More than 300 people who claimed to live at the same address in Mississauga are being investigated by the RCMP in what police suspect may be a massive case of citizenship fraud.
Suspect?
You think?
The fake common address is an office building in sunny downtown Mississauga called Palestine House.
Your government through Citizenship and Immigration Canada gave the centre $2.4-million of your tax money for English-language training in a multi-year agreement last April.
The building manager said he found brown government envelopes that came through the mail addressed to people who didn't live or work at Palestine House. He said the envelopes contained government cheques for the national child benefit, but the recipients weren't actually living in Canada.
In addition to the continuing shame and embarrassment of non-Canadians stealing Canadian tax dollars with fake tears in their eyes, we have the spectre of a Clouseauvian police force having certain"suspicions."
As American playwright David Mamet once reported that his father - an avid poker player, like Mamet himself - once said, "Son, if you're sitting at the table and wondering who the mark is, it's you!"
The photo, by the way, is off the Deputy Minister of Citizenship & Immigration...or someone posing cleverly as him.
This is by far the best explanation of the Muslim terrorist
situation I have ever read. His references to past history are accurate
and clear. Not long, easy to understand, and well worth the read. The
author of this email is said to be Dr. Emanuel Tanay, a well known and
well respected psychiatrist.
A German's View on Islam
A man, whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War
II, owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many
German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude
toward fanaticism. 'Very few people were true Nazis,' he said, 'but many
enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care.
I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So,
the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew
it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had
come. My family lost everything.. I ended up in a concentration camp and
the Allies destroyed my factories.'
We are told again and again by 'experts' and 'talking heads'
that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of
Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion
may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant
to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the spectra of
fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam.
The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in
history. It is the fanatics who march. It is the fanatics who wage any
one of 50 shooting wars worldwide. It is the fanatics who systematically
slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually
taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave. It is the fanatics
who bomb, behead, murder, or honor-kill. It is the fanatics who take
over mosque after mosque. It is the fanatics who zealously spread the
stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. It is the fanatics
who teach their young to kill and to become suicide bombers.
The hard quantifiable fact is that the peaceful majority,
the 'silent majority,' is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to
live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the
murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were
irrelevant.
China 's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese
Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was
not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way
across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the
systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword,
shovel, and bayonet.
And, who can forget Rwanda , which collapsed into butchery.
Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were 'peace loving'?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for
all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated
of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their
silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak
up, because like my friend from Germany , they will awaken one day and
find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have
begun.
Peace-loving Germans,Japanese, Chinese,Russians , Rwandans,
Serbs, Afghans, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and
many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up
until it was too late.
As for us who watch it all unfold, we must pay attention to
the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Lastly, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious and just
deletes this email without sending it on, is contributing to the
passiveness that allows the problems to expand. So, extend yourself a
bit and send this on and on and on! Let us hope that thousands, world
wide, read this and think about it, and send it on - before it's too
late.
A university student writing in a campus newspaper back east a few days ago attacked the Harper government for trying to shut down Insite, The student held up the facility as a great modern boon to practically everything.
Our good friend, Al Arsenault, who worked the DTES as a city cop for a great many years, has a slightly different take.
Hi David
I have a hard timer reading the drivel coming from people who know absolutely nothing about drug addiction as well, but every once in a while I have to pen a few words: this is what I told the author:
As a long-time DTES beat officer who was walking those mean streets of Vancouver before HR ever showed up, I have seen the devastation that drug abuse has inflicted on this community. Do you call the very high rates of infectious drug-related disease quoted a success? Show me the plunging graph line of how infectious diseases were curtailed from the late 1980’s with the “highly successful” Needle Exchange to the present slick Supervised Injection Site (SIS). I defy anyone in the medical community to plot this long-term course of ruin. Wake up! There are scores of people hobbling around now down there with missing limbs, so sick is that population. BandAiding them to death is so compassionate, isn’t it? OD deaths went up from 50 to 64 in the (Vancouver) Health District that hosts the SIS in the first year of operation (2003-4). It was deviously hailed as a “success” by their spokesperson Gillian Maxwell (Google her name and the ‘2020 Group’ for the drug legalization aspects of the operation). She used the provincial decline stats from 186 to 171, citing a lack of knowledge about the deaths more pertinent to the operation of the SIS. Since then detailed health district by health district OD death stats have not been publicized.
All sanctimony aside, no one dies from OD’s, nor does anyone ever get a drug-related disease, in good treatment. Why? Because, by definition, they separate the addict from the drug. Period. Look up the Therapeutic Community Treatment Model. How’s that for life-saving measures? How about the so-called ‘Center of Excellence’ doing a study on the relative benefits of long-term treatment vs. long-term Harm Reduction, if they really want to help solve them problem of drug addiction? Ever hear of San Patrignano?
The sad reality here is that the rich get treatment while the poor get harm reduction.
After over two decades of HR, you might have a live addict but most likely a diseased addict. Imagine what could be accomplished with just a few good years of treatment. If you look closely at those poor souls down there, those with one foot in the ditch and the other (if they still have their other leg) in the grave, you might see someone badly in need of treatment. They really don’t need a box of needles and a place to shoot up. Heaven forbid we judge their drug-related behaviour as per the HR mantra. But we do owe it to them to do just that- not to judge WHO they are as people, but to show how their drug use is costing themselves, their families and the community at large. The junkie industry thrives on the pandering to the whims of those too sick to ask for help (can they get help in a timely fashion in the shadow of HR?).
True compassion lies not in giving an addict what she/he WANTS, rather it is based upon the sober, connected, and compassionate gift of what he really NEEDS- decent treatment.
Omar Khadr may or may not be a murder, a terrorist, and a sonofabitch who is mean to babies and dogs.
But what is the point of fighting and winning wars and skirmishes in the name of fairy-tale notions like democracy and freedom and justice if we abandon all such in the execution of the battle?
Now, the Supreme Court of Canada has clearly and cleanly thrown down the gauntlet to the Harper government, challenging Canada to bring Khadar back from the legal and moral black hole of Guantanamo Bay.
In a 9-0 ruling, the court effectively dared the Harper government to ignore its finding that Canada and the United States are violating Mr. Khadr's right to life, liberty and security under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
A government is expected to take action when the court rules it has violated some one's rights.
This is not a question of being kind to criminals.
Sunday's men's final down under may present for the first time in living memory the prospect of two real court artists facing each other in a battle of speed and touch and sublime shot-making.
It's true that there have been many great and memorable moments in Grand Slam finals through the years.
When I first got hooked on the game, the rivalry of Borg and McEnroe was something special to behold. The Slugger and the Wizard. Borg was driving shot after shot as straight arrows while Johnny Mac was dipping and diving and massaging shots at hadn't previously been imagined.
But now...
Now, suddenly, we have Roger Federer and Andy Murray, the two deftest players in the game today. They are both faster than any two or three other players put together. They both can serve and volley as well as Stephan Edberg did in his prime and they both have hands apparently made of butter. In one instance in yesterday's victory over Milan Cilic, Murray actually looked exactly like McEnroe on a touch volley four feet from the net. He barely bent his knees at all (as we are all yelled at to do by our teachers), simply dropped his racquet to the floor and let the ball ping up and across the net for a sure winner. Pure McEnroe.
This may or may not be a great final. But it should be.
If both men can forget their nerves and fight like the dogs that they truly are, if Murray can get past his intimidation by Federer, if Fed can push past his own too-often too-cool and growl, we may have one of the best face-offs in a long, long time.
Who will win?
Search me.
Federer, the number one player in the world and the holder of more singles slams than anyone else in history has played flowing flawless tennis these past two weeks in Melbourne. He'll be the favorite.
But make no mistake.
Andy Murray is primed to take this one. He could do it.
Let's get serious. Super Bowl 44 isn't until next week, no one will be watching the strangley timed Pro Bowl, and this choice tennis match may be one for the ages.
The two stories are unrelated in specifics, but they are united by an unhappy common theme - police are straining our necessary sense of trust and good will in their motives and behaviour on and off the job.
I appreciate that police are human and like me and you they make mistakes every single day.
I appreciate that as police you are often, more often than not, dealing with garbage and crap.
Probably it could be safely argued that your job is tougher than many other employments.
O.K.
But please...let's get you out of these kind of headlines.
By the way, in the first case quoted...mistaken identity. Oops, we're sorry may not cut it.
Terry Naugle of Nova Scotia was convicted of drunk driving in 1978, 1980, 1981, 1984, 1988, 1989, 1989 again, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2006 and, most recently, 2009. He never received a lifetime driving ban, at least until the 2009 charges, for which he is being sentenced next month.
Above is the first shocking paragraph of an editorial in yesterday's Globe.
Apparently, we continue to believe that driving a car is some god-given right in this country and no matter how dangerous and demented our behaviour, we may do so ad naseum.
Apparently, we continue to believe in this country that drinking booze badly is just an amusing side-bar to real life and it is to be chuckled at while we have another.
Apparently, we have no balls, no values and no political will to get real on this subject.
One year I traipsed around the winter campus of the University of Manitoba in my tweed great coat. I called it my Holden Caulfield.
"The Catcher in the Rye" is and was and probably will continue to be a monumental success in so many ways - as a piece of literature, a publishing gold mine and a mysteriously alluring cultural icon.
Today when students from other countries ask me what book they should read, I buy them a copy of "Catcher."
Is there a course at any school in North America that doesn't have this slender volume on its required reading list.
A few more books and short stories and then the famous retreat.
Hidden in the woods somewhere in New England, J.D. Salinger became even more famous and more sought-after. Here is the N.Y. Times obit.
A teacher was arrested today at John F. Kennedy International Airportas he attempted to board a flight while in possession of a ruler, aprotractor, a compass, a slide-rule and a calculator.
At a morning press conference, the Attorney General said he believes theman is a member of thenotorious Al-Gebra movement. He did not identifythe man, who has been charged by the FBI with carrying weapons of mathinstruction.
'"Al-Gebra is a problem for us," the Attorney General said. "They derivesolutions by means andextremes, and sometimes go off on tangents insearch of absolute values.." They use secret code names like 'X' and 'Y' and refer to themselves as "unknowns", but we have determined that theybelong to a common denominator of the axis of medieval with coordinatesin every country.
As the Greek philanderer Isosceles used to say, 'There are 3 sides toevery triangle'.
When asked to comment on the arrest, President Obama said, "If God hadwanted us to have better weapons of math instruction, he would have given us more fingers and toes." White House aides told reporters they could not recall a more intelligent or profound statement by the President. It is believed that the Nobel Prize for Physics will follow.
I do contract work for Aboriginals. As part of this, I often bring some of them to Vancouver for discussions. Many don't have credit cards so they can't reserve hotels. No problem. I put their rooms on my personal credit card and the Federal government pays me after. I don't charge the Feds for this credit service. I've been doing this for 9 years. But each time I book a room for a Native , the hotel requires me to send a photocopy of my credit card, front and back, via fax. These are hotels where I've done this umpteen times. No fax, no room. If I offer to read my credit card number over the phone , the hotel ( I could name a dozen in Vancouver) says that I could be anybody. Ditto for trying to do it on-line. Like I said, 9 years.
So, as Desi would ask " splain this". I travel a lot. I can give my credit card number to the reservation person in Toronto and arrive with the assurance that my room will be waiting. I can book a plane to Dubai on line with my card and swan up to the desk at the airport with total assurance. Why, if I am trying to do this for somebody else, does the hotel require a fax with photocopies of my card and signatures WHICH ANY DRUNK IN THE LOBBY COULD STEAL?
Is it because the people are Natives? What is the risk. You can't steal a goddamn room and sneak it past the concierge.
The hotels tell me they are only trying to protect me. From what? I always send a signed fax stipulating that my card will only cover one room for one night. If I have paid in advance, why do they give a shit about who actually sleeps in the bed? They're covered for Chrissakes?
My wife's employer is shutting down the office for two weeks during the Olympic event because customers are afraid to drive to town; afraid to find parking and are now canceling appointments en mass.
This means the practice will be closed and the 6 employees including the owner will not be paid wages, yet rent is still due and bills must be paid.
This means our family will not have holidays this year, nor will we be able to afford such niceties as swimming lessons for the children.
Our family are not the only ones affected.
So when those many politicians take taxpayer paid for tickets to watch a taxpayer paid for event, think of the thousands of taxpayers who have been negatively affected by the games.
Does VANOC have a conscience at all; does Furlong give a damn? Does Gordo?
Thus, all I can do is report what I saw this morning.
On page S3 in the Globe BC section, the paper is carrying a story about how Vancouver police will not be rushing to arrest too many people for smoking marijuana during the famous Games.
O.K.
But was it truly necessary to run a half-page photo of someone smoking a joint?
No doubt this is highly amusing and knowing for everyone.
It is also irresponsible and destructive.
Ha ha ...pot is so cute, so benign, so acceptable.
Heck for many it is a cause and a life's devotion and they are seen as cultural heroes.
This half-page photo is simply a small and thoughtless part of the whole ugly drug story.
