Feb. 23, 2007: Bud Talkinghorn

Welcome to the new world of Supreme Court security

I am flabbergasted by the Supreme Court's surprise decision to abolish one of the few legal safeguards against a remorseless Islamic enemy. This decision a few days before there would have been a vote in Parliament to renew the security certificates is proof of judicial interference. The decision has allowed the Liberals never to have on record their wish to cancel these certificates. So if a horrific attack on Canadian soil occurs the Liberals and NDP can say, "We didn't cause this". Blame the Supremes.

The implications for reduced security will not come from those held under the certificates. They will probably be released but kept under close police scrutiny. The danger is from the sleeper cells, who will be emboldened by ruling to be more active. By the time that the police have enough foolproof evidence to charge them it may be too late. This ruling is but another weapon in the hands of our sworn enemies. Perhaps it will take a successful attack on the CBC headquarters for the leftist elites to reconsider security.

© Bud Talkinghorn



I asked Bud to contribute his ideas based on a book that I mentioned this week; the result is below. Thanks for the contribution, Bud.


Politicizing the judiciary? Please!

The selection of judges, especially at the highest levels, is the oldest political game in town. This faux outrage by the Opposition parties would be laughable, if not so cynically hypocritical. One Liberal pol actually lost it and blurted out, "How dare they try to introduce their conservative ideology into the judiciary?" By definition he is saying only card-carrying liberal ideologues need apply. But of course, we shouldn't logically see this as naked stacking of the courts. The MSM certainly didn't make this assumption, under the Liberals.

Let us examine one of the Liberals' Supreme Court choices. Mr. Michel Bastarache was lauded by then Justice Minister, Irwin Cottler, as a "recognized legal expert on Acadian rights". In New Brunswick, amongst the anglophone community, he is recognized as a quasi-separatist author of the notorious Poirier-Bastarache Report. A report which paved the way to francophone control of senior Civil Service positions. The "I demand to be serviced in my native language" cry effectively meant that mainly Acadian bilinguals would man the government desks. Any francophone (who probably was fluently bilingual) could call every department (and its subsections) in the capital and demand a French speaker. It was the beginning of the exodus of bright anglophones, who realized that advancement in the Civil Service and much else was now impossible. Forget the earnest attempts by the English middle class to enrol their children in French immersion. Almost none of the graduates could pass the fluency tests to get hired, let alone to reach management level.

Let us now examine the June 19, 1986 report that made Michel Bastarache so famous he was made a Supreme. First of all it dealt with a dramatic shift in governmental policy, with a potentially devastating loss of power for the two-thirds English majority. The "tail wagging the dog" literally. Originally, the report called for a duality of services across the province, not surprising, as Bastarache was a believer in the Acadian Party's call for a separate province altogether. Duality of services in every department was a sidedoor substitute. The so-called information meetings turned into a fiasco, as the English saw the naked power grab for what it was. It didn't help that Bastarache's committee was composed of eleven francophones and three anglophones, hardly a balanced group. The report was filled with sneering sarcasm about the "puritanical English, who were inheritantly bigoted and who spoke Shakespearean English." Anyway, the public's opinion was beside the point as Poirier and Bastarache had drafted the key demands even before the information sessions began. The meetings were mere window dressing. All in all, the report disregarded any opinion that didn't come from a small francophone elite.

Bastarache hired a French researcher, Rene-Jean Ravault, to examine the situation and then ignored his key recommendation to soft-pedal some of the report's ideas, such as affirmative hiring of unilingual francophones in government, and duality. This, while demanding that top management be fluently bilingual (i.e. francophones). But Bastarache, a former dean of law at the francophone University of Moncton, was going to avenge The 210 year old Expulsion of the Acadians. His manipulative, ethnically biased and flawed report was condemned by the President of UNB, James Downey, and the Father of Equality himself, Louis Robichaud. It was also the death knell for Hatfield's Conservative Party. When the dust settled, the PCs lost every seat to the Mckenna Liberals and in the next election the anglophones rose up and the Confederations of Regions Party (COR) formed the official opposition, with a rump of three elected PCs. COR won eight seats and came a strong second in a dozen more ridings based on protecting English rights. The Poirier-Bastarache Report was a huge torpedo into the Good Ship Ethnic Unity.

Now the Civil Service of N.B. is controlled by francophones, predominantly. The exodus of the best and brightest anglophones has become a small flood. The N.B. government is rightfully panicked. It cannot admit the reason for this flight, so it tables committees to "analyze" this distressing situation. In Canada as a whole, we see the same linguistic ploy being played out. Now, if you are not fluently bilingual when applying for top federal positions, you are toast. In the West, we are not familiar with the travesty of The Poirier-Bastarache Report, but its insidious effects are being duplicated everywhere. Slowly the voters are waking up, and all the king's men and the CBC can't put the lie back together again. The election of Dion, an effete Sorbonne-educated Quebecois over his Ontario rivals has not been lost on Anglo-Canadians. How many years does that make the tail wagging the Canadian dog?

I'm sorry that I don't have time here to shine a light on Justice L'Heureux-Dube's influence on the Supreme Court--another institution that is heavily over-represented with francophones. She was a piece of work. Russ Limbaugh's "feminazi" made manifest. Not only is this court [SCOD] filled with liberal ideologues, so is its large legal team. Traditions are to be voided; Natives are to be given special legal rights; and the leftist, thug-infested U.N. is to be listened to on legal issues. As Justice Binnie has stated, "The Charter never said that moral and ethical issues couldn't be decided by The Supreme Court. Therefore we consider those issues be to be in our realm also." The various Human Rights Commissions became their shock troops. Between these two groups and their enormous unrestrained powers, the democratic freedom of speech withered. Eventually the average citizen would began to learn the totalitarian art of self-censureship. Ancient grievances, like The Acadian Expulsion or some "oral history" aboriginal land claim, could be kept on the front burner. The victim groups have come piling out of the woodwork. You thought that your divorce settlement was final? Forget that, Buster. Possibly the Supremes may have scripted "The First Wives Club".

Divide the anglophones and conguer was Trudeau's stategy, knowing that the francophones would vote as a bloc. It worked, as that is the main reason (along with the urban immigration vote) he won his last election.

The handwriting is on the wall, anglophones. Time to wake up to its dire message.

© Bud Talkinghorn--My information on Michel Bastarache was based on the biography of the NB Conservative Party, entitled "The Right Fight--Bernard Lord and the Conservative Dilemma." A large section deals with the Hatfield era and the Acadian rights movement. Jacques Poitras, a longtime CBC political reporter, was the author.

Feb. 23, 2007: SCOC Not Politicized

So the SCOC activists have activated, ruling as I expected, and the left are very satisfied. The justice system has kicked in to protect all but those who want tighter security for Canada and Canadians. CBC is in high-spirits; that is enough to tell me what won.

Check the Supreme Court appointees and who appointed them.

Here's the list of the SC of C

Name Term of Office Appointed by

MCLACHLIN, Beverley, Chief Justice 2000.01.07 - CHRÉTIEN, Joseph Jacques Jean [* I believe that should read PM Mulroney, not PM Chretien, who appointed Justice McLachlin. See below. ]
ABELLA, Rosalie Silberman 2004.08.30 - MARTIN, Paul Edgar Philippe
BASTARACHE, J.E. Michel 1997.10.01 - CHRÉTIEN, Joseph Jacques Jean
BINNIE, Ian 1998.01.08 - CHRÉTIEN, Joseph Jacques Jean
CHARRON, Louise V. 2004.08.30 - MARTIN, Paul Edgar Philippe
DESCHAMPS, Marie 2002.08.08 - CHRÉTIEN, Joseph Jacques Jean
FISH, Morris Jacob 2003.08.05 - CHRÉTIEN, Joseph Jacques Jean
LEBEL, Louis 2000.01.07 - CHRÉTIEN, Joseph Jacques Jean
ROTHSTEIN, Marshall E. 2006.03.01 - HARPER, Stephen Joseph

* Note: I just checked this and Justice McLachlin was appointed in 1989. Brian Mulroney became PM in 1988; however, the list of acceptable appointees would have been prepared under the former Liberal government so, while Mr. Mulroney may have done the actual appointing, Justice McLachlin would have been already in line for the job by virtue of passing through the Canadian Judicial Council appointees' vetting process, during the previous Liberal era. Check how many Liberals were appointed to that vetting Canadian Judicial Council. Note also, that Justice McLachlin now chairs the Council which vetted her. Power lies within a closed circle.

The Supreme Court of Canada: Justices , CBC News Online | Updated September 01, 2004

www.cbc.ca/news/background/
supremecourt/justices.html

Beverley McLachlin, Chief Justice

Born: September 7, 1943, in Pincher Creek, Alberta.

Education: MA and LLB University of Alberta.

McLachlin practised law in Edmonton from 1969 to 1971 and then in Vancouver until 1975. She was an associate professor and professor with tenure at the University of British Columbia up to 1981. McLachlin was appointed to the Supreme Court of B.C. in 1981 and to the Court of Appeal in that province in 1985. She was appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada in 1989 and became the chief justice in 2000. McLachlin is the chair of the Canadian Judicial Council and the Advisory Council of the Order of Canada. She is a member of the Privy Council of Canada.

Whether 7/9 or 8/9 justices were Liberal appointees, the SCOC has been stacked by one side, and the effects are long-lasting, since SCOC appointees are in position for years, until age 70 or 75. It makes achieving a balance almost impossible. The MSM and the Liberal Mouth Organ/CBC were concerned about Mr. Harper wanting one law enforcement official on the Canadian Judicial Council, the group that makes recommendations for judgeships. That is a joke, of course.

The in group(s) might deign to stoop ... to chew up the lone law enforcement candidate and spit him out, I suppose. Noblesse oblige, and all that, but the justices do not share power readily. They like running things, being the final arbiter, getting their own way without questions from the peons.

The justices are accorded a respect they have been appointed to by virtue of the appointment process, but have not earned from the people of Canada through any voting process. The justices have not had to prove that they are above politics, nor that they represent even the broad political spectrum in Canada. They just had to court those already part of the court system and appointees already in place through appointments, along with the politicians who ran the country for years and whose concept of fairness was non-existent when in pursuit of partisan and philosophic advantage. Well, they succeeded.

Now, the Court has repaid and all the lefties, hard lefties, Liberal lefties and their media claque are satisfied ... for now. Wait until the justices are called upon to decide upon UN rights coming up concerning borders, rights of illegal aliens here, and that we owe global taxes to the UN to support the rights of ... everyone ... everywhere ... and you won't be able to do a thing about it.

We peons are expected to continue to accord them respect. Bend. Bow down low. ... Bah! Humbug.

Feb. 23, 2007: Poll, Climate Change, Diane Francis

Polls hide the truth about climate change
Questions should ask what we're prepared to give up ,
Diane Francis, Financial Post, Published: Friday, February 23, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/columnists/story.html?id=
c7bb1f82-14f7-4ae5-9c6a-9dc2306affee

Canadians, like Americans and others living in developed countries, always tell pollsters they are concerned about protecting the environment. But this is like being asked if you are in favour of apple pie and motherhood. Of course you are. But that's not the point.

The real question that pollsters, and politicians, should put to the public is how big is your footprint and how much are you prepared to shrink it to protect the environment? The answer? Very little.

Another problem is that the media, and public and professional activists,....

The zealots, and ill-informed media, have found a new "lede" to get public attention for their cause. They would have us believe it's all about capitalism and fat cats and Big Oil. But it's not.

And here are the questions I would like pollsters to ask anyone who answers that they believe that protecting the environment should be a political priority. [....]

Diane, excellent, as usual. Read her list.

Feb. 20, 2007: Education - Engineering - Aftermath

Memory Lane: Education articles

Common Sense Obliterated -- Minority Interests Have Hijacked Education

Trudeau Style Liberalism: The Result in One Province, NB

The Program for International Assessment (PISA) results revealed that students in New Brunswick are performing poorly relative to those in other provinces.

The Scraba Report - Opportunity Knocks

newsjunkiecanada.blogspot.com/
2003_07_08_newsjunkiecanada_archive.html

canadian.blogspot.com/

The Scraba Report, titled Schools Teach - Parents & Communities Support -Children Learn - Everyone Benefits, has hit the education system of New Brunswick like a bomb shell. Elana Scraba was asked to research some of the differences between the education system in Alberta and that of New Brunswick with a view to explaining the differences in PISA results. [....]

For those who are being pushed to expand French "services"--It is never termed "power", though it should be--in your province, in your city administrations, in all key positions across this country, and you see it moving inexorably in your direction, see what happens to children who have been in the thick of that experiment in social engineering by the state, in the East. This forms part of that Scraba Report. Also, there was more bad news about integration of those with problems, whether of medical, birth, behaviour or of another type.

I have already written what happens to adults who do not conform to the social engineering and creating work for one language group ... at the expense of the majority. You may open your arms to the pressure of a very activist group who have used the Court Challenges Program, liberally, or say "enough". Your choice. Does any politician see what has happened to what used to be reasonably good relationships? Find out in the book: The Right Fight by Jacques Poitras which details the influence of Justice Bastarache, appointed to the SCOC for his wisdom on the linguistic file, I have read. Obviously, whoever appointed him failed to read the book. Perhaps it awaited the time when his appointment was secure for the full story to come out. (Published 2004 by Goose Lane, Fredericton, NB.)

The chickens have come home to roost. What happened as a result of that Scraba Report? More fine-sounding ... nothing?


Power corrupts and ... in the hands of some activist minorities is wielded with a bludgeon, blatantly, without regard to fairness--given their numbers; no-one has the courage to question this abuse of what was originally intended to provide fairness and hence, supported by those most negatively affected. Only the politically incorrect dare question it even now. We see the lefty leanings but no clothes on the SCOC Emperors (such as Justice Bastarache, appointed for his work fulfilling a political objective). Send all the SCOC to the UN to work their magic. Let Canadians vote on those who rule our lives from on high; don't expect us to swallow that hogwash that they are above politics. They are not!

The law may be an ass, but the ones who appointed justices who pushed this social engineering left a bigger and more damaging footprint, not just to a linguistic majority, but to relations with the minority, along with creating dissension in many other areas of our lives.

Feb. 20, 2007: Satire - Guns

Is satire dead?

Evolution of the Burqa , LGF, February 21, 2007 -- Islam No Longer Taboo

In light of the Muhammad cartoon scandal in 2006, carnival jokesters in Germany went easy on Islam. This year, Muslim satire will return to at least one parade. , By Philipp Wittrock, Spiegel

Don't miss "satire" here: Photo Gallery: Politically Charged Carnival -- click on a picture to launch the image gallery with captions at the bottom of each in English

Americans might want to look at: "Effective Terror Prevention At Last"



Attention: Gun owners

Police Officers Killed by Long Guns 2001-2006 -- more than one article -- a thread of interest to law-abiding gun owners , PuntedPosters

www.forumsvibe.com/elwoodpdowd/view
topic.php?t=2733&mforum=elwoodpdowd

Feb. 20, 2007: The Family and a Leader for the Family

There were articles lately in the Globe and Mail, lengthy, and worth reading on our young people and they present a dismal picture. The source for much information is the Vanier Institute for the Family, the following essay. Read for yourself; eliminate intermediaries.

The Rise in the Number of Children and Adolescents
Who Exhibit Problematic Behaviors: Multiple Causes -- and What can be done , by Anne-Marie Ambert , (2007)

www.vifamily.ca/library/cft/behavior.html

www.vifamily.ca/library/cft/behavior.html#What_done

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
What are problematic behaviours?
Problematic behaviours have increased
Personality and perceptions: Genes and environment
Genetic inheritance, environment, and parenting
Children's faulty perceptions
What has changed? The enabling environment
Parenting: An interactional and collective perspective
Parents and children: Co-creation of problematic outcomes
Behavioral monitoring versus permissiveness
Parenting: A collective phenomenon
Child and adolescent maltreatment
What has changed? Parental characteristics and situations
Marital status and domestic conflict
Parental criminality
Parental values and behaviours
Peers
Peer selection and influence
Absence of a counterbalancing parental peer group
Quality of schools and education
Schoolmates and teachers
Educational contents and contexts
Quality of neighborhoods
Effects on children
Discrimination and segregation
Affluence and poverty
Media influences
The promotion of violence
The promotion of consumerism
Conclusions: The global context
What has changed?
Return to an earlier theme: The enabling environment
What can be done?
Endnotes
References [....]

Lately, there has been news out of Manitoba concerning young aboriginal women and prostitution. Whether there has been adequate exploration of the drug connection, or whether it is all whitey's fault ... and send the chiefs more money to dispense, you will have to check, but I do not believe this is the solution, developing native language programs ... dictionaries, curricula (in something like 67 languages planned) ... the kind funding which employs more academics than saves young women and girls from the purveyors of drugs, alcohol and prostitution, I suspect.

Frost Hits the Rhubarb Feb. 20, 2005 -- or here, Memory Lane: Essential service if natives are to thrive in the North Frost Hits the Rhubarb, Feb. 23, 2005

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2005_02_20_archive.html

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/2005/02/
language-nunavut-elder-abuse-splenda.html


New Communications PM's right to appoint judge to CRTC , By Andrew Cardozo, The Hill Times, January 29th, 2007

thehilltimes.ca/html/index.php?display=
story&full_path=/2007/january/29/cordozo/&c=2

Displaying start of article containing 760 words - The Prime Minister's pick of Conrad von Finckenstein to chair the CRTC is a good one as far as I can tell–a judge from the Federal Court of Canada. I have long held the view that the chair of the commission should be a judge and said so in my column in The Hill Times in the Oct. 16, 2006 issue. Needless to say I'm happy that the PMO is reading my column. [....]

Perhaps the CRTC could put a stop to the programming that debases a society, that accepts the prurient as simply somebody's protected expression? It affects our children.

Tories surge on Harper's leadership
Conservatives building momentum for spring election, poll finds , Feb. 20, 2007, Brian Laghi

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20070220.wpoll20/BNStory/National

Were an election to be held today, 34 per cent of voters would opt for the Conservatives, up three points from last month. [....]

On the question of who has the best vision for the nation, 50 per cent pick Mr. Harper; 22 per cent Mr. Dion and 20 per cent Mr. Layton.

[....] Finally, with 36 per cent, Mr. Harper tops the field of who Canadians believe would be the best PM, doubling Mr. Dion's score of 18 per cent. [....]

Feb. 22, 2007: Huseyin Celil - Guler Dilaver

Caught in the grip of Beijing -- deserves careful reading -- lengthy, detailed, raises questions , Geoffrey York and Omar el Akkad, Feb. 18, 2007, Globe and Mail -- and Comments on this article

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20070217.wxcelil17/BNStory/

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/
RTGAM.20070217.wxcelil17/CommentStory/#comment650655

In the paper copy of the G & M is a map with details of Celil / Dilaver's travels.

Note: the false passport, disabled child, a refugee to Canada with unusual skills in that he studied the Koran but not much else. What need had Canada for him and what evidence to corroborate his story? Maybe he was a genuine refugee but reading this leaves me with questions.

[....] After years of harassment from the police and a term in prison, Mr. Celil decided to flee the country. His family says he managed to leave China for the first time in 1995 to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the Muslim holy city. A few months later, after a brief return to Kashgar, he fled to Central Asia, making his way eventually to Kyrgyzstan, China's neighbour to the northwest, where he continued in the clothing trade and served as an imam in a Uighur mosque. Both the trips to Mecca and Kyrgyzstan, according to family members in Canada, were made using fake passports. China, they say, never granted Mr. Celil a passport; the first and last legitimate one he held was Canadian.

His family and his lawyer say that's why, in the two years he spent in Kyrgyzstan, the last nine months of which were in a jail cell, Mr. Celil used the name Guler Dilaver.

It was 1998, and the bazaars in Kyrgyzstan were thriving.

Mr. Celil was living in the capital city of Bishkek at the time, selling silk and clothes in the sprawling markets alongside other Uighur traders. There was a sizable Uighur community in the country, but almost all of them were considered illegal, so a black market in passports evolved within the community. According to relatives and friends who knew him at the time, Mr. Celil purchased one. The name on the Turkish document was Guler Dilaver, born in 1955. Using this passport, Mr. Celil lived in Kyrgyzstan for two years, working as a trader but also preaching Islam on the side. [....]

Search: “He was educated,” Ms. Telendibaeva recalls. “He knew the Koran, he knew the hadith,” she said, referring to the Muslim holy book and the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Mohammed.

His wife recommends him.

[Sample comment: ....] The entire family can afford to fly internationally while Ontario welfare pays the rent??? The eldest child requires close and costly medical attention, but was this child given permission by his doctors to fly across the globe??? Has Canada developed a well-known international reputation for being played for a sucker over and over again? There are many needy Canadian families -- shouldn't the government assist those who really can't afford to globe-trot? If there is an Interpol bureau with information on the identity or identities of this man, then Immigration Canada and the RCMP could request the information to test its veracity. ....

Feb. 22, 2007: Bud Talkinghorn

How can you stack a court system that is already stacked?

I find it extremely amusing that certain political policies are viewed under a liberal microscope. The appointment of liberal-minded judges, or those that hewed the Liberal line or "volunteered their time at election time" were the norm for 13 years. The only member of the Supreme Court that was appointed by a Conservative government and is still sitting is Beverley McLachlan. Since then we have had Madame L'Heureux-Dube, who once said, "If a woman thinks she has been sexually harassed, that should be proof enough." Sorry, but the last time that legal surety was allowed was during the Inquistion. Then along came Michel Bastarache, whose claim to fame was his "Acadian rights" work. He was a leading activist for The Acadian Society, and once pumped for a separate Acadian province in northern N.B.. A perfect appointment for the left. He can cite all these 250 year old accusations against the maudit anglais for the Acadian Explusion.. Seeing as the Acadians now control the political agenda of N.B. and are heavily over-represented in the government and civil service, it is going to take a long backward view to garner sympathy. Finally, we have Lousie Arbour, who thankfully, quit before she could get her loonie-left nonsense passed into law. She has been with the UN, trying to push global governance and international courts. Just what we need, the world's "victims" to atone for. Of course, Madam Justice Abella can take up the slack. Her reputation rest primarily on her "social activism".

None of the aforementioned is very near retirement age. They are staying put and, boy, are they peeved with Harper. How dare he question their rulings or their ideological biases? His final outrage was to try to put one police representative on the selection committee of new appointments. The idea of a bunch of throw-them-in-jail cops having an imput is frightening.

But, of course the MSM and the legal racket are incensed when Harper appointed a few judges with more conservative leanings. Harper would have to stay in power forever to change the make-up of the Supreme or superior courts. They are the final legal authority, so, even if one of Harper's appointees should get too far from our national victimhood trope, their judgements can be quashed. Don't forget that the Human Rights Charter states, "Truth is no defense against hate crime prosecution." This "you can't hurt my feelings" clause is selectively applied. Imam's that spew out the most appalling hate against Jews and other "infidels" seem to have been given some immunity. When Multiculti Doctrine meets Hate Crimes legislation, the former always wins.

For the left to suggest that they haven't lobbied long and hard for their boys to pass judgement is rank hypocrisy. As one of the big Adscam / ADSCAM culprits said, "If you want to see how most judges in Quebec got on the bench, just check who did pro bono work for the Liberals. Enough said.

© Bud Talkinghorn


Bud plays the Philistine: Art ... less

A few more "Yes, we have no Bahamas" song titles

1) Old Man Rivulet
2) River Deep. Mountain not High Enough
3) Verdi's Don Carless
4) "Yesterday. All that water seemed so far away."
5) Classical Gasohol
6) "The rain in Spain is mainly on the wane."
7) "Welcome to the Hot Hell California?
You can't always emit what you want."
8) The Four Seasons: Spring, Summer, Spring, Summer

As people of the arts, you might appreciate this, on the Canadian entries in the Berlin Film Festival. Understood is that all these Canuck entries have been subsidized to the gills by taxpayer money. Nobody with money sense would back these turkeys. One film called, "The Tracy Fragments", deals with a runaway 15 year old girl, who is trying to find her brother, who thinks he is a dog. The entire film is split screen, with Tracy talking about her angst and her visions--which include horses, crows and tins of pork and beans. When a German film critic asked Bruce MacDonald, the director, what audience he had in mind for this opus, He said, "People who take a lot of drugs". Multiply this asinine effort by the subsidized hundreds and you get to understand why they are never shown commercially. Even CBC will only unload some of them after midnight. Add to this cinematic dreck all the welfare poets, failed authors, and "minimalist" painters--"Black rage dot on white nothingness"--and you have official, maple syrup-drenched culture. Another film was about a homophobic, racist boxer, who embraces diversity in the end. The Cancult motto is "Never slay just one socially unprogressive target at a time." On one hand, with a few amputated fingers, I can count the good Canadian films I've ever seen. I presume that America harbours phalanxes of similar talentless artists--all equally on the government tit. You will notice that I refrained from once mentioning the loonie left in this critique.

© Bud Talkinghorn

Feb. 20: 2007: US Border Patrol - Y2Kyoto

Via newsbeat1

Border patrol

"OPEN SEASON ON BORDER PATROL AGENTS

U.S. Government Bribes Illegal Alien for Testimony Against Border Patrol Agent

Mexican Consulate Apparently Running U.S. Border Policy and Directing Political Persecutions of Border Patrol Agents

newsbeat1.com/2007/02/border-patrol_21.html

Also, via newsbeat1: Y2Kyoto with conversations . smalldeadanimals -- Y2Kyoto: Suzuki Foundation Funded By Encana
David Suzuki, on the John Oakley show: I’m not getting any money from my foundation. , February 21, 2007

www.smalldeadanimals.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/4831

www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/005610.html

Comments samples:

Glad to see my column is making the rounds in blogosphere.

I just wanted to write in response to Stephen and Farmer Joe that the issue of corporate funding is irrelevant in my view. I only raised it in response to Suzuki's complaint that corporations are uninterested in providing his foundation with any financial support. That was clearly untrue, which ought to cause fair-minded Canadians to pause and consider his character and the credibility of his pronouncements on other issues. I also point out, for instance, that Suzuki was mistaken when he alleged that the IPCC Report released February 2 was signed by 2500 scientists. Actually, it was signed by only 51 individuals, not all of them scientists.

If I and others like me question David Suzuki's motives, it isn't because of where he gets his money, it's because he's dishonest.

Joseph C. Ben-Ami at February 21, 2007 11:18 AM

[....]

Borat Dion becomes Canadas biggest climate change derriere.

www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/
CTVNews/20070219/counsel_poll_070219/
20070220?hub=QPeriod [Place allo on one line.]

Posted by: cal2 at February 21, 2007 11:47 AM
[....]

Why Dave Suzuki supports Toyota,

If you look on Dave's site he mentions the Toyota company on 16 separate web pages.

[Check smalldeadanimals for the link.]

And just who gives money to Mr Suzuki

Toyota.

Both Japanese too.

Because if global warming is man made and caused by gas. Hybrids are good.

If it isn't all that money Toyota spent on R & D could be lost.

Or could it be that he just has it in for Chrysler who made those Sherman tanks?

Posted by: DrWright at February 21, 2007 2:38 PM

Search: Vitruvius
His/Her comments are usually worth reading.

Here's another example of the dangers of innumeracy, environmental or otherwise. In March, 2004, the Edmonton Champagne Socialists, Limousine Liberals, Mastercard Marxists, and Welfare Wankers Journal pandered to the innumerate by ululating about industry's desire to use 330,000,000 liters of water a year from the Red Deer River. Sounds scary, right? [....]

Feb. 22, 2007: Ilegal Aliens, Sikh Votes, Pandering

"Wasted" Lives: 4,380 Americans Murdered by Illegal Aliens Each Year! , By John Lillpop, Saturday, February 17, 2007

www.canadafreepress.com/2007/lillpop021707.htm

[....] As documented in a report by Joseph Farah dated November 28, 2006 and titled "Illegal Aliens Murder 12 Americans Daily," illegal aliens murder an average of 4,380 Americans each year.

And that does not include the 4,750 Americans killed by drunken illegal aliens every year! That, by the way, equals 23,725 "wasted lives," since 9/11. (And about 2,000 more than the "surge" that President Bush has ordered) [....]

Memory Lane: Sikhs & Paul Martin

Martin sought terror group's support in 1990 leadership bid -- Paul Martin solicited the support of the terrorist International Sikh Youth Federation in his failed bid for the federal Liberal leadership in 1990, The Vancouver Sun has learned.

www.canada.com/theprovince/story.ht
ml?id=f2913924-d208-46b1-b773-3064
f80a1a63&k=86138


This came to me via an immigrant to North America; I concur. I have seen something like this before but it bears repeating and re-reading.

We've had enough pandering

YOU WORRY ME!
By American Airlines Pilot - Captain John Maniscalco

"I've been trying to say this since 9-11 but you worry me. I wish you didn't. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don't blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me.

I notice you because I can't help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don't fully understand their grievances and hate but I know that nothing can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.

On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grand-parents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children's mothers.

The Palestinians celebrated. The Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world. So I notice you now. I don't want to be worried. I don't want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.

How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim-Americans and the Arab/Muslims in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR constitution, while they plot the next attack that will slaughter these same good neighbors and children? The events of September 11th changed the answer. It is not my responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its different citizens, with all of its faults. It is time for every Arab/Muslim in this country to determine it for me.

I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know whether or not you love America. Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation, that He will protect and prosper it? Or do you pray that Allah with destroy it in one of your "Jihads"? Are you thankful for the freedom that only this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots who gave their lives for this country? Are you willing to preserve this freedom by paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America? If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it.

Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you are taking as a community and as a religion to protect the United States of America. Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the innocent because I worry about who you regard as innocent. No more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks because I worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more sympathy. I am only interested in action. What will you do for America-our great country-at this time of crisis, at this time of war?

I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets. I want to hear you chanting "Allah Bless America" I want to see young Arab Muslim men enlisting in the military. I want to see a commitment of money, time, and emotion to the victims of this butchering and to this nation as a whole. The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and socialize in Muslim communities. You know them. You know where they are. Hand them over to us, now! But I have seen little even approaching this sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets.

You have posted armed security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for protection from reprisals.

The very few Arab/Muslim representatives that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United States proves who was responsible before taking action. They seemed more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in the United States and abroad than they did with supporting our country and denouncing "leaders" like Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat.

If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up. What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good and pure and true when your "leaders" are teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance?

It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if large numbers of the world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion. A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again. A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide. A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world. A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world, burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of America, the country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the name of Islam.

Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because our women proudly show their faces in public rather than cover up like a shameful whore? Do you and your fellow Muslims hate us because we drink wine with dinner, or celebrate Christmas? Do you and you fellow Muslims hate us because we have befriended Israel, the ONLY FRIENDLY CIVILIZED SOCIETY in the Muslim/Arab area, that thinks and acts like most Americans.

And if you and your fellow Muslims hate us, then why in the world are you even here? Are you here to take our money? Are you here to undermine our peace and stability? Are you here to destroy us? If so, I want you to leave. I want you to go back to your desert sandpit where women are treated like rats and dogs. I want you to take your religion, your friends, and your family back to your Islamic extremists, and STAY THERE! We will NEVER give in to your influence, your retarded mentality, your twisted, violent, intolerant religion.

We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us: Our rights under the greatest constitution in the world. I want to know where every Arab Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is protecting you and your family. I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a fellow American. But there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your allegiance and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand." "Until then.... you worry me"


Pass it on, if you wish.

Feb. 20, 2007: Appointments - Expansion

Stephen Taylor

Appointments Justice Court System

Becoming a judge in Ralph Goodale's Saskatchewan (updated) , December 29, 2005

www.stephentaylor.ca/
archives/000503.html



CanWest expands news coverage in Canada, overseas , CanWest, February 17, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=b52b7b58-c414-4d94-8b71-a3528caac890&k=33138

OTTAWA - CanWest Publications announced yesterday a major investment in editorial content with the expansion of the Can- West News Service, including the hiring of more than 25 journalists and the opening of bureaus in Quebec City, Halifax and overseas in France and China.

[....] The new bureau in Shanghai, China, .... Paris .... in addition to CNS bureaus in Washington, New York and Jerusalem.

[....] Ms. McCabe says she expects to be covering the hottest story in the world. "The phenomenal growth of China is shaking up everything. Not only is just about anything you buy made in China these days, it is also beginning to be that what President Hu Jintao has to say about world events is as important as what President George Bush has to offer," Ms. McCabe said. [....]

Feb. 20, 2007: Peace and a need for charity

If you're not sick of the pandering yet, read this ... with jaundiced eye

The sound and the fury of ethnic outreach
RCMP, CSIS listen as communities vent, but is it getting anywhere? , Stewart Bell, National Post, February 17, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.ht
ml?id=72ce20cc-b4fe-426b-8d7a-dd428fe2dab4&k=26074

TORONTO - The Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security had a noble mission when it was set up three years ago: to engage the country's ethnic communities in Canada's fight against terrorism. Some now call it the "circus."

The round table's meetings, which bring together national security officials and community representatives, take place behind closed doors, but a leaked tape recording of a marathon session held last weekend suggests that its nickname is not entirely undeserved.

About 50 invited guests and a few gatecrashers gathered for eight hours last Sunday at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Toronto to pose questions to the city's top RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service counterterrorism officials. It did not begin well.

The first speaker, Ahmed Motiar, started off by sharing his curious theories of the 9/11 attacks, claiming that "Muslims were not involved and seven of the alleged 19 hijackers are alive and well!"

Then Cheryfa Jamal [See below] complained about a Canadian military exercise she said was held outside her children's Islamic school. (Her husband is one of the 18 men charged with belonging to an al-Qaeda-inspired terrorist group that was allegedly plotting truck bombings in downtown Toronto.)

[....] A rare voice of support came from Munir Pervaiz of the Muslim Canadian Congress, who told the officials they need not apologize for what they do to protect Canadians. "You should be very aggressive, very assertive."

Through it all, Inspector Jamie Jagoe of the RCMP and Mr. Ellis, the CSIS representative, replied that government policy was changed at the ballot box and that their only interest was in stopping acts of terrorist violence.

A leaked tape recording? Note the pool complaining. Should we give a hoot? This kind of ethnic outreach is a waste of police time, IMHO. Let the police do their jobs; let the government in office--the ones voted in to take care of citizens' concerns and needs--let that group decide whether the police are doing the job of law enforcement and be held to account at the ballot box and stop with activists who always have ethnic, racial or whatever issues to complain about. The rest of us are tired of this pandering to every vocal activist group, including ethnics ... whatever they call themselves or whatever they claim to represent.

More on Cheryfa Jamal here: Frost Hits the Rhubarb June 25 - 30, 2006 -- Scroll down to June 29, 2006: "this filthy country"....We hate Canada." -- or

here

And here: Frost Hits the Rhubarb June 23, 2006

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_07_23_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

Search:
Cheryfa, wife of Qayyum Abdul Jamal
Jamal asks public for cash

Former Haligonian Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal



Maher Arar 'just wants a break' -- Michael Byers, a professor at UBC, organized the lecture.

cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/
2007/02/16/3639626-cp.html

The Syrian-born Canadian spoke to a crowd of 400 students at the University of British Columbia Friday. [....]

His problems are the fault of all ... except Syria, so it seems. See if you can find any mention of Syria's part in this. Of course, the Syrians dont' pay a $10.5 million-dollar compensation package and maybe they don't make films about their part. That there might be a movie or book deal in the future was suggested in the article. I'm waiting for the sequel, myself.


Islamist Rants at Trinity College -- with video

littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=
24504_Islamist_Rants_at_Trin
ity_College&only&headline




More peace -- At least 28 bombs explode in Thailand, killing 3 , Updated Sun. Feb. 18 2007 2:56 PM ET, AP

www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20070218/
thai_bombs_070218/20070218?hub=TopStories

BANGKOK, Thailand -- At least 28 bombs exploded Sunday in apparently coordinated attacks in parts of southern Thailand plagued by a Muslim insurgency, killing three [I have heard it is 8 now] people and wounding more than 50, the military said.

The bombings targeted hotels, karaoke bars, power grids and commercial sites in the country's southernmost provinces, the only parts of predominantly Buddhist Thailand with Muslim majorities. Two public schools were torched.

Police said three Thais of Chinese descent were also gunned down [....]

Violence in the south has been escalating in recent months despite a major policy shift by the military-imposed government, which is trying to replace an earlier, iron-fisted approach in dealing with the rebels with a "hearts and minds" campaign. [....]

Maybe appealing to their hearts and minds doesn't work? It's been going on for years; now, it is getting worse. Appease at your peril. IMHO, of course.

Feb. 20, 2007: Media, Politicization, Payoffs

All Canadians pay for this, whatever their political stripe

ECMAs -- Comedian Mary Walsh wasn't bleeped, however, when she called the federal Conservatives "the arse-lickers of Satan," , February 18, 2007, Canadian Press

www.cbc.ca/cp/Atlantic/070218/t021806A.html

The foul-mouthed trio dropped several F-bombs during the broadcast, but all were bleeped out.

Comedian Mary Walsh wasn't bleeped, however, when she called the federal Conservatives "the arse-lickers of Satan," as an uncomfortable-looking Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay smiled in the front row.

Earlier in the evening while making a presentation on stage, MacKay was booed when he mistakenly referred to Halifax as Toronto. [.... Have you ever had a slip of the tongue? A slip of the brain, like Mary's]

Mary Walsh is considered funny ... in some circles. Must be at the Mothercorps and Liberal Party HQ.


Political favour?

Peter MacKay says, "I'm really glad to be here in Toronto, uhh Ottawa, I mean uhh... Halifax"
>>-crowd reacts->>

Then Opera singer Measha Brueggergosman came out and said "someone should tell THAT MAN to read a teleprompter." , pumpernickie.blogspot.com/


pumpernickie.blogspot.com/2007/02/
mackay-and-jack-layton-separated-at.html

Measha was one of the notables on the taxpayer-funded Liberals' Circumpolar Tour with ex-GG Adrienne Clarkson, as part of her retinue. The payoff? True belief to the point of rudeness, it seems.


Will we have choice?

XM, Sirius agree to merge , Feb. 19, 2007

cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Media
News/2007/02/19/3645821-ap.html

NEW YORK (AP) - Satellite radio rivals XM and Sirius said Monday they have reached an agreement to merge.

[....] Sirius Canada Inc. is owned by the government-owned CBC [That's taxpayers who own it, then.], privately held Standard Radio and U.S.-based Sirius Satellite Radio.

XM Canada is affiliated with XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. and Canadian Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. (TSX:XSR), a publicly traded company based in Toronto. [Which publicly traded company? ....]

Note: Taxpayers own part of a private and a US company. Will politicized radio be shoved down our throats the way that a politicized television is presently?

Feb. 20, 2007: Global Warming, Politics, History, Reality ...

And Officially Screwed

www.officiallyscrewed.com/blog/ -- See the top right of this website for these menu items.

I have added the urls below each in case the webpage changes.

Climate Change
Must Listen
Part I
http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/Global.06.07Pt1.mp3
Part II
http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/Global.Feb.06.07.Pt2.mp3
Part III
http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/Global.Feb.06.07Pt3.mp3
Part IV
http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/Global.06.-6.Pt4.mp3
Part V
http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/Global.Feb.06.07.Pt5.mp3
Part VI
http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/Global.06.07Pt6.mp3
Part VII
http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/Global.06.07Pt7.mp3
Part VIII
http://www.cfra.com/chum_audio/Global.06.07.Pt8.mp3

While on that website, you might check a little more reality: Judicial Committees Need the Insight of Law Enforcement Officers and Smackdown - Charles Adler Style

www.officiallyscrewed.com/blog/?p=778
www.officiallyscrewed.com/blog/?p=785


Back to global warming

A Canadian activist ...

Inuit climate change activist committed to cause -- According to Ms. Watt-Cloutier's oral history, there are "more drownings as a result of the ice not being as safe as it used to be ... " , Updated Sun. Feb. 18 2007 12:41 PM ET, CTV.ca News Staff

www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/
CTVNews/20070218/climate_activ
ist_070218/20070218?hub=TopStories

The Canadian Inuit activist nominated alongside Al Gore for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize said she is more committed than ever to drawing the world's attention to climate change in the Arctic.

Sheila Watt-Cloutier, the former chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference, appeared on CTV's Question Period on Sunday. [Watt-Cloutier was a member of ex-GG Adrienne Clarkson's retinue on the Circumpolar Tour in 2003 or 2004 -- connecting with like-minded people, perhaps. What was the stated purpose of that jaunt? Any meetings with others on the global need to "do something" about the North? ]

She said she has been working on her objective for more than a decade, acting as an advocate for 155,000 polar Inuit people spread across Alaska, Greenland, Russia and Canada. [Was she elected? Appointed? Check previous posts since the New Year for more on this activist and her unique credentials.]

"I have been out doing this environmental work for the past 11 years in every forum possible, the United Nations forums, the Arctic council forums and working with the global community to try to get it to understand not only who we are but the negative impacts that globalization is having on our way of life in the Arctic as a hunting culture," she said.

[....] Watt-Cloutier contends the Inuit's human rights are being threatened by governments' lack of effort to counter climate change. She gathered a petition signed by 62 Inuit hunters, women and elders from Alaska and Canada, contending that their traditional way of life is no longer possible. [....]

Undoubtedly, the UN will come to their rescue with more demands and new rights.

If, as they claim they wish, natives were to hunt and fish in the traditional manner ... without heavy snowmobiles and modern equipment ... what would happen? Is anything the way it used to be?

More on Ms. Watt-Cloutier and her activitism here:

Feb. 5, 2007: Scientific concensus [Note: Update Feb. 8, 2007: I had misdated this as Jan. 5, not Feb. 5. Now corrected. FHTR ]

Feb. 4, 2007: Science- Traditional Knowledge-Politics
Feb. 3, 2007: Environment, Russia, China, Sudan
Feb. 3, 2007: Climate, Spin, Awards, Politics


Historical Perspective ... for those who have had the benefit of a Canadian education ... in guilt ... along with the requisite social engineering

War, Weather and Global Cooling , Claudia Rosett, Feb. 17, 2007

claudiarosett.pajamasmedia.com/2007/02/17/
war_weather_and_global_cooling.php

For some perspective, or perhaps a cautionary metaphor, check out the weather itself — even beyond the cold snap which has so neatly accompanied the latest eruption of the global warming debate. As today’s prophets of global warming try to terrify us into re-engineering the economy of the planet, we can be glad that in a similar panic 30 years ago over — yes — global cooling, we did not in fear act upon such absurd proposals of the hour as trying to divert the arctic rivers, or melt the arctic ice cap by covering it in soot. I’m not making that up. A friend sent round an article from Newsweek, 1975; read all about the The Cooling World . [....]

[Comments] The Newsweek article is a classic. Here are a couple of others:

Scientists Ask Why World Climate is Changing; Major Cooling May Be Ahead
The New York Times, 5/21/75
"Sooner or later a major cooling of the climate is widely considered inevitable…The drop in mean temperatures since 1950 in the Northern Hemisphere has been sufficient, for example, to shorten Britain’s growing season for crops by two weeks."
---------
Brace Yourself for Another Ice Age
Science Digest, February 1973
"Baffin Island, located in the Canadian Arctic, now is covered with snowbanks all year after having been snow free for 30 or 40 years prior to the temperature drop. Pack ice around Iceland has now become a serious hindrance to navigation. Warmth loving animals once found in abundance in the northern part of the American Midwest in the early 1900s are settling further south."

Feb 19, 2007 11:50 AM

Feb. 20, 2007: Poll - Prediction

A Moment in Time

The Conservatives, according to polls, are ahead and, as a leader for Canada, Stephen Harper is away ahead of Stephane Dion.


PM holds election aces -- Combination of a federal Liberal leader who has failed to make a strong impression in Ontario and an unprecedented crisis of confidence within sovereignist ranks in Quebec could make temptation of a spring federal election irresistible for Stephen Harper , Chantal Hébert, Feb 19, 2007 09:20 AM

www.thestar.com/opinion/article/182689

OTTAWA - To all intents and purposes, the re-election of a federalist government in Quebec next month would give Prime Minister Stephen Harper quasi-absolute control over the life and death of his minority government.

Short of Harper terminating his own regime by calling an election, there cannot be a federal campaign this year unless the three opposition parties unite to bring down the Conservatives. [....]

Feb. 20, 2007: Education

Memory Lane: Education

Frost Hits the Rhubarb Dec. 31, 2006

frosthitstherhubarb.blogspot.com/
2006_12_31_frosthitstherhubarb_archive.html

Search: Jan. 2, 2007: Lansbridge U & Kingston College

Province orders probe of second university , J Steffenhagen, CanWest.com, Nov. 1, 06 -- Via PrimeTimeCrime.ca - Greed and Corruption , Vancouver Sun, November 01, 2006

www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.ht
ml?id=6129e670-ab43-4031-830b-551ccf201704&k=88044

Lansbridge , Kingson , education: Chinese in Vancouver -- check whether there are any updates



PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS IN CANADA
KELVIN K. OGILVIE
FROM PUBLIC U TO PRIVATE U:
An Atlantic Canadian Opportunity
September 2005 -- or here

[....] One of the first problems one encounters in examining the state of private educational institutions in Canada is the difficulty of counting and identifying them. [....]

Canadian academics and the general public make good use of private nurseries and K–12 institutions, which suggests that even though private educational facilities are strongly resisted at the university level, they appear to be acceptable from an early age through high school and in specialized postsecondary education training sectors. The main argument against private institutions is that great Canadian eliminator weapon, the supposed unacceptability of “two-tier-ism” and “elitism”: somehow Canadians must be protected against freedom of choice with regard to postsecondary education. [....]

At the same time, there are those who suspect that the real reason for the vigorous attacks on the private university concept is that such institutions might well provide a clearly identifiable advantage in quality and versatility relative to the public institutions, which would put pressure on the public institutions for higher standards of performance. 17 [....]


[....] Typically, a university’s Acts of Incorporation give its board the necessary powers to govern the institution within a private model. 19 Yet, it is amazing to see experienced business leaders behave meekly in the face of faculty, student, or alumni demands and operate in an “avoid-conflict-at-all-costs” mode. On university boards, business leaders rarely display the serious focus they bring to their own business organizations. Boards selected by constituencies — alumni, faculty, religious organizations, and so on — are usually well intentioned but often lack the experience needed to help make effective decisions about organizations of such size, even the relatively small universities examined in this study.

As for the management authority that has been bargained away in collective agreements, although the agreements cover issues that are entirely appropriate, the terms of individual articles in those agreements make it difficult for university administrations to make merit-based promotions and to deal effectively with discipline and workloads. Ultimately, local bargaining units are highly influenced by the Canadian Association of University Teachers, whose agenda seems to be to eliminate all accountability for faculty (management rights) and reduce their members’ workload as much as [18] possible. Nonetheless, it is my opinion that these collective agreements need not be an insurmountable obstacle to privatization: dedicated management, supported by a determined board, could easily re-establish sufficient accountability within one or two collective agreements. [....]


[Note:
Selected Publications from the AIMS Library
Other AIMS Work on Education ]

Grading Our Future 2: Atlantic Canada’s High Schools’
Accountability and Performance in Context, by Rick Audas
and Charles Cirtwill

Testing & Accountability: The Keys to Educational
Excellence in Atlantic Canada, by Charles Cirtwill,
Rod Clifton, and John D’Orsay

Charter Schools in Atlantic Canada, by Joe Freedman
(with Fred McMahon)

Students without Borders, Universities without Illusions:
Why International Mobility Will Cause a Quality
Revolution in Our Universities, by Brian Lee Crowley

What’s a Degree Worth? Who Pays and Who Benefits at
Atlantic Canada’s Universities, by John Philippe

Books
Retreat from Growth: Atlantic Canada and the Negative-
Sum Economy, by Fred McMahon

Road to Growth: How Lagging Economies Become
Prosperous, by Fred McMahon

Commentary Series

Locking Up the Pork Barrel: Reasoned Economic
Development Takes a Back Seat to Politics at ACOA, by
Brian Lee Crowley and Bruce Winchester

Following the Money Trail: Figuring Out Just How
Large Subsidies to Business Are in Atlantic Canada, by
David Murrell

First, Do No Harm: What Role for ACOA in Atlantic
Canada? by Brian Lee Crowley

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! The Numbers Game, ACOA Watch 1
Research Reports

Doing Business with the Devil: Land, Sovereignty, and
Corporate Partnerships in Membertou Inc., by Jacquelyn
Thayer Scott

Framing the Fish Farmers: The Impact of Activists on
Media and Public Opinion about the Aquaculture
Industry, by Jeff Chatterton

You Can Get There from Here: How Ottawa Can Put
Atlantic Canada on the Road to Prosperity, by Brian Lee
Crowley and Don McIver

The Atlantica Power Market: A Plan for Joint Action, by
Gordon L. Weil

Fencing the Last Frontier: The Case for Property Rights
in Canadian Aquaculture, by Robin Neill

Definitely Not the Romanow Report, by Brian Lee Crowley,
Brian Ferguson, David Zitner, and Brett J. Skinner

Rags to Riches: How “The Regions” Can and Should Be
Leading Canada’s Productivity Push, by Brian Lee Crowley

Taxing Incentives: How Equalization Distorts Tax Policy
in Recipient Provinces, by Kenneth J. Boessenkool

Fiscal Equalization Revisited, by Professor James M.
Buchanan, Nobel Laureate

Public Health, State Secret, by Dr. David Zitner and
Brian Lee Crowley

Taking Off the Shackles: Equalization and the
Development of Nonrenewable Resources in Atlantic
Canada, by Kenneth J. Boessenkool

Beyond a Hard Place: The Effects of Employment
Insurance Reform on Atlantic Canada’s Economic
Dependency, by Rick Audas and David Murrell

Conferences

“Smart Growth”: How Urban Planners Are Threatening
the Quality of Life in Our Cities, February 23, 2004,
Halifax, Nova Scotia

Nation States and Economic Regions in the Global
Network, May 13, 2004, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Atlantic Canada and the Canada-American Border of the
Future, November 22, 2002, Halifax, Nova Scotia

2000 Barrington St., Suite 1006
Halifax NS B3J 3K1
Telephone: (902) 429-1143
Facsimile: (902) 425-1393
E-mail: aims@aims.ca
Web site: www.aims.ca

There is another perspective out of Atlantic Canada; just don't check CBC or most of the MSM for it. Read it for yourself.

Feb. 20, 2007: CIDA Africa Futility - UN Doing Good

CIDA's record of futility , National Post, February 19, 2007

www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/
editorialsletters/story.html?id=
2765f56d-110b-49bb-8452-28e0a1974524&p=2

The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee's new report on the failure of Canadian aid in sub-Sarahan Africa ... foreign aid and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). [....]

Hugh Segal and the other committee members have created a concrete plan [....]

... the plan ... within reach politically as well as operationally [....]

The report does not shy away from exposing the full measure of Western failure in sub-Saharan Africa.

International aid spending on the continent has totalled $568-billion since 1960, yet African economies have fallen further and further behind the rest of the world. "Kenya at independence was one of the most advanced countries in Africa," the report chronicles, "with a standard of living in 1963 equivalent to that of South Korea. At independence in 1964, Zambia was better off in per capita terms than Singapore. Today, the gross national income per capita of Kenya is US$480 compared to US$14,100 in South Korea (i.e., 29 times more); the GNI per capita in Zambia is US$400 compared to US$26,600 in Singapore (i.e., 67 times more)."

Since the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, Africa's share of world trade has declined from over 7% to less than 3%. [....]

UN, Arar, Aboriginals, Language - Demands

UN committee queries Canada over Arar -- "a panel of 18 independent experts overseeing compliance with the United Nations' 38-year-old anti-racism treaty" -- It was not his race that was the problem , Bradley S. Klapper, Nov. 19, 07

cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/War_Terror/
2007/02/19/3645429-ap.html

The UN panel also questioned Canada's aboriginal policies and asked that it explain how it guarantees aboriginal groups rights to land and resources.

On Quebec, the committee asked whether Canada would consider new rules so that French speakers of African or Asian descent would be guaranteed the same access to francophone schools and other benefits as those of European backgrounds. The term Quebecois has traditionally referred to people who could trace their ancestors back to the first French settlers of the 1600s.

Feb. 19, 2007: Bud Talkinghorn

Trying to feel good about a scary poll

Environics and the CBC did a poll on Muslim-Canadian attitudes and how the non-Muslim felt about Muslim issues. Even though the results were quite shocking, the CBC aired some of the results. It related the fact that a majority of the Muslims want sharia law allowed, while 79% of other Canadians do not want to happen. However, the most interesting question concerned the arrest of the 17 Toronto Muslim youths and whether their alleged terrorist plans were justified. 73% said that they were not, while another 13% thought there was a strong or possible reason for the attacks. Than there were the 14% who were not sure whether it was justified or not. Even with the small 500 Muslim sampling it showed that a frightening per centage could not resolutely condemn these mass murderous plans. Can you image your neighbour planning to slaughter all the people at a flea market, yet you being conflicted about whether they should be repudiated?

I don't know why the CBC felt it necessary to warn us of this dangerous disaffection amongst Muslims. If the poll has any validity, then the extrapolation to the larger 600,000 Muslim community is a nightmare scenario. 7% thought the suspects were "completely justified" and another 6% thought it maybe justified. As I know the poll numbers from Britain on the same question, I was not surprised, but I hope the sleep-walking Canadian public might wake up. That English poll showed that the majority of British-Muslims hated their adopted country's culture and an extrapolated number, 16,000 wished they could have participated in the London tube bombings.

One final statistic was that after unemployment, the immigration/refugee system was the Canadian-Muslims' main concern. Persumably they don't think enough of their religious cohort are getting into the country. Typically, they bemoan the "racist" attitudes of government for this.

© Bud Talkinghorn