mcqueen625

Now let's skip to Saturday, June 2, 2006 when the arrest of 17 individuals of seemingly Arab decent were planning a terrorist attack on Canadian soil by obraining 3 times the Ammonium-Nitrate that was used to blow yp the US government building in Oklahoma City, OK. We Canadians just sat smuggly back and assumed we were ammune from such events. What does it take for Canadians to finally wake up to the fact that we also are viewed as Infidels by extremeist Muslims. They believe there is only one true faith, and those who are not MUslim, should be or face enilation. Extremists believe it is their mission in life to destroys all those in this world who are not of their faith. According to Zak... Mussoui who was just tried and convicted for his part in 9/11 stated that ALL non-Muslim countries need to pay homage and bow down to Islam. If this is the way all of these nut-case extremists believe the way things should be then God help us all, because I for one will never convert to any religion that thinks it's okay to bomb and kill innocent people. It seems that this mindset is enjoyed, not by just a few radicals, but by whole countries and their governments. Itan is but one example of a government who believes the world should fall down at their feet.

Blackdog said; Actually I don't. But the short version is the government of Canada signed agreements in good faith with Canada's natives and is thus obligated to honour them. They are not manufacturing out of whole cloth justifications for further entrenching the privileges of an already privileged segment of osciety. As I said: the two are not analagous. If I am not mistaken those treaties were signed by the British Crown long before Canada was even a country, and I would bet that under International law these treaties are still valid. I'm sure if they wern't neither the federal or provincial government would be treading so lightly on Aboriginal Rights, they would instead just ignore them.

That is exactly the reason why I am so adamantly opposed to native treaty rights. Both Natives and Jews claim that their ethnic groups deserve special consideration because: a- there were the the first people to occupy the land in question and b- they have suffered numerous injustices in the past.The native case is a little muddy because of various legal documents, however, my position is that making something legal does not make it right. So Black Dog, how do reconcile your statement above with your previous statements regarding native rights. More importantly, please explain how creating native only enclaves in Canada where only 'citizens' of the native band in question are allowed to vote is compatible with the 'basic principles of western liberal democracy? Now that's a nice post except you forgot to include English Canadians in your rant. Canada has elevated Francophones to elite status and relagated Anglophones to the staus of 2nd class citizens. The financial yap has been turned on for Quebec for far too long and it is time to cut off all funding for Francophones just because they speak French. Bilingyalism was and is a failed experiment in social engineering, and to date still less than 17% of Canaadians speak fluent French, virtually unchanged since it's introduction.

G & M G & MGiven the connection to Mahjoub and the security certidicates and Galati, I'll bet this case becomes a political football. The fertilizer and weapons evidence better be solid because the Left will not accept Internet messages and maps of downtown Toronto. All things considered, this is one incident in a much broader and serious battle. I wonder what spin Layton and the nutcase NDP will put on this, short of somehow blaming the rest of us for not embracing multiculturalism. I think that if these people want to caome to Canada it should be firmly stated that Canada is a melting-pot and they can worship whatever way they want in theri own homes and churches, but in Canadian society are traditions will be preserved, including traditional RCMP uniforms for all members regardless of religion. Definitely no daggers or swords to be worn in the classroom. Our Liberal, liberal-minded judiciary should be told that either they quit being activist and making law, or Parliament will simply pass laws to roll-back and curb the powers of the judiciary. The current judiciary dertainly does not represent the morals and values of ordinary Canadians, and that needs to be turned around.

New York TimesWell, this will be story for discussion. Let's just pray there was no racial profiling going on here!! This has nothing to do with our involvement in Afghanistan, and if you had listened to the comments made by Zacaruis Moussoui during his recent trail in the United States you would realize that extremist Muslins view ALL non-Muslim countries as infidels and we should all be paying homage to Islam, because they think that it is the one and only religion. If this is the type of crap taught to Muslims, it is little wonder Muslim countries worry about anything modern.

Again, what about Palistinian suicide bomber who walk into a crowded market and blow themselves up with the sole purpose of killing as many innocent civilians as possible. Give your head a shake and wake up. From what I have read in most cases it is Israelis are simply defending themselves from a bunch of terrrorists who's only goal in life is the complete anihilation of Israel. Hamas and Iran, have a stated goal of denying Israel's right to exist. If I were a member of CUPE I would be actively working towards decertification of my particular Local. I'm quite sure this measure does not represent the wishes of the vast majority of CUPE. God knows CUPE is certainly a failure at negotiating contracts, and is an utter failure in their ability to defend their own members, so let's throw a little water on the fire to create some smoke, and just maybe the membership won't realize that the union they are paying dues to has stopped representing the membership and is now taking up the cause of terrorist organizations. Instead of worrying about people half-way around the world, CUPE should instead be worrying about the plight of homeless Canadians, and the many Canadian children going to bed every night hungry, because the social safety-net is failing them.

Thank you very much but Canada already got a taste of what would happen if we ever elected an NDP government to power in Ottawa. That lesson was learned by the election of Bob Rae and the NDP in Ontario, and it goes to show that the NDP are nothing but Liberals in disguise, bebause didn't I jusat read somewhere that Rae was now contemplating a run for the leadership of the federal Liberal Party. Just what Canada needs another spending spree on useless programs with taxpayer's money. The only thing that we could be sure of under an NDP government is a massive tax bill to pay for all of these feel-good programs. No sir, I once voted exclusively NDP, but that was before I woke up to the reality that Canadian's are already being heavily taxed from birth to death, and I can't afford more social programs that will do nothing except make Canadian's even more dependent on government to make all of their choices for them. Thanks, but no thanks!

Once the oil in Alberta runs out Canada will not be able to squander away tax dollars on useless programs that beefit only a small minority of people such as bilingualism. This initiative has become nothing but a make work program for Fransophones, while the vast majority of Canadians speak English as the working language of business both in Canada and around the world. Let's also not forget the many other wasteful programs initiated by Liberals like sponsorship, the gun registry, etc., etc. Sure we all nedd funding for necessities of life, and I'm sure Alberta does not mind contributing to the pot so that all Canadian's can have those necessities, but every time we turn around the Liberals were dreaming up new programs on which to piss away our tax-dollars. Quebec continues to while and will continue to whine until our federal government grows some balls and tells them that they are not a country, but merely just another province within Canada, and they deserve nothing more than the rest of the provinces are entitled to. If they don't like it the option of leaving is always available, and please don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Toronto StarThe column is rather comical, and is no better than the opinions one can read on this forum. Comical? Well, how else to react to Gwyn's following comment: My own guess is that English-Canada's, Toronto-centred punditry is scratching its head because its no better informed than anyone else. --- Paul Wells had a long piece on his weblog about Harper and the media. The piece is pointed, detailed and reasonable. But Wells misses the forest for the trees, or the elephant for the folding Swedish furniture. Politically astute Canadians (ie. political junkies) now have the Internet and so a new way to get information about what's going on. Sure, we usually rely on frontline journalists for the facts - although even that is changing. Who would have thought, 10 years ago, that Wells would be posting for all to see his long piece linked above? Moreover, there's alot more Canadians who give a passing glance, if that, to politics. By his actions, Harper is going over the standard journalists' heads and speaking to Canadians. What Harper is doing is a good thing because the national media are biased in favour of anyone besides the Conservatives. If Canadian's had listened to the national media we would have ignored for the most-part the colossal waste of taxpayer's money through the sponsorship program, the flawed gun registry and the many other wasteful programs started by the Liberals under both Chretien and Martin. We would have had another majority Liberal government had the national media had their way.

The link above has a lot more. This guy Harper is a total nutjob. This, obviously coming from a disgruntled Liberal who saw their party go down for the third time. Harper, rather than being the nutjob as you refer to him and the CPC is at least doing what the people of this country wants our PM to do which is to lower taxes, get tough on crime, and all of the other initiatves he has already put in motion. The only thing I want to see next is either the abolishment of the Senate or transform it into an elected body so at least they can be held accountable. Maybe we should also look at electing the Supreme Court as well, so that they too will be accountable to the people and reflect the wishes of the people. Right now the Supreme Court is made up of a bunch of bleeding heart Liberals who is more concerned about the rights of offenders than they are about the victims of crime. That needs to change if we are to have a society we can all be proud of. We do not need former members of the John Howard society sitting on the judiciary, anywhere in this country. Criminals already have enough advocates with the judiciary.

Those who are naive enough to believe we are a sovereign nation they should take a real hard lood at both the FTA, and NATFA, as well as anothe couple of agreements favoured by the Liberal's and Conservatives, should read and article called ZipLocking NA My Webpage. With the signing of these agreements we virtually gave away our sovereignty to the multinational corporations. These agreements have done nothing positive for Canadians, in fact we have lost much of our manufacturing capacity, as well as corporate head offices.

National PostThe key phrase here seems to be "...something the Liberals have put forward before". The fact is that Brison is right. Canada's tax system is increasingly disastrous. Whereas the US reformed its welfare system, we have done nothing of the sort. Those who should benefit do not, and the effect is merely to waste everyone's time. There are pernicious incentives that encourage people not to work even though they want to. This is further complicated by the different levels of government involved. In general, things don't get fixed until the problem imposes severe costs. Over the past eight years, rising resource prices have made it easy for Canadian governments to ignore this problem. Any tax system that allows the corporations and the rich to virtually pay little or nothing while ordinary working Canadians are forced to subsidize these tax-breaks for the rich is just wrong. Every time the Liberal's under both Chretian and Martin fiddled with the tax system it was done so with the corporations and the rich in mind. This unfair system has virtually eliminated the middle-class in this country to the point that one is either rich or poor, there is really no in between anymore. At one time taxes were roughly divided roughly 50/50 between Canadian's and the corporate sector. Now we have the corporate sector paying only about 18% according to the last article I read some years ago. Today it is likely even more in the favour of the corporate sector while the poor Canadian people continue to pay the lion's share of the tax-burden. What would be fair is for Canada to have a flat tax rate, with the first $10,000.00 being exempt, as well as expenses for medical needs, and that shouldn't include membership in exclusive private medical insurance schemes as was suggeested by some corporations in order to skirt around the public system of Medicare.

Although the Kyoto Accord was a good idea initially it was ill conceived since our federal and provincial governments have allowed pollution levels to actually increase by approximately 30 % since that accord was signed, thus making it impossible for Canada to reach the targets agreed to by the Chretian Liberal's. Don't get me wrong because it scares me to death whenever anyone from either the Frazer Institute or C.D. Howe Institutes suggests is in our best interests. Both of these groups are nothing but lobby groups for multinations corporations, so for them to suggest something is good for us is an oxymoron. What they really mean is that is is good for 'Big Business," Most times what is good for the multinationals is not in the least bit good for the people of any country, because their whole reason for being is to proyect and increase profits for the multinationals and their shareholders.

Most French Immersion programs across Canada are modelled after the New Brunswick French Immersion Program, because NB is the only supposedly 'Officially Bilingual Province in Canada. The truth is that after all of these years less than 17% of New Brunswickers are fluently bilingual, even though large numbers of English language students are opting into a French Immersion Program. The truth is also that once out of the classroom the oipportunity to practice French skills is non-existant throughout most of the province, because the language spoken is English, not French. Less than 20% of the people who are fluently bilingual, a level which is required in order to apply for jobs designated as bilingual, and in NB the majority of jobs posted in government are designated as such. Not too long ago the former Education Minister for the Province ogf New Brunswick, Elvy Robichaud stated that, "The French Immersion Program in New Brunswick was never designed nor expected to produce fluently bilingual garaduates." That said what we hthen have is nothing but a sham, because trhe truth is that the vast majority of children graduating from French Immersion Programs right across Canada, are at best functionally bilingual, and that is a far cry from the fluency required in order to qualify for most jobs posted as bilingualism required.

Some of what you say has some merit, hjowever when you have makers of pharmaseuticals moving to places like PEI so they can pay $15.00 per hour instead of $30.00 plus it say a lot about "Big Business." I remember back a few years when Michalin coericed the government of Nova Scotia into passing legislation virtually outlawing the formation of a union at their plant as a condition of moving their plant to that province. Those in government at the time should have been hauled before the human rights commission for violating the rights of the workers to join a union if they chose to.New Brunswick has done virtually the same thing by allowing the Irving Empire to run roughshod over worker's rights to allow this family to ship even more profits off to Burmuda where the tax-man cannot touch it. Now this same family has bullied both a civic government and a willing provincial government into passing a piece of legislation that virtually allows this company to take a property tax holiday for the next 25 years. A tax holiday I might add that this unavailable to anyone else in the province, all in the name of corporate greed. Instead of talking about lazy Maritimers, lets instead talk about corporate welfare afforded to "Big Business," while the rest of us are expected to subsidize these lazy corporate bums.

Never mind privatizing CBC, we should instead just abolish this bureaucracy and be done with it. Think of the money that can be saved the taxpayers by just closing just one of the many useless bureaucracies abundant in Canada, both federally and provincially? The CBC would be a good one to start with, then we could abolish bureaucracies like the Gun Registry, Office of the Commissioner of Official Languages, The Senate, just think of the fun we could have and at the same time save untold amounts of money that could be directed back into the pockets of the people they are getting it from, we the taxpayers.

Duality was never the stated goal of "Official Bilingualism when the concept was first introduced. I believe the terminology used was "Wheere numbers warranted it." Since approximately only 17% of Canadians profess themselves to be bilingual, I would say this whole exercise has been a total failure.In New Brunswick, the only "Officially Bilingual" province or Territory in Canada the success rate is no better. In fact the French Immersion Program, according to former Education Minister, Elvy Robichaud, was never designed nor expected to produce fluently bilingual graduates. Since both federal and provincial jobs designated as bilingual require fluency instead of just functionally bilingual, this leaves most students from the French Immersion Program totally unqualified to even make application for these jobs. I think it is time that we repeal the language legislation, as unworkable and discriminatory, meant only as make-work projects for French speaking Canadians to the detriment of the unilingual English speaking majority. With this repeal we could send Dyane Adam packing so that she can find herself a real job, if she actually qualifies. This department is nothing but a burden on the taxpayer's of this country.

Never happen in Canada because of the bleeding-heart liberal-minded lawyers appointed to our courts, and especially those Liberal lawyers appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Myself, I really don't believe in capital punishment, but when our government chose to abolish capital punishment the only option to replace it should have been the sentencing of convicted murderers to serve the REST OF THEIR NATURAL LIVES in prison. 25 years with a faint-hope of parole after 15 years is not life in prison, especially in the case of dangerous offenders like Paul Bernardo and Karla Holmolka (Karla Teale), Clifford Olsen, and many others too numerous to mention, many of whom are already back on the streets. These predators should have never been given the opportunity to see the light of day again. To me pedophiles, rapists, diddlers all belong in the same category and should never get out of prison. Our justice system should be such that anyone who still possibly poses a threat to society should remain in prison regardless of whether or not they have completed their sentence. It seems to me that our justice system far too often errs on the side of the criminals, instead of society, and to me that is totally wrong and should be changed. Thankfully Harper is talking about introducing legislation that will take away some of the disgression in sentencing presently enjoyed by those bleeding-heart justices, especially those nutcases that have sentenced sex offenders to house arrest, because the poor devils might lose their jobs if they were sent to prison. We need to have some common sense put back into our justice system, although I'm quite sure that those same justices are not going to be too happy being told by our elected officials what to do.

And who told you this fantasy story, the Liberal fairy? The Liberal's just wish that Emerson was disenfransized by the CPC, because their ship has sunk and there are no survivors. The big problem with the Liberal Party is that they thought that they had some devine right to rule this country, and finding out that the people finally saw them for what they really are, liars, crooks, and outright thieves, they can't stand the fact that they are no longer calling the shots. If you really believe anything coming out of the Liberal friendly press then you are very naive. If Canadian's listened to the Liberal friendly hype being published by the Canadian media, we would now have a majority Liberal government, and thank God the people of this country finally stopped believing everything they read, hear and see on the various media outlets.

I think you've got your numbers reversed. I think there is a new poll that suggests that many Liberal and NDP supporters are now supporting the initiatives of Stephen Harper. That does not mean that they will vote Conservative, but it does show that the people of Canada are pleased with having some measure of accountability in government. God knows the Liberal certainly did not want to be held accountable to the people of Canada, especially since it was issustrated by Paul Martin when he made the statement; " As far as I'm concerned the Supreme Court is the final say in this country." That told me and many other Canadian's that he was willing to step aside and allow a bunch of political appointees to effectively run this country, instead of our elected politicians. I don't know about you, but I am definitely not comfortable with have those morons in the Supreme Court making choices for me and my family and us having no recourse to be able to hold them accountable for those decisions. To me, that is called a dictatorship!

As a description of Israel in 1948, that's not bad.Don't get me wrong. Palestinians are found all through the Middle East and they generally occupy important positions. Palestinians are usually an industrious lot. But Palestinian leadership has been a disaster, starting with Arafat - all talk, and the dramatic gesture. Western Leftists with a textbook knowledge of the Middle East find this meme irresistible since it combines oppressed victim and an anti-American slant. Fisk has a good gig going and he happily serves up the brew. How sad this is for Palestinians themselves. The smart ones have gotten as far away from Arafat and the PLO as they could. Who cares what the corrupt United Nations says? Under Koffi's watch his own son along with other's with a vested interest in Iraq, such as France, Germany, Belgium, and Russia, were involved in violations of U.N. sanctions against Iraq and their oil for food program. How can this organization be trusted to represent anyone's best interests. I believe the U.S. is right-on in their assertions that the U.N. has become irrelevant. Israel has just as much right to exist as does the State of Palestine, as both peoples came originally form that part of the world. Right now Palestine as a country does not exist, but there is a country of Israel. Of course the U.N. wants Israel to retreat from all lands they have occupied since the 1967 war, but I believe they occupied them for reason of protecting their civilian population from attack by Iran. Syria, & Lebanon. I don't believe they were given any choice but to defend themselves, and unfortunately for their enemies they were much more adept at war.

They can only allow that when they can be assured that the young person carrying a sachel isn't carrying a bomb meant to kill as many innocent civilians as possible as just happened today.

Dictators only rule because they have popular support. Why do you think the Chinese gov't spends so much energy preventing its people from hearing bad things about the gov't? You are also splitting hairs over the exact things that Bush and Ahmadinejad said - both are guilty of creating external enemies in order to divert attention from their own domestic failures. If you cannot/will not recognize the similarities then you will never really understand what is going on inside Iran. Not much we can do about it except buy cars that consume less gas and use public transit more. There is nothing the Iranian president can do about the long term price of oil. Short term fluctuations are not much of a concern. In North America, I think the price of gasoline and heating oil has more to do with the greed of the oil industry, and they take advantage of every opportunity to gouge the people through inflated prices. Where I live we have one family, the Irving's who import the crude, refine it in their own refinery, wholesale it to not only their on retail outlets but to most other branded service stations as well, and they ultimately dictate the price from start to finish. I know in some markets those who import cannot also refine and retail in the same market, but in my area of Canada there is a monopoly situation whereby no government dares try intervening or this powerful family will retaliate. As the saying goes, this family has no need to run politically, they own whoever gets elected regardless of political affiliation.

As a result of the latest terrorist attack on Israel by a suicide bomber Israel has every right to respond by declaring war on both the Hamas led Palestinian peoples and Iran, who both funds and encourages such terrorism. Israel should wipe them off the face of the earth and any other who encourages these terrorism, such as Lebenon, Syria, etc. The world must put an end to this type of activity or none of us are safe. Moussoui said it all when he inferred that Islam demands that they be the Superpower, and ALL non-muslim countries should pay tribute to Muslims. I don't think so, and it is time these nutcases were put in their place. Christians, Buddists, and all other faiths have just as much right to exist and thrive as does Muslims and if these militant Islamic clerics are going to continue teaching hate then they have to be eliminated by any means. We cannot rely on the biased and corrupt United Nations who themselves funded a bumper-sticker campaign aimed at bolstering violence against Israeli citizens, at the same time Israel was in the process of moving out of the Gaza Strip. These bumper sticker, mugs, banners, etc were distrubuted to Palestinian youth and the slogan was very provocative and biased; TODAY-GAZA-TOMORROW-THE-WEST-BANK-AND-JERUSALEM. Nothing like inciting the masses to continue with terrorist attacks instead of attempting to live in peace. If this is what the U.N. is all about, I think it is time for our government to take a long look at the money they are sending to such a corrupt organization, led by Koffi Annan.

Bottom line Hamas' ultimate goal is the total elimination of the Israel, period. Iran's has also come out and stated that this is also their goal. In an outburst by Moussaoui during the death penalty phase of his trial he sated that Muslims have been at war with Christians and Jews for centuries, and Islam requires Muslims to the world's superpower. He read aloud passages from the Koran to support his assertions, citing one that requires non-Muslim nations to pay tribute to Muslim countries. His advise to those who will make the decision on wether he will be executed or not was to keep him alive to trade if American troops are captured.