The National Council of Canadian Muslims' propaganda for people incapable of fact checking

Back in mid-January of this year, a kerfuffle erupted when Prime Minister Stephen Harper's spokesman responded to criticism by the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) for including Rabbi Daniel Korobkin as part of an official Canadian delegation to Israel. Korobkin's unpardonable offense in the eyes of the NCCM was having introduced anti-Islam activists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer at a Toronto event.

In response, PM Harper's spokesman Jason MacDonald said about NCCM, "We will not take seriously criticism from an organization with documented ties to a terrorist organization such as Hamas."

A publicly outraged NCCM threatened to sue the Prime Minster's Office for libel. Months have gone by and that libel suit has now been filed with the court. But its success or failure will be affected by whether an abundance of information establishes that its links to Hamas are not nearly as far-removed as NCCM would want the Canadian public to believe.

In its most recent PR effort, the NCCM has produced a somewhat lengthy video to try to make out that its links to Hamas are tenuous, like the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" game which indicates that everyone is eventually linked to everyone if you are willing to stretch long enough.

Except the stretch between Hamas and NCCM is not all that much of a stretch. No, the NCCM is not smuggling bombs to Hamas, nor is it advocating suicide bombing as an organization. But despite the misleading information in the NCCM video, one of the directors of its previous incarnation, CAIR-CAN, has in fact advocated "combative Jihad" (read suicide bombings) against Israel.

NCCM webpage redirected to CAIR-CAN

That director, Jamal Badawi, who was listed in a directory of members of The Muslim Brotherhood,  Hamas' parent organization,  was listed as a Director of CAIR-CAN as recently as recently as four months ago, when the NCCM was still redirecting visitors to its website back to the old CAIR-CAN site.

According to investigative journalist Patrick Poole, former CAIR-CAN Board Member Badawi "was a featured speaker at a conference in Qatar honoring Muslim Brotherhood spiritual leader Yousef al-Qaradawi, where Badawi shared the speaker’s podium with Khaled Mishaal, the head of Hamas and a designated terrorist by both the U.S. and Canada."

Another factor in the links between Hamas and NCCM are that as CAIR-CAN, the Canadian group was the northern branch of the US-based CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) which was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land terror-financing trial. Naturally, the NCCM is trying to downplay its relationship with the CAIR claiming in the video that they were completely independent of one another and that the use of the CAIR name was only related to a verbal agreement for trademark purposes.

But is that NCCM claim true?

Only if former CAIR-CAN boss Sheema Khan was lying in an affidavit filed with the Ontario Supreme Court.

As the Point de Bascule blog reported:

In 2003, (former CAIR-CAN leader Sheema) Khan swore an affidavit for the Ontario Supreme Court in connection with a trademark dispute. In the affidavit Khan, (former CSIS Strategic Planning Head David) Harris testified, “states categorically that CAIR-CAN is under the direction and control of the American CAIR organization.” Moreover, Khan, while a senior official of CAIR-CAN, also served on the board of CAIR.

Part of the obfuscation the NCCM is offering in its video is its mocking of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird's suggestion that Canadians can "Google the group in question, and do some research on their own and come to their own conclusions."

via Point de Bascule

The NCCM video would have you believe that information on the Internet is so unreliable that it's effectively worthless.

Yes, there are a lot of falsehoods and deception online, as the NCCM video itself is an ample example. But it's also a research tool filled with credible sources providing information that can be verified. So when the NCCM tries to mock a Canadian government Minister for telling people to "research on their own and come to their own conclusions," and instead mindlessly accept what the Muslim advocacy group tells them, it's not hard to figure between the two which is the more credible and honest.

Litigious Climate Change Cultist Michael "Hockey Stick" Mann Libels Melbourne Herald Sun Columnist Andrew Bolt

Andrew Bolt in The Herald Sun:

Normally I do not sue, but this seems to me a special case.

Mann, the climate alarmist who gave the world his dodgy ”hockey stick”, is now suing sceptic Mark Steyn for mocking him and his lawyers have produced deceptive legal documents in his defence.

Mann has published an outright lie that defames me, and should face the same punishment he wishes to mete out on Steyn for mere mockery.

I do not lie and Murdoch does not pay me to do so. Nor has Mann singled out a single “lie” I’m alleged to have committed.

In fact, Mann is so reckless with the facts that his tweet links to an obvious parody Twitter account run by one of my critics, clearly believing that it’s actually mine.

More HERE

Related: Mann's puerile response to a recent editorial about climate change theory by Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer is to advocate swigging alcohol every time he encounters an idea in it he finds offensive. It's an interesting approach and indeed suggests prolific drinking may account for Mann's "science" and public behavior.

"Mike's trick":



h/t Dr. Roy

UPDATE: It has been pointed out to me that the original headline for this post incorrectly identified the Herald Sun as a Sydney newspaper, rather than the Melbourne Herald Sun, which is the actual location of the paper for which Andrew Bolt writes..

Mark Steyn ironically notes it's not worth suing over and while I agree, nonetheless I would like to offer my apologies. I have spent some time down under with Sydneyites and Melbournians and can attest that, at least back then, the former generally considered the latter to be uptight and humorless. (Although both were in agreement that New Zealanders are thoroughly uptight wankers.) So to anyone from Sydney, I do regret any offense that may have been caused by the confusion.

Toronto Star sinks to publishing a sanctimonious alcoholic's fake concern about Rob Ford

I know something about drinking problems. I have struggled with one for my entire adult life. I continue to struggle with it today. 

My extended family includes enough drunks to populate an AA chapter. I’ve had close friends and roommates who drag broken relationships, lost jobs, destroyed bodies, and jail terms in the long train of empty bottles that follows them everywhere they go. I’m familiar with alcohol abuse, and how, when you have a problem with it, it can infect everything.

Frankly, I couldn't care less what this guy has to say about anything, but it is noteworthy that al Starzeera would sink to publishing this tripe.

It goes on to present more of the hypocritical and sanctimonious pretense of 'concern' for Rob Ford they published regarding unproven, dishonest allegations of his drinking interfering with his mayoral duties. This yellow journalism is indicative of the histrionic pathology dominating the Toronto Star's editorial board.

The Toronto Star acts like the city's spurned lover when it comes to Rob Ford

A histrionic vendetta The Toronto Star mounted against Rob Ford has continued unabated since his campaign for mayor began in the spring of 2010.

The Star - Bitter about its sermons going unheeded

The visceral hatred for the fiscally conservative mayor festering in the Star's offices has an obsessive component that most closely resembles the way a spurned, bitter spouse might feel for an ex-mate's new lover. In a way that is what happened to The Star.

The Star is the largest circulation daily in the Toronto and the leftist politics of its editorial board has matched the tone of the city's political leadership for the last decade; even longer if one considers Toronto before its metropolitan amalgamation. The alignment was so close that the satraps of One Yonge Street deluded themselves into thinking it was their guidance that was the principle influence of the thinking of lesser humans who cast votes in elections.

Like an unexpected Dear John letter waiting for them when they returned home one day, Rob Ford's mayoral victory changed that for The Star, and they still haven't recovered from the shock.

Ford, whose cost-cutting efforts and suburban plain-speaking contrast with everything the Star stands for, has been the focus of more energy expended by the Star to discredit him than living memory recalls. And The Star's vindictive reports have descended past the point of frantic criticism to reporting cheap gossip, hearsay and slander as if it were news.

The Star lied about Ford having assaulted a High School football player, it has stalked him at his home, it has promoted virtually any allegation it could find, no matter how petty or discreditable, in its unrelenting drive to bring down the victor of the last election. It has even tried to bolster ridiculous people simply because they shared the Star's disdain for Ford.

The Star's pathological enmity for Ford exceeds anything in living memory from a media outlet, and has only served to discredit them as a news organization.

In a report today, following their now unraveling account of Ford having allegedly been drunk at a military ball, the Star printed another story that makes the Mayor's description of that newspaper being "pathological liars" ring true.

Trying to salvage their discredited report about Ford's alleged alcoholism, the Star today trudged out two of Ford's council enemies with accounts that can best be described as slander and hearsay. Making it all the more preposterous is that The Star implausibly tries to present them as Ford's friends who are concerned for his well being.

Sarah Doucette, a leftist councilor who was among only a handful to effectively support the fanatical anti-Israel group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid in Council, is quoted as saying, “I think it’s been known around City Hall for quite a while that he may have a drinking problem ... in some respects, I wish this had gotten out earlier, because if he needs help, please do it now.”

However, only later on in the article, is the admission that "Doucette said she hadn’t personally seen the mayor intoxicated"  which means, unsurprisingly, that she is pontificating about something about which she has no actual knowledge.

More dishonestly, The Star presents leftist councilor Joe Mihevc's apparently spiteful, amateur diagnosis of Ford's as being someone who is "friendly with the mayor."

The Star reported: pressed for specifics, Mihevc pointed to last summer’s Salsa on St. Clair street festival, where he said he witnessed Ford “walking with a little bit of a funny bounce, and slightly slurred speech … intoxicated... I don’t want this to be the focus of my comments. My comments, frankly, are: My sympathies go out to the mayor on this one."

During the last election, "Friendly Joe," a city councilor, seemed more alarmed at the prospect of Ford winning the mayoralty than Mihevc appeared concerned about his own ward campaign.

Among the hysteria he wrote about the conservative candidate were such gems as "Ford is not about spending money wisely. He is about cutting basic services that he hates. Wisdom has never been his forte." Another of Mihevc's tweets said, "Let today be the start of taking back our city from Rob Ford and those (sic) would destroy the good city we are trying to build."  With friends like that...

Apparently the shock of seeing someone having something to drink at a wildly popular street party offended the sensibilities of the Ward 21 councilor. It's too bad for the city that his overseeing a fiasco that cost Toronto's taxpayers three times its budgeted cost isn't the sort of thing that offends Mihevc.

The voters elected Rob Ford to be mayor in 2010, and not by a small margin either. He received almost as many votes as all of the other candidates combined. Torontonians resoundingly rejected The Star's anointed choices in favor of someone who promised to get spending under control.  Ford has kept his promises about city spending. But the spurned editors at the Star haven't been able to get over their defeat. They should learn to move on, because they are fighting a battle that is doing more damage to their own reputation than to the decent public servant they are obsessed with  destroying.


UPDATE:  Military Ball organizers pen open letter defending Ford

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford wins libel trial - judge finds plaintiff to be a fraudster and liar

Ford was sued by over a Toronto Sun interview in which he said an untendered contract awarded to Tuggs Inc for a concession at the city`s boardwalk smacks of corruption.

Tuggs owner George Foulidis sued Ford for libel and the case was dismissed on interesting grounds. Evidently, George Foulidis was not listed as a senior officer of Tugs Inc when Ford`s interview took place. George Foulidis`brother Konstantinos was the one who was listed as the president, secretary and treasurer. Therefore no reasonable person would have taken Ford`s comments about Tuggs to refer to George Foulidis.


The judge also noted that the plaintiff, George Foulidis was a fraudster and a liar.

Which would give him something in common with lots of people out to get Rob Ford.

You can read the judgement here

Ezra Levant loses libel case to Giacomo "Serenity Now" Vigna

Ezra Levant was sued for libel and defamation for calling Human Rights Commission lawyer Giacomo Vigna a "fibber" when Vigna claimed he needed an adjournment before a Human Rights Commission hearing because he wasn't feeling "serene."

The judge ruled that Vigna was defamed because there was no proof Vigna was lying, or "fibbing" when he made the claim.

Vigma also claimed "defamation" for mocking comments Levant made about Vigna, referring to him as "Serenity Now" Vigna and comparing him to George Costanza's father on Seinfeld.

The judge ruled that while the comments were mocking, they were not defamatory.

So do NOT call "Serenity Now" Vigna a fibber. He isn't a fibber, he just wasn't serene.