But there are certainly Neanderthals walking among us today.
"The integrity of decisions made by my department is being questioned too often without sufficient justification." Jason Kenney on the Federal Court.
Gee, maybe that’s because of this:
Under the Harper government, acceptance of refugee claims from applicants already in Canada has fallen sharply, from nearly 16,000 in 2006 to just more than 9,000 last year. The number of successful applicants on compassionate and humanitarian grounds, which had been averaging between 10,000 and 11,000 a year, fell to 8,848 in 2010.
And maybe it’s because your party and those who support it tend to think women ask for the violence they receive.
And maybe the Federal Court, which can really look closely at legal issues and is therefore given authority to override CIC decisions took note of the increasing number of gender-related persecution cases being turned down by Kenney’s department.
(In) 1993, Canada became the first country in the world to establish formal guidelines for refugee claims by women facing gender-related persecution.
Not all countries protect women and children from brutal domestic violence, and in many cases, even when protection laws exist, they aren’t enforced. Just like the bad old days in Canada when such abuse was considered a private matter.
If Kenney doesn’t want the Federal Court to legally override his decisions, he should really shed his caveman attitudes, examine the laws relating to women, recognize that women all over the world still have to fight - at great risk - for the simple right to safety, and start treating women the same way he would treat his bestest, white, rich, christian buddies.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Storm isn't coming our way...
...it's already here.
My personal role models at ACR show support -
and invite us to do the same.
"[Collective bargaining] has been in this state for a long time, and not having that, there are a lot of unknowns," Leonard said. "When you lose something, it's like a nice comfortable blanket. You take that away, and you think: are we just going to be left out in the cold? How will we be treated from here on out? Benefits are one thing but rights are something else. And that's what we're fighting about."
Harper has been engaging in a similar assault on the rights of unions to bargain, using the incremental approach that allows him to fool some Canadians into thinking he's centrist.
“The Conservative government bullied Parliament into passing flawed legislation that undermines workers' right to free collective bargaining and women's right to equal pay for work of equal value,” says John Gordon, PSAC's National President. “This represents a clear attack on public sector workers and it endangers the rights of all Canadian workers to free collective bargaining.”
Take note of those words: endangers the rights of all Canadian workers to free collective bargaining. These attacks on public service unions and the collective rights of public servants is a way of stomping on the necks of all workers, public and private. Rather than improve the work situation, the benefits, and the rights of private sector workers, our government constantly points the finger at public servants as being pampered and over paid.
Sources of the attacks other than Harper himself make clear the motivation behind this vitriolic rhetoric.
"What a surprise!" Brown wrote. "Another mean spirited and economically illiterate attack on the public sector, one in a series from the CFIB, this time an attack on the pension plans of public sector employees."
CFIB has been relentless in attacking public services wages, benefits and pensions as pressure increases to provide decent pensions and benefits in the private sector, something Catherine Swift of CFIB would rather not address. So instead, she seeks to take away from the public service in order to be able to point and say, see? The gap between public and private benefits and pensions isn't that big!
That Harper is on board with Swift is clear in that she actually met with Day to discuss public servant wages and pensions despite being a rep for the private sector.
So what is going on in Wisconsin is our fight as we face the same push to undermine rights here in Canada.
This is more of the boot stomping down on the face of citizens, more of the violations of rights which occurred at the G20, more Montebello, more whistleblowers threatened and muzzled.
This is another attack on the freedom and rights of two countries which have fought so hard for the rights to protest, to bargain, to speak out without fear.
My personal role models at ACR show support -
"[Collective bargaining] has been in this state for a long time, and not having that, there are a lot of unknowns," Leonard said. "When you lose something, it's like a nice comfortable blanket. You take that away, and you think: are we just going to be left out in the cold? How will we be treated from here on out? Benefits are one thing but rights are something else. And that's what we're fighting about."
Harper has been engaging in a similar assault on the rights of unions to bargain, using the incremental approach that allows him to fool some Canadians into thinking he's centrist.
“The Conservative government bullied Parliament into passing flawed legislation that undermines workers' right to free collective bargaining and women's right to equal pay for work of equal value,” says John Gordon, PSAC's National President. “This represents a clear attack on public sector workers and it endangers the rights of all Canadian workers to free collective bargaining.”
Sources of the attacks other than Harper himself make clear the motivation behind this vitriolic rhetoric.
"What a surprise!" Brown wrote. "Another mean spirited and economically illiterate attack on the public sector, one in a series from the CFIB, this time an attack on the pension plans of public sector employees."
CFIB has been relentless in attacking public services wages, benefits and pensions as pressure increases to provide decent pensions and benefits in the private sector, something Catherine Swift of CFIB would rather not address. So instead, she seeks to take away from the public service in order to be able to point and say, see? The gap between public and private benefits and pensions isn't that big!
That Harper is on board with Swift is clear in that she actually met with Day to discuss public servant wages and pensions despite being a rep for the private sector.
So what is going on in Wisconsin is our fight as we face the same push to undermine rights here in Canada.
This is more of the boot stomping down on the face of citizens, more of the violations of rights which occurred at the G20, more Montebello, more whistleblowers threatened and muzzled.
This is another attack on the freedom and rights of two countries which have fought so hard for the rights to protest, to bargain, to speak out without fear.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Stooopid virus on the move
Sure. Why not?
Who needs invaders on the shores when this asshole could actually become US president?
Who needs invaders on the shores when this asshole could actually become US president?
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Because I'm a clumsy therapist of sorts...
Justice Dewar got me thinking...
I could go out and kill a few goths and emos. Because I sense death and depression in the air. And because they dress like they want to die. So that must be what they want. Even if they say no and beg for life.
I could go out and kill a few goths and emos. Because I sense death and depression in the air. And because they dress like they want to die. So that must be what they want. Even if they say no and beg for life.
Maybe this is more a matter for Industry Canada than Justice
Seems women’s clothing doesn’t come with proper warning labels.
Justice Robert Dewar let a rapist walk excusing him saying the victim gave out signs that "sex was in the air" through her suggestive attire and flirtatious conduct on the night of the attack.
So Industry Canada better get right on that, run tests on what type of female clothing overrides women’s brains so that no doesn’t mean no, and test male reaction to such clothing to determine which styles carry an implicit message that the woman wants to be forced into sex even if she says no over and over.
Because you know, women don’t really know what they want, and some guys just can’t understand the subtlety of NO!!!!!!!!!!! STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Dewar) called Rhodes a "clumsy Don Juan" who may have misunderstood what the woman wanted when he forced intercourse along a darkened highway outside Thompson, Man., in 2006.
Poor dudes walking around out there, don’t know how to romance chicks...Dewar is telling you just go for it if you (and even if it’s you alone) believe sex is in the air.
After all, NO is such a difficult word to understand.
How the hell is this creature a judge? No means no except when it doesn’t? No means no except when some cave troll who can’t relate to women in a normal fashion wants to use her body despite her protests?
This had better be overthrown and Dewar should be disciplined, never allowed to preside over any cases involving women or children as victims.
So Industry Canada better get right on that, run tests on what type of female clothing overrides women’s brains so that no doesn’t mean no, and test male reaction to such clothing to determine which styles carry an implicit message that the woman wants to be forced into sex even if she says no over and over.
Because you know, women don’t really know what they want, and some guys just can’t understand the subtlety of NO!!!!!!!!!!! STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Dewar) called Rhodes a "clumsy Don Juan" who may have misunderstood what the woman wanted when he forced intercourse along a darkened highway outside Thompson, Man., in 2006.
Poor dudes walking around out there, don’t know how to romance chicks...Dewar is telling you just go for it if you (and even if it’s you alone) believe sex is in the air.
After all, NO is such a difficult word to understand.
How the hell is this creature a judge? No means no except when it doesn’t? No means no except when some cave troll who can’t relate to women in a normal fashion wants to use her body despite her protests?
This had better be overthrown and Dewar should be disciplined, never allowed to preside over any cases involving women or children as victims.
A month of Harper
Been sick for a month and there was just too much to cover, so here are some headlines from February, 2011 -
How about getting tough on these crimes?
Remember the video of a woman tossing unwanted puppies into a river? People all over the world were outraged. You just don’t do that to puppies, people said. They are living creatures.
Have you read last week’s high profile article on how bones found near Vimy Ridge in 2003 were identified last month by a research team in Thunder Bay, ON, and now Pte. Thomas Lawless of Calgary, killed at the Ridge in 1917 can receive a proper burial, with honours? Relatives who never met him have been notified by Veterans Affairs and they will attend the service.
Did you read an article published February 17, 2011 about what are likely hundreds of children’s bodies lying unidentified in unmarked graves? You may not have seen it. It appeared in section H of the Winnipeg Free Press.
It is not a new story but it never seems to catch the attention that you would think the mass murder of children would.
You would also think that if researchers in Thunder Bay could use genetic testing to identify a man who died at Vimy Ridge in 1917, they could identify many of these bodies of children who still have living relatives who knew them. You think they would make it a priority.
But it seems that aboriginal children are like those unwanted dogs drowned in a river. Just a nuisance. Worse, even, because being human on paper at least, the deaths have to be covered up, hidden. And our oh so enlightened society has to relegate the knowledge of such murders and unmarked graves of children to the barest, faintest reaches of our peripheral thoughts. Things of nightmare, to be sure. Don’t look, don’t talk about it, and for god’s sake (and here I use the name of that mythical deity intentionally), don’t stir up the dirt that hides the horrors.
No one knows how many children died in residential schools. No one knows how many graves were dug for them.
Chilling. Horrible. So where are the cries of outrage? The demand for justice? The kindly, compassionate folk who understand that living relatives of these murdered children deserve to know what happened and should have the chance to bury their dead?
Research at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is underway to get a grip on the approximate number of missing children and unmarked graves at residential schools in Canada, including on the Prairies.
There is no doubt that many of these children died from neglect, and little doubt that more than a few were murdered. In any event, when dealing with so many bodies lying in unmarked graves, and knowing that many of those responsible for the deaths are walking free right now, these deaths should be investigated as any other deaths would, not handled as an historical dig managed by a Commission that so far has had little support and no authority to enforce.
But hey, it’s not like they’re white kids, right?
"We are, quite frankly, not going to be able to say how many children died in the schools or say where they are all buried, and what happened to them after they died," Sinclair said recently at the commission's downtown Winnipeg offices. Nevertheless, he said it's essential to tackle the issue as part of the residential schools legacy.
Part of the legacy? How about tackling it for what it is - brutal crimes of neglect, rape, and murder of numerous children taken by force from their families?
While residential school deaths may have been reported, there are few death certificates attached to student files in old archives. Finding out what happened to each child would involve matching church and government records to Vital Statistics files.
This tells us a lot about how governments and churches of those decades considered aboriginals to be less entitled to rights than non-natives. That those same churches and governments are treating this matter as a historical event that may eventually require some sort of resolution tells us that little has changed.
The commission hopes to have enough information to suggest further research and ways to commemorate the graves.
A nice plaque or two providing a lovely photo op for some bastard politician to appear somewhat human.
"We've heard stories from survivors that babies were born in the schools to mothers who'd been impregnated by teachers and by priests. They say their babies were taken away. They think their babies were killed," Sinclair said. "We don't know the extent to which that occurred, if at all."
OK. Stop. Enough with the euphemisms. Impregnated? No, these were children. That makes it rape, every damn time.
Teachers and priests. Well, wingnuts, at least they didn’t let the children have abortions, right? They rape the kids, take away the living, crying baby that resulted from their rape crime, and...murder it.
Teachers and priests. God-fearin’ folk to want to take the savage out of The Savage. Drive out the heathen beliefs and insert the holy ghost. You know, civilize them, teach them the good ways of the white, enlightened society, and have them embrace that loving god while following the teachings of christianity.
I realize that atheists also commit child rape and murder, but they are held accountable for their crimes, and they don’t have an entire sheltered religion enabling further crimes and covering up past ones for them.
In a YouTube broadcast posted this month, Favel, now an elderly woman, describes her hard life as a child in residential school. She recalls the day she saw school staff carry a newborn baby wrapped in pink through the kitchen and into the adjacent furnace room.
..."They took that baby into the... furnace room and burned it alive. You could smell the flesh cooking," Favel says, her voice soft but clear.
Gotta protect those priests. Have to protect the name of their god. Can’t have people thinking badly of them because, you know, religion does a lot of good, right? Like bring enlightenment and christianity to aboriginals?
In 1944, a priest levelled the rest of the cemetery, removing all traces of it, according to an elder interviewed by the working group who had attended the school as a child in the 1940s.
That’s the christian way, isn’t it? Just remove all traces of past crimes, move on, and preach to others on morality.
Crimes were committed. That doesn’t suggest we should reconcile a damn thing. It demands we investigate aggressively and hold those responsible for the rapes, deaths, murders, and cover-ups accountable in courts of law.
And all efforts should be made to identify every single child’s remains, determine how that child died, notify families, and provide support for a proper burial which family can attend. Just like was done for Pte. Thomas Lawless of Calgary.
Have you read last week’s high profile article on how bones found near Vimy Ridge in 2003 were identified last month by a research team in Thunder Bay, ON, and now Pte. Thomas Lawless of Calgary, killed at the Ridge in 1917 can receive a proper burial, with honours? Relatives who never met him have been notified by Veterans Affairs and they will attend the service.
Did you read an article published February 17, 2011 about what are likely hundreds of children’s bodies lying unidentified in unmarked graves? You may not have seen it. It appeared in section H of the Winnipeg Free Press.
It is not a new story but it never seems to catch the attention that you would think the mass murder of children would.
You would also think that if researchers in Thunder Bay could use genetic testing to identify a man who died at Vimy Ridge in 1917, they could identify many of these bodies of children who still have living relatives who knew them. You think they would make it a priority.
But it seems that aboriginal children are like those unwanted dogs drowned in a river. Just a nuisance. Worse, even, because being human on paper at least, the deaths have to be covered up, hidden. And our oh so enlightened society has to relegate the knowledge of such murders and unmarked graves of children to the barest, faintest reaches of our peripheral thoughts. Things of nightmare, to be sure. Don’t look, don’t talk about it, and for god’s sake (and here I use the name of that mythical deity intentionally), don’t stir up the dirt that hides the horrors.
No one knows how many children died in residential schools. No one knows how many graves were dug for them.
Research at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is underway to get a grip on the approximate number of missing children and unmarked graves at residential schools in Canada, including on the Prairies.
There is no doubt that many of these children died from neglect, and little doubt that more than a few were murdered. In any event, when dealing with so many bodies lying in unmarked graves, and knowing that many of those responsible for the deaths are walking free right now, these deaths should be investigated as any other deaths would, not handled as an historical dig managed by a Commission that so far has had little support and no authority to enforce.
But hey, it’s not like they’re white kids, right?
"We are, quite frankly, not going to be able to say how many children died in the schools or say where they are all buried, and what happened to them after they died," Sinclair said recently at the commission's downtown Winnipeg offices. Nevertheless, he said it's essential to tackle the issue as part of the residential schools legacy.
Part of the legacy? How about tackling it for what it is - brutal crimes of neglect, rape, and murder of numerous children taken by force from their families?
While residential school deaths may have been reported, there are few death certificates attached to student files in old archives. Finding out what happened to each child would involve matching church and government records to Vital Statistics files.
This tells us a lot about how governments and churches of those decades considered aboriginals to be less entitled to rights than non-natives. That those same churches and governments are treating this matter as a historical event that may eventually require some sort of resolution tells us that little has changed.
The commission hopes to have enough information to suggest further research and ways to commemorate the graves.
A nice plaque or two providing a lovely photo op for some bastard politician to appear somewhat human.
"We've heard stories from survivors that babies were born in the schools to mothers who'd been impregnated by teachers and by priests. They say their babies were taken away. They think their babies were killed," Sinclair said. "We don't know the extent to which that occurred, if at all."
OK. Stop. Enough with the euphemisms. Impregnated? No, these were children. That makes it rape, every damn time.
Teachers and priests. Well, wingnuts, at least they didn’t let the children have abortions, right? They rape the kids, take away the living, crying baby that resulted from their rape crime, and...murder it.
Teachers and priests. God-fearin’ folk to want to take the savage out of The Savage. Drive out the heathen beliefs and insert the holy ghost. You know, civilize them, teach them the good ways of the white, enlightened society, and have them embrace that loving god while following the teachings of christianity.
I realize that atheists also commit child rape and murder, but they are held accountable for their crimes, and they don’t have an entire sheltered religion enabling further crimes and covering up past ones for them.
In a YouTube broadcast posted this month, Favel, now an elderly woman, describes her hard life as a child in residential school. She recalls the day she saw school staff carry a newborn baby wrapped in pink through the kitchen and into the adjacent furnace room.
..."They took that baby into the... furnace room and burned it alive. You could smell the flesh cooking," Favel says, her voice soft but clear.
Gotta protect those priests. Have to protect the name of their god. Can’t have people thinking badly of them because, you know, religion does a lot of good, right? Like bring enlightenment and christianity to aboriginals?
In 1944, a priest levelled the rest of the cemetery, removing all traces of it, according to an elder interviewed by the working group who had attended the school as a child in the 1940s.
That’s the christian way, isn’t it? Just remove all traces of past crimes, move on, and preach to others on morality.
Crimes were committed. That doesn’t suggest we should reconcile a damn thing. It demands we investigate aggressively and hold those responsible for the rapes, deaths, murders, and cover-ups accountable in courts of law.
And all efforts should be made to identify every single child’s remains, determine how that child died, notify families, and provide support for a proper burial which family can attend. Just like was done for Pte. Thomas Lawless of Calgary.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Baby Stew
I've been thinking about Vic Toews. (Well, doesn't everyone...??) and well, I've been trying to figure out why he is soooo animate about getting tough on crime with ye young babes. Late last night I think I got it. I was reading my niece an old story about a wicked woman who lived in a gingerbread house in the woods and tried to snatch up little kids to eat. Well, I think dear old Vicky is this old woman's spawn and wants to follow in her footsteps by taking the gingerbread house into the 21st century by upgrading to prisons. Fatten up the little bastards, boil em, grind em, stick em in a stew.
Makes the most sense to me. How bout you?
Picked up a stray on the road
thought I'd give it a home.
Malicebot...clever, quick, dangerously creative, nasty bite, probably evil.
Good thing, too, since I've been sick on and off, so it will post here occasionally.
I'm back tomorrow, but for now, over to the stray.
Malicebot...clever, quick, dangerously creative, nasty bite, probably evil.
Good thing, too, since I've been sick on and off, so it will post here occasionally.
I'm back tomorrow, but for now, over to the stray.
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