Pop Quiz

"Are you happy Abousfian Abdelrazik is back in Canada?"

Take your damn health centre...

...and shove it...

A plan to install the De dwa da dehs neye's Aboriginal Health Centre at the Kanata Iroquois Village site beginning Canada Day has hit a snag - its presence is being protested again by a native group calling itself the Mohawk Nation.

"Nothing has changed. This is Mohawk land," said spokesman Konalonqwa Johnson. "The City of Brantford is trying to take it over and rent it to a health group and they don't have any ties to us.

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It's all fun and games, until somebody...

...loses a freedom...

"They denounced me as a Zionist and told me I was not welcome in the Pride Parade which was being held in my own city of Toronto, in my own country of Canada, where my ancestors have lived since 1750."

"The sponsors of Pride should think twice about having their names associated with an event that includes such groups."

(via shaidle)

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

"I'll have to watch it again and count how many times I said, 'This is Canada'."

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RELATED: Special rules for "special" people

"Miller also defended a decision to leave it up to residents to clean up after themselves after tomorrow's Canada Day events even though city managers and private contractors were on hand to clean up after the Pride parade."

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Roll out the barrel...

...pork, that is...

"Canadian governments today essentially possess only two significant powers: the power to appoint and the power to disappoint."

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Yes, Toronto... you're number one...

...with a bullet...

"Twenty more Toronto public high schools will each get a police officer on a full-time basis when students return to class in the fall, bringing the total number of schools with officers to 50, the police chief said Monday."

Total number of schools in the Prince Edward-Hastings County district with a full-time, armed police presence?

Well... that'd be, er... none.

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

"You righteous right family values left hatin' bathroom blowjob freaks get your panties all in a bunch when anyone dares question the statements made by your dear leaders."

Oh boy... somebody got up on the wrong side of the futon.

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From the "Just Desserts" file

“It is open season against my client,” said David Midanik, defence lawyer for Tyshan Riley, as closing arguments began.

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The compassionate, intellectual left...

...strikes back...
[*]

Waxman - Markey

Behold the twisted, disfigured freak behind the pretty mask...

Just for the gas, the cost would be “an additional $178 billion annually, or about $560 for each man, woman and child in the U.S.”

So, lessee… What kinds of manufacturing/industry uses fuel? All of ‘em. Check. Service industries? All of ‘em. Check. Financials? All of ‘em. Check. Consumer discretionary/necessities? All of ‘em. Check. Communications? Tech? Materials? All of ‘em. Check.

Oh, oh.

So what is the actual goal?

"Carbon prices will soar as U.S. refiners compete with each other and other industrial companies for a limited number of allowances ... permit prices may top $100 a ton."

Yep. A new derivatives market for market playahs to... er, play in.

Because the last derivatives market worked so well.

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Well, whaddaya know... looks like...

...the law of the land trumps "empathy"...

-- WASHINGTON -- The United States Supreme Court gave President Barack Obama's high-court nominee, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, a legal slap on Monday, overturning a controversial decision involving a group of white firefighters from Connecticut who were denied promotions based on their race.

With Sotomayor's potential high court colleagues tossing one of her most cited decisions, it's expected the case will become central in her Senate confirmation hearings upcoming next month.

Hmmm... hiring people based on merit... instead of who their parents are... what a concept.

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RELATED: In other politically correct news...

Mr. Hudak was unapologetic about his campaign, which included a pledge to disband the province’s human rights tribunal, a body that has issued some perplexing decisions in recent years, including one forcing a bar owner to post signs saying “We accommodate authorized marijuana users” after he asked the man to move from the doorway while he smoked a joint.

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In David Miller's socialist paradise...

...there's no such thing as a bad boy, er... girl... well... you know...

Abused women living in a YWCA facility in North Toronto say they've been forced to share showers with transsexual tenants and cope with frequent, violent behaviour from others living there. Residents in the four-storey residence and shelter for victims of domestic abuse told the Sun repeated complaints about physical assault, harassment and verbal abuse have been downplayed, if not outright ignored by the YWCA.

"One woman on the third floor was wielding a knife to other people living on the floor and it took three years to evict her," a tenant told the Sun. "They tell us we have to show compassion." YWCA staff have refused to call police following complaints of violent altercations, and told residents they have to call authorities themselves, according to women who live in the building.

Yesterday, the Sunday Sun reported that some women living in the Riverdale YWCA assisted-housing facility are using the taxpayer and United Way-subsidized building as a base for prostitution -- even bringing johns into their apartments.

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Smart money says... "Buy Candles"

Lots and lots of candles.

-- TORONTO -- The Ontario government is suspending its plans to build the province's first new nuclear reactors in a generation, citing concerns about cost overruns and uncertainty surrounding the future of Crown-owned Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.

Just last year, the government said it would have two new reactors up and running by July, 2018 at its Darlington nuclear station in Clarington, a fast-growing community about 80 kilometres east of Toronto.

Okay... Yellow Pages... generators, generators...

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You can't scare me...

...I've been watching Lloyd Al-Robertson...

One of the longest running and most contentious debates in Canadian broadcasting is coming to an end with the expected approval by federal regulators to allow Al Jazeera's English television network to be carried here.

Sources close to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission indicate that Al Jazeera English, the international spinoff of the Qatar-based Arabic language news network Al Jazeera, will likely be cleared for Canada this summer, possibly within weeks.

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"Since the Supreme Leader..."

"...has refused to heed my powerfully worded warnings, I feel I have no choice but to raise the official Iranian Disaffection Meter to ‘gingerly chagrined’."

"I take no pleasure in doing so, but I have been backed into a corner by the inaction of the Council. Let me say further that when I say ‘inaction’, I in no way mean to insinuate that Iranians are a lazy people. Nothing could be further from the truth."

"In fact, anyone who has seen the grainy-imaged bootleg videos from the Iranian street in recent days, can’t help but be impressed by the vigorous, spirited debate occurring among this decidedly non-sedentary people."

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Bright lights, big city...

...sucking chest wound...

-- MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -- Peel Regional Police are investigating this city's 13th homicide of the year after a man was shot to death at a crowded party early Sunday morning.

Homicide detectives said at around 1:39 a.m., officers responded to a report of shots fired at a house party in the Malton community of Mississauga, Ont.

Investigators believe the party was "well attended" and that many of the revellers fled when the police arrived. They are appealing to those people to come forward to police.

No arrests have been made.

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RELATED: It's a killer neighbourhood

Police have sealed off Monica Dr. and a park the runs behind the house in question to Brandon Gate Dr. as homicide detectives investigate the region's 13th murder of the year.

In November of 2007, David Latchana, 23, was gunned down at a home on Monica Dr. that was allegedly operating as a booze can, known as Paulette's Place.

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UPDATE: Murder victim identified...

Nicarno Anthony Wright, 22, of Brampton was gunned down at a house party in Malton early this morning.

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From the voluminous...

..."criminal genius" files...

-- CORNWALL –- An online forum dedicated to exposing people who allegedly have been drug informants for Cornwall police has been unearthed on the social networking site Facebook.

There's just one little glitch... apparently the hundred plus members of this little cabal... also posted their real names and profile photos. Said one commenter...

"I don't know much about selling drugs, but if I was a dealer I probably wouldn’t advertise it on Facebook. You guys are fucking geniuses. The group was probably started by the cops, if they were smart."

The group’s members openly share drug connections and anecdotes about drug deals that allegedly went wrong because of police informants.

Good grief.

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So, hang on there a sec...

...what happens if you have a heart attack on "Heterosexual Monday?"

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Congrats, Tim

"Tim Hudak has won the leadership of the Ontario Progressives, a choice that sees the party return to its small-c conservative roots."

The CBC weighs in...

Hudak has promised to scrap Ontario's Human Rights Tribunal, which both Klees and Elliott warned would tank with voters and give the ruling Liberals an easy victory in the 2011 election.

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You can do...

...absolutely everything right and still pay the ultimate price...

They wanted his cellphone so they stabbed him in the heart.

And now three young men, who callously murdered a 16-year-old Grade 12 North Park Secondary School honours student in the fall of 2007 are heading to prison after a jury in Brampton found them guilty of murder yesterday.

The courtroom was full of tears and sobbing as the jury found Omari White, 19, and Jamal Johnson, 21, guilty of first-degree murder and Eric Robinson, 21, of second-degree murder.

A fourth man, Ryan Walwin-Townsend, 22, will face a separate trial for first-degree murder this fall.

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RELATED: Remember Michael Oatway?

Mr. Oatway's mistake was not to cower properly before S.M. and his three friends as they effectively surrounded him in the narrow rear confines of the bus, S.M. smartly directing him, at knifepoint, to hand over his iPod.

Bright lights, big city... is it really worth your life?

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It must be true...

...I saw it on TV...

"The reportage, so called, is simply an immense static flowing out of the celebrity event. Its purpose is not to supply information but to indicate, by its sheer volume and continuousness, the rank of the celebrity concerned."

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RELATED: The good news is...

...somebody dodged a bullet...

"Jackson's passing is an even better thing for the Waxman-Markey 'Cap and Trade' TAX that was pushed through the House today, without anyone reading it, or any other media objectively covering it. Even Fox News started slobberin' over the sad news about Michael at 5:55 P. M., when they cut off Beck."

"Fox's Bret Baier was to follow at 6:00 P. M., with a complete expose' on the bill and how it will kill the economy, but he was also pre-empted with the media circus that followed."

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I'm guided by a signal in the heavens

I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin...
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons...
First we take Caledonia... then we take Brant...ford.

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Yet another dark chapter...

...in the brutal, shameful history of Toronto's horrible racist police force...

A man who returned to Canada wrapped in bloody bandages after being repeatedly shot in Jamaica in May was arrested in a drugs-and-guns investigation. Not only is he facing criminal charges after he was arrested outside a Keele St. and Steeles Ave. liquor store by Toronto Police's Organized Crime Enforcement Unit, the man is appealing a deportation order to Jamaica.

Now, c'mon... just because a man shows up at our border dripping blood from a gunbattle... does that make him a criminal?

No... but this sure does...

Police from Toronto and Waterloo executed five search warrants, including at restaurants on Jane St. and Wilson Ave. With help from Waterloo investigators, police seized 510 grams of heroin, 113 grams of cocaine, a pound of marijuana, $30,000 cash and three vehicles.

A police source said the suspect, a landed immigrant, is well known to police. Known on the streets as Skellion and Tall Man, the man has been in Canada since he was 13 and his arrest, the source said, will have "a significant impact in the criminal community."

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RELATED: Racist "Red Star" wants in...

In April 2004, Moulton – also known as Tall Man – was charged with two counts of attempted murder in connection to a double shooting. He was acquitted.

In 1999, he was convicted of attempted murder in the shooting of 31-year-old Fabian Graham. He was sentenced to more than a decade in prison.

The Kingston shooting was not the first time someone close to Moulton was killed. In October 2007, his girlfriend, Rachel Alleyne, was gunned down at a house party on Driftwood Ave.

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Karma

...it's a bitch...

In a news release issued today, Corrections Canada says Gleason Bennett Williams died today at Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick where he was serving a life sentence for second-degree murder.

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RELATED: Four measly freakin' years?

You've gotta be shittin' me...

-- EDMONTON -- The last person to be sentenced in the sex slaying of a 13-year-old Edmonton girl is going to jail for four years. The 20-year-old woman will then be under supervision for another three years.

Courtepatte was lured from West Edmonton Mall in April 2005 by several “mall rats” who promised to take her to a party in the country.

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It's our money...

...how come we don't get to know about it...

Canada's top court is taking on another press freedom case involving the sponsorship scandal.

Ottawa is suing Groupe Polygone for $35-million, trying to recoup sponsorship money paid by the former Liberal government.

Justice Jean-Francois de Grandpre issued a gag order against the Globe last year when it reported Ottawa and Polygone were talking out of court.

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A slice of Islamic jurisprudence...

...comes to Canada with the official introduction of "blood money"...

A controversial $2-million payment by gangsters to a Toronto mother paralyzed in their botched mob hit bought them silence from police and prosecutors and could soon help them get earlier parole, prison lawyers complain.

“A prison officer has made substantial efforts to obtain updated information from the police but, unfortunately, he has hit a roadblock as none of his contacts will go on record about Scarcella,” says the four-page memo written this February by a government lawyer in Ottawa.

Oh Canada.

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Wednesday night CTV...

..."moonbat moment"...

Lloyd and company went to town last night about a United Nations report that says Canada is pushing vast quantities of meth and ecstasy on the rest of the unsuspecting world.

Well, that sure brought me up off the couch. Staid, boring, law-abiding Canadians are turning into compassless, violent drug lords?

Seriously?

Well, not exactly. Somebody at CTV, unintentionally I'm sure, let slip some actual facts.

Turns out this is all about... and I wrote this down so I'd get it exactly right... "sophisticated Asian crime groups based in B.C."

Who knew?

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Canadians are such bad people! My TV 'news' told me so!"

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Hey, who doesn't like a...

...good zombie flick?

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Hope, Change and...

...Big Mother knows best...

The president characteristically denies that he is doing what he is doing -- putting the nation on a path to an outcome he considers desirable -- just as he denies any intention of running General Motors. Nevertheless, the unifying constant of his domestic policies -- their connecting thread -- is that they advance the Democrats' dependency agenda.

The party of government aims to make Americans more equal by making them equally dependent on government for more and more things.

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RELATED: So Barack, that foreign policy shit...

...you're makin' it up as you go, right?

A bomb ripped through a crowded market in Baghdad's main Shia district on Wednesday, killing at least 61 people and wounding more than 100 less than a week before a deadline for U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq's urban areas.

A series of blasts this week have killed more than 160 people, as U.S. and Iraqi officials warned they expected more violence before the U.S. withdrawal from cities.

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

Cowardly, dishonest Canadian Cesspool decides to forge more comments under my name.

Douche-baggery... it's just a service he offers.

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Britain... just one more reason

Of boots and broken stuff...

"Three barleycorns comprising 1 inch was the legal definition of the inch in many mediæval laws, both of England and Wales, from the 10th century Laws of Hywel Dda to the 1324 definition of the inch enacted by Edward II. Used in current UK shoe measurement."

Used in current UK shoe measurement? Did I just read that? Apparently the English are currently using a unit of measure from 1066 to size shoes.

Currently, as in Today. Right now. Exactly at this second, there's some UK bastard out there lining up his fucking barleycorns.

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So, Anne-Marie, you're saying what?

That there's the odd vague rumour of substance & alcohol abuse within the aboriginal community?

She said there have been "rare" cases when hand sanitizer has been problematic in some communities where people have alcohol addictions.

When asked whether the concerns were raised by Health Canada officials or by leaders in the community, Ms. Robinson responded, "Both, over the years."

You know... that sounds so familiar.

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C'mon folks, what's the big deal?

It's not like she can't slam out plenty more...

-- PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. -- A Saskatchewan woman who gave birth in a Wal-Mart washroom and left the newborn in a toilet has been found not guilty of abandoning the baby.

She said the baby boy was blue and not moving, so she assumed he was dead and left the store.

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SAD REALITY UPDATE:

"Mr. Charlette said that Ms. Halkett may seek medical help in the near future, as she is currently three or four months pregnant -- once again, she did not know right away that she was expecting."

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FROM THE COMMMENTS:

"You left one out."

"Not only is she pregnant again, she also has one more child (which she apparently didn't abandon in a supermarket toilet) and she intends to fight for the abandoned child."

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In a complete repudiation...

...of everything he's ever stood for... Toronto Mayor David Miller has declared war on scum-sucking criminals...
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RELATED: Somebody finally asked

"If the mayor was on heroin and finally kicked the habit, we would rejoice, not insist he continue shooting up because that's what he's always done in the past."

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UPDATE: Apparently, the first act of...

...civil disobedience is deductible...

The message from the City of Toronto is clear: those who obey the rules will be punished. Those who flout the rules will be rewarded.

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LAST WORD: Thank gawd for the almighty union.

[*]

The Buck Stops...

...somewhere else...

Opposition MPPs had called on the premier to sack the Toronto-area minister for failing to curtail millions of sole-sourced contracts and lavish consultant contracts at eHealth Ontario, the agency charged with making provincial health records electronic.

But Mr. McGuinty will apparently stand by Mr. Caplan, who was also responsible for the provincial lottery agency when it was overtaken by a massive insider wins scandal.

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Hope, Change and...

..."Hey, Rocky... wanna see me pull a rabbit outta my hat?"...

-- WASHINGTON (AP) -- White House officials phoned a blogger from a popular left-leaning Web site on Monday evening to tell him that President Barack Obama had been impressed with his online reporting about Iran. Could the writer pass along a question from an Iranian during the president's news conference on Tuesday?

Of course. The next day, The Huffington Post's Nico Pitney got a prime location in the White House Briefing Room and was the second reporter Obama picked for a question.

"Nico, I know that you — and all across the Internet — we've been seeing a lot of reports coming directly out of Iran," Obama said without trying to hide that he knew the crux of the question. "I know that there may actually be questions from people in Iran who are communicating through the Internet. Do you have a question?"

White House officials and Pitney dismissed suggestions that the question was a plant.

I'm thinkin'... maybe the honeymoon is over.

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Prez McDreamy still softpedalling...

...slaughter in Iran...

Administration officials are reiterating their call for a fair and non-violent resolution of the Iranian election conflict.

We think it is very important that if this is going to be an issue for the Iranians to decide, then all the voices should be heard -- that the process should be fair and that the people should be allowed to express their opinions.

Curiously, the Obama folks are strangely silent on gunning down teenage girls.

State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly declined under questioning to say whether the administration might be reconsidering its policy of seeking dialogue with Tehran on Iran's nuclear program and other issues.

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

It now appears Nada was 26, not 16. However, her death is still a tragedy, and murder by the authorities.

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Turtle with a 'tude

We rescued this little guy off the road near our place. We've been picking them up off the road and placing them back in the ditch... but some recent reptile carnage has changed our game plan.

There have been at least a half dozen smashed turtles in the last week or so where the road passes through the swamp, so we've decided to open the immigration floodgates to the pond out back.

Despite our benevolent intentions... he did not go quietly... a valuable characteristic in both turtles and human beings.

Welcome Mr T.

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

Out fishing, my friend is sitting at the bow with a couple of pike on a chain stringer. Suddenly the chain starts to rattle so he proceeds to pull it up to see what's happening.

I then hear this girl-like scream coming from him and look up to see a snapper about the size of a grade school desk top latched on to one of the pike.

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Police are working on the theory...

...that most of the 400 passengers were in the boat's washroom... at the time of the incident...

Two men are dead, two were in custody yesterday -- and police want to question many more. Toronto's 24th and 25th homicide victims of the year had spent the night on the Enterprise 2000 party boat before meeting their fate early Sunday morning.

Despite the small number of witnesses who came forward, investigators were certain yesterday that Andy James, 26, and Brandon Ramdeen, 27, were knifed in a Cherry St. parking lot after the boat docked because of an argument that started during the cruise.

That must have been some "argument", huh? I betcha something like that calls for a good, er... "scuffle."

James and Ramdeen were involved in two separate scuffles that stemmed from the same argument on the boat, Sheppard said.

James was stabbed first. Ramdeen went over to the area where James was stabbed "to find out what happened to his friend," before he became the victim of a knife attack, Sheppard said.

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You just have to ask yourself...

..."What would a Liberal do?"...

-- VANCOUVER -- The provincial government may have destroyed all cabinet e-mails between 2001 and 2005, opening a huge gap in the official record despite a law that electronic files must be kept for at least seven years, the Supreme Court of British Columbia has learned.

Michael Bolton, who is defending one of three former government employees in a political corruption case stemming from the sale of BC Rail, said outside court Monday he was stunned to hear the e-mails aren't available.

“This is troubling... this potentially is a very serious matter. We never expected this,” said Mr. Bolton, who is defending Dave Basi, who was a ministerial aid in 2003 when the government sold BC Rail to CN Rail for $1-billion.

I remember back in my mainframe days... we had an inviolable 7 year rule on archiving backup tapes. Oh wait... so does British Columbia...

“The Document Disposal Act requires that electronic records be kept for seven years,” he said. “It raises incredible suspicions and someone farther up the political chain that Mr. Copley is going to have to appear in court and explain what happened.”

The government of B.C. has a detailed protocol covering both the preservation and destruction of its records.

Formal records can be destroyed, but only after the action has been approved by a public documents committee, the legislative assembly or the attorney general.

Hmmm.

Murdered teen becomes...

...'voice of the Iranian revolution'...

The grisly murder of a 16-year-old protester named Neda at a demonstration in Teheran on Saturday was captured by at least two different cameras and posted on the popular video-sharing Web site, YouTube.

The longer video, which is 40 seconds in length, has been seen by over 60,000 viewers since it was posted Saturday.

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

"We sit here in the safe haven that is Canada and fret over having to get off our asses and drag ourselves into a polling station to vote just because it happens to be the summer. Meanwhile, these people are dying."

"Kind of puts things in perspective, eh?"

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LAST WORD: Ask a community organiser

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Apparently, contrary to popular opinion...

...France hasn't surrendered... just yet.

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UPDATE: Turning up the heat

France is to set up a commission to study the extent of burka-wearing in the country, after President Nicolas Sarkozy said the veils reduced dignity.

The French National Assembly has appointed 32 lawmakers on a fact-finding mission to look at ways of restricting its use.

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Justice... Canadian Style

Drown Mom... score a free university education...

One of two Mississauga sisters convicted four years ago of killing their mother will be let out of prison and allowed to move to a halfway house. The woman, who cannot be identified, was granted early release so she can do university studies this fall.

The sisters were convicted in 2005 of killing their mother in 2003 by drowning her in the bathtub. The 22-year-old who was given early release was a minor at the time of the crime.

She will go to a halfway house in Barrie, Ont., and from there she will be allowed to take online courses with the University of Waterloo where she has been awarded a $2,000 scholarship.

Please tell me this story actually originated at the Onion.

Please.

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In what Canadian city, and at...

...what busy intersection... can you be beaten within an inch of your life... before somebody calls the police?

A 28-year-old man remains in critical condition with head injuries suffered during a weekend fight on Yonge St.

The victim and a man argued and then fought on the city's main boulevard just north of Dundas St. around 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Toronto Police Det. Wayne Fowler said.

Investigators believe a passerby recorded the fight on a cellphone and are asking that person to call police at 416-808-5204.

No one called 911 until the fight was over, Fowler said.

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Lord of the Flies

But I'll bet you dollars to donuts... "His Blondeness" will show up to take all the credit after the inevitable "settlement" is hashed out...

"I'm not going to comment on any particular issue. It’s not appropriate at this present time." The mayor insisted a negotiated settlement "not only can be reached but must be reached."

He said he has no plans to step into negotiations himself. "My role is not to be at the bargaining table; never has been, in any of these labour of negotiations. For a variety of reasons it doesn’t work."

He also refused to speculate on under what circumstances he might call for provincial mediators to arbitrate a settlement.

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Be still my heart

The Toronto "Red Star"... that bastion of unapologetic socialism... puts Iggy "on probation"...

One veteran Liberal communications expert said Ignatieff's basic problem was that he didn't anticipate the possibility that Harper might cooperate with him.

"Then, when he got the answer he didn't expect, he abandoned his position and – bizarrely – started redrafting his position on the fly in media interviews," the strategist said.

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Hope, Change and...

..."unprecedented transparency."

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Farting through silk bedsheets

Maybe what Mayor Miller should be thinking about banning next... is unabashed greed...

All over North America, jobs are being slashed as companies fail or teeter on the brink. For those lucky enough to keep their jobs, many are facing pay cuts or mandatory unpaid days off. For the unemployed, finding a new job is near impossible, and most of the available jobs are part-time or contract-only.

And then there are Toronto's unionized workers, who are preparing to go on strike as early as this Monday, if the city continues to push for changes to their sick day allotment. Under the current system, employees have a whopping eighteen sick days per year.

Days that aren't used up can be used to retire early or can be cashed in at the end of their careers.

So what will a strike affect?

Household garbage, recycling, green bin and yard waste collection will be cancelled. Private garbage and recycling collection will continue in Etobicoke and at most condos and apartment buildings across city.

All scheduled meetings of Council, community councils, standing committees, advisory committees and task forces will be cancelled.

All City-run events scheduled on Nathan Phillips Square, Metro Square and other civic squares will be cancelled. All Environment Days scheduled during the labour disruption will be rescheduled.

Toronto Island ferry service will be cancelled.

Parks will be open for casual use only but all permits for parks, tennis courts, outdoor sports fields and civic squares will be cancelled.

All City community centres and fitness centres will be closed as will city pools, arenas, golf courses. wading pools and the Riverdale Farm.

All recreation programming, including camps, classes, drop-ins, clubs and city programming in community schools will be cancelled.

All child care centres directly operated by Toronto Children's Services are closed.

Five Toronto Public Library branches located in shared facilities with City services will close for the duration of the labour dispute.

Hey, it's not all bad news.

There won't be any parking tickets for the duration.

Party on, Toronto.

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Unrest? Sounds more like...

...all-out war to me...

-- TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- State media reported Sunday at least 10 more deaths in post-election unrest and said authorities have arrested the daughter and four other relatives of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, one of Iran's most powerful men.

The reports brought the official death toll for a week of unrest to at least 19. State television inside Iran said 10 were killed and 100 injured in clashes Saturday.

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RELATED: Once again... he votes "present"
Yes, Mr President... what's a little unrest between friends?

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Toronto... another dead kid

Mayor's office reportedly working on plan to ban teenagers within city limits...

A Brampton teen is dead after a shooting last night in the city west of Toronto. Peel region police say officers found a 15-year-old boy suffering from life-threatening injuries near an elementary school just before 9 p.m.

Baden Willcocks was rushed to hospital where he died.

Homicide detectives are now investigating the circumstances around his death. They're trying to identify four young men who were last seen fleeing the scene in a gold-coloured vehicle.

Looks like i'm not the only person who gets upset about murder...Imagine that.

FROM THE COMMENTS:

Yeah, folks... I know. Brampton... Toronto... they're just worlds apart.

You get it though, right?

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UPDATE:

Trish Zaremba said she saw the suspects run away from the scene. "The guy was like: 'I got him smack dab in his chest.' Like, he was proud of it and I just couldn't believe it!"

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RELATED: A little stab'll do ya

Two people are in police custody following a stabbing in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Police say the incident happened outside and apartment building at Keele Street and Finch Avenue at about 12:30 a.m. on Saturday. A knife was recovered from the scene.

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McSlippery Slope

The inevitable endgame of the compassionate, intellectual left...

The state should cultivate children from conception in nutrient-rich artificial wombs, care for them through college, guarantee them jobs and social security as adults, furnish pensions for their senior years and wrap things up with government nursing homes, euthanasia clinics and cremation.

(via sda)

The capricious and unknowable...

...Will of Allah...

The coach of the Iraqi national karate team has been shot dead by gunmen in the northern city of Mosul, police say. It is not known why Izzat Abdullah was attacked, although sports officials and athletes were regularly targeted at the height of the Iraqi insurgency.

I have to confess, I'm a little confused.

If nothing in this world happens that isn't "HIS" will... does this mean that Allah has a hard-on for athletes?

Four members of the previous Iraqi National Olympic Committee remain missing after they were kidnapped in July 2006. Months earlier members of the Iraqi tae-kwon-do team were seized while travelling to their training centre. Their remains were found a year later.

Others who have been killed since the invasion of Iraq include the Olympic cycling coach, national wrestling coach, a soccer federation member and a prominent volleyball player, the Associated Press news agency says.

Or, maybe... this is simply some sort of Pol Pot kinda deal?

Let's kill all the smart... or in this case, strong athletic people... and see what shakes out?

I don't get it.

**********

RELATED: Blown to pieces... God willing

-- BAGHDAD -- A truck bomb exploded as worshippers left a Shiite mosque in northern Iraq on Saturday, killing at least 63 people and wounding nearly 200 in the deadliest bombing in nearly two months.

*

The 6 o'clock news, hon?

"No, baby, I swear... that must'a been somebody else."

-- MONTREAL -- A commercial building housing a swingers club went up in flames Friday morning forcing the evacuation of 10 people. "They had sheets on them but they didn’t have a lot of clothes on coming down (the ladder)," said fire department spokesman Gilles Ducharme.

"I don’t know how many of them were not dressed, but there were a few of them — maybe five or six — that had only sheets on them."

*

Forget the Incredible Hulk

You never, ever... want to make Ezra Levant angry...

Never.

*

"And cue the politically correct..."

"... loonies in three, two, one..."

Thousands of people are being stopped and searched by the police under their counter-­terrorism powers – simply to ­provide a racial balance in official statistics, the government's official anti-terror law watchdog has revealed.

"I can well understand the concerns of the police that they should be free from allegations of prejudice," he said.

"But it is not a good use of precious resources if they waste them on self-evidently unmerited searches."

Oh, Britannia... we're gonna miss ya.

*

Have Gun... Will Travel

Let's face it folks... only a total moron brings pepper spray to a gunfight....

Toronto police are set to take over safety patrols on the city's transit system — duties now the responsibility of the Toronto Transit Commission's officers. Toronto's Police Services Board voted unanimously on Thursday that the TTC's 118 special constables should come under the command of the regular police.

And this game-changer can't come soon enough...

In May, following a number of violent episodes on the TTC, 38 regular Toronto police officers were assigned to patrol the city's transit system.

The plan to have regular police patrols on public transit will be in place by the fall.

*

Longing for a kinder, gentler era...

...like, you know... the 12th century...

Addressing huge crowds at Tehran University, the ayatollah voiced support for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying the president's views on foreign affairs and social issues were close to his.

C'mon Crazy-Face... just cowboy up

Iran should just come out and say, "Screw you, we want the bomb... and if you mess with us, you'll have 6 dollar no-lead by next Tuesday."

**********

RELATED: Mom... is that you?

Have you seen how many Iranian women there are on the streets protesting against the crooked re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? Wonderful, isn’t it?

Do you not think that in this battle against repressive regimes and fundamentalist doctrines, women might turn out to be the Gdansk ship workers (who began the uprising against the Communist regime in Poland)?

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: Now that Canadian Cynic...

...has all that time on his hands, he's decided to start forging comments full-time...
'Cos that's how his cowardly, dishonest ass rolls.

And...

Greetings.

As president of United States -- or, if you prefer, the Great Satan -- I have have been following with keen interest the vigorous post-election debate and vibrant political dialogue which has been taking place in your great and noble Islamic Republic of Iran over recent days.

It has been both educational and fascinating, and as a sports fan I have thrilled to the pageantry, the suspense, and the fast-paced, hard-hitting action.

*

Yeah... that's what I thought

At the time of his trial, Osborne's lawyer decided not to conduct an independent and more precise DNA test.

The lawyer made a strategic calculation that such a test might provide stronger evidence of her client's guilt.

*

CTV Moonbat Moment

Apparently, it's okay to perjure yourself as long as you're a hockey legend. Guy Lafleur walks away with a slap on the wrist and Lloyd and company seem to be pleased.

In February, his son received a 15-month conditional sentence for more than 20 charges, which included assault, dangerous driving and cannabis production.

But hang on, folks... that's not the whole story. One of the charges was actually sexual assault of a minor... and that's not all. CTV seems to have played down a couple of other small details.

Mark Lafleur was first arrested last January. He faces 22 charges that include uttering death threats and sexual assault of a 17-year-old.

Mark Lafleur is also accused of kidnapping, forcible confinement, mischief, theft, possession of crack cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana, threatening to kill a Montreal bus driver, dangerous driving causing bodily harm and damaging a bus.

The best part had to be when CTV's reporter threw in a thread about Lafleuer Senior being treated too harshly.

It seems pretty obvious that Lafleur was aiding and abetting a dangerous criminal... who had himself been slapped on the wrist.

At a bail hearing that fall, Lafleur told the court that his son had not violated his curfew, nor consumed drugs or alcohol.

But a subsequent court hearing revealed that Lafleur had twice driven his son to a hotel so Mark Lafleur could spend time with his teenage girlfriend.

That'd be his 16 year-old girlfriend... 6 years his junior.

Apparently, in Quebec, much like socialist Ontario... there's no longer any such thing as a bad boy.

Unbelievable.

**********

RELATED: Hey, Lloyd... you missed this one

*

The Greatest Generation...

...has to fight yet another war...

Parkin has certainly done his part for Canada. But in his hour of need, this 92-year-old great-grandfather is being treated with scandalous insensitivity.

Because he won't move out of Oakville-Trafalgar Memorial Hospital into a nursing home in Etobicoke far from his family, he is now being threatened with a daily bill of $700.

"Is this how we treat our veterans at the end of the day?" asks his angry son, Doug, 52. "I think it's a real slap in the face."

**********

RELATED: Compare and contrast

*

Hey, freak... they're called curtains

If people can see your naked arse from the middle of a busy street... trust me, it ain't a Google issue...

The pledge from the head of Google Canada to have extra staff on hand should be welcome news to Robert White, who has been fretting about unwanted exposure since April.

That's when he stepped naked in front of an open window after taking a shower just as a Google camera car rolled down the street.

How about we check in with all the neighbourhood moms... and see if Google is their biggest concern here?

*

Well Lloyd, I call your pissy little...

...swine flu and raise you some "Black Death"...

The World Health Organization (WHO) is sending an expert to Libya to look into a reported outbreak of bubonic plague not far from the Egyptian border.

Hey, news-flea... you wanna actually do some good?

The U.N. reports that last year 1 million African children died of malaria, 1.5 million African children died of pneumonia, 800,000 African children died of diarrhea and dehydration, 500,000 African children died of measles.

These deaths were preventable.

You ever wonder what else CTV has up their sleeve?

Say, Lloyd... ya missed another one...

The bullets continue to fly in a violence-plagued section of the city's west end -- an area that is home to almost half of the murders this year.

Three more young men were wounded Tuesday night in an apparent gunfight at a bus stop on Lawrence Ave. W., a block east of Keele St.

*

Maybe he should be asking...

...what's behind door number three? --

“How did the Official Opposition fail Canadians so badly? Did Michael Ignatieff get steamrolled or does he just agree with Harper’s policies?”

Hmmm...
Yup... "just visiting."

**********

RELATED: Another CTV poll goes horribly wrong

"Who comes out looking better after the 'deal' that averted a summer election?"

**********

LAST WORD: Iggy just phones it in

The Liberal leader defended the lack of specific agreement on isotopes, saying, "I've done my job, which is to go to the prime minister and say to him on behalf of Canadians 'You've got to have a plan, it has to be public, you have to tell Canadians what you're telling me.'"

*

Unlike the rest of those...

...warm, affable murderers...

Police have identified an "extremely dangerous" man as a suspect in the city's latest murder. A man's body was found at the foot of the Barrymore Furniture parking lot by an employee around 7:25 a.m., police said.

Edward Scheniman, 41, is wanted in the case. He's described as white, balding, 6-foot-2, 200 pounds with blue eyes.

**********

RELATED: Brampton cops get on the board

Two more men have now been charged in connection with the shooting death of a Brampton father more than 2 1/2 years ago. Mervyn "Mikey" Spence, 41, was shot to death on Nov. 4, 2006 just after 4:00 a.m. In a parking lot near a Brampton after hours club on Steeles Ave. E.

Courtney Benjamin, 42, of Toronto has now been charged with first-degree murder. Also arrested is Anthony Campbell, 38, of Toronto, who has been charged with accessory after the fact to murder. Marlon McLean, 26, of Toronto was charged in April with first-degree murder in connection with Spence's death.

English revealed at the time of McLean's arrest that investigators alleged Spence was "chased down" by members of the gang and executed.

*

I'm still waiting for...

"Obama takes crap... wipes self, washes hands."
**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Had Michaëlle Jean done the same thing, would she have eaten its heart?"

**********

LAST WORD: Obama's 3am phone call

*

It's not easy...

...being Michael Ignatieff...

"It is very difficult to respond to an ultimatum that contains no ultimatum... Usually you say 'do X, or else.'"

"You don't just say 'or else.'"

I will, however, give Iggy this... he actually earned HIS credentials.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"As it now stands, it looks like as if Iggy has placed Harper and the Tories are on double ULTRA super probation."

*

It always makes my day...

...when old friends drop by...

**********

CC UPDATE: Canadian Cynic strikes back...

...big surprise... by forging nasty comments about my wife...

Live and don't learn, huh Bobby?

*

Where's Barbara Hall...

...when you really, really need her?

A man from Lower Sackville, N.S., says he will take Tim Hortons to the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission because he can no longer get his coffee.

Dave Matthews needs a motorized scooter to get around because of a physical disability. He used to get his coffee at the Tim Hortons drive-thru in Lower Sackville. But at a new location, in Bedford, he ran into trouble.

Matthews said it's a matter of rights, arguing that he should be able to use the drive-thru.

**********

RELATED: The Lynch Mob

"Yet here we have, in effect, the Government of the Dominion of Canada complaining that Blazing Cat Fur is being mean to it."

*

Remember when you were a kid...

...and you'd settle a schoolyard beef by trying to sever someone's aorta?

An 18-year-old is in hospital with serious stab wounds after a fight broke out at a Markham high school this morning.

The teen was on the ground suffering from a serious stab wound to the upper chest, sources at the scene said.

Yeah... me neither.

**********

RELATED: READING, WRITING AND...

...RIPPING INTO SOFT TISSUE...

As many as four people have been stabbed at a Mississauga school this morning. St. Joseph's Secondary School, near Creditview Rd. and Eglinton Ave., has been placed under lockdown while police investigate the 8:30 a.m. incident.

It appears students were involved in an altercation on school property, Peel Regional Police said. At least one victim was transported to hospital via air ambulance.

Police are looking for multiple suspects.

**********

POSTSCRIPT: Seems Mayor Miller's knife ban...

...is gonna need a little tune up...

An elderly man was found murdered in a west end apartment this morning after a man allegedly confessed to his killing at a downtown homeless shelter.

Toronto Police say they were called to the Good Shepherd hostel on Queen St. just east of Parliament St. around 11 a.m. after 23-year-old man "confessed" to a brother the slaying of a man believed to be 72.

The man directed officers to the grisly scene soon after, police claim.

*

"Give me your tired, your poor..."

"Your disease-riddled hookers"...

-- TORONTO -- A former Thai stripper who was jailed for giving her former husband HIV may have found a way to dance around deportation from Canada.

Suwalee Iamkhong, 40, of Toronto, had a bid to reopen her case thrown out last Friday by the Court of Appeal but she did win a reduction of her two-year sentence to two years less a day, allowing her to appeal a deportation order.

Of, course... this is exactly the kind of immigrant we should be looking for. I mean, she's got that entrepreneurail spirit, right?

Anna Pape, of the Canada Border Services Agency, said Iamkhong will receive a stay of her removal order until an appeal is heard. "Serious criminality in Canada is considered as two years and over," Pape said.

Meanwhile, Whiteman said he sponsored Iamkhong and under immigration laws is financially responsible for her until 2011.

Thank you Pierre Trudeau.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: The usual leftbots descend...

"What a friggin' Nancy-boy!"

Sounds like somebody's got issues, huh?

*

And all it took was a pile...

...of dead bodies...

The decision by the guardian council follows the first known bloodshed of the crisis.

At least seven people were killed yesterday after a rally in Tehran when tens of thousands of protesters jammed the streets in a show of defiance against the Iranian regime.

You steal an election... and apparently, people get a little testy.

Imagine that.

*

Hey, how about a non-fiction format?

You know... less social engineering and more actual news...

“They are shuffling people like mad, and they are reassigning people to Newsworld,” said Karen Wirsig, a spokeswoman for the Canadian Media Guild, the CBC's main union, which closely tracks these job shifts.

*

The Puffin King gets it wrong

"Should Michael Ignatieff bring down the Harper government over its handling of the economy?"

*

And the devoted Leftosphere...

...jumps to "Canadian Cesspool's" defense...Oh, Martin... by calling me hurtful names, you have pierced my very soul.

And casting aspersions on my ability to handle firearms? Woe is me. Your ability to deduce all these things, sight unseen... well.. it's astounding.

And who exactly is Martin?
Just another one of CC's anonymous little trolls. Honestly, guys... does this sort of thing work on anybody over 7 years old?

And lastly, Marty... how about you defend this?

I dare you.

**********

RELATED: And Dr Dawg starts up...

...where Canadian Cesspool left off... attacking women.

"I'm beginning to think, alas, that CC found exactly the right word to describe you, you Christian hypocrite."
Dr.Dawg | Homepage | 06.15.09 - 9:11 pm |

Hey Dawg... what word is that?

*

"Don't let the screen door..."

"...hit you, on your way out..."

UPDATE: WELCOME YET AGAIN, FRIENDS & READERS...

...OF COMPASSIONATE, INTELLECTUAL CANADIAN CYNIC...

So, I'm guessing the question of the day will be... "Should anononymous or... more to the point... pseudonymous bloggers be outed?"

As someone who has been writing under a pseudonym for the better part of the last three years, I obviously have a dog in this fight.

The truth is, if I were outed tomorrow, it would likely only make me more popular in this particular neck of the woods. Sure, a few of the octogenarian church ladies... to the extent that they think about me at all, might be a little upset by my atheism, or my unwillingness to genuflect at the altar of political correctness.

The simple truth is though... folks out here aren't especially sympathetic to crime, or substance abuse... or the costly "social engineering" that these behaviours engender.

What I attempt to do here is take current events from media sources and hold them up to the light of day. I don't make stuff up. To the extent that I editorialise, I express my surprise... my utter disbelief... that so many folks are willing to bury their heads in the sand, er... their 52 inch high def wide screen theatre sytems... instead of taking notice of the world falling down around them.

On the other hand... what to make of... and I use the word loosely... a man who constantly refers to women as "the dumb cuntitude"... who speaks of the Prime Minister being "bought off by the Jooos"... and most egregiously, tells the mother of a slain Canadian soldier, "Fuck you and you grief."

I speak, of course, of the infamous Canadian Cynic... or, as he's known around here... "Canadian Cesspool."

It's funny, the Cynic tries to go for a "don't blame poor Neo, for he knows not what he does" effect here. Of course he also then calls me "a despicable racist."

Meanwhile... as many Blogging Tories are aware, the Cesspool has been running around Conservative websites forging comments under my name.

Suffice it to say... we all know what this guy is really about. Misogyny, anti-semitism... and the mouth of a sewer rat.

My sin here, apparently, was not to actually out his disgusting carcass... merely to point to those who did.

My final feeling on this... you say it, you dumbstick... you have to wear it.

**********

UPDATE: For better service, please take a number

"Not to mention Cynic's numerous allegations that I support the murder of abortion clinic doctors."

"I served him with libel notice today. He's going to have a busy few days, I think."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: Yup... more forged comments...

It's how the lefties roll...
You have learned well, Grasshopper... I'm sure CC and Zorpheus will be very proud of you.

And another round of forged comments.

Thank goodness CC and his little winged monkeys are taking the high road...
I'd hate to see what happened if they got down & dirty.

*

Staunch advocate of free speech...

...strangely and uncharacteristically quiet this morning....

I guess there's always a first time.

[more here]

See, if Iggy does it... it's genius

And the tormented, disfigured wreck that once was Stephane Dion... continues to roam the dark, dank passages under Parliament Hill... relentlessly howling at the injustice of it all.

*

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT-Q23.330.502.19%)...

...is getting ready to unveil a long-anticipated free anti-virus service for personal computers that will compete with products sold by Symantec Corp. (SYMC-Q16.490.613.84%) and McAfee Inc (MFE-N40.430.230.57%) .

A Microsoft spokesman said on Wednesday that the world's biggest software maker is testing an early version of the product with its own employees. Microsoft would “soon” make a trial version, or product beta, available via its website.

*

Take a good look...

...into the face of unadulterated courage...

A military engineer was killed Sunday as he tried to defuse two roadside bombs hidden in a rural culvert.

Cpl. Dube, the 120th Canadian soldier to be killed in Afghanistan, served with the 5ieme Régiment du Génie de Combat, based inValcartier, Que.

He is survived by his mother Marie-Paule, his father Roger, his brother Vincent and his girlfriend Julie.

He will be remembered.

*

Kim Jong Il, huh?

I'm thinkin' my money's gonna be on the Jet Vikings...

Autonomous killers?! Seriously?

So who exactly is the socialist brainiac who put that on the curriculum?

Frontenac, which keeps the number of armed officials to a minimum, is fitted with bedrooms instead of prison cells and lacks barbed-wire fences, something Knowles said encouraged autonomy.

Well, c'mon now, it's not like this guy... wait...

*

Yet another fuzzy-bunny CBC poll...

...goes horribly wrong...

Mayor's office strangely silent...

...on rumoured ban on gardening implements... across the Greater Toronto Area...

Police in Scarborough started their day investigating pitch fork and machete attacks and ended it looking for a shooter after a bleeding man flagged down a cab for a ride to hospital.

**********

RELATED: Add sports equipment to that blacklist

Nothing like a little...

Seven people have been arrested after two rival Tamil groups beat each other with baseball bats in Scarborough.

The fight erupted between the groups around 7 p.m. Saturday in Bluffers Park, near Kingston and Midland Rds.

*

Just ask yourself...

"What would Jesus, er... a Community Organiser do?"

A senior US official has told the BBC Washington decided not to tell London ahead of time about a deal to resettle four Guantanamo detainees in Bermuda.

Pressed on whether the US had told the British government, an unnamed state department official was quoted as saying: "We did talk to them before the Uighurs got on the plane."

Of course, the most important issue here is... "Isn't he dreamy?"

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"The Obama administration's version of 'Don't ask; don't tell.'"

**********

UPDATE: Making Dan Quayle look smart...

"God only knows what he wants," Biden said of Kim. "There's all kinds of discussions. We can't guess his motives."

See, Joe... this isn't actually about humouring a violent sociopath who has starved millions of his own people to death.

Man-up... and do something... besides mindlessly speculating on his twisted motives.

*

Oh my gawd... chest pains...

...having... trouble... breathing... CTV actually can do hard news...

Any guest who pulls such a stunt deserves to be exposed for it. But a censor like Lynch, claiming to respect free speech and claiming to want a debate? Well the Orwellian hypocrisy was just too delicious for CTV to ignore.

Clark opened with a powerful -- but professional -- timeline of Lynch's bad behaviour. And he ended his interview with Dufresne with a pretty basic question: would you ever debate Levant?

Dufresne pretended he didn't hear the question -- but tens of thousands of CTV viewers did.

*

Just another reason...

"Friends don't let friends... vote Liberal."

Routinely derided as a troubled white elephant badly in need of a complete makeover, Smart Systems for Health Agency was making "substantial progress" and showing "marked improvement" just months before the government blew it up and tapped Dr. Alan Hudson and Sarah Kramer to put the pieces back together, a report says.

[*]

Fresh air... lots of exercise

Mrs Neo is reading "House Calls and Hitching Posts"... about a country doctor who worked in a Mennonite an Amish (the doc is Mennonite) community in Wayne County, Ohio.

She has read me a few choice bits, but one in particular sticks out.

The story is, this doctor was to receive some sort of service award and decided to bring along his oldest living patient, who was 94 at the time.

He got in touch with the old guy's daughter... to ask if he was in good enough health to make the trip and she replied, "I suppose he is. He's out chopping down a tree."

I think today should be a fresh air and exercise kinda day.

*

The inevitable end game of the...

...fuzzy-bunny big-city socialists... "We don' need no steenkin' citizenship"...
**********

RELATED: The lyin' left... who really cares?

Politicians often go back on earlier promises, and they often exaggerate (remember Obama’s “10,000” who died in a Kansas tornado [12 perished], or his belief that properly inflating tires saves as much energy as offshore drilling can produce?).

But the extent of Obama’s distortions suggests that he has complete confidence that observers in the media do not care — or at least do not care enough to inform the public.

*

All stump... no thump

The Cowardly Lion of Canadian politics just isn't used to having his professorial cant questioned...

Wow, does Michael Ignatieff ever talk a lot when he has nothing to say.

There he is on the TV as I type, taking his tenth or 15th question in a scrum in Montreal, jousting with reporters, a strained smile on his face because they keep asking him the same thing and how many different ways can he say he hasn’t made a decision yet?

Not a lot of different ways, it turns out, and yet he won’t back away from the microphone. So he’s having to say them again and again. And it’s making him testy. But he won’t stop. So he repeats himself. And then the reporters do. And still he won’t walk away.

There. He finally stopped.

He’s gonna read the thing tonight and make a decision. Except all week I’ve been hearing from Liberals about their vacation plans. Those plans don’t involve door-knocking and debate prep.

So if this whole election thing is still a live option, somebody forgot to tell the party.

(h/t blue like you)

**********

RELATED: Scratch a Liberal... find an opportunist

The Liberals have not produced any substantial pushback outside of Parliament save a boring two minute Youtube lecture on the politics of nice from Dr. Ignatieff.

And on the economy? Grit girl Youtube ads?

Torytube it ain’t, Warren

*

A watered-down justice is served...

...10 years later...

The Supreme Court of Canada has restored a B.C. woman's conviction in the swarming murder of 14-year-old Reena Virk, a case that horrified the country and led to a national debate about the scourge of youth bullying.

In an 8-1 ruling this morning, the court overturned a B.C. Court of Appeal decision that had invalidated Kelly Ellard's conviction following her third trial in the notorious case.

If only the Canadian "justice" system put the same sort of emphasis on victim's rights.

Kelly Ellard... like Karly Kurls... soon to be released on an unsuspecting public.

**********

RELATED: A one-size fits all solution

-- TORONTO -- A 19-year-old man, who was apparently trying to turn his life around to provide a better future for his girlfriend and their one-year-old daughter, is in critical condition after being jumped by up to five assailants and stabbed at a plaza in a violence-plagued Scarborough neighbourhood yesterday.

There have been five murders in less than four years near Markham and Eglinton, an area that has become increasingly troubled in recent years by drugs and gang violence.

**********

LAST WORD: One down... one to go

Toronto police have arrested one suspect and are looking for another after a man was shot Tuesday near Eglinton Ave. E and Don Mills Rd. Police received a call for a robbery and shooting on St. Dennis Dr.

Kurtis McLetchie, 22, of Toronto faces sixteen charges including robbery and attempted murder.

Police are asking for the public's assistance in finding Saeed Savalanpour, 21, of Toronto.

[*]

"Out of 30 million Canadians..."

"...why should Richard Warman be the only one to have his very own law?"

The human rights tribunal hears very few Section 13 cases either, Moon pointed out. "In the absence of Richard Warman, there really is very little happening under Section 13."

"You take him away, you’ve got nothing."

Hmmm... their "very own law"... that sounds so familiar.

**********

RELATED: The ol' "bait & switch"

*

Paging CUPE...

Hey, Sid... how do ya like 'em now?

-- WEST BANK -- Palestinian police say a 15-year-old boy has been found hanged near the town of Qalqilya in the West Bank. They said several family members had confessed to involvement in the killing, accusing the boy of collaborating with the Israeli army.

Collaboration is viewed as a serious offence in Palestinian society. Suspects are often summarily killed.

Honour killing... apparently it's not just for wayward daughters.

He said the boy's father, uncle and cousin confessed to the killing, but that police were also investigating other motives for the killing.

**********

RELATED: The World According to Sid

*

We have the technology

Peek-a-boo, Timmy... you're dead...

The rifle's gunsight uses a laser rangefinder to calculate the exact distance to the obstruction. The soldier can then add or subtract up to 3 metres from that distance to enable the bullets to clear the barrier and explode above or beside the target.

As the 25-millimetre round is fired, the gunsight sends a radio signal to a chip inside the bullet, telling it the precise distance to the target.

The rifle would allow a soldier faced with a sniper firing from a window to take a distance measurement to the window, add a metre, fire through the window, and have the round detonate 1 metre inside the room. The same method could be used to fire behind a wall or over a trench.

*

"Who in their right mind..."

"...hires a Liberal strategist to lobby a Conservative government."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Kinsella's Daisy Group is defending Natural Resources Minister Lisa Raitt!"

**********

UPDATE: Your money... his friends

-- TORONTO -- A former aide to Premier Dalton McGuinty is among the highly paid consultants who benefited from an untendered contract with eHealth Ontario, a provincial agency mired in a spending scandal.

Billing records show that Karli Farrow, a former adviser to McGuinty who works for the Courtyard Group, was paid $10,646 for 32.5 hours of work in January as a consultant to eHealth.

Her tasks included corresponding about eHealth "priorities" with Don Guy, the premier's former chief of staff who is now president and CEO of polling firm Pollara.

*

I blame Steven Jobs

Police say 20-year-old Ervin Garcia, of Toronto, had been arguing with another man about property - possibly an iPod - the man may have taken from him.

The suspect then reportedly pulled a handgun out of his clothing and during a struggle, the firearm went off, striking the third man.

There are unconfirmed reports Toronto City Council is throwing together special legislation to ban digital music players within Toronto city limits.

*

At the very least, with the Tamils...

...you could count on them to show up on time...

Commuter traffic on three major Hamilton routes faces major delays this morning as native demonstrators march on the Red Hill Valley Parkway, the Linc and Highway 403.

Six Nations women and their supporters say they plan to march along the three routes this morning to protest Ottawa’s decision to arm border guards.

Police were there in force to ensure safety at 7 a.m., but the protesters were late. However it appears they still plan to disrupt traffic during the morning.

It's gonna be a long, hot summer.

**********

UPDATE: OPP over-matched, outwitted yet again

The group – comprised of about 10 women and two children – marshaled on the Red Hill Expressway at about 8 a.m. and walked along that road to the Lincoln Alexander Parkway, before turning on to the 403.

**********

UPPERDATE: My apologies to the OPP...

...they were a minor collaborator here...

The Six Nations group of up to about a dozen on foot, followed by a small convoy of cars, walked onto the southbound Red Hill Valley Parkway shortly after 8 a. m. with half a dozen Hamilton police cruisers, a motorcycle cop and one marked provincial police cruiser behind.

Hamilton police, who patrol the Red Hill and the Lincoln M. Alexander, say they were informed of the protest Wednesday night and decided it was in the best interest of everyone to allow it to happen.

"We took a balanced approach, working with them and the community," said spokeswoman Sgt. Terri-Lynn Collings.

Police escorted the group to Brantford, throwing traffic into chaos.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"But today in Tiny Township (north of Barrie Ont.) a bunch of farmers protesting a new dump in their township by driving tractors around the block were told by police they had to leave immediatly or be arrested for obstructing traffic."

*

Hope and chump change

Critics of U.S. President Barack Obama's plan to shut down the Guantanamo Bay prison camps have long claimed that such a move would prove costly.

Today, they at least have an estimate of just how costly: about $11.8-million a prisoner.

Hah, this'd be what... three minutes interest... on President McDreamy's new trillion dollar budget?

"Let them eat auto parts!"

*

"Resistance is futile..."

..."you will be assimilated"...

The smiling, ethnically diverse family featured on the cover of Toronto's latest edition of its summer Fun Guide was digitally altered to make the photo more "inclusive," which city officials say is in keeping with a policy to reflect diversity.

A spokesman for the department that publishes the guide listing recreation activities confirmed the publication was doctored to insert the face of a different father.
"He superimposed the African-Canadian person onto the family cluster in the original photo. It was two photographs and one head was superimposed over the original family photo," said John Gosgnach, communications director for the social development division.

"The goal was to depict the diversity of Toronto and its residents."

Oooh... missed opportunity, Mr Mayor!!!

You could have photoshopped two mixed-race gay dads in here instead. For extra points... put the Chinese guy in a wheelchair.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"The funniest thing in the photo is the fingers on the left. They must belong to the mother, but they changed the color to match the new dad. He looks like Stretch Armstrong now!"

And...

"Good ole Toronto, they couldn't find a diverse enough family from Canada's largest city so they made one up."

**********

RELATED: CHRC says, "Screw you Canada!"

*

The Toronto "Red" Star

Not afraid to ask the big questions...

Afghanistan's national sport is buzkashi, a game similar to polo that's played on horseback with a goat carcass, and serious players train from youth.

But the age-old sport is being nudged aside by about 100 kids in Kabul for a more Western passion: skateboarding.

Of course, in their frantic, headlong rush to illustrate how uncannily similar Afghanis are to, say... your average Canadian... the Star manages to both overlook and screw up a few small details...

"Usually, a calf is beheaded, its four legs are cut off from the knee, its insides emptied before soaking. When there is no calf available, they use a goat in this manner."

Corrections courtesy of Afghanistan.org.

*

"Not long ago, I would have..."

"...applauded this type of government expansion. Born and raised in Canada, I once believed that government health care is compassionate and equitable. It is neither."

"My views changed in medical school."

*

It just gets better and better

You think you've managed to get to the bottom of Dalton McGuinty's perfidy... but the hits just keep on coming...

eHealth Ontario spent more than $1 million in severance to remove a nine-member senior executive team to clear the way for Sarah Kramer -- herself dumped at a six-figure cost last week.

Documents obtained by Sun Media detail packages handed to William Albino and Michael Rigo, let go after the Liberal government tapped Dr. Alan Hudson to lead the quest for electronic health records and to chair eHealth's board.

Then-president and CEO Albino received nearly $850,000 in severance and Rigo, a senior vice-president, left with about $235,000.

Heck... it's not like it comes out of ol' McSlippery's pockets, huh?

Another seven senior execs were also sent packing at the time but eHealth V-P Deanna Allen said details of their severance would only be released through a Freedom of Information request.

As soon as Albino and his team departed, Kramer replaced them, largely with consultants.

And what does the Premier have to say?

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty stood by the eHealth Ontario board of directors on Tuesday, saying he still has confidence in them despite the contracts and spending scandal.

"I'm very proud of the work that Dr. Hudson has done and continues to do for us."

"You couldn't get a better, more committed and more accomplished individual, at any pay level, to take on that responsibility."

**********

RELATED: It sure wasn't Lisa Raitt...

...who pissed away all my tax dollars...

"eHealth Ontario has spent $146 million on consultants since 2003, despite commitments to reign in billings for outside expertise."

And while we're on hypocrisy...

"No one should doubt for a second that the opposition parties are committed to the well-being of their constituents."

"Yet for months now, the Liberals, the Bloc Québécois and the NDP have made no secret of the fact that they also see the current economic downturn as a unique opportunity to score points against the Conservatives."

Et tu, Iggy?

*

Suddenly, "Man bites Dog"...

...doesn't seem all that impressive...

A bear attack near Grande Cache that hospitalized one man could have been deadly if it weren't for a brave 78-year-old and his walking stick, a friend said.

"Tom had a walking stick and he jammed it down the bear's throat."

*

Good luck Nova Scotia

I'm thinkin'... two little words... that can freeze the heart of any Ontarian of a certain vintage... "Bob Rae".

**********

RELATED: Oh my goodness... that's timely

Sri Lanka on Wednesday deported a Canadian legislator it views as sympathetic to the Tamil Tiger separatists, the latest foreign official it has sent out of the country at the end of a 25-year war.

Sure wish we'd thought of that way back when.

**********

UPDATE: Well... that sure didn't take long

The day after his party's historic win, Nova Scotia NDP Leader Darrell Dexter said it will be tough to deliver a balanced budget in 2010 as promised.

*

Dressed to (be) kill(ed)

Militants had also warned people to stop wearing clothing they consider un-Islamic.

Two weeks ago, a representative of a medical company was beaten for wearing a certain kind of shirt in the city. Following the incident, doctors at various hospitals stopped wearing them.

Some banks advised employees to wear shalwar qameez, the traditional dress.

Militants have also warned nurses at hospitals and medical centers to wear veils. Following the threats, many girls have started wearing veils and burqas to school.

*

Less UN Resolution... more Aircraft Carrier

With apologies to Crocodile Dundee... "That's not a military deterrent -- this is a military deterrent"...

North Korea says it will use its nuclear weapons both to defend itself and as an offense against those who seek to attack the country.

An editorial published Tuesday in North Korea's state-run Minju Joson newspaper says its nuclear arsenal will be a strong deterrent against any enemies, and will also be used to carry out what it called a "merciless offensive" against those who violate the country's dignity and sovereignty.

It's time for President McDreamy to man-up and stop this madness.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"The two latest aircraft carriers are named the USS Ronald Reagan and the USS George HW Bush. Somehow I can't see Obama sending them."

*

Remember when you were a kid...

...and showing "disrespect" to someone... meant you got sent to your room?

“There was an exchange between Dylan Ellis and the offender. But it is insignificantly brief, something like, ‘How’s it going?’ Or ‘What’s up?’ and then it’s just shots,’” Det. Sgt. Giroux said.

He said he wonders what event led to the shooting. “It doesn’t have to be an overt, deliberate act from the victims that would cause this type of reaction."

"This could be fairly insignificant, but it’s important to the gunman and it was important to him to do something like this in a public place.”

This is, apparently, the new reality in Canada's largest metropolitan centres. You simply look at someone the wrong way... and you're dead.

And no amount of legislating, or willy-nilly banning is gonna make that right.

Just something to think about when you see your kids out the door tomorrow morning.

**********

RELATED: Yeah, sure... the Better Way

A 19-year-old boy was in hospital Tuesday night after he was found shot in the leg at the Main Street TTC station in the city's east end.

It's not clear where the shooting happened. Police were first called to the station for a “disorderly male” on a bus. About two minutes before they arrived, a shooting was reported on a streetcar.

Here's an interesting take... since when is a 19-year-old a boy and not a man?

*

The inevitable disconnect...

...between what government says... and what it actually does...

An imprisoned militant whose release has been demanded by the kidnappers of five British hostages has been freed from US custody, officials have said.

Shia leader Laith al-Khazali was handed over by the US military in Iraq to the Iraqi authorities on Saturday.

Of course, on the heels of this transaction, we also get...

British and US officials have stressed that the handover is not part of a prisoner exchange.

Which is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a barefaced lie.

The truth is, I have less of a problem here with this particular exchange... than having the government look me in the face and tell me blatant untruths. But that is what we have come to expect, isn't it?

That the politicians will lie to us. That lies are the new normal.

How pathetic is that? You DO get the kind of government you deserve.

**********

RELATED: Is it still racist, if the guy...

...saying it... is a Muslim socialist?

*

It's a McSlippery World

The eHealth Ontario saga widened Monday with revelations that a consultant was paid $30,000 for 78 hours work, and the son of board chairman Alan Hudson worked for a firm closely connected to the agency before leaving for IBM.

Dr. Ballem said she had no idea a staff member at eHealth had questioned her invoice for the 78 hours she worked over the three-month period ending last December. She was paid $3,000 a day, making her one of the more generously compensated consultants.

**********

UPDATE: Why should Dalton care?

It's not his money...

-- TORONTO -- There are no plans by the Dalton McGuinty government to shuffle Health Minister David Caplan out of his portfolio despite demands from opposition leaders he resign in the wake of the eHealth Ontario spending scandal.

"Caplan continues to have the premier's confidence to help the organization get by this and build on the progress they've made this far," a government source said.

It just keeps getting better.

Kramer is not the only high-ranking eHealth exec to be leaving.

Allaudin Merali, the high-flying Edmonton-based consultant who billed the agency up to $75,000 a month in fees and expenses, vanished from eHealth's website over the weekend.

eHealth vice-president Deanna Allen said Merali's contract expires at the end of June and is not being renewed.

Merali charged $2,700 a day for his expertise and also billed taxpayers for a rented downtown apartment and trips back to his Edmonton home each weekend.

**********

LAST WORD: Diogenes would be pleased

A consulting firm abruptly terminated its lucrative contract with eHealth Ontario last February after only four weeks on the job, citing delays, wasted time and dysfunctional work plans.

Well before the scandal erupted over eHealth's lavish spending on consultants, Stevenson Kellogg chose to leave thousands of dollars on the table, rather than continue its association with the organization.

“We terminated the contract because of my severe discontent with most aspects of the work, including the dysfunctional work plans, the delays and waste of time, and the personal styles of the team leaders.”

*

Another Canadian falls

Private Alexandre (Pelo) Péloquin of the Vandoos, aged 20, was killed during a foot patrol. The explosion occurred in the Panjwai, a rural area southwest of Kandahar.

He will be remembered.

*

Tears in their Chablis

Looks like the Euroweenies are starting to figure out which way the wind is really blowing...

Conservative parties across Europe are cheering their victory, following four days of voting for the E.U. Parliament that resulted in heavy losses for the left.

Leftist lawmakers like Martin Schulz, president of the parliament's Socialist group, say they are bitterly disappointed with the results.

Schulz says the vote marks a sad period for socialists in Europe. But he says the themes of the left - social values, more market regulation and fighting climate change - are as relevant as ever.

Yeah, Marty... just not to the electorate.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"These changes had been brewing for some time, and yet the US goes and elects Peter Pan as President."

*

Live and don't learn... that's us

Someone please explain to me why Shawn Brant isn't cooling his heels in jail.

-- DESERONTO -- Native protesters led by Shawn Brant blocked both ends of the Skyway Bridge near Deseronto Sunday evening, claiming the move was in support of First Nations members in Akwesansne.

Traffic is being turned away from the scene by provincial police, meaning anyone looking to cross into Prince Edward County — or from the county into Deseronto — will have to travel to the Norris Whitney Bridge in Belleville.

Brant said the protesters are in for the "long haul," and will be staying on scene until the government opens talks with the people of Akwesansne. He said he expects more people to show up to join the protest later in the day.

Try this sometime yourself. Get a whole bunch of your friends and try to shut down a public highway.

See how long it takes the local cops to drag your non-aboriginal ass off to lockup.

Members of the Akwesanse First Nation have been engaged in a protest that has led to the closure of the Seaway International Bridge, which spans the St. Lawrence River.

Protesters say they're worried arming border guards at the Cornwall Island border crossing could lead to violence on their land.

There have been no reports of injuries or clashes between police, the protesters or the public to date at the protest in Deseronto.

**********

RELATED: Who is Shawn Brant?

*

Okay, that's step one

Looks like Lebanon might be back on track to regaining its sanity and political stature....

The final results delivered early afternoon Monday confirmed March 14 was the winner with 71 seats in the 128-seat parliament, which included two allied independent candidates, against the opposition's 57 seats.

The results will bring sighs of relief and gasps of dismay from governments in cities as far removed as Washington; Tehran, Iran; Jerusalem; and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Of course, it's far from the end of a very long stretch of bad road...

Hezbollah's priority in the coming negotiations is to ensure that a future government will not represent a threat to its formidable military wing.

Hezbollah insists that its weapons are necessary to deter future Israeli aggression, but its opponents argue that only the Lebanese Army has the right to bear arms and only the state can decide on matters of war and peace.

*

Another Inconvenient Truth

If the omniscient Goracle can actually see the future... why'd he just piss away these two ladies' next twelve years?

North Korea said its top court convicted two U.S. journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in labour prison Monday, intensifying the reclusive nation's confrontation with the United States.

Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee — who were working for former U.S. vice-president Al Gore's California-based Current TV — cannot appeal because they were tried in North Korea's highest court, where decisions are final.

Yeah... who could have possibly seen that coming, huh?

[*]

Out here at the Halls...

...we scored a twenty dollar garage sale Xbox for our next 'puter project and planted some trees.

-- Meanwhile back in the big smoke... --

One man is dead after an early-morning shooting in north Etobicoke on Sunday. The victim died in hospital late Sunday afternoon.

He was rushed to the emergency room just before 5 a.m. after he was shot in the lobby of an apartment building on Dixon Road, near Kipling Avenue.

Yup... must be Sunday.

**********

RELATED: Oops... missed one.

Police are investigating a shooting that took place late last night in west-end Toronto that left one man in hospital.

The man was shot in the arm and in the leg while he was waiting at a bus stop on the corner of Keele Street and Lawrence Avenue.

*

If you voted for Dalton McGuinty...

...in the last election... you forfeited your right to bitch about high taxes...

EHealth Ontario CEO Sarah Kramer's six-figure bonus was double the maximum rate allowed at the Crown-owned agency, a spokeswoman for the organization has confirmed.

In early March, four months after Kramer started her post at the newly created agency, its board of directors approved a $114,000 bonus, on top of her $380,000 salary.

When Ontario Health Minister David Caplan was asked earlier about her bonus, he called it a "carry-over from her previous contract."

Yeah... that eHealth.

**********

UPDATE: Caplan has to eat his words

“I am acting immediately upon (the eHealth board’s) request to revoke Sarah Kramer’s appointment as eHealth Ontario President and Chief Executive Officer,” Health Minister David Caplan announced today.

“This decision is an important step to restore public confidence in the agency and its mandate of modernizing our health care system.”

So David... what are you gonna do to restore public confidence in your (and Premier McSlippery's) poor judgement?

Mr. Caplan initially defended the bonus, portraying it as something Ms. Kramer was entitled to receive at her previous job at Cancer Care Ontario, where she also worked with Dr. Hudson. However, a Cancer Care executive said her bonus at eHealth was three times higher than what she would have received at her former job.

Through his press secretary, Mr. Caplan subsequently changed his tune.

**********

LAST WORD: Dalton McSlippery thanks you...

...for your generous contribution...

Sources told The Canadian Press that Kramer will receive nearly $317,000 in compensation, the equivalent of 10 months' salary under an agreement reached with eHealth's board.

*

Much ado about nothing

Rex Murphy takes a look at the Puffin King...

We don't know what he thinks.

What is the Liberal position on bailing out the auto sector? When he rails against the spiralling deficit does that mean that he opposes the $10-billion GM bailout? Would he, as PM, cancel it? Does he, like Mr. Harper, believe “we had no choice” but to follow the Obama administration's lead?

Where is he on the entirely justified case the forest industry is making for a parallel remedy? Can we presume, since he is appalled at the swelling deficit, he's against any assistance, equivalent to that offered auto workers, for forest workers?

We do not know, because on so many issues he has not told us. In other words, his critique of the government is just that - criticism.

He is very good at ardently sketching the defects of the government he opposes, but equally a virtuoso at shielding us from what he would do differently.

*

Bright lights, big city...

...hail of lead...

Gunfire erupted in the early morning hours of a party at a Brampton farmhouse, killing two and injuring several others.

"When we arrived on the scene, we found numerous victims and two people dead," Const. J.P. Valade said today.

Peel had 28 slayings last year, which smashed the region's previous record high of 17 homicides.

Remember when you were a kid... and parties were inevitably punctuated with gunfire?

Yeah... me neither.

**********

UPDATE: Farmhouse shooting victims id'd...

Terrence Elliot Hughes, aka T-bone, 40, and Garth Nicholas Palmer, 29, both of Toronto, became the victims of a fatal shooting that unfolded around 5 a.m. at a century-old brick farmhouse at 8678 Chinguacousy Rd. south of Queen St. W.

**********

RELATED: Brampton... it's a happenin' place

A Brampton couple has been taken into custody and charged in connection with the shooting death of a 25-year-old man outside a Mississauga apartment building.

The next day, Denton McKenzie, 49, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder.

Police say McKenzie is known on the street as "Cash" and uses several other aliases, including Hugh Linton, Hugh Linton Semoy and Fred Cash.

McKenzie's wife, Carolyn Alexander, 38, has been charged with being an accessory after the fact to the murder.

Apparently, it's never too late to acquire a little street-cred.

*

Fettered to the stinking corpse...

...of inconsistency... yet again.

RELATED: Let the speechifying begin...

Obama lists only ways in which the West has, in his view, mistreated the Islamic world.

Not a word about the jihad doctrine, not a word about Islamic supremacism and the imperative to make war against and subjugate non-Muslims as dhimmis.

Thing that make you go hmmmm....

Note that he avoids saying his father was a Muslim, which would open him to charges of apostasy.

(via ffof)

**********

LAST WORD: Ask a secular muslim...

"Did Obama miss his 'tear down this wall' moment?"

*

To paraphrase Leonard Cohen...

"First they smack down Syria... then they slap Iran"...

Commenting on the Iran report, the Washington based Institute for Science and International Security said that at the present pace of production of enriched uranium, Tehran could make two nuclear weapons — should it choose to do so — within eight months.

(h/t reader rich)

**********

POP QUIZ:

"What's flat, black... and glows in the dark?"

*

Think of it as "harmonising"...

...Canada's homicide laws...

The Conservative government is introducing legislation to repeal the so-called faint hope clause that enables criminals convicted of first- and second-degree murder to apply for parole earlier than their sentence allows.

Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said murderers must serve serious time for the most serious crime. "By ending 'faint hope' reviews, we are saying 'No' to early parole for murders," Nicholson told the House of Commons on Friday.

Just another reason why.

*

Going out with a bang

“The two ropes were tied together,” he said. “It is 'unclear' whether he committed suicide or not or he died of suffocation or heart failure due to an orgasm.”

Call me crazy... they find you hanging naked in a closet with a rope around your penis... it seems pretty clear to me.

*

Maybe we could call it...

...Occam's Laser.

*

Jihadi Rules

"If you can't beat 'em... go vapourise some civilians..."

-- PESHAWAR, Pakistan -- A suicide bomber killed 30 people attending Friday prayers at a mosque, while a roadside bomb left four soldiers dead in Pakistan’s tribal belt — the latest violence to rock the country’s northwest as the army says it is beating back the Taliban in the Swat Valley.

Once again... the capricious and unknowable "Will of Allah".

**********

RELATED: Coming soon to a neighbourhood...

...near you...

Ahmed formed his conspiracy when he and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee of Roswell, who will be tried later, met with like-minded extremists in Toronto in March 2005 and began planning to go to Pakistan to join a terrorist training camp, McBurney said.

A month later, they went to Washington and took 62 “casing videos” of area landmarks. Some of the videos later were found on the computers of men now convicted of terrorism.

*

Of course, on the bright side...

...that whole selling and exporting baby girls to North America deal must be goin' great guns...

When Mr. Zhou reported his missing spouse to authorities, he found his situation wasn't unique. In the first two months of this year, Hanzhong town saw a record number of scams designed to extract high bride prices in a region with an oversupply of bachelors.

Oh, c'mon... we've gotta be talkin' media hype, right? I mean, how bad can this really be?

Using data from the 2005 China census -- the most recent -- a study published in last month's British Journal of Medicine estimates there was a surplus of 32 million males under the age of 20 at the time the census was taken.

That's roughly the size of Canada's population.

*

Your money, his friends

Who exactly, is on Dalton McGuinty's eHealth team...

Friends, family and former colleagues are all intertwined in the complicated web that is eHealth Ontario's list of preferred contractors.

In the legislature yesterday, PC MPP Tim Hudak described it as "incestuous relationships, the quid pro quo, you-scratch-my-back-I'll-scratch-yours mentality."

Even a brief review of the list of $5 million in untendered contracts the agency handed out in its first six months of existence reveal the same group of names long connected to CEO Sarah Kramer and board chairMAN Dr. Alan Hudson.

Those include Courtyard Group, led by former University Health Network exec Michael Guerriere, Anzen Consulting, run by Guerriere's wife Miyo Yamashita and Accenture Inc. -- one of whose executives gave a reference to Kramer when she applied for the job.

Hudson once ran the University Health Network, where Guerriere was one of his executives before heading to Cancer Care Ontario in 2002. From there he went on to lead the province's Wait Times Information Strategy and then the eHealth board in 2008.

Kramer worked with Hudson at both Cancer Care and the WTIS.

Guerriere worked under Hudson at the University Health Network and his consulting firm was heavily involved in developing the WTIS.

*

The very selective outrage...

...of the left-o-phile media...

Includes video of Krauthammer explaining why the Tiller murder is getting 100 times more media coverage than a Muslim shooting two Army recruiters.

**********

RELATED: The Apologiser-in-Chief...

Obama emphasized Muslims' importance in American history. He also talked about the ability to pay zakat (ZUH'-kaht), which is an Islamic obligation to donate to charity, at a time when many Islamic charities are being investigated for ties to terrorists.

*

Scratch a sanctimonious socialist...

...find a sneaky little git...

"We were charging for expenses we didn't have", Treller said, but the catch-22 for him and the other agents was that the party pocketed the money, yet could not be charged under the Act-- only the agents and the candidates could.

In total, $76,000 in subsidies for seconded union workers was taken by the NDP head office under the scheme.

*

Yes... thank goodness for the...

Youth Criminal Justice Act...

Within hours of escaping youth home, 14-year-olds charged in double-homicide.

One of the boys faces two charges of first-degree murder. The other has been charged with accessory after the fact to murder.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: The compassionate intellectual left responds...
...by forging comments under my name.

'Cos that's how they roll.

**********

RELATED: It just gets better & better

"If I could move I probably would ... in a heartbeat. Edmonton's starting to get just as bad as Toronto with the crime," said Melissa Parker, a mother of three, looking at the scene of the crime about 100 metres from her home.

Cops were called to a small park in the area of 175 Street and 82 Avenue at around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday after reports of a large number of males fighting with bats and golf clubs.

*

So how much diversity do you get...

...for 7 billion dollars?

"Rather than try to turn back the clock," said Glenn Hope, executive director of the BC Council For Families, "our position is to celebrate the diversity of families."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"The government doesn't have to start promoting marriage, it has to stop promoting the single-parent lifestyle choice."

"There should be no breeding incentives for young women with sex partners who aren't man enough to be fathers."

*

And now, you too, can actually...

...drink the Kool-Aid...















They say it tastes like lemony angel tears.

*

Wake up and smell...

...the Liberal Party...

-- MONTREAL -- Benoit Corbeil, the former head of the Quebec wing of the federal Liberal Party, pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of influence peddling and one of fraud over $5,000.

Corbeil accepted an envelope filled with $50,000 from a businessman wanting to buy Crown land.

He also wrote up six bogus invoices for a fictitious company, then "paid" them with $117,300 from Liberal Party coffers.

**********

RELATED: And their unapologetic media lackies...

Just watched Lloyd Robertson and Liberal lapdog Robert Fife work up a shitpile of steaming faux outrage over secret documents left at CTV.

It didn't, of course, stop Fife from revealing details in those secret papers on national TV.

Funny how that works.

*

Recession-Proof

"The first vehicle was a dark-coloured Mercedes SUV."

And in other GTA news...

-- TORONTO -- Two men who have allegedly terrorized bank tellers since December by jumping over counters and threatening them with a pistol were caught by holdup detectives from Toronto and Peel.

The two suspects -- one who was already banned by a court order from possessing a weapon -- were arrested in a high-risk takedown on Kingston Rd. near Midland Ave. on Monday.

Jamar Keenan Cyrus, 22, and Christopher Rowley, 25, are charged with 11 counts of armed robbery.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

"The police must have the wrong guys, they couldn't possibly be pistol whipping anyone if the court banned them from carrying weapons."

*

Where there's a will...

...there's a penis...

A pregnant British woman accused of smuggling heroin has been found guilty in Laos and sentenced to life in jail. Samantha Orobator, 20, from south London, was caught with 1.5lb (680g) of the drug at Wattay airport in the capital, Vientiane, last August.

Her trial had been delayed while Laotian officials tried to find out how she became pregnant in prison.

She would have faced a mandatory death sentence, but the execution of pregnant prisoners is not allowed in Laos.

*

"If Rip Van Worldaffairs..."

"...had gone to sleep in 1940 and woke up today, imagine his surprise."

"He would identify a small plantation in Asia owned by a bunch of lunatics and populated by 20 million slaves. He would see that they had fired some missiles and developed nuclear technology which could probably devastate Japan, a country 10x its size and a million times its productive and intellectual capacity."

"He would probably say WTF is wrong with Japan? Why would it allow itself to be threatened, by force, by this inconsequential crime family?"

**********

UPDATE: Oh, they're in trouble now...

"Let the rebuking begin!"

**********

LAST WORD: Not much of a mathematician either

Okay... now that whole inability to process those financial numbers is starting to make sense.

*

Oops...

The report lists “Tube Vault 16, East Storage Array,” as a prospective site for nuclear inspection. It said the site, in Building 9720-5, contains highly enriched uranium for “long-term storage.”

An attached map shows the exact location of Tube Vault 16 along a hallway and its orientation in relation to geographic north, although not its location in the Y-12 complex.

*

Hey... was he driving home from...

...a barbequed rib joint?

-- OTTAWA -- A man who allegedly led Ottawa police on a high-speed chase in an SUV and then collided head-on with a police cruiser was released from custody after he claimed diplomatic immunity, officers say. While the suspect's identity has been kept secret since the crash early Tuesday, CTV News has learned the man is a 30-year-old foreign envoy from Saudi Arabia.

This year, there have been three cases involving diplomatic immunity, including allegations of shoplifting and a suspected domestic dispute.

Last year, there were 14 incidents, including two allegations of drunk driving.

*

Your money... Dalton's friends

Something to ponder... during your next 8 hour wait at the local hospital emergency room...

One day after Health Minister David Caplan ordered eHealth Ontario to undergo an independent audit of its questionable spending practices, the taxpayer-funded agency sponsored a welcome reception for 500 people in Quebec City.

The crown agency paid $27,000 as a "gold sponsor" of e-Health Conference 2009: Leadership in Action, and also covered the travel and accommodation costs for 25 of its staffers and consultants to attend the four-day event, including two Albertan consultants who bill just under $3,000 a day for their services.

As Sun Media has revealed, the organization has spent millions of dollars on consultants who turned around and billed the taxpayer for everything from Tim Hortons teas to swanky furnished apartments on Yorkville Ave.

**********

RELATED: Relax, it's not like we're talkin'...

...holy shit, Dalt... are you outta your mind?!?!

"And overall agency spending has ballooned to $839 million while the delivery date for province-wide, electronic patient health records has been pushed back to 2015."

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS: Ask an actual doctor...

"Back when they said they were going to build this thing, the other doctors in the room were very excited. Most, if not all of us, thought how nice it would be to access a patient's medical records anywhere, anytime. Frustrations relieved, a happy pallor fell over the room."

"Then I mentioned the gun registry. Several groans later, most people were thinking about how many CT scanners a few billion could buy."

"Soon most had accepted it for what it was, the continuous subtle torment of our souls."

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LAST WORD: Let's just ask Premier "Rainman"...
Okay... I think I see the problem here.

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Got stumps?

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Sure, he might decapitate again...

...but we're sure he's totally over... snacking on human flesh... *

Kinsella once again...

...hunting wabbits... I mean witches.

And looky here... even though Special K apparently already has an IP address and this person's email... it doesn't stop his acolytes from tossing around all kinds of accusations.

I dunno buddy, maybe it's that Nigerian 419 scammer you were so scared of a little while ago.

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FROM THE COMMENTS: An update from BigCityGlib...
And then, if indeed that is actually what happened... instead of then turning it over to the police... Special K deputises the leftosphere?

You guys gonna hang him from the nearest tree?

How does any of this make any sort of sense?

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RELATED: See Murph... this is a threat...

An 18-year-old male is in custody and facing charges Monday after he gathered an arsenal that included a shotgun and batons and posted a hit list with 117 names – 71 of them staff and students at his Vancouver high school – on Facebook.

And that's how you handle it.

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LAST WORD: Who is BigCityLib?

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Queen for a Day

Messin' with the teachers heads is just ice-cream...

"Mercifully the tradition of prom queen and king hasn’t taken root so much here in Canada, but the practice has long been one more way to render the education system a legally blonde dog and pony show."

"Forget the 3 Rs, you know you’ve really achieved something if you’re nominated prom queen and king."

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Bright Lights, Big city...

...shattered family...

One day after a brutal attack left one woman dead and sent two others to hospital, Peel Police are waiting on an autopsy to determine how Helen Slichta, 71, was killed.

She was bludgeoned inside her own home on Glen Erin Dr. around 1am Saturday. It's not yet known what weapon was used, and the why may never be answered.

A 44-year-old woman was also assaulted. She was airlifted to a Toronto hospital where she remains in life-threatening condition. A 25-year-old woman also in the home was treated at a local hospital and released.

Officers have not commented on reports that the trio was a grandmother, mother and daughter.

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UPDATE: In fuzzy-bunny socialist Ontario...

...there's no such thing as a bad boy...

Weekes, 59, who is known to Peel and Toronto police for a violence-related past, remains in hospital under guard. He was put on probation in March and April after being convicted of stalking and criminally harassing Stewart, court records state.

Court files show Weekes was acquitted June 24, 2004 on a Toronto assault case and had two charges withdrawn after being accused of choking and forcibly confining an unnamed victim.

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Happy Bankruptcy Day Taxpayers!!!

"Should the federal and Ontario governments be lending General Motors almost $10 billion as part of its bankruptcy restructuring?"

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FROM THE COMMENTS:

"Can we claim the Canadian Auto Workers as dependents on our taxes?"

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Sign of the times

It may simply be mechanical failure... but what's the first thing that came to mind when you read this?

“Air France regrets to announce that it is without news from Air France flight 447 flying from Rio to Paris,” she said. “Air France shares the emotion and worry of the families concerned.”

The flight was scheduled to arrive in Paris at 5:15 a.m. EDT, according to the airport.

Airbus declined to comment until more details emerge.

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RELATED: Trust... it's a two-way street

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