Scotty

Racism is rarely a pretty picture but I don't see how your having read some discussions on a wet site supports your belief you have more knowledge of racism in Canada than I.

It hardly matters what brand of beer you drink. It's still beer. Your argument is about the same as saying that you can't get drunk on Sleeman's you can only get drunk on beer. To which I would say that Sleeman's IS a beer, to which you say that's a fairy tale. Your argument is simply silly. You are obsessing over a point which has no validity. Again, this akin to someone saying I'm not an expert in how water purification systems work. It's true, to a degree, but entirely irrelevent. I can still tell if water is wet, if its cold, and if it tastes good without having years of expertise in how its processed. No matter how many times you attempt to make a derisive statement about how water isn't actually wet that doesn't make your point any more valid. Now you're simply being insulting and disrespectful. That's no substitute for a valid, logical or factual argument and it makes you, and your arguments, I'm sorry to say, of no further interest. I won't be responding to you again. I came her to discuss politial issues with adults, but you don't appear capable of mature discussion.

Would you prefer "non employment equity group" which as far as I'm aware refers, if not exclusively, then nearly exclusively to white men. So if you purposfully discriminate against someone or for someone on the basis of race that's racist UNLESS you do it for what you consider to be a worthwhile purpose - and then it's NOT racism. Have I got that right?

I probably could know more, but I suspect you know less than I. Do you have some academic specialty in the subject?

I would say of that list only Canada and Australia qualify as being in the Western world, and neither ever reached the heights of racism the United States exemplified for over two hundred years, and which lasted into well into the 1960s.

BE POLITE AND RESPECT OTHERS Mapleleafweb operates these forums in the hopes that they will promote intelligent, honest and responsible discussion. We encourage you to speak your mind on relevant issues in a thoughtful way. Please respect others using this board and treat them with respect and dignity.

In a city the size of Toronto no transit means many people can't work, and business can't get its employees to work, therefore business shuts down. That makes it essential to the city to have public transit.

In the United States, your house can be taken by local government and then sold to a private company or institution which wants to locate there because the government thinks it can get more money out of them than from you. That's not respecting individual liberty as far as I'm concerned. And to be honest the American fetish for individual liberty gets out of hand, as does their paranoid distrust of government.

BE POLITE AND RESPECT OTHERS NO TROLLING/FLAMING NO PERSONAL ATTACKS

I think genocide has already been tried. And while I have no personal knowledge of the situation the author seems to be indicating that northern African nations might well support the new country mlitarily, and that they might also find backing in the form of arms and equipment from a number of non-african nations.

Sometimes extremism is called for. But I don't know how it will solve anything in this instance. Extremism against Israel isn't going to work. Much like the American "war on drugs" they've been banging their heads agaisnt that brick wall for years and its only made them hurt more. But it does seem like they need to find some extremist way to get rid of Hamas.

Something like those nations Canada imposes visa requirements on also imposing visa requirements on Canadians. That sort of thing is understandable. Booting out a military camp which essentially supplies people fighting to protect the UAE is ridiculous, and then denying overflight privilages to Canadian politicians and imposing ridiculous $1000 visa costs is simply childish and sullen. As he said, the UAE is simply not important enough to cause any embarrassment to Canada. However, the effort was to embarrass the government and provide tools for the ammuniation to attack it. The opposition certainly took up the offer and did their best, but most Canadians have shrugged it off as the government doing the right thing. That doesn't mean we don't look at the UAE with contempt, however. In my opinion, all of the foregoing is disrepsectful. It is the kind of attitude which causes threads to degenerate into open insults. Is that what you're looking for here?

I think Canadians soured on the mission when they realized it was unwinnable. The United States did an outstanding job in the opening phases, using air power and the CIA to help locals unseat the Taliban. Then they screwed up horribly. They backed the wrong guy to take over, and then abandoned their efforts there to attack mythical weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Like an infection left untreated, the situation only got worse and worse to the point there is no way to win now other than to unseat the present and allow a new, harshly repressive one which has local backing to take control.

NO TROLLING/FLAMING Do not post inflammatory remarks just to annoy people. If you are not bringing anything new to the argument, then do not say anything at all.

I understand a heated argument about abortion or God getting out of hand and degenerating into personal attacks and pointless and unimpressive insults, but an argument over firefighter tools?

------------------------------------------------------------------- NO TROLLING/FLAMING Do not post inflammatory remarks just to annoy people. If you are not bringing anything new to the argument, then do not say anything at all.

NO TROLLING/FLAMING Do not post inflammatory remarks just to annoy people. If you are not bringing anything new to the argument, then do not say anything at all.

Well it's not like it's something I entered! In point of fact, I don't understand what happened with that post. I originally posted the citation from thes rules, then had a second thought, and edited it to remove the name of the person to whom I was responding. This worked fine, except that when I look at the post now, it has two citations of the rules, one responding as if to the other. But when I go in to edit it, there is only one rule, and the original words I was responding to. It's very strange. I will try to delete the post entirely.

CTV News In addition, unsaid is the fact that a very large proportion of Canada's visible minority community are first generation immigrants, and so lack the language skills and background required to pass even the newer, watered down tests.

You're welcome to englighten me on where else in the Western world racism reached the levels of the U.S., with its 'whites only" fountains and restaurants. And the issue with affirmative action is its appeal to liberals who see it in place in the United States and seek to emulate it here. The problem is we don't have the racist history of the United States or its current racial problems. Thus AA is seeking to address issues we do not have.

I'm honestly confused as to why you or anyone would consider that scenario to even be unlikely, never mind impossible. I said no such thing. I said it cannot be proven false, therefore it is silly to state it is. Perhaps so but I think it's hardly a stretch to consider that in a particular case there is only one 'visible minority' candidate, and that the candidate happens to be Black. Nor do I consider it a stretch that a manager under pressure to increase minority representation would choose that candidate over other white candidates. Nor can I really understand how anyone would consider that to be far fetched. My 'ideology' is irrelevent to this discussion. Logic and knowledge of real world application is what's important, and your argument seems entirely lacking in both.

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Could you point out this declaration? I don't believe I would have made one since it would require pointing at a particular incident, report, statistical compilation or something similar. What I said really should not need any empirical evidence. I said that due to cultural reasons, MANY young white men want to be police, and they go to extraordinary efforts to prepare themselves for that calling. However, in addition to being a comparatively much smaller population size, FEW Black men, Asian men, or women, have much interest in being police officers. It would seem to be demonstrably true that when you have a much larger population of eager candidates to choose from as weighed against a very small population which you had to entice into reluctantly applying, downgrade testing requirements, and then hire above the White male candidates who get higher marks, well then, this is going to inevitably result in the hiring of less capable police officers. And the more of this which is done the less capable your employees, as a whole, will be. Whether that is the police, the fire service, or a bunch of hockey players. Are you going to argue specifically with any of that?

Why? The U.S. invented affirmative action. They also are the best example of racism and its practical effects in the West today. They would seem an obvious reference in talking about both these subjects.

Okay. What kind of evidence do you believe I could get. Come on. Be realistic. I'm sure there are. I'm equally sure that anything publicly available would name no names, and even more sure that the races of those involved would be kept secret. I suppose if I had the resources of some major intelligence agency I could break into police computers looking for personal reviews, disciplinary reports, etc., cross index this against the races of those involved, and produce something at that point. Unfortunately, I don't have those resources. So again, realistically, just what sort of evidence do you believe it's possible for me to produce? And yes, I noticed that you didn't answer my question - again. I think we both know very well that any municipal politician, much less an administrator, who so much as dared to raise the issue would be history, that no study of abilities or performance based upon race would be permitted. The only criteria for evaluating the performance of police would be crime, and its resolution. But both of those are influenced by multiple factors, not the least of which is demographics, poverty rates, and the number of young men in a population, puls of course, changes in law and sentencing rates. However, I could say that I, and apparently many others, are unimpressed with the police efforts at solving or preventing crime. There seems to be too much of it, and too much of it goes unsolved.