Category: Canada

Well, isn’t this just God damned jolly?

It’s been more than a decade and a half since the poop hit the windmaker in Oka, Quebec and now, if you believe what some media outlets are coughing up, we’re pretty much smack-dab right back where we started, waiting for it to blow up again. Reading the Freeps and the Winterpeg Sun, you’d think the whole thing was a powder shed, with a chimp playing with matches inside…

The war never ended in Kanesatake, the Mohawk community at the centre of the Oka crisis, and now the government has been put on notice history might repeat itself.

Ottawa’s lead negotiator on the Kanesatake file has received two letters this year from the Kanesatake Women’s Coalition warning the federal government to stop negotiating with the band council. The letters say they could throw up a highway blockade or worse to force the issue.

“I do not have to remind you that this is exactly what happened back in 1990. The chief and council of the day did not have the authority or the mandate to negotiate our land rights in the pines for the expansion of the Oka golf course,” says one of the letters.

“The Mohawk women of Kanesatake warned the federal Conservative government of that day and its negotiator that if they continued to negotiate with the council without the community’s input there will be war and war did break out.”

War, my ass. For those of you that don’t remember all too well: as soon as the army started moving forward, all the “Mohawk warriors” started moving back. Yeah, big surprise. This reserve has been known more for its lawlessness than any other one in the country that I can think of. For example, take a look at what happened a little over three years ago:

An incident on Jan. 12, 2004 triggered it all. When 67 police and auxiliary officers from outside communities descended on Kanesatake armed with three submachine guns, a sniper rifle, two automatic rifles, a semi automatic rifle, two pump-action shotguns and thousands of rounds of ammunition, all hell broke loose. Warriors and community members laid siege to the police station for two days. The force was eventually let out of the community and Gabriel’s [referring to Former Grand Chief James Gabriel] house was burned down.

Nice, huh? As if that weren’t bad enough, this fiasco also has its lips firmly locked on the public teat, to boot:

The official says Ottawa has spent $51 million on the Kanesatake negotiating process since 1994. Of that, $35 million was spent on the acquisition of 178 pieces of property, $4 million was spent on negotiations for the government side and $9 million for the Kanesatake side, according to the official.

This is getting ridiculous. Granted, the Tories haven’t had this file for too long and they’ve had other things on their plate, but there hasn’t been any indication that I’ve seen that they’re going to deal with this properly any more than the Grits did. And with all the talk about a nation-wide “day of action” (read: “shit-disturbing”) this coming Friday, you have to wonder: just when the hell is the government going to put its foot down and say, “the law is the law and you damned well follow it whether like it or not and no, we don’t give a shit what colour you are.”

Granted, the current system for land claim resolution sucks. But Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice recently unveiled a plan to fix that mess. In the meantime, however, the government should be lowering the boom on any lawlessness they see and NO band should get anything until they damned well get it through their heads that yes, the law applies to them, too.

I’m not sure if it’s in bad taste or not, filing this post under “Good Stuff,” what with it being about the return of fallen soldiers and all. But one thing that I am sure of is that the respect shown to them as the three fallen PPCLI infantrymen were borne away from CFB Trenton along Hwy. 401. If there ever really was any doubt about whether or not John and Jane Q. Canadian actually are 100% behind our soldiers in Afghanistan, I think it can now be put to rest.

Weblinks being the prone-to-expiring things that they are, and this being so good, I’ve decided on putting the whole thing up here:

Hundreds line Hwy. 401 bridges to bid goodbye to fallen troopers
By CHRIS DOUCETTE AND PETE FISHER, SUN MEDIA

Port Hope firefighters on top of their truck join other mourners to salute the three hearses carrying Canada’s most recent fallen heroes along Hwy. 401 yesterday. (Pete Fisher, Sun Media)

In a brilliant and emotional show of support, a sea of red and white lined the overpasses east of the city last night in honour of the three soldiers to be killed in Afghanistan last week.

Hundreds of people stood on several overpasses from Northumberland County to Durham, most either wearing Canada’s colours or waving a Canadian flag, as the convoy carrying the three fallen members of the Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry made its way along Hwy. 401.

“I think it’s wonderful,” Linda Thomson, 50, said of the show of support for Canada’s troops as honking horns from cars below her filled the evening air.

Linda and her husband were among one of the largest groups of supporters in Durham — more than 100 — standing on the Brock St. overpass in their hometown of Whitby.

“I don’t support the war, I wish they would all come home,” Linda added. “But we have to support our soldiers.”

In Northumberland County, where people been showing their support from the overpasses since the first Canadian soldiers were killed in Afghanistan, 200 people lined one bridge in Port Hope. It was the first time Denise Sheehan and her daughter Megan, 3, attended an unofficial ceremony in Port Hope.

“They took their time to go fight for us, so I think we should take our time to come show our respect for them,” Sheehan said.

Every fire department in Northumberland County, as well as Northumberland County Paramedics and OPP, Cobourg and Port Hope Police, had bridges covered, saluting the procession as it went by.

Durham firefighters and paramedics also lined up with their vehicles.

The dead soldiers — Cpl. Stephen Bouzane, 26, a Scarborough native, Pte. Joel Wiebe, 22, and Sgt. Christos Karigiannis — arrived by plane at CFB Trenton, and after a ceremony at the base, the bodies were driven to the coroner’s office in Toronto be examined before being released to their families.

“We don’t like war, nobody does. But they are over there to help not to hurt,” said Hughy Robertshaw, 62, who drove to Whitby from his home in Milton to pay his respects.

Come to think of it, maybe filing this under “Good Stuff” wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Goddamnit, what the hell does it take to finally get over this crap? It’s been damn near a year and a half since we kicked their sorry arses to the curb and we’re still having to deal with the fallout from the Liebrals’ willful neglect of our Canadian Armed Forces! Everybody from the Freeps, to CTV, to the Ministry Of What You Should Think, and everyone in between has been telling about how the Librano$ were, as usual, too damned busy buggering things up to take care of our men and women in uniform (the Snowbirds, this time):

The air force was urged in no uncertain terms four years ago to quickly replace the aging Tutor jets belonging to the prized Snowbird demonstration squadron.

The study by the Defence Department’s director of major service delivery procurement warned that the life expectancy of the 1960s-vintage aircraft was 2010, but could be pushed out for another decade if absolutely necessary.

“With each passing year, the technical, safety and financial risk associated with extending the Tutor into its fifth decade and beyond, will escalate,” said the review, written in August 2003.

And just what did the Grits do when they were given that information? Why, they did DICK ALL, of course! Just like they always do whenever something concerns the safety, wellbeing, morale, image or the very lives of our soldiers. After all, these are the same assholes that gave us Sea Kings In The Sun, the flying caskets that are older than most of the pilots that fly them, fer Chrissakes.

Granted, the Tutor isn’t as bad as the Sea Kings, but these things are starting to show their age. In the 35-year history of the Snowbirds, only six pilots have died, but half of those have been in the last nine years.

So here we are, with yet another Grit mess to clean up. Don’t expect them to take the blame, though. Hell, NO!! That ain’t the Lieberal way. Just like they twiddled their thumbs for years over the Kyotology Kult and then had the gall to demand that the Tories implement it within months (likely hoping that such an implementation would tank the economy, making the Conservatives look like assholes, and thereby get the Librano$ back high on the public hog), look for the Grits to screech away to anyone that will listen about how the mean, nasty, Stephen-Dubya-Harper® Tories are the ones that aren’t looking after the military.

Sometimes I wonder if those bozos don’t deliberately bugger up, just so they have a failsafe to fall back on whenever they get the boot: blame the Tories for not fixing their mistakes and then act like the screwup happened on their watch instead of the Liberals’. Just a thought.

(more…)

Some of you might find this post a little befuddling, especially in light of my opinions on the Farmer Bob Varmint Gun Registryâ„¢ and other idiocies that the anti-gun wackos puke up from time to time. The fact of the matter is that, contrary to what some of my friends and coworkers might tell you, I actually do believe in having some gun control under the law.

No, I haven’t changed my mind. Registration is still useless but licensing makes sense. Registration only kicks in after you have a gun. It’s a licensing that keeps guns out of the hands of the wrong people in the first place, or at least makes it harder for them to get one.

A lot of states in the US have the right idea: if you have a felony conviction, you can’t get a gun. Waiting times make sense, too. Seriously now, just what the hell can be going on in your day that you need a gun right now?? Smells fishy to me.

But just having a licensing regimen isn’t enough; it has to be done right. Which makes the story on the front page of today’s Freeps all that much more disturbing:

ST. THOMAS — Factory worker Nelson Merritt has struggled for years with mental health problems and drug dependency.

He has an anxiety and bi-polar disorder. He’s been depressed and had suicidal thoughts.

And when he emptied the clip of his Glock 9 mm handgun into Bobby Thorpe Jr., shooting him 10 times, Merritt was the licensed owner of three handguns, two rifles and two shotguns.

I’m going to resist the temptation to go on a complete rant about how this is yet another murder that the Long Gun Registry failed to do anything about. The real question here is: how the hell did someone with a long history of drug abuse and mental illness get a PAL for not one but THREE, COUNT ‘EM: THREE RESTRICTED WEAPONS!?!? 😯 If that doesn’t redline your WTF-o-meter, nothing will.

I’ve said it before and, you guessed it, I’m saying it again: the problem isn’t guns, the problem is PEOPLE. You want to curb gun crime? First, you have a licensing system that is based on common sense (if you have trouble figuring out what that is, just go to your local sportsman’s or hunters’ & anglers’ association and ask around) instead of moonbattery. Second you need to really punish gun crime. As in: use a gun, do ten years BEHIND BARS and make it REAL TIME. That means:

• No TV
• No radio
• No gym
• No yard
• No Club Fed
• No smokes
• No methodone or other such bullshit
• And no Goddamn trailer where your ol’ lady can come in and grease your pole on the weekends.

You don’t stop gun crime by hassling law-abiding people. You do it by demanding responsible access and by going after the troublemakers — with a damned big stick.

More today on the asshattery from the Arsehole Of The Universeâ„¢. You might recall from yesterday’s post that the chickendoves down at TO’s Silly Hall have decided, in their infinite wimpdom, that it would be a grand jolly idea to yank the yellow “Support Out Troops” ribbons off all the city’s firetrucks and ambulances.

Yeah, those ribbons. The ones that send the antiwar (read “anti-military utopian, la-la-land-dwelling”) crowd into fits.

The same boneheads that amongst other things, keep the wheels of TO’s homeless industry greased to the tune of over $100 million a year want to get rid of them. Their reasoning for such full-blown fiddlyfriggery were thoroughly astonishing:

The reason? It depends on who you talk to. And there are lots of contradictions.

Some say it is because it was not brought to council for proper approval, others say protocol was not followed. Another reason given is it was a one-year project.

But many City Hall sources tell me it has everything to do with some complaints from a few anti-war citizens who have the ear of some leftist councillors — and felt the ribbons were in support of the war in Afghanistan and not just in support of the troops.

‘IN CONVERSATIONS’

“It was a decision I made in conversations I had with the two chiefs,” said city manager Shirley Hoy, who was good enough to return a call yesterday on this and own up.

Several members of council did not extend the courtesy. Having said that, Hoy, though, still attempted to dance around this by saying it was a “one-year support program” and that the decision was made to remove the decals when the vehicles were scheduled for “regular maintenance.”

Surely, Shirley, every vehicle is not going in on the same day for repairs?

Well, it looks like their buffoonery has come back and bitten them on their little peacenik asses. Right quick…

Councillor Frances Nunziata said yesterday she would call on council to extend the yellow ribbon campaign after receiving calls from veterans who were “outraged and insulted” after reading a Sun report about the decals being removed from the emergency vehicles.

Mayor David Miller expressed support for Canadian troops but refused yesterday to intervene in the local battle that has erupted over plans to take yellow ribbon decals — a sign of support for the troops — off 170 fire trucks, 147 ambulances and 25 of that department’s emergency response cars and SUVs.

Well, isn’t that just cute? He supports the troops, as long as he doesn’t have to take a stand on anything.

Dear Dave,

NEWS FLASH, you little socialist weasel: if you support the troops, that means actually DOING something about it! You never have any problem with throwing your office’s weight around when it comes to one of your little Lefty feel-good, do-nothing projects or causes, do you? But when it comes to standing up for the very men and women that put their asses on the line to earn all the freedoms that you take for granted, you tuck tail and do dick all like the good little sniveling Leftist lapdog that you are. Yeah, you talk, but talk is cheap:

“There are calls from people saying, ‘Why are you expressing support for the war in Afghanistan’? My perspective is that troops — once they are put in harm’s way — everybody has to support them,” said Miller, whose uncle served in the British and Canadian navies.

SO WHY THE HELL AREN’T YOU SUPPORTING THEM, DAVE?? Without men like your uncle, men like you and your anti-military playmates are an evolutionary dead end, you little shit! Get off your worthless, no-balls-havin’ ass put a stop to this bullshit! You say that you support our troops, I say PROVE IT! Put the damn things back and leave ’em there until our troops come home.

Looks like de Tocqueville was right about people in democracies getting the government they deserve… 🙄

At least not everyone in TO is a blathering idiot:

“When you have families already living in anticipatory grief, it’s a bit of a slap in the face,” said Katherine Hodgson-McMahon, executive director of the Toronto Military Family Resource Centre.

As usual, “Scrawler” Joe Warmington nailed it:

GET A SPINE, MR. MAYOR

I dare you, Mr. Mayor!

I dare you, David Miller, to vote against the Canadian troops today.

And if you do, I then dare you to resign in disgrace and dishonour.

I would then dare you to face the families of the 57 soldiers already brought home in flag-draped coffins. Shame on you for even letting this get this far!

Amen to that.

== UPDATE ==

It seems that TO’s city council has proven that you actually can count on them to do the right thing. Whenever they’re cornered like rats in a trap, that is…

City councillors voted unanimously today in favour of keeping the “Support Our Troops” decals on fire trucks and ambulances. The issue became a political hot potato after Mayor David Miller backed a plan by fire and ambulance officials to have the stickers removed, starting in September.

As most of you know, I wouldn’t live in the Centre Of The Universeâ„¢ if you paid me (ane yes, there have been offers). It’s too big, too noisy, the air stinks, there are way too many panhandlers (speaking of panhandlers, did you hear about Mike Strobel tripping across the Shaky Lady again?) and it’s got one of the ugliest shorelines I’ve ever seen.

But the absolute worst thing about Toronto has to be that they keep electing idiots like that socialist scumbag, David Miller and his hypocritical henchmen. The latest mealy-mouthed asshattery from this bunch is described by the TO Sun’s Joe “Scrawler” Warmington. I know I don’t usually reprint entire articles, but this shitheadery really needs to be seen to be believed:

City order burns troops
Pulling fire, ambulance ribbons is wrong
By JOE WARMINGTON

Our brave troops will still be fighting in Afghanistan this September even if the magnetic ribbon support decals on Toronto Fire trucks and ambulances won’t be.

The city has ordered the Support Our Troop decals to be removed from all fire trucks and EMS vehicles on Sept. 4, the Sun has learned.

The reason? It depends on who you talk to. And there are lots of contradictions.

Some say it is because it was not brought to council for proper approval, others say protocol was not followed. Another reason given is it was a one-year project.

But many City Hall sources tell me it has everything to do with some complaints from a few anti-war citizens who have the ear of some leftist councillors — and felt the ribbons were in support of the war in Afghanistan and not just in support of the troops.

‘IN CONVERSATIONS’

“It was a decision I made in conversations I had with the two chiefs,” said city manager Shirley Hoy, who was good enough to return a call yesterday on this and own up.

Several members of council did not extend the courtesy. Having said that, Hoy, though, still attempted to dance around this by saying it was a “one-year support program” and that the decision was made to remove the decals when the vehicles were scheduled for “regular maintenance.”

Surely, Shirley, every vehicle is not going in on the same day for repairs?

Later she admitted the support ribbons did not meet “certain corporate standards” for the city.

Maybe we can arrange to give the troops over there some parking tickets and send over a bylaw officer to make sure they are complying with the smoking rules? Corporate standards! What the hell are they talking about?

The whole thing is outrageous but at least now we are on to what this is really all about. They should just say it. This is the politically correct leftist crowd getting their way — at the expense of our amazing troops in the battle of their lives. This has got to be a moral victory for the Taliban.

The guys really on the spot here are Fire Chief Bill Stewart and Ambulance Chief Bill Farr. Two very good guys who essentially answer to council and to senior administration and have their hands tied. Also, there is no way the paramedics and firefighters in this town would approve. I know many and their respect for the troops is unwavering.

While Chief Stewart said the decals “did not meet corporate standards … and the corporate policy must be adhered to,” decals or no decals he also emphasized “we certainly support the Canadian troops.” He said firefighters have had fundraisers and other initiatives to show that.

If they do, no political pressure from some leftist anti-war activist should be able to stop that.

Shame on anybody who is messing with that. Like it or not, this country is at war and it’s imperative we support the men and women doing the heavy lifting every chance we get. Hoy told me the decals were put on a year ago and were to be removed at the end of one year. No one else indicated this was the plan.

If it was, it would be unprecedented in Canadian military history. Imagine if they’d put up yellow ribbons during World War II for just the year 1942? There is at least one veteran upset about this.

“I can guarantee that no one on city council has ever served in the Armed Forces but they are always eager to jump to the front of the line when a Forces photo opportunity comes along and shout that they support the troops,” said Don Ashfield.

“City council can vote approval to bump their pay, pad their expense accounts and attend many meetings where free food is given, but Support Our Troops? Never.”

A spokesman in the mayor’s office said he “didn’t know anything about this.” Same goes for several other councillors — all of whom did not return calls.

Yeah, sure!

Scott Marks, president of the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters Association, said the reaction of members ranges from some who are not too worked up to others who are outraged. It was the association who designed and paid for the decals on the fire trucks — the EMS ones were paid for with taxpayers’ money.

More than a month ago pressure was brought to bear by Now magazine, which quoted specifically Councillor Janet Davis. “I do connect the Afghan mission to the Support Our Troops sticker. That is where our troops are being killed,” she told Now reporter Andrew Cash in May.

“Not only does this not communicate a City of Toronto policy, but it also sends a political message about a public policy matter that is quite contentious. And we shouldn’t be using public funds for it.”

‘A POLITICAL MESSAGE’

But if we are going to be by the book about public money at City Hall, let’s not start at the expense of the at-risk troops — 57 of whom have died in battle.

This is not the issue to try to show corporate precision and integrity. Try doing it when you are quietly voting yourselves an 11% raise.

Whatever you think of this, a decision has been made to have those decals removed. “I think it’s crazy,” said one firefighter. “We sent over a video to the troops to show them these ribbons on the trucks. I hope they know we still support them.”

Perhaps this is not over yet. It’s actually up to you. This might be a time for us to collectively speak up. If there is public reaction against this nonsense, maybe we can turn this around and they will leave those decals right where they are — and leave them there until every member of our Canadian Armed Forces is back from this conflict and not a moment before.

Our troops will still be fighting in Afghanistan in September and if we make enough noise perhaps those decals supporting them will remain on the side of our municipal emergency vehicles.

Got an opinion of your own on this subject that you’d like to share? By all means… 416-338-0338…

Let the bastards know just how you feel.