Category: Canada

That didn’t take long, did it? Just when the usual suspects were popping out of the woodwork to scold us for our paranoia, a deadly plot (involving three times the explosives used in the deadly Oklahoma City bombing) was uncovered in Toronto to target innocent Canadian citizens for nothing other than being who we are. CTV coverage (and plenty of it) can be found here. On the other hand, the Ministry of What You Should Think has chosen the typical, sheepish, goodthinker angle.

Following a massive raid, authorities have released the following names and addresses of the adult suspects in an al-Qaida-inspired domestic terror cell:

Five more suspects cannot be named because they are under 18 and therefore fall under the protection of the YCJA. Isn’t that nice? We have now shown every terrorist-minded bugger in the world exactly how to target his recruitment techniques in order to obtain a perfectly anonymous operative in Canada. These aren’t a few dumb kids that got caught joyriding or pinching a CD from the local music shop; these little bastards were planning to murder hundreds of people, if not more. We have every right to know exactly who they are, where they are, and what they’re up to every waking moment of their lives from now on.

Enough is enough. The time has come for the federal government to knock off the Pontius Pilate act and take action on the situation in Caledonia. If the natives have a legitimate claim to make, let them do it through the courts like everybody else. No other group in this country could pull a stunt like this (and so frequently, too) and get away with it. If a bunch of whites were to try such a “stand off,” the riot squad would dispatched posthaste and the “occupiers” would be cooling their heels in no time flat.

The mayor of Caledonia gets pilloried for saying that locals are being hurt economically by the protest and is accused of implying that the protesters are on welfare. Correct me if I’m wrong, but they had been occupying the site for about two months at that point; what kind of boss lets you just pick up and take that much time off to go and man a barricade? No boss I ever worked for would.

Phoney KKK pamphlets were distributed. There’s nothing like playing the race card, don’t you know?

Henco Industries, the developer of the land that all this fracas is is being raised over has been told that he can have back valuable documents that were looted from the site on April 20 – but only if the looters get paid for them!

It’s gotten so screwy that even the judge that issued the original order to have the natives removed back in April is starting to demand answers.

[I was going to post tomorrow on this very issue but, to my chagrin, Calgary Sun columnist Link Byfield beat me to it. Even worse, he did it better. So rather than give you my version, here’s Link’s column from Friday’s Calgary Sun in its entirety. Hey, when you can’t say it best, leave it to someone else who can…]

Friday, May 19, 2006

Harper plays opposition foibles with finesse of a chessmaster

By Link Byfield

I don’t know about you, but I’m starting to enjoy the aggressive stick-handling style of our new Calgary prime minister.

Though short-handed in Parliament, Team Harper is scoring so many goals, you’d almost think they came from Edmonton.

On Tuesday, for example, they won the Gwyn Morgan play. A truly awesome goal.

The Conservatives had promised to install a new commission to ensure the people who get those six-figure patronage jobs we read so much about — of which there are many hundreds — actually know how to do them.

You might recall how many Liberal ex-ministers and PMO smoothies were paid off with cushy crown sinecures by Chretien and Martin.

It stank, and Harper promised to end it.

His new Crown appointments commission would consist of four accomplished Canadians working for free.
That’s right, for the good of the country.

It would include the Iranian-born land developer from Vancouver who founded Future Shops, a former Liberal cabinet minister from Toronto, a Montreal businesswoman and tennis star, and Calgarian Gwyn Morgan as chairman.

Morgan, 60, is the one-time Alberta farm kid who, in building the biggest independent oil company in Canada, also built a platinum reputation for honesty and fair play.

Not that Ottawa always wants honesty.

In a December speech to the Fraser Institute, Morgan noted Canada’s multicultural and immigration policies are importing and perpetuating a serious criminal gang problem, and solutions must be found.

He mentioned specifically Jamaicans, Asians and “other ethnic groups.”

Which might be OK to say in Cowtown, but it’s way too insensitive for the Opposition majority on the Commons government operations committee.

In the ugliest confrontation Parliament has witnessed since the sponsorship committee hearings two years ago, Morgan was asked, more or less, if he thought a racist like himself was “suited” to decide federal patronage appointments.

His mild reassurances were not accepted, and his nomination was rejected six votes to five.

And this is where Harper’s tactical brilliance shines.

Instead of sucking up and proposing instead some forgotten chairman of the CBC or the like, as the Opposition expected, Harper’s candidates promptly withdrew their offer of free service, enabling Harper to say, fine, we’ll do business by the old rules until Canadians give us the majority we need to do what must be done.

In other words, the Opposition scored, but against itself.

By trying foolishly to paint Gwyn Morgan a racist, they only succeeded in protecting a corrupt appointment system and giving the Conservatives election ammunition.

What Morgan said to the Fraser Institute about criminal gangs can be heard in every coffee row in this country.

My own Vancouver sister-in-law from mainland China, land of the snakeheads and Triad gangs, was astonished it was even an issue.

The Liberals and NDP lose ground every time they open their mouths — by defending a gun registry that doesn’t work; by opposing our fight against religious fascism in Afghanistan; and by pretending Kyoto is either necessary or possible.

The world is passing these politicians by, living in their little bubble — their little hobbit-like, time-warp fantasy world which refuses to recognize unpleasant realities.

Such as the fact that in wars, which are sometimes necessary, soldiers get killed.

Such as the fact criminals don’t register guns.

Such as the fact the cost of government has reduced our country to 18th in the world productivity race, and that public expectations are now wildly beyond our capacity to pay.

Harper isn’t really playing hockey, it’s more like chess.

He thinks three moves ahead and attacks only points where the public agrees with him and not the Opposition.

I predict his next move will be to reform the Senate.

The man is a genius.

We finally got some good news from Captain Check-Out-My-Buns-In-This-Wetsuit and his gang: “I’m pleased to be here today to announce the government’s plan to eliminate the costly and ineffective long-guns registry and to put in place a law enforcement system that will lead to reduced crime with firearms,” Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day trumpeted at a news conference yesterday. He also promised a one-year amnesty for anyone failing to register their rifles or shotguns.

I know, I know; nobody can really be surprised by this, especially after the AG ripped the CFC a new one in her latest report, but there seems to be a lot of bellyaching going on from all directions. And not just from the usual handwringing suspects.

Defenders of this colossal commode that the government has been throwing our money down say that Day’s actions add up to nothing more than a transparent attempt to make good on a Tory campaign promise whilst giving the deke to a minority Commons. Former justice minister Irwin Cotler bleated that declaring amnesty without Parliament’s permission is “an abuse of process. You cannot go ahead and suspend the application of the law.” The Law being that thing that, as we all know, Liberals never, ever, ever stray outside of. Gimme a break.

NDP moonbat Joe Comartin chimed in with “They know there’s not enough support in the country or in the House of Commons to get that amendment through that will do away with the long-gun registry.” Sure there isn’t. Canadians don’t like right-wing ideas; they scare us. That’s why Harper will never be Prime Minister. Oops, waitaminit…

On the other hand, not-so-well-armed right-wing nutjobs (not unlike me) who are eager to fill up those empty slots in the gun rack without the government snout up their rear ends are moaning that the damn thing still isn’t dead yet. Most of expected this thing to croak at high noon the day after the election. Having heard so many hollow election promises from Grits over the years, we’re starting to react to any setback with suspicion, almost as if by reflex. It’s enough to get you thinking about Pavlov’s dogs.

Day says that they needn’t worry, legislation to drive a stake into this bloodsucker is coming and the amnesty gives law-abiding gun owners a chance to, well, to abide by the law “as it is — or the law as it will be at May 17 a year from now.” The clear unspoken message here for gun owners is simple: sit tight and wait this thing out. Because the little squawklets in the lefty peanut gallery are right about one thing this time: with most of the Opposition willing to defend this waste, the chances of the Tories being able to kill it in Parliament are damn slim indeed. Even a senior Tory insider (whose name wasn’t published) agreed with that.

“We’ll put it in the window” he said. Probably sometime in the spring, with a final vote (where the Opposition will likely dump it) sometime in the fall. In the meantime, he said, the Tories intend to “bleed the thing to death.” Funding for the CFC will be cut by $10 million this year.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that very little is going to be accomplished with a petty, partisan and obstructionist Opposition in the Commons. More and more, it is beginning to look like a good idea for Harper to go to the polls sooner rather than later in order to get a majority mandate from the Canadian public and finally start to get some real work done.

I am disgusted. A parliamentary committee, proving once again that what lefties of all stripes know best is looking after their own self-interest, has nixed the nomination of Gwyn Morgan for head the political appointment commission job. Grits on the committee say that the nomination of the Calgary oil exec and recent CEO of the year to head a commission designed to curb the out-of-control culture of patronage in Ottawa is itself an example of patronage.

Give me a break. The guy offered to do the job for a buck a year! What the hell kind of patronage is that?? The answer is: it isn’t.

What happened here is that the Grits, always slathering at the thought of getting their hands on the keys to the federal till again someday, have no interest whatsoever in anything that might interrupt the flow of pork from the big barrel in Ottawa. Good Lord, if that were to happen, how could they bribe us with our money? They might find themselves having to actually start implementing policies that the rest of us can put up with. They might have to do without all their precious little intrusions into our lives. They might even have to (insert heebiejeebies-type shudders here) start letting us make our own decisions about how best to run this country.

So what did they do? Instead of putting a potential stumbling block in the future road to buying influence with our money, they took a comment from a speech made over a year ago out of context and gleefully played the race card in a drive-by smear of Morgan. Ya gotta admire integrity like that.

An article in the Freeps today outlines how the OPP, in cooperation with the provincial coroner’s office, has launched a website profiling hundreds of cold cases going back decades in the hope that it may generate new leads in some of the province’s oldest unsolved cases. The Freeps article can be found here, and the RESOLVE Initiative’s site can be found here.