I Smell An Election Coming

Tory government to table Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act

"Canada will ban people who participate in "barbaric cultural practices" from immigrating to Canada, Immigration Minister Chris Alexander said Wednesday.

He said the Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act, which will be tabled Wednesday, focuses on polygamy and forced marriages.

He said the bill will make it clear to anyone wishing to enter the country — as well as those born in Canada — that domestic violence, genital mutilation, forced marriages, and polygamy are illegal in Canada and "won't be tolerated.""

That howling you hear is Liberals with their knickers in a knot.

The Origins Of Multiculturism

Did you know that in the early 1960s a Royal Commission was established under the government of Lester Pearson to examine the issue of Bi-culturalism and Bi-lingualism. Yup. It was Pearson, not Trudeau, who was responsible for the French on the Cornflakes boxes. Trudeau merely implemented the recommendations outlined in the Commission's report.  And the PCs and Dippers also supported his endorsement of those recommendations.

The Commission also sowed the seeds of Multiculturalism in its fourth report.

Trudeau gets blamed for all of this, but it actually predates his election as Prime Minister. True, he did implement the recommendations, so he does share part of the blame.

With respect to multicultualism, these are his words:

"It was the view of the royal commission, shared by the government and, I am sure, by all Canadians, that there cannot be one cultural policy for Canadians of British and French origin, another for the original peoples and yet a third for all others. For although there are two official languages, there is no official culture, nor does any ethnic group take precedence over any other. No citizen or group of citizens is other than Canadian, and all should be treated fairly."

(Emphasis mine)

The commission's recommendations also laid the foundation for the creation and fostering of ethnic enclaves:

"The royal commission was guided by the belief that adherence to one's ethnic group is influenced not so much by one's origin or mother tongue as by one's sense of belonging to the group, and by what the commission calls the group's "collective will to exist." The government shares this belief."

Of course, ethnic enclaves had existed beforehand, too. Nearly every city of some size had and still has a "China-Town". And the prairies are dotted with little towns and villages that began as centres of commercial activity serving the multitude of ethnic "block settlements" created by Sir Wilfred Laurier's push to put peasant farmers on the fertile grain growing regions of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta - people of Ukrainian, Hungarian, Polish, and so on, origins.

The multicultural policy began as an attempt to reduce racial discrimination:

"A policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework commends itself to the government as the most suitable means of assuring the cultural freedom of Canadians. Such a policy should help break down discriminatory attitudes and cultural jealousies. National unity if it is to mean anything in the deeply personal sense, must be founded on confidence in one's own individual identity; out of this can grow respect for that of others and a willingness to share ideas, attitudes and assumptions. A vigorous policy of multiculturalism will help create this initial confidence. It can form the base of a society which is based on fair play for all.

The government will support and encourage the various cultures and ethnic groups that give structure and vitality to our society. They will be encouraged to share their cultural expression and values with other Canadians and so contribute to a richer life for us all."

[---]

"In implementing a policy of multiculturalism within a bilingual framework, the government will provide support in four ways.

First, resources permitting, the government will seek to assist all Canadian cultural groups that have demonstrated a desire and effort to continue to develop a capacity to grow and contribute to Canada, and a clear need for assistance, the small and weak groups no less than the strong and highly organized.

Second, the government will assist members of all cultural groups to overcome cultural barriers to full participation in Canadian society.

Third, the government will promote creative encounters and interchange among all Canadian cultural groups in the interest of national unity.

Fourth, the government will continue to assist immigrants to acquire at least one of Canada's official languages in order to become full participants in Canadian society."

The whole commission report is an example of what the Liberal Party of Canada does best - social engineering. And, of course, it hasn't worked out that well.

One wonders what members of all those ethnic groups that came to Canada prior to this commission did. I can think of a few individuals who did quite well - Saskatchewan's Ramon Hnatyshyn (of Ukrainian ancestry) for example, who became Canada's Governor General, after several years of a successful law practice in Saskatoon and a stint as an elected representative in Parliament, or Manitoba's Ed Schreyer (German-Austrian ancestry), who also became Governor General, and prior to that was Premier of Manitoba, or even John Diefenbaker, (German origins), who was Prime Minister, for a spell and who also had a successful career in law prior to entering politics, and, who championed the advancement and better treatment of native Indians during his law career and was a strong proponent of racial equality.

Of course, all these men were white, and therefore unable to cry "racism" at the drop of a hat, although Ukrainians certainly did not have an easy time of it as settlers on the Canadian prairies in the late 1800s and early 1900s. What they all share is a strong work ethic and a will to succeed. They didn't need no multicultural policy to tell them they were in need of special considerations.

Multiculturalism Takes Two On The Chin

The second one, by an immigrant himself and a Muslim, Salim Mansur.

Feds want immigrants to provide upfront evidence of fluency in English or French

It's time to undo multiculturalism mistake

"Forty years ago, in October 1971, Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau introduced multiculturalism as an official policy for Canada.

Seventeen years later, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and the Progressive Conservatives turned Trudeau’s policy into the Multiculturalism Act of 1988.

In other words, it was not merely Trudeau but Canada’s political elite, supported by the intellectual and media elites of the country, who adopted without much questioning a policy that was, at best, dubious and deeply flawed as the law of the land.

Canada was the first of the advanced liberal democracies in the West to turn multiculturalism — an idea without philosophical substance — into official policy.

Four decades later, some of those democracies — Germany, Britain, France, the Netherlands — have openly expressed regrets as their elected leaders publicly admitted the failure of official multiculturalism in securing social harmony, or advancing national interest.

In my recently published book — Delectable Lie: A liberal repudiation of multiculturalism — I discuss at some length why this policy reflected an act of bad faith on the part of Trudeau and company, and how it continues to be detrimental to the vitality of a liberal democracy.

The bad faith resided in the ridiculous proposition that all cultures are equal. This is the keystone of multiculturalism as an idea, and it is untenable."

[---]

"It takes someone with a college degree to accept silliness of this nature as higher knowledge."

RTWT

Lament For Canadian Patriotism

This weekend I have, as usual, spent some time sitting on my front and back steps, from both of which I can look across the street and see the elementary school.

Back in the day when I was an grade school student, going to a one-room country school on the Canadian prairie, the kids were each assigned a daily or monthly task. The tasks were rotated on a monthly or some such schedule so that throughout the year every kid got to do the same thing, or at least, something appropriate for their age.

One of the tasks that I liked the best was hoisting the flag on the flag pole in the morning and taking it down again at the end of the day. Of course, back then the flag hoisted on the pole was the Union Jack. (Queen Elizabeth's portrait also looked down on us from her position above the chalkboard.)

From my front/back step perch I can see the flag pole in front of the school across the street. Yesterday, I was saddened to note that the flag was still flying. Although this weekend is a long weekend, with today being Labour Day (we still spell the British way), no one had thought to take the flag down.

Not only that, but the flag was a mess. As my readers likely know, Canada's flag consists of three vertical bars; a white one in the middle with two red ones on either side. In the centre of the middle bar is a red maple leaf.

Not only was the flag still flying when school was out, but the outer red bar was missing. What was left of it looked pretty tattered and sorry as well. Does the school or the school division not have enough money to buy a new flag? Obviously, they don't care enough about its symbolism to take it down at the end of the day and store it safely inside away from the elements.

Well, this old fart says, bring back the old days, please, and I don't mean we should be flying the Union Jack. We are no longer a British offshoot. I recognize that and I have no problem with having our own identity rather than being just British subjects, but must we also throw out this symbol of our Canadianess, of our history?

And BTW, the new flag was Lester Pearson's legacy, so this is not Trudeau's fault. That doesn't mean I can't blame the Liberal Party for our lack of pride, though.

Bah humbug!!

This Whole "Christian" Thing....

...is as screwed up as they get.

Okay, I so can't let this Norway/Breivik thing go, but it wasn't me that started the "right wing Christian" thing.  I'm a right winger and I'm proud of it, but as far as being Christian is concerned, I'm not a believer, especially not a Bible-thumper, but I do recognize that Christianity was central to the history of the region of the world where my ancestors came from and that its tenets, its trials and tribulations, are responsible for what we call Western Civilization today, and I think that's what motivated Breivik, however sick his method of dealing with his frustration may have been.

The left's and the political class's total abandonment of loyalty to their ancestral roots and to the great achievements that sprang from those roots is, IMHO, very close to treasonous.  It has become very fashionable to pretend that Europe isn't the source of anything worth preserving or celebrating; that extolling things like Western achievements in science, art, music and architecture, great advances in technology and profoundly influential ideas, such as those of the enlightenment and their influence on ideas concerning governance, are nothing but ethnocentric, and therefore dismissible.

But, damn it, ethnocentric as they might be, they are, essentially, unassailable.  There is a reason why Europe was first past the post in the race to explore the entire planet. It could have been the Arabs or the Chinese who set out and conquered the world, as both of those civilizations came close to developing sciences, arts and technology, modes of transportation, and so on, that could have led them to be masters of the planet, but the Europeans did it better and came out on top.

Europe, especially Britain, and her offshoots in the former colonies have inherited a legacy that is something of which we should be proud. After all, and I'm not the first one to note this, people from all those other places still come in droves to our shores, trying to get in, so they can take advantages of the opportunities and gifts, both intellectual and physical, we have to offer. And we do offer them and we do let them in. But we're not going in droves to their shores, longing to get in.  There's a reason for that.

But we won't be able to offer anything, if we keep shooting ourselves in the foot. Breivik saw this. He just chose the most stupid and counter productive method for dealing with it, and now the champions of Western Civilization are left scrambling to distance themselves and justify their positions.

And by the way, did you know the word "Christendom" was commonly used in the Middle Ages to refer to Europe. Long before the concept of the nation state was developed it referred to a political realm, which was characterized by adherence to the Christian faith. The "Church of Rome" was more or less the capital of Christendom, with, perhaps, Constantinople being a significant centre as well, being the centre of Orthodox Christianity. (Constantinople is, of course, modern day Istanbul, which at one time not too long ago, was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, another worthy challenger to European world domination, which likewise failed and disappeared into history to join the Arab Empire and the China of Cheng Ho.)  But neither Islam nor Tao (Chinese philosophy) had what it took to come out on top today, although the land of Tao is certainly waking up, and given a choice, I'd far rather be under China's hegemony than Islam's, thank you very much.

No, Breivik is a sick SOB, but he really did understand what's happening to Western Civilization - to Christendom.  And he took it out on those who he felt were responsible - not Muslims, but "progressive" Europeans. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why he may just become something of a cult hero. Way to go, progressives!

Okay, So I Like...

...to hear folks who are from the so called Third World talk this way about Western achievements. After all those years of leftie dissing of Western Civilization and worshiping and making excuses for the petty regimes in non-Western parts of the world, preaching political correctness and cultural relativism, as if all cultures are equal, it's really nice to hear some of those non-Westerners actually agree that Western Civilization did accomplish a lot of good things. I especially like it when it comes from an Arab.

Tarek Heggy - English from NiMBUS PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.

Keep It Up, Justin!

Every time you open your mouth, it helps us a bit more.

And it doesn't matter if you apologize afterwards. The truth about the Liberal Party of Canada has been laid bare.

What is it with this organization? They find themselves out of power, which, of course, goes against the natural order of things, so they think that importing and then anointing an elitist snob to the leadership position, or touting out old politically correct garbage from thirty-five years ago will get them back in power???

Oh well. Who am I to complain. Keep it up, Justin!

Oh. And CBC, where are you? Oh. Here we are. Helping him recover.

Looks Like Europe is Finally Waking Up

First there was Australia's John Howard, Spain's Jose Maria Aznar, then French President Sarkozy, and German Chancelor Angela Merkel and Britain's David Cameron, and now Denmark's Immigration Minister!

I would have thought Denmark would have been first, considering the Mohammed Cartoons and all that. I wonder when The Netherlands will finally come on side. Geert Wilders will have to do, although he isn't Prime Minister.

Multiculturalism: 24 Pages of Common Sense

from Salim Mansur: The Muddle of Multiculturism: A Liberal critique

A Muslim Defends Canadian Values

Remember this? A member of the Muslim Canadian Congress "politely" suggests they should go back to the "hellhole" they came from. And he nails it right here:

""One day it dawned on me that the reason all of us wanted to move here was going to disappear if we didn't start defending Canada and its fundamental values."

More please.

See? What'd I ...

...tell ya'?

Kirpan puts Canada on brink of multiculturalism debate no one wants

Pat Condell at His Best

Sure hope he's right.

Well, at Least the Conversation has Begun

And it's not a bad start, either:

Further to "Oh, Yes!" (Below)

Here's an interesting piece from The Guardian about the English Defense League. (H/T Pat Dollard)

Using the language of the discombobbulated left, The Guardian makes liberal use of terms such as "extremist" and "far-right" while describing contacts that have been made by the EDL and groups in America. One of the themes of Gates of Vienna's thesis about the English Defense League and its "working class" roots (see previous entry), was the need for the movement to form alliances with Middle Class groups with the same concerns. This article seems to suggest that such contacts are being forged as we speak.

"The English Defence League, a far-right grouping aimed at combating the "Islamification" of British cities, has developed strong links with the American Tea Party movement.

An Observer investigation has established that the EDL has made contact with anti-jihad groups within the Tea Party organisation and has invited a senior US rabbi and Tea Party activist to London this month. Rabbi Nachum Shifren, a regular speaker at Tea Party conventions, will speak about Sharia law and also discuss funding issues.

The league has also developed links with Pamela Geller, who was influential in the protests against plans to build an Islamic cultural centre near Ground Zero. Geller, darling of the Tea Party's growing anti-Islamic wing, is advocating an alliance with the EDL. The executive director of the Stop Islamisation of America organisation, she recently met EDL leaders in New York and has defended the group's actions, despite a recent violent march in Bradford."

According to the article, Geller is bringing "Islamophobia to the Tea Party Movement". It's a "progressive's" worst nightmare, I tells ya'.

"The EDL's website relaunched briefly last week with new US links. Currently shut down for "maintenance", the site featured prominent links to a site called Atlas Shrugs, which is run by Geller [ED. in my blogroll, btw], and another US-based site, Jihad Watch, which compiles negative news coverage of Islamic militancy."

Riiiight. Why doesn't that wascally Jihad Watch website look for positive news coverage of Islamic militancy. Obviously, they are consumed with irrational Islamophobia.

All told, the news that EDL is forging links with disaffected Americans is a good thing. Even better, though, is the bald-faced, head-on exposure of the old guard Lamestream Media's sleeping habits. It couldn't be more obvious who the Guardian, a lefty newspaper, if there ever was one, is in bed with. Nor could their lame attempts to disguise their slander of a movement with which they disagree as news be more transparent. I have a feeling that this too, will backfire on them.

In any case, there is no doubt about it, The (dull-witted) Guardian is appropriately lily-livered and is casting guilt by association aspersions wherever it can make them:

"Another Tea Party-associated grouping, the International Civil Liberties Alliance, which campaigns against Sharia law, confirmed that EDL leaders have made "contacts with members of important organisations within the American counter-jihad movement". A statement said: "It seems now that America and Europe are acting as one, and united we can never fail."

With the Tea Party said to benefit from millions of dollars of funding from conservative foundations, experts warn an alliance between the EDL and extremist elements within the US movement could allow the English group to invest in wider recruitment and activism."

Yup. The leftie elites are running scared and the more they throw their scatter shot in all directions, the less effective they'll be.

23 days

Oh, Yes!!

What is your initial gut reaction to this video?



And I could add some names.

So, what was my initial gut reaction to this video? Total sympathy to the actor's position.

h/t Gates of Vienna, which you MUST read, as the Baron provides some analysis of the meme, specifically, about who imposed this on the "working class" Brit, and particularly, how the film backfires on the elites who imposed it. But who are these elites?

"Make no mistake about it: this was an MSM production, and its target audience — politically correct middle- and upper middle-class British viewers — received it as intended, as a put-down of those benighted, atavistic, racist, nationalistic proles. The use of Enoch Powell as an iconic inspiration is proof of this fact — I remember quite clearly how Mr. Powell was reviled and ostracized for his “Rivers of Blood” speech. My cohort, the generation whose apparatchiks now control the levers of state, media, and social power, regard Enoch Powell as an emblem of racist fascism, a worthy heir to Sir Oswald Mosley.

But, as with so many MSM efforts, the real message gets through, despite the producers’ intentions. The writers, producers, actors, and target audience are deaf to the underlying significance behind what they portray, yet an ordinary Englishman experiences a thrill of recognition, and is heartened by it. The self-appointed guardians of multiculture may not realize it, but Enoch Powell is admired and respected by the EDL and other modern English nationalists. His presence in the TV program sends a totally different signal from what was intended."

[---]

"The truth of what the EDL is doing is all but impossible to convey via the MSM. The media will hide the vile behavior of Muslims, and will choose its sound bites from the EDL (or its UAF infiltrators, who provide the best material) in such a way that the “racist” and “fascist” meme will come through loud and clear to the intended audience.

If the EDL’s message is to be successfully spread, it must do so despite what the media oligarchs intend. It can sneak in through vehicles such as the “I am an Englishman” clip, or be conveyed via entirely different means, such as internet forums and social networking sites."

It's funny, or maybe not funny, but I get the same feeling every time I visit a CBC website where comments are allowed. The vast majority of commenters are uber-liberal elites who look down their noses at those who hold contrary views, yet the vilest comments, those that come the closest to visceral hatred and bigotry, are invariably from the uber-liberals and they never fail to reveal complete and utter ignorance of the positions of those whom they oppose. Same goes for the two clowns at Jay Currie's place.

But to continue, from G of V:

"When the actor tells the audience that “we were never asked”, who were “they” who never did the asking?

The social context of the clip — the accent, the Bermondsey background, the use of Enoch Powell — convey the clear message that this is a conflict between the classes. “They” were the upper and upper middle classes, and they foisted upon “us”, the lower classes, the immigration which has destroyed us.

But this is not true. The meme is false.

Much of the destruction of modern Britain was carried out by the post-war Labour Party, many of whose leaders were thoroughly working class. It was a bolshie operation, and immigration was an integral part of the plan, because it helped destroy the “bourgeois” culture which they so detested.

The Marxist strategy has always been to destroy those things that the English nation — or any nation — holds dear. Tradition, custom, culture, religion, history, a distinctive language and dialect — all of these had to be deconstructed in order that the New Socialist Man could be constructed and usher in the Utopia."

And now we know why Murray Dobbin and so many of the MSM groupies, CBC's especially, are so dead against the new Sun TV. THEY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO CONTROL THE OFFICIAL MEME ANY MORE!!!! Funny that this should happen so soon after the 10:10 video fiasco. Even when they try, it will flop.

Question: Will there be a civil war in Britain? When this all ends, will there be anything left of the leftist/Marxist/elitist meme spewing poseurs at work in any Western society? Will there be any Western society?

PS: If you are curious about Enoch Powell and the frenzy that his speech whipped up, go here.

Yes Indeed!

Things have changed.

A few frank words about immigration

"Immigration has helped make Toronto one of the most successful and diverse cities in the world. That’s the good news. The bad news is, a lot of immigrants aren’t doing well. Many of them live in what are known as “priority neighbourhoods,” where unemployment is high and incomes are low. The number of people receiving social assistance has gone up. Although the city has no say in immigration policy, it pays the bills. Meantime, another 100,000 immigrants are arriving in the city every year."

[---]

"Canada admits 250,000 immigrants a year, a higher rate than any other country. Why? No one can say. It’s not to raise the birth rate or replace our aging workers – the numbers don’t work out that way. Is it to create wealth and improve our productivity? If so, it isn’t working.

Mr. Burney argues that current immigration policies are dragging down our productivity, not increasing it. The two fastest-growing groups in our population are aboriginals and new immigrants. “They’re also the ones with the fewest skills to perform in our economy,” he says."

Way back in 1967, my ex, an Iraqi Arab with a diploma in Building and Construction from the University of Baghdad, emigrated to Canada, after working for a few years in the Iraqi railways department. The immigration authorities told him to settle in Regina. They did that in those days. And so he did. No whining involved.

He arrived in Regina with 50 cents in his pocket. He found a kindly old German-Canadian lady who was willing to take him in but confiscated his passport to ensure he couldn't rip her off. The very next day, he found a job in a shoe store selling shoes. Later he got a job with a major national construction company working as a draftsman.

He scraped and saved, arranged through a lengthy process of correspondence with the University of Baghdad and the University of Saskatchewan's College of Engineering, to determine what he needed to receive accreditation as a Professional Engineer in Canada. Before long he enrolled in the College of Engineering at the U. of S., took the few necessary courses that, combined with his credentials from Baghdad, would qualify him as a Professional Engineer licensed the practice in his adopted country. Again, no whining involved.

Within a few years, after working for another major construction company, he started his own business (using a Jewish law firm, btw, a member of which had taught a business law course to the engineering students at the U of S). Today, he's a millionaire, living and working in the most rocking city in the land, Calgary.

Our immigration policy makers should look to the past to find the cure to what ails us today.

PS: Our resident leftards often assume that I am anti-Muslim. Well, afraid not. I married one. But then again, he was as devout a Muslim as I was an Anglican. In other words, not so much. When our children came along, we both agreed that we could leave any religious affiliation up to them, which they could choose, or not choose, once they became adults. In the fourteen years of our marriage, I saw him pray once.

We went on a tour of the Middle East in 1973. The intention was to go to Iraq, but his father met us in Lebanon and begged us not to go. You see, he had been in the Iraqi army when he went to Germany on a holiday. It was from Germany that he applied for immigration to Canada. In other words, he was a deserter.

Although Saddam Hussein hadn't yet seized the big prize at that time, he was working his way up the ladder, and the old man was afraid that if his son set foot in Iraq he would be arrested and God knows what would happen to him. There were already dead people showing up on the streets, people who had dissented and ended up on Saddam Hussein's hit list.  So, we heeded his advice and went to Cyprus instead, and eventually Egypt. While in Egypt, we went into a famous mosque, just as tourists. That's the only time I ever saw him enter a mosque. He currently lives only a short distance from a major mosque in Calgary. He has never set foot in it.

That was long before Islamism swept through the Arab world. Arab nationalism reigned supreme and my ex was an Arab Nationalist devotee when he arrived, somewhat anti-Semitic, but he was quickly deprogrammed and it soon wore off. Otherwise, he would never have engaged the services of a Jewish law firm.

A funny thing that I didn't understand at the time: he deliberately avoided befriending and hanging with fellow Arabs and Muslims.  He had seen enough brutality in his homeland, the most searing on his memory being the Iraqi Royal Family murdered and their bodies dragged through the streets of Baghdad until there was no flesh left on their bones, in the so-called revolution in 1958. That will concentrate the mind of a 14 year old.  Such was the state of affairs in his homeland, the Cradle of (cough) "Civilization", and it only got worse. I think I know now why he avoided his compatriots. And I guess you could say he's not really a Muslim.

One Step..

...forward: Next Canadian citizenship guide to cover rights

two steps back: CSIS slammed as Muslim leader acquitted of child pornography charges

Tom Tancredo for President!!

Sarko is at it Again

First, he makes those parents responsible for their bratty kids.  Now he's gettin' ready to strip those immigrant lawbreakers of their French citizenship and boot them right out of the country.

""French nationality should be earned. One must know how to be worthy of it," the president said. French nationality should be revoked "from any person of foreign origin who voluntarily threatens the life of a police officer" or other public authority, he said."

Of course, human rights organizations have their knickers in a knot. They seem to be rather silent when the cars are burning, though.

And BHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Over on this side of the pond, we have a Flop and Flail reader who is "a highly respected educated civil rights activist in Toronto's Afro-Canadian society" who fights "racism in all it (sic) forms in it's many venues" who has "worked as a immigration consultant..." who seems to think "Immigrants foreign born or not have a right to break the law, when the law is based on a eurocentric value system. We need to reform the law to incorporate multicultural values, specifically pertaining to drug use and spousal relations. Too often young men from the Caribean are the target of eurocentric drug laws, and Muslim men targeted by spousal abuse laws for simply discipling their wives."

O'course there's no telling whether this guy is legit or just egging readers on with a hefty dose of loonytoon facetiousness. Sure sounds like a typical Torontonian dose of Multi-Culti explication, though. You can always count on these folks to make a multi-culti-cartload of excuses for criminal behaviour among selected special victim groups.

Multi-Culti Religion Discussed

Note the old tired blind obedience from the Dipper and even from the host. Jamie Glazov shines, though.