Mid-Week Post

On the near-cusp of the week's end...


It's all looking bad for Jian Ghomeshi:

A WINNIPEG man is the latest person to come forward saying he was a victim of a sexual attack by former CBC star Jian Ghomeshi.

I'm sure the "toxic" CBC will be all over that.

Oh boy:

The Toronto Star reports that Ghomeshi has retained Marie Henein, a name partner at Henein Hutchison LLP, who notably represented former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant when he was charged in the death of a bicycle courier in 2009. ...

In the Star story, reporter Sidney Cohen noted that Henein had discussed Ghomeshi as recently as last week, in a joke she shared with hundreds of lawyers and judges while acting as emcee at a gala dinner for the Criminal Lawyers Association.

“As criminal lawyers we represent people who have committed heinous acts. Acts of violence. Acts of depravity. Acts of cruelty. Or as Jian Ghomeshi likes to call it, foreplay,” Henein joked to the crowd of lawyers and judges.

Why is she joking? Does she want to lose this case?


So goes Ghomeshi, so goes... the Liberal party?

In a stunning development that has rocked Parliament Hill, Justin Trudeau turfed two of his own male MPs after two female NDP MPs accused them of what appears to be sexual harassment.

The pair of turfed Liberals -- Montreal MP Massimo Pacetti and Newfoundland and Labrador MP Scott Andrews -- deny the allegations, Trudeau told reporters said at a Parliament Hill press conference.

Nonetheless, Trudeau lowered the boom on his colleagues just days after he says he learned of the allegations.

"As a leader, I have a responsibility -- a duty -- to act and when I heard these serious allegations from other MPs, I realized that one of the things that we need to do [is] to encourage and protect people who come forward with allegations like this and that's why I acted," Trudeau said. "[I] must give the benefit of the doubt to those who come forward."

But Trudeau's speedy action appears to have caused more distress and anxiety for the complainants, QMI Agency has learned, because they were not told that Trudeau was going to publicly take the action he did on Wednesday.

Neither Trudeau nor any other Liberal or NDP MP, including NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair, would publicly confirm the identify, gender or even party affiliation of the complaining MPs.

Multiple sources, though, have confirmed the gender and party affiliation to QMI Agency but not their names.

Good:

If you have more than one wife you cannot immigrate to Canada, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said Wednesday.

His new bill, the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, bans people who practice polygamy from immigrating to Canada.

The bill also makes clear that forced marriages are also illegal in Canada.

Alexander says his bill makes clear to anyone wishing to enter the country — as well as those born in Canada — that forced marriages and polygamy are illegal in Canada and "won't be tolerated."

"We intend on sending a strong message to those in Canada and those who wish to come to Canada that we will not tolerate cultural traditions in Canada that deprive individuals of their human rights," Alexander said.

He said the goal of the bill is to "make sure that immigrant women and girls are protected and not subjected to isolation and violence once in Canada."

We're not bombing ISIS enough:

Coalition airstrikes in Iraq Sunday targeted heavy construction equipment that ISIS fighters had been using to try to divert the Euphrates River to flood nearby communities.

ISIS hoped to create floods and force coalition troops to use specific roads they had rigged with improvised explosive devices.

Canadian Forces arrived in Kuwait City to fight alongside their international allies in a coalition focused on airstrikes to "degrade" ISIS and its capabilities.

Roughly 600 Canadian troops are in theatre now and have participated in 27 sorties as of Tuesday, the defence department told reporters.

Lt.-Gen. Jonathan Vance of the Joint Operations Command described the terrorists' advance through Syria into Iraq using the Tigris and Euphrates rivers as their lines of communication.

"(ISIS's) intent to capture Baghdad continues," he said, adding suicide bombings and "asymmetrical" attacks should be expected along the two rivers.

Vance described some gains Iraqi armed forces and Kurdish fighters have made, including regaining two towns in Iraq previously taken over by ISIS.

"Joint action of the Iraqi security forces and the coalition have been very effective so far," he said.

The primary role for Canadian Forces is not to defeat ISIS, Vance said, but to "protect the vulnerable people and build up regional security."

(Sidebar: then this mission is for naught.)

Why ISIS must be completely vaporised from the planet's surface:

Children as young as 14 were forced to watch gruesome snuff videos of killings by Islamic State (Isis) fighters while being held captive by the terror group, according to a rights group. 

The Islamic fundamentalists played videos of beheadings and crucifixions to the children and also flogged them with cables in Syria.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) claimed the abuse happened to 153 boys who spent as long as six months in captivity.

Many of them were kidnapped by IS in Kobani after returning home from school exams in Aleppo in May.

During the lengthy ordeal, IS enforced strict Muslim practices by forcing the children to pray five times a day and listen to gruelling religious lectures – during which were played the snuff videos.

IS fanatics would beat any child who struggled with the stomach-churning material, claimed one young former prisoner.

"Those who didn't conform to the program were beaten," he told HRW. "They beat us with a green hose or a thick cable with wire running through it. They also beat the soles of our feet.

"They sometimes found excuses to beat us for no reason [...] They made us learn verses of the Koran and beat those who didn't manage to learn them."

In one shocking incident, a boy was strung up from the ceiling by his hands for calling out "oh mother." His muslim extremist captors told him he should call upon God, not his mother.

The ordeal only ended for the children when IS suddenly released them without reason or explanation. The terror group has been forced to retreat from Kobani by Kurdish forces, including some from Turkey.

 
Torture of children makes these b@$#@%ds happy.


Though the Republicans held both houses (making gains in the Senate), one gets the impression that disillusioned Americans held their noses and voted for anyone who isn't a Democrat. The landslide should have been total and it is hoped that the Democrats will take their anger out on Obama who deserves it more than anything.

As Republicans tend to work better with Canada than their president who clearly hates it, things might perk up here, too.

Related: like fun he will:

"As president, I have a unique responsibility to try and make this town work," Obama, a Democrat, said at a White House news conference. "So, to everyone who voted, I want you to know that I hear you."

Observe this delicious meltdown and have yourself a nice laugh.



And now, a snow monkey uses a swiped cell phone because snow monkey. Enjoy.