Sweet jumpin’ Jesus! I knew things were bad but just when the hell did things go this far off the damned rails???

For decades now, the illustrious forces of Those Who Know What’s Best For You have been passing one law after another, for no other apparent reason than trying to put the Darwin Awards out of business. There’s actually still a statute on the books against “sexual congress” with polar bears. 😯 How the hell that one ever came about in the first place, I do not want to know…

Naturally, all this meddlesome governmental busybody-ness led to greater and greater intrusion into our lives on the part of those who believe right down to their bones that an individual is just too damned stupid to be trusted to act in their own best interests. That was all bad enough, but Big Nanny seems to have totally lost it with her latest stunt. It seems we can’t even be trusted to ride a damned escalator by ourselves anymore:

Anyone who has ridden an escalator and bothered to pay attention has seen – and likely ignored – little signs suggesting riders hold the grimy handrail.

In Montreal’s subway system, the friendly advice seems to have taken on the force of law, backed by a $100 fine.

Bela Kosoian, a 38-year-old mother of two, says when she didn’t hold the handrail Wednesday she was cuffed, dragged into a small holding cell and fined.

Why can I never be making this stuff up? The article also mentions that the victim (because that’s what she is: a victim of a maniacally overweening state) “had been sick and feared catching a new bug.” I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen some escalator rails that I wouldn’t have grabbed with Pierre Trudeau’s hand!

And just what does the Société de transport de Montréal, the malignant Nanny in question for our story, have to say about all this? Well, it’s basically the same thing that all tyrants have to say for themselves, of course. Just with a little customization to their interests:

it is forbidden for all persons to disobey a directive or a pictogram posted by the Société.

Yes, indeed comrade; we can’t have those stinking proletariats disobeying the Holy Directives now, can we? Now let’s just sit back and watch the show as they try to backpedal when the shit hits the Public Outrage Fan®.

At least it should be a way to kill a slow afternoon.

Those of you who read here, know that I have some mixed feelings about La Belle Province. Sometimes, I really, really want to just bitch-slap Quebec, en masse. Other times, I just love the hell outta the little buggers.

This is one of the latter.

On the one hand, they can be like the surly teenager who lives in the basement, demanding to be let do his own thing but refusing to live by the rules of the parents who actually pay the damned bills. On the other hand, they are capable of some astounding antibullshit from time to time. Today’s editorial in the Montreal Gazette is one such example (my emphasis, of course):

The way Canadians and their government deal with refugee claimants is still, as it has long been, an incoherent muddle of exceptions, special pleading, unverifiable claims, activism, confusion and foolishness.

Politically unpalatable though it might be, somebody needs to drain this swamp, and that somebody will have to be the federal government.

Several recent cases illustrate the problem:

U.S. Army Private Joshua Key deserted, came to Canada, and claimed refugee status, saying that in Iraq he had witnessed looting and violations of human rights. His refugee claim was rejected, but a judge allowed him to stay in Canada anyway.

An un-named Colombian denied refugee status in the U.S. said the “r” word here. Despite the fact that Canada and the U.S. have a “safe haven” agreement governing such cases, a Canadian court said he could stay. Last week a higher court overruled this validation of “asylum shopping,” but activist groups are complaining; the case may not be over.

Even when a bogus claimant loses his appeals, he can find a way to stay.

In British Columbia, Laibar Singh, an Indian who entered Canada with false papers, remains holed up in a Sikh temple. After the laborious hearing and appeals process, he was ordered deported from Canada, but ignored the order. In Canada he became ill and is now paralyzed. Immigration officials have been unable to summon the courage to arrest and deport him, even though he moves frequently from one refuge to another.

In Montreal, another failed refugee claimant, Algerian Abdelkader Belaouni, remains holed up in St. Gabriel’s Catholic Church despite an expulsion order, having slipped into Canada after his U.S. visa expired. Here again, immigration officials defer to the medieval superstition that a place of worship should provide immunity from the law.

At least those two say where they are. An alarming 41,000 people ordered deported from this country – many of them criminals – have just vanished.

There are far too many cases such as those mentioned above, and each time a judge, a pastor, or anyone else puts knee-jerk “compassion” above the rule of law, Canada loses something.

Canadians like to think of ourselves as generous and compassionate people, but where can we draw the line between being welcoming and being suckers? If our refugee-determinations come to be based on simply accepting everyone who gets here and wants to stay, what will the consequences be? Do we want to accept deserters into Canada? From the U.S. alone, or from everywhere? If we do that, how can we think of imposing any penalty on deserters from the Canadian Forces?

Do we really want to allow the unpopularity of the Iraq war in Canada to lead us to treat the U.S. armed forces as somehow illegitimate? Even if we did, shouldn’t this be articulated and regulated by Parliament, rather than by anyone with room in his church basement?

Immigration, including refugee policy, must be based on rules, not on individuals. If it’s not based on rules, then it’s not law.

It’s past time for Canadian refugee law to be clarified, improved, and then enforced with determination and vigour.

Yup; sometimes ya just gotta love the li’l French bastards… 😉

Good Lord, but I thought this was dead. It seems that the Shriners have gone back to the on-again off-again soap opera about bringing a hospital to London and turned the damned thing back on… yet again. Some of you reading this — hell, any of you that happen to be from the London area — likely remember how this happy crap turned out before. But nope; it’s back like an uninvited in-law at the cottage on the May two-four weekend.

Is anybody else getting sick and tired of this?

The resolution is almost identical to one the London Shriners presented two years ago at the group’s meeting in Baltimore. Montreal — its bid to keep the hospital backed by a strong show of support by the province — narrowly triumphed, the resolution failing to win needed two-thirds support by just a few votes.

I don’t know about anybody else, but I can remember the last time we had this carrot dangled in front of us. I also remember how much of my hard-earned tax dollars went down the shitter trying to woo the Shriners.

Here’s my advice — to the Shriners, to the mayor, and anybody else tied up in this turd typhoon: SHIT OR GET OFF THE POT! Either move it here or leave it there but fer chrissakes, quit bleating about it…

I had this whole post all written out.  I was surfing around, saw “14-year-old Quebec boy dies in fight over baseball cap,” and that was all I needed.  It was pretty good too, if I do say so myself.  All kinds of fire and brimstone about the YCJA, lenience, and little criminal bastards.

Yup, it was pretty good.

Then, before I hit the “publish” button, I got the odd urge to take another look.  Turns out that’s a good thing, I guess.

As many of you have no doubt heard by now, there was a schoolyard fight in Trois Pistoles, Que., apparently over a hat, and one kid was killed.  On the surface of it, this is a no-brainer for someone like me:  Kid kills, kid is little murdering bastard; let him rot.  No fuss, no muss, no excuses.  Then I got a little more details…

As near as I can tell so far — and I DON’T have all the details — the more I look at this, the more it looks like a freak incident of a schoolyard fight gone horribly, horribly wrong.  Reports like John Grant’s from CTV (see it here) are calling this a “one-punch fight.”  Not exactly the kind of brutality that I’m in the habit of raving about.

I also have to admit that this gives me a bit of a “there but for the grace of God…” feeling.  I remember getting into more than a few slobberknockers when I was young.  Looking back, I have to admit that any one of them could have had this same one-in-a-million outcome.  But it’s still just that: one in a million.

Let’s face it: boys are boys.  All the social engineering efforts notwithstanding, we are and will always be what we are.  Based on what I know at this point, this is not an example of youth run wild.  This is a schoolyard fight gone tragically wrong.

Am I advocating that the kid who is still alive be let off scott free?

NO.

You killed somebody, kid.  Whether you meant to or not, the result is the same and you need to be held answerable for that.  You’re not a murderer.  But someone is dead by your hand and, if you’re ever going to be a man, you need to take responsibility for what you do.  Involuntary manslaughter.  You did what you did.  Now you pay for it.

Could I be completely wrong in all this?

Oh, yes I could.  But this is as honest as I can be, with what I know.

. . . Quebec Superior Court Justice Jean-Guy Boilard (the same shithead that nearly screwed up the Hells Angels trial), for being the first idiot in the history of Canadian justice to let a cop killer out through the revolving door. That’s right: in spite of all the other idiotic crap the judiciary in this country has pulled in the past few decades, they have at least managed to refrain from springing cop killers at the drop of a hat. Not anymore. Basil Parasiris got his little pat on the head in a Montreal court yesterday, for technicality bullshit that could have come straight from the script of the cheesiest courtroom Law & Order episode:

[…] Boilard ruled yesterday police weren’t justified in using a battering ram to enter Parasiris’s home. Boilard also noted a search warrant did not grant police permission to enter the home at night. The accused claims he thought a home invasion was being carried out when police barged into his south-shore residence to execute the warrant. While on bail, Parasiris has been ordered to live with his parents and obey a 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. But before Parasiris moves in, his father, George Sr., will have to remove two hunting rifles that are in the home.

Yup. Go to your room, mister and think about what you did. As if we actually needed yet another nugget of proof that judges in this country are both out of control and out of touch with reality. To the best of my knowledge, no cop killer has ever gotten bail in Canada. EVER. And along comes Butthead Boilard.

But hey, it’s all okay, right? After all, he’s going to have to live with his parents and we all know that, when a judge tells someone to stay at mommy and daddy’s house, they always stay put, don’t they?

After he skipped out on the Hells Angels trial back in ’02, Judge Bobblehead said that he wanted to “take time to ponder his future as a judge.”

The son of a bitch should have pondered harder.

And before anybody even thinks about giving me any of that “hey, buddy; that’s alleged cop-killer” bullshit, remember that this bastard admitted to what he did! And Boilard knew it, too:

Despite being advised several times after killing a police officer that he had the right to remain silent, Basil Parasiris confessed to what he did and expressed remorse.

Expressed remorse. Don’t they all?

Can somebody — hell, anybody; I don’t care who — please explain to me this Canuckleheaded obsession that we seem to have with embracing double standards? Seriously, folks; we’re starting to make ourselves look like we’ve got our heads so far up our butts, we chew our food twice. I know I’ve already given my snarky little 2¢ worth on this and I really, honestly did think that this would just fade into the woodwork like the social slight of hand that it is.

But, nooooooooooooo, that would make too much sense, wouldn’t it? This thing just won’t seem to stay dead. Like Marley’s ghost, it shambles around, gibbering like a TO homeless industry advocate in a private chinwag with mayor culpa David Miller. Granted, I would expect such shrill belly-button gawking from Quebec media, but the rest of the country can’t seem to quit picking at it, either. Even the union bobbleheads have hopped up on their hind legs to bark away about it.

In case you’re one of the three people that haven’t figured out what I’m bellyaching about yet, I’m talking about the case of Carol Rioux. That’s right: the French guy in Alberta that lost his job because of crappy English on his part. That guy. What I don’t get is, why is this news?? I mean, think about it now. Think about it. With headlines like “Second look at French flap,” “Francophones up in arms,” and “Quebecer fired for bad English,” you’d think there was actually something to this. I’ve got a better headline for you. How about…

Not Bilingual, Canadian Loses Job

We could have a really cool follow-up story, too:

Man Takes Dump, Wipes Ass

What do these have in common? It’s simple: both happen every day in this country, every where. That’s why neither one is news.

Gee, could it maybe have something to do with the fact that, this time, it’s happening to a French guy?? 😯 Well, we can’t have that now, can we? After all, official bilingualism is only supposed to screw the Anglos over; right?

Licia Corbella nailed it in today’s Edmonton Sun, hypocrisy and all. Could you imagine the reverse (an Anglo losing work because his French sucks) making news in Quebec? Mais non, bien sur!

As far as I’m concerned, until I can get a job in la belle province with only the French I’ve got; Rioux, the unions, the handwringers, and all the other moonbats in general can clamp their flappin’ yaps ’round my purple-headed yogurt flinger, make like a shop vac, and chug-a-lug a few pints of Shut The F*ck Up®.

I’m an Anglo Assholeâ„¢ and I approve this message.