Al Gordon: Feds' Tiger Tales Don't Add Up, CFRB: Student-Toronto Sun, Kyoto: Cyclical Movements or Harbinger? Roszko-Justice? Toews: Age of Consent

Tamil Tigers

Misleading Canadians about the crass political concerns that stop us from cracking down on terrorism is bad enough. But failing to do the right thing in the end -- that would be a real scandal. Alastair Gordon

Alastair Gordon is president of the Canadian Coalition for Democracies.; CanadianCoalition.com Do check the forum on this website. It is au courant and always worth reading; my only problem is that I can't read it all.

The feds' Tiger tales don't add up Alastair Gordon, March 10, 2005, National Post

Alastair Gordon is president of the Canadian Coalition for Democracies.; CanadianCoalition.com

By any objective standard, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is clearly a terrorist organization. The LTTE (or "Tamil Tigers") has killed tens of thousands of Sri Lankans over the last two decades, often in suicide attacks. It has also assassinated a variety of democratically elected political leaders, including Sri Lankan president Ranasinghe Premadasa and Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. And, to keep its operations going, it has forcibly recruited child soldiers (over 6,000 since 2001, according to Human Rights Watch).

Knowing all this, the United States, United Kingdom and other Western nations have rightly branded the LTTE a terrorist group. Among other things, this means fundraising for the Tigers is illegal in each of those countries. Canada has not followed suit. Why?

In January, the National Post editorial board put the question to Justice Minister Irwin Cotler. In reply, he hinted that politics played a role: "Toronto I think has the largest number of Tamils ... outside of Sri Lanka, so we've got to be very careful just in terms of our own relationships." [. . . . ]

Is Kyoto about climate change and pollution -- or something else? Check out the science.

Polar history shows melting ice-cap may be a natural cycle Ian Johnson

THE melting of sea ice at the North Pole may be the result of a centuries-old natural cycle and not an indicator of man-made global warming, Scottish scientists have found.

After researching the log-books of Arctic explorers spanning the past 300 years, scientists believe that the outer edge of sea ice may expand and contract over regular periods of 60 to 80 years. This change corresponds roughly with known cyclical changes in atmospheric temperature.

The finding opens the possibility that the recent worrying changes in Arctic sea ice are simply the result of standard cyclical movements, and not a harbinger of major climate change. [. . . . ]

CFRB: NewsTalk 1010 online -- Today I listened to this discussion.

A student at King City's St. Thomas of Villanova College lost 22 points on an assignment for using the Toronto Sun

Apparently, it is considered a "tabloid newspaper" and, despite its use of UPI and Reuters, despite having some very good journalists, it is not acceptable to some education establishments.

A student at King City's St. Thomas of Villanova College lost 22 points on an assignment for using the Toronto Sun as a source; it is too conservative but the reason given is the use of the Sunshine girl and Sunshine boy--the latter ended in Sept. 2004, I learned. Funny, I check the Toronto Sun most days and I have never even noticed them -- perhaps more a reflection on the singularity of my own interests than on anything; nevertheless, we do have the freedom to look at what we want and to ignore the rest. Or is this not enough control? A caller on CFRB attending the University of Toronto a few years ago concurs that the university put the Toronto Sun off limits to students as a research source.




Alta. Mountie killer offered cash to man to gun down rival with assault rifle Darcy Henton, CP, March 09, 2005

EDMONTON (CP) -- More than a decade before he gunned down four Alberta Mounties, James Roszko tried to convince another man to kill for him.

Recently released court documents reveal Roszko offered a young acquaintance $10,000 in 1993 to kill a man in Mayerthorpe, Alta., with an automatic assault rifle that may have been the same weapon used in last Thursday's slayings.

Roszko was charged with counselling another person to commit murder, but the charge was dropped after a preliminary hearing when the judge ruled that casually talking about killing someone isn't the same thing as plotting to kill someone. [. . . . ]

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Age of Consent in Canada

CPC MP Vic Toews: Fourteen is too young National Post, Mar. 10, 05

This week's news that a 31-year-old Texan man allegedly lured a 14-year-old Ottawa boy to a hotel for sex has drawn attention to Canada's role as a tourist destination for Americans seeking sex with minors. Had the alleged incident occurred in Texas, where the age of consent is 17, this individual might have been charged with sexually abusing a child. In Canada, however, the age of consent is 14. [. . . . ]

Vic Toews makes sense -- and he also discusses sex between young teens of similar age -- addressing the reality. Was Svend Robinson not active in lowering the age of consent to 14? Parental wishes don't trump the homosexual agenda in Liberal Canada -- don't you realize?