Roll Up Your Sleeve

Great Moments In Socialism 21 Comments

Lost Budgie expands on a Toronto Star item titled “Mixed-Race Son Can’t Fish With Dad – Licences for Band Members Only”;

Unmentioned in the article is the reason why the band’s “mixed-race” children do not have Official Native Status.
For the Ontario Government, this is a no-win situation that won’t get any better. Canada’s Indian Act racial purity laws are colliding head-on with changing demographics as the number of Official Status Native Canadians dwindles due to mixed marriages and falling birth rates.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Bar Association recently put forward a politely watered-down motion supporting race-based appointments of Native Canadians to various benches, including to the Supreme Court of Canada. The motion didn’t define how racially pure Native Canadians should be to meet the criteria for any of these juicy appointments.
Perhaps the Canadian Bar Association can issue some clarification. Will 50% native bloodline do? How about 75%? How racially pure is pure enough?

Indeed. I can’t find an independant online source, but a few years ago I recall an interview (maybe on CBC?) that mentioned that virtually all North American Indians descend from European males when one traces up the father’s side of the “family tree”. If true, not entirely surprising, given our history.
That said, these “am so, are not” methods of Indian Act identification are so 1990’s. There’s no longer any need to drag out the geneological charts and family albums to prove “racial purity”. We have the technology!
Now, I await the inevitable head explosions from those staunch defenders of Canada’s Racial Segregation Industry as they condemn the existance of a test that would quite neatly sort the “real” Indians from the watered down pretenders.

PetroChinastan

Little Known Facts 12 Comments

The Chinese have snagged the Canadian oil firm PetroKazakhstan.
(Another item from China E-Lobby that caught my eye; “Another Falun Gong practitioner deported: Unless someone knocked some sense into the British Home Office, practitioner Ling Na Rong was sent back to Communist China yesterday (Epoch Times). The Home Office “asserts that she does not face danger, as she is not a Falun Gong leader.” Have the bureaucrats in that office heard of the late Gao Rongrong? As the Epoch Times notes, she wasn’t a Falun Gong leader, either.”)

Tale Of Two Colonies

Uncategorized 40 Comments

Compared to Canada — with a similarly modest population and compact military — Australia is emerging as a global player and diplomatic powerhouse. It is often said that there no two countries more similar than Canada and Australia in terms of size and British parliamentary traditions, but on defence and foreign policy the two countries are following distinctly different paths.
While Canada concentrates on peacekeeping and emphasizes multilateralism, Australia opts for rapid responses to shore up failing states — even without United Nations approval. Canada proudly wears its multilateral memberships on its sleeve and heralds the United Nations as the foundation of its foreign policy, while Australia’s government is openly dismissive of Security Council consultations that go nowhere.
Australia’s long-serving foreign minister, Alexander Downer, is a harsh critic of “sclerotic” multilateralism that has become “a synonym for an ineffective and unfocused policy of internationalism of the lowest common denominator.” Interviewed in his Sydney office this month, Downer restated Australia’s determination to follow its own course — in close consultations with its American ally — rather than taking its cue from others overseas. And like many influential Australian foreign policy analysts, he made plain his displeasure with Ottawa’s readiness to sit on the sidelines while others do the “heavy lifting.”
Despite the apparent similarities, Canada can coast on Washington’s protective umbrella while Australia has to look after itself, while keeping firepower in reserve for neighbours in need.
Downer says Australians are keen on looking after themselves because “this is our neighbourhood. Canada’s neighbourhood is completely dominated by the United States.” He adds that Australia is more than merely self- reliant — it is also a reliable ally. “We pull our weight,” Downer says pointedly.

Read it all to get an appreciation of just how far Australia punches above her weight in keeping the “junk” out of their backyard.
Though, perhaps it’s more than the umbrella provided by a big, powerful brother to our south – the difference in our national sense of responsibility can be partially attributed to our contrasting national evolution. Austrailans worked their way up from what began as a colony of criminals, while Canadians seem content to be governed by one.
(Thanks to Joe Katzman for the tip)

Reader Tips

Reader Tips 24 Comments

Spent the day standing on concrete, and don’t have much energy left for blogging – much less sifting through the 30 or so “tips” that arrived in my inbox while I was out.
So, use the comments for this evening if you have something so urgent everyone must know about. But, eh… if it’s already been on Nealenews or already raging about the Toryshere, I’d guess most people have seen it.
Tomorrow.

Race To The Bottom

Media 32 Comments

Slawko Klymkiw’s journey through the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is almost movie-of-the-week material, the kind he himself would commission for the Mothers Corps.
And if you believe that, then you will also believe the many accolades bestowed upon the man whose decision “to accept an invitation to take up a new, exciting and very different professional opportunity” happens to coincide with the current lockout that many say is the death knell of the CBC as we have known it.
Or, about the same time senior brass decided the NHL method of labour negotiation, a.k.a. starve the bastards out, was the only alternative to even more years of decaying revenues, self-centred programming and downward-spiralling ratings.
Or, a.k.a. exactly what Klymkiw had delivered in his 9 years as Executive Director of Network Programming for CBC Television.

Though, The Black Rod is more encouraging towards the CBC than most are.

F**k Terrorism

Military 65 Comments

Edmonton Sun;

A Canadian Forces sniper who set a distance record by killing an al-Qaida fighter from more than two kilometres away has quit in frustration and may go into mercenary work.
Master Cpl. Arron Perry made national headlines twice in 2002: the first was anonymous, after he shot an al-Qaida fighter in Afghanistan from 2,430 metres, a world record.
The second was public and ugly. Perry, 33, and a 13-year veteran, was accused of discreditable conduct after he allegedly cut the finger off an al- Qaida corpse, defecated on another and then had his picture taken with a corpse that had a lit cigarette hanging from his lips and a sign around his neck reading “F**k Terrorism.”

Now, had Cpl. Perry been thinking, he’d have burned those bodies and hung them from a bridge, or strapped explosives to his chest and taken out one of their schools- acts that, as we all now know, would have been seized upon by the Western media and broadcast to the world as sobering evidence of the futility of resisting the Canadian Armed Forces.
Good luck in your future endeavors, Cpl. Perry and congratulations to whoever is fortunate enough to acquire your talents.
Oct. 2006 update: Multiple media reports crediting Perry with the record turned out to be inaccurate. Rob Furlong made the shot, but desired anonymity. See this May 2006 Macleans article for the followup.

In Case Of Forced Retreat

Little Known Facts 21 Comments

Burn it, I tell you – burn everything to the ground. Conditions must be made unbearable for the enemy and all his accomplices. Leave the criminal invaders naught but scorched earth to claim for their heinous aggression!

update In the comments, “Jeff in Pullman, WA” makes a darned good point –

It’s called Hans Island, so the Danes think it’s theirs. Now, if you called it “Brian Island”, or something equally Canadian, the Danes wouldn’t set foot on it.

Duh!

Gas Attack Thwarted In London

Terrorism 10 Comments

Times of London is reporting that codebreakers have thwarted an Al Qaeda gas attack on Parliament.

The plot, hatched last year, is understood to have been discovered in coded e-mails on computers seized from terror suspects in Britain and Pakistan. Police and MI5 then identified an Al-Qaeda cell that had carried out extensive research and video- recorded reconnaissance missions in preparation for the attack.

Via Hugh Hewitt, who observes “Nothing yet at the Washington Post or the New York Times, where staffs are probably too focused on Crawford demonstrators to notice the news from London.”

On The Ground With Deuce Four

Military 4 Comments

Michael Yon on the “proximity delay” between events in Iraq and the mainstream media versions that appear days later.
Yon’s dispatches should be required reading for every journalist and columnist in Canada who ventures opinions on Iraq based on daily news reports.
That, and;

The Commander of Deuce Four, LTC Erik Kurilla, was shot three times in combat yesterday in front of my eyes. Despite being seriously wounded, LTC Kurilla immediately rejoined the intense and close-quarter fight that ended in hand-to-hand combat. LTC Kurilla continued to direct his men until a medic gave him morphine and the men took him away. I was right there. When I returned to base, I was actually “ordered” not to write about the fighting until given clearance, and was told that my phones could be confiscated. I will ignore such “orders” at my own discretion. I am preparing a dispatch now.

Michael Yon is an independant “observer” in Iraq and supported by donations. There’s a link at the bottom of his blog. Note that there isn’t on this one. Click his instead, please.

Road Music

stuff 8 Comments

Now I’ve heard there was a secret chord
That David played, and it pleased the Lord
But you don’t really care for music, do you?
It goes like this
The fourth, the fifth
The minor fall, the major lift
The baffled king composing Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah*

Best sung inside a helmet, laying on the tank, while riding the powerband through 5 gears.
Hallelujah.

Today Gaza…

Terrorism 23 Comments

Today, I received a real-time translation of an Arabic interview with the Gaza head of Hamas. Let me share a couple of points made by the terrorist leader. It reflects the feelings of those who hate Israel and the United States. The statements are from the interview:
1.The disengagement expresses the collapse of the Zionist concept.
2.Gaza withdrawal will raise Arab morale and the Islamic world and will have positive implications in Afghanistan and Iraq. (i.e. more terrorism against Americans)
3.We are part of the global Islamic movement
4.The tools we used in Gaza will be more effective on the West Bank
5.The ceasefire will end at the end of the year.
Meantime, our friend Dore Gold has helped publicize the fact that the United Nations is paying for the production of bumper stickers that the terrorists are distributing with the slogan, “Today Gaza, tomorrow the West Bank and Jerusalem.” The UN money being used was earmarked for anti-poverty programs. I guess Kofi was too busy with the Oil For Food scandal to monitor these funds.

more – from Frum who sees things from a strategic viewpoint.

The world wants a Palestinian state? Very well – let them have it. And the result, as we are seeing, is something close to panic in the foreign ministries of the West. Not just the West: the Middle East too. The Egyptians do not want a Hamas state on their borders. They had expected Ariel Sharon to place a cordon between Egypt and Gaza. He has said he will not do so – that he is leaving the job up to the Egyptians. And indeed last month Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz announced that 750 Egyptian soldiers would soon arrive to replace the Israeli Defense Forces.
Is this Egyptian role on the border a precursor to a larger Egyptian role within Gaza? Egypt after all remains far more vulnerable to Islamic extremist ideology than Israel. The Egyptian authorities have crushed the extremist movement within their borders. Do they wish to see a jihadist state emerge on their borders? It seems unlikely.
Could it be that Sharon is calling the bluff of Western governments and the Arab states? By creating the very Palestinian state that those governments and those states pretend to want but actually dread – Sharon is forcing them to end their pretense and acknowledge the truth:
The Palestinian leadership is incapable of creating a state that can live at peace with anyone, not Israel, not the other Arab states, not Europe, not the world. Somebody else must govern the restless and violent Arab-majority territories west of the Jordan River. Israel has suffered four decades of condemnation for doing the job. Sharon is now resigning the task to anybody else who would like to step in and take over the job. Nobody wants to. But Egypt and Jordan may soon realize that they have no choice. If there is a secret behind Sharon’s plan – that is it.

New Cat Herding Powers For Canadian Law Enforcement

The Libranos 42 Comments

Lance Levsen on the technical aspects of disturbing draft legislation to monitor internet activity.

The proposed legislation allows the law enforcement (RCMP, CSIS, CISC, etc) to intercept and monitor all Internet traffic without a court order. Currently, all previous forms of covert surveillance (mail, telephone and search without seizure) require lawenforcement to convince a judge for the purposes of obtaining a warrant.

Additionally, the proposed legislation requires ISP’s to monitor all of their clients Internet activities so that they can provide (given 30 minutes warning) reports and data on the target. This includes password protected web sites.

I suppose one can draw some reassurance in the fact that the same government that’s proposing it is giving the job to agencies so chronically understaffed that they are weeks behind in entering stolen passports and Interpol alerts to their own databases.
secret.gif
And then, of course, with legislation like this on the books, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if you want to transmit sensitive information you should probably take steps to conceal it.
(To demonstrate just how easy that is – there are two such messages in this post. Neither are hard to find, but you first have to know they’re here.)
h/t Darcey

Deep In The Heart Of Riversdale

Gopher News 14 Comments

Sask Party news release

Saskatchewan Party Leader Brad Wall wants to know why Lorne Calvert and NDP Justice Minister Frank Quennell have said and done nothing about gang activity and recent incidents of violent crime in Saskatoon.
“Saskatoon people are telling me that they don’t feel safe and they don’t feel their children are safe in their own homes and communities,” Wall said.
Wall said the Calvert NDP government needs to address the issue because Saskatchewan families should be able to live without fear.
“Cracking down on gang activities must be a priority for this government,” Wall said, noting that Saskatchewan has the highest per capita concentration of young gang members in the country, according to the Criminal Intelligence Service Saskatchewan Winter 2005 Report. PDF
“It’s a big issue across this province. First Nation Leaders have told us they are very concerned about increased gang activity on and off-reserve, and they are too are taking a leadership role on this,” Wall said. “We’ve offered to work with them on this issue.”
Wall said he is asking his Justice Critic, Saskatoon Southeast MLA Don Morgan, to take the lead on this issue by looking into possible solutions and by pushing the government for action. Ted Merriman (Community Resources and Employment), Don Toth (Corrections and Public Safety), and June Draude (First Nations and Metis Relations) will join Morgan on the committee.
[…]
“In 1991, Lorne Calvert said he dreamed of a province where everyone could feel safe walking the streets. After 14 years of NDP government, people don’t feel safe in Lorne Calvert’s own constituency. It’s time for Mr. Calvert to stop just dreaming, wake up and address the problem.”

Background: Sask crime stats.
Update (via Rawlco radio) – NDP MLA Pat Atkinson has responded, citing a “2 percent drop in crime” in Saskatchewan, and accusing the SaskParty of “scare tactics”. When questioned by local reporter Mervin Brass about how she would respond had her home been one of the four who experienced home invasions this last week, she replied that she’d “be scared”.
On a different front, the problem is impacting the real estate market, with local agents reporting that homes are becoming very hard to move in the Riversdale area.

David Radler: Outrage Watch

Moonbats 16 Comments

Toronto Star;

The RCMP conducted a “review” of fraud allegations relating to Hollinger International Inc. more than a year ago but found nothing to warrant further investigation in Canada.
An RCMP spokeswoman confirmed late yesterday that a team specializing in securities crime looked at the allegations in February 2004 but decided not to pursue them after about a month of work.
“After conducting a thorough review, it was determined that no Canadian investigation was required,” said RCMP Corporal Michele Paradis.

Yet, according to the Globe, David Radler – Conrad Black’s “long-time lieutenant” – is in hiding in his posh Vancouver home.

Federal prosecutors in Chicago yesterday indicted Lord Black’s long-time lieutenant, David Radler, his former corporate lawyer, Mark Kipnis, and private Toronto holding firm Ravelston Corp., alleging that they fraudulently diverted $32-million (U.S.) from Chicago publisher Hollinger International Inc.
[…]
The criminal charges are the most serious of any of the legal fights that have enveloped the Hollinger empire for the past two years. If convicted, Mr. Kipnis and Mr. Radler could face a maximum sentence of five years in prison for each of seven counts, and substantial fines.

Brace yourself for the coming storm of outrage on the Canadian horizon…
radler.gif
Any day now.

Fightingforyou.ca

The Libranos 20 Comments

Pierre Poilievre’s website www.fightingforyou.ca is up- “inviting Canadians to email the Queen with concerns about a newly released videotape that shows Governor-General Designate, Micha�lle Jean, toasting independence with an FLQ member, and newly discovered comments quoted in a separatist book that Mr. Lafond wrote in 1993.”
(Is this Pierre kid finished high school yet? Damn, those Conservatives are starting them young…..)

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