Featured Post

How To Deal With Gaza After Hamas

Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Simon Fraser University Student Society battle against a greedy union continues

Back in July, I wrote about the stand Simon Fraser University's Student Society took against its so-called Public Interest Research Group (Self-Interested Marxist Propaganda Bureau is usually a better description for Canadian university "Public Interest" Research Groups that extract student funds to pay themselves as they engage in fanatical anti-Western activism), that resulted in a lock out and eviction of CUPE employees.

The Peak, SFU's student paper, published an editorial by the Student Society's Kyle Acierno this week about the ongoing dispute. CUPE seems to want to gouge the students of SFU for their own benefit. Who would have believed that a public service union would do that, eh?

From Acierno's editorial:

Most employers (like, say, the Canadian government) hire professionals to bargain collective agreements with unions so that there is a fair result for the employer and the employee. The case of the Simon Fraser Student Society, however, is different. In the past we haven’t had trained professionals to bargain agreements, we have had students with little or no experience thrown against the massive CUPE union.

What is the result? Well, it’s obvious: an agreement that heavily favours the union and gives close to half of the society’s money to pay 16 staff people.

Please remember that as a student elected to represent and work for students, I also share responsibility for running a $1.7 million operating budget. We must make the best fiscal decisions for the society. When we have a deficit of $800,000, is it right to pay all of our permanent employees over $30 an hour?

When we are forced to slash funding for all of our clubs and departmental student unions (such as the Economics Student Union which was cut from $1200 to $700 to $300), is it fair to pay our few student employees $21.64 an hour? When we can no longer afford bursaries that assist dozens of students in desperate financial need, like the $10,000 bursary contribution that is doubled by the government, should we not be looking for ways to solve our financial problems?

The quick and easy answer from most people supporting the union is to raise fees — charge the students more! The fact is that if we raised student fees to increase revenue by $20,000, we would only barely cover the average raises these employees receive each and every year! The following year we would be back asking for your money again. More money — not to provide extra service, to have more events, or to give back to you, but to pay for raises we are contractually forced to give.

Our answer to this dilemma: Why not make better use of the money that we already collect? Why not work to get a fair deal for students?

al-Qaida to Ahmadinejad: Stop giving America and the Jews credit for our work!

al Qaida is upset that insane Iranian President Ahmadinejad is crediting the US and Israel with having perpetrated 9-11. They attribute it to Iranian jealousy and fear of a rival that can capture the hearts of the Islamic jihadis. The 9-11 conspiracy nuts will probably now say that bin Laden was a Mossad agent. Maybe when the US dumped his body in the ocean, he was still alive and one of those Israeli spy sharks whisked him off to Hawaii.

al Qaida, the Iranian Mullahs and Ahmadinejad, the 9-11 conspiracists..they all deserve each other

From al Qaida's English-language magazine

The Globe and Mail's Patrick Martin is a failure at understanding world events

The Saudi leadership was humiliated at the news of a woman being sentenced to lashing for the "crime" of driving a car earlier this week. That story made headlines all over the world and was being used as another stick to castigate the Gulf monarchy's medieval rule.

King Abdullah reversed the sentence for an obvious reason. Because it being publicized was an embarrassment. Not because of some trend towards liberalization going on in the Wahhabi kingdom.

But you wouldn't know that from reading Patrick Martin in the Globe and Mail. Martin seems to view his role as a columnist as being a press agent for terrorists and tyrants. Prosecuting and beating a woman for driving is a gross violation of human rights, and a minor act of clemency for an infraction that the civilized world was mocking is described by Martin as an indication of  "just how serious the Saudi ruler is about enhancing the civil rights of women in the Kingdom."  Or it could be an indication of how serious the Saudi ruler is about trying not to look bad in the international press, and it's a good thing he has boosters like Patrick Martin to help spread that message.

This comes in the wake of the Saudi leadership giving women minor enfranchisement privileges. Yet the Globe and Mail didn`t seem to have much to say about how that move came only a couple of weeks after Saudi embarrassment over the exposure of how they tried to suppress `Ethical Oil` ads which highlighted the abusive, unfair treatment of women in Saudi Arabia.

The one thing that keeps the Saudi rulers in place is the wealth they derive from oil, and Canada illustrating how their product is the equivalent of `fair trade`` petroleum was bad for Saudi business.

That`s what is going on in Saudi Arabia right now - not a blossoming of a women`s rights movement but some press releases by one of the world`s largest oil producers.

This is not the first time Martin has acted as an apologist for the worst elements in the world. In a`radio interview in which he discussed a Globe and Mail series on Gaza a few months ago, Martin dismissed Hamas rocket attacks on Israel as being `firecrackers.` This vapid, hypocritical comment shows the level of analysis Canada`s``national newspaper` is giving its readers. Or if I`m wrong, Martin might be willing to demonstrate it by standing in a room while a few of those `firecrackers`that can level a house are lobbed in his direction. I wouldn`t bet on him volunteering for that any time soon.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

A divided European Union debates Palestinian statehood

                                                                                           

If you can't see the video - try using Firefox..I'm getting really fed up with Internet Explorer

Monday, September 26, 2011

John Baird and Jason Kenney tell the disgusting hypocrites at the UN where to get off

OTTAWA - Canada used its United Nations speaking slot Monday to lambaste opponents of Israel as no better than the appeasers who allowed fascism and communism to flourish before the Second World War.

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird delivered Canada's views to the General Assembly in a speech that put meat on the bones of the Harper government's unflinching support of Israel.

"Just as fascism and communism were the great struggles of previous generations, terrorism is the great struggle of ours. And far too often, the Jewish state is on the front line of our struggle and its people the victims of terror,"

More at Winnipeg Free Press

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Warp factor four, Mr. Sulu - Star Trek anticipated scientific discovery 35 years before scientists

Einstein's theory postulated that nothing could travel faster than the speed of light.

Star Trek's warps were multiples of that speed which was an aspect of the science fiction show that bothered physicists.

Until last Thursday, when the CERN accelerator in Switzerland observed neutrinos, a sub-atomic particle, travel faster than Einstein's speed limit.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Scientists discover species of horny, bisexual squid

Add this to the reasons I don't go deep sea diving...  not that there's anything wrong with it

Obama Administration brought in a special lobbyist to advocate for Palestinian aid - Benjamin Netenyahu

From The New York Times:

WASHINGTON — When the Obama administration wanted to be certain that Congress would not block $50 million in new aid to the Palestinian Authority last month, it turned to a singularly influential lobbyist: Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.       

At the request of the American Embassy and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Mr. Netanyahu urged dozens of members of Congress visiting Israel last month not to object to the aid, according to Congressional and diplomatic officials. Mr. Netanyahu’s intervention with Congress underscored an extraordinary intersection of American diplomacy and domestic politics, the result of an ever-tightening relationship between the Israeli government and the Republican Party that now controls the House.     

The rest of the article is here 

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Jedi Kittens Strike Back

Three brave women speak out against Islamicism and the hypocrisy of leftist western feminists

An organization called Advocates for Civil Liberties conducted a panel Monday night in Toronto's tony Yorkvile neighborhood dealing with the suppression of women's rights under Islamic rule. Raheel Raza and Nsatasha Fatah are both Canadian Muslims of Pakistani origin who have seen the way threat Islamism has creeped into Muslim cultures in the last three decades. They attribute the phenomenon to the aggressive agenda of Wahhabi Islam that originates in Saudi Arabia and whose spread has been funded by that country's oil wealth which has skyrocketed since the 1970's.

Fatah, a writer who is the daughter of renowned author and human rights activist Tarek Fatah and Raza, who is a former head of the Muslim Canadian Congress, both noted that in their native Pakistan, only a couple of decades ago, it was extremely rare to see women dressed in the body casing of the burkah or niqab, whereas now it is commonplace there. The practice has no basis in religion, but is an Arab tradition that Saudi influence has spread to Muslim countries outside the middle east and even to pockets of Muslim communities in western countries like Canada.

The most harrowing accounts came not from a Muslim woman but a Catholic who lived under Islamist rule in Iran. Marina Nemat grew up in Iran under the Shah, where despite repressive activities directed at political dissenters by his secret police, the Savak, the average citizen enjoyed the same rights and individual liberties as citizens of western countries. With the exception of Turkey, women's rights in pre-Revolutionary Iran were unrivaled in the Islamic Middle East. Nemat spoke of a childhood with dancing to Bee Gees music, mini-skirts, swimming at the cottage in her bikini, dating and a life that would be indistinguishable from that of a girl in places like France or Austria. The changes that the Khomeini regime brought about seemed gradual, but were horrific in the end result. First, behaviour like singing and dancing were banned, then women were prohibited from wearing bright colors and short skirts. Then they were forced to cover themselves and not allowed to show their hair in public.

Political repression magnified, and as a teenager, Nemat was arrested for participating in an anti-government demonstration and what happened after that was horrifying and irreversible. She, along with hundreds of others, were jailed in in Iran's Evin prison, the most disreputable torture centre in the world whose abuses exceed that of the USSR's Lubyanka. Canadians may recognize that name as the place where Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi was murdered after being raped and tortured by her jailers. That fate befell many of Nemat's friends. The Iranians believed that a virgin was guaranteed a place in heaven and not wanting an enemy of the Islamic Republic to receive that privilege in the afterlife, they raped young girls and teenagers like Nemat was at the time. She was also subjected to brutal torture like having the soles of her feet lashed repeatedly by guards who would shout "Allahu Akbar!" with each vicious stroke.

Eventually, Nemat was able to escape Iran to warn of the breed of Islamicism that Iran wants to spread throughout the middle east, but tragically it is often falling on deaf ears. Shockingly, much of that deafness comes from western so-called "feminists" who have provided ideological support for some of the most brutally misogynistic regimes in the world.

The trio of Raza, Fatah and Nemat al decried the hypocrisy among many in the west as a tacit form of racism that accepts Islamist mistreatment of women as being to to an inate inferiority, whereas they would never accept such behaviour from white Christians. The phenomenon of making Muslim women, or Muslim Divas such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Irshad Manji who speak out against Islamism into heroes was counterproductive as far as they were concerned. Such discourse needs to be part of the general conversation and it speaks poorly of Muslim society that there are so few.  All three called upon people of every religious, national and cultural background to speak out against the abuses occurring in the name of Islamist radicalism. They said that Muslim women cannot do it on their own and every free citizen should take whatever action they could, including making elected representatives aware of concerns about the erosion of women’s human rights wherever Sharia Law is imposed or people propose its implementation.

Live Stream from the Global Summit Against Persecution and Discrimination in New York

This is the conference which was organized to counter the hate and hypocrisy of the UN's Durban 3 sham.




h/t Blazing Cat Fur

6 obnoxious assumptions Hollywood makes about women

#6. Worrying About Being Fat When You're Not

" ...sure, most ladies would find it a relatable experience to see a lady onscreen trying to squeeze into her jeans after she gained some weight. But not when that lady is Julia Roberts.."


#5. Getting Angry For No Reason

"..they were obviously trying to prove she's a "strong woman" who can take care of herself, and apparently a "strong woman" is someone who is inexplicably hostile and has poor impulse control."


Read the rest at cracked.com

Monday, September 19, 2011

Welcome to Libby Davies' Vancouver

There's a fascinating new blog called Eastside Stories, written by a Vancouver Cop named Steve Addison which, in his words, "was created to give you a glimpse into the life of a police officer on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. There is perhaps no other place in the country that is as infamous, as political and as misunderstood as this."

You'll see some shocking, ugly scenes in Addison's blog - junkies shooting up on the street in broad daylight, the sad detritus of society; the results of some bad policies in Libby Davies federal riding. I encourage people to check it out.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Woman makes ironic entry in American Apparel Plus Size Model Contest and Wins! But American Apparel Welches on Deal

American Apparel had a contest for "Plus Size" models, which an inventive and plucky young woman named Nancy Upton felt mocked overweight women. So she and a photographer friend created a fantastic response that mocked American Apparel in return.

And she WON the contest!

But the dastardly welchers at American Apparel didn't like that, so..

American Apparel replied:

"...Oh - and regarding winning the contest, while you were clearly the popular choice, we have decided to award the prizes to other contestants that we feel truly exemplify the idea of beauty inside and out, and whom we will be proud to have representing our company."

Under the guise of opposing spending cuts, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid mobilizes against Rob Ford

A well-known ploy of Canadian radical organizations is to form a number of groups with different names but essentially the same memberships in order to create the false appearance that they have more support than their maniacal sectarian positions can muster. It's not unusual for them to have demonstrations where there are more groups "endorsing" the activity than actual attendees.

That ploy is at use again in Toronto's current radical advocacy to prevent needed fiscal restraint and cutbacks to special interests whose endowments are paid by tax dollars of average citizens who would be disgusted by their activities.

Enter the usual suspects, led by the odious Queers Against Israeli Apartheid. However, in this case, it is in a rare instance where they have not publicized their other affiliation, because they may finally have realized the disdain they invoke through it.

When the fanatical intellectual pygmies of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid were told by Toronto Mayor Rob Ford last spring that Toronto's Pride Festival funding was in danger if they participated, they grudgingly withdrew. The anti-Israel bigots attempted to couch their retreat from the largest Gay Pride festival in the world as a strategic challenge to the mayor, but fooled no one. Had Pride's funds been yanked because of them, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid knew they would be reviled in a community whose approbation they critically require. Unable to restrain themselves and keep their word,  a pathetic display they mounted at the Dyke March under a different guise threatened to cause a re-examination of whether Pride would receive funds. Fortunately for Pride, it escaped that danger by an unshaven leg hair.

Yet as everyone knows, Hell hath no fury like an irrational, taste-challenged, non-gender normative, sexual minority scorned. Now that the radical left is trying to mount a challenge to the proposed round of cuts that the Mayor is examining to try to bring the city's huge deficit under control, the movement to try to vilify Rob Ford is being led by none other than the same mindless zealots who have sided with tyrannies against the middle east's only democracy. They appear to bear a burning grudge against the Mayor who stymied them.

Familiar names like Jenny Peto, who authored an anti-Semitic OISE thesis, Tim McCaskell, Mary-Jo Nadeau, Farzana Doctor, Jason Kunin, Jesse Zimmerman, Andy Lehrer, Liisa Schofield, Syed Hussan, Justin Podur, Alan Sears, Judy Rebick, etc,  who are either members or friends of al-QuAIA, are all at the forefront of the new anti-Ford movement.

Voters in the provincial riding of Davenport might be interested to learn that their NDP candidate Jonah Schien also is among those who signed on to the anti-Ford petition filled with Marxist-sounding claptrap that wants more of your tax funds to be diverted to paying for services to illegal aliens among a host of other fatuous proposals.

Idiots of the world, Unite! You
have nothing to lose but your dignity...
and that boat's already sailed anyway
Whether these characters are desperate for a cause to give meaning to their lives or desperate for attention, the hatemongers and stooges of QuAIA are a boon to their opponents by bringing instant discredit to any cause of which they are a part.

With the media ganging up on him, Rob Ford's popularity has taken a slight dip recently, but that's likely to turn around soon thanks to the coalition of buffoons shrilly trying to demonize him.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Post-script on the York U false anti-Semitism accusation



Cameron Johnston is NOT an anti-Semite. 

That is generally understood by people familiar with the now-viral story of the York University professor who used "all Jews should be sterilized" as an example of an unacceptable opinion and was erroneously accused of it being his own. 

But the matter does raise some interesting questions and to examine them, it helps to trace the story from its beginning. It first broke publicly on the blog Sassy Wire and it was picked up by the popular political blog Blazing Cat Fur, from which it turned into an electronic tsunami. 

Not only is Professor Johnston not an anti-Semite, but there is absolutely nothing in his history that suggests he is either anti-Jewish or anti-Israel, which made the initial accusation of the  opinion expressed about Jewish sterilization being his own sound somewhat fishy. Professor Johnston was very quick to set the record straight and replied almost immediately to an email inquiry with the following:
This was not my own opinion but rather an example of a reprehensible opinion that someone might have.
I discussed that the course focuses on the texts and not "opinions". In fact, I stated that for this course opinions are not relevant and I questioned the common idea that everyone is entitled to their opinion.

I pointed out that everyone is not entitled to their opinion by giving the example of someone having an anti-semitic opinion which is clearly not acceptable. This was an example of the fact that opinions can be dangerous and that none of us really do believe that all opinions are acceptable.  

For the record, I am also Jewish.
 
Regards,
Cameron Johnston
The media, including the mainstream international media, leaped on this story. The fall-out has pitted Jewish organizations and members of the Jewish community against each other and the whole matter poses some interesting practical and philosophical questions.

The most obvious problem is that a university student named Sarah Grunfeld made a very serious and potentially devastating accusation without ascertaining the facts. But what compounded that is that a major Jewish organization, B'nai Brith, seemed to endorse that accusation without doing due diligence. There have been a number of very serious incidents of anti-Semitism at York University, and publicizing an allegation without substantiating it has very damaging repercussions. Aside from the foremost concern of the potential to harm the reputation of an innocent person, this incident will very likely make students who are already intimidated about making complaints about anti-Semitic behaviour by professors less likely to come forward in the future.

There are other questions that arise from the incident. Why is it that when an example of horrible opinions are provided, they have to involve Jews, particularly at a place like York U with its reputation for hostility towards them? A number of people have noted that it might be because York has an environment where criticism of Jews is so de rigeur that it is no longer controversial, and that there would have been detrimental consequnces for a professor if he or she had used Muslims as such an example, even in the context of what should not be acceptable.

B'nai Brith insists there were other students who were also not clear that Professor Johnston's example was not intended to be his own opinion. While Professor Johnston's honesty is not in question, his wisdom in the choice of his example and his ability to effectively communicate are. Professor Johnston points out that he is Jewish and that is what led him to use Jews as the example in this situation, probably leading him to think it would immunize him from accusations of Jew hate. Despite Johnston's honest intent, there are enough cases of anti-Semitic Jews to make such a belief naive in today's academic environment.

What is also very telling is that the media were so very anxious to publicize this story, but when there was a shocking recent incident of actual anti-Semitism promoted by a professor at the University of Toronto, the mainstream media, which were well aware of it, decided to neglect it completely. On one hand, it could be that the Johnston story was more newsworthy since it is a novelty, while academic Jew hate is becoming a typical facet of university life. But it could also point to an agenda that wants to minimize anti-Semitism, an insidious hatred that has become re-fashionable along with neo-Marxist anti-Israel fanaticism.

In what can only be seen as ironic retribution by the fates, Sarah Grunfeld, who brought forward the accusation against Professor Johnston, is believed to be alleging that she has been misquoted and her words taken out of context by the Toronto Star reporter who interviewed her and wrote about the incident. She now is reportedly suffering from severe stress and depression as a result of the ridicule she is facing and the possibility of permanent damage to her reputation. But Professor Johnston could have been the victim of the same fate if Ms Grunfeld had been taken at her word, and neither need have undergone this unwanted attention if she had been more careful to check her facts.

Durban III Hate-Fest excludes UN Watch from attending but permits Gaddafi-funded organization

UN Watch has been a strong critic of Human Rights abusers like Iran, Syria, China and Libya, all of whom have at one point or another been members of the ironically named United Nations Human Rights Council at one point.

Evidently disliking having their hypocrisy pointed out to them, the organizers of Durban III, which the world's major democracies have declared that they would boycott, have banned UN Watch.  Probably because it couldn't be a proper hate fest with those party-poopers from a genuine human rights organization pointing out what a bunch of assholes the tyrannies that are participating in Durban III are.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

You can live like Bilbo Baggins for only $5000!

Magic ring not included.

h/t Ghost of a Flea

Ignatieff and nine other luminaries avoid mentioning Islamism while reflecting on 9-11

Academic seminars can be fascinating. Sometimes for what one learns from scholars and experts, and sometimes as opportunities to observe the extent to which so many people who expect to influence public policy are how out-of-touch with reality.

Yesterday, a seminar conducted by the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto provided an example of both phenomena. Called “9/ll” – Ten Reflections after the Passage of Ten Years: An Opportunity to Contemplate and Remember ten speakers presented their thoughts about the repercussions of the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon a decade later. The speakers included former Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff and Jean Chretien's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bill Graham, as well as eight others, mostly academics, including a familiar face on TVO, Janice Gross Stein and  The Canadian Centre for Global Security Studies' Ron Diebert.

What was most remarkable about the talks that the ten speakers gave over an hour and a half about how 9-11 has changed the priorities and concerns in the world is that there was a word that remained unspoken by every single one of them. Not one speaker said the word "Islam." Not once. Not even as a part of another term, such as Islamism.

None of them had the courage to talk about the elephant in the room; that while Muslims are overwhelmingly opposed to terrorism and want freedom, the inability within much of Islam and many Muslim societies to address violent, repressive ideologies and to promote reform is at the root of the conflict that is misleadingly referred to as "The War on Terror."

The result was an implicit suggestion (and sometimes more explicit than implicit)  that fanatical Islam had nothing to do with 9-11 and that it was America that had somehow brought the attacks on itself.

Another thing that stood out was, with the exception of Ron Diebert, only the two politicians seemed to have any cohesive grasp of the challenges and dangers that the post 9-11 world presents. Janice Gross Stein was one the one person to put that phenomenon into perspective when she observed that she has a particular scholarly focus and she tends to slant all information to it. It appears that the other academics fell victim to just that approach, but without the self-awareness of Stein.

Many of the speakers talked about serious concerns of the last ten years, such as the erosion of civil liberties, but what they failed to note was that for the vast majority of us, these changes won't directly affect us and are possible because they will be unnoticed in what remain free societies. But in the cases where they do occur, such as some invasive aspects of the Harper government's Omnibus Crime Bill, which intends to make access to personal information available to law enforcement without a warrant, and its criminalization of linking to offensive websites, government needs to be held to account and most likely will in the form of court challenges.

Diebert had some interesting observations about how public security, which used to be exclusively a function of government, has been largely privatized since 9-11, and there are ominous consequences. He also discussed the insidious cooperation that some private companies that provide such private security in the west have with repressive regimes, such as Syria and China.

However it was Graham and Ignatieff who provided the most cogent insight of the evening. Graham noted that Canada's close relationship with the United States has benefited us in our ability to devote funds to our social programs since the US has guaranteed our security and we did not have to dedicate as many resources in that area as many other countries; many people in the room took the benefit for granted without appreciating how the US might expect something in return.

Ignatieff's observations were a reminder that while he was not an apt politician, he remains a keen and thoughtful scholar and intellectual. His reminder was simple, but one that is frequently forgotten by the supposed cognoscenti of the west. There is a lot of hatred towards us in places far away and we can't ignore it, because 9-11 should remain a constant lesson that if we forget, that hate will reach out and try to grab us by the throat.

The call to public service was the most important lesson that Ignatieff drew from 9-11. As he said, the only people going up the stairs of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers were wearing uniforms, and the heroism that those public servants displayed that day was a demonstration of the nobility of the men and women whose job it is to protect and serve the citizens of their country.

UPDATE -You can view the seminar:

Palestinian statehood would mean real "apartheid"

Though founded as a Jewish state, in order to serve a sanctuary for a people who have faced persecution for millennium, Israel has never exiled anyone on the basis of their religion nor has it prevented the free practice of any religion within its borders. It has citizens of every religious group, including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, etc.

The calumny of it being an 'apartheid' state is merely a lie that pro-Palestinian, or more to the point, anti-Israel fanatics have latched on to to attempt to de-legitimize and eliminate a non-Muslim entity in what they want to be an exclusively Islamic-ruled Middle East.

But to understand the true nature of the type of apartheid that already exists within Islamic countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sudan and more, the words of the Palestinian Authority's Ambassador to the US are particularly informative.

During a breakfast briefing hosted by the Christian Science Monitor on Tuesday, Maen Rashid Areikat reiterated his call to create a Jew-free Palestinian state.

As school season has just resumed, and another "Israeli Apartheid Week" is on the horizon for university campuses, this is a reminder of the hypocrisy and dishonesty of the people who perpetrate that lie. It is more proof that the definition of Israeli Apartheid Week really is,

"the week in which the Western campus Hitlerjugend, Marxist-Leninists, and Islamo-fascists unite to demonstrate against and call for the destruction of the only Middle East country that is NOT an apartheid regime."


h/t Sassy Wire

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Vancouver Public Library lends its support to the destruction of Israel

A seminar called "Beyond the Palestinian Statehood Initiative -Freeing Palestine and Delegitimizing Israel" is planned to occur at the Vancouver Public Library at  350 West Georgia Street on Sunday September 18.

The purpose of the event is not one of information, but an opportunity for coordination by people who seek to eliminate the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. In fact, one of the speakers, Charlotte Kates, has, according to Front Page Magazine  reportedly said that Israeli children are "legitimate" targets for suicide bombing and has called for the destruction of Israel "by any means necessary."

Included within the seminar are sessions entitled "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions: Global Solidarity for Palestine" and  "Canada and Israel: Settler-Colonial United Front" suggesting these people are the same sort of vapid hypocrites who declared that Canada and Israel are both apartheid states, yet many of whom are involved in movements that advocate for the most repressive state sponsor of terror in the world.

It's probably no coincidence that this meeting is being held in a public library on the doorstep of  Libby Davies' East Vancouver riding. Davies, the NDP Member of Parliament for the riding with the highest per capita ratio of crackheads and junkies in Canada has endorsed a boycott of Israel, the only liberal democracy in its region, and has boasted of attendance at a rally featuring a French politician who was tried for anti-Semitism.

In their hatred for Israel, the fanatics who plan to gather in a publicly financed library are more extreme than the leadership of the Palestinian Authority. As they put it:
Saeb Erekat of the PA recently stressed that the PA has no desire to "delegitimize Israel," using the same term as the organized Zionist movement in denouncing the "delegitimization of Israel." In fact, delegitimizing the illegitimate is precisely the struggle of the Palestinian movement for liberation - and exactly the goal of BDS.
The mayor of Vancouver is Gregor Robertson. For the sake of decency, he has an obligation to speak out against an abuse of city facilities for the purpose of spreading bigotry and hatred.

His email is: gregor.robertson@vancouver.ca


UPDATE: Mike Krebs, one of the presenters at the hate-fest, has a very weird history and relationship with his fellow travellers, which is detailed here and here

Shallow Canadian polemicist is really, really mad about the term "ethical oil"

Naomi Klein is outraged that proponents of Canadian Tar Sands oil, which finances social programs and provides employment to indigenous peoples in one of the freest countries in the world, describe the product as "ethical oil."

You know she's outraged because she proudly announced it at a rally comprised of middle aged, middle-class white socialists in Washington D.C. last week where she advocated against Canada's economic interests while demonstrating her tenuous comprehension of economics and environmental science.  Klein also likes to use the word "ravages" a lot when describing the effects of Canada's Tar Sands oil. She repeats it so frequently, it makes one wonder what sort of fixations she has.

Ms Klein, who appears at so many protests as to give the impression of a camp follower of such things, doesn't seem to understand the use of "ethical oil"  refers not to its debatable environmental impact, but to the social and political outcomes of purchasing oil from a democracy that uses revenues to fund social programs. That is as opposed to purchasing it from tyrannical monarchies or dictatorships, which use revenues to finance terrorism or further enrich oligarchs.

Klein never really addresses that ethical component in her supposed "debunking"  of the term "ethical oil." In fact, she doesn't really address much of anything, except express her fury, sputtering out marginally coherent nonsense that rivals the Alec Baldwin marionette's speech at the end of Team America.

According to the author of The Shock Doctrine,  Prime Minister Stephen Harper doesn't represent what Canadians want. That's amusing coming from someone who has never held any elected office in her life suggesting that is it she who represents what Canadians really want.

Actually, that sort of puts things into perspective. It's no wonder Klein has so much trouble differentiating "ethical" oil from the other kind. Her instincts seem to indicate she has a lot in common with the unelected dictators and tyrants that produce foreign oil who, without virtue of being chosen by a democratic process, also claim to represent the 'true interests of the people.'



Monday, September 12, 2011

Anti-Christian, Anti-Jewish bias surfaces at "progressive" Walrus Magazine

To understand the editorial slant at Walrus Magazine, it would be appropriate to remember that Marci McDonald's anti-Christian screed, The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada, was a drawn out version of an article making the same arguments that she wrote for that "progressive" Canadian monthly.

The basic premise of McDonald's much discussed commercial flop was that the Conservative government was driven by a fundamentalist vision of Christianity that believed in an "End Times" scenario. McDonald accounted for Conservative support for Israel was motivated by a urge to hasten the Apocalypse. There was no actual evidence to support McDonald's profoundly ridiculous contentions which singled out Christian and Jewish influence in government as being secretly motivated by religious fanaticism or Zionist fervour, whereas members of any other religious groups got a free pass.

The possibility that Conservatives who happen to be Christian were influenced by their faith's principles of charity, honesty and justice was evidently outside the scope of McDonald's thinking. Similarly, that support for Israel could be due to its shared values with Canada, such as democracy, free speech, an independent judiciary and equality before the law, and that it is in conflict with some of the most repressive, violent, anti-democratic countries in the world, was not something that could permeate McDonald's brain. In her obsessive bias, it could only be more evidence of a sinister conspiracy between Christian fundamentalists and Zionists.

Now, Walrus has clutched on to McDonald's vacuous argument in a way that suits it best, as a comic strip. In this case, one that is filled with anti-Semitic imagery and political bigotry against Christian belief.

The comic projects that Prime Minister Stephen Harper's opposition to the unilateral declaration of Palestinian statehood is part of his scheme to bring about Armageddon and The Rapture.

The fact that Harper has not made any statements as a political leader that suggest he has any such beliefs are irrelevant. This anti-Christian narrative is one that the radical Left in Canada has forcefully incorporated into their way of thinking, immaterial of the overwhelming body of evidence that contradicts it.

But why should that be any surprise? These are the same sort of fanatics who continue to embrace Marxist-influenced socialism after that discredited ideology contributed to the murder of 100 million people by Communist Russia, Mao, China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Castro's Cuba,  Kim's North Korea, et cetera.

The people at Walrus evidently have a hard time learning.


You can see the comic here at Honest Reporting Canada

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Prepare for the shrill cry of Toronto's Arts Leeches

If you were a carpenter and you weren't very good at your job, odds are you'd have a tough time getting work, and eventually you'd have to stop doing it professionally on a full time basis and find something else to support yourself.

What probably wouldn't happen is that you would say your carpentry adds intangible benefit to society-at-large and that you make great sacrifices to be a carpenter despite popular rejection. You would most likely not expect that the government should give you money so that you could continue to practice your craft, which evidently is something you're not not good enough at to generate enough support so you can be self-sufficient.

Craftsmen and, well just everyone else in every line of work could take a page out of Canada's third-rate arts community, who think that the drivel they produce that only a handful of people care about should be subsidized by tax money to the tune of millions per year.

Great artists throughout history have painted or written because they had something to create or say that came from a passion in their soul. They were anxious for patronage, but real artists, the Van Goghs and Melvilles and Fitzgeralds crated in poverty out of love. They achieved success, in their lifetimes of after, because of the merit of their work.

But Merit need not be the key to success as an artist in Toronto. You can be a talentless hack, but if you have connections on Arts' Councils and whine loudly enough, you can still have taxpayers' hard-earned money deposited directly into your bank account st support your "art."

That may change soon. The new administration at City Hall has let it be known that cuts are needed and they have committed to keep taxes down. The prospect that they may have to create something in which someone is actually interested enough to pay for has sent Toronto's "arts community" into a full-fledged panic. The City Manager's report comes in tomorrow morning with the mandate to make either 10% cuts across the board or accept the recommendations of the consulting firm that has been examining city services over the last few months.

It's expected that arts funding, which is only of major benefit to marginal artists, will be first on the chopping block. They may not be able to fill theatre seats, paint pictures that people want to buy, make music that people want to hear or write words people are willing to pay to read, but Toronto's arts community does know how to scream loudly when they fear the government largess may come to an end.

So when you hear shrill shrieking tomorrow, its source will be from Queen Street by people who may actually, finally have to do something that someone values enough to pay for.

God Bless America!

On the anniversary of that terrible day...




The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove

Dean Can Dance created a song inspired by the strangest episode of the amazing British spy show from the 60's, Danger Man



The Ubiquitious Mr. Lovegrove was from the second Danger Man series which consisted of hour-long episodes. That one isn't available online, but here's The Relaxed Informer from the original half-hour series:





For those of us who don't think we get enough electric jazz violin music

Jean-Luc Ponty's Mirage - Live at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1982

Saturday, September 10, 2011

This week's award for dumbest place in America goes to: Oak Park, Michigan

A Michigan homeowner is facing a jury trial and potential jail time for planting a vegetable garden. This act is apparently in violation of city code, which dictates that only "suitable materials" be used in all unpaved portions of front yards.

Julie Bass, an Oak Park, Michigan homeowner and mother-of-six, decided to plant a vegetable garden in her front yard so that she could save money by growing her own organic food. She filled five large planter boxes with cabbages, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs and other edible vegetation.

While many neighbors enjoyed the fruits of her labour, others complained. Seeing how city code requires homeowners to plant shrubbery, grass, ground cover, and "suitable materials" in all unpaved portions of front yards, city code enforcement officials told Mrs. Bass to squash the project or face a ticket.

According to Oak Park City Planner Kevin Rulkowski, the word "suitable" means "common," and vegetable gardens in front yards in Mrs. Bass's community are not common, so Mrs. Bass is in violation of the code.

Mrs. Bass now
faces a trial by jury and up to 93 days of jail time.

More at Sympatico

Saturday Cartoon: SpongeBob in Trench Billies

Friday, September 9, 2011

Tony Blair's Islamofascist sister-in-law issues war cry for jihad against Israel

At the London al Quds rally, dressed like an extra from a community theatre production of the musical, Camelot, Iranian media spokesperson Lauren Booth, half-sister of Tony Blair's wife Cheri Booth, tells idiotic, implausible stories to try to demonize Israel and calls for jihad to wipe out the only liberal democracy in the middle east.

She tells one fable where she alleges a boy called her from a ditch in Gaza for help because his home was just demolished. OK, so if you're lying in a ditch and need help .. you don't call someone around the corner, or the local hospital or police, you call Tony Blair's whack-job sister-in-law over 2000 miles away. Because she's going to cast a spell out of her witch's cauldron to help, huh? Whatever you say, Lauren.

Betraying her violent, Islamist fanaticism, in likelihood exacerbated all the more because as a convert, she probably feels she needs to prove herself, she shrieks "No justice, no peace" over and over and then launches into advocacy of war against Israel and all its citizens.

Here are some choice quotes from that hateful bigot:

"I'll tell you now, wallahi, the Israelis will never have a moment's good sleep in their beds, may they never have a second to taste the sweetness of tranquility..."

re: terrorist group Hamas: "We back your resistance!"

"It is time, brothers and sisters for al Quds (Jerusalem) to be liberated for Islam.."

"And we say here today to you, Israel...to us your nation does not exist because it is a criminal injustice against humanity."

Booth then called on Eqypt, Jordan and Lebanon to wage war on Israel.

The video is here:

Dispatch from the battle against corruption in India

Some decades ago, John Kenneth Galbraith described India as a "functional anarchy." The ongoing events in New Delhi centered on Anna Hazare and the Lokpal bill, a piece of legislation meant to curb corruption among civil servants and politicians, reiterate this point. These days it is unclear, however, which element of Galbraith's description -- the functional or the anarchical -- dominates.
The rest is at Foreign Affairs Magazine

Palestinian Authority controlled TV sends "best wishes" to child-murderer

The continuous incitement to commit murder and terrorism that permeates Palestinian society in the West Bank and Gaza and is promoted  by the "responsible" leaders of the Palestinian Authority is one of the ongoing impediments to a peaceful solution to the Mid East conflict



h/t Gay and Right

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Annoying blogger exposes OISE on Michael Coren's Arena

The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and the entire educational system in Ontario need major reform.





Thanks to SdaMatt2 and  Blazing Cat Fur for the video

United Church Minister denounces Israel at CASMO hate fest

United Church minister Brian McIntosh appeared at the now infamous al Quds Day seminar organized by an anti-Israel hate group on Friday, August 26.  Despite condemnation of the event from Toronto's mayor and a slew of City Councilors, McIntosh lent his credibility, such as it is, to CASMO, a group of Khomeinist supporters of the racist, terror-sponsoring Iranian regime.

In his address to the assembled fanatics, McIntosh got caught up in the frenzy and denounced Israel with: "...the political powers of the world bear a false witness to the divine will, through politically and military-backed colonialism, horrific ethnic cleansing, systematic, state-sanctioned terrorism, the real, true terrorism, the carrying out of what many have called the Manifest Destiny of the West, known as the Zionist Project in Israel."

McIntosh, whose authority to speak on behalf of the divine will is questionable, went on to express support for a divestment, boycott and sanctions campaign against the only liberal democracy in the middle east, but on that night lacked the fortitude to utter a single word of criticism towards Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism that persecutes religious minorities, murders Gays, and represses women.

What McIntosh did do was to try to bolster his position by invoking Richard Falk, a Jewish anti-Semite and 9-11 conspiracy theorist who has distinguished himself by being the only Special Rapporteur in the history of the United Nations to be condemned by a UN Secretary General.

In addition to saying Palestinians suffer from an "apartheid" worse than that in South Africa thirty years ago, McIntosh also referred to Israeli settlements in the West Bank as "one of the largest politically motivated land grabs in human history." Given that McIntosh made that pronouncement in North America, it betrays a pathetic lack of historical knowledge on his part.

The word "Shahid" is Arabic for "witness", but it is generally taken to mean martyr or someone who has dies in fulfillment of Islamic religious duty. It is the term by which violent, fanatical Islamists in Hamas and Hezbollah refer to their suicide bombers. McIntosh, in his speech, said, "surely there have been enough shahids for Palestinian dignity, justice and freedom who have been killed to convince the world of the necessity of ending this conflict by returning the Palestinians to their homeland.."

McIntosh appears oblivious, if not indifferent to the fact that so many shahids have died not for dignity and justice, but out of a desire to murder innocent Israelis and collect 72 virgins in a promised afterlife.

The ignorance, lack of historical comprehension, lack of context and utter bigotry demonstrated by McIntosh in his speech are astounding. The United Church of Canada has just distanced itself from an individual named Karin Brothers who was said to be a representative of the Church at a CASMO hate rally at Queen's Park.

A question the United Church needs to address is whether the shameful speech by McIntosh reflects the Church, or will they bury their heads in the sand?



Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Libby Davies makes the NDP look foolish with the withdrawl of an embarrassing motion

Last week, Vancouver East MP and NDP Leadership hopeful Libby Davies withdrew Motion 141, a proposal she had made to parliament on June 6th to reduce the waiting period for recent immigrants to collect Canadian government-paid old-age pensions.

Davies who clearly has ambitions to replace Jack Layton as NDP leader finally clued in to the fact that legislation proposed by the Official Opposition will garner attention, and when the NDP gets attention, it's usually of the negative variety.

Davies explained in an article she wrote for her spouse's website today that, "We have a national media scrutinizing us as never before (I learned this lesson well with motion 141 just recently). We have a majority Conservative government who see three opposition parties without permanent leaders, and easy pickings ahead. For those of us in the NDP caucus, we will need to be fully engaged and active in Parliament as never before."

It's good to learn that Davies thinks the NDP should finally take their role in parliament seriously, even if that new course is motivated by fear of embarrassment in the media rather than professionalism and conscientiousness as public officials.

However there is a difference between wanting and doing, as Davies yet again demonstrated. In withdrawing the motion, the NDP has again managed to make fools of themselves by saying,
"As for motion 141, this was submitted in error and Libby Davies (Vancouver East) is withdrawing it."

Get that? Davies, the NDP's Deputy Leader, accidentally tabled a motion to Parliament. The fact that it was widely criticized and ridiculed with a party leadership convention on the horizon no doubt helped Davies recognize her mistake.

But David Akin pointed out on his blog that if Davies made a mistake by tabling that motion, it's a mistake she has repeated frequently. Akin noted the same motion was put forward by Davies more than ten times in the last ten years.

Conservative MP Kevin Sorinson explained Davies 'mistake' more plausibly: "The only reason Ms. Davies is withdrawing her OAS Motion M-141 is because her leadership contention musings is forcing issues like this one into the spotlight. She has to try and rid herself of this kind of reckless-spending measure that her and her Opposition colleagues are always pulling on the governing party. "

With ringmaster Layton gone, the clowns are running the NDP circus. The laughs will keep coming, but only as long as Canadians continue to realize that people like Libby Davies should be kept as far as possible from the reins of power.

Lazy parents and obtuse politicians will not cure childhood obesity with taxes

You know that all the good activist causes are gone when in a world where there is still massive hunger and starvation, the current upper-middle class cause celebre is childhood obesity.

Where are all these fat kids exactly? Kids have high metabolism rates. Most can eat junk food and burn it off.

Childhood obesity alarmists point to statistics, but looking around, does it really seem like kids everywhere have ballooned into hordes of Augustus Gloops?

I haven't seen much evidence of it, but even if it were the case, what the issue points to, and the way that anti-fat kid fanatics propose to solve it, is indicative of an abrogation of personal responsibility and reliance on the nanny state that typifies the mushy Left in Canada.

It would seem apparent that if your kid is a little porker, either they're gobbling down too much, which means parents need to provide better meals and help the kids learn personal discipline, or more likely the case, little Jimmy or little Yolanda aren't burning up many calories because they're spending all their time sitting on their butt paying Xbox or facebooking.

Rosario Marchese, the NDP's member of Provincial Parliament for Trinity Spadina, has an involved and expensive proposal to combat the rolls of fat undulating in elementary schools; to impose high taxes on junk food.

That solution won't solve any problems, it'll just make things worse. Kids from more affluent families will still be able to afford junk food and poorer kids will feel left out and pester their parents until they hand over money for popping candy, Reese's Pieces, a Coke and a bag of Lay's ketchup chips. It doesn't matter how cheap or available you make healthy food, because you're still not going to convince a kid that celery sticks taste better than a Joe Louis. The result won't be kids who are any healthier, it'll be be poor people having to spend more money on taxes.

If you want to mess up something simple, the best way to do that is to put the government in charge. The solution to childhood obesity is obvious, but runs contrary to the instincts of leftists who rely on the state to act and think on their behalf. Parents need to act like parents. Make your kid turn off the electronic device for a few hours a day, and take them outside to play soccer, or ride a bike or go for a run. If they had done that in the first place, there would be no problem. But what is certain is that the way to help fat-stomached children is not to rely on new legislation from fat-headed politicians.


Monday, September 5, 2011

Sun TV survey exposes what Canadians REALLY think about the CBC

To say this Sun TV promo gives a hint about the result would be a major understatement, but I'm looking forward to hearing what the specific questions and answers were. Why do I get the feeling the overall result is a nation saying, "Can I have my 1.1 billion dollars back?"



video by Blazing Cat Fur

More anti-Semitism from NDP leadership hopeful Libby Davies' spouse's website

The radical socialist movement in Canada frequently veers into vociferous anti-Semitism. Under the guise of "Palestinian solidarity activism" socialists vent their Jew-hatred while betraying principles of equality in their alliances with groups that support regimes that repress women and persecute Gays. One such example is the unholy axis of James Clark's Canadian Peace Alliance and Zafar Bangash and CASMO, who act as advocates for the totalitarian, anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying Iranian theocracy.

One of the clearing-houses for this bigotry is run by the spouse of NDP leadership hopeful, Libby Davies. Rabble.ca is published by Kim Elliott, Davies' spouse. Its discussion forums are tightly controlled and users are frequently banned for defending Israel or criticizing unions. Indeed, rabble.ca's paid moderators sometimes use the discussion forums to promote Davies.  But one type of behaviour that is fostered there is calling Israel a "Nazi" country. This type of attempt to paint a liberal, democratic Jewish state with a free press and independent judiciary as a genocidal monster is one of the new forms of anti-Semitism identified by the Canadian Parliamentary Commission on Anti-Semitism.

It is little surprise that this type of hatred and bigotry would be associated with supporters of Libby Davies, who recently boasted about her association with a member of European Parliament who was tried for promoting anti-Semitism in France. Rabble's user forums, which have included the anti-Semitic invective directed at SUN TV host Michael Coren as a "damped Jew" now has a regular poster using Iranian propaganda to demonize Israel as following "in Hitler's footsteps." The anti-Semitic propaganda he promotes makes the absurd accusation that Israel is "using Gaza as a Nazi concentration camp."

Davies- her intellect is only matched
by her sex appeal
Davies frequently appears at rabble.ca-sponsored events and that venue provides insight into the sort of attitude that Canadians can expect to see fostered in the NDP if she and her camp of radicals continue to gain influence in that political party. By making both Davies and the pragmatic, intelligent Thomas Mulcair both Deputy Leaders, the NDP's shrewd former leader, Jack Layton, played radical and mainstream elements of the party against each other to consolidate his control. But now that Layton is gone and no leader has emerged with a semblance of his authority in his party, the NDP could easily descend into a fanatical, hate-mongering political movement dominated by obtuse ideologues like Davies.

Saturday, September 3, 2011

OISE embarrasses U of T with a new, vapid anti-Israel thesis

The Ontario Institute for Studies in Education is a wonderful centre for self-esteem. Its tax-supported programs are living proof that lack of intelligence need not be an impediment to getting an advanced university degree.

Fortunately for prospective employers, these degrees are offered in easily identifiable programs with fatuous-sounding names like Sociology and Equity Studies in Education. (SESE). That program achieved its greatest fame for having produced an anti-Semitic thesis in 2010, which broke ground for being the first student paper to be denounced by both the governing party and Opposition in the Ontario Legislature.

Now Sheryl Nestel, the same academic advisor to a pair of poorly researched, bigoted polemics that caused the controversy last year, has a new protege who has created a vapid anti-Israel screed to remind the public of the wasteful spending we throw into certain areas of academia.

In "The Appeal of Israel: Whiteness, Anti-Semitism, and the Roots of Diaspora Zionism in Canada," its author, Corey Balsam, who was awarded a Master's Degree on its basis, cites marginal academics and pseudo-academics such as Abigail Bakan, a board member of Mohamed Elmasry's anti-Semitic Canadian Charger website, anti-Israel fanatic Yves Engler, the deranged anti-Capitalist website Znet, and in his acknowledgments, thanks notorious 9-11 conspiracy theorist Diana Ralph.

Filled with anti-Semitic tone ("the elite British Jew Baron Walter Rothchild"),  half-baked efforts at psychoanalysis ("In Freudian terms, the end of a Jewish state is perceived as akin to castration and therefore something to be resisted at all costs"), and obsessively focussed on circumcision and Jewish body types, Balsam's thesis is a reminder of Judy Rebick's admission that radical activists often are acting out from their own personal psychological and emotional problems. That was clearly the case of the two previous anti-Israel theses for SESE guided by Nestel, both of which had lengthy introductions in which the authors described their childhood traumas and how it led them to their present-day activism.

Another question that arises in the case of individuals like Mr. Balsam is, are they too stupid to understand the material they reference or are they intentionally deceitful about it? A case in point is his assertion that "Under the leadership of Vladimir (Ze'ev) Jabotinsky (1880-1940), the revisionist movement took a much more right-wing, even fascist, approach to the achievement of Zionist goals." 

Balsam cites Jabotinsky's famous "Iron Wall" article as proof of Zionism's "fascist" approach. But what fascist would write (in the same article, but which Balsam omitted):
"this does not mean that there cannot be any agreement with the Palestine Arabs. What is impossible is a voluntary agreement. As long as the Arabs feel that there is the least hope of getting rid of us, they will refuse to give up this hope in return for either kind words or for bread and butter, because they are not a rabble, but a living people. And when a living people yields in matters of such a vital character it is only when there is no longer any hope of getting rid of us, because they can make no breach in the iron wall. Not till then will they drop their extremist leaders, whose watchword is "Never!" And the leadership will pass to the moderate groups, who will approach us with a proposal that we should both agree to mutual concessions. Then we may expect them to discuss honestly practical questions, such as a guarantee against Arab displacement, or equal rights for Arab citizen, or Arab national integrity. And when that happens, I am convinced that we Jews will be found ready to give them satisfactory guarantees, so that both peoples can live together in peace, like good neighbours."
The "Iron Wall" that Jabotinsky alludes to is an enforced creation of a democratic Jewish state, and as he says in the essay:
"What need, otherwise, of the Balfour Declaration? Or of the Mandate? Their value to us is that outside Power has undertaken to create in the country such conditions of administration and security that if the native population should desire to hinder our work, they will find it impossible. And we are all of us, without any exception, demanding day after day that this outside Power, should carry out this task vigorously and with determination.  In this matter there is no difference between our "militarists" and our "vegetarians". Except that the first prefer that the iron wall should consist of Jewish soldiers, and the others are content that they should be British."
Say what one will about the British during the Palestinian Mandate, but their behavior was honorable and no intelligent, honest person could possibly describe it as "fascist."

One need not look far for other ludicrously misleading statements from Balsam, such as "many Canadian Jews, particularly workers in the garment industry, “rejected Zionism as unfeasible, in favor of class solidarity, or out of loyalty to a project of internationalist struggle for progressive social change."

Balsam doesn't even seem able to follow his own arguments from one paragraph to the next, because only a few pages earlier, he wrote, " Labour Zionism became the dominant Zionist ideology in the 1930s and remained so into the nascent years of Israeli statehood." Perhaps Balsam is unaware that the Garment industry was heavily unionized and formed the core of the Zionist Labour Movement in Canada in the 1930's.

Of course, intelligence and honesty are not hallmarks of OISE's SESE program, which seems exclusively devoted to demonization of western capitalist democracies, fanatical hatred of Israel and the promulgation of hare-brained racist theories hiding behind the veneer of "Equity Studies." The program  promotes values that are the polar opposite of what fair-minded democracies have been striving towards. As we as a society aspire to treat everyone on their own merits as an individual, SESE continues to proselytize an ideology that views everyone less as an individual than a representative of a racial group. An ample illustration is another Master's Thesis recently guided by Nestel that asserts that Western feminists opposed to female genital mutilation are motivated by racism and their obsession with genetalia.

It is an approach that can lead nowhere but continued racism, and the University of Toronto would be well advised to reconsider the continued existence of a program such as SESE which remains an embarrassment to the university's reputation.

UPDATE: Werner Cohn's analysis elucidates the total absence of scholarship in Balsam's thesis

h/t Sassy Wire