Updated: Aboriginal Ed, Communist Dictators, Ports, Etc.

Updates:

Income-trust probe turns to Brison -- "Sources said Mr. Brison sent his e-mail on Nov. 22, the day before the decision." Sinclair Stewart, Steven Chase, Brian Laghi, Mar. 7, 06

[. . . . ] Sources said the former public works minister, a potential contender for the Liberal leadership, sent an e-mail to one of CIBC's employees the day before Ottawa announced its much-anticipated policy on income trusts last November, in which he suggested the recipient would likely be pleased by the decision. [. . . . ]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is preparing to dump the ethics commissioner and is actively recruiting replacement candidates, CTV News has learned. Mar. 7 2006

Was it Weston or Worthington who wrote that Mr. Shapiro, while qualified, was simply not a good ethics commissioner? I have no time now to check. Sorry.



An ancient doctrine, wrenched out of context by Anver Emon

This commentary was first published in the National Post on February 6, 2006.

[. . . . ] What is especially ironic is that Muslims the world over protest their corrupt autocratic governments where free speech is not allowed and opposition newspapers are shut down regularly. It is hypocritical for them now to call for the closure of newspapers and issue death threats to artists.

The protestors would argue that the above-described religious prohibitions justify their demand for a restraint on free speech and press. But in doing so, they ignore history and how conceptions of tolerance and pluralism have changed. Historically, the religious prohibitions were intended to preserve Muslim identity amidst non-Muslim majorities (Christian, pagan and otherwise) in areas recently conquered by Muslim forces. It was a doctrine that focused on the integrity of the Muslim community to bolster a nascent identity in a pluralistic context.

But that same doctrine now violates contemporary conceptions of tolerance. Removed from its historical and legal context, the doctrine only foments violence, intolerance and fundamental disrespect for dissent, deliberation and religious and ideological diversity.

BCE, Aliant to form regional trust


End of updates



Excellent!

Dust My Broom: Spot the Blame Game -- "Perhaps the most amazing thing about this story is the underlying tone of condescension and insult aimed at Indians, by ........ " March 6th, 2006

[....] Aboriginal schools across Alberta won’t release their provincial Grade 3 and Grade 6 achievement test results for 2005, citing “cultural insensitivity.”

…..Mel Buffalo, head of the Indian Association of Alberta and a spokesman for the Samson Cree nation at Hobbema, said the test results were markedly below provincial averages. Releasing them would enforce stereotypes about aboriginals without providing context. [....]

This is one of those must read articles



Ezra Levant: Yoke of Communist dictators is wearing out

These mini-protests -- in some cases, full-fledged riots with 30,000 participants -- are not Tiananmen Square, which was a coherent, intellectual protest, explicitly in the name of freedom. But they're in the same spirit: A growing middle class of ordinary Chinese sick of the large and small tyrannies of a one-party state. [. . . . ]

Arab company leases Vancouver port -- P&O Ports Canada, a subsidiary of P&O Ports, which was recently taken over by Dubai Ports World. Camille Bains, Feb. 23, 06

[....] Vanessa Vermette, a spokeswoman for Transport Canada, said the political controversy brewing in the United States hasn't created any waves in this country.

"The facility in question is compliant with the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code and it needs to maintain the same standards regardless of who's operating it," Vermette said of the Vancouver port, where P&O Ports Canada leases rights to one of four container terminals.

Memory Lane

Canada Wide Open for Terrorists -- Vancouver and Halifax Ports Go Unguarded -- Canadian Liberal Government Was Warned Charles R. Smith, Wednesday, July 10, 2002

[....] According to U.S. and Canadian intelligence officials, the ports are currently "wide open" for terrorist infiltration.

[....] According to the former executive director of the Canadian Police Association, the Canadian government was warned that the unprotected seaports would become the targets of terrorist organizations and organized crime rings if the Ports Canada Police were disbanded.

"They [the Liberal-led government] received strong and clear warnings from virtually every branch of law enforcement in this country," said Scott Newark.
Newark noted that provincial attorneys general, police chiefs, Crown prosecutors and even international security organizations warned the Liberals they were preparing to open Canada's ports to uncontrollable illegal activity, including drug trafficking, human smuggling and terrorism.

"It's entirely dishonest for them to say they've suddenly discovered this problem. They created it. [....]

Search:

Links to Red Chinese and Canadian Prime Minister
Chinese Army Companies Involved in Arms Smuggling
According to the Rand Corporation, CITIC is an "investment concern under China's governmental State Council."
Poly Technologies, Ltd
Leaks in Clinton Administration Foiled Bust




Book by Jonah Goldberg: Liberal Fascism: the Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton Doubleday ; ISBN: 0385511841

[....] Goldberg draws striking parallels between historic fascism and contemporary liberal doctrines. He argues that “political correctness” on campuses and calls for campaign finance reform echo the Nazis' suppression of free speech; and that liberals, like their fascist forebears, dismiss the democratic process when it yields results they dislike, insist on the centralization of economic decision-making, and seek to insert the authority of the state in our private lives–from bans on smoking to gun control. Covering such hot issues as morality, anti-Semitism, science versus religion, health care, and cultural values, he boldly illustrates the resemblances between the opinions advanced by Hitler and Mussolini and the current views of the Left.

Impeccably researched and persuasively argued, LIBERAL FASCISM will elicit howls of indignation from the liberal establishment–and rousing cheers from the Right.

Darah Hanson/Jonathan Fowlie: Refugee claim files found on data tapes -- Immigration minister vows to investigate auction sale of B.C. government tapes VanSun, Mar. 6, 06



Memory Lane:

The travesty of the Hotel Godin affair -- where Belinda Stronach held her party during the Conservative policy convention in Montreal by Beryl Wajsman, Institute for Public Affairs of Montreal, Saturday, September 3, 2005

[....] Citizens cede their natural liberties to a state in return for the provision of those services that even the strongest among us need, and that are best delivered in commonweal, so that each of us as individuals can have the freedom to realize our full potential as human beings by pursuing our singular passions and poetry. Public security, food, health care, education, human welfare, these are the appropriate agenda items of governance. The state has no role to play in dictating, defining or denying our pleasures and passions.

[....] The point of a free society is to have the freedom to make mistakes. The freedom to choose what is injurious to us and what is not. Public security measures must never be allowed to mirror precisely what we seek to destroy...tyranny over our freedoms of action and assembly. [....]

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That big, ugly incident -- "Nexus is the brand name of the light commercial vehicles from China to be distributed by Auto Prominence Corp. " Ray Butch Gamboa, The Philippine Star 03/04/2006

[. . . . ] Vernon wrote lengthily [sic] about the Nexus. Some of the concerns he raised included "sport designs which are hardly original."Vernon wrote "The Hover SUV, for instance, bears a striking resemblance to Isuzu’s Axiom…. The Deer looks like the last generation Toyota Hilux, the Sailor looks like the Nissan Frontier, and the Cocool looks like the Isuzu D-Max with the grille of the Mitsubishi Strada. That’s what you call ‘inspirational engineering’".

Vernon went on to say that, with our "Filipino roads", the Nexus may be a "dubious concoction that may not pass the test of durability." Vernon also singled out the distributor’s two-year/50,000 kilometer warranty, "at a time when three-year/100,000 kilometer warranty deals are already the norm" making the new vehicles’ reliability and durability suspect. But he does concede that the "extremely low price tags" of the Nexus could spell the difference for them, considering that Filipino consumers are known to be extremely price-conscious. [. . . . ]