Ann Coulter on Anchor Babies and International Law

Ann Coulter is pointing out the absurdity of Leftists loving foreign and international law, hoping to make the U.S. submit to it - pining to follow it...until it comes to illegal migrants and anchor babies (jackpot babies) - and then they are conspicuously silent.

Ann Coulter

From Coulter's column August 18, 2010

Take Sweden -- one of the left's favorite countries. Not only is there no birthright citizenship, but even the children of legal immigrants cannot become Swedish citizens simply by being born there. At least one parent must be a citizen for birth on Swedish soil to confer citizenship...

Liberals are constantly hectoring Americans to adopt Sweden's generous welfare policies without considering that one reason Sweden's welfare policies haven't bankrupted the country (yet) is that the Swedes don't grant citizenship to the children of any deadbeat who manages the spectacular feat of giving birth on Swedish soil...

Even Canada, the country most similar to the United States, grants citizenship upon birth -- but excludes the noncitizen parents of anchor babies from receiving benefits, such as medical care, schooling and other free stuff given to Canadian citizens.

Ann slaps it down in her unique and pristinly pithy style. You'll want to read about "Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell, MSNBC's favorite half-black guest" at Ann Coulter.com

  

Aminat Magomadova Strangled by Muslim Mother: Judge Sentences Counselling

Aset Magomadova strangled her 14-year-old daughter with a headscarf and killed her. The mother said her daughter came after her with a knife. A knife in the girl's room was found, but Aminat Magomadova's finger prints were not on the knife.

Aset Magomadova

The mother was acquitted of second-degree murder and found guilty of manslaughter. A Canadian judge sentenced the mother to three years probation with counselling for grief, depression and anger management.

The devout Muslim mother claimed Aminat came at her with a knife in her sewing room, where she prayed several times a day. She said she reacted by wrapping the scarf around her daughter’s neck and twice told the girl to put the knife down before the teen lost consciousness.

A knife was found in the room, but the daughter’s fingerprints were not on it

Prosecutors asked for a 12-year-prison sentence, but the judge decided the Defense Attorney had a better idea when he told the judge "a suspended sentence can still meet the demands of justice."

Magomadova arrived in Canada "for a better life for herself and her children from Chechnaya, where her husband had been killed by Russian invaders and she had a part of her foot blown off.

The mother agreed that probation was an appropriate sentence. What if the daughter had killed the mother? The murder happened in February 2007. Aminat Magomadova's life meant nothing. Just a couple of strong jerks on the ends of a scarf for 2-1/2 minutes, and a life is snuffed-out - and no one cares.

Linked by Reaganite Republican Resistance

Canadian Airports on High Alert after Credible Threats: Terrorists Wanting to Enter US

Canadian airports have received information believed to be credible threats and screening procedures are heightened.

This originally stemmed from the underpants bomber's story of "20 more just like him" waiting to attack...but then in the video below you will hear Robert Fife say that there is additional intelligence from Canadian intelligence that another group is trying to get into Canada, not to attack there, but to cross into the U.S. See the video - read the story at CTVNews.

Jordan Canada Dead Sea Scrolls: Jordan asks Canada to Seize Dead Sea Scrolls

The Dead Sea Scrolls are on display at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. Jordan has asked Canada to invoke international law and seize the scrolls, and keep them in Canadian custody until lawful ownership is determined. The exhibit started in June 2009. At that time, the Palestinian Authority made the same request.

During the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel removed the scrolls from an East Jerusalem museum, pre-war under the ownership of Jordan. Scholars in Jordan and Israel believe the scrolls are the work of "an ascetic Jewish sect known as the Essenes, and were hidden to keep them out of the hands of the Romans. Palestine also agrees that the scrolls are Jewish, "but argue that they are also part of Palestinian heritage (of which there really is no true heritage).

Summoning the Canadian chargé d'affaires in Amman two weeks ago, Jordan cited the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which both Jordan and Canada are signatories, in asking Canada to take custody of the scrolls....

The Hague Convention, which is concerned with safeguarding cultural property during wartime, requires each signatory “to take into its custody cultural property imported into its territory either directly or indirectly from any occupied territory. This shall either be effected automatically upon the importation of the property or, failing this, at the request of the authorities of that territory.”

This means Canada must act, says Jordan. “The Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan would be grateful if the Government of Canada would confirm … whether it is prepared to assume its international legal responsibility, and the means by which it intends to do so,” it wrote.

Canada sees it differently:

[Canadian spokesman] said yesterday that “differences regarding ownership of the Dead Sea scrolls should be addressed by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. It would not be appropriate for Canada to intervene as a third party.”

Word of advice to Israel: keep your ancient antiquities at home. As much as we all appreciate an exhibit like this coming to a museum near us - your enemies strike at every good will gesture. Read more about the Dead Sea Scrolls here, here and here.

The Year Of The Buycott

By Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

That is correct.  Buycott.  It started in April with the call to boycott Israeli wines for Passover.  A boycott that not only fell flat, but backfired upon the organizers as seen by the pictures here (hat tip to Israel Matzav).  For every time that a call to boycott Israel came alive in Canada, the community was notified, and they came out to buy Israeli products.

It has spread from Canada to the US when there was a boycott of Ahava products called from the idiots whores of Code Pink.  That has failed.

On World Refugee Day Pity The Idiot, Murdering Arab Day, there was a call to boycott Israeli Products at Trader Joe's.  According to the company, they saw their greatest one-day sales profits on that day.

Yes. The tactic of boycotting Israeli Products is working well in Canad and the United States.

Another anti-Zionist attempted boycott in Canada has backfired, with Israeli products enjoying sales rates much higher than usual.



Anti-Israel groups had threatened MEC – Canada’s Mountain Equipment Co-op - with a boycott because of its inclusion of Israeli products in its inventory. But barely anyone showed up for the boycott, and instead, large crowds of Israel supporters came to buy Israeli products.

The Canada Jewish Tribune reports that several MEC stores across Canada experienced unusually high sales for its Israeli products on Sunday of last week. Shelves with Israeli-made products – numerous styles of seamless underwear and hydration systems products – had to be re-stocked a couple of times each day.

What had been planned as giant demonstrations against Israel in Toronto and Vancouver resulted in tiny-to-small groups of protestors who were dwarfed by crowds of Zionists purchasing Israeli items. B’nai Brith and the Canada-Israel Committee joined forces to organize a “buy-cott” in response to the boycott.

Salomon Rayek of B’nai Brith Canada in Vancouver reported total success, saying that only three anti-Israel demonstrators showed up at the MEC store in Calgary on Saturday, while the next day, “a large number of Jews and Israel’s supporters showed up at the stores and spent a good chunk of money buying Israeli products... I understand that in Toronto about 20 protesters showed up to protest, and on the next day there was a very large Jewish and pro-Israel presence [coming] to buy Israeli goods."

Shades of April 2009

The story appears to be a repeat of what occurred in April of this year at a Toronto liquor store.

After a Jewish non-Zionist group tried to organize an anti-Israel protest in front of the store, asking Passover celebrants to mark their holiday without Israeli-made wines, hundreds of pro-Israeli consumers took the opportunity to hold a pro-Israel festival and bought up the store’s entire stock of Israeli wine.

Brands such as Carmel, Barkan, Golan Heights, Gush Etzion (Efrat), Binyamina, Baron, Segal Dalton and others were sold out within a matter of hours.

What started as a way to counter the anti-Semantic idea of boycotting Israeli wines, is turning into a movement to counter the hate.

BUYCOTT ISRAEL!

It is time to take action!  Time to put your money where your mouth is.  To find out how, click here.  Do it for your conscience.  Do it to stick it to Code Pink.  But most importantly:  Do it because it is the right thing to do!

Buy Israel!

Ayers The Guy Nobody Wants

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle Bill Ayers, noted educator, friend of Barack Obama, and unrepentant terrorist, was politely told you're not welcome here by of all places: Canada.

William Ayers, the 1960s radical whose ties to President-elect Barack Obama caused trouble for his campaign, was turned away from Canada Sunday night as he tried to enter the country for a series of educational events. Jeffrey Kugler, the executive director for the Center for Urban Schooling at the University of Toronto, said Ayers was deemed not admissible after being pulled aside by Canadian immigration officials while trying to clear customs at the Toronto airport. Ayers had been invited to speak before the center. He was also scheduled to meet with the Toronto District School Board and do interviews with Canadian television and radio stations, Kugler said. Kugler said the center sent e-mails notifying guests who planned to attend Ayers' talk that he had been turned back. Kugler said the center will try to reschedule Ayers. Ayers, a co-founder of the violent Weather Underground group and current education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, told the Toronto Star that he didn't know why he had been turned away. According to Kugler, Ayers was told he could request a hearing but that would mean some sort of detention and a possible two week wait. Ayers opted to return to Chicago.

That is the second time in a week that Canada has done the right thing. What ever Canadians are doing keep it up. You should be very proud of yourselves and your nation. A great pat on the back is in order.

View at YouTube

And The World Turns A Blind Eye.

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle In the 1930's the world turned a blind eye on to what Hitler's Germany was doing to its Jewish population. Anti-semitism was acceptable in all nations, and the majority of people in most nations wished they could do the same. Then came the Holocaust and the world was shamed into a more civilized manner. Anti-semitism was the venue for the fridge on the very far right, the neo-Nazis, the Skinheads, the KKK. Not any more. For it has raised its ugly head. Not only in Muslim nations where it is state policy, but in every nation in Europe, Canada and now the United States. Outside of Israel, there is no nation in this world that a Jew is truly safe.

Europe: Assailants rammed a burning car into the gates of a synagogue in Toulouse, in southwest France, Monday night. A Jewish congregation in Helsingborg, in southern Sweden, was attacked Monday night by someone who "broke a window and threw in something that was burning," said police spokesman Leif Nilsson. And on Sunday slogans, including "murderers ... You broke the cease-fire," were daubed on Israel's Embassy in Stockholm. In Denmark, a 27-year-old Dane born in Lebanon to Palestinian parents is alleged to have injured two young Israelis last week in a shooting police suspect could be linked to the Gaza crisis. Belgium ordered police in Antwerp and Brussels to be on increased state of alert" Tuesday after recent pro-Palestinian protests ended in violence and arrests. Jews in the small Strasbourg suburb of Lingolsheim in eastern France woke up Tuesday to find graffiti with words like "assassins" spray-painted on the outside walls of their synagogue. The community filed a complaint for "degradation of a place of worship," the mayor's office said.

Not being satisfied with just protesting, the anti-Semities are turning to looting after their "peaceful" protests.

Great Britain: The number of anti-Semitic attacks in London has risen sharply following Israel's land assault on Gaza, Jewish community groups said today. Their leaders have compiled a dossier of attacks against Jews which will be handed to seniors officers in the Metropolitan police. The attacks include claims of:

• An attempt to burn down a synagogue in north-west London.
• An assault on a Jewish motorist who was pulled from his car and punched.
• A gang of youths chanting anti-Semitic slogans as they tried to enter restaurants and shops in Golders Green.

The Community Security Trust, which is responsible for the safety of Jews in Britain, has also noted the emergence of anti-Semitic graffiti in Jewish areas across London. Slogans sprayed on walls include: 'Kill Jews' and 'Jews are scumbags.' The trust has now logged 24 anti-Semitic incidents - most of them in London - in the past week. Police are said to be stepping up patrols in Jewish areas. On New Year's Eve, a man was pulled from his car just as he was about to drive off and assaulted by three men whom he described as being of Arab appearance. The victim did not suffer any serious injury. The same night a gang of youths alarmed locals in Golders Green by trying to enter Jewish shops while chanting anti-Israeli slogans. Joey Ben-Yoav, manager of nearby Met Su Yan, a kosher Chinese restaurant in Golders Green, said: "It was scary. They were waving flags and shouting. It felt like if we went out they would hit us or something. 'They walked past a few Jews and just shouted 'Jew' at them. They did not look like they were in the mood for making peace.'

But I have come to expect that from Great Britain now. They are practically a Muslim nation with the implementation of Shar'ia Law, and no-go areas for Muslims only.

New Zealand: A memorial monument to prime minister Yitzhak Rabin in Wellington, New Zealand was defaced with red paint during a demonstration on Monday against the IDF operation in Gaza. According to Web site Stuff.co.nz, about 100 protesters converged at the monument in Lambton Quay, where Wellington Palestinian Group spokesman Don Carson criticized the lack of New Zealand government response, calling it weak and one-sided, and urged it to enter talks with Hamas. "Let's send a message to our politicians to damn well do something," he said. One of the demonstrators, Father Gerard Burn, then sprinkled red paint, mixed with a drop of his own blood, on the monument to mark the killing of hundreds of Palestinians and the seizure of their land. Members of the crowd chanted "They kill, they lie but Palestine will never die", "Allahu Akhbar" and "Free, free Palestine".

I see the Catholic Church is back up to its usual anti-Semitic behavior. The old Kill the Jews chant will probably be standard in Father Burn's church every Sunday now.

View at LiveLeak

Canada: Ontario’s largest university workers’ union is proposing a ban on Israeli academics teaching in the province’s universities, in a move that echoes previous attempts to boycott goods and services from the Jewish state. The resolution, proposed by CUPE’s Ontario University Workers Coordinating Committee, is in protest against a Dec. 29 bombing that damaged the Islamic University in Gaza. “In response to an appeal from the Palestinian Federation of Unions of University Professors and Employees, we are ready to say Israeli academics should not be on our campuses unless they explicitly condemn the university bombing and the assault on Gaza in general,” said Sid Ryan, president of CUPE Ontario. The resolution is still being drafted but the union said it will seek to prohibit Israeli academics from speaking, teaching or researching at Ontario universities. The CUPE committee will distribute the resolution to its members at the end of the month. It will be put to a vote at the committee’s annual conference in February.

Why does this not surprise me? Canada which prides itself on civil behavior has turned into a haven for hatemongers and anti-Semites.

The United States: Chicago: A bottle of flammable liquid was hurled at one of Chicago's oldest synagogues, catching fire but not causing major damage. No one was injured in the incident early Monday at Temple Sholom of Chicago. Chicago police and the Chicago fire department are investigating the arson as a hate crime. No one was in custody Monday. Police officer Daniel O'Brien says the fire burned itself out and never ignited the North Side building. He says investigators are working to get surveillance equipment from the area. Roger Rudich, president of the temple, says the arson was unsettling but not damaging. Rallies in Anaheim, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and other US cities.

And then this:

Subject: `stop the killing` campaign at U.S. synagogues To: nyprotest@lists.riseup.net Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2009 08:41:02 -0800 Subject: NO MORE DEMOS

No more demos. No more signs, chants, pithy t shirts. No more marches to nowhere.

And DEFINITELY no more emails to Congress, or heart-felt messages to Change.Gov and Obama, begging the conspirators to stop the conspiracy.

We each one of us is responsible - and we each one of us must take action. We cannot rely on Others to do it for us.

Here is an excellent article, with a detailed list of actions we can take, from James Petras. http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article21613.htm

I have strongly suggested to many different so-called action groups, that we immediately institute a program of visits to every synagogue in the USA, on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings, and rise in each congregation and - in dignified firm and unemotional voices - repeat “STOP THE KILLING”– We need to go in groups of 3-4, to insure that we have 1 person as a defensive shield, and one as a video camera witness, recording everything.

Jews especially should be doing these actions. We will face harsh treatment, and possibly physical attack, but our message must be resolute and continue week after week.

I see no possible legal impediment to this. The public, and certainly Jews- cannot be barred from entry to the services, and it will be extremely hard for the Synagogues to enforce exclusion. If they do, we can speak on the front steps, on the street, in the parking lot.

The Jews of America must be confronted with their clear responsibility- far more than complicity-in the mass murders, occupation, and forced starvation of the people of Palestine.

And the MSM sees none of this, doesn't report any of this, turns a blind eye. In 1933 the world turned a blind eye when Germany slid down the slippery slope that led to the Holocaust. In 2009 the world is again turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism in their own lands. The media is giving approval for the rhetoric, the violence. The police half-heartedly investigate, and the politicians in each nation say nothing, do nothing to stop it. And Jews around the world pray for this cycle to end. But fueled by groups like CAIR, it will only get worse.

Muslims In A Near Riot, As Jews Pray For Their Soldiers.

Cross posted by Findalis of Monkey in the Middle

I am not amazed at the reaction of the Muslim and Moonbat Dhimmi communities over the reaction to Operation Cast Lead. The protests have already started with the cries of: Holocaust, Genocide, Death to Israel (a favorite in Muslim nations especially Iran), and Innocent Civilians. They are especially loud in those Dhimmified nations of Great Britain, France and Canada.

Forty pro-Israel demonstrators opposite the Israel Consulate in Toronto yelled back at more than 700 pro-Arabs protesting Israel’s military operations in Gaza Sunday afternoon . Khaled Mouammar, president of the Canadian Arab Federation (CAF), stated, “The massacre taking place in Gaza must stop. People are suffering and dying. There is an actual genocide taking place.” The CAF president has previosly gone on record demanding that Canada boycott "the Apartheid State" and that his government should not criticize Hizbullah terrorists. Police were busy keeping the groups from attacking each other. Other than minor scuffles, there were no incidents of violence between the groups. Additional pro-Arab demonstrations took place throughout Canada. The Toronto pro-Arab organizers called on the Canadian government to condemn Israel’s actions. While Canada’s Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon has expressed concern about the escalating violence, he has nevertheless stated that Israel has the right to defend itself. Full Story

The Canadian Arab Federation is very similiar to CAIR. In their news release they write:

This is a war crime on an industrial scale. We call on the federal opposition parties to ask the Harper Government to condemn the Israeli massacre of the Palestinian people in Gaza . There will be a demonstration outside the Israeli Consulate in Toronto

No where do they mention the daily barrage of rockets their brethern in Gaza send into Israel. Only the retaliation that Israel is finally imposing on Gaza. Of course our friends at CAIR put out this statement:

“American Muslims join our fellow citizens who respect international law and the sanctity of human life in repudiating this massacre carried out using U.S. taxpayer-funded weapons. “It must be clear by now that the only future offered to the Palestinian people by the outgoing administration was one of perpetual subjugation and humiliation at the hands of the Israeli occupiers. Unfortunately, our nation’s timid response to this tragic episode will only serve to fuel anti-American sentiments in the Muslim world. “We therefore call on President-elect Obama to demonstrate his commitment to change our nation’s current one-sided Mideast policy by speaking out now in favor of peace and justice for all parties to this decades-long conflict.”

I see. It is ok for PalArabs to attack Israel, but let the Israelis fight back and then its cry foul! And the rest of the Muslim world is no exception.

Tens of thousands rally through Arab capitals calling for end to Israeli strikes in Gaza and in support of Hamas. In Beirut Hizbullah leader Nasrallah echoes calls for third intifada, while in Amman masses urge renewal of suicide bombings. Tens of thousands of Lebanese Shiite protesters, chanting "Death to America, Death to Israel", massed in Beirut on Monday, calling for an end to Israeli strikes on Gaza that have killed 320 Palestinians.

Protesters in Lebanon

In the Jordanian capital, Amman, about 20,000 people staged a demonstration organized by the mainstream Muslim Brotherhood, while in Cairo about 1,000 people rallied to show solidarity with Gaza Palestinians. Full Story

A call to begin Suicide bombings, a call for more violence. But I don't see Jordan, Lebanon or Egypt sending their armies to fight Israel. As a matter of fact it seems that Arab unity is a myth.

In a press conference held on Monday afternoon in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit responded to criticism by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday, saying that "They have practically declared war on Egypt via several satellite stations. The Egyptian people reject and opposes this declaration." "They want for there to be chaos in Egypt as there is in their country," Gheit said of Hizbullah. "I tell this man [Nasrallah]: No, no! Our armed forces can defend our homeland from people like you. Your interest in creating chaos is not in the best interest of the area," he added. The Egyptian foreign minister added that his country had tried to prevent the escalation in violence by asking Israel not to carry out an operation in the Gaza Strip. Full Story

The only Muslim nation that is activily recruiting fighters (I will not give them the honorific of soldiers) is you guessed it: Iran.

Group of hardline clerics signs up volunteers to fight in Gaza Strip in response to IDF airstrikes that have killed at least 300 Palestinians. Tens of thousands take part in anti-Israel protest in Tehran.

The usual Iranian protest.

"From Monday the Combatant Clergy Society has activated its website for a week to register volunteers to fight against the Zionist regime (Israel) in either the military, financial or propaganda fields," the semi-official Fars news agency said. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious decree to Muslims around the world on Sunday, ordering them to defend Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attacks "in any way possible". A religious decree is an official statement by a high-ranking religious leader that commands Muslims to carry out its message. While there is no religious and legal force behind it, Khamenei is respected by many Iranian and non-Iranian Shiites. Full Story

For those who do not speak Jihad, the words "defend Palestinians in Gaza against Israeli attack in any way possible" is a call to kill all the Jews in the world. And what is the Jewish community doing? They pray. No riotous protests, no shouting Death to Hamas, none of the hatred that is being unleashed by Islam. They are praying.

Several hundred people arrived at the Western Wall on Sunday to attend a lighting of the eighth Hanukkah candle and say a prayer for the wellbeing of IDF soldiers and the residents of Israel's southern communities. Israel launched a military operation in Gaza Saturday in response to the ongoing rocket attacks from the Strip. Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Jerusalem District Police chief Maj.-Gen. Ilan Franco were also present at the event. "On these days every Jew in Israel and across the world is obligated to say a prayer for the soldiers and residents who are facing such difficult times," Rabbi Amar told Ynet.

Praying at the Western Wall

Worshipers at the Wall said they also prayed for a successful outcome to the military operation in Gaza. "May the soldiers have a Hanukkah miracle," one participant stated.

Prayers not for peace, for that time has passed, but for victory. For an end to Hamas. For an end to the rockets. May God hear the prayers of Israel in this time of war. May Israel's victory be swift and sweet!

Our Northern Neighbors: Tough Times with Islam

Canadian publisher, and Free Speech activist, Ezra Levant, spent 900 days and thousands of dollars defending himself against the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities. This on the heels of an identical suit filed by Syed Soharwardy, president of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, which was withdrawn. Why was Levant sued? He published the Danish "Mohammed" cartoons. Muslims were offended. Who knew a Human Rights Commission could investigate and bring to "tribunal" offensive cartoons? That's what happened to Levant. He was sued within a Canadian Human Rights Commission - not a court. The members of the Commission are not judges, and some are not lawyers. After three years, Levant's case was dismissed, but had it not been, Levant would have stood trial before a HRC "tribunal." The defendant, Levant, bore all of the monetary burden of the suit filed against him, with no avenue to sue his accuser. The charges against him cited, in part, Sharia Law. He paid large sums of money to view some of the paperwork on his case. For three years he and his family pondered his future at the hands of the Muslim Community. Take a look at this incredible case of Palestinians suing Canadian builders, not a free speech issue, but an issue claiming war crimes against Canadians:

Palestinian village sues Canadian builders over Israeli settlement

A West Bank village is suing two Quebec-based companies for $2 million, alleging they violated international law by building Israeli settlements on occupied territory. The claim, filed Wednesday against sister companies Green Park International and Green Mount International, also asks the Quebec Superior Court for an injunction to stop further construction, and demolish apartment buildings already erected in Moddin Illit, a Jewish settlement northwest of Ramallah.The Palestinian village of Bil'in alleges both companies committed war crimes by building housing in the settlement, Israel's largest in the West Bank. The lawsuit also names Annette Laroche, who is named as the director of both companies. Thanks to Kashmiri-Nomad Blog

Canadian author Mark Steyn published a column in Maclean's Magazine and now both have been sued by Canada's Islamic Congress. Steyn wrote the New York Times bestseller America Alone, The End of the World as We Know It, of which I am the proud owner of an autographed copy (hurry, maybe you can get one too). Here are two reviews: Michelle Malkin:

Mark Steyn is a human sandblaster. This book provides a powerful, abrasive, high-velocity assault on encrusted layers of sugarcoating and whitewash over the threat of Islamic imperialism. Do we in the West have the will to prevail?

John O'Sullivan, editor at large, National Review:

Mark Steyn is the funniest writer now living. But don't be distracted y the brilliance of his jokes. They are the neon lights advertising a profound and sad insight: America is almost alone in resisting both the suicide of the West and the suicide bombing of radical Islamism.

For information on the lawsuits, read Mark Steyn is not Alone and Canada: Islamic Congress Sues Macleans Magazine What is happening with some regularity to our Northern neighbor, is happening here in the U.S. Here are some organizations to keep an eye on: The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), The Muslim American Society, The North American Islamic Trust and here are some lawsuits to know about: Michael Savage, Brooklyn, Boston, Virginia Beach, VA, and "Scared Silent" in Boston

One way to stay informed: visit Anti-CAIR. The Fairness Doctrine in the U.S. - silencing Conservative talk radio: The resurrection of an FCC Fairness Doctrine, in the U.S. is again being considered. After reading Ezra's speech below, read some comprehensive information on The Fairness Doctrine: What You May Not Know. Visit mrc.org for how you can help stop this Liberal agenda.

*****

Opening remarks at Media Lawyers Association conference in Ottawa [ Nov. 8/08] By Ezra Levant

In the four years that I was publisher of the Western Standard magazine, we received, on average, one threat of a defamation lawsuit each month – or about one every other issue. But never once did any of those threats turn into a statement of claim, let alone a trial. The reason was simple: we put a great emphasis on getting our facts straight, and our opinions, while famously spicy, were always fair. And we knew – and the fifty or so people who threatened us over the years knew – that if they took us to court, we’d eventually win. And if we’d win, our antagonists would have to pay much of our legal costs. Not just that, but they would bear significant costs themselves – not only legal bills, but time and effort and emotional energy, and the potential embarrassment that all defamation plaintiffs face when their own reputation and conduct is carefully examined. But we were, in the end, sued twice for something we published: the Danish cartoons of the Muslim prophet, Mohammed. We ran them to illustrate a news story about the riots purportedly in reaction to those cartoons. They were the central artifact of the news story. They weren’t presented as our opinion; they were presented as a lawyer might enter a piece of evidence, Exhibit A. In other words, they were news themselves; they were the facts of the story. And we were sued for reporting those facts. We were sued not in defamation law, but in human rights law. And the reason we were sued is precisely because all of the traditional defences that stood our magazine in such good stead in the face of defamation suits, were taken away from us by the government. Our factual accuracy was of no use. The charge was discrimination or, to use the precise language of the law, we had published something “likely to expose a person… to hatred or contempt”. A plain reading of that will tell you it’s got nothing to do with factual accuracy. It also has nothing to do with reasonableness of opinion or journalistic responsibility. Those defences have been developed over 400 years of defamation law. They do not apply to human rights suits. Another defence we were not able to use was that damages suffered by the busy-body plaintiffs were remote or non-existent. Again, a plain reading of the law shows that no damages are necessary to convict – as if being “exposed” to someone’s mere feelings was a compensable damage. But even if it was, that’s not what the law requires: we had only to “likely” expose someone to bad feelings. Likely means maybe, maybe not. As well, the natural check on American-style over-litigation – the financial, time and emotional cost of suing, and the risk of costs being awarded to the defendant – were not in play. The government of Alberta carried the investigation against us, and, had the case not been dismissed, would have prosecuted us before a tribunal. The complainants didn’t have to spend a dime or a minute – and the law prohibited me from collecting costs when I won. There was no discovery process whereby a plaintiff with dirty hands would be embarrassed to proceed. In my case the first complainant, Syed Soharwardy, was a radical imam, who was trained in Pakistan’s madrassahs, who does the Saudi lecture circuit, who taught at an officially anti-Semitic university. Even his complaint was littered not with Canadian law, but with sharia law. He actually cited sections of the Koran to make his case. The secular government of Alberta prosecuted an Islamic fatwa; it was the first blasphemy trial in English Canada in nearly 90 years. Soharwardy would never sue in defamation law. He’s odious. He has called for sharia law in Canada; he has said Western aid agencies doing tsunami disaster relief were secretly kidnapping and converting Muslim children; his treatment of women at his own mosque is so appalling he is the subject of human rights complaints himself. None of this mattered. I, on the other hand, was subject to Section 23 of the Alberta Act, which allows the HRC to enter and examine my office, make inquiries of me and my staff, and seize any document or computer hard drive – all without a search warrant. After Soharwardy’s complaint was filed against me, an identical complaint was filed by another radical Muslim group. No rules of double jeopardy; a hundred such complaints could have been filed – each demanding cash as a shakedown. Look at Maclean’s magazine – they had the same complainants in three jurisdictions. Disclosure? None from the complainant. I had to pay an enormous sum for access to information documents about my own case – most of which have been stonewalled, including every single internal HRC e-mail. I did receive enough paper, though, to see that 15 bureaucrats and lawyers worked on my case for 900 days. I’m a major crime scene. My case was dismissed, eventually, by a bureaucrat who I had never met, Pardeep Gundara who came up with a novel and bizarre rationale for letting me go – including that our publication of them wasn’t “gratuitous”. Did you know that it’s against the law to publish something gratuitously? Neither did I. I also didn’t know that what page you put them in the magazine also is a factor. Let’s be frank. Gundara was just making this up. And if Gundara – who, unbeknownst to me, apparently had become my editor’s editor – had recommended the matter go to a full prosecution, I would have been in even stupider hands. Not a single human rights commissioner in Canada is a judge, of course. But many of them aren’t even lawyers. In Alberta, we’ve got several non-lawyers who run hearings, including a nurse. That’s great if the case is about, say, nosebleeds. But I’m not really interested in hearing her view on freedom of the press, radical Islam, or anything else. It’s a counterfeit court. It produces junk law. Its procedures are a joke. But that’s not what’s dangerous. What’s dangerous is that they are political weapons, used to punish views they hate. I think so-called hate speech laws are un-Canadian. But if they’re on the books, the laws ought to be applied evenly. There is indeed some hate speech in Canada – in Syed Soharwardy’s mosque, for example. Or take the Egyptian-born radical who sued Maclean’s, Mohamed Elmasry. He declared on TV that any Jew in Israel is fair game for a terrorist attack. But no radical Muslim, radical Sikh or radical Tamil has ever been charged with hate speech. 100% of all cases at the CHRC have been white, Christian or conservative. Take a white, conservative Christian named Rev. Stephen Boissoin. After a six-year kangaroo hearing, he was convicted of hate speech for publishing an Op-Ed in the Red Deer Advocate. Six years later. He was fined $7,000 payable to his antagonists. But get this: he has been banned from saying anything disparaging about gays for the rest of his life. Disparaging is the word in the ruling. Not criminal, not hateful. Disparaging. In public sermons, even in private e-mail. Read the ruling. And that’s not all: the government of Alberta positively ordered him to recant his views and apologize – not just to his antagonists, but in the Red Deer Advocate itself. (They wisely refused to print such a Maoist forced apology.) But the story gets better. As a protest, I republished Rev. Boissoin’s Op-Ed on my blog, in full. In bad faith – I didn’t even believe in it. And I knew it had been found, legally, to be “hate speech”. Sure enough, I was taken to the CHRC. And their investigator recommended that I not be prosecuted. My friends, that’s what’s called a controlled experiment. Every variable was controlled, except one. The words were the same; the law was the same. The only difference is that I’m a noisy, Jewish lawyer who knows how to fight back; Rev. Boissoin is a penniless pastor who doesn’t know how to fight politically. I was let go; Boissoin had his face ground into the dirt. For the exact same words. That’s not law. That’s corrupt, that’s abusive, that’s un-Canadian. It’s un-Canadian that not a single person tried under s. 13, in thirty years, has ever been acquitted. It’s un-Canadian that 91% of the CHRC’s targets are so poor they can’t afford lawyers, and aren’t given one. It’s un-Canadian that the CHRC goes online, posing as neo-Nazis, spewing racist venom, to entrap people in discussions that they then prosecute. It’s un-Canadian that the CHRC has no ethics code, and has hacked a private citizen’s e-mail account in one of their neo-Nazi personas – which is why the CHRC is now under both RCMP and Privacy Commission investigation. Anyone who believes in a spectrum of ideas should be furious with these kangaroo courts. And anyone whose job it is to defend the media should be very worried, too

Related: Levant's full-bore confrontation with the Alberta Human Rights Commission. This is a masterpiece.

Warriors for Free Speech Battle-on Against Islam

The voice of Muslim "community" is reaching fever-pitch. Ezra Levant, a Canadian publisher, was forced to defend himself and his publication against complaints filed with the Alberta Human Rights Commission by the Edmonton Council of Muslim Communities. The "voice" is singular - the Muslim "community" throughout the world is the single voice of Islam. Levant had the strength and constitution to fight back and 900 days later the AHRC dismissed the Islamic complaint against him. If you are not familiar with his story, his opening statement as the Alberta Human Rights Commission began its interrogation of him is a good place to start. Read his statement or watch the video here.

 Feb. 11, 2006: A file photo of Michel Brunelle holding a sign saying 'Freedom of the press is sacred', argues with a Muslim man who called him a racist during a demonstration by local Muslims [in Canada] protesting the recent publishing of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper. Photo Credit: John Mahoney/Montreal Gazette

The Muslim community was offended that Levant dared republish the "Danish cartoons" of Muhammed. They took their complaint not to court but to a Human Rights Commission. Here's a portion of Levant's response in defense of own human rights:

I am here at this government interrogation under protest. It is my position that the government has no legal or moral authority to interrogate me or anyone else for publishing these words and pictures. That is a violation of my ancient and inalienable freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and in this case, religious freedom and the separation of mosque and state. The commission was meant to deal with deeds, not words or ideas. Now the commission, which is funded by a secular government, from the pockets of taxpayers of all backgrounds, is taking it upon itself to be an enforcer of the views of radical Islam. So much for the separation of mosque and state.

Levant was lambasted by Leftist columnists when the dismissal was announced. Naomi Lakritz ("Jewish" according to Levant), writing for the Calgary Herald, lamented the lengthy process within the HRC and didn't hesitate to blame Levant for failing to take advantage of "conciliation."

[Levant] Yes, I was offered conciliation. The offer sounded like this: "pay cash to the radical Muslims, and give them a page in your magazine, unedited. Then we'll let you go." Most people take it -- they don't have the time or money to fight these bastards for 900 days.

By accepting and acting upon the Edmonton Muslim Community complaint, the Commission violated Levant's right to free speech. That's the issue: freedom of speech violated in the name and defense of Islam. Is the dismissal a victory for Levant?

I suppose, in a narrow technical sense, it is. I’m off the hook now for both of the HRC complaints. That’s two legal battles done – though I’m still up to my eyeballs fighting defamation suits and other legal actions that the human rights industry piled on top of these complaints. But I’ve read the dismissal letter three times now, and each time it makes me more angry. Because I haven’t been given my freedom of the press. I’ve simply had the government censor approve what I said. That’s a completely different thing. Pardeep Gundara – a second-rate bureaucrat, a nobody – had to give me his approval for me to be allowed to go back to my business. For 900 days I was in the dock, waiting for this literary giant to pronounce his judgment on me. And I found favour in his eyes – but barely.

Here's Levant on another violation of free speech by the AHRC:

Two months ago, Rev. Stephen Boissoin was given an outrageous sentence by the Alberta HRC for doing the same thing I did. Rev. Boissoin even met Gundara’s goofy tests. Why was I acquitted and Rev. Boissoin convicted, sentenced and humiliated? Because I’m a pain in the neck to the HRCs, and I have been embarrassing them ever since I YouTubed their interrogation of me. They wanted to avoid the PR disaster of a trial. Rev. Boissoin is more their style: a quiet man they can beat up with impunity.

Boissoin has been forbidden, for life, to speak of, refer to or quote any biblical passage on homosexuality.

Read more about Boissoin in Jeremy Maddock's Soft Facism: The Persecution of Reverend Stephen Boisson.

About the Kafkaewque Show Trial of Mark Steyn

About the Council on American-Islamic Relation's (CAIR) defamation suit against Anti-CAIR's Andrew Whitehead Read more on a first Islamic complaint, now withdrawn, against Levant.

Graphic by No Sheeples Here
 

Technorati Tags: Ezra Levant, Violation of Freedom of Speech, U.N., Alberta Human Rights Commission, Mark Steyn, Reverend Boisson, Andrew Whitehead - Anti-CAIR, Council on American-islamic Relations

Protecting the New Species: Muslims! This Time in Canada

A thank you to Holger Awakens who brought this story to my attention. Holger has one of the finest blogs on the War on Terror to be found anywhere. If you want a credible daily dose of Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Hamas, the Taliban, al Qaeda - go visit Holger. If you have a strong stomach you'll want to keep an eye out for his Taliban 101 videos. If terrorists are at work, so is Holger. As British citizens battle the Islamification of their neighborhoods, as bloggers there are arrested by officials committed to a hateful agenda of Protecting the New Species - Muslims, as those who speak out about Muslim atrocities must flee their homeland to protect their freedom or save their lives...comes this story from Alberta, Canada. Ezra Levant, the publisher of the Western Standard based in Alberta, Canada, published the "controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad" a few months after they were first published in Denmark in September 2005. The following video is of Levant's opening remarks to the Alberta Human Rights Commission Interrogation, January 2008 - his interrogation. This snippet from Levant is critical:

The commission was meant to deal with deeds, not words or ideas. Now the commission, which is funded by a secular government, from the pockets of taxpayers of all backgrounds, is taking it upon itself to be an enforcer of the views of radical Islam.

Mr. Levant's statement is printed below the video for those who prefer to read. Video courtesy of YouTube.com Text of Levant's opening remarks (paragraphing slightly reformated to make for easier reading)

My name is Ezra Levant. Before this government interrogation begins, I will make a statement. When the Western Standard magazine printed the Danish cartoons of Mohammed two years ago, I was the publisher. It was the proudest moment of my public life. I would do it again today. In fact, I did do it again today. Though the Western Standard, sadly, no longer publishes a print edition, I posted the cartoons this morning on my website, ezralevant.com. I am here at this government interrogation under protest. It is my position that the government has no legal or moral authority to interrogate me or anyone else for publishing these words and pictures. That is a violation of my ancient and inalienable freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and in this case, religious freedom and the separation of mosque and state. It is especially perverted that a bureaucracy calling itself the Alberta human rights commission would be the government agency violating my human rights. So I will now call those bureaucrats “the commission” or “the hrc”, since to call the commission a “human rights commission” is to destroy the meaning of those words. I believe that this commission has no proper authority over me. The commission was meant as a low-level, quasi-judicial body to arbitrate squabbles about housing, employment and other matters, where a complainant felt that their race or sex was the reason they were discriminated against. The commission was meant to deal with deeds, not words or ideas. Now the commission, which is funded by a secular government, from the pockets of taxpayers of all backgrounds, is taking it upon itself to be an enforcer of the views of radical Islam. So much for the separation of mosque and state. I have read the past few years’ worth of decisions from this commission, and it is clear that it has become a dump for the junk that gets rejected from the real legal system. I read one case where a male hair salon student complained that he was called a “loser” by the girls in the class. The commission actually had a hearing about this. Another case was a kitchen manager with Hepatitis-C, who complained that it was against her rights to be fired. The commission actually agreed with her, and forced the restaurant to pay her $4,900. In other words, the commission is a joke – it’s the Alberta equivalent of a U.S. television pseudo-court like Judge Judy – except that Judge Judy actually was a judge, whereas none of the commission’ s panellists are judges, and some aren’t even lawyers. And, unlike the commission, Judge Judy believes in freedom of speech. It’s bad enough that this sick joke is being wreaked on hair salons and restaurants. But it’s even worse now that the commissions are attacking free speech. That’s my first point: the commissions have leapt out of the small cage they were confined to, and are now attacking our fundamental freedoms. As Alan Borovoy, Canada’s leading civil libertarian, a man who helped form these commissions in the 60’s and 70’s, wrote, in specific reference to our magazine, being a censor is, quote, “hardly the role we had envisioned for human rights commissions. There should be no question of the right to publish the impugned cartoons.” Unquote. Since the commission is so obviously out of control, he said quote “It would be best, therefore, to change the provisions of the Human Rights Act to remove any such ambiguities of interpretation.” Unquote. The commission has no legal authority to act as censor. It is not in their statutory authority. They’re just making it up – even Alan Borovoy says so. But even if the commissions had some statutory fig leaf for their attempts at political and religious censorship, it would still be unlawful and unconstitutional. We have a heritage of free speech that we inherited from Great Britain that goes back to the year 1215 and the Magna Carta. We have a heritage of eight hundred years of British common law protection for speech, augmented by 250 years of common law in Canada. That common law has been restated in various fundamental documents, especially since the Second World War. In 1948, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Canada is a party, declared that, quote: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” The 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights guaranteed, quote: 1. “ human rights and fundamental freedoms, namely, (c) freedom of religion; (d) freedom of speech; (e) freedom of assembly and association; and (f) freedom of the press. In 1982, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteed, quote: 2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: a) freedom of conscience and religion; b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; Those were even called “fundamental freedoms” – to give them extra importance. For a government bureaucrat to call any publisher or anyone else to an interrogation to be quizzed about his political or religious expression is a violation of 800 years of common law, a Universal Declaration of Rights, a Bill of Rights and a Charter of Rights. This commission is applying Saudi values, not Canadian values. It is also deeply procedurally one-sided and unjust. The complainant – in this case, a radical Muslim imam, who was trained at an officially anti-Semitic university in Saudi Arabia, and who has called for sharia law to govern Canada – doesn’t have to pay a penny; Alberta taxpayers pay for the prosecution of the complaint against me. The victims of the complaints, like the Western Standard, have to pay for their own lawyers from their own pockets. Even if we win, we lose – the process has become the punishment. (At this point, I’d like to thank the magazine’s many donors who have given their own money to help us fight against the Saudi imam and his enablers in the Alberta government.) It is procedurally unfair. Unlike real courts, there is no way to apply for a dismissal of nuisance lawsuits. Common law rules of evidence don’t apply. Rules of court don’t apply. It is a system that is part Kafka, and part Stalin. Even this interrogation today – at which I appear under duress – saw the commission tell me who I could or could not bring with me as my counsel and advisors. I have no faith in this farcical commission. But I do have faith in the justice and good sense of my fellow Albertans and Canadians. I believe that the better they understand this case, the more shocked they will be. I am here under your compulsion to answer the commission’s questions. But it is not I who am on trial: it is the freedom of all Canadians. You may start your interrogation.

End of Ezra Levant statement. Related: Western Canadian magazine publishes Muhammad cartoons The National Post EzraLevant.com Lionheart: The End No More Mosques - The Need for Radical Thinking Read more written by Lionheart, Paul Ray, in the archives of RADARSITE Permalink: http://maggiesnotebook.blogspot.com/2008/07/protecting-new-species-muslims-this.html Trackback URL for this entry: http://haloscan.com/tb/maggiesnotebook/7101188696581879626 Trackposted to Political Byline, third world county, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, The Pink Flamingo, Cao's Blog, and Democrat=Socialist, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe. Technorati Tags: Ezra Levant, Western Standard, Danish Muhammad Cartoons, Human Rights in Canada, Holger Awakens Paul Ray - Lionheart, U.N., Islamification of Great Britain, Islamification of England, Muslims, Islam, Jihad, Islamification of Canada