To me it’s just another work day, because most of my clients are American.

But if you want something special for Canada Day, check out Kathy Shaidle’s book sale - for Canadians only!

Over the question of Michael Ignatieff’s “true patriot love“.

ALSO APPARENTLY “JUST VISITING”

• ABLONCZY, The Hon. Diane, P.C., B.Ed., LL.B. Date of Birth: 1949.05.06. Place of Birth: Peoria, Illinois, United States.
• MARK, Inky, B.A., B.Ed. Date of Birth: 1947.11.17. Place of Birth: Toysun, China.
• OBHRAI, Deepak. Date of Birth: 1950.07.05. Place of Birth: Oldeani, Tanzania.
• SHORY, Devinder. Date of Birth: 1958.08.03. Place of Birth: Punjab, India.
• TOEWS, The Hon. Vic, P.C., B.A., LL.B. Date of Birth: 1952.09.10. Place of Birth: Fildelfia, Paraguay.
• WONG, Alice, Ph.D. Date of Birth: 1948.06.30. Place of Birth: Hong Kong.

Here the Clever Jackal attempts to equate immigrants to Canada with Ignatieff, an immigrant from Canada who chose to live in Massachusetts and teach at Harvard for 30-odd years. You know, McGill or University of Toronto weren’t good enough for him.

Not that I can personally begrudge Iggy from wanting to get the hell out of here for any stretch of time - I’d do it myself. But then again, my own lack of “true patriot love” pretty much precludes me (above all other things) from running for Prime Minister.

Then again, if we base things on Ignatieff’s country of choice, we will see that hating America is no hindrance to the presidency. So what the hell, right?

And that really says something.

So I’m out for a jog earlier today, and I enter the cool down stretch. Whip out my BlackBerry to see what I’ve missed, and there’s an email from Blazing Cat Fur, AKA Kathy’s husband.

Do you want to go to the Palestine House event with me? Kathy doesn’t want to.

Uh huh. So weird point #1 is my friend’s husband asking me to be her proxy at an event.

Weird point #2, I’m going to go to an antisemitic pro-jihad fundraiser? WTF?

Oh man. So we go to this thing, for which Arnie forks out waaaay too much jizya at the door to get in. We are under-dressed, not having realized it’s a dinner event and not just speakers in an auditorium. Clearly, I left my hijab at home.

Anyway, it took forever to get underway. Dinner wasn’t served until after 8, and the speeches didn’t start until almost 9.

Weird point #3 was the totally pedestrian food. I figured since we were there, we would be treated to taboule, hummus, kibbe… something resembling anything remotely Middle Eastern. It was not to be. Hospital-style beef & chicken with steamed veggies. Iceberg salad. Blah. If we’re going to be all multi-culti, I at least want that kickass garlic sauce they put on shish taouk, dammit.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh AKrama Sabri, was a small unassuming man. He spoke Arabic, and from the little I understand I deduced that his English translator was leaving a lot of the juicy stuff out. All the Allah/Mohammad/Ummah/Kuffar stuff was left out, and a lot of peace/political intervention/cooperation stuff was highlighted. Hmmm. I guess that was Weird Point # 4. I am sending the recording off for a full translation. It may take a couple of weeks, but I’ll let you know what I find out.

Weird Point #5 & 5a (a tie) was the head of Palestine House telling us to vote Liberal, and Carolyn Parrish being in the audience. Arnie advises me she’s also on the donor roll for Mohammed El Masry’s new community paper, the Charger. I guess hating America isn’t enough for Parrish - she has to align herself with its enemies, too.

Then Mr. Fire and Brimstone, Bishop Atallah Hanna (Bishop of Sebastia of the Church of Jerusalem) hit the stage. A very imposing figure in his Orthodox black garb, he was also an extremely awe-inspiring speaker. If that man turned to me and told me I was going to Hell, I would simply nod meekly and accept my fate. Wow. I was informed by our table mate that his Arabic was “beautiful” and “flawless”.

This Orthodox Christian went on and on (and on) for a very long time - over an hour, I think. I understood him well enough, plus had the assistance of our table mate, to not need to know the full translation. He spoke of Israel being racist/apartheid/the usual. That those who criticize Israel are not antsemites, but are called such by people who are themselves racist antisemites. Wow, way to turn the tables, buddy. Joe Lieberman is a racist. Israelis are racist. Holland is racist. Jason Kenney is racist… you get the idea, right?

Weird point #6 was the enforcer goons at the table next to ours. I believe they were the Palestinian equivalent of Luca Brasi. Scarred faces, scarred knuckles, not a brain cell in the bunch. These guys were the, ahem, security force for the evening. Um, you have two eminent religious leaders visiting, and you’re putting these assholes in charge of their lives? Oh my.

As we got back in the car, I summed it all up by telling Arnie “Next time I pick the restaurant!”

More tomorrow, with pictures and any salvageable video. For now I’m tired. And I want a ham sandwich.

Bonus Weird Point: The banquet opened with the Canadian National Anthem and the Palestinian National Anthem (can you have a national anthem if you don’t have a nation?). A few people half-heartedly mumbled Oh Canada. Yet NO ONE even hummed Biladi. Hmmm. Which, by the way, sounds very, very German/Nazi/Soviet in it’s triumphalism.

Arnie has more at Blazing Cat Fur.

Ever hip to what today’s immigrants are into, Citizenship & Immigration Canada wants to hear from new Canadians. Despite the fact that in rural villages and big cities around the world, locals are using modern technology like cell phones and blackberrys to send rape videos to their friends, and YouTube to disseminate beheading videos, Canada’s bureaucrats want them to find a VHS recorder (why not Beta?) to tell them all about how to end racism.

1. be between 45 to 60 seconds in length;
2. be submitted on one Mini-DV tape, DVD or VHS tape per entry;
3. be accompanied by one entry form, which also includes a parent or guardian signature PER PARTICIPANT;
4. not contain any images not created by the entrants (such as pictures, photographs, stock film or images from the internet) without a letter of permission from the person having rights in the images to use them for insertion in the video for the purposes of the Competition and granting to the Department of Citizenship and Immigration and its agents the right to use all videotape images they receive as they see fit and allow any television station participating in this initiative to edit, reproduce and broadcast any and all video submissions or portions thereof. Remember to include, unless he/she stated otherwise, the name of the author of the images in the credits of the video; and
5. use only original music in your video (i.e. music you and your team composed), or use royalty-free and rights-free music.

Canada is very concerned about the right of those singers and bands to which it gives enormous and unnecessary monetary grants. As for the rights of the budding videographers… well, not so much.

All videotape entries become the property of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, including all intellectual property rights, and will not be returned. It should be understood that this involves that the Department of Citizenship and Immigration will have the right to use all videotape images they receive as they see fit and allow any television station participating in this initiative to edit, reproduce and broadcast any and all video submissions or portions thereof.

Better hurry! If you get your entry in by January 19, 2009, racism will end. Actually, that’s kinda true. The next day is Obama’s inauguration, and I swear I will rip the head off of anyone who plays the race card for the next 4-8 years after that.

H/t Kathy.

This is a more difficult post to write than the last one. This one means a wake up for me and many others who so far have managed to treat world events as academic. The realm of debate and moral and ethical games.

Israel has retaliated against Gaza by air strikes against military targets and limiting civilian damage to the best of its capabilities. Many posts will argue the rights and wrongs of it so no need for more of that here. I’m sure the vast vast majority have already made up their minds as to who is right and wrong and why.

I am writing on another aspect. Strategy and outcome.

So far, Islamist forces world wide (and Gaza is no exception) have overwhelmingly chosen to go after the softest targets possible and the ones which would garner the most outrage and horror. It is not at all unusual for example, for a Palestinian receiving free and excellent medical care in Israel to return to the hospital wrapped in explosives with hopes of murdering the very doctors nurses and destruction of the facilities which had treated her. We also have seen attacks going back decades in Argentina, France, and recently Bombay targeting Jews with no strategic value whatsoever but because they are Jews. More recently, The UK, Germany Scandinavia and frankly much of Europe where Muslims are moving in large numbers in the past year has seen anti semitic violent attacks grow.

Hamas will ‘retaliate’ (I put retaliate of course in quotes as the Israeli action was in fact retaliation for over 800 rockets fired at Israeli civilians over the past few years most of which was during an agreed ‘cease fire’) as will Hizbolah, Al Queda/Taliban and any number of Islamic groups which as usual will create a new name for themselves for each attack by targeting easy to access unsuspecting targets of Jews. It could as easily be Ottawa as Bombay or Pembrook Ontario as London England or Ipswich Mass. as easily as Madrid Spain. The only thing these attacks will have in common, will be that it is against Jewish people.

If you live as a Jew in most western nations, it is against the law to arm yourself. not just for jews of course but for all. The police or more likely politicians would prefer you get killed cleanly and quickly then get the police and ambulance to the scene so City councils can show how efficient they are. Outside of small pockets of the USA where there is still some sense of individual right to life and self defense this is the norm. However given the history of Islamic terrorist movements and the ascendancy of same, the moral relativism of the modern left who dominate the civil service of most western nations and the consequent ethical ambiguousness which has made terrorists the victims and victims the aggressors, Jewish people may want to start thinking about their own security. Predicting the future at some levels is imposable. At others is as easy as looking at the past.

Let’s have a look at what the official reaction has been from various bodies in order to better understand how officialdom may react to the deaths of Jews by Muslim attackers in their own cities and nations.

Here I borrow heavily from the excellent site, The Gates of Vienna…

Spokesman For Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary General

“The secretary general is deeply alarmed by today’s heavy violence and bloodshed in Gaza, and the continuation of violence in southern Israel.

“[He] appeals for an immediate halt to all violence [and reiterates] previous calls for humanitarian supplies to be allowed into Gaza to aid the distressed civilian population.”

Gordon Johndroe, White House Spokesman

“Hamas’ continued rocket attacks into Israel must cease if the violence is to stop. Hamas must end its terrorist activities if it wishes to play a role in the future of the Palestinian people.

“The United States urges Israel to avoid civilian casualties as it targets Hamas in Gaza.”

Spokesman For Javier Solana, EU Foreign Policy Chief

“We are very concerned at the events in Gaza. We call for an immediate ceasefire and urge everybody to exert maximum restraint.”

British Foreign Office Statement

“The only way to achieve lasting peace in Gaza is through peaceful means. Whilst we understand the Israeli government’s obligation to protect its population we urge maximum restraint to avoid further civilian casualties.

“We also call on militants in the Gaza Strip to immediately cease all rocket attacks on Israel.”

Russian Foreign Ministry Statement

“Moscow considers it necessary to stop large-scale military action against Gaza, which has already led to major casualties and suffering among the civilian Palestinian population.

“At the same time, we call on the Hamas leadership to stop shelling Israeli territory.”

Amr Moussa, Arab League Secretary General

“We are facing a continuing spectacle which has been carefully planned. So we have to expect that there will be many casualties. We face a major humanitarian catastrophe.”

Syrian Foreign Ministry Statement

“Syria is following with great anxiety the barbaric Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza… a horrific crime and terrorist act.

[…]

“Syria as president of the Arab League calls on Arab leaders to hold an emergency summit to assess the dangerous situation in Gaza.”

Hasan Qashqavi, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman

“Iran strongly condemns the Zionist regime’s wide-ranging attacks against the civilians in Gaza.

“The raids against innocent people are unforgivable and unacceptable.”

And the most useless and mealy-mouthed reaction of all comes from — surprise! — the Vatican:

Rev Federico Lombardi, Vatican Spokesman

“Hamas is a prisoner to a logic of hate, Israel to a logic of faith in force as the best response to hate.

“One must continue to search for a different way out, even if that may seem impossible.”

So from this we get a fairly clear idea how our leaders will react to terrorist attacks against Jewish targets. A few words careful not to offend Islamic terrorists. Hence the responsibility ends where it should begin. In the hands of each individual Jewish person to decide how exactly they should protect themselves. The state will not be able to do it nor has the will.

Perhaps the radical sounding words of the founder of the JDL, Rabbi Meir David Kahane don’t sound so radical now. “Every Jew a .22″.

Frankly, I think a .45 would make a lot more sense.

This is a great interview I found over on The Redwing Report

Head on over to read the whole thing. It’s short but to the point and quite refreshing if you have grown up to 50 years of a whining Quebec.

… Canada, he said, “doesn’t need (its) domestic and foreign policies (to be decided) by a beggar province. Not to mention that Canada’s official bilingualism policies discriminate against … 97% of English-speaking Canadians … outside Quebec .”

I’m cleaning out my Google Reader in time for the new year, and this means taking out some wonderful bloggers. You see, I rarely click over to domains anymore - everything feeds in through my reader. And if you don’t publish your full feed, I just don’t read the important words you have to say. So here’s who’s going:

Angela Booth’s Fab Freelance - headline and one sentence is rarely enough to grab me, though she does write catchy headlines
Conservative Examiner - Lord knows I love Kathy, but short feeds irritate me. I shall continue to read her best stuff over at Five Feet
Small Dead Animals - If someone outright recommends one of Kate’s articles, I will click over.
Dr. Dawg - I’m sure he’ll weep over losing me!
Little Miss Attila - There is no good reason she should be using a short feed
Argghhh! - My beloved Kansas host. His short feed doesn’t even indicate who the writer of the post is!
and last but not least:
Michelle Malkin - Michelle even has her feed monetized for ad revenue, but still insists we click to the main site. This is a redundant process.

Call it bitchiness, or call it Web 2.5, but if you won’t accommodate people who use readers regularly, why should we accommodate you?

UPDATE: Thanks to my readers for letting me know that Little Miss Attila and Kate at SDA both have full feeds available!

And you can tell by the name he is Ahmish or Menonite or something.

From The Ottawa Citizen

Samuel Nana-Effah said allegations that he digitally penetrated the girl and had her perform oral sex before repeatedly engaging in intercourse with her while she was being babysat by his sister were “lies.”

According to Mr. Nana-Effah, he couldn’t have committed the acts because he would leave his sister’s house within 30 minutes to an hour of getting out of bed to go downtown and sell crack.

Mr. Nana-Effah testified he would typically wake up at 11:30 a.m. or noon and briefly leave his sister’s house to smoke marijuana.

The mind reels at how the opposition parties could whinge and moan about the cost of that last little election we had in October, but then stage a coup d’état a month later. It all seems very Venezuelan to me. Like, you know what would be fun? Having Sarah Palin in full hunting regalia storm congress and tell everyone that their vote didn’t matter, and that she was taking over regardless of what anyone said. Could you imagine?

There are winners and losers in the political game. When your party wins, it’s good. When they lose, you re-strategize for the next go-round. You do not stage a coup! So that said, join me in Toronto at Queens Park on Saturday.

If you are elsewhere in the country, find a rally to go to. The separatists and the sore losers do not get to take over government. They can vie for power, make backroom deals and work together all they want. But a coup? No thanks, Hugo.

Canadians with chronic illnesses wait longer to see medical specialists than counterparts in seven other developed countries, a new international survey suggests.

Only 40 per cent of Canadians with chronic illnesses who took part in the survey reported waiting less than four weeks to see a specialist. And 42 per cent said they had to wait more than two months - substantially longer than counterparts in the seven other countries.

Germany, a country we had to go in and dismantle due to its run-amok socialism, is doing better than we are, because it doesn’t subscribe to the single-payer system. Only communist countries like Cuba and Canada make it illegal to source your own health care.

Yet still Canadians can’t bring themselves to do anything about it.

Despite the negatives, only 16 per cent of the Canadian respondents said the country’s health-care system should be completely rebuilt. Among the eight countries, only Dutch and British respondents were less likely to think their entire systems needed to be overhauled.

Canadians fought harder to save the Hockey Night in Canada theme song than they do to save their own lives. Lemmings.

Nothing changed. No one voted. $300M was spent.

Was it good for you?

I am a Canadian, a free Canadian, free to worship God in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledege to uphold for myself and for all mankind.

-Prime Minister John G. Diefenbaker, from the House of Commons, Debates (on the Canadian Bill of Rights), July 1, 1960.

Canadians have been too complacent with the powers of the government and its commissions. We have been all too willing to let bureaucrats decide who should be silence and who is allowed to speak.

There are too many Canadians who are not rich or famous and could never afford to defend themselves against tyranny.

Get out and vote today, and vote for freedom.

Canada has five weeks before they have to vote (again) in a federal election. Hoping to catch the wave of voter frenzy from South of the 49th, Stephen Harper requested the dissolution of Parliament this morning.

Canadians will go to the polls Tuesday, Oct. 14, the day after Thanksgiving, to vote for a new federal government.

I really wish I could care. The theme in America is “change” for this 2008 election, and it’s bound to be historic, no matter who wins. In Canada, the theme is “same again”. Once more, three (four, if you count Bloc Quebecois) boring middle aged white guys will square off over who can do the least amount of damage to Canada. And once more, the public will grumble, bitch and ultimately ignore. Voter turnout in Canada is notoriously low.

I worked the last election, where I was VP of my local riding association. Sounds thrilling, huh? You would be wrong if you thought so. Most of my time was spent arguing with a candidate I could barely bring myself to vote for. The rest of it was spent getting paper cuts. I was “lucky” enough to co-host a fundraising party at some rich dude’s house in honor of our candidate - the wife had me enter by the servant’s entrance.

I like what the Conservative Party has done so far. They made a bunch of promises during the last campaign, and they managed to deliver a whole lot of them. Pretty good for a minority government that has only been in power a little over two years. America could learn a lesson or two! But if Canada expects any of the election frenzy taking place in the US to have any impact on the voters of Canada, they are sadly mistaken. Canadians lost their ability to be excited about anything a long time ago.

All Canadian taxpayers are. Isn’t that wild? This year, Canada is funding a queer child porn, via my tax dollars and yours. Thanks to Blazing Cat Fur for bringing this little business venture to my attention.

At this year’s InsideOut, Toronto’s Gay & Lesbian film fest that took place in May, a movie called “Babysitting Andy” was screened.

What do you do if you’re nine and nobody will tell you what ’fellatio’ means? When Andy’s uncle and his boyfriend arrive to babysit, she corners them with a Supersoaker and they can do nothing but comply.

Well, I’m going to contact cybertips.ca and turn myself in. I urge all Canadians to do the same. Turn yourselves in and take your lumps as child pornographers.

As an aside, when Ezra prints cartoons of Mohammad, that’s a hate crime. But when the government funds child pornography, that’s “art“.

Syed Soharwardy apparently has had a change of heart. This is the Imam that first went to Calgary police when Ezra published the Mohammad Cartoons, then filed a human rights complaint against him. Suddenly he has decided that the commissions are too heavy handed. It took over 20 years of living in Canada and two years of harassing Ezra Levant for him to come to this conclusion. I smell taqiyya, but perhaps - just perhaps - he is sincere.

When I initiated my complaint against Mr. Levant, I saw human rights commissions as a non-violent means of resolving differences among Canadians.

I was not aware of the controversies between the commissions and Canada’s faith communities. I am thinking specifically of my friend Fred Henry, the Roman Catholic bishop of Calgary.

Upon learning about the difficulties he and other faith communities have encountered with the commissions, I withdrew my complaint against Mr. Levant.

One of the reasons I chose Canada as my adopted homeland is because of our country’s great respect for religious freedom.

In Canada, I am free to be good Canadian and a good Muslim. There is no contradiction between the two.

In listening to the experiences of Bishop Henry and Pastor Boissoin, I realized how precious religious freedom is to our country and how easily freedom is lost.

While these poor kids’ mother is hardly a brilliant parent, if, as Dawg conjectures, the rule is “teach hate, lose kids” then her capacity as a parent is not in issue one way or another. So on that basis the Khadr’s would have lost their kids the instant the authorities became aware of the jihadi views of the parents. I certainly hope Mohamed Elmasry doesn’t have kids because his political/religious views might count as hatred. Anti-Zionist? Lose your kids. Black mother in the Jane Finch corridor blaming whitey for black peoples’ problems - better watch her step. Catholics and fundamentalist who teach their children that abortion is murder and abortionists murderers…no kids for you! Environmentalists who tell their children that the people who run big corporations are killing the Earth and should go to jail…kidless.

But, and one cannot help but notice what this lame brained mum did, maybe we should set the standard higher. Perhaps the test should be that you have to actually do something like draw on your kids. (Frankly I’d start with the parents of the cringing little moppets who are stuck having their faces painted for National holidays.) For example telling your female children that they have to wear a head scarf (or a sack) or Uncle Ali will be over to behead them? Perhaps it would make sense for teachers, as soon as they see a little Muslim girl wearing the hajib to ask if Fatima really wants to wear it and to keep pushing until they are absolutely certain Fatima is not being coerced at home.

I can’t help but think there are far more dangerous parents in Canada who should never have been able to hang onto their children. But then again, that would be politically improper to say, wouldn’t it? Easier just to go after the crazy white bitch.

Who is Stephen Truscott? He is a Canadian man who spent more than a decade in prison for a murder he did not commit. He has been a convicted murderer since he was just 14 years old. And now, because he was wrongfully convicted, his payout will be $6.5 Million.

Who is Maher Arar? He is a Canadian citizen of Syrian descent. He still hold Syrian citizenship. He was suspected of terrorist involvement, extradited to the U.S., who in turn sent him back to Syria. He claims he was tortured there. His payout was $10 Million. There are still suspicions regarding his ties to terrorism.

Fair?

Quebec City is 400 years old today. I am a Montrealer - Quebec (the province) is my home. When I was living in Western Canada, I used to think to myself, “Wow, my city is older than your country!” Though Quebec (the city) is not my hometown, they are still my people. Happy birthday, Quebec!

Oh, and I voted “yes”. I had my reasons.

Reader Krista sends this, in honor of Canada Day yesterday.

I’d never seen that website before. A new one to add to my daily reads.

But you weren’t listening then.

Now it’s suddenly “news” that we have sleeper cells of Hezbollah in Canada that are waking up. Bravo. Where were you two years ago, when I was reminding Toronto police that Hezbollah is a recognized terror group in Canada, and that the men waving their flag should be taken in - at least for questioning? Those Toronto police said things like “We’re not wading into that mess…” Oh what manly men - how brave. Better that they let the cells continue to exist and finally come awake to wreak destruction on us. Pussies.

Intelligence officials tell ABC News the group has activated suspected “sleeper cells” in Canada and key operatives have been tracked moving outside the group’s Lebanon base to Canada, Europe and Africa.

Officials say Hezbollah is seeking revenge for the February assassination of Hezbollah’s military commander, Imad Mugniyah, killed by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria.

The group’s leaders blamed Israel, an allegation denied by Israeli officials.

There is no credible information on a specific target, according to the officials.

Suspected Hezbollah operatives have conducted recent surveillance on the Israeli embassy in Ottawa, Canada and on several synagogues in Toronto, according to the officials.

If anything at all should happen on Canadian soil, I will be sure to have those pictures linked above splattered on every billboard in every major city. I will make sure that every news station receives a copy of them. And I will scream “I told you so!” from the rooftops.

Shameful that this is the first most Canadians will have heard of this.

Hat tip Darcy