Boris Nemtsov, a
Russian opposition politician and former deputy prime minister who was
an outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin, was shot dead meters
from the Kremlin in central Moscow late on Friday.
Nemtsov, 55, was shot four times in the back, the Interior Ministry
said. A police spokeswoman on the scene said he had been walking on a
bridge over the Moskva River with a Ukrainian woman.
Putin condemned the killing and
took the investigation under presidential command, saying it could have
been a contract killing and a "provocation" on the eve of a big
opposition protest that Nemtsov had been due to lead in Moscow on
Sunday.
Young women who
become radicalized and make the trip to ISIS-controlled lands are
motivated by the same reasons as male recruits, including a sense of
adventure and a desire to right perceived wrongs in the Muslim world,
according to experts.
When they arrive they are usually quickly married to a fighter with
the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and begin a strictly controlled
domestic life of child-rearing, cooking and cleaning.
Much of this indoctrination takes places through social media,
including on Twitter, as the teenagers speak with female recruiters who
have already made the journey and offer advice on what to bring and who
to contact once they arrive in a neighbouring country like Turkey.
"It offers them a sense of adventure, which is not only the voyage —
which is an allure itself — but also these romantic notions that upon
arrival you will be paired," says Erin Saltman, who leads the women and
extremism program at the International Strategic Dialogue in London.
Six young Quebecers left Canada in
January to join militants in Syria, including at least two women. Three
British teen girls flew to Turkey last week in an apparent bid to join
ISIS.
A prominent
Bangladeshi-American blogger known for speaking out against religious
extremism was hacked to death as he walked through Bangladesh's capital
with his wife, police said Friday.
The attack Thursday night on
Avijit Roy, a Bangladesh-born U.S. citizen, occurred on a crowded
sidewalk as he and his wife, Rafida Ahmed, were returning from a book
fair at Dhaka University.
Ahmed, who is also a blogger, was seriously
injured. It was the latest in a series of attacks on secular writers in
Bangladesh in recent years.
A previously unknown militant group,
Ansar Bangla 7, claimed responsibility for the attack, Assistant Police
Commissioner S.M. Shibly Noman told the Prothom Alo newspaper.
Roy "was the target because of his crime against Islam," the group said on Twitter.
The masked "Jihadi John" killer
who fronted Islamic State beheading videos has been identified as
Mohammed Emwazi, a British computer programming graduate from a
well-to-do London family who was known to the security services.
The black-clad militant brandishing a knife and
speaking with an English accent was shown in videos released by Islamic
State (IS) apparently decapitating hostages including Americans, Britons
and Syrians.
The 26-year-old militant used the videos to threaten
the West, admonish its Arab allies and taunt President Barack Obama and
British Prime Minister David Cameron before petrified hostages cowering
in orange jump suits.
Emwazi's name was first disclosed by the Washington
Post, citing unidentified former associates. Two U.S. government sources
who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed to Reuters that
investigators believed Jihadi John was Emwazi.
Dressed entirely in
black, a balaclava covering all but his eyes and the bridge of his nose
and a holster under his left arm, Jihadi John became a menacing symbol
of Islamic State brutality and one of the world's most wanted men.
Despite all the protestations that this silver-spoon baby was "extremely gentle", I don't think anyone with an intact neuron could ever believe that someone who hacks off heads or smashes centuries of culture and history is a nice guy.
A former patient of a disgraced eastern Ontario gynecologist is suing him for $1 million over an alleged botched abortion.
Tania Brown of Carleton Place, Ont., has filed a statement of claim
in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in nearby Perth. She alleges
Dr. Michel Prevost committed "gross negligence and medical malpractice"
with respect to her failed abortion.
Brown claims on Oct. 4, 2011 she visited Prevost in Almonte, Ont., about 50 kilometres west of Ottawa, to undergo an abortion.
The statement of claim says Prevost aimed to complete a "chemical
abortion" where he administers a combination of methotrexate and
misoprostol to terminate the pregnancy. It alleges the doctor injected
incorrect doses that led to a failed abortion.
Brown told CBC News she only
realized the abortion failed four months later, and later carried the
baby to term. She gave birth to a five-pound boy with fetal
abnormalities, including a smaller brain and a hole in his heart, she
added.
I do hope the child sues the mother, as well. She not only let some quack poison her son but she left him hanging on without seeking treatment for him for four months!
Washington State's
Fish and Wildlife Department is warning people along the coast that a
great white shark is swimming in its waters after a dead half eaten seal
was found on the beach.
A harbour seal that washed up on the beach in the tourist town of
Ocean Shores this week had been partially devoured by the predator,
providing evidence of the rare shark which is not often seen in this
area.
Christopher Lowe, a professor of marine biology at the California
State University Long Beach and the director of the school's Shark Lab,
says sightings of great white sharks north of California are unusual,
but not unheard of.
"White sharks, compared to other species of sharks, can actually go
into colder water," said Lowe. "They can keep their bodies warmer than
the water."
Lowe says great white sightings may become more common off the coast
of B.C. because of warmer ocean temperatures allowing them to move
further north.
He says more sightings could come as a result of decades of
legislation and environmental management that are enabling the whole
food chain to flourish.
"It's good sign to see big predators," said Lowe. "It means your ecosystem is coming back."
In Hollywood zombie films, the plucky survivors usually fight back
against the zombies - but that is a terrible idea, Cornell University
scientists tell us.
The team modelled how a ‘real’ zombie outbreak would pan out, using statistical modelling as if it were an actual epidemic.
The best way to survive is simply to run for the hills.
Specifically,
you want to be as far from human beings as possible - so a mountainous
region, where you’re unlikely to run into either infected humans or
zombies, is best.
Defying the Republican-run Congress, President Barack Obama rejected a
bill Tuesday to approve construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline,
wielding his veto power for only the third time in his presidency.
One thing he wants failed; the other he wants to succeed:
Islamic State militants have abducted as many as 90 Assyrian
Christians, including women and children, after overrunning several
small villages in northeast Syria, an activist group and relatives said
Tuesday.
Around dawn Monday, the extremist fighters swept through the Assyrian
villages nestled along the banks of the Khabur River near the town of
Tal Tamr in Hassakeh province.
When Progressive Conservative
MPP Rick Nicholls shouted in the legislature that it’s “not a bad idea”
to stop teaching evolution in schools, he wasn’t kidding.
The
off-the-cuff remark during a heated debate over the new sex education
curriculum landed Nicholls (Chatham-Kent-Essex) in hot water with
Conservative colleagues and left him ridiculed by others.
“It
obviously didn’t help our position,” said Interim Conservative Leader
Jim Wilson, who has frequently blamed his party for poor decisions that
led to four successive election defeats by the scandal-plagued Liberals.
But Nicholls stood by his line when asked about it Wednesday.
“For myself, I don’t believe in evolution,” Nicholls told reporters.
The controversial quip
came after Education Minister Liz Sandals — reacting to criticisms
Tuesday from Conservative MPP Monte McNaughton about modernizing sex ed —
scolded that a Tory government “could opt out of teaching about
evolution, too.”
That’s when Nicholls retorted “that’s not a bad idea” as catcalls died down.
“She was very flippant in her response to my colleague and I gave a flippant response back to her,” he explained.
Ontario Tory leadership candidate Monte McNaughton is defending himself
from allegations he was being homophobic when asserting it was the role
of parents and not that of the premier -- "especially Kathleen Wynne" --
to decide what children are taught about sex in school.
Wynne, the province's first openly gay premier, demanded McNaughton explain why she was unqualified.
"What is it that especially disqualifies me for the job that I'm doing?
Is it that I'm a woman? Is it that I'm a mother? Is it that I have a
master's of education? Is it that I was a school council chair? Is it
that I was the minister of education? What is it exactly that the member
opposite thinks disqualifies me from doing the job?" Wynne said
Tuesday.
Education Minister Liz Sandals later insisted McNaughton made comments that were homophobic.
"That's ridiculous," McNaughton said. "For any premier, for any fellow
legislator to accuse another legislator of that is an absolute
disgrace."
By saying "especially Kathleen Wynne," McNaughton said he meant a
premier who is embroiled in scandal and one who failed to consult widely
with parents on the new sex-ed curriculum -- as promised.
On Tuesday the national media published the photograph from Gula’s
computerised national identity card (CNIC), a vital document that she
should not have been able to acquire as a foreign national. That
one of the most famous of the nearly 3 million Afghan refugees living
in Pakistan should have been able to get the card underlined for many
the corruption that riddles much of government.
Afghans can
only buy property, open a bank account and be confident they will be
able to remain indefinitely in a country that wants rid of its refugee
population by having a CNIC, usually acquired with fake documents and
bribes. Faik Ali Chachar, a spokesman for the national
database and registration authority (NADRA), said Gula’s card had been
detected and blocked in August and that four officials had been
suspended for their suspected involvement.
He said the agency has so far found more than 22,000 cards illegally held by Afghans. ... Millions of Afghans have returned to their homeland since the
international community uprooted the Taliban regime in 2001, but more
than 2.5 million are thought to remain – the second largest refugee
population in the world.
They have long been unpopular, with many Pakistanis blaming them for crime and terrorism.
“We
need them to leave Pakistan because we are badly suffering,” said
Hamid-ul-Haq, an MP who represents Peshawar, the north-western city
where many Afghans are settled. “All our streets, mosques, schools are
overloaded because of them. It is time for them to leave Pakistan
honourably.
There have been several half-hearted attempts to force more of them to quit the country, including a threat to cancel their refugee status, but official deadlines have repeatedly been ignored or allowed to slip.
Action
against Afghan refugees has intensified following last December’s
attack by the Pakistani Taliban on the army public school in Peshawar,
in which more than 130 schoolboys were killed.
Why is it Mrs. Gula's fault that the corrupt Pakistani government which gave her the card in the first place now wants her out? Coming from a country where its own citizens and Taliban murder people for the fun of it, it's quite a stretch of the imagination to think that Afghans alone are the source of tumult.
Mohan Bhagwat, head of the Hindu nationalist RSS organization, said
on Monday that Mother Teresa’s prime motive in serving the poor was
converting them to Christianity.
Speaking at a function for an NGO in the village of Bharatpur,
Bhagwat said, ”It’s good to work for a cause with selfless intentions.
But Mother Teresa’s work had ulterior motive, which was to convert the
person who was being served to Christianity.” He added, “In the name of
service, religious conversions were made. This was followed by other
institutes, too.”
Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic sister, was the founder of
the Missionaries of Charity, a religious and charitable organization
that provides home, food, medical and hospice care for the poorest of
the poor in India and 132 other countries around the world.
At the same event, former director general of Border Security Force Prakash Singh also complained about Mother Teresa.
“There are many other organizations that have done far more good work
than her. But Christians, with the help of media were able to publicize
their work,” said Singh.
And
the kings of the earth, and the princes, and tribunes, and the rich,
and the strong, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in
the dens and in the rocks of mountains ..."
The al-Qaeda-linked
group al-Shabaab appears to call on followers to attack shopping malls
in the United States, U.K., France, and Canada and has released a video
naming West Edmonton Mall as a possible target.
Most of the recording posted to YouTube on Saturday glorifies the
attack by the Somalia-based group on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi,
Kenya, where gunmen killed about 60 people in September 2013.
Close to the end of the nearly 77-minute video, a masked man with an
English accent calls on "Muslim brothers to target the disbelievers
wherever they are" and lists a number of shopping centres that could be
attacked in the West.
"If just a handful of mujahedeen fighters could bring Kenya to a
complete standstill for nearly a week, then imagine what a dedicated
mujahedeen in the West could do to the American or Jewish-owned shopping
centres across the world," the man says.
"What if such an attack was to occur in the Mall of America in
Minnesota, or the West Edmonton Mall in Canada, or in London's Oxford
Street, or any of the hundred or so Jewish-owned Westfield shopping
centres dotted right across the western world?" he continues.
Both West Edmonton Mall and the Mall of America are owned by Canada's Ghermezian family, who are of Iranian-Jewish origins.
The CBC thought it best to blur out this man's eyes. (photo credit here)
If ISIS did this, there would be slightly more bloodshed:
Saudi Arabia's
morality police detained a group of young men for dancing at a birthday
party and referred them to prosecutors, according to a state-linked
media report.
The news website Ayn al-Youm reported Saturday that the Commission
for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice raided a private
property in the city of Buraydah, arresting the men inside for "loud
music and inappropriate dancing."
Buraydah is the provincial capital of Saudi Arabia's Qassim province,
which is home to some of the kingdom's most conservative clerics, who
practice a strict interpretation of Islam known as Wahhabism.
An unnamed official told the website that when members of the
morality police raided the private property, they found the young men in
"a comprising situation in their dance and shameful movements." The
official said there was also a cake and candles to celebrate one of the
men's birthdays.
No details were released about how many men were arrested or their
ages. The official did, however, say that the young men's hairstyles and
dress were not traditional, and urged parents to monitor this kind of
behaviour "because it can lead to immorality and even homosexuality."
A hashtag on Twitter quickly went viral about the arrest, with many
Saudis ridiculing the raid and pointing out that the men were not caught
drinking alcohol or partying with women — both crimes in Saudi Arabia.
Others shared photos of Saudi
royals performing a traditional men's sword dance, though supporters of
the raid claim that form of dance is socially acceptable and
"masculine."
At this point, there should be gender-wags all over this.
A bomb has killed at least two people, including a police
officer, and injured at least 10 more people at a rally in Ukraine's second
city Kharkiv. ...
The explosion in Kharkiv happened at 13:20 (11:20 GMT) as people
gathered near the city's Palace of Sport for a march in support of
national unity, Ukrainian media say.
Officials initially said an explosive device had been thrown from a car but later said it had been buried in the snow. ... "Security service detained persons who may have been involved in the
preparation and carrying out of crimes of a terrorist nature in Kharkiv,
including the explosion," security spokesman Markian Lubkivskyi wrote
on his Facebook page.
He later said the four suspects were Ukrainian citizens who
had received instruction and weapons in the Russian city of Belgorod,
just across the border. ... That attack was blamed on a pro-Russian group calling itself the Kharkiv Partisans.
I'm sure the Ukrainians will deal with these pro-Russian partisans accordingly.
The UN FAO estimates that this year’s deficit will be
407,000 tons. That’s still low by historical North Korean standards, but hardly
a sign that happy days are here again. The FAO also tells us that the
impoverished government of North Korea only intends to import 300,000 tons,
leaving an “uncovered deficit” of 107,000 tons. …
Snyder is honest enough to admit some weaknesses in
his conclusion. For one, the UN FAO estimate he cites relies on
Pyongyang’s own food production statistics, because this year (glasnost
alert!), Pyongyang wouldn’t let the FAO do an on-the-ground food
security assessment. But that’s no cause for alarm; after all, North Korea
wouldn’t try to falsify
information about its food supply or manipulate
aid agencies, would it?
Snyder also admits that North Korea’s winter crops are
falling well short of forecasts, a point that caused aid groups to warn of
another food crisis recently …
This bring us to another problem. Even
if North Korea is growing more food, that doesn’t mean the people
are eating more of it. It’s no good to produce more food if regime
officials simply seize what
they consider to be “surplus” crops for
export. And as Snyder concedes, “growing income inequality in North Korea has resulted in
continuing malnutrition among some sectors of the population, especially in
rural areas.” …
My main issue with Snyder’s post, however, is his
conclusion … First, here again is the urban legend that our sanctions against
North Korea have been strong, and thus properly tested as a tool of policy.
For
those who haven’t yet read it, I’ve refuted that
argument here. It’s certainly true that sanctions have been enforced
poorly by just about everyone — from the Chinese, to the South Koreans, to the
Obama Administration, and most recently, the Russians. Private jets don’t
import themselves, after all.
My real problem with Snyder’s argument, however, is its
implication that sanctions would target North Korea’s food supply. I don’t
know a single sanctions proponent who wants to target North Korea’s food
supply or starve innocent people.
Why, exactly, are we aiding a Stalinist state this way. If you want to help North Koreans, send them DVDs, flash drives and breakfast bars and let Japan and South Korea arm themselves with the big guns.
The bigger scandal is that people will vote for Wynne and the Liberal party again and again:
There was a moment in her news conference Friday when embattled Premier Kathleen Wynne sounded like a big, bad bully.
Just when you thought she’d be contrite and understand she’s in an
ugly little corner, she came out punching, saying MPPs from other
parties had come to her and the Liberals seeking appointments in return
for giving up their seats.
That’s a pretty stunning allegation for someone who has two party
members — one a senior member of her own staff — under investigation by
both the OPP and Elections Ontario for what Elections Ontario CEO Greg
Essensa calls, “apparent contraventions of Subsection 96.1(E) of the
Election Act.”
This on top of an OPP investigation into allegations during the
recent Sudbury byelection by former Liberal candidate Andrew Olivier
that he was offered a job or an appointment to step aside to make way
for the star candidate freshly poached from the federal NDP, Glenn
Thibeault.
Wynne’s stunning allegations appeared to be a challenge to the other two parties: Shut up or we’ll name you.
Stop making a noise about these nasty little allegations or we’ll shame you.
I’m not an expert in criminal law, so if there’s a lawyer out there or a cop who can help, can you clarify?
Is that blackmail?
Look, when you’re in a hole – stop digging.
And the Liberals are in a very deep hole right now.
Why 2/22? It's a word play, because in Japanese the number two is "ni."
You know, kind of like the "ni" in "ninja" (忍者), but with "nin" or 忍
referring to endurance, patience or restraint. ...
The cities of Iga and Koka have been spearheading the holiday—and for good reason. Iga in Mie Prefecture is historically a ninja stronghold as is
Koka in Shiga Prefecture. Obviously, this is a push to promote the
region, and Japan has lots of these kind of days. This one, however, is
the best.
But the real question is why did an election proceed under such shady circumstances:
Two Liberal operatives,
including one of Premier Kathleen Wynne’s top advisers, “appear” to have
broken provincial bribery laws by offering a former candidate a
government job in exchange for dropping out of the Sudbury by-election.
The explosive finding in a report by Elections Ontario is the first time the agency has ever found anyone to have violated bribery rules.
“Having
reviewed the evidence and findings from this regulatory investigation,
it is my opinion that the actions of Gerry Lougheed Jr. and Patricia
Sorbara constitute an “apparent contravention” of subsection 96.1(e) of
the Election Act,” Elections Ontario CEO Greg Essensa said in a
statement Thursday, calling the case “unprecedented.”
Ms.
Sorbara is Ms. Wynne’s deputy chief of staff; Mr. Lougheed is a Liberal
fundraiser and chair of the Sudbury Police Services Board.
Mr.
Essensa said he has referred the matter to the Attorney-General and
police, who will decide whether to lay charges. Ms. Sorbara and Mr.
Lougheed are facing a separate criminal investigation by the Ontario
Provincial Police, who believe they broke anti-corruption provisions in
the Criminal Code.
No charges
have been laid and the accusations have not been tested in court. While
the sort of patronage dealings at the centre of the scandal are widely
accepted by many politicians, it is rare for them to lead to police
investigations or allegations of bribery.
A Saskatchewan reserve where two children were killed in a blaze that
didn't get a response from firefighters has a working fire truck but no
proper equipment or a crew trained to use it. While the house burned early Tuesday, the truck sat in the snow outside
the home of the band's mechanic. The volunteer fire department in nearby
Loon Lake didn't respond, because service to the reserve was cut weeks
earlier over unpaid bills.
So, what would be a worthwhile expenditure on a reserve? Not a functioning fire department, one can be sure.
Twitter, the social media
giant, is facing mounting questions from members of Congress and outside
groups over the abuse of its network by Islamic State terrorists to
spread propaganda and recruit foreign fighters.
This isn't expressing an opinion about Oscar picks; these guys are recruiting.
One can be confident that only Israel will take this seriously:
U.S. national security adviser Susan Rice met with her Israeli
counterpart, Yossi Cohen, at the White House on Thursday for a
discussion on Iran's nuclear program, among other issues, the White
House said.
Niagara Falls has frozen over as arctic temperatures have taken hold
across the Great Lakes, creating an amazing sight that’s generating some
viral photos and drawing tourists from around the world.
With temperatures dipping to 13 degrees below zero in the region, the
famous waterfall has turned into a giant cascade of icy sheets.
Pictures of the frozen Niagara Falls have circulated around the internet, showing just how massive the ice is around the waterfall.
The most widely used metric of
global warming—global surface temperatures—indicates that the rate of
global warming has slowed drastically and that the duration of the
slowdown in global warming is unusual during a period when global
surface temperatures are allegedly being warmed from the hypothetical
impacts of manmade greenhouse gases.
That's right. Obama spokeswoman Marie Harf actually said this:
On Monday, Harf was the subject of criticism after she claimed that the
only real way to neutralize the danger posed by a messianic death cult
that threatens to erode the foundations of Westphalian sovereignty is to
provide them all with good paying jobs. ... When Wolf Blitzer observed that the poverty-breeds-terrorism theory
is hopelessly flawed and that high-profile attackers like Osama bin
Laden and Mohamed Atta were relatively comfortable and privileged, Harf
declined to acknowledge his point. Though she issued an emphatic
“absolutely” so as to convey that she was, in fact, listening to Blitzer
and understood the words that were coming out of his mouth, she instead
plunged into a pre-canned attempt at damage control as her response:
“If we looked around the world and say long-term we cannot kill every
terrorist around the world nor should we try, how do you get at the
root causes of this?” she asked. “Look, it might be too nuanced of an
argument for some like I’ve seen over the past 24 hours some of the
commentary out but it’s really the smart way for Democrats, for
Republicans, military commanders, our partners in the Arab world think
we need to combat it.”
There is nothing nuanced about this. Only a leftist moron would ever think that joblessness would drive someone to rape children and throw homosexuals off of roofs.
What jobs could such people staff, Miss Harf?
Hopefully this pervert (friend of Premier Kathleen Wynne) will never staff a job again:
For the first time since he was arrested in July 2013, former deputy
education minister and well-known professor Benjamin Levin has broken
the silence about his child pornography charges.
Saying he's "deeply ashamed," Levin, who was deputy minister of
education and a member of Premier Kathleen Wynne's transition team, has
reached out to "friends and colleagues" to write letters of support as
he prepares to plead guilty to child porn charges and faces a sentencing
hearing, the Toronto Sun has learned.
Levin was charged with seven child-porn related offences under the Criminal Code.
It has been reported that he has made a plea arrangement with the
Crown attorney and will attend court next week to formally acknowledge
his guilt.
Levin confirms this in a letter sent out on his behalf.
"Dear colleagues, as you probably know, I am currently facing a
number of criminal charges laid in July 2013," he wrote in a letter one
person received Saturday. "After a great deal of thought and discussion
with my family, I will be pleading guilty on March 3 to three of the
seven charges, namely one count of possession of child pornography, one
count of making written child pornography, and one count of counselling a
sexual assault."
Levin then explains: "Reference letters from friends and colleagues
can be an important part of the sentencing process following a guilty
plea. In such a case, the court benefits from having as full a picture
as possible of the offender. You are someone who knows me and my work
and may be willing to contribute such a letter. Of course, we recognize
and understand that for various reasons some people will not feel able
to provide a letter."
For those that do feel comfortable, he suggests they send their letter to his lawyer, Gerald Chan, of Ruby Shiller Chan Hasan.
A female police officer involved in a violent confrontation with two
teenaged girls outside a Toronto-area school "did what she had to do" to
deal with the threat, the police union said Wednesday as video of the
incident went viral. ...
Peel police Const. Fiona
Thivierge confirmed the video, saying the incident happened around 12:30
p.m. Tuesday following a report that two female suspects were allegedly
trespassing at a Brampton, Ont., high school.
When they refused
to leave, they were placed under arrest, "at which time they engaged
(the officer) in a physical confrontation that resulted in her using her
pepper spray in an attempt to get control of the situation," Thivierge
said.
The girls were able to escape the officer and were subsequently arrested by another officer who had come on the scene.
The officer "showed amazing restraint under the circumstances," Thivierge said.
"She
was able to get on her radio and call for backup. So other officers
were there and she was able to stand back and just let them take over so
she could catch her breath."
Thivierge said it was "quite shocking" to see her colleague being assaulted and to hear the person shooting the video laughing.
Closer to home, less dramatic but as yet unresolved, is the case of popular conservative radio host Andrew Lawton of London, Ontario’s AM980 (who has very competently interviewed me a number of times). On Feb. 2 Andrew remarked on Facebook
that a “push poll” was trying to paint Londoners as homophobic. He
then posted the annual number of sexual-orientation crimes in Canada:
185, followed by the catalytic remark: “Number of HIV/AIDS infections
from men having sex with men in Canada per year: 1450 – Who is the real
enemy?” The question was interpreted as homophobic — it was at the least
ill-considered — and even though Andrew published a clarifying statement of regret on Feb. 3, a Twitter campaign sprang into action, hashtagged #fireandrewlawton.
On Feb. 4 Andrew was suspended “for at least the rest of [the] week.”
Not good enough! Mobbers descended on a show sponsor, which refused the
bait (to their credit). Pressure continued. It was announced that
Andrew was now suspended until Feb. 23. A Facebook counter-campaign by
Andrew’s supporters was launched: “Bring back Andrew Lawton,” followed by a counter-counter Facebook page, “Keep Lawton off the air.”
Petitions on both sides were mounted. One supporter sent repeated
emails to station manager, Nathan Smith, asking for a link to the
“social media policies” and “broadcast standards” that Smith had
mentioned in his statement of suspension. He had no response. I asked
Mr. Smith for an interview. No response.
THIS JUST IN: In response to my media query yesterday, Corus has
informed me that Andrew will be back on the air Feb. 23. A bittersweet
victory for those who felt no suspension was necessary – but we’ll take
it.
Canada's military
mission in Iraq has so far cost $122 million, according to estimates
Defence Minister Jason Kenney says he will table in Parliament this
week.
The incremental costs are "entirely reasonable" for a mission that's
"having a meaningful impact against this genocidal terrorist
organization, the so-called 'Islamic State,'" Kenney said in a statement
Monday.
"We just saw this savage
organization behead 21 people for the crime of being Christian in Libya
this week, [and] burn a Jordanian air force pilot alive last week," he
said.
Earlier this month, a Federal Court judge
ruled that a portion of the law requiring would-be citizens to remove
their face coverings while taking the oath of citizenship was unlawful.
Asked
about the ruling last week, the prime minister denounced the court
decision, saying most Canadians consider it offensive for someone to
conceal their identity at the moment they are becoming a citizen.
A thumb in the eye of the popular culture, an encouragement of misogyny and concealing one's identity (in a non-Batman context) are not values that belong in Canada and if Justin Trudeau or his family could stop kissing communist @$$ for five seconds and see that, he might just appeal to the average Canadian who is losing patience with political multiculturalism.
The City of
Richmond said it's trying to facilitate community harmony over a debate
that's raged on for years — the uproar over signs some residents say use
too little English.
"We've got an ongoing education
program specifically reaching out to businesses to let them know the
city's preference which is that signs should be at least 50 per cent in
English," said spokesperson Ted Townsend.
In her first day
back at Queen's Park, Premier Kathleen Wynne was met with a hostile
Opposition in the Legislature and an equally hostile demonstration
outside it.
The Legislature resumed after the Liberals won a controversial
byelection in Sudbury earlier this month. The party swapped its previous
Liberal candidate to former federal NDP MP Glenn Thibeault before the
election.
The opposition Progressive Conservatives welcomed the new MPP in
question period, but then followed that with accusations of foul play —
saying Wynne's deputy chief of staff "bribed" the former Liberal
candidate. The comment was formally withdrawn.
The Ontario NDP did not even welcome the new MPP from Sudbury.
Defectors face a harsh reality. They are often paid lower wages than
South Koreans in the same jobs and in many cases not on time. In the
latest survey, 25 percent of defectors said they were discriminated
against.
Unemployment among North Koreans here stands at 6.2
percent, almost double the overall rate of 3.2 percent. And 32 percent
of North Korean defectors rely on government support to make ends meet.
The time has come for South Korean society to throw away its
bias against defectors and come up with genuine opportunities for them.
The government must bolster actions to help defectors learn new skills,
offer them a wider range of work training programs and put a system in
place to help them find a stable job.
A merry Seolnal to all y'all. Too bad it falls on Ash Wednesday this year.
Though Saint Valentine's Day is over (it comes but once a year), these animals with hearts on them will guide us to love soft, furry creatures as we ought.
