Wednesday, July 25, 2018

The Usual Suspects

The police released the age of Faisal Hussain before they released his name. This allowed for ample time to spin the perpetrator of the ugly turkey shoot along the Danforth (and not the last - let one be candid) from an unknown culprit to a weak figure of pity.


To wit:

The quiet sibling from a family often visited by tragedy. A shy young man with few close friends. A mass shooter who does not appear to have been on the radar of either federal national security agencies or provincial law enforcement.

Faisal Hussain, the 29-year-old gunman in Sunday’s fatal rampage on the Danforth, had a complicated past replete with family misfortune — including his older brother’s drug overdose, which put him in a vegetative state — and mental health challenges including psychosis, his family said. 

Yes, about all of that ...


Hussain was known to the authorities and had been watched since 2010:

The 29-year-old man who gunned down 15 people on the Danforth Sunday night had previously been investigated by Toronto police under the Mental Health Act, CP24 has learned.

**

The man behind a deadly shooting spree in the heart of Toronto's Greektown came from a supportive family beleaguered with troubles and showed no outward signs of the mental illness believed to have plagued him for years, neighbours said Tuesday.

**

Sources say police in Toronto and CSIS officials in Ottawa, as well as the RCMP, are looking into his past, which sources say include his residence in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Hussain apparently had been spoken to by authorities about his online activities. Sources say Toronto Police, the OPP and the RCMP have all had an interest in the now-deceased shooter.

What law enforcement is saying is that the attack was planned, and Hussain was “well known to Toronto Police” for investigations into past crimesinvolving weapons and violence.

**

"At this stage, based on the state of the investigation, which is led by the Toronto police service, there is no connection between that individual and national security," Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale said.

But a law enforcement source told CBS News that Faisal Hussain visited Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) websites and may have expressed support for the terrorist group. They were looking into whether Hussain may have lived at one time in Afghanistan and possibly Pakistan, the source said.


So, how is it that an allegedly mentally ill man who expressed support for one of the many Islamist terrorist groups in operation today and was known to authorities was not only able to calmly shoot mostly women in a country where openly carrying weapons is virtually illegal but to be covered and then excused?


A co-ordinated effort on the part of the authorities, the popular press and a gullible public would complete the ring of this ghastly circus.


Faisal Hussain was not named initially by the police, who knew about him, or the press, particularly in Canada. A professional activist quickly delivered a prepared statement excusing Hussain of his actions:

The man who has presented himself as the point of contact for the family of Faisal Hussain is a professional activist who has reportedly committed himself to “framing a new narrative of Muslims in Canada” and creating a “national political movement.”

Shortly after the Ontario Special Investigations Unit revealed the identity of the Danforth shooter as 29-year-old Faisal Hussain, a news release was sent out to select media attributed to the “Hussain Family”.

The polished statement began with the family’s “deepest condolences to the families who are now suffering on account of our son’s horrific actions.” It then went on to explain that “our son had severe mental health challenges, struggling with psychosis and depression his entire life.”

It was provided by Mohammed Hashim, a full-time organizer for the Toronto & York Region Labour Council. Social media accounts belonging to Hashim show him heavily involved in supporting NDP candidates both federally and provincially in Ontario. He’s also described as a driving force behind the National Council of Canadian Muslims.

“His groundbreaking political advocacy, public relations and media work has been widely credited by insiders as framing a new narrative for Muslims in Canada,” says a bio of Hashim connected to an appearance he made at CanRoots 2016, a left-wing activist conference.

The bio continues: “His workshop ‘Progressive organizing in the Muslim communities’ will demonstrate how the GTA Muslim community mobilized in the previous federal election, and laid the groundwork to start building a national political movement.”
That's quite some instant political fire power from a poor, beleaguered family.


The second act comes in the form of more gun control in a city where gangs have operated with illegal guns for years.

An unarmed citizenry is no match for gangs or even Islamist shooters but why let facts get in the way?:

There is a talking point in heavy use by the Trudeau government, police forces and gun control activists. It claims that 50% of guns used in crime in Canada are stolen from law abiding Canadian gun owners.

This false factoid has shown up in media reports for quite some time now and showed  up again this week in the wake of the Danforth shooting.

Toronto Mayor John Tory even made the claim in an op-ed for the Toronto Sun back in March.
What is the source of this fact that gets repeated over and over again?

Dennis Young, the veteran researcher and former Parliament Hill staffer says there is no source, well other than a highly taken out of context footnote from an RCMP document dating back to 2016.


The final act is the city itself. Emotionally retarded responses of teddy bears, candles and defiant yet grammatically incorrect scribbles on walls do not prevent future occurrences of tragedy. Hussain would not have fired at people had he known that someone would have shot back in defense or that well-crafted pleas of mental illness would have been disbelieved or that scrutiny of Islam or allegiance to Islamist groups (irrelevant given that "inspiration" to the cause is sufficient enough to carry out centuries'-old mandates) would have been steady and furious and inescapable. He may have made no effort at all or would have been stopped before he could hurt more people.


So there are the usual suspects working in concert to create another blood-soaked tragedy. Until people are tired of lies, deliberate inaction or aversion to sensible indignation, this will be the new normal.

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