.
Meanwhile, I remain interested in what y’all think about Mr. Dershowitz’s contrapuntal.
“Last election during an interview on CBC Irwin Cotler repeatedly claimed (live, on national TV) that the Conservative Party of Canada “stole” their “get tough on crime” platform from the Liberals”
Well Baghdad had “Bob”, so Ottawa can have “Irwin”
I see Irwin Cotler’s making a big, public show of standing up for Israel, regardless of the consequences to himself personally wrt the Liberal Party.
Oh, yeah, suuuuure.
We can tell where his loyalties lie as long as he remains silent…
You know the West is totally screwed when we start admiring people like Irwin Cotler.
Oh how our standards have fallen.
Fred you said it all, how true.
“….took a two-year-plus hiatus from the issue to serve as Justice Minister and attorney-general of Canada under premier Paul Martin. His term ended this February, and now, he declares: “I’m back on all fronts.”
His term ended this February.
Now that’s comedy!
I have to agree with the majority here, Liberal = bad, Conservative = good. Therefore, if I apply the formula correctly, Cotler = Bad.
Glad I could clear that up for ya.
Montreal,Wednesday night. 1200 members of the Jewish Community rally in support for Israel. The Israeli Consul General and Irwin Cotler address the audience. 3 other Liberal MP’s are there and 1 Liberal Senator. No Tory MP’s show up.
Thursday. 250 memebrs of Halifax’s Jewish Community rally in support of Israel. Scott Brison speaks to the crowd. No Tory MP shows up.
Wow, Mark, thanks for gibing us the”full” story on that rally, here is some more information for you, did you ignore this for some reason ?
http://thechronicleherald.ca/Canada/9001150.html
Mark Rosen, president of the Atlantic Jewish Council, said the Israeli military is doing everything it can to avoid killing civilians.
“Hezbollah and Hamas want to maximize civilian casualties on both sides, specifically by the use of weaponry intended to create terror and maximum injury and then hiding from retaliation among the civilian population.
“Let us be clear. No country should be expected to remain passive when its soldiers and civilians are attacked and killed, when others are kidnapped and when bombs rain down on its population.”
Mr. Rosen said Prime Minister Stephen Harper should be thanked for supporting Israel’s military response in Lebanon.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay, in a message sent to the rally, said Hezbollah is to blame for the crisis in Lebanon and must take the first step toward peace. He urged Israel to exercise the utmost restraint in its offensive.
…
And this ?
Liberal MP Geoff Regan, in a telephone interview, said the Harper government should adopt Canada’s traditional role of neutrality in the Middle East.
Like most secular Jews in the US are to the Democrats, most secular Jews in Canada are dhimmis to the Liberal Party. Thankfully, more and more of us in the Jewish community are moving to the conservative side, as the cognitive dissonance is simply impossible to ignore. Stephen Harper has proven in one week that he is a greater friend to Israel than any Liberal P.M. has ever been.
Irwin Cotler has proven that paying tribute to the almighty Libs and joining the club means constantly tying yourself into moral-political knots. A once honourable man has turned himself into a confused mealy-mouthed hack.
Funny thing, Wars are fought on battlefields. Not in universities, not in legislatures, not in court rooms.
In war “the principles of proportionality” are rubbish. In order to achieve ones objectives one uses ones rescources for maximum effect. Read Clausewitz.
As for the distinction between militants and civilians perhaps the UN would like to get uniforms to be issued to the militants? Although, it might be more efficatious to issue uniforms to civilians.
Perhaps Dr. Cotler would like to assure that the principles of proportionate response are being strictly applied in this theatre.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/world/stories/072206intbaghdad.c9fa49.html
This disputation would more closely approximate a civil action as distinct from an act of war.
Irwin Cotler is a horse’s ass. I don’t want to hear or read anything by him on any subject. He hates the actual existing Canada, hates Americans, and loves criminals. He may verbally support Israel, but since he hates armies and police he won’t actually approve of doing anything for them. He and his ilk have worked for years to undermine our civilization, and have largely succeeded, leaving us vulnerable to domestic criminals and third world terrorists. Every single minister in the Harper cabinet is better than his or her Liberal predecessor, but nowhere is the improvement as dramatic as that between Cotler and Vic Toews.
maz2, the Muslim Canadian congress has urged Muslims…to stand in solidarity with gays and lesbians!? surely you jest
“Meanwhile, I remain interested in what y’all think about Mr. Dershowitz’s contrapuntal.”
I love it when someone uses big, complicated words. It sounds so sophisticated and mature. Only problem is by the time I get out the dictionary to find out what the big words mean I’ve lost interest in the post. But I guess when you write articles with lots of big words, it sounds good when you read it back to yourself. And, after all, thats all that really counts.
Horny Toad
The number of people who don’t know the slightest thing about Mr. Cotler yet post as if they understand his inner thinking is astounding.
horny toad: ‘contrapuntal’ LOL !!!
you should see whut st vitus ascribes to the so very common ‘LOL’ when *I* used it in an spirited arguement last week regarding the propagation and induction of electric power.
LOL = Laugh Out Loud, mr vitus.
he never did answer the question of the full and exact process taking place within a simple transformer exposed to alternating current in the primary and how in God’s creation do we get matching AC frequency and power on the SECONDARY when there is NO electrical contact between the 2 coils. its ALL induction, but how does it work ??
instead st vitus engages in wordsmithing and personal attack to disguse the fact his ‘knowledge’ is based solely and exclusively on REGURGITATED contents of textbooks.
as is his opinions in economic, social and political realms here.
Ive got it !!!
by God Ive got it !!!
st vitus is the creation of an uber propellerhead software hacker geek, a very very cutting edge cyber-pundit. a veritable ‘real’ ‘living’ ‘s1mone’ (the pacino flic).
programmed to interject the flavour and topics close to the heart of his/its/a bunch of bits/all-on-a-cdrom/etc creator. the insight of a clever 15 year old poseur.
ya see vitus, *I* can get REAL personal too. and do so after sustained personal attacks from the likes of a failure like you.
LOL !!!
Re: Mr. Dershowitz’s item. Not quite “contrapuntal” in the proper musical sense but I will admit to a certain sympathy with his main theme.
On topic, from Joan Bryden (CP):
“Joe Volpe’s trouble-plagued bid to become the next Liberal leader suffered another, possibly fatal, blow with the resignation Friday of his national campaign manager.
In a written statement released late Friday, Volpe said Jim Karygiannis, a controversial Toronto MP, “has left the campaign as a result of the position taken by the candidate on the current crisis in the Middle East.”
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Politics/2006/07/21/1696388-cp.html
A brief perusal of the names on Volpe’s donation list sheds further light on this situation.
I might have to re-think my opposition to WWWIII; after all, if such men of character as Irwin Cotler, Alan Dershowitz, and Joe Volpe support Israel, who am I to disagree?
People in politics or aspiring to be should have the courage to stand or fall on their convictions, their principles and damn the party lines. We know it’s summer siesta time, but there is a crisis in the hotbed of the Middle East and Irwin Cotler should use his common sense and support the Government publicly for what he believes himself, pro or con.The sheer stupidity of opposing for nothing more than political hatchetry does not make for a strong united country against the terrorists of the world, in fact, it enables and encourages them. Time to smarten up, it’s serious business. We have a leader, Stephen Harper, who has taken a stand, much to the shock and chagrin of the opposition, and they are looking pretty silly ranting on, and on the wrong side of right in this conflict. If Alexa, Jack and the gang have the stomach to travel to the war zone for a group hug with the rotters, the bastards, godspeed, on their own dime. It’s hard to recognize a leader, we haven’t had one in decades, we have one now, Stephen Harper, get used to it. No country can succeed on the world stage straddling the fence of neutrality on important issues or pandering the rogues of the world.
Judenrat ???
Yes he’s a fine liberal.
Note to Israel/
Feel free to keep him, but mind your wallet.
Thank you, Quig. More of the commenters here would probably also find a certain sympathy with Mr. Dershowitz’s item, were they not so full of themselves.
Jay:
Re-read the Chronicle article again. Exactly which Tory MP bothered to show-up in Halifax???
Ummm….. None!
So Fuck-off
Irwin Cotler lost his ability to articulate a cogent position on the Middle East crisis the day he became Cabinet Minister (read: court Jew) for the last Liberal government.
I used to admire the man … I must have been crazy …
RobertJ labouriously tapped out: “he never did answer the question of the full and exact process taking place within a simple transformer exposed to alternating current in the primary and how in God’s creation do we get matching AC frequency and power on the SECONDARY when there is NO electrical contact between the 2 coils. its ALL induction, but how does it work ??”
You might wish to refer to the works of James Clerk Maxwell (who may well be considered with Newton and Einstein to be the brightest scientific minds of the last 500 years). His equations showed the relation between electric and magnetic fields, which is of course, the underlying physical basis for the transformer. That he was able to develop these equations without computers or calculators is so mind-boggling that I, an educated engineer, am in complete awe of his genius.
before you all tuck your mothers in and have the last freezy-pop of the night, remember this –
hezbollah IS the middle east. the average Arab empathizes with them BECAUSE they want to kill us.
do you get it?!?
for all of you terror-appeasing pricks – instead of spending your time ranting on blogs and wetting your star-wars pj’s, perhaps you should lose some wieght, date a girl, and stop abetting the enemy.
i used to watch many of you get beat up in high-school before i employed you in real life…is that why you are “liberals”?…to get even with the “cool kids”?
get a life.
Why are we worried about what Cotler thinks or where he is? He’s a non-factor. Being a true liberal, he’s all thing’s to all and straddles the fence and therefore stands for nothing. We don’t have to know him personally to make that deduction. As minister of justice, we are familiar with his “work”.No doubt he has his private leanings, we will not be privy to that info, but as a Liberal, it’s any way the wind blows to keep power.
uh, mr kevinb:
you dont get it.
the inverse proportion of the amperage stuff about # primary coils vs # secondary coils ISNT what Im referring to.
thats just the mathematics on how to calculate the minimum guage on the secondary wire for instance.
Im talking about HOW there comes to BE current on the secondary in the utter absence, indeed, completely NECESSARY absence of electrical CONTACT between primary and secondary coils. THAT has yet to be addressed: *how does induction work*, got that?? what makes it happen?? NOT “yawell yawell, yawell, if ya taps into the secondary at various points, you will get a voltage again proportional to the comparison to # coils on the primary”.
the mathematics says NOTHING about WHAT it is in the nature of electrical flow, electrons, conductors, etc, HOW the energy can leap across the insulation around the wires inside the transformer. NOTHING.
hint: did maxwell investigate or even know about quantum mechanics?
the mathematics still leaves the transformer a ‘black box’
x # primary turns, y # secondary turns, ergo out comes increase/decrease in voltage.
it says NOTHING about HOW induction works and never has. that is the question sirrah, dont use the transparent tactic of *changing the question* and then providing the answer to your own question as substitute.
so mr educated engineer, do YOU care to answer the question ???