Category: Canada

Quebec politics actually can be more interesting than a critical review of the Encyclopeadia of Proctology. Who’d’a thunk it, eh? Most people who read here regularly already know that I find Quebec politics in general — and the current provincial election in particular — to be someplace between belly button lint and spinach on my scale of interestingness (yes, that’s a word).

So you can probably imagine how surprised I was when I stumbled across a story about a Quebec politician saying something that wasn’t just interesting, it was damn smart, too! 😯 It seems that the ADQ‘s leader, Mario Dumont, is taking a page from the “enough of this bullshit, already” book and is talking about making criminals actually do some time for their crimes:

Dumont says an ADQ government would not allow repeat offenders to get probation and that temporary passes would be given to prisoners only for humanitarian reasons. Dumont unveiled his public security program while campaigning Thursday in Trois-Rivieres.

The ADQ leader also says too many prisoners who belong behind bars are being released for overcrowding and financial reasons.

Dumont cited a report saying that a third of inmates in Quebec’s prisons are repeat offenders who have been jailed at least 10 times.

Ten times, huh?  Well, obviously the hug-a-thug method is only accomplishing two things: Jack and shit.  And Jack didn’t show up.

I’ll admit right off the hop that I don’t really know much about the ADQ’s policies or ideology but if they keep coming up with stuff like this, they might be just what Quebec needs to pull their heads out of their collective derrières and get them on track to being productive partners in confederation.  I can’t believe that I’m actually saying this but… I just might start paying attention to this little horse race.

Why do I have the creepy feeling that the only ones who are going to be surprised at this are the wishy-washy, hug-a-thug, “but they’re just children,” social worker clone, overindulgent doorknobs that thought idiotic legislation like the YCJA was a good idea to begin with?  I remember, back in the ’80s, when scary social conservatives were saying that the YOA would be the thin end of the wedge for juvenile delinquents to run amok.

“If juveniles aren’t forced to face consequences that reflect the seriousness of their actions,” they said, “they’ll just become more and more brazen in defying the law.”  The go-easy-on-the-poor-dears social worker set responded, predictably, as if anyone against lenience towards little criminal bastards was suggesting that the little buggers be flogged in the public square with barbed wire.  But the truth is that without real consequences, juveniles, just like any other criminals, have been having less and less respect for the laws of the land; even flaunting their defiance of it.  The chickens, as it were, have come home to roost:

Sarnia police are looking for help after 150 teens tore apart a home and stole things after a party that got out of control.

And they’re not getting any help from the teens who went wild and then posted pictures of their destruction — pegged in the $10,000 range — on the internet.

[…]

By the time police showed up at 10 p.m. after concerned calls from the host and neighbours, between 100 and 150 young people, aged 13 to 17, had punched holes in the walls of the home and ripped down drywall ceilings.

Can’t say that I didn’t see this coming.  And I’m starting to get tired of being right…

Well now, isn’t this something? I have to admit that I’m taking a little sadistic schadenfreude at the news that some French guy (Quebecois, not of the France variety) is getting the same treatment that Anglophones have been getting in this country for decades. Think about this: how many of you out there have lost, or know someone who’s lost a job because you couldn’t speak French or couldn’t speak it good enough? Well some dude from Quebec has finally gotten a taste of what we’ve been having shoved down our throats for years…

Yup, you guessed it: he got canned for having crappy English…

EDMONTON (Sun Media) – A Quebec ironworker is accusing Suncor of discrimination after he was fired for poor English, but a spokesman for the oil giant says poor communication can be dangerous.

The dismissal prompted a second Quebecer to quit Suncor in protest and has incensed the local ironworkers union, which is demanding Suncor do more to accommodate French-speaking tradesmen.

[…]

“Come work in Alberta, they say. Just not if you speak French – that’s what they mean,” Pelletier said.

Well, guess what, dickweed? Welcome to my world. I’ve lost out on plenty of jobs because my French sucks. And some of those were jobs where the odds of bumping into a French Canuck were about as good as Smirkin’ Jack!’s chances of being PM. And don’t even get me started on the topic of trying to find a job anyplace in Quebec if you’re an Anglophone…

And — just in case you hadn’t noticed, bonehead — YOU’RE IN ALBERTA! The overwhelming majority of the people there speak ENGLISH. Learn it. Anglos get treated like lepers in la belle province, so it’s only fair that you get a dose of your own medicine. If it’s good for the goose, it’s good for the gander.

Honk, honk, asshole.

And here I thought that this kind of idiocy was, gratefully, a thing of the past. I guess not. Oh, well; at least it dates back to the days of Grit government.  Plenty of media outlets are hooting away lately about an organization called the Institute for Media, Policy and Civil Society (IMPACS) and a project that they were running in Afghanistan. Now, I don’t recall ever hearing about IMPACS before, but their webpage describes them as “a registered not-for-profit charitable organization committed to strengthening the voice and profile of civil society organizations in Canada and internationally,” and a little poking around seems to indicate a bit of a Leftist slant to their philosophy.

Another indication might be the pie-in-the-sky, impractical, idealistic approach that they took to their project in Afghanistan. According to the IMPACS website for the project:

IMPACS Afghanistan works to encourage the development of free and fair media in Afghanistan. It focuses its work on women’s participation in media, and the use of media as a tool to educate women.

Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? I mean, after all, isn’t it about time that Afghan women — who were treated little better than slaves or livestock under the Taliban regime — had more of a voice? Hell, this actually sounds like something I’d give a few bucks to myself, so look for all the usual suspects latched onto the public teat to wail away about how this is another example of the cold-hearted Conservative Hidden Agenda® now that Ottawa has pulled the plug (after damn near $3 million was already blown) on its funding. The problem is that the agency made a complete balls-up of it.

So what did they do to accomplish their stated goals? Well, see for yourself:

• “… the 2004 launch of a now defunct monthly newspaper in the capital of Kabul, the report says. Its purpose was in part to train female reporters and educate women about politics and other issues. “
• “The rest of the $2.7 million in total CIDA funds was previously used to start two radio stations. They offered women, especially in rural areas, a rare chance to be trained and heard in a repressively male-dominated culture.”

A radio station. In rural Afghanistan. Where most buildings have no electricity at all and the majority of the ones that do, haven’t got radios.

And a newspaper. Isn’t that nice? The problem with putting out a newspaper for Afghan women is that, thanks to the prohibition against schooling girls that was in force for all the years of Taliban rule, fewer than 10% of the female population can actually read the damn thing!

Now, I have NO problem whatsoever with charities that do good work (and there are plenty of them) but this… this was nothing more than a money pit. All it did was to supply a few do-gooder moonbats with jobs for a few months.  And, in typical Lefty fashion, they responded to questions with the predictable “go away; we’re doing nice things” attitude:

Asked to explain the audit’s findings, a CIDA spokesperson said no one was available.

“A briefing is not a possibility at this time,” said Greg Scott. In an e-mail, he said that IMPACS was the first media development group trying to put women’s voices on community radio.

The problem, Greggy, is that putting “women’s voices on community radio” doesn’t do Jack Shit. Teach them to read first.  Go out into the Afghan countryside and actually get your hands dirty.  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The problem with “liberals” is that they see the world as they think it should be, act accordingly, and then wonder what the hell went wrong (or try to blame conservatives) when they end up accomplishing nothing.  Conservatives, on the other hand, see the world as it is, warts and all, and just deal with it in the most direct fashion possible.

Now this right here is a perfect example of why I loathe the so-called “gay rights activists” crowd. It seems that New Brunswick is perhaps on the way to becoming one of the first provinces in the country to take a stand against the politically correct thought police, in favour of freedom of religion. And — gee whiz, who’d’a thunk it? — the SSM Left-wingnuts are totally pissed:

Conservative MLA David Alward said his proposed amendment to the Marriage Act would grant rights to commissioners who are opposed to same-sex “marriage” on religious grounds.

Homosexual activist groups have responded to the proposal with outrage, saying the legislation would grant rights to individuals who “discriminate” and would be an affront to the “equal marriage” movement.

Oh yeah, BIG surprise there. 🙄 They’ve got themselves all affronted, abacked, and probably asidewaysed as well. As usual, the rewriters of human nature assume that, whatever it is, it must be all about them. Surely, it couldn’t possibly have anything to do with people like Scott Brickie, Chris Kempling, Orville Nichols, or any of the other God-knows-how-many people who have been hauled in front of so-called “rights” tribunals and pilloried for nothing more than exercising their own rights.

And by “rights,” I mean real ones — like freedom of religion and speech — that are actually in documents like the CCRF or the USBOR; as opposed to “gay marriage,” which a handful of unelected judges just made up out of thin air.

These assholes try to make it sound like they’re somehow standing up for freedom when in fact, they’re destroying it. Perhaps the most fundamental freedom is the one to say “no, I choose to not participate in this,” and that is exactly what these bastards are trying to eliminate. They say they want “tolerance.” Bullshit. What they want is the whole world up on their little bandwagon with them and if you don’t want to go along with it, that’s tough shit because you’ll be dragged along if that’s what it takes.

Whatever rights you think you have don’t mean shit to them.  They don’t want to be “tolerated,” or just left alone to mind their own business.  They want to tell you what you can and cannot believe and they will bring all the coercive power of the state down on you towards that end.

How long will Canadians allow this cacophonous-but-miniscule minority to run roughshod over traditions and rights that have sustained our society for generations?  And when the oppressed faithful are finally pushed too far, what will the backlash be?

Only time will tell.  But I just can’t shake the feeling that it won’t be pretty…

I’ve been getting a few notes from some folks in other parts of the world lately asking me things like, “is the Canadian winter really like that?” and some of the other questions that we’ve all gotten so used to. Why the hell is it that it seems like every damned question is about nothing but winter?? 🙄 We actually do have four separate seasons up here, you know. And don’t give me any of that “almost winter, winter, still winter and construction” bullshit, either. It’s FOUR; as in spring, summer, fall and then winter.

Aw, screw it. To answer JB’s question (that he asked all the way from the land of Oz): Yes, it can get a little hairy sometimes. But you get used to it. Really.

And as for Nicole from the other London and her question, the answer is “pretty damned quick.” As luck would have it, the front page of today’s Freeps had a perfect example of what I’m talking about. This is what can happen in 12 seconds:

Pretty funky, eh? So, can we try to get some non-winter-related curiosity stirred in our melons now? Sheesh…